"Plant your tree of hidden dreams beneath your fears that burst the seams."
Dalis Car was a one-off collaboration between Mick Karn and Peter Murphy, sort of a rebound project after the disintegration of their respective bands, Japan and Bauhaus. Musically, the album owes more to Japan, though the arrangements are fairly minimal, something Japan was not necessarily known for. While Karn's unparalleled fretless bass sound dominates throughout (and this is a good thing), it is Murphy who steps into uncharted territory on this recording. His often dissonant, abstract vocals are a far cry from his ziggy-as-vampire onstage persona with Bauhaus. Little did we know at the time, however, that The Waking Hour would represent a first (uncommercial) baby step toward the goth-pop crooner Murphy would become at the dawn of the nineties. Having been a big fan of both Bauhaus and Japan in the early eighties, I remember being disappointed by this album (although I loved the cover). A quarter of a century later, Dalis Car sounds a little friendlier to my ears.
