Tag: Synthwave

Review of The Ghost of Bela Lugosi: Das Vamp

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Lable: Self Release

Members: Vin Price (The Ghost of Bela Lugosi) Songs/Instruments/Music. Various guest vocalist including: Zeke Sporn (Winter Corpse) Kevin Srednep (Psyclown), Sandra + Shawn Mortis (Alter Defection) Jak Taylor (Dream upon Tombs) , Owen Gillett (Ice Cocoon) , Ken Magerman + Collin Schipper (Amaranth 🙂

https://ghostoflugosi.bandcamp.com/album/das-vamp-album

https://www.facebook.com/ghostoflugosi/

Featuring….Me 😉

Ok our last glorious trip down the musical rabbit hole was for a band who is on the rise with critical acclaim. So I wanted to get back to a criminally under discussed band and personal friend Austrailia’s own The Ghost of Bela Lugosi. This has been a review a long time coming as I struggled with how to find the right words since I did have the honor of being a part of the project. Vin is a true tunesmith and multi instrument producer extraordinaire who much like a previous review Kill Shelter created an idea I am fast becoming enthralled with in modern music. A single songwriter combining a wide range of songs and styles with a different guest vocalist for each track to create an eclectic yet consistent album. A fan of the horror genre Vin created an homage tapestry to the campy, spooky, sexy concept of retro film monsters. It’s ambitious, it’s sinister, and has an unapologetic artistry that takes chances and hits the mark. For being such strange taboo concepts these songs are held together with such a beautifully woven pop sensibility. The drum beats are atmospheric and layered. The keyboards are nostalgic and dynamic. Each song has such a unique competition ranging from Ministry, Killing Joke, Devo, Shreikback, and of course Bauhaus. It’s a dance album with a lot of disco flavor. A sensual club dance feel. Just not that club that everyone can go to. That forbidden dangerous club you have to be in the know to find with no sign. The lyrics of these songs encapsulate these monsters. The ones from the 80s you found yourself drawn to.

Vin incorperates so many styles in this music but one aspect that bleeds through in all is that sense of punk rock defiance. Not in the actual sound but in the screw off I will never succumb to corporate mainstream feel of every track. While every song has a engaging hook they also lash out with a lo-fi aggression of piss and vinegar that most modern music lacks the courage to undertake.

Because there is so much to say about the individual tracks due to the different vocalist I am going to break protocol a bit and do extra stand out tracks. I won’t use my own because that is just weird but I will say I love the song I did with him Asphyxiation and think it is an incredible song that was way outside the wheelhouse of what I usually do. I really cut loose vocally in a way I rarely do with Amaranth. You should listen to it. In particular the video he did of Fright Night footage is outstanding. So here are some stand out tracks.

Berlin – This is the song that first introduced me to GOBL. It’s incredible. It’s a smokey room in a foreign land with these marimba like keyboard sounds that roll and remind me of The Cure. The guitar lines are very post punk and enthralling. It has themes of desire and obsession. A femme fatal song that has incredible pop hook and seductive whispers. It features his own voice and words which I think gives this song a particular genuine feel. I could listen a million times and still come back to this song.

Vampires of Hollywood – A sinister 80s synth build up draws you into this song. It’s lurking on the endge of your imagination. Sandra + Sean Mortis have a seductive spoken word vocal style with a creppy resonating reverb. Reminds me a bit of Tina from Switchblade Symphony. It doesn’t attack, it lures you into a dark place where you are her captive.

Videodrone – Holy creep dance burner. Owen Gillett has such a vast range and poetic style on this song. Again it is subtle and gentle like a beautiful ballad with David Gahan sex drip and Tones On Tail synth swells. The lyrics are so dangerous and forbidden. When he opens up in his high octave reaches it swells with emotions. “Like Ribbons sliced by razors, blowing in the wind” The bassline here walks a tightrope edge and gives this song motion.

Stockholm Syndrome – What an intricate club jam. The vocals have a terrifying otherworldly monster effect but delivered with a smooth crooning beauty. It’s one of those tracks that attacks you at multiple angles and never lets you get comfortable. I love this feeling and effect. It’s unnerving and unquieting.

Die With Your Eyes Open – Such a great concept for a track. The opening guitar riff is a classic. It’s a post punk throw back to old Killing Joke or Daniel Ash. The vocals are a little background but delivered with a reserved passion that fits the style.

Overall this album is such an unapologetic artistic expression. It’s full of danger and forbidden desires. It is one of the albums I love to play for people and say why do more people not know about this? Maybe it is to risque, too dangerous to make it’s way to the standard charts. I think that is part of it’s strength and I don’t think it is something Vin could change if he wanted to. Step outside the cycle of everything you are hearing and give this album a real try. You won’t be sorry. I’m proud to be a part of this record.

FIVE YEARS AND A LIFE OF ITS OWN: Artificial Monuments’ 𝘐𝘭𝘭𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘐𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘵𝘺

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A cast of talented musicians and the darkness of a drawer make for an interesting duality.

Blessedly free of eight minute dirges, plodding male vocals and other dark wave wankery, Illusions of Identity presents us with nine crisp tunes reminiscent of Martin Hannett’s austere design, with none of the orbiting emptiness between melody. In just under thirty minutes, we have both airy pop sensibilities and an acute sensation of claustrophobia, splinters of jubilation and despair. Taking inspiration from acts such as The Soft Moon and Vince Clarke, Artificial Monuments has put forth an album that post-punk purists and pop aficionados will embrace. The corollary is a long, dark ride on your own highway – the fade in and out of headlights, dissociation, punctuated by moments of lucidity and intimacy: this juxtaposition is almost viscerally effective and ultimately, immensely satisfying.

Danish punk scene veterans Kim Wolf and Johannah Jørgensen formed Artificial Monuments in 2013; a handful of demos were put to tape before they asked MOTH alum Patrick Ringsborg to join. According to Ringsborg, the trio wanted something stylistically very different from both MOTH and Johanna’s old band, Metro Cult: ‘We thought we were cutting it down to size, making very minimal cold wave in the style of acts like say, Malaria! but the pop melodies kept creeping in, and the synths kept on layering and layering, and we ended up with this weird amalgamation of super minimalistic compositions and 2-bar pop hooks.’ A few shows in Copenhagen, one in Malmö , and the group was ready to start putting an album together.

Unfortunately, in 2015, an accident left the band without their friend and vocalist Jørgensen, and the project fell by the wayside. Tragedy often lends a measure of truth to a scene frequently fueled by self-indulgence; however, the band is reluctant to talk about it. Ringsborg’s manner is candid yet cautious when speaking of Johannah; ‘It is not a secret’, he says. ‘Even though the LP is drenched in the story, I don’t know how to tell the story and keep it tactful.’

So the nascent record sat. A few years later, the remaining members agreed to get to work. Some of the songs were merely ideas, simply, as Ringsborg says, ‘a synth hook on a mobile phone’. The skeletons of the melody were there, but revisiting them proved interesting. ‘The AM songs were left in the drawer for 3+ years before we agreed on finishing the album, and in the mean time we were listening to vastly different stuff from when we wrote the songs.’ This time around, instead of Iron Curtain and Neon Judgment, Ringsborg took his own inspiration from Bel-pop and ‘cheesy New Age synth’ music. Obviously, he’s not surprised in the marked tonal shift. ‘You do an album on and off over 5 years, it kind of takes on a life of its own!’ Left to his own devices with regards to mixing and mastering, Totem’s Christoffer Bagge offered his skills and support.

As they say, many hands make light work. A host of talented musicians backed the group in its final act – women artists, in particular. Johannah’s sister, Sally Dige, was one of the many who helped Illusions of Identity get off the ground. Ina Noire and Lisa Løebekken absolutely kill the darkly elegant “Wasteful Days” – a disco twist which wouldn’t be out of place on that album Al Jourgensen doesn’t want to talk about. Likewise, Mala Herba’s gelid vocals manage to lay like syrup over the peaks in “The Sun is Anaemic”. A febrile thump countervailed by Johannah’s sultry hum, “Succumb” is, for lack of a better term, a fucking banger. Cecilia Wörlen’s beautifully languid contribution to “Tired Bodies” is almost chipper, contrasting sharply with its lyrics. The lone track to which Ringsborg lends his voice is aptly named: “Incremental Vex”. His spidery whispers sound prophetic as the song builds, plateaus, and ends almost quickly as it begins – your panic attack neatly resolved in under three minutes. Conversely, the following instrumental track “Void” sounds hopeful in comparison.

What’s next for Artificial Monuments? Ringsborg says this is it. ‘We are very proud and happy that it is finally coming out, it took a lot of blood, sweat and tears to do. I’m sure that what we’ve ended up with is substantially different than what we would have done had we been able to finish the album organically back in 2015. Whether that is a good or a bad thing in regards to the outcome of the album, there’s just no way of telling.’

Artificial Monuments’ cassette will be out later this month on Funeral Tapes /Rusted Teeth, and keep an eye out for the LP, to be released on Dead Wax Records this summer.

FURTHER LISTENING: 
https://chainsaweaters.bandcamp.com/
https://technecph.bandcamp.com/
https://sallydige.bandcamp.com/
https://t0tvm.bandcamp.com/
https://mothband.bandcamp.com/
https://metrocult.bandcamp.com/

https://www.gofundme.com/johannah-jrgensen-support-care

-Rachel 

Creux Lies: The Hearth

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Band: Creux Lies

Album: The Hearth

Label: Cleopatra Records

Members: Kyle Vorst, David Wright, Topher Snyder, Barry Crider, Ean Clevenger

http://creuxlies.bandcamp.com/album/the-hearth

https://www.facebook.com/creuxlies

There is so much beautiful and nostalgic to hear. What if you made The Cure Disintegration but gave it razor sharp teeth? The drums had more snap. The guitar lines had that same entrancing delay but with more motion. Ean Clevenger has an obvious Robert Smith quality to his voice, yet where Smith focused more on a tongue and cheek sass. Clevenger is bringing a piercing intensity and higher range of New Order Movement feelings of being lost. The driving bass , the rising synth phrases, those crisp bark beat snaps. It’s like hearing every album that got me through my formative years but done with the precision production of the modern age. Every song makes me want to fall in love but never find the courage to express it.

Lets talk a bit about what isn’t nostalgic, because there is plenty of fresh takes in this offering. Beautiful guitar leads full of textural slush in a shoegaze slither. This record bleeds of layered sounds so thick you want to run your fingers through them. Intricate drum beats with a symphony conductors precision control the movement of each track. Just like most albums that touch me deeply it usually comes back to a vocalist that can make me feel something. Who can take me on a journey with words and feelings and this album left me shook. Every phrase drips with tortured honey and sorrow. Sometimes as an older listener who has lived a bit you hear something that makes you feel young again. In the case of Creux Lies it is not with energy and power. It is by reminding you of how deep you used to feel things before the world tempered you. Hearkening back to The Cure again this album is full of pop hooks. Strong ones that grab the lapels and shake you. It’s hard to define when you hear something that is similar to plenty of music I am hearing, but has something extra, has IT. I’m at a loss on how to express it but I do know it when I hear it. I heard it.

There really isn’t a weak track on this album, but I’ll pick some favorites.

Portals – This is the obvious single, but it is that way for a reason. The beautiful New Order keyboard melodies are absolutely captivating. The lyrics “Did you fall in love with a killer at your door, while waiting for a lifetime to begin” pure poetry. The vocals in this track are a masterclass in sliding between the cracks in the wall of sound around you. The build on the end is a perfect tension and release. Staggering.

Virginity – This is such a gentle caress of an opening, that effectively smashes you in the face with a giant crashing wave of sound when you least expect it. The slow crawling tempo makes you sway like a leaf on the wind. It feels like the terrifying lack of control at a first love so powerful you don’t yet have a frame of reference for it. Clevenger reaches into some sky splitting notes in this one and laser burns them into your heart. Slow dance with yourself in this moment.

Aine’s Song – Tom fills, give me all these tom fills. Tiny dancing pin prick guitar lines doing a duelist routine with the bass and rhythm, “I saw your face again, I want to take you home” That feeling of being struck. We have all felt it but to blend the music and lyrics so seamlessly to express it. I love the whispered secret in between chorus. I love the world drops out breakdown. You built me up and then pulled it all away. Just so those toms could drive right back into me.

Overall this album is an emotional and powerful offering. It’s also full of energy and fun though. It shows me how the past can pave the way for something new in dark music. I was an instant fan for life and you will be too.