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.
Need an injection of gothic rock to perk up your dark soul? Then the debut track “DarkenedEyes” from st///ll might stoke the fires. The three members are scattered between the UK and Ireland but have the common love for the post-punk genre.
The drum machine starts pistoning away, joined by the chiming out guitar, before the Ian Curtis like vocals invade your concious. Then you are plunged into a sonic sweetness, due to the bass being there, ramping up the tension and dueling the lead guitar. It’s a bit like being transported back to the early 80s.
I think there is not only a love here for Joy Division but I can also hear Pink TurnsBlue, which is tangible in both the vocals and guitar. Given a chance, “Darkened Eyes” could easily become a gothic dance floor anthem. There is no excuse for not popping off to Bandcamp to secure this little beauty as it is name your price, for a seriously strong debut track from st///ll.
What better way to celebrate Halloween, than to release a vampiric cover song, so that is exactly what BeautyIn Chaos have done with the Concrete Blonde track, “Bloodletting (The Vampire Song)“, which was from the 1990 album of the same name, Bloodletting.
Video still by Vicente Cordero
Is that buzzing sound a blood sucking mosquito in the room? Not exactly as it resolves into revealing itself to be the sax of Mars Williams (Psychedelic Furs), to accompany the flourishing guitars. There is a drawn out sassiness that only increases with the introduction of the vocals from Michael Ciravolo, the man behind the creation of Beauty In Chaos, inducing the feel of New Orleans, because as a native, he has that Southern drawl. The progression becomes almost like a drug fuelled dream, as everything wavers, intoxication settling in and we become part of the undead parade march, into the nightmare that is the lair of the vampire, with the lovey ladies, Whitney Tai, Kat Leon and TishCiravolo joining in on vocal duties.
For me, there are two female singers that I hold in very high esteem. The first is the iconic Siouxsie Sioux and the other is the amazing Johnette Napolitano, so Concrete Blonde is very close to my heart. Her vocals alone were a good reason to love the band. I am going to say I am glad that it is different but kept to the essence and core of the “Bloodletting“. A new spin to a classic and you can see the love not only for the song but the inspiration, New Orleans and Anne Rice’s vampire’s who often called it home, conjuring visions of warm nights, strong brews, voodoo and the smell of wisteria and death. The video is also a treat so you should also check it out as well, full of shadowy characters, sexy vamps, obligatory vampire hunter and the secrets a mask can hide.
Did AL1CE meet the White Rabbit, with his pocket watch, muttering about ‘Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be toolate!‘, for their latest single is about “Time“. Tash Cox (lead vocals), Sasha Travis (vocals, slapper 👀), Gordon Bash (vocal, bass guitar, moog synth), Carl Garcia (synth), Steve Kefalas (drums) and Scott Landes (guitars, synth) are the full compliment of AL1CE.
The measured beginning, blooms into the chorus of harmonising vocals in sweet lament of before I fade away. The guitar cries out in its torment, consoled by the synths.
In essence, “Time” waits for no man. We think there is an endless supply of it but soon find ourselves running out of time but with it you can gain knowledge, wisdom and love if used wisely. Time gives with one hand and takes with the other, which is kind of what this track is about, written in the Covid-19 lockdowns. The vocalists are the gems, set in the crown of a beautiful song and the musicians the weavers of magic.
Is it worth revisiting a relationship to see if it can be rekindled? Harlow Syndrome actually exists and is about craving either the attention never received as a child or spark lost, the subject matter touched by Denver duo, A Shoreline Dream in their latest single, “Harlow Syndrome“. This is the third single off the Loveblind album, released on October the 18th on LatenightWeeknight Records.
Photo by Allan Cutler
And it is straight into the track. No mucking about, you are thrown into the swirling dirge of heady reverb with drums and the vocals echo angelically, through the layers of electronic haze. It touches your senses and caresses your ears with the suggestion of Cocteau Twins.
There is that robust wall of sonics and yet, with the singing, this track feels as delicate and fragile as glass, which could break if the wrong note is hit….though it never comes to that. A perfect mixture of shoegaze and darkwave together is A Shoreline Dream and their “Harlow Syndrome“.
French duo, The Shadow’s Gone Out, are sounding the Final Alarm, an EP released on the 23rd of September. From Tours, Nourtier Julien (drum, samples) and Enault Anthony (bass, samples) are bringing the instrumental industrial to you.
Sped up ragtime frivolity, followed by industrial tribal rhythms introduce you to the single ”Pills“. It is angry and voluminous, see-sawing with bridled near contempt. Welcome to the crazed circus of “Sous La Pluie” which means in the rain, as it climbs from peak to peak, gathering strength with the military cuts pervading the rising pressure. “Final Alarm” is the last track, full of foreboding and the promise of annihilation, klaxons calling out and military chatter join the ferocious drumming and underlying bass.
Always nice to hear a real drummer in the industrial scene, as it adds a richer tone to the music, especially when joined with heavy bass. There is a strong military feel induced by the samples as The Shadow’s Gone Out seems to be issuing an ominous warning. So beware the Final Alarm.
7th of October is the date, for the release, of the single “Alien Jewelry“, by Gold Coast band, Atticus Chimps. These rock primates can be found in the Hinterland of Mount Tambourine, named Sam Bray (songwriter, guitar/bass & vocals) and Daniel Briffa (drums).
There is a sonic climax as Sam delivers a furious guitar filled frenzy, while Daniel gives us the storming beats that carry this track along at a terrific pace. The lyrics speak of a wonderment of space and if we are but the ornaments of extraterrestrials, with Sam delivering them with conviction.
What if the universe we occupy, was actually contained in a piece of jewelry, which sparkles with the whirling solar systems within? I seem to remember this was touched upon in the movie Men In Black and in some ways, it is a question that cause some to quiver and have an existential crisis yet not Atticus Chimps. Their heady mixture of heavy rock and punk pop smarts gives “Alien Jewelry” an enticing sound that will drag you in and then leave you wondering why it all stopped.
Sooooo, someone here is an idiot. Who missed the release of Brisbane alt rockers, Killtoys, new single “Sinking Like A Stone“, in the 16th of September? Oh, wait, that was me. So without delay let me introduce you to Mick Bristow (vocals and guitar), Stav Tsolakides (bass guitar) and Bevan Bancroft (drums).
Dirty, gritty guitars peel out in a grungy storm, whipping around your ears, the lead guitar crisply wailing and Bristow’s voice is at the front of all this, pulling it all together along with those crashing drums. The crushing weight of expectation when you can’t see the light and yet you know it is there waiting to be reached.
They say once you hit rock bottom, the only way is up and “Sinking Like A Stone” is about that process but also, bouncing back better than ever. Killtoys have that big noise sound, combined with old fashioned, alt rock Aussie style, all mixed with a heavy darkness which is all killer and definitely no filler.
When the clock hits the witching hour, do you ever wonder if the spectres are having breakfast at the dinner table or the creaking walls and floors are in heavy conversation, ever-while the bats squeaking outside are just vampires waiting to be asked in? If so, then Daniel Ouellette might make perfect accompany music to your thoughts. His latest album El salón (A Happy Home Is A Haunted Home!) summons your everyday and makes it a little more ghoulish. Of course the salon is a rather old fashioned and wonderful parlour, to have tea and simply talk. This is an interview with Daniel and what struck me the most is his love of conversation with those around him. To that end, the album has songs in English, Spanish, Portuguese and French, extending that idea of not limiting your ability to converse. With this in mind, please imbibe and sup the wondrous words of this conversation and don’t let the Mothra bite.
Welcome to the retro 80s room Daniel, where we use Japan’s David Sylvian’s vocals to clean the crystal, Duran Duran is life and the ghosts of yesterday haunt us with gay abandon.
Thank you so very much for having me! How nice to be around Japan, Duran2, and gay abandon!
You are a resident of Chesapeake Beach. Have you always been in this area and how do you think it has influenced you as a musician?
I am new to this area as of May 2021. I have lived in several places, but I am originally from Massachusetts. Honestly, I cannot say Chesapeake Beach has influenced me as a musician, however much of the oddness of growing up in New England has and there is that type of feel here in Maryland… The outdoors are vast and spooky and full of bats and birds and other winged creatures.
What is the post-punk scene like in Chesapeake Beach and surrounding areas?
Hmm… I am not sure if there is one here in Chesapeake Beach as I have been here for only a year. However, I am very excited to be playing my first performance of the year here at the grand opening of Dusk and Willow Designs in North Beach, MD which is a metaphysical boutique. It is quite beautiful and Jenny , who is the proprietor of the shop, is a very kind and wonderful soul to work with on this event which will be the weekend of the most wonderful Halloween. It will be October 29th. One can check for the details. However, perhaps we will bring a post-punk scene to the Chesapeake/North Beach area. Maryland has a lovely scene in Baltimore and around with so many grand promoters, musicians, DJs. I often feel like an outlier to most scenes which is not bad because I have been blessed by the wings of Mothra to have been part of everything and nothing. Heh. Very philosophical.
Your solo project has been around since, about, 2018. What was Messer Ouellette doing previously musically and what is Shobijin (do not release the Mothra as the curtains could not take it)?
Before there was, Daniel Ouellette and the Shobijin, there was simply me solo and most of the time even when I performed with that name, I performed solo. The Shobijin was my backing band of singers and players who joined me on various performances and tours from 2010 to 2017. After that, I did a short project with a dear friend Deirdre McLaren called The Countess Zaleska, but unfortunately it was just a temporary project, but now I am mostly completely alone, but I work with a wonderful group of cohorts and conspirators like Jenny Rae Mettee of Fun Never Starts, Jason Mendelson, Elizabeth Lorrey, Don Zientara, Peter Linnane. Incidentally, the Shobijin are characters from Godzilla/Mothra films… which I see you’ve caught the wing of that reference.
Going to creep out on a limb here and say that you like to write music that you can have a jolly good giggle over…..
Why thank you for noticing! So very thoughtful and true. I love the idea of humor, horror, storytelling… making songs that can mean what I want them to, but can adapt meaning to anything for the listener… I like making songs that have a hint of wondering what is happening, but letting go and loving the experience. Some people don’t always get it and that’s ok with me. It wasn’t for them. Sometimes I am laughing the whole time inside whilst I perform or write… it is good. One should always laugh during the volcano explosion.
You released the album “El salón” at the end of July, so how long did it take for you to complete the writing and recording?
I am not quite sure of the amount of for the writing part. It was very quick. I think it took 2 or 3 weeks of non-consecutive recording and writing. I tend to write the skeleton of the songs quite quickly. I had recorded it in September of 2021, but then some life issues happened. I was very close to leaving the planet, not by my choice, and had everything to set to be released for a posthumous release. Is there anything like an album from beyond the other side?
But I made the videos from January to March. I wrote the songs by writing the drum patterns and then recording vocals with no other instrumentation. Then I, Jenny, and Jason played the synths. I went back to touch up anything I felt like, but not much. Everything was done quickly. One song was re-record from my 2012 album The Enchantment, I made English lyrics unrelated to the original version in Spanish for the song “The Kitchen Witch…” I don’t like to translate, but I loved the sound of that song and felt like it needed a new version.
I envy people who speak more than one language and you sir speak French, Spanish and Portuguese on top of English. From what I understand, you have family members that speak Spanish but how did you end up learning the other two?
Oh no no, no one spoke Spanish in my family. I learned Spanish on my own from school, making loved ones, and living/studying in Spain. We spoke English in the house.
However, my mother’s side of the family is of Azorean Portuguese background and there were some relatives who spoke it from the extended part of our family. My father’s side is French Canadian and the same with his family.There were members along the extended part who spoke French. I learned Spanish after English, because I thought I would rebel against Portuguese and French, seeing Spain is in between France and Portugal. Heh!
I studied in Madrid for my MA. I have an M.A. in Spanish with concentration on…Drama. However, I learned French and Portuguese at school and through loved ones and travel like I did with Spanish. Sometimes, I feel shaky with all four languages, but it is like riding a unicorn when you get back to speaking a language that you do not speak all the time, it comes back, plus there is technology to help us. But many words are buried in my head.
You represent all these languages in the album and I was wondering if you see these as different parts of you, this being one reason to include them?
Yes, definitely! Language is for communicating and when we start to use any language it becomes part of us if we may have the chance to let it happen. It is gradual and takes time. When I write in a particular language it is because that song’s message and feeling requires the words, cadence, and nuance that the language contains. I have learned that after teaching, writing, and singing in multiple languages, that all language is personalized to who we are and how we express ourselves. There are grammar rules for formal writing, but for communication, especially in friendship, love, poetry, music, there should not be such rigid rules, I think. Language is constantly in flux for new expressions. We all sound how we sound because we are our sparkly selves with a need to be deliciously heard.
What I like about singing and writing in multiple languages is that it is a beautiful way to share with more listeners something that they may enjoy. It is a delightful form of connection. I am sure I sound funny in every language that I have learned to speak to someone else including in English.
As I had mentioned, I have never done any direct translations, however “Kitchen Witch” on the “El salón” does have a Spanish version called “Te odio” which is on the album “The Enchantment”. The lyrics are unrelated in theme… the recent English version is more about escape from some place and the Spanish version is about telling an ex-partner that you now hate them, and you hope they are some place crying.
Again, thank you for asking about the inspiration and artistic desire to write and sing in multiple languages. So often I have been scolded for “showing off” when I speak to someone in a language other than English and have even been criticized for the use of a language other than English in my music because the reviewer feels that it is a bit chichi if you will. It is sort of odd and a disappointing point of view to me that that is how one would look at being multi-lingual. I want to create a wonderful, supernaturally artistic, and divine ambiance of performing and singing to others about all the things one might need like vampires, ghosts, and jewelry.
The album has your tongue set firmly in cheek, as you describe everyday life but from the perspective of ghouls and legendary horror creatures of the night. How ever did you come up with this concept?
Like language, such things are what I feel a grand affinity for, the other worldly world of what may not necessarily have a definition. I like what I feel is an artistic freedom that imagination and storytelling of supernatural and other offbeat subjects that may be beyond what we only see with our eyes gives to performing and writing music. Ever since I have been writing songs, the idea of monsters, the Netherworld, cryptozoology, the spirit world, have been placed as signs and themes in my songs. So for this album I wanted to make the whole album and each song flutter around these ideas whilst making references to a haunted house in both positive, neutral, and negative manners.
Do you have have a favourite monster child off the album?
Not really. I feel like each monster needs each other. The English songs contain titles about the house and the Non-English songs contain the monsters. Hmm…But if I went on a program, I would sing “Duérmete (una noche lupina”, “O Lindo Sonâmbulo (Um Fantasma Na Minha Casa)”, and “Velvet Divan (Why Do You Always Have to Punch the Furniture?)… This is hard.. maybe I would just sing any of them.
Could you tell us about some of the people you collaborated with such as Pam Ant?
Oh Pam Ant!!! My heart dances just seeing her name! We are siblings from cosmic mothers! She is an amazing playwright, actress, and musician. She was a singer with the pop-punk band “The Toes” from Burlington, Vermont. She is a divine artist in the truest sense of the definition. We met when I was on tour in Vermont.
Jenny Rae Mettee is another supernatural sibling from another mother. She is an amazingly talent artist from Baltimore. She is a singer, songwriter, and video editor among other grand things. She heads the fabulous industrial synth band Fun Never Starts and plays bass with the equally smashing Nahja Mora. She has the same penchant for the macabre and monsters. We met through the internet by mutual friends. Check out her band Fun Never Starts.
Jason Mendelson is sweet, talented, superbly stupendous musician. He can play any instrument like the heavenly being he is. Talking and working with him is like a gift. We met whilst I was on tour in DC. He created an amazingly creative project a few years back called “MetroSongs” and as he says it was “a goal to increase awareness, appreciation, and support for public transit by writing, recording, and performing a collection of songs all about Washington’s Metro station locations, beginning in 2010 and completed in 2017.” It’s such a great project! Go check this and all his work out.
The 4th collaborator on this project was Bob Murphy who plays the synth on “The Kitchen Witch Who Stayed in the Living Room to Fold Laundry (Take me with you, Mothra!)” and he is a darling friend that I met through playing music with one of my previous cowriters and longest standing cosmic friend who is a great talent and support, Scott Harrison. Bob is a wonderfully delicious grand wit too. When he is able to come to performances, he always sweetly whispers in my ear…”Don’t f*** up!” and then he walks away. Those are the guest players on this project!
Elizabeth Lorrey and Peter Linnane deserve mention as they did the engineering, mastering, and mixing with me. Elizabeth always makes me feel confident and justified to do what it is I like to do, and Peter takes such care in making it feel the best quality it can be.
From time to time, my dear husband, Ron, guest stars on the accordion in recordings and he needs a big thank you and a vampire bite sized kiss! Hehe…
I hear not only the music, but I believe I can hear a lot of love for the written word. What genre of books or writers have grabbed your imagination?
I like that you have heard that love. I would like to think it a surprise, but Edgar Allan Poe and Washington Irving are two who speak to me. I love reading books of Buddhist philosophy, autobiographies of musicians, and variety of writers, poets, and playwrights like Miguel Cervantes, Maya Angelou, Federico García Lorca, Pío Baroja, Pedro Calderón de la Barca… I sometimes write songs that contain inspiration from a poem or novel, never am I as good, but like the way Kate Bush would do such things. There is no one genre that intrigues me to read orwrite from whence inspiration grows.
Why do you think you are so attracted to the old fashioned horror legends and stalwarts?
The sense of the other world, the supernatural that is or may be. I think of making music as expression of an escape. I find it far more interesting and natural to sing about a specter under the couch than to sing a love song or one of those “I did every thing right and you did everything wrong” break up songs.
Who would you say influenced you musically, early on in life?
It’s a rather eclectic and maybe surprising collection of artists. In no order of one being better than the other:
Very early on: Donna Summer, ABBA, Blondie
Early on: Eurythmics, The Pointer Sisters, Siouxsie and the Banshees/The Creatures, Grace Jones, Cyndi Lauper, Sade, Laurie Anderson, Kate Bush, Tina Turner, The Human League, B52s, Yoko Ono, Peter Gabriel, Thompson Twins, Whitney Houston, Bjork, Eartha Kitt, Marlene Dietrich, Duran Duran Not as early on: Alaska + Dinarama/Los Pegamoides, Celine Dion, Big Country, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Miguel Bose, Isabel Pantoja, Ofra Haza, Desireless, Jacques Brel, Françoise Hardy, Mecano
Are there bands or solo artists that catch your ear now?
I have love Ida Maria, HK119 and Dua Lipa. I love to find music new and old that I may not have heard before too. As of recent, I have been enjoying playing classical music around the house. A grand treat of touring and being in the music business is that in the past 20 years I have been exposed to so much music in the colleagues and contemporaries that I have done performances with: Fun Never Starts, Prima Primo, Winkie, C8bal, The Spearmint Sea, The Osyx, Kelly Spyglass, Nahja Mora, The Pilgrims of Yearning, Jason Medelson, Elizabeth Lorrey… There are so many more, but these are some recent acts that I know who end up in my mixtapes.
If you had a Ouija board, would you want predictive text on it and whom would you use it to talk to?
I think I would skip the predictive text! It likes to make up what it wishes! Wouldn’t that be a great little movie short? An impish ghost that takes over someone’s predictive text in their phone and causes funny little traumas and relationship woes for the phone user. I am sure this has happened in film.
Now, “IF” I had a Ouija board? Hehe… it’s right over there! Hehe. I would love to talk to Ofra Haza and Juana la Loca.
Ofra Haza always seemed like a dear and would be nice to have a discussion about singing. Juana because I think her name needs to be cleared of “loca”. I don’t believe she was crazy, but a victim of men wanting to take her power for themselves.
So, when using a seers ball, what is next in the future of Daniel Ouellette?
There is a performance for October 29, 2022 in North Beach, MD for the grand opening of the Dusk + Willow Designs metaphysical shop. I am excited work with Jenny Jimenez. I will release a limited-edition compilation at the show of the songs from my last two digital releases, “Avemetatarsalia” and “El salón” as a physical printed work. It will be titled “A Corvid in the Living Room (Come on, Louise! I’ll Buy You a Drink”)”.
For 2023, I am planning to release a single in February or March and then, I think I will begin the recording of the full length follow up to “El salón”… It is already written and tentatively titled “Otherworld (When the Wolfbane Blooms)”…
A tour would be nice. I would like to play places new and familiar. I once heard Siouxsie talk about how they like touring to places where the Banshees have never been and I like that. The unknown with a drum machines, a microphone, and a jingle bell.
Thank you for hanging in the Onyx lair!
The pleasure has been all mine and thank you for having me. May something grand and perhaps supernaturally wonderful happen to you!
US five piece, Candy Coffins, have released the second single off their forthcoming album, Once Do It With Feeling. The single is called “Seaside Girls” …… not the regular place to find night creatures but then these days, who can tell.
Photo by Lauren Ellis
Those beach babes with their long legs is a rock classic however in this song, it seems that only horror can be found with these pin-ups, as they drown you in their world. There is a taste of the vocal punk styling of ElvisCostello in the beginning and seemingly always the jangling whirlwind of guitars sweeping you up, and bearing you off, while the piano dutifully lights the way.
The vocals are great but the guitar work really seals the deal, layered, giving a rich texture to “Seaside Girls“. Maybe they are the human equivalent to the Greek mythos Sirens but you are safe listening to the dark attraction via the Candy Coffins.
Onyx Music Reviews 