Dalek I Love You...

My feeling is that there aren't enough Dalek I Love You fansites out there.

You read that sentance and a question pops into your head: "Matt, those words make no sense. Are you snacking on those 'crazy pills' again, padre?" WELL, SCREW YOU AND YOUR BLATANT ANTI-SEMITISM, LOYAL READER!

DILY is one of those long lost bands from the late 70's-early 80's which no one except strange music nerds (and 55 year old Liverpudlians) remember. They emerged from the same scene that brought you Dead Or Alive, Frankie Goes To Hollywood (before they both sucked with "Spin Me Right Round" and "Relax (don't do it)" respectively ), OMD ("If You Leave") Echo and the Bunnymen ("The Killing Moon") and one of my favorite all-time bands, The Teardrop Explodes.

I first came across DILY them after listening to The Teardrop Explodes seminal 1980 album "Kilimanjaro". I found the guitar playing fantastic; it had that jagged post-punk sound, but with a meandering psychedelic vibe. It was so much more expansive than what was going on at the time, and I wanted to find out who the player was.

Alan Gill was the man in question, and also the only constant member of DILY. They had the same complex guitar noodling that TX had, but, at least when they started, were more minimalistic, with a heavy emphasis on drum machines and analogue synths. Something, which almost 30 years later, seems conflictingly modern.

The difference with DILY? Quirky, deliberately uncommercial pop gems. The kind of music that doesn't sit well the first few times you listen to it, but after a while, it's impossible to get out of your head.

My personal favorite was their first album, Compass Kumpas, which had more of a sparse synth pop vibe and lyrics about machines, the end of the world, being unhappy and social disorder. That's always a recipe for awesome.

The second (eponymous) album was also pretty good, much more upbeat and psychedelic with a full band sound (less synths and drum machines, more guitars, female back up singers, samples and tribal drumming). As a side note, since I wrote most of the DILY's Wikipedia entry, wholesale quotes of mine were put into that album's reissue liner notes.

If you ever hear me mention that in polite company, please slap me in the face with a halibut or any of the more painful fishes.

Anyway, I'm particularly excited, because the fans (at least 5 of us) have been waiting years for their mythic third album, Naïve, to be rereleased. Put out in 1986 (or 85, I've heard conflicting reports), Gill put it out on a c90 cassette under the umbrella of his Bop-a-Dub label (a label that lasted probably a few months and released at least 1 cassette tape).

Anyway, it's been completely unavailable until the good folks at dalekiloveyou.com uploaded the whole album. The fidelity isn't great, but it's worth hearing. Sure, a lot of it sounds like 8 track demos that Gill did in his living room and it's about 10 tracks too long, but the DILY spirit is still immediately apparent: It's funny, catchy, ambient and off-beat. A shame that it never got the release or production values it deserved.

I've put the lyrics of a few songs from Naïve below, just in case anyone's looking to google it. If you want to listen to some DILY, here are a couple of tracks to download:

Freedom Fighters: their best single. Like The Clash meets early OMD...
Click Here To Download

The World: the lead track off their first album, a catchy little synth pop tiddy about the end of the world.
Click Here To Download

4 tracks from the second album can be found on their MySpace page. Check out "Masks & Licences".

Here is their third album, hosted on the DILY website. I would suggest: "Before The Gong" "Prince Of Clowns" "AD Men" and "Soldier Of Love"


Prince Of Clowns:

How Did I Let It Get Into My Heart?
One Day I Woke Up
And Suddenly Three Years Had Gone

Still All The Time I Knew It Had To End
But Then One Day I Found
I Was the Prince Of Clowns (How Did I Let It Get Into My Heart?)
She's Out Of Love
Prince Of Clowns (How Did I Let It Get In?)
She's Out Of Love

Well I Know It Won't Mean Much To You
But It's the Truth, So...
And So I Sing It Out

One Day I'll Look Back At This and I'll Smile
Remembering The Time
I Was the Prince Of Clowns (How Did I Let It Get Into My Heart?)
She's Out Of Love
Prince Of Clowns (How Did I Let It Get In?)
She's Out Of Love
Prince Of Clowns (How Did I Let It Get Into My Heart?)
She's Out Of Love
Prince Of Clowns (How Did I Let It Get In?)
She's Out Of Love

I'm Sure There's Lessons To Be Learned Somewhere
But It Escapes Me...
Hmmm...

Still All The Logic You Get Out Of Fools
Can't Stop You Feeling This Way
Prince Of Clowns (How Did I Let It Get Into My Heart?)
She's Out Of Love
Prince Of Clowns (How Did I Let It Get In?)
She's Out Of Love
Prince Of Clowns (How Did I Let It Get Into My Heart?)
She's Out Of Love
Prince Of Clowns (How Did I Let It Get In?)
She's Out Of Love


Soldiers Of Love:

The Soldiers Of Love Have No Opinions
Good Soldiers Die In Jungles

Reading Letters Send From Home
Soldiers of Love Crush The Weak

Had To Arrest His Family
He says "it's nothing personal"
"I follow orders like good soldiers do"
"I'm not concerned with right or wrong"

When You Saw Your Brother in the Crowds
You Could Have Fired Into The Air
But You Were a Good Soldier
You Were a Good Soldier
You Were a Good Soldier

Soldier of Love.