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Italy’s Christine Plays Viola dropped their latest album F.I.V.E, also known as Fear Increases Violent Emotion back in January, and now have released the single “Desolate Moments,” out on Cleopatra Records.

There is a definite slow maudlin air to the track, slow and deliberate. The guitars trace up and down the scale building tension and the synths are the light lifeline that sparkle in between. The vocals almost feel in sync with the drums, creating a heartbeat, sown with regret and a forlornness.

Classic goth. A dirge about contemplating promises unkept and love lost, and possibly my only complaint is that I wish during the chorus, the synths could have been bulked up to sound like a church organ…. yeah, I might be asking a bit much, but I could hear it in my head! Christine Plays Viola makes beautiful music, even in the “Desolate Moments.”

F.I.V.E. Fear Increases Violent Emotions | Christine Plays Viola

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We love a big event and a single is big news, especially when it is a bit of a humdinger on aviation fuel. USA punkers Forsaken Profits have thrown the new track “Knives” into the bulls’ eye, out on Anything But Radio Records.

It is an attack of the berserk guitars and thrashing drums from the start. The lead vocals growl the lyrics, asserting an anger and need for release from his growing torment. The harmonising singers in the background are the punk equivalent of doowop, as the track thunders along, and we ride to the end of the line with the pain train.

A sharp blade can excise a malignant growth, but slicing away at a brain sounds like trying to forget there is a issue. Remember kids, that playing with sharp objects can be dangerous, unless it is listening to the Forsaken Profits, as they stab you in the ears with “Knives.”

Knives | Forsaken Profits

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Steve Vil is Elektrikill, and March saw the release of the My Salvation mixes. Elektrikill is a dark electronic project hailing from New Jersey and “My Salvation” is off the not yet released album Küntzpiracy, though the EVOL Music Group.

PHOTO BY JAIME BENTON

Come hither ye seeming heretics of the faith, as your sins shall feed his salvation, as per the lyrics spouting perversion as an ideal, and really, what a way to go… The synths and rhythms hold a dark urgency, selling the narrative in a swirling push towards the edge of the dancefloor. Vil is the voice of devil sitting on your shoulder luring you into sin.

There is a very stylish video, mostly set in a beautiful curated gothic home and it is just the warm up for the extended remix of the single, which is just as infectious, and the added extra of the previously unreleased track “Unspeakable.” Music is “My Salvation” so get down and dirty with Elektrikill.

My Salvation Mixes | Elektrikill

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Dave McAnally’s Sys Machine is back with his third album dropping in April, called Parts Unknown. Sys Machine has found a home with Glitch Mode Recordings, which has the extra benefit of drawing on the expertise of fellow Glitchers Sean Payne and Brad Huston for programming, mixing & production, while the artwork over the Giant’s Causeway in Ireland is by Jim Marcus.

Kimberly Kornmeier (Bow Ever Down) is the guest vocalist for two tracks, with one of them being the single “Fading.” Her voice is very recognisable and plaintive in the track, which is a slow burn with a emotional depth in the synths, reflecting back the lyrics.

The latest single “Shallow” is anything but, with a southern flavour of the lone cowboy in an electronic modern world, and there is a powerful message to be had. Do you believe what you are told to believe or do you trust your own eyes? This is a sentiment Orwell pushed and it still rings so true today.

“Doubtless” struck me, though leaning into Depeche Mode stylings, it really made me think of Project Pitchfork both vocally, rhythmically and flirting with the interludes of guitar and piano. I think this is an epic track and sublime in how it seems to make your soul want to take flight.

I know McAnally’s previous albums shed light onto how he sees things in the bigger world, but this album seems far closer to home. The inner struggle so to speak. And the music is not quite the more wham bam style, influenced by 90s industrial rock of yore, as it feels more reflective and synth based. We often fear the unknown when we are younger, and as we age some will run from it, while others will embrace it and welcome the adventure. Unknown Parts is Sys Machine’s growth into something wonderful.

Parts Unknown | .SYS Machine

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Music | Glitch Mode Recordings

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A new single from Californian post-punk trio, Black Market Heart has crashed landed, and it is also the title of their soon to be released new album. Spencer Robinson (guitar, vocals), Tina Brugnoletti (bass, vocals) and Shawn Medina (drums) are going to tell you about “What Happens In The Dark.”

You know you are in for a good time when you start with guitar feedback and it just never lets up from there. The drums set a cracking pace, that the guitars are more than happy to keep up with. There are lyrics about how the darkness is the vampiric happy place and boo hiss at that abysmal burning fireball we call the sun, with the vocals taking equal delight in boisterously telling you all about it.

There is something genuinely joyous in this single and in top punk form, it doesn’t quite make the two minute mark, which just means you get to play it again for good measure. I imagine this is what the band sounds like live, and even this recording has that ambiance of all members being in the studio at the same time. There is definitely strong echoes of The Jesus and Mary Chain in the noisy reverb, the vocals and the nicely left in iconic amp buzzing. There is no fear in the shadows, for as Black Market Heart know, “What Happens In The Dark,” stays in the dark, and what a great track to kick off an album!.

What Happens in the Dark | Black Market Heart

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Gostrail is a project from Estonia, by Marcus Pertel and they create experimental, ambient drone music. The single “Obsidian Halls” was released in the beginning of March, and has been joined by the newest single “Winter Stasis” also dropping in March.

“Obsidian Halls” slowly grows in strength, vibrating and distorting, feeding upon itself as in takes form, filling the ancient halls with sonic vibrations, that can be felt in your chest. It is slow and consistent, the electronics working their way into every crevasse and fissure, while you can imagine the glassy surface of the obsidian pulsating and bending the reflected images. Is this going to be for everyone? Well, no is the simple answer, however for those that adore ambient drone, Gostrail will hit the sweet spot.

▶︎ Obsidian Halls | Gostrail

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Here at Onyx, we love weird arse stuff, especially when it is really well put together, and so we present the Expedient Self and their new experimental noise album called At The MRI Scanner. Out on the attenuation circuit label in Germany, Expedient Self is based in the United Kingdom, and I bet you can’t guess what inspired this eight track journey, which is done completely on guitar.

You won’t have to remember pesky song titles, as they are neatly documented in Roman numerals, unless of course you missed that day at school and never quite got a hold of those weird Vs and I’s.

Not going to lie, it really is like being in an MRI scanner, with all those weird rhythms going off, that would actually be very enjoyable in a metronome kind of way, if you didn’t have to worry about moving. There are the intense bursts of magnetic pulses between the regular ticking. Occasionally the guitar increases in voracity, exposing you to the claustrophobic condition in the tube. Apart from the ticking, the other consistency from the beginning of each track, comes in the form of a female voice telling you to stay still for three minutes.

The whole album is a really interesting concept. For those that like experimental noise, especially noise that uses regular instruments, which then the musician wrings the most abnormal sounds, then this is most likely for you. It puts you in someone else’s shoes, or takes you back to a time and place where you were in this situation, just like Expedient Self. Is it strange that for myself it is both hypnotic and yet uncomfortable at the same time? All I can say dancing At The MRI Scanner could be a thing, however, as Self Expedient can attest, this will not be endorsed by medical staff

At The MRI Scanner | Expedient Self | attenuation circuit

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Concha Records is a Belgium label that dropped the debut single “Sentimental” from post-punk/darkwave project FAILED, a trio based in Ghent. Production is by legendary drummer Mario Goossens, mixed by Greg Gordon, who has worked with artists such as Helmet, System Of A Down and Nick Cave/ Warren Ellis, while mastered by Fred Kevorkian, who has notably mastered for the White Stripes and Iggy Pop..

There is a sense of urgency in the electronics and growing dread from the whispered vocals, that bloom into full singing and finally are hailing our attention. The guitar works its way into the track, playing the same line over and over again, almost hypnotically. You feel pulled in multiple directions with the mixing of the vocal styles, drowning in the mire of sensory overload. “Sentimental” is a great debut track and the visual style of the band is quite intriguing as well, as they wear wigs and full face masks. Slowly sink into FAILED’s “Sentimental.”

Sentimental | FAILED

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Los Angeles based Siren Section are back with a new album called Separation Team. This independent release is the first for Siren Section’s members, James Cumberland and John Dowling, in eight years, and with nineteen tracks on said album, I am thinking they have been hording music just like dragons horde gold.

The single “Flinch” is straight EBM, all electronics and a droning rhythm to dance to. The vocals are distorted and low in the mix, so the most prominent part of the track are the beats and looping synths. However, in complete opposition is the track “Solidarity,” with clean vocals and dreamy guitar, while it all sits on a drifting cloud of synths. It swells in the chorus and sonically so different to “Flinch.”

There is the trap inspired “Minotaur” that has an off kilter fair ground feel that wavers between near manic and spiritual enlightenment. It sits next to the track “Deer Hunter” that could be at home in a piano bar, for the lost and hopeless, looking for hidden truths.

Not only do you get nineteen fully formed tracks, but there is such interesting blend of styles that keeps everything fresh and interesting. Shoegaze guitars, electro-industrial/industrial rock, post-punk roots…. you get the idea. The myriad of genres pulled on does not make the tracks overly busy, as the experimentation keeps it flowing and holds your attention. Siren Section are back in action with Separation Team.

Separation Team | Siren Section

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Portland…… those crazy kids with the great darkwave music called Human Hollow are back with the latest single “Could You Feel It Again?“

Austin McKee (AKA Nomenclature) and Lucia Luna share the vocal duties, both of them pulling at your heartstrings, with Luna’s singing wisping like tendrils that are ghost like and haunting. The electronics are equally atmospheric, wavering between lightness and black sickness sitting at the base of your soul, while the guitar gives the track extra teeth.

The band has said this is a song about disintegration and I guess it is up to the listener and how they interpreter the lyrics as I think it will mean different things to different people, but the crux of “Could You Feel It Again?” is this song is about devastation of loss of someone that means everything. The vocals are beautiful, but filled with desperation and overwhelming sadness, however it is the music that keeps us grounded. Human Hollow could be dark pop angels.

Could You Feel It Again? | Human Hollow

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