OPM: In Darkness We Dwell & Dance

crimesididntcommit – Made to Fade

A collection of modern electro industrial Goth anthems for the dark at heart. As someone who dabbled in guyliner and attended Goth nights throughout my youth, this kind of stuff is near and dear to my withered, black soul. Angst filled and occasionally racy lyrics, dark ambiences, swirling synths and pounding beats – oh yeah, that’s the good stuff. 

There’s some nice glitch-kissed and techy production, but the vibe here would have worked just as well at the end of ‘70s birth of Goth as it does in the current darkwave scene. Some things, like spookiness and heartbreak and horniness, really never change! 

(Listened to the entire album)

–

Rage Blanche – Wrong One in an Overbuffered World

Deep dub techno that lean so hard into dub and experimental elements it almost forgets to techno at times. That’s fine of course – this is techno aimed at nodding your head on the couch more than moving your ass on the dancefloor, anyway. 

The beats are often a bit (or a lot) broken, the synths are frequently distant and cold, and the echoes are left to hold it together. The resulting tracks are dark and labyrinthine, and you can definitely get lost down here if you aren’t careful. Still, what a fun and fascinating maze to explore… if you dare.

(Listened to the entire EP)

–

Hundschopf – Incertae Sedis

Dark, doomy and borderline sludgy post punk meets hip hop for a date in a weird, experimental cafe. Slow, lo-fi beats full of rumble, buzz and dirt lay down the bottom. Bits of clattering percussion, treated sound, and dirgelike vocals form the next layer up. Then it’s topped with haunting echoes, sheets of metallic reverb and ghosts rendered into audio form to top it off. 

Burial is a probable reference point, but it also reminds me of something like Godflesh if it was slowed down to a crawl and stripped down to its glistening skeleton. Atmospheric, unsettling and aesthetically focused on the gritty, grimy dark.

(Listened to the entire EP)

–

Jeff Brown – “November at Oriental Force”

A single longform, exploratory, solo guitar piece – somewhere between Eno and Mogwai. Tone and texture are the driving force here, rather than any sort of technical virtuosity or typical guitar heroics. Instead we get 20ish minutes of live-recorded slow oscillations, rising tides of distortion and echo, and slowly unraveling melodic and harmonic passages. Lovely, spaced-out, and intriguing from beginning to end. 

–

Hidden Since the Foundation of the World – “Man of Stated Age” / “Bad Winter”

Ultra heavy, sludgy doom psych fusing heavy riffs with atmospheric vocals and production. Slow, brutal and absolutely mind melting, these two songs are excellent setpieces of lo-fi, filthy psychedelia. They take the lessons of classic psych rock and either turn everything up to 11, or cover it in viscous black oil meant to transform it into an alien menace. Might be an excellent way for psych lovers to get into the heavy stuff, or teach sludge metal fans to learn to love psychedelia.