Sequential Zero are back with a new single, released on the 28th of February on Mantravision label. “ThirdSequence” is not the name of the single but rather the third release in sequence for the three piece group. Australians, Ant Banister (Sounds Like Winter, Def FX) and Colin Gallagher (Burnt Souls) with American, Bruce Nullify (Orcus Nullify) are the nucleus of the band and each release so far has been a double “A” side.
The first track off this double single is “My Darker Side” and these guys are very open in the fact that they have a very early 80’s electronic sound with this gorgeous guitar glimmering through the synths. For a song that searches one’s self doubts, I find this track very heartwarming. The second track “Adjusting Expectations” is a truly interesting piece. Written during covid, when shows were being cancelled further and further into the future and restrictions were placed on where people could even go, keeping the live musicians wondering if they would ever return to what they love. Bannister does sound tired of it all with the glorious guitar work behind him, the piano as the disappointment and the synths the hope trying to break through.
There is a pure simplicity that evokes tremendous feelings of joy and sadness within Sequential Zero’s music. Both tracks are a little more bleaker in content then previous releases but there is no light without darkness. It really is a brilliant little darkwave project the lads have going and hopefully it will become a bigger project with the support it deserves.
Looking for some post-punk to whet your appetite, then Norway’s Painted Romans could be the drink you were looking for with the February 25th release of the new single, “The Begging Existence“. Painted Romans were a trio but as of recent have become a duo with Jan Ottar and long term member Mats Davidsen, however they are rising to the challenge of forging ahead.
Existential crisis or taking what is eked out to you even though it is like a kick to the teeth could be the theme of “The Begging Existence“. The harsh drum machine taps out ferocious beats whilst the guitar jangles away. There is what sounds like a horn instrument and it is underpinned with keyboards that interject a lightness in the post-punk darkness. Davidsen’s vocals are raw and imploring.
There is a touch of The Bolshoi and early Gene Loves Jezabel with this track and its swirling tones. It drives along at a great pace and fuses the 80s sound into a post-punk/gothic delight. You should check out the PaintedRomans and their “The Begging Existence“.
Teknovore came into being in 2020 as a solo project of George Klontzas, who was formerly in the bands PreEmptive Strike 0.1 and Croona. The debut album, The Theseus Paradox, is soon to be released on Infacted Recordings, but before then Klontzas is tantalizing us with his remixes with j:dead and a new single which was released on the 25th of February called “Anachronist“.
“Anachronist” with guest artist RNZR (Ruinizer) is…. how do I say this… epically huge. It is literally a maelstrom of incoming pounding beats and a hail of synths. Those agrotech vocals fit this so utterly perfectly. You wonder how the two remixes could actually be any better than this. The Aircraft Bureau’s mix is full of these amazing techno rhythms and swirling nearly imperceptible voices in the background. It builds and is an electronic delight. Wait…. is that throat singing in the mix?
You know you want to hear the XOTOX remix and it does not disappoint. In true XOTOX fashion, this is full of those chunky beats and highly strung keyboards climbing higher and higher. You get lost in that doof doof beat and then sadly it ends. Beyond excited to see another track included called “Save Me God” featuring Siva Six and Z’s voice is so distinct. He isn’t asking to be saved but demanding and taunting. There is blistering guitar work and you hear electronics being used in a lower, far more subtle register, like something old and dark lurking below.
“Save Me God” is a cover which originated with Israeli psytrance/industrial/metal band, Dark Soho and it is really is spectacularly done, while it was a stroke of genius having Siva Six bringing in the raw texture. The “Anachronist” remixes are such tasty pieces of brilliance but the single itself, shines so bright with those massive swelling beats and succulent synths that you can’t help but let it suck you in and away.
AvaVox is the singer/songwriter, ElaineHannon, who was born and raised in Dublin and in the 80s was the lead singer for the goth rock band TheSeventhVeil. That band went by the wayside in that decade but AvaVox has brought back to life one of their tunes, “AloneAgain” and released it as a single on February the 9th.
Heavy subject matter indeed, for this is a track about domestic violence and while the music does not always sound sombre due to the post-punk jangle of guitars and seemingly decent pace of the drums. Her voice is full of the expressed sadness of knowing that once in the cycle, the victim falls foul of repeated abuse, with the offer of ‘garlands‘ ie pretty words, to fall into the ‘talon‘ clutches again, unable to break free.
Maybe because this was originally written in the 80s or because of it being a post-punk piece but it made me think of the Australian band Divinyls and their song “PleaureAndPain” which is about an abusive lover. Like ChrissieAmphlett, AvaVox is a gutsy female singer who belts out the truth while feeling that pain. To that end, AvaVox is part of the wonderful Irish gothic/post-punk tradition and this track will be on her, soon to be released, second album, Immortalised.
VVMPYRE is a fairly new gothic act on the scene and the man behind VVMPYRE is one mystery man. He is one very lucky fellow in getting the talented Caitlin Stokes of Corlyx, to perform guest vocals on the newest single “Offering” which dropped on the 14th of February. Extra bonus points for having the other half of Corlyx, Brandon Ashley on guitars plus as well as mixing and mastering at DTuned Brighton Productions.
I was thrown a little when I first listened to this track. It was a bit like being thrown back into the early 90s and flashbacks to Inkubus Sukkubus especially with the electronic instrumental beginning. Stokes singing is so smooth and alluring like the unwrinkled skin of blood sucker. If you still haven’t quite got this gist yet, she is the vampiric queen in your dreams, demanding your tribute in the form of her feast. There are low, almost moaned looped tones beneath everything, the drum machine which heralds the build ups in the guitar and haunted organ.
Corlyx have been moving to a more goth/darkwave sound, so this track seems like a natural progression for Stokes to be involved in. The different layers conveys that love of the British Hammer Horror Movies which often had Christopher Lee as the devilish Dracula and a bevy of busty beauties accompanied by organ music, whilst the vampire hunter Peter Cushing was trying to eradicate his sworn foe. “Offering” is a dance track but also a gothic tale of the night and a blood dance that calls to the children of the night. So open up a blood vessel or two (or not because that could get a bit messy) and enjoy the exsanguination of the “Offering” by VVMPYRE.
Jean-Luc Courchet is the man behind the experimental post-punk act called Spiryt. February the 14th saw the single “V” drop with guest vocalist Kimberly from Bow Ever Down gracing the track. Courchet is from Toulon, France while Kimberly is based in Maine in the United States.
From the opening piano, you can tell this is going to be an introspective number, as the notes seem to hold their own woes. Kimberly’s vocals break through, clear and full of the weight of the sadness in the lyrics. A tale of judgement and being left behind for not being able to be what others deem acceptable. Often the tale of alternative types or those that do not conform.
There is a simplicity in the music that makes it charming and very heart-felt. I know that Kimberly almost always writes her own lyrics and that they come from a place deep inside. While she has sung and played piano, Courchet has wound his music around her, like the coils of a serpent. It is a bitter sweet and darkly touching track in “V“.
Ah Valentine’s Day…. it just keeps coming around doesn’t it?! Some of us will wish to sleep that day away but others will be deeply in the thralls of love or desperately want to be. Hateful Chains are giving you a romantic single to woo that other person for this special day and it is a cover version. The only catch is, it’s in Finnish. The cover is of the Finnish love song “Yölento” originally written and sung by Juice Leskinen, from the album of the same name released in 1986, which was also their best selling release.
“Yölento” literally means night flight and there is no doubt that this track conveys a seductive darkness. Lead singer, Flora’s deep and sonorous vocals caress ones ears. She really has a beautiful tone and it is accompanied by the wandering piano and the guitar that almost seems to be forlorn as it cries out.
The overall impression is about longing and waiting to be with another, knowing it might never happen. It is rich and full of unleashed passion. You don’t need to understand Finnish to have this song to pull at your heart strings which is the power of music, language is not a barrier in enjoying or reveling in a great song…. all great songs will evoke emotion. Hateful Chains chose well and the execution is this shadowy melancholy piece that is tinged with a yearning dream. Come on a “Yölento” with me…..
I am going to tell you a little about AMMO and then you will need to listen to her music. She is a director, photographer, a composer/singer/musician and a voice whom has been at the fore of helping women and LBGTQ+ people tell their stories. So AMMO has dropped the video for the single “A Cold War City“, this month, on the label Mourning Sun Records, which was co-produced and recorded with Alex Posell, whom also contributes on percussion.
“A Cold War City is an exploration of human memory and its fickle nature. We rewrite details of past experience over and over until eventually a fiction replaces our recollection. We are the authors of our own memoirs which are under constant revision,” says AMMO.
This track is so utterly beautiful and you can hear there is that nucleus of darkness and doubt, in this devastatingly ethereal track. Her soft and entrancing vocals glide effortlessly into the void of echoing and reverberating sound that seems ever so expansive. The layers of vocals are an added angelic sprinkling.
I think the metaphor of using the cold war is a clever one. The time of the cold war was marked by secret agents, spies, double agents, propaganda and misinformation, where people were second guessing themselves. In essence, this is what this track is about. Are you memories real or just influenced by everything around you, so can you trust those memories? Dreams become self perception. Definitely a song you should check out if you are a fan of shoegaze, dream pop and ethereal wave like Cocteau Twins. AMMO is hauntingly perfect.
Just when you thought is was safe to get back into mother nature, a single is carelessly discarded by the lads in DECOMMISSIONED FORESTS and low it was called “Drop Brick“. It was released in January, on the 14th of 2022, ahead of the soon to be unleashed Industry album. I, your humble reviewer decided to cheekily nick this description from their bio…..
Formed around the creative axis of Howard Gardner (Non-Bio,Pillars Of Golden Misery), Max Rael (History Of Guns, Spucktute, Raelism), and Daniel Vincent (The Resonance Association), DECOMMISSIONED FORESTS create music that is dark in outlook and electronic in nature.
Not going to lie, the keys from the beginning bring forth memories of Tubular Bells, but the vocals of MaxRael save us. For the initiated, Rael very well could be channeling Coil’s John Balance, it is truly uncanny and very lucky that Coil is a band that the group are very much into. On much more serious note “Drop Brick” is empathising with a monster. The thoughts that they might go through, pain, loss, anger, loneliness and the hunger to have to what is kept from them. In the end there is no end and only the exhaustion of reality. The synths peal over and over again, cementing the ground hog perception and you feel the heaviness of wanting to pass away.
The more murky sounding “I Can Stop The Noise” is kind of the b-side, filled with a story told in a matter of fact way about a nurse in a psychiatric hospital, whom hates her husband and plans something diabolical. The electronics are so low, you strain to hear them as they dwindle to a slowing heartbeat.
There are no less than four remixes of “Drop Brick” and one deconstructed mix which I think I can safely say where done by all the band mates. The Pillars Of Golden Misery is is all prickly and angry while the Safety Deposit Box version feels like a much more lighter version with it’s cute electronics, that is until the sped up vocals join in like that mantra. The Raelism remix is like a lads night down the pub with the boys that gets thrown into the Twilight Zone. Talking about the weird and wonderful is The DOMH Deconstructed version, giving you Twin Peaks vibes with the vocals running backwards, the swell of electronics in the background that just seem out of reach yet full of promise to swallow you in the noise. The Non-Bio remix is full of the noise and cacophony of buzzing electronics trying to crawl under your skin, as they are pushed to the limit and we wouldn’t expect anything less.
The guys have also included the original demo version of the song which was originally named “Halt Program“. It is a far more keyboard friendly version, the bare bones so to speak, without the vocals but it is still a very compelling piece of music and it is interesting to see how it developed into “Drop Brick”. DECOMMISSIONED FORESTS manage to find the quirk in things and bring them to the fore. The ability to make you listen to what is almost most there or the subtle yet sudden change in direction that takes on a completely different journey. Call it experimental post-industrial or dark electro-ambient or whatever but in the end it is about that journey you take with them and in that process, the visions they can bestow.
Meajin is the indigenous name for the area where the city of Brisbane is found. It is also the city that you can find the female trio, Sacred Hearts.June Gray, Josie Davison, and Bella Molloy dropped their second single “Vices” on January the 10th, 2022. Their first single was well received by the discerning alternative public. It did so well, “Glamour Girls” made radio station, 4ZZZ’s Hot 100 for last year, as voted for by listeners, which they didn’t expect.
“Vices” is fairly obviously about addiction, the lies people tell to hide it and the effective loss others feel. The song is slow, like a case of seeing through intoxicated eyes as everything dwindles. The bass guitar is the star in this, with the deep sonorous plucking, backed up by the light guitar work around it. The vocals, a beautiful lament calling out, an ethereal dark angel.
Dark and moody with a bit of echo and reverb to set the scene and it would make a depressed Robert Smith proud. It is a gloomy gothic affair, which for some of us, is something we have experienced first hand, the loss of others to their “Vices“. Though it is a sad topic, the music is beautiful and if these ladies are the future of goth…. then we are in good hands.
Onyx Music Reviews 