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MATT HART has been a busy lad of late it seems, and now has unveiled his new single, as of the 18th of November, “TERRAFORM“, a completely new track that carries the story on from the previous album. There are also two guest remixes from Blue Ant (Matteo Seduta) and Sirus (Josh Rombout), as well as the mixing and mastering done by Krischan Wesenberg of Rotersand.

Oh, here is a short story synopsis——> bad robot aliens take over the planet, make it really cold and try to knock off the humans, so they go underground. 🙂

First thing that hits you is that “TERRAFORM” is kind of serious business. The rhythm and the music are measured and work like, no messing about here, heavy electronics that drop down on your senses. There is purpose in the not only the music but also HART’s vocals, pushing on the survivors to carry out their tasks.

Woohoo, the Blue Ant version is going deep down and on the low down, the electronics nowhere as heavy and just popping, rolling along. Damn it, I found my head bobbing away with that catchy rolling beat. Someone just pushed the track into techno territory and that would be Sirus. Again, this huge, both threatening and exhilarating at the same time.

What I found a little disturbing about the original track was the fact the vocals had started to become metallic. This we had come to expect from the alien invaders, so does this start to point to the fact the humans are starting to lose their humanity….the one thing that separated them from the robotic overlords? They have fought so long to survive, that this seems to have become consuming. All three versions could be played on a dance floor and I think I can best sum up the three styles as electronic menace (MATT HART), electronic supreme cool (Blue Ant) and electronic bitch slap you up the side of the head/you better dance fool (Sirus). Love it.

TERRAFORM – SINGLE | MATT HART (bandcamp.com)

https://www.facebook.com/djmatthartuk/

https://www.instagram.com/matthart3808/

Music | SIRUS (bandcamp.com)

Music | Blue Ant (bandcamp.com)

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“The Precious Ones” sounds like it could be from Lord Of The Rings, however, it is the single that deathgaze rockers, VAZUM, dropped on the 18th of November. Emily Sturm and Zach Pliska are gearing up for an album drop next year, called V Sessions, but in the meantime you can listen to the new single with it’s complimentary two b-sides.

Pliska is the main vocalist this time for “The Precious Ones” and venomously spits out the lyrics, while the guitars are violently loud, rolling like thunder in their discontent and the drums emphatic. Sturm’s vocals wind around the chorus almost stealing it. “Actor” really slides into deathrock mode with the buzzing guitar work, that occasionally breaks out then returns to the fold. The way the rhythm moves is very snake like. The last track sees both the vocalists sharing the duties, screaming out guitars and what feels like intense pressure in the build up for “Skooge“.

I actually had to look up “Skooge” and it was in the urban dictionary as basically describing an idiot. These tracks definitely have a common theme running through all of them…..pretty much go fuck yourself and go fucking die. I mean I could be wrong but I don’t think I am. “The Precious Ones” is a dig at a scene that often is constantly looking backwards at what has been, rather than the new music there is now. Many, many moons ago, I used to run a club and if you played all the classics, you were guaranteed a full dance floor. Introduce something new but great, suddenly the floor was clear. If I go out, I still hear all the same music….it is boring and like going back in a time machine. Plus, I guess there are probably certain musicians today that will have everyone pandering to them, while others will miss out on coverage even though they deserve to be heard. In the meantime, the single and extra tracks are fantastic. I love the furious guitars and VAZUM being all prickly has made this all the more interesting. Watch out for “The Precious Ones“…….

The Precious Ones | VAZUM (bandcamp.com)

https://www.facebook.com/VAZUMROCKS/

https://www.instagram.com/vazum_/

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There is nothing better than introducing new music, especially when it gives you tingles down the spine. Connecticut based Jayson Munro and George Moore are goth rock/post-punk band, Midnight Psychic and their debut single is “String Of Fate“, released on the 16th of November.

There is that beautiful bass, along side the skittering guitar, inspired by Bauhaus, in the beginning of “String Of Fate“. The vocals are smooth and velvet, all the while recounting the many varied ways people past away in quite ignominious tragedies. Striking chords and sweet, mournful singing that do indeed induce those very tingles down the spine.

You know a song is either really good or really bad when it gets stuck in your head. I am glad to say that “String Of Fate” is brilliant and quite acceptable rattling around in the old noggin. It throws you back in time and the track would have fitted nicely into the gothic 80s UK scene, with the lovely guitar flourishes and unhurried, wonderful vocals. The Midnight Psychic is in session and they have foreseen your “String Of Fate“.

String of Fate | midnight psychic (bandcamp.com)

Midnight psychic | Facebook

https://instagram.com/midnight.psychic?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

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In South Carolina, if you listen carefully, not all is banjo music. The gothic/deathrock explosive power of Orcus Nullify is back baby, with a new single, “All The Way“, released on the 11th of November.

From the drums through to the guitars, this is all Nullify. The guitars soar and Bruce’s vocals derisive of the old guard, the far right in their inability to accept anything other than their own narrow view and that if they aren’t right then it should all be left to crumble into anarchy. Discordant deathrock from Orcus Nullify with a message and a mosh worthy chorus.

https://orcusnullify.bandcamp.com/track/all-the-way-2

https://www.facebook.com/onullify

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Knock twice, your fate sealed, A Cloud Of Ravens does reveal. Indeed, the 11th of November was the date for the release of the second single, “Nature If Artifice“, off the LOST HYMNS album, set to come out on the 24th of February, 2023.

It sucks you in from the beginning with elegant simplicity, from the beats to the build up into vocals. That guitar in the background like a warning siren, with the very deliberate heavy keyboard chords begging you to give them your attention. The vocals sombrely remind you that not all is well in the world.

The video alludes to past mistakes of humans only in the last century and yet maybe A Cloud Of Ravens is also tying to point out that we are making those mistakes again, though even if you aren’t a history buff, the music is brilliant. This is the “Nature Of Artifice“.

https://acloudofravens.bandcamp.com/track/nature-of-artifice-3

https://m.facebook.com/acloudofravens/

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It can’t rain all the time but sometimes it “Feels Like Rain” which also happens to be the Signia Alpha single, released on the 11th of November. The band is made up of singer/lyricist Harris (yes just one name like Prince), multi instrumentalist composer Matt Webster (drums, guitar), flaunting his flute style is Chris Walsh, along with jazz master Keith Jafrate on sax and some bloke called Paul Gray who normally plays bass in some kitch band called The Damned.

Every time I have listened to this, I think Paisley Park, as in the 60s. Could be the use of the flute or the happy go lucky vibe of the music, though not all is as it seems. Lyrically it is about poverty and how it sucks away all until you only live under a constant weight and greyness, which is not living.

The Bradford area is in the North of England and since the industrial revolution, suffered high levels of poverty and unemployment. A breeding ground for musicians who are great storeytellers. “Feels Like Rain” rolls along just like the days do but with a social concious.

https://signiaalpha.bandcamp.com/track/feels-like-rain

Signia Alpha | Facebook

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Mix one part Danish with one part United Kingdom and you get a spark of magic called Perpacity. Martin Nyrup (Den) and Ian Harling (UK) dropped their new single, “Little Death” on November the 11th.

Don’t Let the shamanistic wails at the beginning fool you. This baby is all electronic, suave and suggestive, with the synths rolling in all the right curves and the vocals entreating you in “Little Death“. There is also the ‘b’ side, “Feel My Pain” which is far more reflective and sorrowful, mirrored by the sombre tones of the music.

The title track has a decidedly Depeche Mode vibe with those graduating synths and sexy lyrics, while the backing track, “Feel My Pain” is the quiet and brooding type that gradually creeps into your head. As the French say, petite la morte and really we all need a “Little Death“.

https://perpacity.bandcamp.com/album/little-death-single

https://www.facebook.com/perpacity

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Garrett Cooper is a musician who hails from South Australia. We had all had enough of 2021, but Cooper decided to give himself the goal of writing one song a month and putting it up on Bandcamp from November. He named the project Brave Mistakes, which may or may not have been hinting at how he felt about the task ahead. Now, Brave Mistakes is not the first to do the one song a month challenge, but one must remember that Cooper started this with a change from his usual harder rock style.

And now we are in November 2022. Single number twelve is here…. or is it? There seems to be two singles in the form of the tracks “Can’t Fear” and “The Goon“, which make up a trilogy of songs called Shadow Pals and Brave Mistakes is no longer a solo project, but now a fully fledged band. The sound has filled out with those jangly guitars tumbling beautifully over each other and Cooper’s vocals have gotten stronger each track, dare I say giving Chris Isaak a run for his money.

Obviously not content on just one song for this month, we are going out with a bang. On Bandcamp you will also find a new rendition of “Charlotte Street“, which was the first to kick everything off and it has been stripped down, full of overwhelming emotion. I was actually surprised to also see the release of a cover of one of my most favourite bands of all time. The Church, for me are the epitome of superb composition, poetic lyrics and more cool than the Arctic (and good grief they were so hot looking in their paisley and winkle pickers). The cover of “Under The Milky Way” kind of blew my mind and in all honesty, I actually cried a little.

Over all, the general ambience is dark and moody, with definite overtones of country music, which gives Brave Mistakes a quintessentially Australian sound. The music follows in the footsteps of such acts as stalwart Nick Cave, rockers Beasts Of Bourbon, The Johnny’s or the wonderful and sadly missed Triffids. It is music that speaks of longing, loneliness and separation in a land both expansive and ancient, where one can lose themselves in the terrain or simply in your own head. Southern Australian gothic or dark country? Maybe it defies pigeon holing but it is terrific rock music no matter how you look at it. Brave Mistakes sometimes pay off.

Music | Brave Mistakes (bandcamp.com)

Brave Mistakes | Adelaide SA | Facebook

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From County Cork, in Ireland, we have the darkwave act, Arctic Lights with their new single “Belong“, released on November the 4th. Liam O’Callaghan (vocals, guitar) and Edward Butt (bass guitar)are the duo that are the nucleus of Arctic Lights, with Max Mac joining them on drums.

Low vocals greet your ears with acoustic accompaniment of a guitar, though all this is an illusion as the electronics break through. There is a sonic component, a see saw between vocals, synths and guitar that is quite mesmerising.

Darkwave with that shoegaze wall of sound and the sublime singing that creates a wonderfully textured track about the very human desire to be apart of a relationship of some description. Come and “Belong” with Arctic Lights.

https://arcticlights.bandcamp.com/track/belong

https://m.facebook.com/ArcticLightsCork

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The latest single from M73, has just been released, off the album Motor Romantik., on the record label, LÆBEL. “Vampire” has been given a lush video, care of Anna Tartaglia, exploring the visual concept that not all vampires live off blood but many are regular humans who feed off the power of controlling another person. As always the synth lines are stunning and John R Mirland completes the track with his vocals.

https://m73dk.bandcamp.com/album/motor-romantik

https://www.facebook.com/m73official

https://www.facebook.com/laebelmusic