The Wake – Perfumes and Fripperies

Tags

90's Gothic Rock, blaylox records, Buy it now, Caroline blind, daniel c, dave wolfenden, Essential gothic rock album, goth, gothic, Gothic Rock, Gothic rock classics, james tramel, Red Lorry Yellow Lorry, rich witherspoon, Shameless Promotions, Sunshine Blind, The Wake, The wake perfumes and fripperies, The wake us, troy payne, uber goth, wolfie

After 26 years of slumber, The Wake punch a hole through the gathered layers of dust and cobwebs. I was lucky enough to see them live at Sacrosanct in London in 1997 where their energetic darkness eclipsed the rest of the bands on the line up. The Wake were one of the top Gothic rock bands of 90’s which has kept them on many DJ’s playlists ever since. Is their third album Perfume and Fripperies as good as Masked or Nine Ways?

The album opens with Daisy a beautiful slice of gothic melancholy with same magnificent musically depth as shown in theor previous cover of 16 days. Epic! Hammer Hall is the first track that heralded The Wake’s awakening and will once again ignite the dancefloor (once govt’s take realistic steps to allow dancing- VR is not the way but a boot on the windpipe of music) just like Locomotive Age you will be addicted to this track! Marry Me would fit like a glove on any of their previous albums as the guys shows their has been no erosion of their musical tightness and depth.

Break Me Not – The Wake never were a formular gothic clone and never will be due Troy’s unique vocal style and Richard’s signature guitars which are stamped all over the album. Great track! Perfumes and Fripperies pulses and bounces along like a gothic train. Love it! Rusted 20 has the makings of a classic stamped all over it. Love it!

Everything features Wolfie from local Leeds band RLYR and naturally the sound is a slight departure from the the trademark guitars expected from The Wake. A great song! Emily Closer (MH direct-drive mix) one of the stand out tracks on the album, a great synth arrangement adds a new level of brilliance. Wow! Big Empty powered up with gothic tribalistic drums. Lovely! Figurine sees a drop in pace but no loss of Gothic magnificence! The album closes with Rusted (Hz healer mix feat Caroline Blind) another great track which brings the album to an end.

This album is a great return and shows what has been missing from Gothic rock. I look forward very much to seeing them live in 2021. Go buy it, released on 30th October.

SIEBEN – 2020 Vision album review

Tags

alternative, Apocalyptic pop, Brexit, climate change, Covid -19, darkfolk, gothic, Kev - The Kevlar Violin, Looped Violin, Maciek Frett, Matt Howden, neofolk, Pandemic, SIEBEN, Sieben 2020 vision, The CCP Virus, The End Of days, The Levellers, The Mighty Sieben, The sound of the apocalypse, The Wonderstuff, Violin master

Sieben release their new album on 1st May. 2020 vision was already going to be quite apocalyptic as it was influenced by the destructive nature of climate change and Brexit. The recording of the album in January and February took place against the backdrop of the CCP virus outbreak and its spread across the world. Casting a shadow which has been captured in this tasty slice of darkness.

The album also features a new violin to grace Matt’s bow – Kev the 5 string kevlar violin, bringing a new dystopian pounding edge. The album opens with We Are All Fucked Kev – A prophetic twisted Brother’s Grimm fairytale conversation between Kev and Matt. Maciek Frett adds to the pounding track with some deft synths. A frenzied hornets nest that swarms around your head. The anthemn for the age of the pandemic. Epic! Enzosonbenzos– Some amazing Violin sounds that have never been heard before. Hypnotic, ritualistic searing sounds capturing the negativity of brexit on European citizens in the UK. Great! Reckoning Beckoning – What a great Violin rock riff! A glimpse at what might be the end.

Death Tape Updated For 2020 Asks the question ‘What Woud You Do If You Knew What Was Ahead Of You?’ A solemn hymn for uncertain times. Classic Sieben. Shirt Of The Apocalypse features guest vocals from Connor Nutt, a dark blues tinged ditty, a climate change chant with a Sieben twist. ‘When We Burn, As We Drown. Berylsinperil -sounds like it could be an apt glimpse of the USA through intricate and infectious looptastic violin tendrils. Vision – Kev and Matt rock like never before as they show us the wasteland to come! The Darkness You Have Drawn – ‘You voted it, now eat it’ brexit, the election and the CCP virus – ‘The Darkness You Have Drawn Has Just Begun’ Seems to hit the hammer on head as far as the UK goes. A fine piece of stratocasting violin to echo round the aural cavities.

You My Cult Of Bright -has hints of The Levellers and later The Wonderstuff pure music magic from Matt. Come And Ride In The Cult Of Light – A great musical observation of how the world looks. Damn catchy loops! Despite it’s darkness, there is also some good dark humour moments from Kev 😉 What I really love about Sieben is just when you think they have produced their best album, Matt comes up with a new masterpiece to trump the previous one. The best Sieben album – well at least until the next one 😉 Love it!

Out on 1st may get your copy from

https://sieben.bandcamp.com/

EDEN – East Of The Stars album review

Tags

80's wave, All About Eve, alternative, cactus world news, Cocteau Twins, coldwave, darkwave, Eden - East Of The Stars, goth, gothic, Gothic Rock, guitarpop, postpunk, pure sonic seduction, Sean Bowley, shoegaze, siouxsie and the banshees, The Chameleons, The Church, The Cure, The Doors, The Edge, The Mission, This Mortal Coil, U2, wiretrain

 

East Of The Stars the new release from Sean Bowley’s Eden and the follow up to the mesmerising album The Edge Of Winter released 3 years ago. The album opens with a stunning instrumental Choral Matins an epic soundscape of shimmering guitars washing over the heartbeat like drum. The track continues to build reminding me of The Church, Cactus World News and The Chameleons at their best. Crank the stereo up to 11 and let the brilliant musical tide crash over you. Love this opening track! Searching For Angels Hands continues the classic 80’s guitar wave sound draped in Sean’s velvet vocals. Uplifting melancholic magic! Guardian has sprinkles of guitar akin to The Mission, Cocteau Twins, This Mortal Coil and Wiretrain – pure sonic seduction. Rainwashed – A Hymnlike mantra to better times when the current plague days are over. Fingers of guitar from The Edge’s early U2 days adorn the end of this track and brings the A-Side of the album to a close. The second side opens with the title track East Of The Stars a shoegazed seranade. Great! All The Time In The World – A lovely wall of chorus, reverb,and delay melts into darkpop Psychodelia. An anthemn for current times weaving sorrow down your spine…… Hymns And Mist – musically this reminds me of All About Eve perhaps a hint of The Cure tinged keyboards topped with Sean’s unique vocals. Epic! Stone Cat – A gothic masterpiece awash and swirled with hints of The Mission, The Doors, and Siouxsie and The Banshees A great end to a great album! Would have been one to see at the WGT 2020 fingers crossed WGT 2021 happens with Eden on the bill.

Get your copy from https://edenseanbowley.bandcamp.com/album/east-of-the-stars

SCREATURE – Old Hand New Wave

Tags

45 Grave, Christian Death, deathrock, deathwave, Eva O, Fuzz Guitars, goth, gothic, Old Hand New Wave - Screature, Origanal Rock N Roll, postpunk, punk, Rock It USA, sacremento, scarlets remains, Screature, Sonic, SUICIDE, the cramps, The Fuzztones, The Horrors

Screature return with their new album on 19th January 2018 ‘Old Hand New Wave‘, The album opens with The New Eve – a magical sonic shockwave giving a much needed injection into the deathrock genre. Wow! Waiting For A Light – a fuzztastic funeralistic bop which will have you bouncing on the dancefloor! Love it!

North Of Order – slamdancetastic . Yeah! Gone Cold –  a well woven wall of sound as guitars and keyboards speed walz to the protruding two finger vocals with a hint of Eva O. Epic! Hit The Void and the handbrake is gently applied to the sonic rocket fired by Screature. This is a delightful dirge will blow the dust well and truly away. Love it! Induction with the tempo still in second gear, The power of this song will blow you away. Wow! Metapsychosis – a brutal aural assault that will leave you windswept! Last Scene Alive – Another subsonic speed walz, lovely jagged guitars clash with the punked up vocals. Lovely! Movements- Lovely stabbing guitars, a hint of ‘The Cramps’, pumping keyboards and the trademark Screature vocals make this infectious like a raging fever! On Fire! Torn Passage –On this album Screature show their true depth of musical talent with this track being more postpunk, sounds like the Screature singer, ‘Suicide’, ‘The Horrors’ were mixed in a blender to produce the perfect sonic smoothy 😉 Another Mask brings the curtain down on what is easily the best album from Screature so far and for me one of the albums of 2018. Makes me want to catch a plane to USA, as top of my list for bands I want to see live in 2018! Your life will not be complete until you hear this masterpiece!

JAPAN SUICIDE – Santa Sangre

Tags

Blade Runner, cactus world news, deathwave, Editors, gothic, Gothic Italy, Interpol, Into Paradise, Japan Suicide, Noir Désir, postpunk, ritual, Santa Sangre - Japan Suicide, Savages, shoegaze, soviet soviet, The Cure, The Doors, The Underground Youth, U2, Yeah Yeah Yeahs

The highly anticipated new album from Japan Suicide  – ‘Santa Sangre’ is due for release on 14th February 2018. The album opens with the title track Santa Sangre – has a postpunk holy mass feel and is the perfect intro.

Circle comes next a ritualistic intro melts into relentless intensive waves of postpunk musical attitude. Reminds me a bit of Noir Desir, Great! Dealer possibley my favourite track on the album due to the pulsing 80’s bass and a great mix of shimmering and searing guitars to burn a hole in the dancefloor. Love it! El Ritual sees the pace drop into a sea of atmospherics, reminds me a bit of ‘Cactus World News’. Nice! Blown Away reignites the pulsing postpunk push to the dancefloor, with a splash of ‘The Cure’. Lovely! For Every Flaw –luscious intense jingly jangly guitars add to the wall of postpunk sound which will appeal to fans of Into Paradise. Great track! Fate has a more gothic feel to it, aided by the dark, desolate sounding keyboards splashing against deft drumming and shoegaze guitars. Rejoice – has a hint of U2’s ‘Stories For Boys’ album mixed up with ‘The Doors’ –  psychedelic postpunk atmospherics. Love it! Thus Bad Begins builds the the postpunk psychedelic atmosphere further. Lost Daughter and the temperature rises until it bursts into a searing postpunk classic. Nice! Carcosa – I can see this being the intro track for all future live performances. Postpunked Blade Runner. Epic! A great follow up to ‘We Die In Such a Place’

SHAD SHADOWS – Fix EP

Tags

Blade Runner, coldwave, darkwave, italy, postpunk, SciFi, Shad Shadows, Shad Shadows - Fix EP, the kvb, Vangelis

The follow up to Minor Blues sees Shad Shadows more influenced by Sci Fi sounds and the opening track Electronic Brigade has hints of ‘Vangelis’ and ‘Blade Runner’.

Moon Bay has a hint of ‘The KVB’ about it as it gravitates towards the dancefloor. Nice! White Fall is my favourite track on the album, simple but so seductive synths. Love It! Colloseum brings the EP to a close. What I really like about Shad Shadows is that they be original. Here’s to seeing them live in 2018.

IN THE NURSERY – 1961

Tags

1961, 28th Album, Alan Sheperd, Amnesty International, Berlin, Catch 22, Darkher, Filmscore, Ford Consul, IN THE NURSERY - 1961, Kennedy, Khrushchev, Martialled Industrial, neofolk, Nigel And Klive Humberstone, outer space, sci-fi, Sheffield, Solaris Stanislaw Lem, Sopor Aeternus, The Berlin wall, The Canadian Red Cross Memorial Hospital Cliveden Taplow, Vostok 1, Yuri Gagarin

 

The prolific composers and soundsmiths In The Nursery release their 28th album  1961 The album is inspired by events of 1961 the same year Nigel and Klive Humberstone were born. The album opens with Until Before After classical brooding filmscore seeps into a blissful bass riff shattered with a haunting guitar and a deft snare drum. The perfect switch between male and female vocals. What a great song! Could be this ITN’s new sound going forward? Love it! Torschlusspanik captures the devision of East and West Germany by construction of the Berlin wall. A great intro of assembled strings and a sparse synth will send a shiver down your spine -it could easily be from a filmscore. A chorus of Khrushchev, Kennedy, Berlin grows until it explodes into a bombastic masterpiece, one of the best songs In The Nursery has ever recorded! Fanatastic! Consul features Gladys a 1961 Ford consul. A genius idea that fits like a glove with the grandios church organ. Reminds me a bit of Sopor Aeternus. Epic! Grand Corridor is about the Canadian Red Cross Memorial Hospital in the grounds Cliveden, Taplow where the twins were born. In 1985 it closed and is said to be one of Britain’s most haunted hospitals with it’s 1/4 mile grand corridor. Has a spooky ritualistic feel. Love it! Retrofire celebrates Yuri Gagarin orbiting the earth in Vostok 1. Naturally ITN produce the perfect space soundscape and with the keyboards you can imagine the thrusters being fired on Vostok. Out Of This World! Pacify is inspired the novel Catch 22. A Neofolk classic. Love it!

Solaris is inspired by the science fiction novel written by Stanislaw Lem. What a great track will appeal to fans of Darkher. Epic! Prisoner Of Conscience is dedicated to the founding of Amnesty International. Great french vocals, classical composition and sparse guitars. Love it! The Earth Was Blue takes us back to space and Yuri Gagarin and Alan Shepard looking down on the earth. For me this is the best album In The Nursery have ever released, with a fusing of their early guitar sound, their classical filmscores and their epic martialed percussion. They have reinvented their sound and produced the perfect opus! I hope I will hear the full album being played live in 2018 as it will be something very special indeed. 12/10 – Get it now!

THE DEVIL & THE UNIVERSE -Folk Horror

Tags

Algernon Blackwood, Andy Paciorek, Ashley Dayour, Awakening The Fields, Blood On Satan's Claw, darkfolk, David Pfister, deathwave, Folk Horror, Folk Horror Revival, Ghostwave, Goatwave, John Carpenter, Momdsucht, MR James, Mysticism, Occult, pagan, Paganism, ritual, Stefan Elsbacher, Summoning, The Dark English Countryside, The Devil And The Universe, The Devil And The Universe - Folk Horror, The Hepworth Wakefield, The Occult, The Wicker Man, The Witchfinder General, Tribal

Released in time to celebrate the passing of Autumn Equinox and as a musical tribute to Robert Hardy’s epic film ‘The Wicker Man.’ Folk Horror is a mix of music, art, literature and film influenced by the like of The Wicker Man, Blood On Satan’s Claw, The Witchfinder General, Andy Paciorek, MR James, Algernon Blackwood, The Occult, Paganism, and The Dark English Countryside. All of which could be said to have been influences on this latest release from The Devil And The Universe.

The album opens with Alchemical Land the perfect aural accompaniment for a drive deep into the high hedged English countryside at sunset and wonder what was that I saw out of the corner of my eye. Creepy! Willow Dance will have you believing something evil lurks in the heart of the primeval woodlands. A great piece of tribal ritualism. Love it! The Ash Tree Darkfolk tinged melancholy that will enchant you. A Fiend In The Furrows takes its name from a conference held about Folk Horror in 2014. Sinister synths and deft drumming summon the haunted spirits of the countryside. Spooky!

Black Harvest a great scythe sample, supernatural synths and bombastic drumming make for a classic TDATU track! Wyrd a composition about fate which gain has a very haunted atmosphere. The Church Of The Goat has a John Carpenter feel, echoes of ‘The Thing’ colliding with ‘Mondsucht’ which develops into a foot stamping crescendo to shatter the dancefloor. Epic! The album closes with When We Were Trees conjures a wave of atmospheric terror which is shattered by the sound of Goats and a stomp onto the dancefloor. Love it. So if you want to get in the mood for halloween early and like music to send a shiver down your spine then this is for you!

 

Want to find out more about Folk Horror? Then Wakefield is the place to be in October!

Sounds Like Winter – Sticks & Stones

Tags

Australia, Christian Death, crazyhead, Gothic Rock, La Muerte, Mephisto walz, postpunk, Rozz Williams, Sounds Like Winter, Sticks And Stones, The Birthday Party, Wreckage, Xiii Stoleti

Sounds Like Winter return with their second album Sticks & Stones. The album starts with a bang as Blood Red is unleashed in furious fashion watch your speakers don’t ignite with the wonderous waves of guitars. Wow! Sticks And Stones sees a drop in intensity but an upping in Gothness as echoes of Mephisto Walz bounce of the walls. Love it! I Hide In Sleep and the tempo is cranked up as this postpunk ditty delivers a kick in the aurals! Impossible Dreams goes for the Gothic jugular with pounding drums, and relentless waves of guitars which will blow you away! The Life Of The Just maintains the power but adds atmosphere with addition of synths and less ferocity in the guitars. Great! Television Dream reminds me a bit of The Birthday Party mixed with La Muerte, Love it! Gritar has the intensity of bands like Crazyhead or XIII Stoleti. Wow! Plastic will have you bouncing around the dancefloor what a great postpunk track! Beasts Of England has very classic goth feel with a hint of Rozz Williams Christian Death. Epic! New Hebrides brings the album to a close with a classic slice of Gothic rock! Definately another candidate for the WGT in Leipzig 😉

https://sounds-like-winter.bandcamp.com/

DREAMS ARE LIKE WATER – A Sea-Spell

Tags

4AD, A Sea Spell, All About Eve, Bauhaus, Cocteau Twins, cranes, dreampop, DREAMS ARE LIKE WATER -, Ethereal, gothic, New Zealand, Pale Saints, shoegaze, This Mortal Coil

Judging by the name and sound the band are partly inspired by This Mortal Coil. A Sea Spell features dual male and female vocals in a delicate slice of dreampop dusted with shoegaze and the sound of the sea. Perfection! (Thrice) In Blood seems to capture the intensity of Bauhaus in say the style of “Passion Of Lovers/Silent Hedges” but with a delicate female vocal, Epic! Ineffable reminds me of very much of early All About Eve when they used a drum machine. Lush! Feathered Infant Bells is the longest track on the EP at 9.11 weaving a web of ethereal gossamer that tears into a shoegaze dirge. Wow! A great debut indeed. Look forward to the album 😉

https://dreamsarelikewater.bandcamp.com/