Heavenly Bodies - Rains On Me

Heavenly Bodies was a new wave/ethereal group from England, formed in 1986. The band comprised lead vocalist Caroline Seaman, along with didgeridoo player and saxophonist Tony Waerea of This Mortal Coil, former Dead Can Dance members, drummer James Pinker and bassist Scott Rodger. The released their first track on the Perdurabo compilation in 1987 while recording their debut album Celestial for release in 1988 on C’Est La Mort Records. Following the album release a 12”EP Rains On Me was released remixed by Robin Guthrie of the Cocteau Twins. Big beats, ethereal vocals, and a swirling chorus comprise this track, which appears in both extended and edited form alongside an exclusive instrumental B-side.

Heavenly Bodies - Celestial

With a name like Heavenly Bodies and an album title like Celestial, it's easy to draw a bead on the group's sound before the shrink-wrap even comes off the record. This is indeed lush, ethereal music, crafted by a trio of 4AD alumni: Scott Rodger and James Pinker were in the original incarnation of Dead Can Dance, while Caroline Seaman was one of the featured vocalists on the second This Mortal Coil album, Filigree and Shadow. With all those connections and sounding very much like the sum of all its parts, you’d expect Heavenly Bodies to be signed to 4AD. Close, but you’d be wrong. Signed to C’est La Mort in the US and Third Mind Records in Europe and the UK, Celestial is a very classy one album and done release. The album has a weird gimmick of having an instrumental song between every song with vocals. This just makes it seem a little predictable and contrived when there’s no reason these fully formed instrumentals shouldn't have vocals, they're not any different from the album compositionally, with the exception of Cavatina which is a great ambient piece.