King Thief (consisting of members of Teenage Bottlerocket, This is a Standoff, Choke and ex-The Fullblast) have released their debut single ‘Gymposter Syndrome’ off the upcoming debut album, out this fall on Thousand Islands Records.
King Thief is:
Eric Neilson – Vocals (Change Methodical, Midnight Peg)
Ryan Podlubny – Guitar ( ex-Fullblast)
Shawn Moncrieff – Guitar (Choke)
Nick Kouremenos – Bass (Fire Next Time, This is a Standoff, TheJohnsons)
Darren Chewka – Drums (Teenage Bottle Rocket, Old Wives)
Perfection is a thing so rare it’s practically mythological. And yet LA post-punk act appear to have achieved it with ‘Never Say Forever’. While reprints of their bio abound, evidence of a back catalogue or previous work is impossible to locate, so it does appear that this is their debut single, which makes it all the more remarkable.
‘Never Say Forever’ is pure vintage in every respect – stylistically, it captures the essence of 1981-85, and I have no shame in saying that I’m an absolute sucker for that era which saw post-punk give birth to goth and dark pop. Sonically, too, they’ve got it down. There’s a certain sound, something that comes not only from the production but from the equipment of the time. Technology was advancing apace – it was around this time that drum machines and synths became widely available – and while the last forty years have seen substantial further developments, I can’t help but feel that something has been lost. That crystal-clear digital fidelity we’ve become accustomed to lacks something, a certain soul, perhaps, but also the sonic haze that defined the sound of the early 80s was absolutely integral to the music itself, and while many contemporary acts have tried to emulate it, they’ve simply fallen short. Not so Mirror of Venus: ‘Never Say Forever’ sounds completely authentic, to the point that it sounds like an archive recording. How have they done it? I don’t know. Time travel, perhaps.
Promo and visuals have increasingly become key to success. People of a certain age, in particular – that would often be people my age (and above) – bemoan the advent of style over substance and how it’s all snazzy videos and shit now, while conveniently forgetting that this came to pass in the 80s. But of course, the difference between major-label 80s and independent acts 80s was immense, and this was perhaps the time when capitalism and money really changed the shape of things: the majors would chuck megabucks at the big acts, which led to the slickness and ubiquity of the like of Duran Duran (who I do happen to like) and the low-budget values of all of the bands who weren’t signed to the likes of EMI. The video which accompanies ‘Never Say Forever’ captures the vibe of the era, and how we view them now, also: once affecting slick but now looking faded, it’s a perfect recreation of the VHS era, the pre-digital age. And yes, when I say a ‘perfect’ recreation, I really do mean it.
Everything about ‘Never Say Forever’ feels like it’s been cracked out of a time capsule. But none of this counts for anything if the material isn’t up to scratch, and that’s where ‘Never Say Forever’ really shines. It’s crisp, it’s catchy, it’s moody, broody, hooky, and nothing short of sheer shimmering magnificence. In other words, perfect.
Will they ever match this moment again? One would hope so – of course. It makes you crave more, so much more. But whatever the future holds, with ‘Never Say Forever’, Mirror of Venus have achieved more than almost any band ever does. Perfection.
German electro-industrial band, NEON INSECT has just unveiled their ambitious, & highly-anticipated album, LIBERTY FLOWERS.
LIBERTY FLOWERS sheds some light into different aspects of life in New Moscow, in times where unrest slowly settles in, even though everything is done to oppress its citizens. The ever-recurring concept of NEON INSECT’s music features the only habitable place in North America. It’s a dystopian version of New York in an alternative timeline, serving as a experimental playground for implants, cyborgs and indoctrination.
With this album, NEON INSECT also takes you on a trip sonically, with noises sounding like they’ve been taken straight from a dystopian nightclub, combined with analogue madness. The goal with this record was to rephrase the grit of old-school, early 90s electronic-industrial music, while not shying away to cross some boundaries. LIBERTY FLOWERS is a love letter to this era of music.
LIBERTY FLOWERS is currently available on CD and cassette formats as well as Bandcamp, digitally. It will be available on most major streaming services on August 30th.
Watch the video for ‘There is Beauty in Noise’ here:
NEON INSECT (Nils Sinatsch) is a dystopian storyteller, telling tales from New Moscow – New York in an alternative reality, where the cold war went hot and the soviets won. As a normal citizen somewhere in Germany by day and a rebel by night, NEON INSECT fetches the stories through the cyber web from his contacts in New Moscow. – he only habitable city in a nuked America, where cyborgs rule the streets, where lower Manhattan is a prison and the last bastion of the local rebellion.
The stories are told in an old-school industrial fashion, the sound of the cold war, enhanced with stutters and glitches, the sound of the cyber web – a soundtrack George Orwell would approve of.
Decline and Fall, a new Dark Wave project from Portugal formed by Armando Teixeira, Hugo Santos and Ricardo S. Amorim, is thrilled to announce the release of the music video for ‘Gloom,’ the haunting title track from their debut EP.
The ‘Gloom’ EP features four evocative tracks, each creating a dense and disturbing atmosphere with glimpses into the darkest corners of the human psyche. Armando Teixeira, a pioneer of EBM and Industrial in Portugal, brings his vast and award-winning experience to the project. Known for his influential work with Ik Mux, Bizarra Locomotiva, and Balla, among others, Teixeira’s return to his roots in post-punk, new wave, and industrial is marked by a matured artistic vision and evolved technical expertise.
Joining him is Ricardo S. Amorim, author of Culto Eléctrico and Wolves Who Were Men – The History of Moonspell, and Hugo Santos from Process of Guilt, whose exploration of heaviness and rhythmic intensity adds a unique dimension to the project.
‘Paint It All in Blue’ is the second taster from Norwegian band Mayflower Madame’s highly anticipated third album Insight, out on 1st November via Night Cult Records/ Up In Her Room/Icy Cold Records.
Following first single ‘A Foretold Ecstasy’, which refined their signature blend of post-punk, shoegaze and psychedelia into a sharper soundscape, the new offering instantly puts a spell on you with its throbbing bass lines, motorik drums and hypnotic guitars, until it opens up midway, leaving you drifting in a sea of dreamy melancholia.
The emotional intensity is heightened by frontman Trond Fagernes’ deeply reverberating lyrics about addiction and escapism when love is experienced as a drug. Combining the rhythmic grooves of krautrock and post-punk with the dazzling atmospherics of shoegaze and neo-psychedelia, ‘Paint It All in Blue’ is a profoundly dynamic song unfolding layer by layer.
Watch the video here:
AA
Over the past years, Mayflower Madame have gained a reputation far beyond their hometown of Oslo, Norway. Following the release of their debut album Observed in a Dream in 2016, which received rave reviews and earned them tours across Europe and North America, their 2020 sophomore album Prepared for a Nightmare firmly established their position as one of the continent’s leading purveyors of cinematic psych-gaze swathed in 1980s dark romanticism.
In 2022, the band returned to touring the UK and Europe, while last year it focused on writing and recording new music and releasing a Deluxe Version of Prepared for a Nightmare containing 5 new bonus tracks.
Their upcoming album has been mixed and mastered by renowned Italian engineer Maurizio Baggio (The Soft Moon, Boy Harsher, The Vacant Lots). It will be released digitally via their label Night Cult Records (Norway), on vinyl via Up In Her Room (UK) and on CD via Icy Cold Records (France).
Mayflower Madame is Trond Fagernes (vocals, guitar, bass) and Ola J. Kyrkjeeide (drums). On studio recordings, they are joined by Kenneth Eknes (synths). "Paint It All in Blue" also features Rune Øverby (guitar).
London-based musician/composer Ian Williams has released a new single entitled ‘Chronopolis’ today. Taking its title from a J.G. Ballard short story, it is an edited version of a track from his current album, Slow-Motion Apocalypse.
An accompanying video was shot in Canary Wharf in London. It highlights the clock-watching and surveillance of the workforce (facial recognition, keystroke logging and anything else they can think of) that makes the vast multinational corporations located in this financial heart of the beast untaxed billions, leaving crumbs that the average worker is supposed to feel grateful for.
The epic soundtrack to this scenario perfectly encapsulates the colossal architecture and human hive of activity, with hyperactive sequencer lines agitating under soaring lead synths as towering piano chords and immense drumbeats propel the whole machine along.
Ian Williams began his music career in Edinburgh in the mid 1980s as a founder of Beautiful Pea Green Boat, whose ethereal, atmospheric sound pre-dated the vogue for dream pop by at least twenty years. Several collaborations with Lebanese choreographer Joumana Mourad and her contemporary dance company Ijad saw him fuse Arabic/classical/techno/ambient styles, following which he changed tack to work with singer Claudia Barton as Gamine, releasing two albums of dark, piano-led torch songs and lullabies.
Williams’ own releases include THE DREAM EXTORTIONISTS (2019), a debut solo album of dark piano and electronics; LES BLESSURES INVISIBLES (2019), an eclectic electronic soundtrack to a documentary film by French director Eric Michel, and ALL BECOMES DESERT (2021), an album of minimalist ambiences and warm analogue soundscapes.
Williams has also composed the soundtrack to Michel’s new WW2 spy documentary, LE MYSTÈRE LUCIE (Code Name Lucy), which will be released in July. Further details will follow in due course.
Raymond Watts aka PIG has just announced a mammoth ‘Heroin For The Damned’ US tour in the autumn. The 40 date itinerary follows a headlining set at Cold Waves XII in Chicago on 28th September. The announcement coincides with a video for ‘Dum Dum Bullet’, a standout track from his just released new album ‘Red Room’ (Metropolis Records). The song features a choir of notable guests that include Emily Kavanaugh (Night Club), Chris Hall (Stabbing Westward), Burton C Bell (Fear Factory, Ascension of the Watchers), I Ya Toyah, Chris Connelly (Revolting Cocks, Ministry), En Esch (KMFDM) and Marc Heal (Cubanate).
Their Bandcamp bio presents a pretty fair an honest summary of the band’s career: ‘Original Post Punk drum machine band from Leeds. Started at the beginning, imploded, reborn for the 21st Century.’
They really were there at the start of that fermentation of post-punk that frothed its way out of Leeds, propelled by drum machines and a fuckload of attitude and came to define what would come to be defined as ‘goth’. The labelling was bollocks, but that’s the press for ya. The Violets may have been – for a short time – taken under the wing of Andrew Eldritch, who produced their first couple of records and put them out on his Merciful Release label, established for the purpose of disseminating The Sisters of Mercy’s releases, but also – equally briefly – home to fellow Leeds act Salvation, and much, much later, La Costa Rasa – but apart from the drum machine and attitude, you couldn’t really say that they sounded alike.
There were reports in the press of a falling out, although Violets front man Simon Denbeigh, who went on to front The Batfish Boys after the Violets, would later become a touring member of The Sisters as Nurse to the Doktor, before ill health curtailed any kind of musical activity.
But to backtrack a small way in a messy history, 2007 saw The March Violets reconvene, seemingly out of nowhere, with a reunion show at Leeds Beckett (which used to be the Polytechnic) and an EP and, not long after, an album. And they’ve been busy ever since.
The arrival of ‘Hammer the Last Nail’ is exciting because their first new material in a long time, and it’s a cracking tune in the vein of their later 80s works as well as the post-return releases. And it’s good, too. It SOUNDS like The March Violets. It sounds gothy, sultry. Rosie’s vocals are as strong as ever, and she’s still got so much charisma. The Violets minus Simon aren’t quite the same, and there’s no escaping that: the dynamic of the dual vocal defined their sound to begin with.
But… bands evolve, and shift lineups. This is a ripping tune and a great addition to their catalogue.
Ohio metal veterans Sea of Treachery, newly signed to Mutant League Records, are debuting ‘FEARBOMB,’ the second single which follows last month’s release of their label debut What’s Past Is Prologue.
Watch the video HERE:
Guitarist Christian McManama says, "Fear is a powerful motivator, and as a result it can sometimes lead to people doing the right things for the wrong reasons. FEARBOMB conceptually and lyrically is a meditation on both that notion, and how certain agents of the media and organized religion will drum up and capitalize upon people’s fears, doing their best to distill that emotion into something palpable that makes people feel more divided than we truly are."
Sea of Treachery’s summer tour with The Convalescence kicks off June 8th.
Tour Dates
6/8 – Toledo, OH @ Toledo Death Fest (w/Oceano)
6/10 – Fort Wayne, IN @ Pierre’s
6/11 – Des Moines, IA @ Lefty’s
6/12 – Sioux Falls, SD @ Bigs Bar Live
6/13 – Denver, CO @ The Rickhouse
6/15 – Jeffersonville, IN @ Wrong Side 812 (Knocked Loose Aftershow)
Dawn Of Ashes is a Los Angeles-based group whose very name brings to mind ‘the beginning of the end’. Formed in 2001, DOA have broken ground across multiple genres, from aggrotech/terror EBM to industrial/extreme metal, producing a unique hybrid of dark electro and metal styles. This fusion of terrifying soundscapes with brutal, relentless rhythms forms the foundation for the lyrical themes of founder and frontman Kristof Bathory, which explore concepts of horror, anti-monotheistic religion, misanthropy and the negative aspects from emotional abuse.
DOA have recently issued a new album entitled Reopening The Scars that was preceded by the single ‘Anhedonia’, a video for which has just been made available. Bathory describes the song as “a glimpse into the dark abyss of the subconscious. We are explorers into the often unspoken, dark and cruel reality of mental anguish, torment and depression,” adding that “there are various circles of Hell when it comes to emotional suffering. Depression is a place that can cripple the mind in so many different ways. Anhedonia is the state of depression where nothing matters anymore, and you become paralysed by your own self punishment.”
Reopening The Scars is DOA’s first album for Metropolis Records since returning to their former label home in late 2023. “It is a continuation from our previous album, Scars Of The Broken,” Bathory has previously stated. “It goes down a darker hole into a place where each lyrical topic touches on the struggles of self-destructive behaviour. Pain and suffering dictated the writing process and created the sounds of emotional hell.”
As for the music that DOA is now creating, Bathory concludes that “after all these years dabbling in dark electronic music as well as industrial and extreme metal, we have found a unique style that complements each genre as one. DOA is neither one or the other in a separate category. The music and lyrical content speaks for itself under a form of darkness that fits for all people who enjoy various types of aggressive music. Reopening The Scars defines that in a perfect form.”
Aural Aggravation 