Glaare : "To Deaf and Day"

Sometimes when I am sorting through the mass of music either in my in-box or I am hunting down I often think "Somewhere out there this is someone's favorite band". This can be odd ,though there is certainly no accounting for taste. This was claimed to be the favorite band of a fellow Cvlt Nation writer. If you took some shoe gazing guitar and married to female fronted dark-wave it would result in something similar to the California band Glaare. I can appreciate the Siouxsie influence is there but it doesn't define the totality of their existence. The second song is not as urgent as the first and just kind of feels like filler in comparison.It's not a weak song, the first song was just much more emotionally powerful so the dynamic drop was more noted. "First Rain" has a more captivating beat and pulls me in where the previous song did not, though if we are using the opener as the measure for the rest of the album then this song is a little more post-punk, but not as hypnotic.

The guitars give enough of an organic element to smooth out the more electronic instrumentation On "Desiree" I think having more organic instruments in the mix might have given the song more impact. At this point calling the album goth might be a little bit of an exaggeration. "Ruins" takes us closer to the point as it's the darkest song on the album so far. While the more Cure like guitar melody is welcomed "Isky" breezes by until it locks in more midway into the song. The song also feels like it begins to run out of gas in the last minute. Synths play a much larger role in "Suffer". The guitar comes in at almost a minute before the subdued vocals that are mixed behind a filtered haze of effects. The come forward on the mix when it gets to the chorus. Not the strongest song on the album, but still pretty decent.

"Surrender/ Control" has a more pounding rock feel , that actually brings in a heavier dynamic. This is certainly what the album needed to switch things up as it was beginning to lose me by floating away in ambiance. I'll give this album an 8.5 . It works in many ways. Why did it not score higher you ask ? It could have used a little more meat on it's bones and would have benefited from a more organic base of instruments being plugged in. Overall it has many strengths, the vocals are excellent, they have their own identity and this is not simply a tribute to their 80s fore fathers. They are not my favorite band at the moment, but a band I will keep my ears open for .

Gothtober- Walk Onto Sun : "Grow Static"

This project out of sunny Los Angeles draws from the city's bleak underbelly. This is the sound of alley ways after midnight. The opening song "Isn't Real" lurks with an ominous pulse, before the robotic vocals come in with a distant chant. If I was going to classify this it would be the question where does darkwave begin and industrial end or is this just dark EBM?  When the song began there was a mechanized sensation that you might associate with industrial. I think for me what keeps it from being industrial is this is more passive aggressive than aggressive. Industrial is in your face, what is being done here hides in the shadows of a nocturnal urban landscape.

"Hollowed Out" retains the dark atmosphere of the first song. It also builds into a beat that you could dance to on goth night. However it is not as dramatic as what comes to mind when I think of dark-wave, another way of saying it would be they have little in common with VNV Nation. The vocals are colder sounding on the second song. I also hear traces of what could be guitar on this one, but I am not going to swear to it. When the vocals begin to take on more of a croon then it brings them a little closer to the zip-code of darkwave. The vocal lock into more of a drone and contribute to the atmosphere rather than laying on the lamentation as dark-wave would. To say they don't fit neatly into either genre, is one of the this projects strengths. I all kinds of music come across my in-box, so for something to have originality is not in the majority. The vocals were  minimal on the first song by the time we get to "Feral Plains" they are playing a much larger role. I also like the fact that are used more like another instrument rather than "Oh, Look we are leaving the verse and now here is our obligatory chorus".

The title track that closes this album, has an almost trip-hop beat that leads into the song. The vocals stay a few steps back from the middle of the mix. The vocals evolve into something that is more of a sung melody and less of a haunting chant. The lyrics to this song which are the most discernible of the album, make me think of Twin Peaks as they speak of passing through this world, jumping dream to dream. This also describes why I am rounding this up to an 8.5 , as I like the fact that they have created their own world with the sounds presented here. You can check them out at the Bandcamp link below.

Behavior : "375 Images of Angels"

Aside from Death Index which feels more punk than post, here's some post-punk out of L.A. They have tons of attitude and their singer has a gruff voice that might make you think of a feral Iceage with out the slurred speech. They take to Joy Division like drones, without being another Joy Division rip off. This is because they are prone to fly off the handle and throw themselves into actual punk rock. In this first explosion, I'm fine with it , but I could see this souring on me if it's a formula this album adheres to . "78 " in an exasperated brand of punk that doesn't do a lot for me. They are not limited to this as the following track is more of an experimental instrumental interlude. There is a blues tinged clang to "For Contempt". Some of these songs bleed into experimental pieces that go no where and you feel like you are lost in a maze trying to figure out what are the songs and what aren't. Random pieces that feel almost like African drumming, question their own function and form.

A thumping bass leads into the burst of punk that is called "--" . No wave is another term you might here tossed around in regards to these guys, but it feels like window dressing to me. The pump some muscle into their punk at times. The vocals are typical for this sort of thing. The songs keep very brief. Many of the spaces in between the actual songs sound like the drummer just fucking around. There is more of a Sonic Youth  like clanging to 'Outfit". The vocals come in more shouted as the guitar take this up into a sonic swell. They touch back into the drone here with layered guitar part fighting with melodies.This song comes to a sudden end. Then they pick back up with the noisy rant of "For Other People" . The title track makes me think that they are either on drugs or frustrated with their sense of apathy and taking it out on their instruments.

In order to come up with a score for this album I had to strip away all the noise and clear out a path to the actual songs.So I rounded this one down to a 6.5. I think these guys will have a great album in them once they get some of their obnoxious tendencies out of there system here. The droning blues of Sonic Youth side is something they need to explore further. If you are frustrated by the apathy in your life and tired of all your current punk albums then this is worth a listen.

Sextile : A Thousand Hands

 

We are delving deeper into the bat-cave as the exploration of some of the years darker music we are catching up on continues. The cavernous production and the desperate emoting of the vocals give further credence to the fact that Los Angeles breed s the best death rock. This album came out back in August on Felte Records.  Though this is not a simple nod to Christian Death, but a odd mixture of many different elements. The opener carries a creeping throb as the guitars are used to cut through the air in a very Bauhaus manner . The build is subtle yet intense. "Flesh" finds surf rock blending into their sound. The guitars are still slicing but have that more Link Wray tone to them as the drums provide a more tribal accent. There is more mania injected into the surf -punk shimmy of "Can't Take it " that carries and odd synth pulse to the verses. The frantic tension running a jagged course through the rant of "Smoke in the Eye" is rough around it's edges with the synths warbling in the distance. The chaotic chant of "this is love" becomes choked out as the songs breaks down into a sample that eventually emerges to swallow the song whole when it fades out.

The vocals go into more of a coarse scream on "Truth and Perception". The song is bathed in droning noise over a repetitive pound, it really feels more like a interlude to me than an actual song. This is followed by another two minute interlude before the more synth driven and female sung "Mind's Eye' emerges with more clarity and focus in it's sensuous march. The snths sound like something from an 80s horror movie and here that really works. As this could very well have been the band that played in the second Howling. They take another stab a brooding darkwave synth dominated sounds this time with the lead singer back on the mic. His delivery is more muttered in a manner that reminds me a little of Ice Age. "Into the Unknown" finds the increased synth presence married to their more organic punk tinged instrumentation giving this song more of a pound and jangle. The vocals build into an anguished howl.

They lock into a more Joy Division like tension  on "Visions of You" this  rides the taunt guitar line building toward the chorus as the synths swell up in a wave around it. The vocals go into a lower register and croon upward in a more punk fashion, think old New Model Army here perhaps. They close out the album with a dark ambient piece that feels more like an outro than a song. I'll round this one up to a 9.5 as they take the death rock attitude and are not afraid to add odd pieces from other places to it to make something that is true to the generation of bands it was birthed from but true to their own vision.



7.4

-2

Drab Majesty : "Careless"

Out of L.A comes another band that finally gets the importance of elegance when bringing goth back from the dead. "Entrance and Exits kinda holds on the same groove and becomes a drugged blur out of the opening song. There is a Psychic Tv meets the Cure vibe to "Foreign Eye".  The vocals are smooth rather than a low baritone murmur most bands of this sort take on . "Everything is so Sentimental" seems to be set to the same drum program the previous song leaving the synth and guitars to fill out the frame work , thought the hit hat gets triggered into more of a disco beat toward the end of the song. A more new wave pop beat forms on " the Heiress"  like something Dead or Alive or Billy Idol  might have done in the early eights. This project retains a more organic sound than say Gary Numan, though the vocals are slathered in effects in a similar manner.

More ethereal guitar floats in for "Hallow" the guitar riff is cool enough but the song drifts by like a cloud. The vocals allow them selves to set back more into the music to create a little more of a shoe gaze effect.The hazy shoe gaze dream continues on" Unknown to the I" . His vocals lower into a breathier register not quiet a baritone , the first lyric that stood out to me on this album is the line "the cocaine was a merry go round". Which I think is a clever way of describing a drug problem. There is a very drugged glaze to many of the songs so it doesn't surprise me.  At this point the album has gone in more of a Death of Lovers direction as its at the cross roads between goth and shoe gaze.

The closing song "Careless" is less shoe gaze and more like the Cure's trippier moments though it wanders off with an incomplete ending and fades into nothing, like its an idea for a song rather than a free standing fully written song. Overall this album is a little like Cairo Pythian in the fact that it is so unique in its sound you are a little wowed by it, but this album was less surprising than Cairo Pythian as it eventually begins to conform to more of a shoe gaze sound. I do like that fact it steers clear of the post-rock revival rut, so I'll give it an 8.

6

Catching Up With 2014 - Readership Hostile: s/t Ep

Ok, this came out all the way back in January . This is yet another female fronted post- punk project, that wants to be death-rock, but doesn't feel spooky enough to me to have anything in common with 45 Grave. Their singer Adrienne Pearson, has a decent voice, she projects with power, but stylistically seems a little flat in the first few songs. "Snowflakes on My Tongue" does more for me than the opening track, and if you need a X-mas song , well here is one for you.

On a song like "Ghost Lived Fire" there is a more 80's metal feeling, which combined with Pearson's tone on the opener makes me think these guys might have started off as vest metal, and then gothed it up, which is the kind of bandwagon jumping you can expect from L.A., the heavy handed manner this is gone about here makes "Ghost Lived Fire" a little hard to stomach. This big rock sounds holds strong on "Failing Fools" which reminds me of Rainer Maria. Pearson has a strong voice, but the cock rock guitar leanings spoil what they do have going here. At best it sounds like the Cult.

There is a more fitting punk element to "Damaged Goods' almost Runaways in it's attitude, combined with Missing Persons. The lyrics are pretty decent. "Damaged Goods' sounds like it is trying a little too hard to be a public service announcement, but otherwise lyrics are often their strong suit. The metal is laid on thick right from the opening riff of "Tainted Pale", which is darker , but this could almost be In This Moment. However this might also be one of the albums best tracks, so they are damned if they do and damned if they don't at this point. I'll give this one a 6 despite the indentity crisis, by the end of the last song I found myself thinking she better be hot, as I could see that as a key selling point.