Though the band was formed in Australia, Gerrard and Perry moved soon after to London, where after one year it signed with alternative rock label 4AD Records, a legendary label on the alternative-music scene. The band, along with other members Scott Rodger, Peter Ulrich, Paul Erikson and James Pinker, continued to work closely together until the late 1980s. Through the 1990s, with various lineup changes, the band evolved into a duo. Eventually Gerrard and Perry started to grow apart. Gerrard returned to Australia, while Perry moved to Ireland, where he bought the old Quivvy Church in which he now lives and works. It is speculated that the distance between the members was an influence in the duo's eventual break-up, although Perry himself said that distance helped in maintaining a certain individual freedom in creativity.
Assigning a musical genre to Dead Can Dance is difficult, as its style is particularly eclectic. However, its early work could be considered a mix between post-punk and goth rock. In its later work, starting with The Serpent's Egg, Dead Can Dance would take ancient or various musics from around the world as primary sources, with Gerrard singing in a unique nonlingual style that may draw from jazz scat singing and glossolalia (speaking in tongues) with at times operatic phrasing, giving it a very distinctive sound. As a result, the duo's later albums sound quite different from the first three. Various sources have labeled those latter releases as neoclassical, ethereal, or dark world music.
Dead Can Dance cover, 1984
The album artwork of their self titled first album, which depicts a ritual mask from New Guinea, provides a visual interpretation of the meaning of the name Dead Can Dance.
In the United States, the group's albums were not released until the mid-1990s, when 4AD had a distribution deal with Warner Bros. Records. After this deal ended, 4AD allied itself with the Beggar's Banquet Group, which included that eponymous label and XL Recordings in the USA, but the band's recordings remained distributed through Warner Bros. Subsequent releases, however, have been licensed to Rhino/Atlantic Records, a sister label within Warner Music. A Passage in Time remains with 4AD independently of the Rhino and Warner Bros. deals.
A 1998 follow-up album to their last album Spiritchaser was planned, but the band separated before it was largely realized. One song that was to have appeared on it was fully recorded in the studio and is titled The Lotus Eaters. Though the album was never completed, this song was eventually released on the box set Dead Can Dance (1981-1998) and on the 2-disc Wake.
Many unofficial live bootlegs exist of concerts spanning their career, which contain several rare songs that were only performed live. Though Toward the Within is the duo's only official live album, Dead Can Dance released limited-edition recordings of 13 shows from its 2005 European tour, and 8 recordings from the subsequent North American tour, as well as a compilation titled Selections from Europe 2005. These concerts were recorded and released by The Show.
On March 28, 2010, in an interview for Bulgarias Katehizis.com online music magazine, Brendan Perry revealed following news when asked about the possibility of a future Dead Can Dance reunion: "Yes, Ive been talking about it with Lisa Gerrard. Maybe in the end of next year well start work again. Weve been talking about doing something like taking a small chamber orchestra 10 or 15 people and tour with them. And we have to write songs. We have to write new material totally new so the whole, entire set will be a new album. Then well go into the studio after the tour, record, produce and release a record as well."
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Carlmcoy
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