A sneaky early pick for top albums of the year from Ohio based artist Kali Dreamer. In October 2022 Derek Christopher of Wandering Stars put Kali on my radar and I was an immediate fan. I love watching an artist grow in vision and technique. “Imperfect Dark” is a monumental leap forward in execution for the talented artist. Hearing this album again and again fills me with hope for the future of goth music. Markise voice is enchanting and complex. Using a unique cadence and timeless beauty. Streaming pastel colors of shoegaze guitar lines make majestic sounds to lift nightmare fuel lyrics.
Tiara – I am such a sucker for romantic goth and this track is forlorn and wonderous. The guitar line has a dancing Smashing Pumpkins “Gish” feel and Markise is spinning out poetry with masterful inflection. This song leaves me shook every time I play it.
New Twilight – I love the slippery back beat and higher range vocals here. It’s like a beautiful blend of The Cure and R & B. This one has a brighter hopeful tone but it makes a really nice accent when you are on your third play though of the album in it’s entirety. This whole record hits all the buttons for me.
This is a don’t skip a single track record in 2025. which isn’t something I get to say often. people need to take notice of one of the most fresh and exciting voices in modern goth.
The German synth pop trio released it’s newest EP of synthpop hymns with four new remixes. BEBORN BETON were founded by vocalist Stefan Netschio, keyboard player and drummer Stefan Tillmann, and keyboard player Michael Wagner in 1989. There album “Nightfall” is widely considered one of the top albums of the genre. Stefan has a distinctive voice that silver surfs that line between husky chant and gorgeous melody. The song construction has a wonderful complexity you can get lost in like staring at a clear sky. Tiny pinpoints of light and detail that draw your attention for a moment while letting you drift in the moment. This EP hits a maturity of sound that feels so effortless in it’s precise quality. With a long gap between “Tales from another world” and “A Worthy Compensation” then several more years until “Darkness Falls Again” the world of electronic music is a much better place with Beborn Beton putting out consistent releases again.
Favorite Track: Progeny – At 6:36 this doesn’t seem like the dance floor single, but this track is such a captivating banger. Soulful revivalist southern synthpop gospel complete with sliding steel guitar effect. A slow grinding beat that feels thick with substance and blood. “I am the heir, of my fathers dream. I am the progeny.
Favorite Remix: Electricity (Tenderlash Remix) – Always a fan of the North Carolina solo artists on Swiss Dark Nights. I love the ringing pulse in the intro that slides into a cracking snare beat and isolation of Stefan’s vocals. The energy of this gets a little run away locomotive and the urgency translates perfectly with the vocals. This is a bop and belongs on your dancefloor.
I’m so excited to hear what comes next for Beborn Beton, they have live performance dates coming up in 2025. As well as a remix on the recent Rohn-Lederman album “Steal The Light”
Oh look, some wonderful friends have appeared to read some shit I wrote. Greetings! Today I’ll be covering the 19 track behemoth “Katharsis” by Washington DC’s own Amulet. Amulet is a duo fronted by Stephanie Stryker and along with her is MJ Phoenix who handles the bulk of the instrumental work and does some vocals as well. This album features some collaborators as well which is nice. Bob Carr adds some guitar work here. James Scott does bass on a track, Rob Early contributes some keys, Emmanuel B. Minko shows up to do some engineering. Oh and check this out, my own personal sleep paralysis demon Dan Milligan is here on drums. How nice, I can’t fucking get away from this dude. Dan is the fucking man and his work can be seen nearly everywhere in the scene so I already have high hopes.
Now when i saw there were NINETEEN total tracks in “Katharsis” clocking in at about 74 minutes I was worried that the album might get a little stale. Then I remembered that my band Decent News put out an album that had less tracks but still had a 70 minute runtime. By no means would runtime be a reason to complain but it would be hypocritical if I did. That being said, by the time is was 6 tracks in I was pretty sold. The duo’s vocals work really well with each other. MJ’s sawzall grime juxtaposed against Stephanie’s soft melodic voice is really fun to listen too. I wish there was more layering of the twos vocals, but that’s just me.
Production wise, everything’s mixed very well. Sometimes it does kind of feel like there was a spill at the reverb factory, but I’ll give that a pass. On the technical side, everything is done very well. Even in songwriting, every song here could have stood out as a single. While on paper that sounds incredible, In practice, when you have 19 songs on an album that are at a technical level good songs, things start to blend together a little. I know most people aren’t listening to albums front to back anymore but as a cohesive piece of work, there’s not a lot of risk taking or experimentation and it feels pretty safe. Personally I feel like this album would be more powerful if it was split in two. Every track on this Katharsis is very vocal driven, and the vocals are excellent. Every song does have a catchy vocal hook that’s hard to shake. Like I have shit to do right now but the chorus to “The Hope That Kills You” keeps distracting me, which right now sucks because I can’t find my keys and I have to pick up laundry. Aside from the Vocals, there are some synth leads and guitar melodies in the album but they’re not an identifying feature of the songs. Alot of the instrumentation feels like it’s only there to support the vocals. I felt like I was waiting for someone to step out of the mix and do a cool interlude into the next section of the song. Your focus is on the vocals the entire time. Please don’t let my own critiques steer you away from checking the album out. My own weird preferences don’t take away at all from “Katharsis”. As I said every track here could absolutely stand out as a single. It’s still catchy, with some great standouts here.
The opening track “Wyrdwork” is a chilling crescendo of reverbed piano and pained cooing that really forces you to settle in. “Erase Me” as some ambient coldwave guitar work in it that is tastefully executed. “Walk Away” is surprisingly more hard hitting than you’d expect in contrast to the rest of “Katharsis”. There really is alot to enjoy here, personally I would’ve preferred a little more variation. Looking back on their previous releases I’m surprised this album didn’t explore more (I highly Recomend listening to “Secrets and Lies” and “Clear Blue Skies” – Chef’s kiss). I give Katharsis 7 whole Demonia Gift Cards out of 10.
UPDATE: I found my keys, I got too high and put them in the fridge
Here is my review for Vancouver-based Modern Post-Punk and Darkwave band ACTORS latest single that will be released on Bandcamp and elsewhere October 4, 2024. I received my copy early so let’s see what we got. Warning, if you want to jump straight into the review, skip the next two paragraphs. They will be there to go back to read later. I promise it will not self-destruct. (smiles)
But first, a little backstory as my musical journey in these last few years is interwoven with this band. I first became a fan of all kinds of what would become Alternative Rock in the 80’s and 90’s. I listened to everything I could get my hands on. New Wave, Synthwave, Goth, College Rock, Industrial. I sopped it up like a piece of toast into a sunny side yolk. For my entire life I played catch up. Then in my Thirties, I entered a dark period. I didn’t have the same access to music as I once did though I would keep up on some Indie Rock through the early 2000’s Then the pandemic hit. Like most of us, I found hobbies to pass the time except I was living in a nursing home with no place to go after the passing of my Dad and my sister moving my Mom to NJ.
I started getting back into music and started getting into most of the darker music that I always wanted to get into. I met a group of like-minded music loving fans. They would all help me focus on the music again. A few of them encouraged me to start DJ-ing. Another lot encouraged me to start listening to this Modern band that took much of the music that Ken Magerman would call Modern Dark Scene and spun it with their own individual abilities that would become ACTORS. I was intrigued and I was compelled to know more. It was slow at first but knew I found a new obsession (I would later find that is a name of one of their songs) needed more including names, lyrics, and anything I could find. Before I got to Dark Force Fest 2023, I was hooked. The fact that I started to introduce myself to lead singer Jason Corbett at the merchandise stand for LEATHERS and he cut me off before I could finish and said, “I know who you are Alexx and thank you for what you do” to share us in your social media. I’ve since told him that it was that meeting that later inspired me to jump into TWITCH and keep working at becoming an online DJ; always learning from others, developing my own sense of style and oddly falling into running a New Music show every week once I realized that the newer bands were the ones who responded to my posts even more than the listeners.
Review for “Object of Desire” by ACTORS
The song begins with a pulsating collection of deliberate combination of echoing beats both synthesized and from the steady hand of drummer Adam Fink along with a wonderful bassline from bassist Kendall Wooding. Together they weave a hypnotic beat and brooding tone that really shows off the production work that has made Jason Corbett’s Jacknife Sound a popular place for remixes and full album production work for other bands in the scene.
The intense lyrics are seductive and full of bravado and intense longing, asking:
“Give yourself to foreign pleasure
Take your time
Lose yourself
Submit to vice
Tell me that you’re mine”.
Yet the chorus begins with too I’s, that single stammer belying the bravado, but finds its place again and continues their plea to take a chance on “me”… with the lyrics,
“I
I was low but now I’m high
I could be your object of your desire”
just as the other person had already become theirs.
We had already spoken on the driving, brooding rhythm but you can’t mention a song from the ACTORS without talking about Shannon Hemmett on Keyboard and Jason Corbett on guitar. Taking all four together as a unit, their performance is atmospheric and haunting that weaves a brooding tone with reverb, distortion and a driving beat that is as seductive as its lyrics making you want to dance. Unlike their previous song “We Don’t Have To Dance”, this song is pulling the object of their desire, and you the listener, with their seductive invocation.
New Video: “Object of Desire” by ACTORS
You want a rating? I don’t give them. I write on vibe. I write about things I like and/or love if I have the time. It can be implied if I review it, I recommend putting it on your wishlist and picking it up at your earliest convenience.
This single will be released on October 4, 2024
ACTORS are a Modern Post-Punk band that fans of bands like Joy Division, Bauhaus, Depeche Mode, and The Cure will appreciate.
Alexx Dimeler is a DJ on TWITCH and KICK known as DJ_LP_ViBE. The LP originally stood for Listening Party. His main show is on Saturdays 9 pm-1 am+ ET and is called “New Music M.D. (Modern DARKSCENE) and play a wide range of music from Post-Punk, Darkwave, Goth, Synthwave, Industrial, EBM, Dark Alternative, and everything in between.
Albie Mason (Scary Black) from Louisville KY is one of the most criminally underrated talents in modern goth. In addition to his visceral and dynamic gothgaze music, he is an accomplished visual artist with credits that include our own album cover for Amaranth Gothtimism. With this ambitious new project Albie Damned we enter a mythic fantasy of self-exploration complete with corresponding visuals in the style of Adventure Time. The music is such a drastic change showing the range of Albie’s talent. Track 2 Open World has an amazing 8 bit Bat Out Of Hell du wop feel that got it’s hooks in me early. The guitar work is full of complex phaser shoegaze adding depth of character to the cartoon vampire vocals. The beats here are simple and accessible, but the concepts and construction make raw emotional brilliance behind of mask of cartoon theme songs. The effect is quite staggering. I’m genuinely baffled I am one of 8 people who have bought it on bandcamp so far.
Track 4: Torch delves deeper into the dungeon. Adds some trip hop flavor and darker rasping Scary Black style vocals. These songs all feel like individual adventures with a loose connection. Track 6: Everynite is a dream of flying over the shadow realm, full of Andrew Eldrich swimming through a sky of glitter. Wicked guitar licks to accent the journey. Track 10 : I Can’t Dance pours on the sleaze and motion of a filthy mini boss. Loving the falsetto harmonies here to prop up the main villain.
I know Albie intended this as a side project to work through some things between Scary Black releases, I hope he comes back and gives this it’s due. Something beautiful, dark, with a veil of innocence that makes it vulnerable and true. I’d love to see a full compliment of the drawings to match up as music videos to the songs.
