Darkwave
Live Review: Darkwave alt-pop sensation – Artemas at the O2 Forum Kentish Town 11.11.24
I principally believe we are living in a post “one-hit-wonder” era where pop music is concerned, mostly owing to the space the online world has given artists. You can have an artist, completely devoid of songs you recognise, be unfathomably popular in a way you could never have realised. In this vein, I was invited …
Premiere: MIDNIGHTCHOIR heralds new album release with emotive closing track ‘Rising Tide’
Back in May, New York’s MIDNIGHTCHOIR (the solo project of Brooklyn’s Patrick Bobilin, sometimes assisted by Sarah Simon) announced his first new record in 7 years, and those were indeed a pretty eventful 7 years, such that we wondered if he’d return to making music at all. Inspired by his time running for office in …
Premiere: MIDNIGHTCHOIR are fired up on explosive new single ‘Molotov’
Patrick Bobilin has been through some shit since we last heard from his project MIDNIGHTCHOIR. He ran for office in New York, was arrested not once but several times in the volatile summer of 2020 as George Floyd’s murder sparked nationwide protests in the name of racial justice, and formed a mutual aid network. He’s …
Gallery & Set-lists: Faun / Bog Bodies – Opium, Dublin 08.04.2023
German pagan folk / darkwave band Faun brought their Pagan tour to Dublin’s Opium, with Irish druid-rock / bog-rock outfit Bog Bodies opening the night. Bog Bodies photos and set-list: This Reality / JigDead Are DancingSurvivingFirelightersThe RegimeJaw HarpDaithi Listen to Bog Bodies here: https://bogbodiesband.bandcamp.com/album/reclaim-the-ritual Faun photos and set-list: Andro Diese kalte NachtAlba WalpurgisnachtBaldur Odin GwydionNacht des NordensFeuerIdunaGaldraYlfa spereRhiannon_______________________Wenn Wir …
PREMIERE: London duo Grieving Sea prep for ‘Donewiz’ album release with the haunting ‘The Sea Devours’
Genoa-based label Brucia Records prides itself on being a home for ‘uncanny, unsettling or unusual’ music, and the forthcoming debut album by Grieving Sea certainly fits that description. The 7-track LP slots nicely into the output of a label that’s put out material spanning a whole host of disparate subgenres like black metal, doom and …
PREMIERE: Sweden’s De Arma pivot to darkwave on intense new EP ‘Nightcall’
It says a lot about how long Swedish gothic rock band De Arma had been sitting on second album Strayed in Shadows (finally released last June after years in limbo) that they’ve rebounded from that pretty much immediately. Well, we call them ‘gothic rock’ but they’ve taken in everything from black metal to post-rock and …
Premiere: Italian darkwave maestros Ostara’s Bless unveil the stark and beautiful video for industrial gothic sounds of ‘Fear Of The Neglect’
The single ‘Fear Of The Neglect’ from Italian group Ostara’s Bless has a luscious, layered industrial stomp with a barbed-wire spine and a dark ominous insistent thrum. We are honoured to be able to premiere today the rich and beautiful video for the track that comes off the band’s epic ‘Masculine/Feminine’ double album. The track’s …
Album review: The dark delights of Boy Harsher’s new album ‘The Runner (Original Soundtrack)’ dropping tomorrow via Nude Club/City Slang
From fetish clubs to catwalks, Boy Harsher have amassed a cult-like following for their broody, atmospheric beats. Stepping up the cinematics, in addition to Friday’s album release they’ve just premiered their own short film, via streaming platform Shudder. Entirely written, produced and directed by the duo, the film is a horror-style “documentary” about their recording …
Album review: Die Wilde Jagd – ‘Atem’: a dark, occluding drone masterwork
DIE WILDE JAGD – it translates as “The Wild Hunt”, Anglophones, which will surely be the only possible connection to Swedish troubadour The Tallest Man on Earth we shall ever explore – is the sonic project of producer and songwriter Sebastian Lee Philipp. Across three albums from 2015’s self-titled debut, through 2018’s Uhrwald Orange and …
Track: Sugarstone twist the rave into a darkwave nightmare before Christmas on ‘Pink Duct Tape’
MANCUNIAN new wave ravers Sugarstone have tucked away the dayglo, hands-in-the-air synth thang just for now as they embrace the aesthetics of the darkest month; and with the winter solstice nearly here, they’ve taken a swerve into goth-pop drama with a final single for ’21, “Pink Duct Tape”. The song keeps that rave squelch and …