A Sweeping Curve of Sound

It has been awhile since I discussed music here, so I thought I would provide some capsule reviews of recently released music that sings to the Pagan soul (or at least my Pagan soul). All of these artists can be heard on my weekly A Darker Shade of Pagan podcast, and are easily obtainable through mail-order or digital download.

Falling You - “Faith”

John Zorko and his rotating band of “magicians” have created yet another magnificent collection of haunting ethereal soundscapes enhanced by masterful female vocals. This album, like previous Falling You efforts, explores a common theme as expressed through a variety of guest vocalists including Suzanne Perry, Amanda Kramer, and Dru Allen (among others). While “Faith” and Falling You’s previous albums may engender admiration from the New Age music scene, don’t let that fool you. These compositions are dynamic, engaging, and deeply moving. You can purchase a digital copy of “Faith” from Magnatune for a sliding scale charge of $5-$18 dollars. Physical copies will be available later this month through a variety of online distributors (CD Baby, Amazon).

Incus - “Fire and Bone”

While Incus has always evoked the word “tribal” when discussing the band’s sound, it hardly seems adequate in discussing the festival-touring juggernaut (including stops at Starwood and the Pagan Spirit Festival) this ever-evolving group of individuals, lead by singer and composer Jason Cohen, has become. As a result, “Fire and Bone”, unlike their previous release “Burning Thread”, seems to carry the aspirations of a group trying to capture the magic of its hard-won live energy. At times this is successful, like on the energetic opening cut “Claudia Always Eyes”, or the slow burn into Russian folk-jam of “Weight (Wait)”. However, elsewhere, this album strikes me as transitional, with some missteps keeping the album from eliciting an unreserved endorsement. “Fire and Bone” is a snapshot of an evolving band that hasn’t quite captured its lightning in a bottle. This album hasn’t been released yet, though you should be able to order it from CD Baby soon.

Sharron Kraus - “The Fox’s Wedding”

Fans of pastoral British folk are in for a treat. Sharron Kraus, who has been generating buzz for some time now among fans of darkly-inflected folk music, delivers a masterwork that is both mythic and deeply personal. There isn’t a weak track to be found here, all the songs seem to lead you towards an ever-shifting seasonal journey that reminds you how deeply personal turning the wheel can truly be. That sacrifice and rebirth are simultaneously inside and outside of us. For fans of “The Wicker Man” soundtrack, surely, but also for those wondering who is envisioning the future of folk music. Wonderful. You can buy a digitial version of “The Fox’s Wedding” at Amazon, or order a physical copy from Jnana Records (or Amazon).

Silver Summit - “Silver Summit”

A heady mix of psychedelic folk and mysticism, Silver Summit’s debut album is an ode to what lays beyond. The album plays like an initiatory journey to the otherworld, from the opening chimes of “Music In the Afterlife”, to the breathy chant-like “In-Between Place” (appropriately placed near the the middle of the album) to somber and spooky closer “The Bridge”. You are left feeling changed and deeper entwined in mystery than before you started. It is little wonder that other reviewers are describing Silver Summit as “bewitched”, “a collision of heaven and earth, fire and water”, or for “sonic voyagers seeking to ascend to the next level.” You can buy a digital copy of “Silver Summit” from Amazon, or you can order a physical copy through Drag City/Language of Stone.

Other picks:
Fern Knight - “Fern Knight” - A mix of folk, prog, and classical elements that serves as “an ode to all things green and living”, and showcases the amazing songwriting abilities of Margaret Wienk. [Purchase]

Lux Interna - [a lantern carried in blood and skin] - A retrospective collection of haunting neo-folk that explores a Gnostic band finding the “inner light” in a world of illusions. [Purchase]

Pamela Wyn Shannon - “Courting Autumn”: A psych/pastoral-folk exploration of the waning year that highlights a shining musical talent. [Purchase]

The Washington Post reviews the latest album from electro-goth band The Birthday Massacre, somewhat favorably, and makes a rather odd comparison.

“Tattooed and black-maned, Chibi resembles ’70s goth pioneer Siouxsie Sioux.”

The funny thing is, and I don’t say this to insult either party, but Chibi looks nothing like post-punk/goth icon Siouxsie Sioux. I’m guessing that “looks like Siouxsie” is basic rock-journalism shorthand for “dresses in black” and “looks goth”. Which makes me wonder, is the male equivalent then “looks like Eldritch” or “looks like Peter Murphy”? Inquiring minds want to know!

Coming out later this month is the new album from Hello, Blue Roses, a collaboration between Sydney Vermont and Dan Bejar (of New Pornographers fame). Entitled “The Portrait Is Finished And I Have Failed To Capture Your Beauty… “, the duo has created a tapestry of beautiful songs that evoke emotive ’80s-era post-punk, psych-folk, and the arty styling of artists like Kate Bush and This Mortal Coil.

Hello, Blue Roses

“Following a month spent bundled up in the deep freeze of the Arctic Circle making music & art, Hello, Blue Roses’ Dan Bejar and Sydney Vermont return to their hometown of Vancouver just as the greater part of North America feels a shivery winter continue to cover the country with mounds of white fluffy stuff … Drawing on everything from an unabashed love of 80’s AOR ala Prefab Sprout and Kate Bush to prime Aquarian-age femme folk of the 60’s and 70’s to create an infectious, readymade classic. “

The song “Shadow Falls” is an instant classic (people are already covering it), the kind of tune that is infectious almost immediately. Plaintive, sweet, catchy, and simple. It makes me look forward to picking up the whole album come January 22nd.

Downloads: Hello, Blue Roses - “Shadow Falls”, ” Sunny Skies”

Links: Hello, Blue Roses on MySpace, Hello, Blue Roses on The Hype Machine

The Edmonton Sun has a nice profile up of Canadian “goth-tinged” group Cockatoo.

Cockatoo

“Bassist Rod Wolfe’s musical career has seen him play nearly every style of alternative music over the years. He’s done punk, ska, electronic, goth and psychedelic rock and collaborated with ex-members of Skinny Puppy and SNFU among many others. His musical journey has most recently landed him with Edmonton’s Cockatoo, a band that allows him to exercise a wide array of his influences, which he can’t quite pin down himself … In October, the band finally pressed a few of its goth-tinged rock tunes to CD. The Basement Tapes EP has quickly spread Cockatoo’s name from their own basements to homes all over the world. “

I have been following the career of singer/guitarist Robyn Bright for some time now, and I can tell you that her songwriting chops are solid, her voice assured, and her talent apparent. You should definitely check out Cockatoo’s new EP “The Basement Tapes”, you’ll be glad you did. While the article claims their sound to be “undefinable”, you can certainly hear darker post-punk echoes and sign-posts throughout the EP, including a healthy dollop of Echo and the Bunnymen, and the “4AD-sound” (albiet with a more aggressive drum sound). Don’t miss out.

Links: Cockatoo on MySpace, Robyn Bright on MySpace

If you haven’t already followed the link from Boing Boing, go check out the latest post on the Arthur Blog concerning the occult musical underground in Britain.

“The 2002 ritual is one of the more striking manifestations of a largely unobserved current of inspiration running through the margins of British electronic music in recent years. A loose network of musicians have been following similar paths of interest or obsession, paths that frequently end up in places where ritual, magick and paranormal occurrence are the spur for musical invention. Themes and reference points include weird tales and ghost story writers (especially some of the names that influenced HP Lovecraft), psychogeography (or the physical examination of the psychic qualities of our cities), renegade science, and nostalgia for half-remembered (or mis-remembered) films and television, typically science fiction and horror. These groups are eager to use their work to lift the veil on the mundane and shine a light into occluded zones. What they’re delving into might be called “occulture” (for want of a better term), “occult” meaning hidden, and it’s with hidden, forgotten or secret arts that occulture concerns itself. “

Check out the whole thing, it is well worth the read as an exploration of cultural and musical threads that get very little attention from the majority of music and pop-culture journalists.

It’s tough being a band in the “dark” (goth, darkwave, ethereal, industrial, deathrock, etc) underground in the USA. Bands can have a career spanning decades without a hint of mainstream success, playing the same clubs and venues as the newcomers, and upstaged by bands who appropriate the look (and often the label) with hardly a nod to the legacy of musical sounds they (sometimes unwittingly) reference. Is it any wonder some American “dark underground” musicians have decided to relocate to places like Germany (or sign exclusively with European labels)? The point being that there are a lot of very talented bands and musicians out there being ignored by both the mainstream and the indie hipster taste-makers because of stupid stereotypes and preconceived ideas. Which brings me to The Machine in The Garden.

The Machine in The Garden

This darkwave band’s 2005 album “Shadow Puppets” made my list of “best” albums for that year (#2 in fact), and I played it incessantly on my radio show and at the clubs I DJ-ed at (I even hosted them for a live gig in my town). It was the kind of album, that, if there were any justice, would have seen them quitting their day-jobs in order to tour and focus exclusively on their musical careers. Sadly, that didn’t happen, but it hasn’t stopped Summer Bowman and Roger Frace from continuing to make excellent music that inhabits, yet transcends, the “darkwave” genre. So I’m pleased to announce that the band has returned with a new release entitled “XV”. A look back at their 15-year run that includes remixes, outtakes, demos, a cover, and two new songs.

“The album is filled with the powerful songwriting of both Roger Fracé and Summer Bowman, each sharing duties as composers and vocalists. The songs span the vast styles the band is known for, layering rich textures of synthesizers, guitars and vocals into a variety of tracks ranging from ethereal to darkwave to goth rock.”

“XV” is no mere collection of filler that some bands resort to as a contract-fulfiller or stop-gap method while trying to create new material (in fact the band self-released the album), it instead reminds one of an anniversary party celebrated with a collection of close friends (perhaps not surprising since Summer and Roger are themselves a happy couple). The unreleased songs are chosen with care, including the beautifully moving “Six Days”, and the spacey, eerie “Nowhere”, while the remixes are respectful and highlight different aspects of the band while sharing the spotlight with some of their musical peers (Matrix, Ego Likeness, Pete Murray).

While my club-DJ compatriots will most likely give a lot of focus to the dance-mixes on this collection, I especially wanted to hear the two new tracks for hints of where the band may be going (musically speaking). While “Mental Wasteland” is a fine but somewhat uneven musical exercise in wing-stretching, the closing number “Otherworld” is a revelation. The songs does away with many of the normal guitar effects the band uses, and instead channels a sonic aesthetic that very much reminds me of “Faith”-era Cure (especially with that echoing drum machine) married to Summer’s soaring vocal work. Definitely a success, with the more classic approach highlighting the duo’s strong songwriting skills. Something I hope to hear more of on the band’s next full-length of new material (whenever that may be).

“XV” is very much worth your time, a snapshot of a veteran band confident in their skills taking a look back. Happy anniversary, I’m looking forward to what comes next.

PS - For more TMiTG-related sounds, check out the upcoming (but available for order now) album “Sub Rosa” from Mirabilis, a neo-classical project featuring Summer Bowman and Dru Allen (from This Ascension). A release you’ll be hearing more about from me in the near-ish future.

Downloads: Get a variety of Mp3 sound-clips from “XV”, here.

Links: The Machine in The Garden on MySpace

California’s The Grizzly Owls want to take you to the honky-tonk. But not just any honky-tonk. Their bar is a Dust Bowl-era joint where Nick Cave and Merle Haggard swap stories while Patsy Cline (or is it Elizabeth Fraser in a cowboy hat) sings a sad ballad concerning fallen women. Then after the inevitable bar-fight, they all settle down and watch European art-house cinema.

Singer Jenny Andreotti

“The Grizzly Owlswere inspired by their grandparents’ journey from Oklahomato Bakersfield, Californiaduring the Dust Bowl migration. Keeping in tradition with their roots, The Grizzly Owls looked to country legends such as Buck Owens and Merle Haggard in addition to writers Raymond Carver and Henry David Thoreau, spaghetti westerns of the 1960’s and French new-wave films of Jean-Luc Godard as influences. As a married couple, Joseph and Jenny Andreotti made music together for seven years before recording their debut, By Night On My Bed. Jenny’s smoky vocals give depth and texture to Joseph’s Southern style guitars and electro-pop beats.  Raymond Richards (Frankel, Mojave 3) contributed pedal steel and vibraphone while mixing and mastering what’s come to be a whimsical record full of tales about death, lust, love, and obsession.”

If we are going to make musical comparisons, Neko Case is a decent place to start.  A sort of old-timey country sound filtered through a post-punk aesthetic. But while Case has slowly grown away from formal country structures, The Grizzly Owls keep a steady Spaghetti Western-influenced sound firmly in place (along with some hints at electro-pop). It very much reminds me of an ethereal band trapped in the Old West. I don’t quite see the Nick Cave influences they claim, but I also haven’t heard the full album. Is there some madness hidden beneath the surface? Only time (and a promotional copy of the album) will tell. In the meantime, enjoy these two very enjoyable songs from “By Night on My Bed”.

Downloads: The Grizzly Owls - “Rifles and Hemlines”, “What’s A Girl to Do”
(from “By Night on My Bed”)

Links: The Grizzly Owls @ MySpace The Grizzly Owls e-card

I have always been a fan of the more haunted and esoteric side of the new wave of psychedelic folk. More Espers than Devendra Banhart, more British Wyrd Folk than Naturalismo if you catch my drift. So you’ll get a general idea of where I’m coming from when I say I really enjoy the sounds I find on the new split-EP from Novemthree and Arrowwood.

Both projects deal with haunting folk styles, sounds that evoke a sort of timeless atmosphere of poetry and myth. Arrowwood’s contribution weaves an almost ambient haze of melancholic moods, which, lead by vocalist Chelsea Robb (with accompaniment from Pythagumus, Lindsey Hoffman, Josh Lovejoy), transports you to a time when haunting laments were the bread and butter of troubadours everywhere. Meanwhile, Novemthree (spearheaded by Pythagumus) has a sound that evokes memories of the spooky pastoral folk found on The Wicker Man Sountrack (which if you know me, is high praise indeed). Songs that seem ready to turn the wheel of the year and initiate you to deeper mysteries.

The EP is a release on the new Little Somebody Records label, who utilizes unique packaging (two mini-CDs with some marvelous graphic design) to create a treasured collectors item. This is strong and talented work that should perk up the ears of any folk-music enthusiast, even if their tastes don’t run down the same crooked paths mine do. This is music that beckons you towards a dark wood, and you should heed its call.

Links: Novemthree @ MySpace, Arrowwood @ MySpace

You knew the hipster love-affair was over when Pitchfork gave Interpol’s major-label debut a measly 6.0. Then again, so did Spin and Rolling Stone. Which means those magazines have become surprisingly relevant once more, or, that Pitchfork has finally solidified into a part of the rock-criticism mainstream (admit it, they have become rather predictable). Meanwhile, while even fans generally agree that no new ground has been broken with “Our Love to Admire”, most everyone admits that the album is a solid affair with a few truly great songs lifting the entire album above workmanlike mediocrity.

“For better and worse—mostly better—Our Love is unmistakably another Interpol disc … on the whole, Our Love To Admire delivers exactly what’s promised, which for fans will be exactly enough. Interpol: A Brand Name You Can Trust?”

Interpol

The album’s opener, “Pioneer to the Falls”, is dead brilliant. A beautiful track that I wanted to play over and over again, and some of the best work the band has done (even the haters agree). It starts off a strong first half that, if it had been maintained throughout, would have become a classic album held up as the band’s “Disintegration”. Its a shame that the band is currently enduring the inevitable backlash that comes with an initial wellspring of underground love.  I agree with the Los Angeles Times reviewer who opined that “Our Love to Admire” will very likely become “that tricky third record, the one it’s cool to like best.” So perhaps my undimmed love for this release makes me ahead of the curve (though I doubt it).

In any event, this is certainly one of my favorites for 2007, perhaps it should be one of yours too. To quote one more review, it should be easy to see why I feel the way I do.

“Our Love To Admire borrows much of its nervous energy from several obvious English forebears: Echo And The Bunnymen, The Cure, Kitchens Of Distinction, Psychedelic Furs and early Banshees, as well as Joy Division and The Chameleons.”

So here’s to consistency and slow steady growth. May Interpol enjoy much more of it in the future.

Links: Interpol on MySpace, Interpol at The Hype Machine

Since this blog has only been in operation for a few months, there are a ton of great 2007 releases that I haven’t had the chance to comment on. Releases that may not go in my “best-of” lists for 2007, but are certainly worthy and deserve a listen. One of those albums is “Ultrashiver” by The Secret Meeting. The band is a collaboration between kaRIN and Statik of the band Collide, and Dean Garcia of Curve fame.

“Ultrashiver, their debut release, is an intoxicating ride through modern alternative music – at turns sleek, sensual, emotive, chilling, surreal, aggressive, detached, but never less than engrossing. This release is delicate and menacing, noisy and beautiful, and sure to penetrate hearts and resonate in the minds and souls of the listener. Echoes of Collide and Curve can be heard in these grooves, of course, but The Secret Meeting takes on a life and personality of its own.”

How does it sound? It sounds a lot to me (unsurprisingly) like Collide (which isn’t a bad thing since I’m a fan of Collide’s work) with an extra-slick sonic sheen provided by Garcia’s programming skills. No doubt debates are raging elsewhere as we speak on the subject of if The Secret Meeting sounds more like Curve with a new vocalist, or Collide with an extra member added, since the styles of both bands merge so well.

The Secret Meeting

But no matter how you slice it, it is still beautiful and well-produced dark(wave) electro-rock, with songs fronted ably by kaRIN’s distinctive and sensual vocal style. Perhaps the added boost of star-power from Garcia will help elevate kaRIN to the wider attention she has long deserved. Collide’s 15 minutes are long overdue, and if The Secret Meeting and a member of Curve can provide it, then more power to them. In the meantime, this is a worthy debut that should be equally welcome on club dancefloors as it is on your home stereo.

Downloads: The Secret Meeting - “Am I Here” (clip), “Blacker than Blue” (clip)
(from “Ultrashiver”)

Links: The Secret Meeting on MySpace, Collide on MySpace

Blogcritics Magazine has a positive review up of new London After Midnight album “Violent Acts of Beauty”. Reviewer ‘Coryluscontorta’ calls the album a “fairly satisfying” release that will please goth “aficionados”.

“Primarily this album is intended to stand as a rousing vehicle for Brennan’s passionately held socio-political views; his lyrics weave a web of commentary about the human condition around the electro-pulse. But lofty aims aside, this is an album for those high-energy, punch-out-the-stars nights; an album for sticky floors and long purple wool falls. This is an album listen to while having fun, even if you allow the message to slip past you.”

Goth journalism legend Mick Mercer is completely impressed with the latest from UK post-punk/goth band And Also the Trees entitled “(Listen For) The Rag and Bone Man”.

“The little buggers have done it again! After the relaxed eerie brilliance of the ‘Further From The Truth’ albums comes something similar in tone, but of a weirder bent …  Another stunner from them then, and enticingly weird, as though Wim Wenders was brought up in the Midlands.”

Hot Indie News (Hot Indie News?) features a (short yet) positive review of goth personality/musician/author Voltaire’s latest album “Ooky Spooky”.

“Is it possible that there is such a thing as “Pretty Goth”? If there is, Voltaire is definitely in that category. But don’t make the same mistake as I did and assume that every song will be the same. Ooky Spooky is easily one of the best CD’s I’ve heard recently … Needless to say, I’m in love with this CD, I strongly recommend going out and buying it.”

Mammoth Press give a mediocre review (and some snotty goth-scorn) to The Birthday Massacre’s  album “Walking With Strangers”.

“There is this underbelly of the rock industry that for a long time has tried to be subversive and different. Instead gothic ‘80s rock has only come off as silly makeup wearing clowns that make some fun, yet dread-filled pop songs that appeal to a large scale of people in the form of one-hit-wonders. The synthesizer base of this music comes ringing through on The Birthday Massacre’s new album that is filled to the brim with heavily programmed music. “

Finally, Pitchfork looks at the new David Bowie box set “David Bowie Box” that collects his uneven recent (post-Tin Machine) work. Predictably, a high score is not forthcoming (it got a 4.6).

“Since the 1990s, David Bowie has been in the worst kind of rut. It’s not that his output has been substandard– each of his recent albums has had its share of pleasures. The problem is that by and large his output has been just good enough. As a result, nearly each of his releases from the past two decades have earned the usual “best album since…” reviews, and Bowie did admittedly sound more engaged than he had for most of the 80s (a decade he himself has since mostly written off). But considering that virtually everything Bowie recorded between 1970 and 1980 became more or less canonized, it’s a bit of a legacy risk to re-release his most recent slate of CDs as a boxed set, with each album expanded to double-disc sets containing a mostly negligible collection of catalog detritus. It calls attention to the very albums that refurbished Bowie’s iconic status, but outside of that big picture context it’s a bit of a rocky ride.”

That is all I have for now, have a good night.

I was fourteen when post-punk populists U2 hit mega super-stardom with “The Joshua Tree”. I was far too young to enjoy the “War”-era firebrand stances, and I had only paid slight attention to “The Unforgettable Fire” and the subsequent Live Aid performance, but by 1987 everyone knew (and liked) U2. This was telegraphed home to me (in retrospect), by the fact that in my home town of Omaha, Nebraska, (not the most musically adventurous place to be in the mid-80s) they got played on the classic-rock radio station (a feat not repeated by an “alternative” band until R.E.M.’s “Green” released the next year), in malls, on TV, and in mainstream magazines like Time.

But I wasn’t a U2 fan at that point. I mean, I liked “Where the Streets Have No Name” as much as the next teenager just starting to explore music outside the norm, but they certainly didn’t resonate with me as an important band. That year for Christmas my mom splurged and got me an early CD player (something almost unheard-of in my age-group at the time) along with a small assortment of CDs. One of those CDs was “The Joshua Tree” (along with some Dire Straits, and The Pet Shop Boys), but I barely listened to it (I still have that CD). To my young ears, U2 had already passed into the sort of mainstream parent-respectability that made it seem “boring” to me. This was only confirmed by the bloated and overly-earnest “Rattle and Hum” released the next year. I was far more interested in Depeche Mode, R.E.M., and a variety of bands I was exposed to on Mtv’s “120 Minutes”. A re-evaluation of U2 didn’t happen till their “Achtung Baby/Zooropa” years, where a darker and “sexier” version of the band managed to win me over (somewhat).

So I’m rather ambivalent about all this media hype at the twenty-year anniversary of their big breakthrough album, complete with deluxe re-mastered box-set and loads of reminiscing from critics and journalists. Only critic Joe Gross seems to echo much of my own ambivalence in his review:

“As a 12- and 13-year-old kid feeling out the parameters of cultural rejection that punk rock afforded, I was wary of U2. Something that rockers and Christians agreed on was suspicious. Twenty years and one deluxe, three-disc reissue of their signature album later (it was released Tuesday), I remain almost as conflicted about them now as I was then … U2 is one of the very few bands to translate the cool, distant European post-punk into something both intimate and arena-ready. And nobody quite sounds like them, no matter how hard they try. U2 kept their own counsel, never replaced a band member and seem to be a God’s-honest team in what they do. On the other hand, this is arena rock — by design, there’s nothing anti-establishment about it. And Bono is one of the most exhausting rock star media presences of all time, from his on-stage pretension (especially back then) to his endless political yammering.”

While few can deny the talent and songwriting chops of U2, I do often wonder at how this band was singled out amongst the post-punk crop for fame and glory. What would have happened if U2 faded into obscurity maintaining only a cult audience, while (much stranger and darker) Irish musical peers The Virgin Prunes rocketed on to superstardom. Or if English rivals Echo and the Bunnymen became ubiquitous global pop-stars while U2 were relegated to “college rock” status and notable soundtrack appearances. I suppose it comes down to the fact that U2 didn’t threaten the “rock royalty” upper echelons due to their humble appreciation of “the roots” (something that separated them from many of their post-punk peers), they supported political causes that were popular (or at least not offensive) amongst middle-America, and won over Christians thanks to their own faith affiliations. In hindsight they were the perfect “outsider” band to gain acclaim in Reagan’s America. Years before “indie” bands started breaking big in waves.

So while the music world bows in remembrance of U2’s crowning achievement, I remain an ambivalent and peripheral fan (at best), and continue to stump for the semi-forgotten bands (and the bands that followed in their footsteps), the ones that reached out to a kid from Omaha wanting anything but what the adults (and the musical mainstream) approved of.

For all the blather about how Industrial music serves dark purposes and powers, it is actually pretty rare to come across a band that seems somewhat serious in their convictions. Scratch the loud klanging beats and horror-movie samples, and you’ll often find a rather pedestrian product. So it is refreshing to know that when Peter Devin of yelworC invokes notorious occultist Aleister Crowley and dark ritualistic magick, he really means it (man).

“yelworC’s dark stage performances usually consisted of Devin dressed in a robe, singing from a wooden podium and surrounding himself by candles, pagan symbols and a black tapestry backdrop”

You know, this sort of thing…

Around on and off since the early 1990s, yelworC returns with “Icolation”, the second album since the project reformed in 2004 (sans co-founding member Oliver Büttner). This time the band gets downright diabolic with a set of songs inspired by Dante’s Inferno.

“Drawing influence from Dante’s Inferno, Icolation takes the listener on a journey of the damned, from darkest hell straight to an apocalyptic purgatory. The music is as hard, twisted and complex as before - a synthesis of strong, vital rhythms and darkest melodic compositions. Darker than dark, harder than hard - but always featuring that surprising and patented twisted YelworC sound. The master of evil electronics has returned, and has brought the very sounds of Hell with him.”

So how does it sound? It is surprisingly accessible. Much of the record involves itself with atmospherics laden with samples, at times bordering on dark ambient rather than industrial music. This works in the albums favor, making the darkness a more seductive and unnerving presence rather than relying on the battering-ram mentality of many bands working within the industrial genre. Some of the tracks, like “Lord of the Three” and “The Bells of Waiting” are almost pretty (in a demonic, clattering sort of way). When the music does become faster-paced and more aggressive on tracks like “In the Purgatory”, yelworC avoids boring monotony and keeps things interesting. My only real complaint is the album’s over-reliance on “evil” vocoder-manipulated vocals, which just comes across as somewhat cheesy to me. Still, this is a strikingly mature work, that explores occult themes and ideas about supernatural evil without falling into many of the traps similar artists encounter.

Downloads: yelworC - “Lost Futile” (clip) and Ecce Mundo ver.2 (clip)
(from the album “Icolation”)

Links:  yelworC on MySpace

Earlier this year Projekt released an album that would certainly have made my “best of 2007″ list if it weren’t for my personal rules against including retrospectives. But all the same, any year in which a Trance to the Sun album hits the stores is almost certainly a good year (for dark music). Formed by guitarist Ashkelon Sain in the early 1990s, Trance to the Sun would become a huge creative force within the American Darkwave scene, anticipating and inspiring many bands that would emerge later. Their mix of shoegaze, ethereal darkwave, and goth styles evolved over several albums (and lead vocalists) culminating in the brilliant (and almost bombastic) epic swan-song “Atrocious Virgin” in 2001.

Trance to the Sun circa 2000

Now, for those who missed out on those heady years when the band was active, there is a “finest works” package entitled “Spiders, Aether & Rain” which gives an excellent overview of the bands nearly decade-long career.

“Projekt is proud to announce the release of a ‘best of’ compilation album from the legendary surrealist goth / dream-pop / darkwave ensemble, Trance to the Sun. Ground-breaking and critically acclaimed in their time (1990-2001), this compilation coincides with the band’s first performance in half a decade, at Convergence 13 in Portland (last weekend of May, 2007). Spiders, Aether & Rain features thirteen tracks spanning the entire Trance to the Sun oeuvre; from haunting, spindly ballads to thunderous goth-rock waltzes; from freaked-out electronic gems of hypnotic rhythm to heavily orchestrated pseudo-symphonic cacophonies. Whether you’re a long time devotee, or just discovering this critically acclaimed, elegant music for the first time, this release is for you. “

Any look at the goth/darkwave scene in the 1990s would be incomplete without this seminal (and talented) band, and it is to Projekt’s credit they have taken the initiative to put this “best-of” together and expose a new audience to Trance to the Sun’s sound. Perhaps if we are very lucky, their brief reunion performance at this year’s Convergence will be a harbinger of things to come, and we’ll hear some new material from the band.

Downloads: You can hear some down-loadable sound clips at the Projekt web site, and you can find a track from “Atrocious Virgin” at Ashkelon Sain’s MySpace page.

Links: Trance to the Sun at MySpace

The Portland, Oregon band Vanishing Kids has just released a new album, “Skies in Your Eyes”, a follow-up to 2005’s excellent “The Selfish Mirror”. On “Skies in Your Eyes” this post-punk influenced group builds on much of the potential found in their debut album , creating a more consistent and mature work. The influences and stylistic choices from their first album are still present, but they are more fully integrated and the band seems more assured in presenting a unique identity apart from the influences.

Vanishing Kids - Skies in Your Eyes

At first, “Skies” feels like it might become a sonic tug-of-war between their more electro and dark post-punk inclinations, and the band’s obvious love of shoegaze bands like My Bloody Valentine. This is most apparent in the two opening tracks “This Light” and “Old Eyes” (both energetic, but slightly schizophrenic), but after that these two stylistic poles seem to come to a truce and merge wonderfully on songs like the spacey (and slightly creepy) “Valentine” and the swirling, rushing exuberance of “Winter”. As a whole, “Skies” shows that Vanishing Kids are moving forward with their dreamily euphoric  (yet downcast) sound, and that we have only scratched the surface of what they are possible of offering us in the future. Having broken the dreaded “sophomore slump”, the band could be poised to garner the wider attention they deserve. “Skies in Your Eyes” is certainly a quality release worth your time and money.

Downloads: Vanishing Kids - “Valentine”
(from “Skies in Your Eyes”)

Links: Vanishing Kids on MySpace