We have been anticipating a new release from Aotearoa (New Zealand), darkwave/industrial group Robots In Love, and luckily we have not had to wait very long in the form of the single “Crush.”
Gamer one is up and the bouncing guitar riffs breathe life into “Crush” early on. You can taste the conviction in Rayner’s vocals as she builds the anticipation that peaks in the chorus. The chorus soars with unbridled emotion and charged vocals that entwine with each other, breaking free of all expectations, with Robots In Love taking you on a musical high.
“Crush” is a track of boundless optimism, where it doesn’t matter what life throws up, that hope always springs eternal and this is kind of refreshing. It is about crushing the obstacles in your path and creating new opportunities. In the 90s, ElenorRayner was a member of the industrial rock group Soulscraper, and it feels like she is revisiting this era when both Soulscraper and another Australian band, Insurge were changing the industrial scene. She is still breaking and rebuilding genres along with the other Robots In Love members Alex Burchell and Tony Lumsden. “Crush” has already become a favourite track in the live show and it is not hard to see why.
SplatterVHS is Caid, and Caid is SplatterVHS. They are the self professed cryptid of Brisbane, who revels in horror movies, special effects and creating synth based instrumental music. The end of 2024 marked the release of a new album in the form of Blue Haired Anime Girl, which rounds up a rather fruitful year from Splatter VHS.
The world is littered in fairy tales, of souls meeting and being pulled into equal orbits, or set for cataclysmic endings or expressing a love and admiration for someone who makes you feel like the weight of gravity is nothing. Single “TwinStars” burns bright with the electronics bursting forth, tying in the science fiction futurism with looping and weaving synths .
An air of dark excitement pushes through in “Return To The Maze,” and may I just add this labyrinth actually does exist in real life. A basement that is a shared space with history’s ghosts, that is shrouded in comfortable crepuscule that would pulsate with this track. There is no escape from the “Vampires Kiss” and you can revel in the quirky joy contained within ‘Synthmas Kitten“
You can hear Caid’s connection to the cinema through their creations, which is a kin to using music to evoke emotions and paint scenes, just as movies do. One could say that John Carpenter has been a huge influence both theatrically and musically, plus the tracks reflect the 80s explosion of using electronic music to express the modern horror of tales such as Friday the 13th or Halloween, and fantasy love stories like LadyHawke or Legend (1985).. It is a bit retro, a bit sci-fi, a bit jigger-poky with a pointy things, a bit modern and a whole lot of fun. Paint a picture in your head and join the creatures that inhabit Caid’s mind with SplatterVHS. You can’t always run from where you are, but that doesn’t mean you can’t dream yourself free.
Berlin is a hotbed of dark alternative music, especially of the electronic kind and ParadoxObscur are a pulsating beacon in the genre. ToxicRazor and KriistalAnn are the duo behind the project and what makes them a little different to other electronic groups is that they record everything in real time, so what you get is music that is experimental and has a more organic flow. The latest EP is called Attention and it is self released.
“Attention” is a slow burn of a opening track, with it’s gradual build up and it is here to indeed grab your ears. The almost samba rhythms shimmy across the gilt dancefloor, as we are serenaded by the more droned vocals of Razor interspersed by KriistalAnn’s sultry tones. The single “Slap It” is dripping in sexual tension and innuendo. There are moody vocals which are underlined by Euro techno-pop synths and beats, perfect for strutting your stuff
Cannot lie and say I know what is going on in the lyrics of “Sin Barreras” or WithoutBarriers, which are in Spanish. The first verse, that is repeated, translates into ‘We’ve been fed mocha They have replaced it with coca Society is mired in shit‘, but however you read into it, they just work. It is trance like with Kriistal Ann seducing you into her spiralling vocals. The last track is “Escape” and it is a return to that techno dance groove that rolls and bubbles, enticing the listener to lose themselves to the rhythm, which might be the escape.
If you are wondering what Paradox Obscur used in the recording process, they listed Access Virus TI Polar, Roland JD-Xi, Korg Kaossilator Pro, IK Multimedia UNO Synth and DSI Mopho. Definitely check out the video for “SlapIt,” featuring a fabulous 70s inspired disco cross dresser. The EP is also a celebration of a decade of Paradox Obscur and if you have been following their career, you will know they are not interested in doing what is popular, rather creating music that is pleasing to them and in turn given us some brilliant listening material. Attention is another artistic concept with cool synths, evocative vocals and hot rhythms and we love Paradox Obscur for it.
I have it on good authority that the folks behind LunarPaths are preparing for live shows, but in between these machinations, they have released a new single “Seen.”
Background looped guitar riffs set the stage for Dubois‘ strong vocals and lyrics. The drums by Hunter, pick their way through the layers of programming, adding to the extraordinarily full sound. The lyrics speak of seeing the young out at night and wishing they knew how wonderful they look and have the courage to be themselves.
There is drama of the noirish romanticism kind in this style of music that still harks back to the early post-punk era, especially in the delivery of the singing. It is like listening to Anne-Marie Hurst (Skeletal Family/Ghost Dance) or SiouxsieSioux, with that vibrato and it instantly makes you clamour for more. Lunar Paths is spinning and weaving beautiful darkwave creations, just like “Seen.”
Phillip Olympia (vocals, synthesizers, drum machines) and JakeMiller (guitars, synthesizers) are VirginBirth, a band on Never Nervous Records and hailing from Kentucky. They released the single “Break Down the Air” on November 1st, which is the first single off the album Total Annihilation that is planned to drop in early 2025.
Out in the lawless cities, where society has broken down and survival post apocalypse is all consuming. This is what might happen if you had to live in a world ripped apart by nuclear war, and it is painted by the lyrics describing nuclear winter. A voice clip of a disaffected female hammers home the loss, all the while the more delicate rhythms are off-set by the heavy electronics’ droning.
Virgin Birth have said they based this track off the British movie Threads (1984) that is set in an alternative timeline where is nuclear war has ravaged the planet and the survivors scrape through in a brutal environment. Let us hope it never comes to this is the take home message, but you can still enjoy the brooding “Break Down the Air.”
David Brichard is the vocals and Frédéric Hyat the guitarist for Belgium electronic band Dresscode, who released the single “Get Rid of Fears” in October. In the video is FlorianGilot who plays live with Dresscode.
Do our fears freeze us into being unable to act or live? This is essentially what the track is about, especially when it comes to matters of the heart. Those first notes strike in and as we go on, I am starting to think some of that might actually be the guitar being plucked. The singing is congenial until we hit the chorus, and then they erupt into a far more glorious and harmonious raising of the voices at end the track. “Get Rid of Fears” finishes for me far too soon as I was really getting into, and then it ended, even though it is approximately three minutes long. Ah well, I love the whole finishing with a bang, and Dresscode have made this track smooth and it subtly ends up sucking you in.
November has seen the release of the split single from SchkeuditzerKreuz (Aust) and DecideToday (USA), with the vinyl on Nambour label Bad Habit Records, in the wilds of the Sunshine Coast, North of Brisbane.
“Last year, mid-winter, I did a quick tour run up to Bellingen and Lismore (NSW, Australia). The Lismore gig was something we booked in a Hall out of town and was kind of a make-up gig for one that got scuttled by the plague a couple years earlier. On the bill was Sniffer Dog and Toecutter – someone I had met in Melbourne when he played with Dark Horse, and someone I was keen to make noise with again. At that gig he said to me “you have to meet my friend Robert – your music, your attitude, your touring all match each other so well” and he gave me the contact. So, I reached out and Robert jumped straight in.” – Kieren Hills/Schkeuditzer Kreuz
Schkeuditzer Kreuz
Decide Today
The one track from d-beat, synth-crust master, Schkeuditzer Kreuz, is the cloying “Choke,” and this slower track feels like the air is being dragged out of your lungs. It lurches zombie like at times, and then becomes full of rage and destructive conviction as Hills lets us into his head and what clinical depression can be like when it isn’t a good day.
Decide Today has two tracks, with the first being “Revolutionary Reason (WorldwideIntifada),” and you can smell the sweat in the swarming mosh pit as the beats come in thick and furious. The indignation is palpable with a whole bunch of cleverly cut sound clips strung together, culminating in the powerful hushed tones that the genocide of the Palestinian people is wrong. The second track “The Shit Punx Hate” hits you full throttle, making you start, and then you are serenaded by the list of things that punks dislike such as racism, authoritarians and Nazis, while the rhythms have nail bombed into your psyche and pierced your head.
“Toecutter must have met Kieren and insisted we start talking. Our common ground in music, and the culture surrounding it, was immediately evident. Earlier this year Kieren proposed the split 7” via Bad Habit, which of course I had to say yes to such circumstances, and I mentioned also wanting to get back to Australia at some point. The next day Kieren asked if I was for real, and started planning the tour. I am incredibly thankful to my new friend, Borg at Bad Habit, and Dave (Toecutter) for getting us connected.” – Robert Inhuman/Decide Today
Baron Von Borg is the bloke that runs Bad Habit Records, who is a punk, a punk musician and a connoisseur of music from the top of his head, to the tips of his toes and someone I have a lot of time for. It isn’t surprising that he is in the middle of this whirlwind.
This is a marriage of ferocious punk attitude, punching with a fist full of electronics.
Boston based dark electro project Pneumagnosis has collaborated with Dissonance on the single “Let The Flowers Fall.” Cat Hall (Dissonance) has contributed vocals and lyrics while the music was composed by ScottTheleman (Pneumagnosis).
The electronics bleat and dance while Hall sings about finding the courage to walk away from a relationship, without trying to fix it or ponder what you did wrong. Her vocals waver and bound back in a cacophonist choir around the techno rhythms, which punctuate the wisdom of the words. This is a nice little collaborating trance inducing dance track between Dissonance and Pneumagnosis, in “Let the Flowers Fall.”
SEVERIN NI-ARB of X-MARKS THE PEDWALK has joined forces with his son LMX, and the collaboration resulting in the electronic project DUOPHONIC NOISE CONSTRUCTION. The single “Trauma,” has been released on the MESHWORK MUSIC label.
From when the rhythm kicks in, this is going to be a dancefloor killer. Looping electronics with NI-ARB’s vocals low and visceral, are at complete odds with the more dulcet tones of LMX, that create a dawning break in the overall frenetic pace.
There is something a bit old school about “Trauma” and maybe it is that connection to X-MARKS THE PEDWALK, yet the influence of LMX is felt with the more modern vocal style. It is a kin to talking about rough and smooth or steel and silk, and it works so very well together.
As part of their spooky season, Kentucky’s Who Saw Her Die? religiously drop in October a few singles, and the latest is another horror movie inspired release in the form of “Pleasure and Pain” and “One of Us.”
If you haven’t guessed before, “Pleasure and Pain” is exactly how a cenobite from Hellraiser is going to love you and this is the premise behind the single. The version the band have put up first is the EBM mix and I have to agree in their choice as it really has that classic sound of Hellraiser’s weird modern techno wonder, plus that wandering synth line, matched with the spiritual abyss in the vocals, that vary from seduction to anguished.
The second track goes a bit more old school in the way of The Body Snatchers in “One ofUs.” It is a retelling of the motives of said snatching aliens, a morose dirge that is actually sympathetic of the horror baddies.
Even when October is done and dusted, there is always Halloween to be enjoyed for the rest of the year in tunes like this. To quote The Divinyls, ‘there’s a fine line betweenpleasure and pain,’ so why not choose both with Who Saw Her Die? They have such wonders to show you.
Onyx Music Reviews 