2024 marked twenty years making music for Nottingham goths, In Isolation. After two decades, lead singer Ryan Swift and bassist Mike Sinclair have decided that they need to move on with life, though they have given remaining members, Tony Ghost (drums) and John Berry (guitar,) their blessing to continue with the In Isolation moniker if they so wish to do so. They are celebrating both the milestone and finale by releasing the EP Light In Dark Times.
The EP kicks off with the title track, “Light In Darker Times,” and it truly is a lovely post-punk single, dark and maudlin, with lyrics about what I can only describe as an unrequited love or the death of said love. The music is reminiscent of the Disintegration era sound of The Cure, between the curling synths and echoing guitars that speak of a deep melancholy. There is a charming innocence to “Middle Child Millicent,” until the guitars kick in. A girl with a name from the Victorian age, has found herself the unfavoured sibling, in comparison to her brothers. The Mission could have written this track I feel, especially with the wandering guitars lines and sentiment.
The name makes me think of the Japan single “Ghosts” and overall, “Phantoms” did give me a little start when I heard it, for it does throw you back into that early 80s. It is a sweet lament of wanting what the heart cannot have and unable to move on from the loss.
“Middle Child Millicent (Mat Pop Extended Mix)” rounds out the EP, with far more synthpop flare and aplomb. It is amazing how different this is to the original and yet you can hear it is the same track.
Kids in shadow filled rooms and a myriad of phantasms connected to a heart denied…. this is how you get goths. And it might be an EP, but Light In Darker Times is an epic celebration for In Isolation to release. Is it the end? Who knows, however, the music lives on regardless
Onyx Music Reviews 