Danse Society

  • Danse Society
  • Seduction EP (UK Society) 1982 
  • Heaven Is Waiting (Arista) 1984 
  • Looking Through (UK Society) 1986 

Selfconsciously arty and needlessly melodramatic, this quintet from England’s north (Barnsley in South Yorkshire to be precise) led by singer Steve Rawlings occasionally mixed almost straightforward rock into its dense techno-dance rhythms, yielding a reasonably good song now and again. Seduction is a longwinded six-track 12-inch with busy Bauhaus-strength mud supporting sporadic vocals and gimmicky sound effects. Tuneless and tedious.

Danse Society reached America with the full-length Heaven Is Waiting: further plodding nonsense that can claim the abrasive but catchy dance-rock of the title track and a weirdly modernized reading of the Stones’ already spacey “2000 Light Years from Home.”

Billed as the band’s final album (but claiming ominously that “the end is only the beginning”), Looking Through is more tedious and repetitive new wave disco for the doomy haircut-and-mascara brigade. Lacking any striking material, this is functional genre fare for yesterday’s club kids.

[Ira Robbins]