A debut single has emerged from Pontefract, West Yorkshire. The shoegaze trio of Adam Higgins, Calvin Hazelhurst and Dan Greaves are Void Club, and the first release ever is “Things Fall Apart.”
I hear the influences of The Jesus and Mary Chain in the wall of sonic guitar noise, that almost whimsy of The Stone Roses, especially in the echoing guitar lines, but the vocals are unmistakeably in the vein of Ride. That wonderful style of singing that just soars with the music in perfect symmetry. Lyrics only consist of ‘Things fall apart. From an end, make a start‘, however that just gives the track a more anthemic feel, because there is always the ability to pick yourself up after everything crumbles. Anyone that has Ride as an influence is alright by me and Void Club hit all the sweet spots in this irresistible first offering.
Who are Walty & Malik? Some might say they come from LA, California. Others could allude that they might be tad bit gothy. What is definitely provable is the fact that this duo of Walty (vocals, midi instruments, mixing & mastering) and Malik (guitar) have released their debut single called “Restraint, Recognition.”
The track is a bubbling cauldron of musical styles. The start has a grungy feel, that instantly became heavier, with hints of Type O Negative, but that could be Walty’s deep melodious vocals that are unhurried. There is almost definitely the influence of reggae rhythmically, and for me this makes “Restraint, Recognition” a bit unique, as those beats are incorporated with droning guitar of Malik, and those synth lines that add a dark edge. Yes, it is gothy, however more importantly, it feels cultural and alive, like Walty & Malik have added their own essence to the fabric of the music. That is one pretty cool debut.
Ria Aursjoen (vocals, keyboards), Stephan Salit (guitars), Randy Gzebb (drums) and Jay Denton (bass) are US based Octavian Winters, a peak choice goth rock outfit, and their new single is “By The Stars.” Cherry on top is being recorded at ‘Studio 13‘, and produced, mixed and mastered by William Faith.
Ethereal is the first word that comes to mind from the first tantalising chords of guitar, threaded by the angelic vocals of Aursjoen. There is a gradual swelling in the music, a blooming sense of joy, that is hard to not get hooked into.
“The song has the feel of a sea voyage. The images for me were always ones of the vastness of the sky and the sea, and the feeling of the magnificent beauty of the world. The call and answer vocals are like two people calling back and forth across a valley. It’s meant to encompass that feeling of transcendence when you take a meta view of life and of the natural world, and just fall into the beautiful patterns of it all.” – Ria Aursjoen
“By The Stars” is an ode to the innocence of youth and the promise of possibilities, compared to wisdom and perspective in the later years. Floating the sea of life is not always predictable and sometimes we have to be present in the world just to experience it. Both the sentiment and the track itself are beautiful and gorgeously layered, woven delicately by Octavian Winters.
Low Munroe is a post-punk/gothic project based in Naarm/Melbourne, and Mark Sergi (vocals, keys, guitar) is the man in the creative darkwave hot seat. The newest single has been released in June, called “Desire Limbs.”
Photo by Jacinta De Agrela
The rhythm section undulates and throbs, as the heartbeat becomes more rapid. The guitar strips you bare in comparison to the warmth of Sergi’s vocals, which implore to be passionately wrapped up and removed from the present.
The cadence and attitude is stark reminder of a younger Nick Cave, but the music itself hails from the British post-punk scene, with the understated drum machine and angular guitars. The tone overall is charged with eroticism and longing from the shadows, with Low Munroe sculpting a dark promise for your ears in the form of “Desire Limbs.”
Some albums are capsules of the past and travels that could be the stories for many of us in our younger years. When listening to Skateboarding to Concrete Creek, an experimental instrumental album by Puncture Kit, delivers those warm feelings of childhood Summers and wonderment of the general world, as we look back. Dave Osbourne is an ex-pat Aussie now found in the United Kingdom.
The low, warm tone launches, fading in and out like memory in “Brown Shorts and Berries,” where you can almost hear the cicadas chirping in the background. The drums are wavering between rhythmic and arrhythmic, while a guitar drones, cradling those beats.
Welcome to the world of hijacked sleep in the psychedelic “3am Diary.” The male orator explains that is not your body betraying you by withholding sleep, but rather spiritual shenanigans. It is like entering the Twilight Zone as the echoing last word fades into the growing swell of guitar and the drums grow in strength, becoming a maelstrom of agrypnia causing noise and the voice continues, as if trying to hypnotise.
I am not sure what it is about the track “Concrete Creek,” but some of the drumming reminds me of sun glinting off glass and sandstone. The simplistic key notes are repeated over and over, almost childish in opposition to the far more darker undercurrent of electronics.
Here is the disclaimer…. a skateboard was murdered in the creation of this album. Sometimes sacrifices have to be made to the gods of music, and let’s face it… who doesn’t like a good sacrifice?! Skateboarding To Concrete Creek is kind of a study into using drums, guitar and electronics in experimental ways, not only to extract different textures, but also using the music to paint scenes that can effect you viscerally. Puncture Kit has imbued Skateboarding To Concrete Creek with humour, warmth and possibly visions of another life lived, and that takes a lot of talent.
Many know of German based gothic rockers Aeon Sable, and original member Nino Sable, has a solo post-punk project called Melanculia. It has been eight years between albums for Melanculia, but 2026 has brought into fruition the new full length release called Post Mortem, out on noot moon records.
Full length is not a lie. Post Mortem is fourteen tracks long and goes for almost exactly one hour. The single is the melancholic “Sunboat Ascension,” with what sounds like a Hammond organ, bringing you into intimate utterances of devotion. It is almost like this is another existence we are privy in seeing, thrown back thousands of years, when the Egyptians are at the peak of their ancient civilization. It slowly unwinds with longing, only heightened by Sable’s vocals.
The album has proclamations of desperate and deeply absolute states of love, and none is better than “The Healer.” 80s inspired synths that could be at home in a fantasy inspired movie, coupled with lyrics that speak of dancing under the midnight sun, unicorn blood and being the fire that burns for another, are enough to curl your toes with the ideal of being the focal point of adoration.
Special mention goes to the seriously heart squeezing “We Are Only Human,” a slow dance, putting the emphasis on how the race of men are frail creatures, who have not been long on this planet. The clarinet solo by Benno Schlicht, just tops off the track, causing goosebumps.
This album is awash with magical energy and it plumbs the depths of mysticism. The references to the cards of the tarot are hard to miss with titles such as “The Healer” and “The Tower,” amalgamated with tendrils of those ephemeral things in life, like relationships, the attrition that comes with time, as well as the many shades and shapes love. The album is drenched in neo-folk, with hints in the guitars and sentiment of The Cure’s Disintegration era, and the electronic darkness of Gary Numan, all slowly stirred into melancholic and romantic dissections of life. This is the Post Mortem, looking for connection in this universe, by Melanculia.
Do you like a bit of trip hop and acid wave with you dark synth? Then Brisbane’s Mercy ofDawn might be what you have been waiting for. December was the release for ROTM 2.5:Dark Pentecost /// Lux Infernum. Trust me when I say you cannot type that fast without checking. Mercy of Dawn is also the human behind experimental noise project Disfigured Mistress. I could tell you who this is but then I would have to zodiac mind wipe you all.
The album consists of eight tracks and we are going to focus on two that have trippy visualisers. “Neon Babalon /// Lux Mendax” encapsulates trip hop, mixing it with modern pop, along with ambient industrial noise. There is a female vocalist who would not sound strange in a top 10 popular radio single, though the track itself undulates between electronic tranquillity and peeling rhythms that go in and out of syncopation.
The title “The 6th Sun /// Lux In Absentia” is an interesting juxtaposition, where the 6th sun could refer to the Aztec calendar which is about awakening, however the Latin lux means light and absentia means absence. At times, there is almost a taste of the Middle East, exotic and intangible, within the hypnotic beats and repetitive flow that drift and beguile, though there is always something unsettling beneath all of it… something off kilter that gnaws at the back of your mind.
Ambient trip hop? Industrial modern pop? Why be confined to one genre when you can indulge?! I think in the end, only Mercy Of Dawn truly knows the deeper meaning within ROTM 2.5: Dark Pentecost /// Lux Infernum, and it does have a spiritual oddness, but that might just be the thing to scratch that itch.
Hamartia means a fatal flaw in relation to a hero, and flawed heroes are very prominent in Greek mythology. Hamartia – Part One is also the new EP from Teknovore, aka George Klontzas, who also often steeps his techno industrial music in the Greco mythos he grew up with. The EP consists of five tracks and is out on the Infacted Recordings label.
The title track, “Hamartia” kicks this all off, with tribal rhythms that could rattle your teeth and shake a dancefloor, and there are glimmers of acid house synths in the mix, reminiscent of The Shamen and Prodigy. It is a whirlwind of electronics, with occasional female vocals.
The ancient Greeks believed in “Ekyprosis” or the intermittent destruction of the universe by fire, also known as conflagration, and then follows renewal. It hits like a burst of energy and plays a news reel about the dangers of Raves on the teenage mind. Maybe this is the destruction of the world as the parents knew it, when their children found a new reason to be, burning through the rave culture.
French duo Moaan Exis, feature on “Disclose,” giving the track a far more heavier and harsher industrial sound, as it throbs and bounces between revelation and gritty repulsion. The vocals want to reel you in with emotional attachment and then in the next moment revile you.
There is deception at hand with “Coercion” as it leads you down the dance path, towards…. what? The music is techno brilliance, that builds and swells, with an intermittent female vocalist, who stays perfectly in rhythm, hinting at the murky company being kept.
Last track is the entrancing “Autonomy,” featuring Marie L. Dragontown, better known for her project name Grabyourface, Dragontown lends her smouldering spoken words to the heavily techno orientated music, with a serious and very current underlaying message about targeting people for their nationality, faith and sexual preferences. When the personal becomes completely impersonal.
There is nothing flawed about this EP, and especially not the hero of our story, Klontzas. Hamartia is rich in electronic sounds that vary from techno and rave, through to cyber industrial and EBM. The beauty is that this is Part 1, so technically there is more Teknovore waiting in the wings to take us on another epic odyssey.
How can you turn down listening to a track called ‘An Industrial Disco Revenge Hymn‘? That line of words is like catnip and connected to the new single “Dead To You” by Brisbane project ÚMBRIEL. James Halloran is ÚMBRIEL and “Dead To You” is the second single off soon to be released debut album The Signs.
PHOTO BY MORGAN ROBERTSc
Halloran and a piano, is the introduction, like a cabaret performer, breathing life into a story in a darkened club, and it sounds like a tragedy with the crooned out lyrics ‘now she’s just a headline on the news..’ Rhythmic staccato style stutters that are instantly attention catching. Layers of harmonising vocals immerse your senses, while the music builds in sound between the electronic beats and inorganic stardust of the synths.
The vocals are perfection and I suspect Halloran has had training in stage singing, and if not, throw them a bouquet of roses anyway. This is a song crafted around the memory of a female friend, gone too soon, both emotional and yet, it feels like a celebration of this life that deserves to never to be forgotten. “Dead To You” is an ode to a being who lives in treasured memories, and do you truly fade away if never forgotten? ÚMBRIEL burns bright and fabulous in the genius “Dead To You.”
Melbourne’s Velatine are going from strength to strength, solidifying their line-up of founding member Loki Lockwood and vocalist Holly Purnell, and at the end of March, releasing the single “Whisper Park,” out on Spooky Records. This is Velatine covering Velatine, as “Whisper Park” was originally released in 2022, though now it has become a different beast.
We are going Fields of the Nephilim style, with that southern gothic guitar twang, and the track builds and builds on itself in thick waves of powering guitars and welling drums. Purnell is sultry and makes “Whisper Park” her domain, inhabiting it with her drawled vocals, like she embodies the personality of Marlene Dietrich.
‘We’re aligned on where we want to go, how we want to be seen, even our basic thoughts on humanity connect. It’s spooky.‘ – Loki Lockwood
The original version, which you should check still check out as well, is very much more electronic, whilst this latest is far heavier, imbued with a streetwise griminess, as if “Whisper Park” is the place to meet all those weird goth kids, and, of course, Velatine. It is not a whisper, but rather a call to the disenfranchised.
Onyx Music Reviews 