Darkwave Band The Bleak Assembly Explores The Dynamics Of Change With New EP
We Become Strangers is the debut EP from the new darkwave project The Bleak Assembly, a collaboration between Kimberly of Bow Ever Down and Michael Smith of Fiction8. While there are a few electronic textures here and there, We Become Strangers is straight-up post-punk and darkwave. Guitars, drums and songwriting, with hooks for days. This EP sits more comfortably alongside Siouxsie & the Banshees, ACTORS, and Bootblacks than it does VNV Nation or Covenant.
Regarding the nature of "change" that inspired the EP, Michael Smith states: "if there's a theme to this EP, it's in recognizing how we've changed as artists and as people. What if you met your younger self and your younger self didn't even recognize you? That's what "We Become Strangers" is about. Kimberly goes on to say: "It's "a strong feeling of being cut from the past". It's a little alienating but also very liberating."
We Become Strangers is available in digital format on all major platforms, including Bandcamp.
VampireFreaks, the team that brought you the Triton Festival and Dark Side of the Con, proudly present a brand new event called Dark Force Fest; a festival gathering featuring an explosive lineup of the most beloved international bands along with the newest trending artists from Gothic, Industrial, Darkwave and Post-Punk scenes.
Dark Force Fest - Three-Day Goth-Industrial Music Festival
31st March - 2nd April 2023
Dark Force Fest takes place in Parsippany, NJ (one hour from NYC), at the massive Sheraton Parsippany, an imposing castle styled hotel that features 44,000 square feet of event space with 370 hotel rooms. While the hotel rooms in the main venue sold out within days of announcing this festival, there are still overflow hotels in the surrounding area.
This stacked festival lineup includes:
HEALTH, Combichrist (doing a special old-school industrial set), Suicide Commando: (Rare U.S. show), ACTORS, Rabbit Junk, Video Vision, Empathy Test, Solar Fake, BILE, Psyclon Nine & Das Ich: (Rare U.S. show)
In addition to 30+ bands, Dark Force Fest will feature 100+ vendors, a costume contest, cosplay guests, sideshow performers, fun activities and informative panels.
Techno-Industrial band RetCon has just unveiled the release of their new EP, titled EP.01.
EP.01's overarching themes are reflection, conflict, resistance and redemption, with a dash of twisted romance. It possesses a loose set of narratives that imply a gestalt of resistance to that which would destroy you, with the implication that despite it all, you are worth the effort.
From the disposable capitalist consumerism, implied in such a cookie cutter title, to the apocalyptic themes and the implausible romance.
A track like "First Light" adds references to the struggle against imperialism and genocide in Ukraine over lyrics that were originally more applicable to the coming troubles here in the US, because they are coming.
Compressing all of human existence into a lens one impossible year across also pokes loving fun at the nostalgic nature of such obviously retro aesthetics. A cyberpunk junkyard Gomi-wizard patching together the discarded pieces of a decadent age into something that could actually save the protagonists, if only they could cooperate.
EP.01 is available now on all digital platforms, including Bandcamp.
The elder-statement of Goth, Bauhaus released 'In The Flat Field' 42 years ago on 3 November 1980. The echo of this masterpiece still vibrates through modern music. The album was recorded between December 1979 and July 1980 and record label 4AD's first full length release.
This was the punk death-bell soaked in screeches of feedback and vocals scattered in doom and angst, the zero-hour for goth as a genre. The collision of art-experimental and the glam of the 1970s sunk with the darkness of the mind created the big bang, Bauhaus wove it all together to create theatrics in the sound, atmospheric and tense. They were the real McCoy in a world of pretenders.
'In The Flat Field' arrived almost fully formed, for a debut it was a well-realized piece of work. 'Double Dare' acts as the perfect entrance to their world or into ours. Feedback screeches and descending, menacing guitar-riffs herald their arrival, Pete Murphys vocals are astonishing coming directly from the abyss itself.
The title-track takes things to another level, more Bowiesque and rock-orientated, still it is drenched in a weird-collage of feedback squeals, whereas 'A God In An Alcove' is a surrealist terrifying journey, slower paced for that maximum impact.
The interspersed electronic sounds of 'The Spy In The Cab' create a minimalist background for Murphy to paint his pictures of despair, the noise-generated guitar of Daniel Ash is eerie at best, using the instrument as a machine and not in the conventional sense.
David J gives a hypnotic bass-riff, funky at times to the proceedings, a perfect base for Ash to perform his guitar-acrobatics of doom, thirty-eight years later 'In The Flat Field' still stands as a masterwork of terrifying art.
"A gut pull drag on me
Into the chasm gaping we
Mirrors multy reflecting this
Between spunk stained sheet
And odorous whim".
Tracklist:
1. "Double Dare"
2. "In the Flat Field"
3. "A God in an Alcove"
4. "Dive"
5. "The Spy in the Cab"
1. "Small Talk Stinks"
2. "St. Vitus Dance"
3. "Stigmata Martyr"
4. "Nerves"
[KB]
This month it’s 36 years since Electro / EBM heads Nitzer Ebb released Murderous!
This month it’s 36 years since the English Electro / EBM heads from Nitzer Ebb unveiled maybe one of their most famous and biggest dance-floor classics, Murderous (Mute Records, November 1986) ! A bomb of a song that turned out to be the advance single from what would become maybe THE NEB album of all time, That Total Age! An album we still had to wait for until May 1987 and which still can be found on various top-lists of the best industrial albums ever.
The B-side of this 7 "single had the up-tempo track Fitness To Purpose while the 12 " version had also the 'Repetition' version' of Muderous pressed on it.
Where is the youth?
Enjoy!
Murderous (Lyrics)
Where is the youth
Youth
Youth
Youth
Youth
Youth
Youth
It's time to know
It's time to live
It's time to know
It's time to live
Shout golden shouts
Shout golden shouts
Lift up your hearts
Shout golden shouts!
********************************************************NEDERLANDS*********************************************************
Deze maand is het ook alweer 31 jaar geleden dat het Engelse Electro/EBM heads van Nitzer Ebb met één van hun bekendste en grootste dansvloer-klassiekers uitpakten, Murderous (NEB 4). Het nummer werd eerst gereleased als 7" single op hun eigen Power Of Voice Communications maar al snel opgepikt en gereleased door Mute Records op zowel 7" als 12" Maxi-single in November 1986. Een bom van een nummer zo bleek, en als het ware de voorbode van misschien wel HET Nitzer Ebb album aller tijden, That Total Age! Een album dat pas in mei 1987 op ons losgelaten zou worden en inmiddels nog aktijd terug te vinden is op verschillende top-lijstjes van de beste industrial albums aller tijden. Op de b-side van de 7" single prijkte het uptempo Fitness To Purpose en op de achterzijde van de 12" kon men daarnaast ook de 'Repetition' versie van Muderous vinden.
Waar is de jeugd?
Enjoy!
