Do you do Visual Kei? I have long loved bands like X Japan, D’espairsRay and Dir En Grey for both their look and that certain key sound that Japanese Visual Kei bands have. So you might imagine my excitement and delight when I found the single “Pretend To Pray” by Psycho Sonic Boom in my in box. Psycho Sonic Boom is the brain child of Californian born Kairu, whom now resides in Japan and began this project back in 2010.
The clean vocals are entrancing from the first, full of flirtatious promises that will probably never be fulfilled, A light touch with the drums until the track hits the chorus. The guitars almost float gracefully over the top of all, ringing out to call you in like sirens to the sailors.
I truly love the attention to detail from the melodies and delicate guitar work to the video with the beautiful makeup and clothing. It is hard to tell if Visual Kei borrowed from deathrock or vice versa but they do share many similar elements and there is definitely an air of dark seduction and lingering fingers down the spine appeal. Let Psycho Sonic Boom show you how to “Pretend To Pray“.
Always exciting to see a band releasing their debut single and hearing their style. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, is the darkwave duo Now After Nothing, with the single “Sick Fix“, out on the 27th of January. Vocalist Matt Spatial and drummer Michael Allen are Now After Nothing and they are joined by the guitar virtuoso, MarkGemini Thwaite (MGT). Just as impressively is the having the mixing done by Carl Glanville, who has worked with U2 and Joan Jett, and the mastering by John Davis, with names like Placebo, Jesus & Mary Chain and Suede under his belt.
A deluge of guitar and bass hits your ears, both raucous and refined at the same time. It is a punk like fevour that grips and further enforced with the vocals from Spatial, MGT’s guitar work and the synths moving together in a sinuous dance, fluid and whirling in a controlled tempest, while Allen gives us the drumbeats that keep this thunderous rhythm gracing our ears.
I was at one of the lowest points of my life and without a musical outlet. I was damaged, defeated, and deflated. One day in New York City, riding through Central Park with earbuds in place, I rediscovered a band that didn’t initially resonate with me. Hearing them this time was different though – I felt the spark. That emotionalconnection to a newly-discovered piece of music was the proverbial kick-in-the-ass I needed to ‘crawl out of cracks below.’ When I arrived home, I dusted of my studio gear and opened up files of previously unfinished song ideas, one of which was a rather bare recording of just a single bass line. It caught my ear and by the day’s end, Sick Fix was complete from start to finish. Listening back to it, I felt alive again. I felt the same spark I had felt that day in Central Park that inspired me and reminded me I had more music inside of me. I wasn’t going to let myself wither away. Though the band name came later, Now After Nothing was really born on that day, which is why Sick Fix undoubtedly needed to be our first single.”- Matt Spatial
So, there is great energy in this track and yes there is definitely a hat firmly tipped towards the old school post-punk such as Bauhaus, but I also hear strains of Alien Sex Fiend and Virgin Prunes in that maelstrom. Yes, originally I believed these guys were actually British going on sound alone, with their wonderful synergy and enthusiasm but don’t think you are getting some old rehash. “Sick Fix” is a wonderfully modern track and I am eager to see what Now After Nothing bring to the table next.
What is “Maść na wszy“? Would you believe me if I said it means ointment forlice and this is the title to the single for Monument Zero. Darek Jackowski (wind instruments), Łukasz Bejnar (laptop) and Tomek Osiński (vocals) are based in Wroclaw, Poland creating their own style of electronic music.
Labelled a paramedical romance, the wind instrument sounds like it is being strangled to death while electronic servos work overtime, and eviscerating noise gives the semblance of a jazz war zone in a factory. The vocals are stark against the melancholia of the saxophone and fluctuating buzzing.
Oddly satisfying with all these elements together, culminating into something that by all rights, should pull itself apart at the seams and yet seems to be actually quite cohesive. I say electronic crossed with jazz and beat poetry might be my best stab at eloquently describing Monument Zero’s style, and this is lice removing mood music.
“Burning Building” is the latest single from Lucy Kruger & The Lost Boys, out on Unique Records / Schubert Music Europe GmbH. Kruger was born and raised in South Africa but now calls Berlin home, and the creation of the single is a very international affair with the recording done in Berlin, the mixing in Cape Town and the mastering in Brussels.
Photo by Holger Nitschke
The music very much gives you the impression of a stalking cat on the prowl, looking for a cat’s paw, a plaything, while everything around them perishes, but that isn’t their concern. The angular guitars and jaunty rhythm with super sultry vocals make for a very bad-arse track.
If you will, imagine Siouxsie’s Creatures, fused with Sonic Youth and that might give you an idea of the grandiose sound of “Burning Building“. A post-punk aesthetic, married to grungy pop and Kruger’s delightful vocals definitely make this track both sexy and fun. This is the second single to be released off the next Lucy Kruger & The Lost Boys’ album, due in April and we are pretty sure that it is going to be hot.
Name your poison! For VAZUM, it is deadly “Night Shade“, which happens to be their next single as released on the spooktacular day of Friday the 13th of January, by the deathgaze duo of Zach Pliska and Emily Sturm.
The driving guitar is the trademark of VAZUM and “Night Shade” is laced with it. A warning that not all fawning friends and influencers, are actually going to be there for you when the chips are laid down. But they will lie to your face and make you adore them, which fits in perfectly with the contemptuous music. There is also a second track included that also follows the theme of untruths, called “Living Great” that has this wonderful shoegaze brilliance that never pauses.
Having two very different sounding tracks, even if they are on the short comings of humans, makes this release quite delightful bit of gothic rock to get your heart beating. VAZUM again have given us something killer in “Night Shade“, a killer of a track which is name your price on Bandcamp.
Miami based goths, Astari Nite, last single came out in May of 2022 and so behold there is now the new single “Bowie In Daydreams“. Inspired the legend that was David Bowie, the recent movie and his many roles that Bowie wore like a glove.
A march into the echoes of another time, guitar driven rivulets taking you into darker places. The vocals permeate the swirling music, while the heavily symbolic lyrics paint a picture, with mounting fervour.
There are references to the decadent West Berlin period, the Ziggy Stardust era and the vampiric role Bowie played in the iconic movie The Hunger. And “Bowie In Daydreams” is also a referral to the beloved track “Moonage Daydream” from The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars and Astari Nite pay homage to his memory through conjuring up his spirit.
The Yets are the dream pop duo, Robin Wilson (vocals, keyboards, lyrics), and CraigAnderson Snook (guitar, everything else), who are based in South Carolina Their self-titled debut EP has given us the new single, “A Letter To A Boy“.
In a different era, before social media and text messages, one often wrote long letters of love. The wistful and dreamy guitar jangle echo’s back in time, while the vocals sweetly give you an insight into her heart and how much this boy means to her as a mother. The keyboards are an understated accomplice to the beautiful guitar flourishes, as Wilson reminds the lad that no matter what, he is forever her beloved.
The guitar work and the ethereal nature really does give this track that CocteauTwins delightful ambience, though there is something I cannot quite put my finger on, that definitely makes it sound not quintessentially British, which is great. I love the guitar and the vocals, more so that The Yets have their own niche sound that sets them apart
New Mexico based, industrial horror metal act, Dunwich Dreams, dropped the single “A Darkness Hungers” on the 30th of December, off the soon to be released album, Rise of The Seventh Sun
Like the beginning of John Carpenter score, it all starts to get brooding and heavy all so soon, the notes scale up and down, stalking from a place of infernal pending doom. The vocals are ravenous and your very soul is in mortal peril from that which lurks.
Is it something within the darkness or is it the darkness itself that desperately wants to consume? For this is a tale of Egyptian Gods going to war, so that the sun may rise again. Who won is for you to decide, should you dare to listen to “A Darkness Hungers“, a seething industrial metal behemoth from Dunwich Dreams.
There is a lot of excitement in the electro-industrial world currently with the fact that Germans, Beborn Beton just released their new single, “Dancer In The Dark“, however the big news is that the single is linked to a brand spanking new album, titled Darkness Falls Again which is slated to drop on the 17th of March, with Dependent Records.
Wonderful, danceable beat, sprinkled light synths that harmonise with the vocals. Speaking of vocals, the last time we heard Netschio singing was on a track with Kill Shelter and it so nice to hear his dulcet tones. The electronics court with the guitar, spinning and melding into a track of perfection.
Oh, Beborn Beton…. how I have missed your eloquently smooth synthpop. There is a real human warmth in their music considering they use electronics and I can guarantee that “Dancer In The Dark” is going draw you in and satisfy your craving for beautifully crafted music.
Woohoo and the year kicked off with a bang. German industrial meisters, ROTERSAND hit the ground running with a new single, “Higher Ground” as of New Years Day 2023, on the label MetropolisRecords. It is has been exactly a year since the release of the previous single “Grey“, and though we have been able to hear the guys performing remix magic last year, the exciting news is that “Higher Ground” is heralding the countdown to a new album!
From the beginning, already, the skin is goose fleshing in anticipation with the build-up. Nikov’s vocals really are just silken and ever smooth, an observation that some people will always be a beacon of hope and sanctuary, even at their own discomfort. I even detect the strumming of an acoustic guitar. That is before it all just takes flight with that fabulous synthie pop beat and surging electronics coming at you in waves.
The Evendorff remix is fresh and intense, like a blast of concentrated ROTERSAND,which makes it pretty electric. Beautifully recorded and mastered. Also, there is the radio edit version, but that is neither here nor there as “Higher Ground” is a little piece of EBM magic
