Hola friends and wellwishers. Now that April is underway, and the year has given us a few really solid albums to sink our teeth into comes the time where we start to speculate on broader emerging trends in the world of Our Thing. Still early of course, but between the ever rising tide of French darkwave and some intriguing new goth rock coming up in North America, it sure feels like that could be the story of 2024. Then again who even knows what might still transpire in the next 9 months. A full on Ant-Zen style powernoise movement revival? Electro-goth taking off again in the UK? Aggrotech but make it funky? Probably none of those things, but its fun to speculate. Tracks away!
Lovataraxx
V▲LH▲LL, “Nocturnal Eyes”
Been a few years since we last heard from our favourite Swedish ghost vikings V▲LH▲LL, and absence has only made the heart grow spookier. Rising up during the early 2010’s post-witchhouse movement, the band expanded their sound to include broader elements of synth, darkwave and folk sounds. “Noctural Eyes” continues that spirit of forward movement by bringing in some electropop synths and growled metal vocals, both of which fit into the duo’s sound perfectly. New album when?
Lovataraxx, “Träumen”
The second album from French duo Lovataraxx trades in a pure and classic style of European coldwave. But unlike so many other acts in the same field, Lovataraxx aren’t eschewing melody and production as a means of communicating an austere and icy atmosphere. In fact, they’re charging forward with immediate and downright bouncy hooks like this one with a maximalist zeal you just don’t find very often these days. Strong stuff which looks to be making waves; we’ll likely have a full review of Sophomore in the weeks ahead.
Bedless Bones, “Burying the Carnival”
It’s not unheard of for Kadri Sammel to go straight to the dancefloor as Bedless Bones – while her recent albums for that project (all of which we enjoy a great deal) always have a few cuts that will light up your finer darkwave DJ sets, its how the Estonian artist balances atmospherics and beats and her own distinctive voice that make it all so compulsively listenable. New single “Burying the Carnival” is as good a club track as Bedless Bones has yet released, just hit play to find out why.
Flint Glass & Ah Cama-Sotz, “Odawaa”
We’re big fans of Flint Glass ’round these parts, and not just because of the French producer’s penchant for Lovecraft. In addition to a set of immaculately produced solo records in the downtempo/ambient industrial style, French producer Gwenn Trémorin’s collaborations with the likes of Empusae have yielded wonderful results, and so the prospect of Trémorin teaming up with Herman Klapholz of Ah Cama-Sotz is an intriguing one. The mix of deep and broad landscapes and soupy programming on this cut suggests that the Wakan Tanka will deliver on the collab’s potential.
Synapscape, “Dress Code Red”
Keeping things on the Ant-Zen tip, we have not one but two paired EPs from rhythmic noise godfathers Synapscape to look forward to later on this month. Dekadenz is comprised of the more experimentally minded Dressur and the more straightforwardly aggressive Catwalk Massacre, from which this track is pulled, closely following in the traditions Philipp Münch and Tim Kniep helped to establish decades ago. Always great to have new stuff from some noise legends who haven’t lost a step over the years.
Dream Hack, “Liquid Dreams”
Dream Hack is the new project from Sam Evans of the mighty Randolph & Mortimer sound system, favourites of ours in recent years. Where R&M is all about Evans’ industrial roots and making political body music of the type that his hometown Sheffield is known for, Dream Hack is all about that banging 90’s techno – more Underworld than Cabaret Voltaire if you follow. Turns out its just as fun and compulsively listenable as anything Evans has ever done in any form already, which is to say y’all should throw this on the stereo, turns the lights down low and throw on a Youtube loop of some circa 1996 rave visuals for maximum effect. Just lovely.
