dark wave Archives - Vinyl From The Vault

Palm Ghosts “The Lost Frequency”

sfilzen — Thu, 10 Aug 2023 17:45:17 +0000

Palm Ghosts “The Lost Frequency” 2021. Limited edition marbled vinyl. Ice Queen Records. Dark wave, post punk’d dream pop from Nashville. I lost count scrolling through their Bandcamp page on what number of release this is – they have a lot of material dating back about 10 years. We picked up The Lost Frequency this past weekend up at Mile of Music when we caught their early Saturday afternoon set. As they themselves noted, it was pretty weird (but not unpleasant) seeing their show on a gorgeously perfect Midwestern sunny summer afternoon; their bio notes they are “more at home in rainy Manchester” or, I’m guessing, a late-night goth club. Their music is heavily 80’s inspired: a more than vigorous nod to The Cure, a bit of Smiths jangle and moody Joy Division, plus psychedelic touches of Echo & the Bunnymen and then throw in some atmospheric Cocteau Twins plus a a sprinkle sweeping anthemic early U2. I loved it! The fact that drummer Walt Epting was wearing a Quilz t-shirt (a band we know from Milwaukee whom they’ve toured with) didn’t hurt either.

While Palm Ghosts has clearly been around for awhile, The Lost Frequency is the first record we’ve gotten so I’m not entirely sure which tracks they played live on Saturday. My top picks are the lead track “Bloodlight” which leads off with a killer industrial-goth beat, then layers on soaring synths and Seventeen Seconds-era Cure guitar licks. I also like “Nightsong,” which is dreamy and beaty (great bass-line!) and the driving and dark Bauhaus-esque “Young Empire.” The track “John Carpenter” is as gothy as expected, with the lyrics “A fragile stage constructed on a fantasy drawn in the simple realization that the demon is within.”

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Local Music Week: Dark Psychic “Hallucination”

sfilzen — Wed, 02 Feb 2022 18:55:48 +0000

Dark Psychic “Hallucination” 2021. The debut from this Milwaukee dark synthpop band is my most listened to local album of ’21. Self-released on cassette (and now I think also available on CD), this release hit exactly the right spot for me in the late spring/early summer last year as we emerged from the worst winter ever, hunkered down in semi-lockdown and societal chaos, still feeling the bleakness but with bright hope of a season of fun (which was, as we know, cut abruptly short). From their website: “Hallucination tells the tale of disillusioned millennials and gen-xers navigating adult life in an economic and political wasteland, in the midst of multiple systemic crises. The title refers to the state of mental fatigue one experiences day-to-day while living in a country that is rapidly spiraling out of control. When each new day is more unbelievable than the last, we begin to question reality, which may explain the popularity of conspiracy theories. The album was largely written and recorded during the pandemic, and while there is a dark, cynical nature to much of it, many songs contain at least some glimmer of hope, with the ultimate theme being togetherness and solidarity.” Heavily inspired by some of my personal favorite 80’s bands: Depeche Mode, New Order, The Cure, etc., Dark Psychic combines synth and vocals (Clark Rendall) and guitar (Nathan Greene) into a gothy and haunting hypnotic groove that is instantly addictive.

The first time I heard the lead single, “Burn,” I was hooked and had it on repeat for weeks, adding it to several of my playlists. The rest of the album is fantastic, too. Other top picks include the first track “IDK,” the 80’s plink-plunk, bleep-bloop Speak and Spell-ish of “Wake Up,” the menacing Black Celebration-ish “Wolf at the Door,” the title track “Hallucination” and the guitar-forward “Living in America.”

We had the good fortune of seeing Dark Psychic’s first ever show at Puddler’s Hall in early July (it was the second show we had seen since March 2020, making it extra-memorable). Two days later I met up with a good friend for some light afternoon day-drinking at Blackbird Bar and realized the bartender looked extremely familiar: turns out it was guitarist Nathan Greene so I got to gush to him in person how much I enjoyed Hallucination and their show. We also caught them on the patio of Boone & Crockett in August: while Dark Psychic’s sound generally feels more shadowy late-night, its edges of shimmer worked to highlight that gloriously beautiful sunny afternoon.

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Has a Shadow “Sorrow Tomorrow”

sfilzen — Mon, 09 Sep 2019 16:42:14 +0000

Has a Shadow “Sorrow Tomorrow” 2017. Fuzz Club Records, limited edition on red vinyl. Psychedelically dark wave, Has a Shadow is two-piece from Mexico; if they recorded this in the late 70′s or 80′s, they would have felt right at home with the post-punk goth rockers of that era (Joy Division, Bauhaus, Sisters of Mercy). This is my first listen of Sorrow Tomorrow as Joe just picked this record this past weekend and so far I’m fairly intrigued. It’s the band’s second LP and has some similarity to dark stoner-rock bands like Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (especially the late-night driving tune “Cul de Sac”) as the music is very dense and trance-like but the prominent 60′s psychedelic organ gives it a bit more for the ear to grab onto and not totally fall asleep, even though I can’t understand anything (more because of the growling voice than any language issues). I especially like the opener “Sorrow” and the rockers “The Flesh,” “Attack of the Junkie” and “Not Even Human.” Some tracks go a little too shoe-gazey for more taste, like “Vampire Kiss” and “Horror Will Grow” (those titles alone reinforcing any doubt as to their goth influence). The recording quality with all the fuzzed out guitar, psych synths and beats is also surprisingly good considered that Sorrow Tomorrow was at least partially recorded at vocalist/guitarist/organist Daniel Graciano’s home. There was some question about keeping this record or letting it go – my vote: it stays.

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Tears for Fears “The Hurting”

sfilzen — Wed, 24 Jul 2019 15:37:34 +0000

Tears for Fears “The Hurting” 1983. A melancholy new wave/synthpop masterpiece, Tears for Fears’ debut album was an instant smash, going to #1 on the UK album chart within two weeks of its release. A couple of my favorite early 80′s songs are on The Hurting including “Suffer the Children,” (first released in ‘81, re-recorded for The Hurting, then re-released in ‘85 when it charted at #52 in the UK), “Mad World,” (released as a single in ‘82, #3 UK chart), “Change,” (#5 UK and #73 US) and my absolute fave “Pale Shelter” (#5 UK). At the time of The Hurting’s release, some critics found it “terrible, useless sort of art that makes self pity and futility a commercial proposition…just the sort of doom laden dross you’d expect from the lyrics: rehashed and reheated hollow doom with a bit of Ultravox here, diluted Joy Division poured everywhere, and the title track sounding suspiciously like one of the old pompous outfits with a welter of mellotrons” (NME). I think that opinion is terribly wrong: The Hurting has stood the test of time and 35+ years later it’s recognized as complex, groundbreaking and influential on such artists (who, like Tears for Fears, lean towards dark wave) as Trent Reznor, Smashing Pumpkins and Arcade Fire (PopMatters).

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