C'est la Vie de Nouveau

I have been known to do my share of megaposts around this dump where I take an extensive look at a particular artist or labels past catalogue. These deep dives are always the most visited & most heavily downloaded. 

Of course the fact that there are numerous choices on these shares is one of the reasons for their popularity. 

Japan, Jamaica, & Mongolia lead the way in the Musick Around the World posts while Come on Feel the Noise (Angel’N Heavy Syrup & associated bands), Absolute Equinox (Surrealism), & Any Anxiety (Little Annie Anxiety Bandez) still reel'em in, but the all time Leader of the Pack is C'est la Vie, an in-depth look at the work of the late great Woody Dumas & his C'est la Mort label.

I have often thought of doing a follow-up to that post: C'est la Mort part 2. Finally found time to do just that. On the first share I told the story of C'est la Mort & Little Woody, but it's only fitting I give a bit of history here. 

 

Woodrow "Little Woody" Dumas came from Baker, Louisiana. He began his Dr. Death radio show on KLSU, December 1983. KLSU radio is the Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA non-commercial college alternative station transmitting at 23,000 watts with about a 50 mile radius range. 

 

Woody's Dr. Death show was probably the first US radio broadcast of bands like the Legendary Pink Dots, Beautiful Pea Green Boat, Front Line Assembly, Eden, Heavenly Bodies, or Eleven Shadows. The radio show led to a mail order business known as Deadly Records that Dumas ran off his porch at home in Baker. The mail order eventually became the C'est la Mort label itself. 

C'est la Mort was small but influential independent record label that specialized in ethereal, ambient, dream pop, & darkwave bands again run out of Woody's home in Baker from 1984 to 1994. In addition to albums released for individual acts, there were five Dr. Death compilation albums released (numbered Vol. 1 - Vol. 6, there is no Volume 2. It was intended as a compilation of cover tunes but never saw release).

Let's start out with Dr. Death Vol 5... 

 

Various - Dr. Death's Volume V-Hearts Lust in Limbo, C'est la Mort CLM035-2, 1991.
all decryption codes in comments

O Mio Babbino Caro - Eleven Shadows
Lullabye Blue - Mumbles
Fallen Buildings - Orange
Market - M-1 Alternative
I Bury My Love - Grace Darling
Shake the Mind - C Cat Trance
Up Five Flights - Johanna’s House of Glamour
Like Skippy - The Peddlers
So Unlike Me - Ruby Blue
Sacred Bells - Tel Basta
Atomic Fashion - Talisker Tale
You Lied - Big Hat
Fear Of Blue–    Fool's Gold - Fear of Blue
Green Chevy - East Ash
Miranda - The Moon Seven Times
See You Falling/Spiral - Leigh Gregory
Second by Second - Handful of Snowdrops

 

 

 

Here are a nice mix of other C'est la Mort releases... 

 

M-1 Alternative - Aviary, C'est la Mort CLM032-2, 1991.

Ibbur    
Tearhouse    
Juliet    
Target    
Reclaim    
Tone Pond    
Regards to Oblivion    
Drifting Chained    
Ghetto    
Play    
Walking on the Weatherfront    
Historia    
& Russia with Love    
Home

 

 

 

 

Johanna's House of Glamour - Style Monsters, C'est la Mort clm045-2, 1993.

When You Do    
Industrial Beach
Don't Believe in Miracles    
Incognito
Sea Song
Slow Verse & Rhyme    
Liquid Treasure
I Wonder if You Ever Wonder
Love    
What's so Wrong About the Truth    
Tumbling Down    
Fresh & Tense    
Not in the Least    
Thick & Thin    
How Little it Takes

 

 

 

 

Big Hat - Shimmer, C'est la Mort clm038-2, 1991.

Erotomania    
Jesus    
Redline    
Pluck Song
Flower    
You Lied    
Limousine    
Leaning Into (Western Skies)
Glossolalia
Seaside    
bonus tracks -    
Skin    
When Did You Stop    
Garden of Edith    
Seaside (Vortex mix)

 

 

 

 

Handful of Snowdrops - Dans L'Oeil de la Tempête, C'est la Mort CLM034-2, 1991.

Hush    
Voice in the Night    
Trust (Confiance Aveugle)    
From One Place to Another    
The Ghost of a Song    
Shadows on the Heart    
What You Want    
Sometimes I    
In the Eye of the Storm

 

 

 

 

Area - Between Purple & Pink, C'est la Mort CLM/CD021, 1989.

Anyway    
Brave Parade    
All There Is    
Guessing Game    
Robin    
What Heaven is For    
Permafrost    
Rail    
Our Corner Drowning    
Blue Moon    
We Said    
Dry Spell    
Electroculture    
Filled

 

 

 

 

Controlled Bleeding - Songs from the Ashes, C'est la Mort CLM-CD022, 1989.

The Vigil    
Tides of Heaven    
Scourging Ground    
Confirmation    
Faith    
The Shallow Sky    
After Separation    
The Peacock (Music for Four Guitars)    
Voices of the Dead    
Bright Shadows    
In Blind Embrace    
Near the Water (vocal remix)    
An Awakening    
The Turning (re-recorded)    
In Drowning Hands (excerpt)    
Germany

 

 

 

 

Judgement of Paris - Conversion, C'est la Mort CLM036-2, 1992.

Windswept    
Anything
Untied    
Answer    
Sixteen    
Conversion
Reign    
The Lessons
Balance    
Spheres of Influence    
One    
Thirteen Months    
Twelve    
Denial (Part One)    
These Waves    
Denial (Part Two)    
Denial (Part Three)    
Eleven

 

 

 

 

M-1 Alternative - The Little Threshing Floor, C'est la Mort CLM041-2, 1993.

Thresh    
Summer's Kings    
Rousseau's Rainbow    
Guerrillas    
Lambs of the Sea
Touched    
Lambs of the Air    
Blissville    
Blossom    
All that Glitters    
Desert Twice Over    
Opulence    
Words Fail

 

 

 

 

Ten Wings - Wishing Well, C'est la Mort CLM043-2, 1993.

Stacy Sky    
This Emotion    
Lay You Down    
Keep On    
Swallow Me    
Special    
Breakaway    
Wish You Were Here    
Lose Your Mind    
Walking in Belfast    
Not a Moment Too Soon    
Run

 

 

 

 

Blue Blue Blue - Reclusallucination, C'est la Mort CLM/CD020, 1989.

The Happening
Amazing Parade
Mother & Father
On the Moors
Fade to Blue
Shadows of Shadows
Red Square
Mr. Melancholy
Four
New Joke

 

 

 

Enjoy,
NØ

The Island of Doctor Death

 C'est la Mort was a small but influential independent record label that operated from the home of Woodrow "Woody" Dumas in Baker, Louisiana. C'est la Mort specialized in ethereal, ambient, dream pop & darkwave bands. It operated from 1985 to about 1994.

postcard  sent to mailing list members announcing the next CLM release

The label featured a series of Doctor Death compilations, which grew out of Dumas's Doctor Death radio show. Dumas began his Dr. Death radio show on KLSU in December of 1983. The radio show led to a mail order business known as Deadly Records, then eventually to the CLM label itself. In all there were six Dr. Death compilation albums released. They presented highlights from many of the labels stable of bands: album; non-album; & previously unreleased tracks. C'est La Mort did much of its business via mail order & indie record stores, but did eventually establish distribution through Cargo in the '90s.

Associated bands included: Area, Beautiful Pea Green Boat, East Ash, Heavenly Bodies, Handful of Snowdrops, Controlled Bleeding, The Arms of Someone New, Johanna's House of Glamour, Room Nine & Psyche along with many others.

A few C'est La Mort releases, including all four Area albums, were eventually reissued by Projekt's Archive sub-label. Any releases not reissued by Projekt remain long out-of-print & most difficult to locate.

Various Artists - Doctor Death's Volume IV - The Marvels Of Insect Life,

C'est La Mort CLM 029-2, 1990.
decryption code in comments

Tracklist:

M-1 Alternative - The Marvels of Insect Life Theme
Johanna's House of Glamour - Dark Hour
Mumbles - Two Clouds
Double Happiness - Cut
Critical Mass - Vacation
Flower Sermon - If God Is
M-1 Alternative - Slumming
Talisker Tale - Alone
Psychic Surgery - Greeks & Romans
Area - Green Light
Blackgirls - Translator
Leigh Gregory - Athea
Halcyon Daze - Ragman
Millions, The - Delicate Balance
Magnetic Fields, The - Crowd of Drifters
Future Neighbors - Salty Sea
& Siamese Urbain - Whale's Belly
Handful of Snowdrops - Now, Then & Forever

Enjoy,

NØ