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Portland, Oregon seems to be a hive of darkwave activity and one of the latest acts is Luscious Apparatus and as of the 27th of May, they dropped their second single, “Bricks & Bones“. This four piece is made up of members, Sandi Leeper (vocals, bass, synths), Cate Hukle (guitars), Jack Norton (synth, programming, guitar), and Daniel Henderson (drums). The inception of the band was 2019 with Norton and then gathering other members to the project.

There is definitely a shoegaze air to this track with those swirling guitars and lilting vocals in a Cocteau Twins fashion. The guitars strengthen as the drums propel them forward. Leeper’s vocals entwine with the synths, gracing the air with a lightness that belies the monster that has been disturbed from it’s slumber, so no amount of sticks will stop it and then it will grind your bones.

There is a pervading lightness in the whirling spirals of sound that harken back to bands like Cocteau Twins or Lush with those lovely female vocals but especially the sonic electronic noise of Curve. Beautiful, strong and downright bestial is “Bricks & Bones” by that Luscious Apparatus.

Luscious Apparatus (bandcamp.com)

Luscious Apparatus | Facebook

https://www.instagram.com/lusciousapparatuspdx/

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In 1996, History Of Guns started their musical adventure and now in 2022, they continue that quest to create music after a hiatus, with the release of a new single, “You Wanted To Live” on the 25th of May. The currently incarnation has original members Del Alien (vocals) and Max Rael (keyboards, programming), plus adding newest member Jamu Knight (guitars).

Fuzzed out beats meet chiming keyboards, in a building vortex of emotions, all the while Alien’s vocals taunt you with the question of if you want to live, then why don’t you live. The angst is high and the guitar goes from strained to decimated complacency, though the electronics never stray from adding an extra layer of weighted darkness.

The band were helped out in the studio by Daniel Vincent (programming), Jason Knight (drums), and Gary Hughes (additional instrumentation). It is a great starter single, for the new album, that History Of Guns is threatening us with. Gothic, deep vocals and guitars that singe the air, all the while the electronics/synths give the track that harder industrial quality. In the end, you have this one life, so you can choose how you live it because “You Wanted To Live“.

Music | History Of Guns (bandcamp.com)

History of Guns | Facebook

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Washington, DC’s own gothic dwellers, The Neuro Farm, have dropped the song “Vampyre” off the album of the same name and to compliment the track, they have also created a beautiful and dark music video.

Rebekah Feng has a glorious voice and she uses it to great effect, whilst her band mates play around her. Sombre melancholy, with rich accents of gothic foreboding, that grace the air. The music is delicate like a spiderweb, intricate and wonderfully woven.

An ode to the loss of a way of life, the transitioning from human to vampire but also the death of a relationship. A woman becomes a child of the night and her husband cannot follow her there. Such a weighted sadness, pooling in liquid drowned dreams. The Neuro Farm are painting you a tale of darkness which is rich and silky in both sound and looks, and who knows, unless you bite, you won’t know what they taste like.

Vampyre | The Neuro Farm (bandcamp.com)

Indie Rock | United States | The Neuro Farm

The Neuro Farm | Facebook

https://www.instagram.com/the.neuro.farm/

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Miss FD released the single “Summoning” on the 22nd of May, from the EP, As Above, So Below on Quantum Release Records. With a music video shot by Storyteller, at Joshua Tree, Miss FD is both the witch/sorceress and the vixen demon, that the crone has conjured up in this video and are the perfect subjects to entrance you .

A fusion of Middle Eastern and India instrumentation that curls around your ears, causing your hips to swerve inexplicably, all the while Miss FD woos you with her singing that would enchant the most critical of djinn (never rub a genie up the wrong way).

The princess of gothic pop and chanteuse of making that butt wiggle, Miss FD certainly makes music as gorgeous as her demonic self. I can still hear her chanting long after the music has finished, imbuing your senses with ancient culture and mystical intensity. Lovely….. so invoke the “Summoning“.

As Above, So Below – EP | Miss FD (bandcamp.com)

Miss FD | Facebook

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Going to put it on the table now…. you have to have balls to cover the track “Fame” and the group, She 1-Him 2 released it as a single, no less, on April 19th. On guitar they have Steven Seibold of Test Dept and Pigface helping them out. If you are old enough, you know that this song has pedigree lineage. Written by John Lennon, Carlos Alomar and David Bowie for Bowie’s album, Young Americans in 1975 and was the first single to be released off it. Since, has been covered multiple times, however, Duran Duran recorded “Fame” and it appeared as a b-side on their 1981 single “Careless Memory“, and for me is one of my favourite versions (John Taylor on fretless bass *le sigh*)..

You are never going to get a version of this that doesn’t incorporate that funky bass and guitar, as that is very much the foundation of the track. The intro is heavier, with a more industrial feel while the vocals are cool with the inferred disinterest of someone who is popular and has no time for insects. There are those sweet guitar breaks between verses and electronic swells.

It is a bit hard not to dance to this, as the beat and the strut are infectious, just as the original. The dual, female/male vocals bring a new dimension, as does the more prominent guitar from Seibold. The Ohio duo of Cassie Bishop and Evan Nave also known as She 1-Him 2 seems to flow along very nicely and I think the Starman would appreciate this version of his “Fame“.

She 1 · Him 2 – Fame (Feat. Steven Siebold) | She 1 · Him 2 (bandcamp.com)

She 1 · Him 2 | Facebook

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July 15th with see the release of the new Kill Shelter album, Asylum, which is a celebration of over 40 years of the dark scene, but for a taste now is in the form of the new single, “Necklace:, featuring Sweden’s Agent Side Grinder. Edinburgh’s Pete Burns (Kill Shelter) composed the music while Johan Lange (Agent Side Grinder) wrote the lyrics.

From just the beginning, you know this is going to be good, the way the guitars collide and resolve, only to be subsumed by the drum machine and electronics, that play host to the vocals. It makes you want to move and dance to the thrum of the beat and guitar, whilst caught within the vocals of Emanuel Åström. It’s simply brilliant.

Such a breathtaking use of instruments, highlighting the darkness between the light. The vocals wash over your senses, not only sonorous but also pulling at your subconscious with the lyrical content because “Necklace” is about finding solace within one’s self when faced with daily abuse, be that physical and/or mental. This all ties back to the album, Asylum, which is all about the different types of havens people seek to survive.

https://killshelter.bandcamp.com/album/asylum-us-version

https://killshelter.bandcamp.com/album/asylum-european-version

https://www.facebook.com/killshelterofficial

https://agentsidegrinder.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/agentsidegrinder

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In our recent interview with X-MARKS THE PEDWALK, in regards to their latest album, New / End, I happened to mention that I was rather drawn to the magical quality of the track, “Sacred Ground“. To my surprise and delight, it has been released as the latest single, out on the band’s own label, Meshwork Music.

There is something unearthly from the first strands of music, while the lyrics that leave ESTEFANIA’s lips are enough to give you goose bumps. The synths create a mood that both draws you in and also leaves you feeling there are things unspoken that need never be said.

SEVREN NI-ARB wrote this track for his wife, after she lost her father and it is about the bonds we have with those whom we think we have lost forever, yet they will always be a part of us. Memories sustain the presence and it is an act of love, which I think can be felt keenly in the vocals. The music is beautiful, slightly sorrowful and yet there is hope. The video is quite stunning as well, set in a forest, with a girl and a gorgeous white dog, set to some equally brilliant synthpop.

New / End | X Marks The Pedwalk (bandcamp.com)

X-Marks The Pedwalk | Facebook

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New Zealand’s post-punk purveyors, Vietnam, have released their third single off the album, This Quiet Room, accompanied by a video. Many of the members have, since the 80s, moved across the Tasman, to the shores of Australia, so with that in mind, some of “In Another Desert” is filmed in Sydney and other pieces, in their home town of Wellington.

There is the high paced jangle of guitars, matched by the drums. The vocals remind you, you have been to places you never thought you would be, left for greener pasture and ended up in another desert. The lead guitar gives us these most beautiful flourishes, whilst the adjoining guitars build and drop the tension so deliciously with the aid of the synths.

It is such a good single off the album, as it fare flies from the instruments with those gorgeous hues of tone. Shadows from the past, mixing with the reality of the present, incorporating a live sample of a stick countdown, by original drummer, Leon Reedijk, who sadly is no-longer with us. Every time I hear this track, it just gets better and Vietnam are kindred spirits to bands such as The Church and The Chills, and as such, masters of evoking sentiment and memories.

This Quiet Room | Vietnam (NZ) (bandcamp.com)

Vietnam – NZ | Facebook

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Beauty In Chaos, as a gothic/dark alternate group, has some pretty heavy hitters in the music scene that are members, with Michael Ciravolo as the focal band mate. From this year’s album release, Behind The Veil, the band have dropped the single “Afterlife“, which features Ciravolo’s wife, Tish on vocals and she also wrote the lyrics for this track. The band on this single consists of Michael Ciravolo (guitars and textures), Michael Rozon (bass, synth and drum programming), Dirk Doucette (live drums) and Adrienne LaVey (operatic voice).

The guitars are somber and withdrawn, whilst the synths blow through like a wind of sweet sorrow before the vocals of Tish Ciravolo caress your ears, enchanting you like a siren. It flows like the final breath from your lips and there are the unearthly, angelic vocals of Adrienne LaVey in the interlude.

I hear strains of The Cure in those rivulets of trickling synths and guitar, giving the whole track a dream like quality or as such, a hazy memory floating in that liquid stream. Yes, this is a song about death because as humans, we have always asked, what happens after we leave this mortal coil and where do we go? But also, there are those that we leave behind and we, in some way, are kept alive in memoriam by the ties of love. This track radiates light, just as the sun falls on the leaves of a tree, however the light becomes dappled and darker… this is how I see “Afterlife“, so breathtakingly beautiful and yet that heavy undertow, making it perfect.

Music | BEAUTY IN CHAOS (bandcamp.com)

Order Now! — Beauty in Chaos (beautyinchaosmusic.com)

Beauty In Chaos | Facebook

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French darkwave act, Distance H, have released their debut single “Bitch 16”, as of the end of April and it features Saigon Blue Rain’s chanteuse. Ophelia. She will also be featuring on the soon to be released EP, Intimacy, by Parisian, ManuH, who is the producer behind Distance H, which endeavors to have different female vocalists on tracks. 

The guitar chimes out, programmed drum machine keeping the beat and Ophelia’s vocals seductively slipping like silk across the music. darkness and light of growing up, where everything starts off bright and optimistic, then with experience and growth, comes the realisation that life is murkier the more you let people in. 

There is a tremendous balance between vocals and music here where one never engulfs the other. The guitar work is delightful, weaving throughout the whole piece, while the vocals capture your attention with Ophelia’s beautiful performance. Really it is a darkwave track, worthy of attention and if the EP is this quality, then it is going to be fantastic release from Distance H! 

Distance H | Facebook