I’m not sure if calling Melody Fields‘ 1991 album a “companion piece” to their 1901 album is correct. It feels more link a continuation of 1901, or perhaps a better world is a transformation of it, not unlike the flower on 1991‘s cover opening to reveal things previously hidden.
1991 also has plenty of guest collaborators, whereas 1901 was all Melody Fields all of the time. The opening track, “Hallelujah,” (a remix / re-edit / re-imagining of “Jesus” from 1901) is a spaced out team-up with Snake Bunker. “Blasphemy” is a wall of My Bloody Valentine-inspired sound – beautiful, loud, and somewhat intimidating. Psych-DJ Al Lover teams up with Melody Fields on “Jesus Lover,” bringing up the drum beats and bass to turn “Jesus” into a dance track.
“Dandelion” rolls along like a cool van painted with some kind of wild ancient warrior artwork on the side. You can envision warm wind whipping through your hair, perhaps with a dandelion tucked behind one ear, as you drive out to a coastal music festival. Human Language joins Melody Fields, appropriately on “Talking with Jesus.” They slow down “Jesus” almost to a crawl, turning it into a dark wave track that beckons you from behind a curtain at the back of a weird store is some forgotten rust belt town.
The bold guitars on “Diary of a Young Man” bring images of dusty ghost towns to mind…and then it suddenly hits you with vocals that could be from an actual ghost for all I know. Get your incense ready for “Bhagavana Najika Cha,” because it might lift you off the ground, and the closer, “Son of Man” (guest-starring fellow Swedish psych-giants GOAT), keeps you afloat until after the album is done.
It’s a neat record that shows off Melody Fields’ different music influences, loves, and talents. Where else are you going to hear a record that blends psychedelia, dark wave, and dance grooves?
This is a cool synthwave album of cinematic sounds that often catches you off-guard. It’s the soundtrack to a movie you’ve never seen, but want to find just from hearing it. It might exist in another dimension, or on a dark web torrent stream. Either way, it’s one of the neatest records I heard all last year.
Speaking of cool synthwave, Mandy, Indiana‘s debut album was a stunner on multiple fronts, as it covers not only synthwave, but also cold wave, dance punk, goth, and general chaos. They’re quickly becoming one of those “bands everyone’s talking about,” so don’t miss this record.
Only King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard could get away with naming an album something like that. It was their return to thrash metal, this time built around one of their favorite subjects – protecting our fragile planet. It was one of the best metal records of the year.
This album held my top spot for a long while, as it’s a powerful stoner / psych / cosmic rock record that hits hard with shredding guitar, pleading vocals, and roaring drums. It’s all about dreams, death, and what-the-hell-are-you-doing-with-this-life-you-have-that’s-gone-like-a-flash-of-lightning-you-git introspections.
Simply put, this is the most beautiful record I heard all year, and it’s a prime example of why you should always read old e-mails. This sat in my e-mail box for about four months before I finally got to it. I’m glad I didn’t delete that e-mail in a big purge, because Halsall’s album of ambient jazz, field sounds, and slight trip-hop touches is one of those albums that changes the attitude of the room wherever it’s played.
Thanks for reading and for sticking with me another year. Onto 2024!
Diving further into his love / obsession with 1980s horror / thriller synthwave music, Boy Harsher‘s Augustus Muller teamed up with artist / kinky movie maker Vex Ashley of Four Chambers to create two films scores – one to a film that already existed and another to one that is new, and both of which explore the sexual relationship between humans and technology on the album Cellulosed Bodies.
The first half is a tribute to David Cronenberg‘s 1996 film Crash – in which the main characters are turned on by car crashes. Muller’s six-song “score” to the film (originally done by Howard Shore). “Fur and Metal” slowly takes us into this new, weird world of strange pleasures and soon we’re “Sharing a Smoke,” but how much of it is from a cigarette and how much is from burned wreckage along a dark road? Muller’s use of synths throughout the six tracks are at times haunting and other times throbbing like the pulse in your neck after something stressful and / or sensual. “Perverse Technology” is a perfect example of this, as somewhat creepy synths rise and fall like a lover’s chest taking deep breaths to maintain control while the beats mimic the twitchy brain impulses to seize pleasure now instead of making it last as long as possible. “Body as Machine” sums up the theme of the album’s first half (and Cronenberg’s film) in the title and in the grinding, pulsating synth-beats, and “Shattered Glass” ends the first half with something that isn’t quite afterglow, but more “after-shadow.”
The second half is Muller’s score to Ashley’s film Automaton – which, according to the liner notes, “…features a severe computer entity and trapped prey, succumbing to pleasure…” Reading that, and then hearing the ten tracks that follow, you think, “Yeah, that sounds about right.” The tracks featuring fewer beats, but more experimentation – again the theme of exploring new pleasures that at first might seem frightening – such as “Initialize,” “Next Subject,” and “Endoscopy.” “Examination” uses some subtle industrial clangs for beats, but they never overwhelm the track. “Acceptance” has the “trapped prey” accepting its pleasurable fate (or is the computer accepting it?). I’m guessing it’s the former, because the next track is “You Belong to the Machine” – which builds with a slow menace like a snake that’s been released into a dark room.
“Observation” sounds and feels like the evil / sexy computer is watching its prey / lover from a drone that rises and falls like a hawk drifting on warm wind. “Stretching / Invading” is about…well, I think you can guess. “Who Is in Control” can be taken in multiple ways. It’s the question in a BDSM relationship. On the surface, the computer in Ashley’s tale is in control, but what would it be without its lover? The computer needs the lover to achieve some kind of feeling. The second half of Cellulosed Bodies ends with “Subdue Yourself” – the only track with vocals (from dominatrix Miss Marilyn) – on a whispering aftercare note.
It’s a strange, lovely, sexy record, and one of the more intriguing releases of the year.
In case you weren’t aware, Cincinnati has a growing underground synth scene, and The Serfs (Dakota Carlyle, Andie Luman, and Dylan McCartney) might be leading it if their new album, Half Eaten By Dogs, has anything to say about it.
Opening track “Order Imposing Sentence” has the band chanting / singing, “I can’t remember anything.” at one point as hot grease fire synths burn up everything around them. “Cheap Chrome” thumps with old racing video game beats. “Suspension Bridge Collapse” has echoing vocals that are difficult to decipher, but I think that’s the point, and the synths sound like they were pulled out of a burning garage and played while partially melted.
“Beat Me Down” has guitar rock riffs that simultaneously remind me of early Rolling Stones and The Go-Go’s. The haunting saxophone (by Eric Dietrich) on “Spectral Analysis” almost makes it sound like you’re listening to two different records (one goth-synth, the other 1980s Japanese city pop) at the same time.
“Club Deuce” is your new favorite goth dance club track, complete with frottage-inducing synth-bass and sexy vocals that practically light your clove cigarette for you. The harmonica on “Electric Like an Eel” is something The The might’ve done if they’d gone more industrial. I love the mix of electronic percussion and keyboards on this track, and the bass on it is a trippy hum.
“Ending of the Stream” brings The Velvet Underground and The Vacant Lots immediately to mind with its tribal drumming and vocals that sound like they’re sung by someone who just emerged from a sweat lodge. The bass riff on “The Dice Man Will Come” is as intriguing as the song’s title. Who is the Dice Man? I doubt it’s an Andrew “Dice” Clay reference. Or are The Serfs saying that mankind will become dice, being cast about for random purposes and producing random results? It’s probably something like that. It’s difficult to figure out while you’re mesmerized by the twitchy guitars and shimmering synths. The liner notes I received for this album described the closing track, “Mocking Laughter,” as sounding like “an end credits sequence.” I can’t put it better than that. It’s perfect. The synths, simple programmed beats, and echoing / fading vocals practically have The Serfs bowing as they walk backwards out of a room.
This is a solid record from beginning to end, and a welcome blast of coldwave perfect for the coming winter.
Venera, a newly formed experimental electronic outfit featuring James Shaffer (Korn) and Atlanta-based composer/filmmaker, Chris Hunt, release their self-titled, debut album on Oct. 13 via Ipecac Recordings.
Venera enigmatically launched their debut song “Swarm” (https://venera.lnk.to/swarm) late last month. No information, no pre-sale, simply the three-minute single released in tandem with a mysterious screed and a pulsating black-and-white video directed by EFFIXX.
Today, the pair step out from the shadows, revealing who and what Venera is, as well as releasing their first single, and video, for the track “Hologram” (https://venera.lnk.to/hologram). A song that features guest vocals/piano from Rizz of VOWWS.
In a joint statement from Shaffer and Hunt, they explain: “’Hologram’ emerged quickly from our first session together. A nearly unchanging drum machine pattern nested in warbling guitars. We don’t interact much with holograms but they seem to offer an image of an alluring emptiness and light, which resonates well with the universe we are driven to explore.”
Several guests join Hunt and Shaffer on Venera. Drummer Deantoni Parks (Mars Volta, John Cale) plays on “Erosion” and “Disintegration,” HEALTH’s Jacob Duzsik contributes vocals on “Ochre” and Alain Johannes lends his voice to “Triangle.” The album was self-produced.
Album pre-orders (https://venera.lnk.to/venera) are available now, with Venera available digitally, as well as physically on CD, and an assortment of vinyl, including limited-edition red, snowy white and skull gold variants.
Today NYC based band Lathe of Heaven share their new single “At Moment’s Edge“, which is taken from their upcoming debut album ‘Bound By Naked Skies’ out Sept 1st via Sacred Bones.
When writing “At Moment’s Edge”, Lathe of Heaven initially intended the song to be a one-off, poppy departure from the otherwise depressive and urgent atmosphere of their debut record ‘Bound by Naked Skies’. Once recording the track however, the band found it to contextualise perfectly, the dualistic nature of the record and the band as a whole, proving itself to be a prime candidate for the album’s second single. Laden with dreamy synths and enchanting vocal melodies, “At Moment’s Edge” invokes within the listener a current of visceral elusion, ebbing towards a total re-imagination of any prior notions they may have had about the band.
“Existing in the lyrics are themes of process, change and complexity on a very personal level,” remarks the band’s vocalist Gage Allison, “which we believe is indicative of the recurring themes represented in the album.”
The video accompanying the track was directed by Emma Penrose and Zach Shorrosh, who aptly cultivate the surreal and absurd atmosphere the song was meant to invoke. When asked to comment on the video Penrose stated “Gage reached out to us asking if we wanted to make a music video for Lathe of Heaven and showed us maybe the most thought-out mood board I’ve ever seen, referencing Man Ray, Caravaggio, Marcel Duchamp as well as classic and contemporary science fiction. Inspired by the monochromatic imagery, we shot At Moment’s Edge entirely on 16mm black & white film & print stock and developed it by hand ourselves. We processed the 900’ of film at Mono No Aware using an eco friendly developer consisting of coffee, beer & vitamin C powder. The results turned out exactly as we’d hoped.”
With little more under their belt than a relentless string of live performances, and a twice pressed (subsequently sold out) Self-Titled Demo, NYC based band Lathe of Heaven have proved themselves to be a potent and cohesive element amidst the torrent of hardcore punk and synth-driven pop revival currently proliferating throughout the U.S. underground. Formed in 2021, the band features members of noteworthy Brooklyn based projects such as People’s Temple, Porvenir Oscuro, Pawns, Android, Hustler and more.
Though this roster of past and alternate musical endeavors exposes a diverse range of genre and skill sets, Lathe of Heaven can only be understood as a departure from such influences, exploring a sound entirely of its own.
Now nearly two years later, LoH are finally prepared to unleash their debut Full Length Bound by Naked Skies. With careful consideration, this eleven track LP blends elements of British New-Wave and Finnish Post-Punk into a nuanced juxtaposition of 80s sonic mania. Incorporating themes of classic and contemporary Science-Fiction, Bound by Naked Skies indebts itself as much to its literary influences as it does to the music that informs its unique and deliberate sound. Paying powerful homage to the uncanny worlds of authors Arthur C. Clarke, Octavia Butler, Ken Liu and of course Ursula Le Guin (whose novel the band is named after), themes of cosmology (Ekpyrosis), simulation (Heralds of the Circuit-Born), mental illness (Moon-Driven Sea), and ontology (Entropy, The Spider.), weave implicitly throughout the arch of the record, providing a sense of insight into the minds of those plagued by the ambiguous nature of humankind’s terrifying and not-so-distant future.
Lathe of Heaven tour dates: 18th Aug – Union Pool (w/ Temple of Angels), Brooklyn,, NY (Tickets) 7th Sept – TV Eye (w/ Witness and Eyedrops), Brooklyn, NY (Tickets) 13th Sept – The Dirty Bird (w/ The Poisoning and The Exile), Santa Ana, CA 14th Sept – Knucklehead ( w/ The Exile and Shrouds), Los Angeles, CA 15th Sept – Zebulon (w/ Diode), Los Angeles, CA 16th Sept – Stork Club (w/ Vulture Feather and Vague Lanes), Oakland, CA 17th Sept – Enzyme, San Francisco, CA 18th Sept – Naked Lounge (w/ Vulture Feather and Exposure Therapy), Chico, CA 19th Sept – Coffin Club, Portland, OR 21st Sept – 23rd Sept – Varning Festival, Montreal, MTL (Tickets)
A pungent ooze emanates from the subway. As a sticky drum machine sequence rolls out like thick dark fog, ice cold synth swirls rise from the depths.
Since the debut album Europe By Night, one of the main references associated with Henrik Stelzer and his Metro Riders project has been that of cinema, and particularly the European genre films of the 1980s. With its seedy subject matters manifesting both in visual style and music, the vibe of that era has crystallized over time. Passed down to us from deteriorating video cassettes, it became an invaluable key to decoding our present day reality.
And this is true for his new album Lost in Reality, announced today for a September 29th release via Possible Motive. Stelzer does not hide the fact that he builds heavily on that vibe; referencing it through track titles and utilizing a particular recording setup consisting of a Fostex and a reel to reel in order to achieve and recreate the feeling of those soundtracks — as heard on magnetic tape rather than vinyl.
Hear it yourself on the new single “Spasm,” out today, and pre-order the album here.
The motion picture soundtrack as an arbitrary genre definition becomes, in the hands of Stelzer, a pair of X-ray specs for him to envision a kind of music that deals in grains and contrasts rather than hooks and choruses. And like Roddy Piper in John Carpenter’s 1988 film They Live, he hands those glasses over for us to see the true face of our times.
On Lost In Reality, Metro Riders maps out an emotional geography of the cities at night, wherein the cinematic haze becomes a tool by which we can view the cities with new eyes. Not steering away from the darker alleys nor the harsh realities of modern day politics masquerading as progress. Yet escapism, in the end, seems the only viable option. But not as an endgame, but rather a stepping stone for building a new vocabulary for an utopian language.
Lost In Reality is the second album from Sweden based Metro Riders (real name Henrik Stelzer). Employing outdated software and now obsolete analogue recording equipment, Metro Riders conjures a suspenseful and gloomy, true to the era re-imagining of lost sounds. Metro Riders encompasses a very niche palette, everything from the prophetic visions of John Carpenter,to the warbled world of Troma films, to Italian horror flicks, euro-crime and the cybernetic sewers of The Skaters.
Alternative-electronic artist Slighter presents his new album‘This Futile Engine’, released via Brutal Resonance Records and Confusion Inc. This 13-track record features collaborations with Steven Seibold (Hate Dept) and Craig Joseph Huxtable (Ohm, Landscape Body Machine, Front Line Assembly, Noise Unit), as well as Yvette Winkler (Vaselyne), Morgue VVitch and Deep Dark Water.
Slighter is the solo moniker of Colin C., who has been fine-tuning the future of electronic music since kickstarting his music in Mid City Los Angeles in the early 2000s. Creating from a unique vantage point, he was involved in collaborations for various Metropolis Records releases and Cleopatra Records compilations, in addition to Slighter releases via his own Confusion Inc. imprint.
Mixed and mastered atThe Cell Studio, through the sonic experimentation and innovation entailed in recording this album, Slighter continues to provide new fuel for the counterculture..
“This record was a lot of fun to make with my friends. I’m always enjoying collaborating on Slighter albums and, this time, it felt best to leave the majority of the vocal work to some great voices from Craig to Steven and Tara, Yvette, and Anastasia. It has been an experimental but cohesive experience, the classic cinematic vibes I’m known for hitting with faster Techno and killer bass lines across a 10 track narrative,” says Colin C.
“I think I have a pretty unique way of working outside of genres, but my work still gives off this sort of expansive cinematic vibe, which also retaining a darker mood that gets me associated with various dark sub-culture genres. The themes I often explore has me adopting an ‘Electronic Death Music’ umbrella for the music I make – a play on words, with the music I make being the antithesis of popular EDM”.
While very much an independent artist who largely files under the musical radar, Slighter’s music has also found its way on to mainstream shows over the years, with songs and remixes featured on such television shows as Showtime’s ‘House Of Lies’, ‘Elementary’(CBS), ‘Bones’ and ‘Lethal Weapon’ (FOX), ‘Defiance’ and ‘Covert Affairs’ (NBC-Universal).
As of July 21, ‘This Futile Engine’ will be released across fine digital platforms, including Apple Music, Spotify and Bandcamp. Available as a Deluxe Edition limited edition CD and as a digital download, this album includes three exclusive bonus remixes of ‘Cold Black Waters (feat. Morgue VVitch)’, ‘Pulling Me Under’ and ‘Have No Fear’.
Colorado-based artist Alien Gothicpresent their debut single‘In The Night’, a song that stretches cosmic goth music into a whole new realm, combining all the elements the duo has been striving to integrate into the project in the four years since their inception.
Conjuring up music that can be described as gloom from other worlds, they have been trying to find their way back to the original trajectory they were on previous to crash landing in Barnum, Colorado. With no time to put their lives on hold, they have cooked up a deal to release their ‘High and Dry’ album viaLatenight Weeknight Records.
With classic goth rock as its backbone, ‘In The Night’ also sees darkwave smoldering at the surface. A symphonic journey telling the tale of two unknown lifeforms, bringing their favorite sounds to a place they have never explored before, this music is inspired by the beauty of the world around them, while still being pulled into the darkness of the dead stars they came from.
The video tells the tale of their recent exploration as they look for a way out of this world, gravitating to the most iconic structures they find along the way. Mixing in elements of AI, traditional film and lost portraits of the two core members, the song blends reality and fiction, while introducing a vibe they hope to spread to all the other planetary systems around us.
Made up of Ryan Policky (A Shoreline Dream) and Andy Uhrmacher (Genessier), Alien Gothic creates deep gothic electronica, fused with spacial goth autoharp symphonies, deep mellotron overtures mixed with noises from unknown origins on the vast hour long debut. Themes and words recall events that the duo have had from the far reaches of the beyond. With deep beats, lush goth rock entwine with psych and shoegaze layers to create cosmic, pulsating melodies.
Recorded from 2020-2023, Alien Gothic take a journey out of a world gone mad, to spread a sound that is immersive and rich with varied instrumentation. Soundscaping goth is what these artists have become known for elsewhere along the milky way, their spectrums now hitting earth to bring forth a dreary alien orchestra, lost deep in a dark forest beyond the normal stretches of human imagination.
“It’s something we knew would destroy the seedy, cobweb filled danceclubs of the past, bringing forth a new era of goth… alien goth!” says Ryan Policky.
As of July 18, ‘In The Night’ will be available exclusively via Bandcamp. The full ‘High and Dry’ album will be released digitally on August 18 across all fine music platforms.
Here’s a riddle for you: What’s an album that was made in 2023 by Swedes, but sounds like it was a horror film score made in 1977 by Italians? If you guessed Pericolo Di Morte (“Death Danger”) by Contaminazione (Contamination), you’re right!
Right out the gate with the title track, the trio of keyboardistSofia Rydahl, drummer Mikal Styrke, and bassist Staffan Tengnér change the tone of wherever you are to something creepy and otherworldly. It sounds like something you’d hear while walking down into Lucio Fulci’s basement. I mean, the track is named “Death Danger.” Rydahl’s keys invoke fear and terror, while Styrke and Tengnér invoke dread…yet it’s danceable dread.
Tengnér’s thick bass on “Vivi Vilocemente, Muori Lentamente” (“Live Fast, Die Slowly”) sounds like the relentless footsteps and breath of a horrible monster coming at you from Fulci’s basement as Rydahl’s synths open up strange portals between worlds that you hope you can close before horrible things emerge from them.
“Il Necroforum” is what you hear when you’re trying to figure out a murder’s motivation and scheme in a Dario Argento giallo movie. Styrke’s beats convey the sensation of sweat beading on your forehead and neck as you get closer and closer to learning the identity of the masked butcher who’s been plaguing the city’s fashion models. Rydahl’s synths are the killer’s entrance music as he, unbeknownst to you, ascends the stairs to your apartment.
Not to be outdone, Tengnér puts down a funky, spooky groove on “I’Ultima Setimana Di Vita” (“The Last Week of Life”) that blends so well with Rydahl’s spacey synths that the track would be perfect in a 1970s Euro-disco. Tengnér’s bass on “Tema Principale” (“Main Theme”) is extra-thick, which makes Rydahl’s synths sound more ethereal (bordering on synthwave sounds).
It’s a killer (pun intended) record. Someone needs to hire them to score a modern-day giallo.
