Jarrad Robertson is the captain of the scurrilous pack Sea Lungs, with Andi Lennon as the vocal navigator and linguist, while Robertson and first mate Micheal Johnson steer the musical course. “Parlour Tricks” is the latest single which has magically appeared on Bandcamp for your listening pleasure. (Ignore the 12th of April date, because it is available NOW!!)
If you haven’t guessed from the cover photo, it is about those that dabble in the occult for an audience, deceitfully conjuring up the dead, using smoke and mirrors, for fame and money. “Parlour Tricks“is decidedly heavier than previous tracks, with a more deathrock drone of guitars. Lennon never misses a beat, which is amazing with his wordy lyrics that would be tricky for less nimble tongues. The lumbering death march for those passed, and a message for the living that no amount of incantations from charlatans can communicate with the dead. Sea Lungs are here to say. It’s all a “ParlourTrick” but rock on anyway.
Antipole & Paris Alexander are hitting us hard and fast with the singles, giving us the release of their next in the form of “Midnight Shadows“. This is the second single off the album Crystalline, which is slated to be out on Young And ColdRecords as of May 12th.
Echoing sexy whispers, hang between the electronics. The guitar filters through, caressing the synths as they proceed forwards, shrouded in moonlit monochrome. It almost feels like the spirits of the past are crying out in the electronics, trying to hold you between worlds where time stands still.
Dreams, reality, or something in between? A trick of the light has given us this gorgeous darkwave track that is letting us peer through a gauzy, rhythm driven other world created by Karl Morten Dahl (Antipole) and Alexander. Beware of “Midnight Shadows” or you might fall under the spell of Antipole& Paris Alexander.
Last year was a big one for Pete Burns and his project Kill Shelter, with the release of Asylum, one of the best post-punk albums of the year. March marks the drop of a new EP with fellow musician Veronica Stich, also known as Death Loves Veronica, saucily titled The Sex Tape Sessions, out on the ColdTransmission label.
Kicking off with the utterly hot “Sex Tape“, which is a very electronic affair, sensual and pulsating, the rhythm rolling off in waves, while Veronica breathily taunts you. Lyrics of titillation on a screen for the erotic delight of others. There is also an extended remix of “Sex Tape” filled with those rich tones of the forbidden and Burn’s guitar a siren in the background.
The extended remix by Kill Shelter of “The Sinner” strides out in a brazen fashion, the beats dropping heavily in the undulating synths. The confession of a sinner, who is without remorse, even after trying to turn away the person of intense desire because ‘I just want to fuck you anyway‘. The guitar burns like liquid fire and the vocals lick your ears with honey.
There are some songs you feel, settling into your chest, and “Resist” is definitely one of those. It builds like an intense storm, the pressure bearing down, making you realise you just need to give yourself over to the ravenous craving of the music.
The French say each orgasm is the little death, so can there be a “Death Kiss“? Heavy and dark with portent that one might die giving over to the hunger of wanting and need. The extended mix is a thumping trance inducing dancefloor hummer, leading you down the road… perhaps to bliss or ruin.
“Death Kiss” and “The Sinner” were written and released previously by Death LovesVeronica and have been given the Kill Shelter treatment, while “Sex Tape” and “Resist” are joint efforts. VeronicaStich is known as a provocateur, and she has every right to flaunt her stuff, amping up the carnal fervour. Pete Burns is a master not only of music creation, as he did all remixes and the mixing & mastering. There is another reason for calling the EP The Sex Tape Sessions. The musicians themselves have asked fans to use what is considered out dated models of recording, to bootleg the release. Maybe a statement on how throw away society can be. Full of sexual innuendo, explicit language, liquid synths, passionate guitar work, beats to grind to and a goddess playing with your predilection for kinky seduction, this is Kill Shelter & Death Loves Veronica with The SexTape Sessions….. mmmmm, what is there not to like?!
New Zealand is the Land of the Long White Cloud or in the tongue of the original occupants, the Māori people, Aotearoa. For a small country, a lot of talent resides there. Frau Knotz is the solo project for New Plymouth electronic artist Lauren Nottingham, and 24th of March is the release date for her second single “Runway Of Reality“.
Some things in life are like that little red dress that is worn a few times and then forgotten as it is no longer needed in life, like a persona. Frau Knotz is your narrator in this song, a noir styled track, with an 80s electronic pop sound that tinkles like stardust and dowsed in shimmering darkwave vocals and rhythms.
The video features Frau Knotz as the Pierrot made-up usher of the theatre, while the stage is graced by the beautiful Erika Flash. The music video compliments the track beautifully with the near sepia tones. Join Frau Knotz on the “Runway Of Reality“, so you might also enjoy her dulcet tones while getting your groove on.
If you haven’t checked out the new goth rock single, “We All Rise“, and the accompanying video from Chicago based band, The Bellwether Syndicate, then maybe you should. William Faith and company ramp it up with an anthem off the soon to be released album, Vestige & Vigil, out on the label Sett Records.
The drums thump away, drawing our attention, with the beautiful guitar sound that The Bellwether Syndicate is becoming so well known for. However, that is nothing compared to the huge belting chorus that surges forth with such conviction and pure anger towards a culture and system that holds people back, preaches money hungry religion as your only salvation and that is discriminatory towards people (especially women, trans and those of colour) who are even losing autonomy over their own bodies . ‘WE RISE ABOVE OUR STATION, WE ECLIPSE THE LIGHT OF NATIONS, WE REVEAL THE FARCE, FOR ALL TO SEE‘….. Faith is nearly snarling during the chorus’. The most poignant verse for me however is, ‘The will to swim against the tide, To break convention, In the great divide, To dare to dream‘ which signifies a universal fight for what is right and not what is doctrine.
Faith has a very sonorous voice and sometimes you forget how much punked up rage he can muster and it is glorious in this track. The video goes from being just William and Sarah Rose Faith on the streets, and becoming a black mass marching down the street. A wonder to behold and “Rise” is a song that needs to be echoed until the world becomes a better place.
What is a parable? I suppose it is a story retold in order to teach a vital lesson, and it is also the latest single from US band, A Cloud Of Ravens. “Parable” is the next single off the highly anticipated new album, Lost Hymns, which is to be released on Nexilis Records, as of the 28th of April.
Ominous, brooding and dark are definitely words that come to mind. This is the most electronic song yet by the duo, almost alive and drawing heavy breaths. The vocals guide you down like velvet and build you up for the amazing chorus that pushes you sky high.
How many times does mankind have to play out the same futile scenarios without learning from them? This is the premise behind “Parable“, which has never been so obvious in this day and age where we are meant to be civilised, yet nations still act with barbaric intent. This is A Cloud Of Ravens’s last single release and like the Oracle of Delphi, they bring a warning that no good can come from this stupidity, wrapped in a gorgeous track called “Parable“.
Lunar Paths is the Trans-Atlantic goth duo of Diane Dubois and Kevin Hunter, and the 15th of March saw the release of a new single, “Silvania“. The band have said the track is based on the werewolf like creature, Loup Garou, from the Margaret Atwood novel Surfacing.
Layers of electronics waver throughout, chiming sleigh bells and drum loops, build a sensuous myriad of a swirling moon bound soundtrack, into which the vocals, sumptuously croon to you, which has a wonderous Siouxsie Sioux style. A vibrant ode the Lycan kind, with the wilderness in their blood that rages, driving them a little insane in the pale light of the Goddess Diana. A pertinent song for a band called Lunar Paths and “Silvania” might have you howling in delight.
At one point or another, everyone has felt like they are invisible or unable to see their way and this is the subject of the latest Meersein single “Lost“. And who doesn’t like a bit of German darkwave synthie-pop?!
I have to say that this is some ways actually reminds me a little musically of the 80s and the likes of Howard Jones. The drum machine picks up a timely rhythm, as the synths tinkle and also create a bass undercurrent. Meersein’s vocal’s range from silk, to whispers and a rather deep sexy growl, as he tells you he is ‘lost like a ghost in a maze‘.
It is worth your while to check out this single, because a little bird revealed that the next is coming out soon, which will be Meersein and Corlyx. Something tells me that is going to be pretty amazing. “Lost” is a nice tasty treat with a video of Meersein singing in a picturesque German forest.
You might need a bit of extra goth in your life, so why not try some tropical goth…. mmm, it is tasty and refreshing in the form of Australian band Locust Revival,and you can whet your appetite with the single “Good Grief“. Actually, they have been releasing darkwave goodness since 2015 and are particularly prolific. *hint hint*
The guitar twanging flourishes, combined with the drum machine, are the first things you hear. The lofi recording only adds to the atmosphere, and when the vocals kick in, it makes you feel like you are listening to an unreleased Joy Division track. Like a dream wafting through, leaving behind the pain of memories, loves great loss with a bass saturated background.
Glorious post-punk sounds from Brisbane. It’s wonderfully mopey, and yet, there is a certain degree of lightness in the guitar playing. A beautiful symbolic looking back at the bands from the past, and you can hear the joy Locust Revival finds in creating this dark expressive music. All we can say is “Good Grief” Danger Mouse, you need a listen.
Edge Of Decipher is based in Mexico with Z. H. Syle the man behind the star glazed electronic music and the latest single “Cyber Dreams, Infinity And Flux“, which will also appear on the new album Future Skies, out on the machina ad noctem label
Zead is the guest vocalist for “A Warm Dawn“. You start for a moment at the foreign phrases, but the spoken words are Thai, floating in the spaces of a dream, where the piano becomes more insistent as the track meanders. That insistence is the reminder of the music to the vocalist that they are waiting for the person who will make them whole. A promise of more.
“Cyber Dreams, Infinity And Flux” is also graced by Zead’s expressive vocals. There is a heavier industrial influence, and the electronics buzz in anticipation, curling in frenetic eddies, while the solar winds of the synths guide them along.
machina ad noctem
A longing for something more in “Your Real Name (dream version)“. The piano keys express not so much a lament but definitely an expression of desire. The final track is the “A Warm Dawn (alternate take)” where there piano and vocals vie for dominance to be heard, as it all winds down with the knowledge there is an end.
Edge Of Decipher is experimenting with music not only for pleasure but to push boundaries such as a Thai vocalist and/or imbuing his synthwave craft with emotion that you can almost feel on your skin. So bask in the “Cyber Dreams, Infinity And Flux” with Edge Of Decipher.
Onyx Music Reviews 