The tag team of Emily Kavanaugh and Mark Brooks have pumped out their brand of dark pop for well over a decade by this point, landing soundtrack appearances in each of the Deadpool films, as well as scoring the Comedy Central series Moonbeam City. Their third album, 2020’s Die Die Lullaby, landed a #1 debut on the US iTunes Electronic charts, with hits including “Miss Negativity,” “Gossip,” and “Die in the Disco.” Now, the LA twosome have brought us Masochist, another lean mean synthpop machine clocking in at just north of half an hour of bouncy, bassy synths and Kavanaugh’s dynamic vocal range.
There are some club bangers, runway stompers, and all-around hits on this disc, including the lead single “Crime Scene” and the sleek and seductive “Barbwire Kiss.” The former begs for a sing-along whether in one’s room, on the dance floor, or at the show, with its kinetic chorus and earworm of a melody. The latter speaks of irresistibility and desire over a four-on-the-floor groove and Brooks’ deft synth work.
“Pretty Girls Do Ugly Things” starts off innocently enough with just piano behind Kavanaugh’s vocals before descending into an energetic, full-force number that evokes memories of the previous record’s “Die in the Disco” in more than just the key. Among the treats of the record are the one-two punch of “Let’s Play Revenge!” followed by “The Lunatics (Have Taken Over The Asylum), with spooky and saccharine vibes preceding a spooky, swaying good time. Night Club are four for four on their full-length releases, with Masochist taking its place as further evolving the band’s sound. Any one of their records serves as a great entry point into their catalog, with this latest entry bringing some of their most accomplished works yet.
Oh! How splendid! Hello traveler, I see you’ve found my shop. Would you like to peruse my wares? I may have something that may aid you on your journey. I’m in a bit of a bind here so I can’t quite hand it to you. It’s flipped up into my waistband, there you’ve got it. Oh how nice, It’s the debut single from the Orange County California based band Apparitional.
This single is set to drop August 23rd, So by the time this gets published it probably will have been out for a little while. Let’s get some Biographical stuff out of the way first. Apparitional is the side project of Rik Turner (of The Returners) and Rikk R Treat (of The Writhers). I peeped both bands and they’re pretty cool, I’ll let you explore on your own because I want to focus on this release by itself. Rik Turner handles the guitar, bass and vocal work on the single, while Rikk R Treat tackles percussion. Lets see how well this translates!
I want to start off by saying I REALLY wish this this had a B-Side to it. For a debut single it’s always good to have more than one sample of what you have to offer. That being said, Unhallowed is a pretty solid track. Composition-wise, it flows very nice. You’re not being thrown off by anything which really works here. If they wanted to stray off the path with a nice knuckleball they could’ve. Instead you’re mostly given 2-seam fastballs down the middle, BUT there is a curveball with the dissonant hardcore style breakdown riffs halfway through the song. Baseball!
As for the mix, It’s not bad at all. The guitars are nice and fat. Personally I have a thing for a rugged clicky deep bass, and in a down tempo song like this it really shines through and glues it all together. Instrumentally, these two guys are really talented. I wish Rik’s vocals popped out in the mix a little more, because holy shit this dude can sing. It’s damn smooth too. There’s an arpeggiated guitar voicing in the track that doesn’t necessarily need to be there, but I’m really glad it is. While it does make the space a little claustrophobic it does add just a touch more melody here. The drum work is on point. Nothing is over the top or show-offy, It’s nice and in the pocket and does exactly what the track calls for so no complaints there.
I have only two points of constructive criticism. This should’ve had a B-side to accompany it. “Unhallowed” is a good song, and like most good songs it took me a few listens to really appreciate it. Once that was all absorbed in my brain my next thought was “alright, what else can they do together?”. So for now we’ll just have to wait. Minor gripe #2, and I could be completely wrong on this one so go easy on me. The artwork. Even though both Rik(k)s are relatively established, this is still a debut release for a new project. I feel like you’d want to attract as much attention as possible and a great way to do that is by having eye catching artwork. By itself, the imagery is pretty good, I know what I’m going to be listening to once I hit play. The issue is, well let’s do a little experiment. Go to bandcamp right now and go to new releases in any of the industrial/dark wave adjacent categories. This artwork kind of blends in. It doesn’t pop out against the raging sea of other releases that feature a lady in the woods set in monochrome which may deter new listeners. Not to say the artwork is bad by any means. It just blends in a bit. I don’t want that to take away from the musicality of these two guys because “Unhallowed” definitely stands its ground, and I do look forward to hearing more from the two Rik(k)s.
Oh no! It’s me. Before I get started with my review, I’d like to start off by thanking Ken for letting me come back as a writer for S&S. Maybe it’s because I just got back from Germany with Chrome Corps and I’m riding a stage high, but here I am. It’s been a few dark years for me, but I finally feel ready to fully come back to the scene. Not just with my various projects, but as some piece of shit that has bad opinions.
When Ken had sent me a list of releases to cover, I was kind of confused as to why a release from 2022 was sent. I mean, that’s about the time that I had dropped off from the face of the Earth so maybe that was his way of saying I had some catching up to do. Bare with me cause I might be a tad rusty but here goes nothing. The lead in track “Too Many Boys” sets the entire mood for what’s coming in this LP, and that’s alot of fucking fun. It opens with a heart-throbbing kick and Perc-y bassline that reminds me of a very popular song from 2003, which I won’t say the name of. Reason being, I think there’s plenty of loving nods to 2000’s pop scattered through this album which I adore. Anyways, after you get hit with this gentle gated super saw melody, this jangly guitar leads you into the verse. It’s not quite a left turn, but it has the same feeling of missing a turn on your GPS. I’ll refer this as rerouting. Now this isn’t the kind of misdirection that makes you scream “FUCK” and punch your horn, It’s more of the feeling of “Ooooo we’re going on a little adventure today”. This album is FILLED with these types of reroutes and it certainly adds to the overall fun feeling of everything. Now, I did a little research into Caleb De Casper after my first listen and, come to find out, he’s a classically trained vocalist. That shines through on the huge choruses on each track and it rules.
The second track, “Do You Feel” has an absolutely killer guitar throughout the track. It’s in a very flamenco style which is an immediate thumbs up from me. Victor Bustos and Jordan Good are credited for the guitar work, I’m not sure who does what tracks here, but their work throughout is really well done. In fact there’s not much on “Femme Boy” that isn’t well done. I peeped the linear notes to see if I recognized any names. After a little bit of digging, turns out I don’t know any of these fucking people and I love that. There’s something sort of mystic about reading a list of names that you’re unfamiliar with that all came together to make something really solid. It would be like if you asked “Who invented the Fire Extinguisher” and someone just picked a name out of a phone book. Although that’s a bad example because we all know the Fire Extinguisher was invented by Thomas Fire Extinguisher in 1854. It appears that everyone involved is somewhat local to the Austin scene. Even the producer Joe Stacey appears to stay pretty close to the Austin scene, working with Jack Charles and Pathetick.
Back to the music itself. “Real Girl” is very fun to blast in your car in heavy traffic. 10/10. Also there’s defiantly another nod to 2000’s pop in hear a la Missy Elliot and you can’t miss it. Another honorable mention for me is “Danny You’re A F*ckboy” (Real quick, if I can just get the uncensored title that would be great cause I have no fucking idea what that last word is.) The way Caleb wraps his voice around the backing chord changes is done super well. Also fuck Danny he sounds like he sucks, you deserve better. I also heavily recommend the track “Dreamer” featuring vocal accompaniment by Sabrina Ellis. The blippy bell melody was a very welcome surprise.
To wrap this up, I’ll say one thing. Check this out, do yourself a favor. While it is heavily pop, style-wise it covers plenty of ground and you can get some decent mileage out of this one. Also, I wasn’t sure where to drop this fact in there but, back in 2022 The city of Austin declared one day to be Caleb De Casper Day for all of his contributions to the LGBT culture in the city. Pretty sick. Also, the pictures below should set an industry standard on how merch is sold. Overall I give “Femme Boy” a 7 entire boys out of 10. It’s should also be noted that Caleb De Casper released a new single last month so check that out too.
Urban Heat is already a fave here at Sounds & Shadows, as so many of you have seen them before, and I am finally able to say joined the club. Urban Heat sort of has no specific genre, other than, electro-goth rock post-punk, punk, darkwave, synth-rock band, sort of. They are a 3-piece band, 2/3 are black guys, Jonathan Horstmann on guitar and vocals, Paxel Foley on synth, and, Kevin Naquin on bass. They are beyond impressive in their sound, but live is another dimension.
Urban Heat is breaking all the stereotypes, and we seem to enjoy what they are giving us musically touring to support their recent release “The Tower”.
Delores Galore
A New Orleans synth-pop duo, fronted by Gabrielle Washington, and synth guru Dexter Gilmore. These two are what I would call “The Black Yazoo” mixed with, early 80s Chaka Kahn, and Shannon. Their synth lines were old analog, and were a perfect clash of Early Vince Clarke and the Synth from the Soundtrack for the movie “Beat Street”. They flawlessly married both sounds, with the soulful voice of Alison Moyet mixed with the Swedish goddess Tove Styrke. There was no way to prepare me for something so wonderful, and they were reason enough to get out to see this tour.
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Gabrielle would belt out some great vocals, while the synth lines had her, and everyone dancing. Something else that I experienced was that this was the most diverse crowd this venue has ever seen. There were goths, punks, emo, and hip-hop fans. The ethnic diversity was pretty wide (For Utah), while Delores Galore is breaking the mold along with Urban Heat, you gotta hand it to them for crossing the boundaries and delivering something new, and good.
GVLLOW
The Post Punk band that shocked so many of us as well. GVLLOW sounded as if The Screaming Blue Messiahs and The Cure made a baby. They had this post-punk sound, that was so familiar but still had their signature in everything they did. Holding nothing back, they delivered a show that we all got into, with a guitar player’s long dreads, and the singer had almost his entire body tattooed, the sound caught everyone by surprise. The mic stand the singer used was a chain welded stiff. You just had to see this band to understand their intensity. The dark goth sound and Joy Division basslines on top of the ringing screeching bone-crushing guitar started the set with “Last Dance” followed up by “Die By Your Hand”. Their songs were pretty dark but played in a major key, and you felt good with the harsh lyrics, and song titles, like “Fell in Love With a Ghost”. By the end of the set, the singer said “You all better know this one” and they closed their set out with a cover of “Just Like Heaven” by The Cure. The set was about 35 minutes long because we couldn’t handle 36 minutes.
Urban Heat
The Moment we were all waiting for.
The stage went dark, and there was barely enough to see Foley fire up a synth, it went for a few measures, and as a tension builder the hum went across the venue and everyone was getting antsy, a couple of strings plucked on the guitar, echoing out like a Chameleons or even Pink Floyd ready to tear down a stadium, the punters were getting very anxious as the music built up. Then on a single note a guitar line and synth note, and a flash from the stage lights. Then it all went black. 2 measures later, they were fully lit and into “Running Out Of Time”.
Horstmann was singing with the vocals of Imagine Dragons, meets The Fields of The Nephilim, yeah, it was THAT AWESOME. Delivering beats to keep everyone dancing but neither drums bass or guitar were over one another, it all just blended supporting the deep haunting vocals. Without a breath between beats, they were playing “Trust” which I had enjoyed on Spotify, but live is truly something to experience. This is one of those songs that was a good album cut but was meant to be enjoyed live.
Jonathan said, “We are Urban Heat, from Austin Texas, Y’all wanna hear some songs about depression?” With some cheers, he said “Good cause that’s all we do” Then they played “Living Well”.
“Gun In Your Hand” was reminiscent of The Sisters Of Mercy, and almost Alphaville synth, and yeah, that had everyone dancing too. They have such depressing and dark titles to their songs but deliver them with such an upbeat rocking dance feel to it, you just have to dance, to songs about bullets flying, etc. Songs like “Take it to Your Grave” and “Blindfolds and Magic Bullets”. They sound morbid and dark, and yeah, you wanna dance to it.
With the industrial synth and beats, straight out of the Chicago sound in 1990, they powered up “Savor Not The Thrill” with Jonathan chanting “Sacrificed your masters, but savor not the thrill. Transform to an idea and idea you cannot kill”. It was kind of hypnotic really. It was really intense as he built up the repetition until he was screaming “AN IDEA YOU CANNOT KILL” and suddenly it felt like we were flying in an Apache Chopper going into combat and you were prepping the 5 barrel guns.
Giving tribute to Q Lazzarus, they played their fantastic rendition of “Goodbye Horses”, which sounded as if it was their own.
I was thinking all through this set as to how Urban Heat is breaking down a lot of barriers because when I was growing up, there were not many diverse bands in the new wave and punk space. There was “Prince”, “Living Color”, and “Dead Kennedys” had Darren Henley a black drummer, or Joe Leeway in “The Thompson Twins”, but for people of color there was not much for a long time in the alternative punk space. Looking back, however, to Grace Jones, or “The Gap Band”, or Ike and Tina Turner, all of whom influenced the bands we all grew up listening to, I thought of “Sister Rosetta” She was kind of like, PUNK AF. She was this stout short black woman, playing rock guitar before there was such a thing as “Rock Guitar”. She is lauded by so many other artists in the punk world “The Stranglers”, “The Animals”, and “The Kinks” all paid tribute to her. Now I am seeing something she started where 2/3 of the band are black, and they are playing electronic goth punk, and they are cleaning house. Like the first time I saw “Fishbone,” I thought it was an honor to see something so diverse and so cool. Urban Heat are cutting their piece of the pie right now, and they are doing a most excellent job.
“You tell yourself everything’s changing but you’ll always be the same. Pouring salt into the wound is the best that they can do” And if they get in the way there’ll be hell to pay, cause you’ll be someone else” were the lyrics to “You’ve Got That Edge”, probably the coolest lyrics of anything I heard that night.
With such dark themes, they bantered with everyone and laughed a lot, different from a lot of goth bands I have seen over the years, Urban Heat loved the music but didn’t take their music too seriously, they were having as much fun as the rest of us punters were.
Jonathan then said “We’re about at that time, time to say thank you to my friends, you never know when the next time you see anyone is. I had a good friend, Liz, it’s depressing but people die every day, so make sure you tell people you love, if they’re not in their safe places, let them know it.” and they played “Seven Safe Places” that just rocked, we all felt like it was Easterhouse, with an almost New Order bassline, and some David Bowie for good measure. It’s about having a refuge, to be safe from everything, mentally and physically. This is such a beautiful driving song of hope, unfortunately, I suppose it was about someone who didn’t make it.
After some feedback and distortion Jonathan thanked “Delores Galore” and “GVLLOW” and then he said all of this is possible because of us, he gave a pep talk “This is your scene, take care of each other” and they closed with “Have You Ever?”. The show was fantastic and came down to sign everything. (the merch table was getting sacked, and let’s face it, their graphics are pretty cool).
Urban Heat is making a bigger than-expected dent in the music world, having played Cruel World, till now, it’s blown up overnight for them. Go catch any gig you can of these guys, they are worth the trip to the venue, and then some. Just be prepared for something intense, dark, and hope-inspiring, with a few laughs in-between some heavy songs.
This was the press release, so OBVIOUSLY I was all in 🙂
” Foam in the Ocean”, from Seattle, Washington garage-pop, post-punks SEASIDE TRYST is their take on the Hans Christian Anderson classic “The Little Mermaid” which is arguably one of the more devastating allegories of queer longing. In the original story, instead of becoming a beautiful, Disney-fied woman following a kiss, Ariel disappears forever after she turns into foam in the sea.”
New release from the Seattle WA DreamGoth band full of dark post punk driving bass and elegant Galaxy 500 dreampop. Lovely energy of wistful exploration crashing into isolation. The vocals are warm bright eyes searching an alien place. The video really embraces the caring culture of the queer community. I was an immediate fan.
