This is the 1984 video for “The Judgement is the Mirror” by Dali’s Car, the band formed by post-Bauhaus Peter Murphy and post-Japan Mick Karn, along with Paul Vincent Lawford. Most of Dali’s Car was a snail mail collaboration in which Murphy and Karn posted tapes back and forth before assembling the final album, titled The Waking Hour. I hadn’t listened to the album in more than a decade until recently and I still find it quite lovely, moody, and enchanting. Of the style, Karn once said, “Middle Eastern music, predominantly Turkish, has been a big influence on my writing. My mother listened to it a lot when I was young, not a popular choice for a Greek Cypriot, and often in secret, so I grew up believing there was something mysterious about it. It’s clearly there in every solo project, together with my other two great musical loves, classical and funk/soul music.” I hadn’t realized that last year, Murphy announced that he and Karn were restarting Dali’s Car. Sadly though, Karn died in January. According to Karn’s Web site, he and Murphy had completed four new tracks that will be released later this year.
