Elena Alice Fossi is best known as the fabulous lead woman for the long lasting, Italian project, KIRLIANCAMERA. However, this talented musician is also about to release her fifth album, Mondernism, under the moniker SPECTRA*paris, but that happens in August…..so to whet your appetite, before the sumptuous feast, we have been given the single, “Devious” to get a taste.
There is a certain amount of trepidation as you first hear the first erroneous sounds before the breathy notes in the form of Fossi’s vocals and sensuously, they drape over the electronic noir that buzzes, like bees attracted to sweet nectar.
I am not surprised that the video to accompany this track has a Hitchcockian flavour as the rhythm suggests mischief is afoot and that we might be involved in something that is not what it seems. There is a darkness in the music, offset by the light gracefulness of Fossi’s singing and yet there is something mesmerisingly seductive in those vocals, that once you are under her thrall, you might never leave. Elena Alice Fossi has given us a stunning single in the form of “Devious” and we await the next release from SPECTRA*paris with anticipation….
I am not sure what is going on in Portland, Oregon, but I feel a little disturbed. Why disturbing? Because there seems to be a wealth of good acts from this one place. Brought to my attention is this band called Darkswoon, with their single, Eaten ByWolves, released on May the 27th in the form of an EP, which is off the soon to be released album, BloomDecay. The single is accompanied by three other tracks, one off a soundtrack and the other two, remixes.
The title track, “Eaten By Wolves” has this beautiful flow that reminds me a little of Ride, though far more electronic, with the drum machine keeping time as the vocals, so gorgeously clean, cleave their way across the music, while the synths vie with the guitar.
“Ruin” (2020) is such an oddity. It is about waiting for the one who will complete you but also seems quite dark when mentioning the fact when they die, their family will get the body….though I found it rather amusing as well. It is an uptempo sounding track, with the swirling shoegaze guitars and entwining vocals, that drag you away to another place.
Really like the electronic start to “Human Faults“, mixed by experimental electronic Portland act, We Are Parasols. Heavy and light tones invaded by the altered ghostly vocals. This has an amazing soundscape feel to it, stretching out into the buzzing aether, married to a danceable rhythm.
Final song and it is another cracker of a dance mix. “Fireplace“, the Sn<che mix, is pure joy, in the vein of Boy Harsher. A cacophony of sound with those marvellous staccato vocals that fold into soaring melodies, which fade into a mist filled end.
Holy crap. I love it. Darkswoon, where have you been hiding? Synthpop grace, coupled with shoegaze wisps and emotion filled vocals. In a word, sublime and the remixes are utterly on point, really rounding out the EP. After listening to this, you might want to be Eaten By Wolves.
In the wilds of New Zealand where the spirits of the trees still whisper secrets and the rocks hold their tales, you will find Amy Tucker West, also known as Parabola West. For those unfamiliar, Parabola West is a project stirred in a Celtic cauldron, mixing synths, folk music and a liberal sprinkling of magic, kind of a mix between Dead Can Dance, Lycia and Clannad so to speak. On the 29th of April, the album Stars Will Light The Way, was dropped, with dreamy ballads about the world and love, to heartfelt pleas for sanctuary and understanding, but always with an undercurrent of modern instruments blended with the traditional. So join us on our Celtic dreaming, speaking to the delightful Amy about the new album and.. well …everything to do around it. Beware of the imps!
Welcome into the fens of the Onyx Garden, Amy Tucker West of Parabola West. We occasionally drop in ritualistic items in the dark waters, just to keep the impish spirits happy.
Thank you! I have a dash of moon water prepared just for this sort of occasion!
In your bio, you say you discovered piano as a young adult. Was music a big thing in your life before this?
Music was a massive part of our household growing up. It would be very common for my mother, sister, and me to sing together as one of them played guitar. Lessons were something that we couldn’t really afford, but that limitation didn’t deter my mother. She was a painter, and so she decorated the walls of the music school with her artwork in exchange for us to have lessons. From that, I internalized from a young age that music was a valuable and important part of life.
Photography – Trinity Navar
You live in New Zealand, land of the long white cloud but you are not originally a Kiwi. How did you end up there?
I’m originally from the east coast of America, and I ended up joining a UK-based band in my early 20s and moving to England to perform with them. When I was over there, I met someone from New Zealand and ended up coming here with him in 2003. That relationship didn’t work out, but I loved it here and decided to stay. Fast forward many years, and I’m now an official citizen of NZ! Woohoo!
Was it a bit of a culture shock going from America to New Zealand?
It’s a unique experience to feel equally at home and equally an outsider in two countries.
I think the biggest culture shock is actually going back to America for a visit after so much time living here in New Zealand. The scale of things in America is overwhelming for the first few days. On my last trip, I remember visiting the grocery store and getting decision fatigue whilst standing in a massive aisle devoted entirely to hummus options. So. Much. Hummus. By the time I got to the toothbrush section, I was deranged with wonder.
Did you feel a difference in the music scene in NZ as opposed to the US and do you think this has influenced your style?
I wasn’t really active in the US music scene before I went to England, but I can now tell you that performing for a NZ audience versus an American audience is a totally different experience! In New Zealand, the audience will clap politely at the end of a song and probably say something nice to you privately after your show. In America, the audience is significantly more expressive throughout a show and will let you know what they think. The Kiwis are much more reserved, and the Americans are more likely to wear their hearts on their sleeves or ‘woohoo’ mid-song.
You launched your new album “Stars Will Light The Way” in April. Your last album was released in 2017 called “Purity of Weakness”. Can I ask why there was a 5 year break?
I released “Purity of Weakness” as an EP back in 2017 because I wasn’t quite ready to release a full-length album yet. My thinking was that you only get one shot at a debut album, so I wanted to make sure I had nurtured my audience enough and built my brand to the point where I could roll out a debut the way I wanted to. But, I certainly didn’t intend for “Stars Will Light the Way” to take five years to come alive! The schedule got a bit blown out by some family hardships and then a dash of pandemic. Life got a bit lifey in-between.
The sound of the album is this beautiful mixture of Celtic dreaming folk, with pop savvy. What drew you to create this style?
Thank you! I’ve always been drawn to a bit of darkness mixed in with the dreamy, and I found that the old folk instruments used in Celtic, Slavic, and Scandinavian folk really have an emotional / melancholy depth that appealed to my ear. But, I also love synth and electronic influences as well as ethereal / otherworldly sounds, so my music ends up being a blend of a few genres. I try not to think about the style or genre when I’m writing, and instead I just focus on getting the produced version to sound the way it does in my head.
What is the premise behind “Stars Will Light the Way”?
It didn’t start out with a premise or a theme in mind, but everything changed as the production got underway. I started getting these character ideas for each song, and they were very specific and in full color in my head. I decided to follow that thread, and alongside the album recording I began working on a book of visuals to go with the music. It culminated in a 48 page fantasy photography lyric book (which includes a CD). I decided on the title “Stars Will Light the Way” because each song explores a different way of finding a path through the darkness.
Photography – Trinity Navar
With Covid causing mayhem around the world for 2 years, how did this affect your creating and recording the album?
It was definitely a contributing factor for why it took 5 years to release this album! I worked with two producers (Scott Newth and Andrew Newth), and I can’t think of a single time that we were all in the same room together since the start of Covid. We worked remotely, sending files and ideas back and forth. In some ways, it was really cool to have that extra space for ideas to grow in isolation. There were some silver linings within the sh*t sandwich.
New Zealand is a rather magical place with its green rolling hills, snowy peaks and native inhabitants, the Maori, with their rich history and tales. How do you feel this has an effect on your music?
New Zealand is, indeed, a deeply magical place! For me, the landscape feels like it holds a spiritual energy. The past 7 years of living off-grid up a misty mountain has really heightened my appreciation for existing in harmony with the seasons and the elements. Lyrically, the themes of nature pop up a lot in “Stars Will Light the Way”.
Who or what were your early musical influences?
Depeche Mode, Tori Amos, Enya, Loreena McKennitt, Dead Can Dance, Information Society, Kate Bush, and fantasy film soundtracks. I also thrashed a mixtape full of artists from Projekt Records (standouts on that cassette were Love Spirals Downwards, Black Tape for a Blue Girl, and Lycia).
Is there anyone that you listen to now that brings you great joy?
I curated a playlist on Spotify called Beautiful Darkness which has a lot of examples of music I’m enjoying at the moment. There are a few Scandinavian artists (Aurora, Agnes Obel, Eivør, and Kite) that get a heavy rotation, but there are also artists like PJ Harvey and Coco Rosie on there as well.
If ever I am in a desperate funk, however, I turn to the Sesame Street Disco album. Specifically, ‘Me Lost Me Cookie at the Disco’ performed by Cookie Monster.
We have heard that you love French bull dogs. What is it about them that makes you giddy with joy?
Oh Frenchies! Yes, they are the perfect blend of cuddly and adventurous. They snore and fart hilariously through the night, and every Frenchie I’ve met has a friendly nature and a heart of gold. My husband and I had the privilege of raising two, and they brought us immense joy.
What do see in the future for Parabola West?
The immediate future is planning and executing an epic summer tour in the southern and northern hemispheres. After that, I’m interested in exploring the realm of writing for film and television.
So, Brutal Resonance have threatened us with a good time by releasing, on the 27th of May, the new EP, OutOf Time by Her Noise Is Violence. With cool artwork by Psyklon Industries, this is the first EP to be dropped on the Brutal Resonance label for Her Noise Is Violence.
“For this EP, I really wanted to get out of my comfort zone and work with sounds I seldom do as Her Noise Is Violence. I borrowed a lot of ideas that I normally use with my other project, Funeral Pyre – but I also allowed myself to just be immersed into the theme as a whole. Nuclear war, the end of civilization, living in the Kali Yuga, etc. I wanted to go more for feeling vs dance-ability and DJ friendliness. I guess this is a hybrid album of both my style as Her Noise Is Violence as well as being a part of Funeral Pyre.” – Her Noise Is Violence
Think big, bringing in the “Nuclear Age“. A wall of deep electronic sound and twinkling synths that resonates in your chest, while we wait for midnight. So 60s sci-fi at the end. “Pale Horse” could be the foretold one of the apocalypse and this grinds into your brain with wavering electronics and rhythms trying to punch through. It is glorious in it technical coldness. There is a certain amount of frustration with the title track, “Out Of Time“, because….well…it’s a beat out of timing. Good grief, just being slightly out of step does weird things to my brain. Add in all these rather pleasing popping and scratched tones which makes it both fun and torturous all in the same piece of music.
Amazing heavy beats assault your ears, in an Asian style emoting Bladerunner track called “Stolen Dreams“. It circles and becomes almost an sickly sweet instrumentation, while the context of war wends words around it all. The last track is also the single, “Apathy“, which was released prior to the EP. It is apt to end with this track, as it spirals downwards, rivulets of time lost to the aether..
There are beautiful synth lines woven throughout each track and as such, are like glass catching the light, while the darker industrial thunder sweeps you up in it’s grip, squeezing the rhythms into your core. Her Noise Is Violence has a techno savvy, that she mixes with synthpop nuances and harsh industrial noise…. it is a wonderful thing and if you don’t listen, then you are going to be Out Of Time.
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.
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“.
Going to put it on the table now…. you have to have balls to cover the track “Fame” and the group, She 1-Him2 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“.
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.
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.
At The Heart Of The World are a duo from Portland, Oregon dealing up electronic, industrial music and February 18th saw the release of the EP, Inosculate. Seven tracks makes this a solidly packed EP with everything written, recorded and produced by the band, mixed by Derek Moree at Diamond Drive and mastered by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege. Special mention goes to Andrew Gomez IV for the wonderfully ghoulish artwork.
From the beginning of “Retroject” you can tell this is going to be a great ride. Screaming aggrotech to transcendental vocals as the electronics lurch forward to ensnare your senses. The low-key swirling synths of “Synchrony“, match the feeling of disjointed dreams and reality never meshing and playing tricks on your mind. The music with its beats is near trance inducing. “Etheric Visions” is slow to start with off sync beats echoing vocals, that grow with angst, then drop away to build again, over and over. It is a sonically wonderful piece.
The manic rhythms feels like it is heralding the dogs of war in “Pain Demands Attention“. Between the booming fuzz tones and synth crunchiness, there are these delightful twittering sounds. When it comes to “Multiply The Stillness“, it is oppressive and cloying, lyrically castrating the living. The beginning of “Reflect/Reveal” could be an industrial homage to Bjork’s, “Army Of Me” but then the only similarity is probably the sentiment of inner struggle. When people judge their worth on being loved and without it, they feel they cease to be them. What better way to finish than being “Mocked By Death” and the vocals skim along the cyber synths, which is joined by some lovely glitching and crunchy electronics. It is absolutely brilliant.
Though the music can be harsh. with pounding beats and growling vocals, the lyrical content is beautifully written, a little like descriptive poetry. It paints feelings and internal torment with a fine brush, all the while using electronics to get you moving to the infectious rhythms. At The Heart Of The World have a mother load of talent so check out Inosculate.
Onyx Music Reviews 