LOVATARAXX : "SOPHOMORE"

Was sorting through the newly announced lineup for the 2024 Absolution Fest line-up and this is the first project that released music this year that caught my ear. This French project makes music that is a very lo-fi and cinematic take on dark wave-leaning future pop. The synths and drum programming have a very purposefully 80s feel to them. The vocals are interesting as they are phrased in an upbeat punk manner. The first track caught my attention so let's see if they can hold my interest from here. The male and female vocals get equal spotlight. The second song sounds like it should be playing in the background at an arcade in 1985. She sings in her native tongue, which is accented in a very stark fashion. It is however more upbeat than the first song. 

"Harmony Boast" is upbeat, but not in a dancey way despite its intentions. Instead, it rides a stiff post-punk tension, from the back of a coke-fueled disco. It feels almost like Nina Hagen. 'Earl Condition" finds them conforming more closely to what has already been established as the DJ-approved sounds for the genre. The make vocals are lower and more detached. "Tilda Vaast' is a darker step in a similar direction that comes across as carrying more tension. The female vocals work really well over the groove this song establishes. Later in the album they shift into a more Cure-like take on post-punk, which works well. 

Fans of projects like Boy Harsher and TR/ST should find plenty of common ground with what goes down here. This project might even wink more heavily in the direction of the 80s. The dark grooves are not the typically worn-out beats that you have been dancing to at goth nite for the past two decades. When the tempo picks up it feels like you are being frantically chased through a neon maze. "Marybone" drones with her chant, despite having a more upbeat feel. The underlying intensity of "Bruxism" is more impressive though it finds them back in a more Nina Hagen-like new wave.  They close the album with a more brooding atmosphere lurking under the disco sonics. I like his approach to the vocals here, as they have more emotion behind them. I will give this album a 9, it surprised me, and while I am not sure how many repeat listens I will return to it for, I enjoy the time I spent with it and think that fans of more electronic-based dark music will find plenty to celebrate with it. 

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