Merely mentioning the name X-MARKS THE PEDWALK, conjures up the visions of dark sweat soaked dance floors and now in 2022, we have a fresh new album called New / End. Released 29th of April on Meshworks Music, with founder SEVREN NI-ARB (synthesizers, computers/programming and vocals) and ESTEFANÍA (vocals), the husband and wife team based in Münster, Germany.
“Sailors At Dawn” is the first track and a single to boot, with ESTEFANIA at the helm in a piece about surviving the darkest moments to meet the light. The track is filled with those synths that wind up through your soul. And if that isn’t good enough, the second track is also another single in the shape of “Firestorm” this time with SEVREN on vocal duties with again those purposefully electronics and yet there is something very delicate within. You can see why this and “Sailors At Dawn” were singles.
There is a kind of sexiness, not only vocally but also in those jaunty synth lines in “Wonder“. “Kill Me Tonight” is a smashing track with those rolling beats that you instantly find yourself bopping around to. So smooth and delicious. I find myself inextricably draw to the track “Sacred Ground“. It resonates so keenly with me, on so many levels lyrically and mood wise. A truly good track can do that. The power of the rhythm and great whirling tunes reminds us of “Yesterdays“. A little Euro disco sneaking in? Love it and it very much a fact we are made up of our yesterdays but waiting for our tomorrows.
Really like hearing both SEVREN and ESTEFANIA in “Miss Me“, a really classy piece about wanting the other to miss them because they feel down, Miss me I’m a fool. “Into The Light” is a perfect piece of future pop style that would be great on any club dance floor. The electronic flutter down falling stars on magical night waiting for the dawn. Lucky last is “I’m On Your Side” and the synths and vocals convey such pain and yet such powerful message of support no matter what happens.
“Abbatoir” was a track that we danced to in the early 90s and even listening them now, it brings back warm memories of X-MARKS THE PEDWALK in the clubs. It feels strange to say that New / End is their eleventh studio but there it is and time seems to have flown. So time and growth have molded them into a tight and beautifully formed synthpop/synthwave group, that can write these superlative tracks to stir the imagination and capture your soul, which is exactly what New / End has in spades.
Onyx Music Reviews 