Death & Sex
by The Cassandra Complex
COP International Records are proud to announce the release of Death & Sex, the latest album from legendary post-punk group The Cassandra Complex.
40 years ago Rodney Orpheus, Paul Dillon, and Andy Booth got together in a basement in Leeds, England with a collection of cheap second-hand guitar pedals, synthesisers, and drum machines, and created a post-punk revolution in sound with songs like Moscow Idaho, One Millionth Happy Customer, and Nightfall, which filled alternative dancefloors and topped Indie charts around the world.
In 1993 they released the album Sex & Death to a limited audience. Now, 30 years later, the band have re-recorded this classic record from scratch as Death & Sex and it will finally achieve a worldwide release for the first time as part of their 40 year anniversary celebrations.
Death & Sex features original founders of the band Rodney Orpheus (vocals, synths, drum machines) and Andy Booth (guitar), with long time additional members Chris Haskett (Henry Rollins Band, David Bowie) on guitar and Mera Roberts (Faith and the Muse, Black Tape for a Blue Girl) on cello, plus new member Brent Heinze (Probe 7) on keyboards.
The album, along with many other classic songs from the entire 40 year back catalog of The Cassandra Complex, will be featured on the forthcoming CX40 world tour beginning in the UK in March, and taking in shows in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Czech Republic, Austria, Latin America, and the USA throughout 2024.
Rodney Orpheus explains: “When we first wrote these songs we didn’t have the tools to fully realise them the way we wanted. Now 30 years later we can finally make them sound the way they always sounded inside our heads.”
Christian Petke, CEO of COP International Records says, “When the band told me that they would start to re-record their back catalog, I was 100% on board. It can be a dicey proposition to “fix” an old record, but I knew that they had the experience and the skill to pull this off. It was a real pleasure to see these classic gems come to new life, and the fans of The Cassandra Complex will love this fresh take.”
The album will be released on March 8, 2024 on CD, Bandcamp download, and all streaming services, with cover art by the legendary Greg Rolfes.
In tandem with this release, COP International will also be releasing a newly remastered version of the previous album by The Cassandra Complex, The Plague, which spent 4 weeks at #1 in the German Alternative Charts on original release.
releases March 8, 2024
Rodney Orpheus: voice, synthesiser, drums
Andy Booth: guitar
Chris Haskett: guitar
Mera Roberts: cello
Brent Heinze: synthesiser
Produced & mastered by Rodney Orpheus
at Magic Library Studio, Venice Beach, California
Production assistance by Paul Dillon
Artwork by Greg Rolfes/Layout DCore
Live visuals by Martin Reissner
Interview w/ @RodneyOrpheus (The Cassandra Complex) + Death & Sex Listening Party
Hotline to Elvis (Graceland Mix)
by The Cassandra Complex
To answer the obvious first question: yes, there really was an Elvis Hotline, and it really was at the number 1-900-909-ELVIS.
Lead singer Rodney Orpheus explains: “When we first toured the USA in the late 80s I was awake late one night with the TV on and saw an advert for an Elvis Hotline, so that people who didn’t believe Elvis Presley was really dead could call to report their sightings of him. It led to all sorts of wild conspiracy theories about how he had faked his own death to work with the FBI against the Deep State or that he had been abducted by aliens. The really crazy thing is that many of these proto-conspiracy theories have now been adapted and become mainstream by people like QAnon. It’s a modern myth being invented in real-time as we watch. The advert seemed so crazy and ridiculous that it stuck in my mind ever since, and now seemed like the perfect time to write a song about it.”
lyrics
See him flying overhead
See him in loaf of bread
See him at the Taco Bell
See him saving us from hell
Now he's living underground
Now he's driving all around
He's in Memphis Tennessee
He is living next to me
1-900-909
ELVIS
Elvis
Hotline to Elvis
Elvis flew my UFO
Elvis showed me where to go
Elvis comes to me in dreams
Elvis sings to me it seems
He isn’t dead, he’s only sleeping
In Alaska he lies weeping
He’ll return when things are grey
He’ll return to save the day
1-900-909
ELVIS
Elvis
Hotline to Elvis
released March 3, 2023
Rodney Orpheus: vocals, drums, synthesisers
Andy Booth: guitar
Volker Zacharias: bass guitar
Axel Ermes: synthesisers
Produced by Rodney Orpheus
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