On any post, if the link is no longer good, leave a comment if you want the music re-uploaded. As long as I still have the file, or the record, cd, or cassette to re-rip, I will gladly accommodate in a timely manner all such requests.

Slinging tuneage like some fried or otherwise soused short-order cook

06 April 2025

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)
 
 
 
 

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,

22 comments:

  1. Doctor Death’s Volume V
    wmH3ZcV8oIfAfNc9DlDv6lTpM-B-0Rnb1nwPsaTiplE
    Aviary
    YAl9xCV0E75ZLnmmcT1bIY1bLT55_SVLgUFZpLiFxsI
    Style Monsters
    6XPdepUksU1s-dOLijytT-ZyQQLNs1NGoCEc0w_-Lek
    Shimmer
    Da8PgyWGSTQdHuxgnDJWCQDSnVcdj3LMUh_E6xjXkgM
    Dans L’Oeil de la Tempête
    MISdgJvhkVJ5WhEFyyaQNMXZDnrOUxI34lxBSsrY4RU
    Between Purple & Pink
    Eu-VVYaReWhVBs2y97jSKqOCIxGTKEnDFjUuQgyEJ0M
    Songs from the Ashes
    3OGngAHxsnrOWlREoJy0ertaNiWlTuLyZlYqAy-NyHM
    Conversion
    aURpgfw__fOkTwWbT9LetWS5AC8AfG5JdymNs0jnJrA
    The Little Threshing Floor
    PeWf7Z-Y6g8596O1xVPSxoUMA1kqX5QK_Fije1tcHKM
    Wishing Well
    g2etuQnTr6dj8qfn7NDagPrwWZ5fYFMyhMTW5Jchdlc
    Reclusallucination
    9g5iH75z45ga5P8ZdaVqaUL-jDkuo6CZQXXSQCXCaKM

    ReplyDelete
  2. Interesting. Thanks a lot, Nate.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Richie Muster4/6/25, 7:07 AM

    Good grief, Sunday is turning into sensory overload day! This is catnip to a music junkie like me. You're a very bad man, NØ. No, wait, i mean good. I think. Oh, i don't know, my brain's melting...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Calm down, calm down. Put on some of that sweet C'est la Mort music & soothe your searing brain. It's all good & good for you. Calm. Calm.

      Delete
    2. Richie Muster4/6/25, 2:07 PM

      Okay, here goes: auuuummmmm...

      Delete
  4. C'est la Mort started me on my LPD trip and I've held Woody in highest esteem ever since. (Getting to tell Edward Ka-Spel in person was a highlight.) And thank you for the Reclusallucination! I'd forgotten all about Blue Blue Blue.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Tried to touch on a lot of different bases. Glad to bring back the memory of Blue Blue Blue. Thanks, PW.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Wow, very nice. Did I already say that you are the best?

    A hug from Lanc.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for the words & the hug, but now you got me blushing.

      Delete
  7. What a post! I'll try to catch up with all the goodness...
    In the meantime, this two caught my attention. They rock and I hope you like them
    Abrazo Amigo
    Diego
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duoKehcqVeU&list=OLAK5uy_mhdxYQNyeSWgVxr29a0x_mAKsIyqlAktM&index=2

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Your welcome for the goodness, but about that link...

      Party Dozen are RAD!!! Why haven't I heard of them before??? Thank you, my friend...a drum & sax duo, what??? They totally rip. I'm on the prowl for their stuff as I finish this.

      Delete
    2. Man, just purchased Crime in Australia from bandcamp. Hot! Also, they are playing in Philadelphia on my birthday & I just ordered tickets. Thanks, my friend.

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    3. I knew by heart it was your cup of tea.
      Very glad to collaborate with a special birthday.
      I'll be with you in spirit.
      Diego

      Delete
  8. This is all fantastic. Right up my alley, yet all new to me (aside from the Controlled Bleeding album). Many thanks in advance, you always keep expanding my musical palette.

    ReplyDelete
  9. You do the same for me. I guess I should explain why I don't comment more often over at Moozler Music. The truth is, I hardly ever listen to mixtapes. But I visit you & Jokonky & Dubhed every day. I look through the selections of the mixes you all create & find tons of music that I then search out & listen to. I'm just an old fool who likes to listen to entire albums (see, I still call them albums out of old habit) as the bands intended them. I know there can be duds in with the greats, but I crave to embrace the concept that the band or producer or whomever set out. I hardly ever use the shuffle or random on my mp3 player.

    I am guilty of making my share of compilations, but I have to admit, I only listen to them until I'm satisfied with the track order. Once I post them I hardly ever listen to them again. They just serve a purpose to introduce the uninitiated to bands like Foetus, or Pitch Black, or Thievery Corporation, acts that I can't really do justice to because of the depth or variety of their catalogue of tuneage.

    Your mixes contain so many gems that I have garnered over time, so many bands or particular tracks by bands that I don't know, always as you say "expanding my musical palette.

    Thank you, brother Mooz.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Very well said. Jokonky and Dubhed are great and I check them daily as well. For me, I do still listen to albums all the time, however I find that too often I still go for the skip button or have to stand next to my turntable and move the needle frequently. I fully acknowledge and admit to being a bit of a music snob. As you said there are some duds on some of these albums; especially when listening to difficult music - I don't think I've sat through a Merzbow album start to finish in one sitting. So my attempts to make "skip-free" listening for album length mixes are what I end up posting. Plus, I enjoy mixing the songs together and occasionally adding segues or additional samples. I end up listening to them often, and will queue up a few before work each day to help pass the time.

      I've been hit up several times with requests for un-mixed versions and I am happy to oblige those requests as they come in. I am glad to hear I'm helping give back to you on some new musical finds, as there is just so much wonderful sounds out there that more people should hear.

      Thank you for what you do here, I keep revisiting your posts as many times I go down a rabbit hole of musical adventure only to find you had shared something months/years ago that was exactly what I was searching for.

      Delete
    2. Nathan, you're not the only person who feels strongly about listening to a work in full, as the artist intended. It's a valid point, and all the wonderful old compilation LP's (like Wanna Buy A Bridge) were intended as jumpoff points to introduce us as listeners to artists who we could then explore further. The same could be said of the early homemade mixtapes that we made to share with friends.

      Thank you for this post (and for all you do to share great music). I don't always comment, but I visit NSS every time a new post pops up in my feed. C'est la Mort is all new to me, and I grabbed one album that will feature very soon in another of the endless compilations that are works in progress over at my corner of the blogosphere.

      Keep on preachin', teachin', and reachin' into the unexplored galaxies of the ever-expanding universe of sound, Brudda Nathan!

      Delete
    3. Variety is the spice of our musikal life. Thanks, guys.

      Delete
  10. Man, thanks for the massive generosity! I am thankful for your Revenge share! I lost my soft copy years ago and I am relieved you have one on hand! Thanks again!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Enjoy the C'est la Mort & I'm glad you finally got your Revenge again.

      Delete