GARDEN OF THE ARCANE DELIGHTS

The Garden of the Arcane Delights EP - most easily available as a bonus on recent editions of Dead Can Dance's self- titled debut album - is a crucial piece in the group's discography, offering as it does a bridge between their debut, oriented as it more towards a more conventional gothic rock style, and their more ethereal darkwave sound that they would pioneer for the rest of their career.

For anyone wishing to puzzle out why Spleen and Ideal sounds so different from their debut, this is the missing link. Album opener, Carnival of Light, would not have sounded out of place on any of their subsequent 1980s albums, whilst In Power We Entrust the Love Advocated would almost be a more conventional gothic rock piece were it not for the unusual use of percussion. The rest of the EP waves in this borderland region between the group's past and its future.