Posts Tagged ‘Faith’

Darkwave/Post-Punk duo, REDWING BLACKBIRD have just unveiled their latest single, ‘Black Cloud’. This single is a departure from the more guitar-based approach of earlier tracks and sees the band leaning more into the energy of modern darkwave, synth bass & drive.

Lyrical Inspiration for the track comes from the fragile balance between faith & fanaticism – the ongoing blurring of the separation of church & state, the horrific loss of women’s rights & the slow, steady rise of nationalistic fascism, too often disguised as religious morality. All of this is put to an almost satirical "dance while your heads on fire " irreverence.

‘Black Cloud’ marks a clear change in direction leaning into more of the  duo’s darkwave vocabulary that has only briefly surfaced on previous tracks, as it is the first recording of collaboration between Paul Baker & Lisa Jensen on entirely new material. ‘Black Cloud’ is also the fourth single collaboration with producer/engineer Tiffany Flanagan of Audio Pervert recordings.

Listen here:

REDWING BLACKBIRD is the focal project of Paul Baker & Lisa Jensen, currently based in Denver, Colorado, USA. Baker is perhaps best known for his time with nineties goth rockers Second Skin, and more recently, the deathrock trio Plague Garden’s first two full length releases on lead guitar & bass.

REDWING BLACKBIRD, on the other hand, distils influences from Baker’s extensive background working across multiple genres: from the political ideology and ethos of punk; the guitar tonality and melodic lead bass of post-punk, proto-goth, shoegaze, drone-rock, and dark wave; to the sonic nuances with the vocal growl of classic goth rock.

Comparisons have been drawn to everyone from Red Lorry Yellow Lorry, Big Black, and Joy Division to Swans and Nick Cave; Dead Kennedys and The Clash; and even points of reference as disparate as Slint or Ween. And yet, despite having clearly defied and confounded convenient genre pigeonholes, there is certainly a coherent, distinctive, and immediately identifiable REDWING BLACKBIRD sound.

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James Wells

Kids Love Surf’s fourth single finds them continue the dreamy shoegaze trajectory of ‘OYO and ‘Moment’, but takes a more overtly electro / pop approach, with a crisp 80s disco drum beat. The chiming guitars may hark back to late 80s / early 90s Cure via vintage shoegaze, but the vocals – bathed in reverb and sculpted with a hint of autotune are clear and soulful, and very much to the fore against the blurred swirl of ambient synths that create a wash of sound.

It’s all pinned together with a nagging bassline that’s integral to the song keeping its shape. As a production work, it’s smooth, and it’s deft: with a solid and definite structure, the catchy chorus is distinct but slows effortlessly. At just three minutes and a half minutes long, it’s succinct – to the point that it makes you want to hit repeat straight away.