A Sweeping Curve of Sound

Smooch Records is releasing a double-album compilation from Denver’s short lived “psychedelic death rock” band Soul Merchants. Often regarded by fans as America’s version of The Sisters of Mercy, the band only lasted a couple years (1985 - 1987), but in that time released a large amount of recorded material that infused distinctly American psychedelic rock elements into the gothy post-punk sound.

Soul Merchants

“Soul Merchants’ music is best described as the band dubbed it 20 years ago: psychedelic death rock. On the surface, one could consider them Denver’s version of Sisters of Mercy, but even in the ’80s these guys were too old to be the new hip goth act and their ’60s psych and ’70s glam influences shined brightly over the darkness. Too punk for the goths and too goth for the punks, Soul Merchants never fit into the ’scene’ yet still collected a devoted fan-base during their brief 1985-’87 tenure. After an exhausting two years with over a hundred songs recorded, Soul Merchants threw in the towel and performed their final show at the inaugural South By Southwest in Austin.”

The bulk of their releases were cassette-only and have been out of print for years, forgotten by all but the most hardcore of fans. Now, thanks to Smooch Records, we have access to an hour and twenty minutes of re-mastered material. Listening to the songs now, the band shows the last glimmers of the glam-infected post-punk that typified the early goth sound before it gave way to the drum-machine-driven gestalt that typified second-wave 1990s Gothic Rock. Certainly a treat for Deathrock revivalists, and fans of musical treasures from the post-punk era.

Downloads: Soul Merchants - “Joanna”, “Crown of Glory”, “When I Smile”, “Attics”
(from “1985 - 1987″)

Links: Soul Merchants on MySpace