Dark wave – 7th Level Music

Lowsunday’s new single “This Is Not Heaven” descends with a roar.

Legacy postpunk-shoegaze outfit Lowsunday unveils ‘This Is Not Heaven’, the first taste of their forthcoming ‘Low Sunday Ghost Machine – Black EP’, forthcoming via Projekt Records, the video for which was produced by Jer Herring.

This is the second of two ‘duality’ releases, presenting the band’s first new material since 1999, following their ‘Low Sunday Ghost Machine – White EP’. Showcased by ‘Love Language’, ‘Soft Capture’ and the latest single ‘Nevver’, the ‘White EP’ ranked second among Post-Punk.com’s Best EPs of 2025.

Formed in the mid-1990s in Pittsburgh, Lowsunday (initially known as Low Sunday Ghost Machine) emerged as a “retro-futurist” pioneer, blending darkwave and shoegaze long before the genres saw their modern revival. Their legacy was cemented with their debut album ‘Low Sunday Ghost Machine’ and the 1999 masterpiece ‘Elesgiem’, both of which were re-released via Projekt Records over the past 18 months (for their 30th and 25th anniversaries, respectively).

The band dissolved, leaving behind a cult reputation for mercurial sounds and blistering guitar work that set the stage for subsequent generations of alternative artists. Following a nearly 25-year period of inactivity, the band resurfaced as a duo in 2025—consisting of original members Shane Sahene (vocals, guitar, synth, bass, drums) and Bobby Spell (bass, guitar, drums).

“‘This is Not Heaven’ was the last song we recorded for the Black EP. We really enjoyed injecting the heavy synths on the chorus, the asymmetrical guitar leads and the driving bass line beneath an intricate and melodic rhythm guitar,” says Shane Sahene.

“We felt this song captured everything we are about in that it hits the refrains with a shoegaze atmosphere, more electronic choruses and lyrical transparency, much less vague than many of our songs… it touches on many aspects of our sound.”

Bobby Spell adds, “This was another really enjoyable song to write. The guitar textures and melody lines create a dark song with uplifting sections. The mood shifts in the choruses giving a feeling of brightness or a way out of melancholy”.

Crafting a sound defined by atmosphere, precision, and heartfelt shadow and depths since 1994, Lowsunday is now asserting their presence with a new force. While the ‘White EP’ explored light and texture, the ‘Black EP’ is ultimately the 2026 series’ darker counterpart and definitive statement.

Plunged into shadow and intensity with layered guitars, tight rhythms, and austere synths amplifying themes of isolation, reverie and introspection, the ‘Black EP’ distills Lowsunday’s vision into a sharper, more potent form — a bold declaration of their enduring artistic power.

‘This Is Not Heaven’ is available from digital platforms such as Spotify and Apple Music. The ‘Low Sunday Ghost Machine – Black EP’ will be released on May 15th digitally. The ‘White EP’ is available now via Bandcamp and the Projekt Recordswebsite – the vinyl edition of both EPs are limited to 200 copies. The two anniversary reissue albums, as well as the limited edition 7″ of ‘Static / Besides’, can also be found on these platforms.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Shauna at Shameless Promotion PR.]

Live: Gary Numan and Tremours – Vogue Theatre – Indianapolis, Indiana – March 29, 2026

The seemingly ageless electro icon Gary Numan summed up his show at Indianapolis’ Vogue Theatre well when, during a pause in his set, he said, “I didn’t know what to expect, but this is fucking amazing.”

This was the fourth time I’ve seen Numan and his band, and they always bring it. Each set feels better than the last, and this one was loud, powerful, and a performance.

First up were Tremours, a good shoegaze duo from Los Angeles. They put on a solid thirty-minute set of reverb-thick guitar and echoing vocals from Lauren Andino and hypnotic drumming from Glenn Fryatt. My friends with me at the show were reminded of Belly, Lush, The Sundays, and Ladytron during their set that was both dreamy and drone-y.

Numan and crew came out at 8pm sharp and opened with two bangers out of the gate – “Halo” and “Metal.” Right away, the whole band was clicking and the crowd, which ranged in ages from twenties to seventies and band shirts ranging from Nitzer Ebb to All Them Witches, was cheering. Many hadn’t seen Numan before then, and I think he hadn’t played in Indianapolis in quite a while, so everyone was hyped.

L-R: Harris, Chris Payne, Numan, Slade, Jimmy Lucido

Guitarist Steve Harris was in great form, creating weird riffs and baffling people with his strange antics that seem to be a reflection of how all the sounds are affecting his brain. Teaming him with Tim Slade on bass is genius because the weird energy they bring creates a strange dance that works well with the roar of sound they create.

Following his classic “Down in the Park” with “M.E.” was a great addition to the set. I’d never heard him play it live before then, so I was over the moon. After that, Numan and his lads took a moment for him to tell us why his new album wasn’t finished or released for the tour — mainly due to his wife, Gemma, undergoing multiple serious health scares. As a result, his songwriting has been seriously delayed. He heard some new music playing from the bedroom of his daughter, Raven, and had planned on stealing part of it for a new track. He asked who it was, and she said, “It’s me.” The next thing we knew, Raven Numan joined her dad and his band on stage to perform her song “Nothing’s What It Seems.”

After rousing applause for her, Dad Numan unleashed two more heavy-hitters: “Ghost Nation” and “Love Hurt Bleed” (which always kills live). He played, “Cars,” of course, and I love how he puts a different spin on it with each tour. My friend, Bill, said, “It’s like I never heard that song before.”

He ended the main set with “Are Friends Electric?”, which has rapidly become my favorite song to hear during his shows. It just hits you. The encore included “The Gift” and “My Name Is Ruin.”

You couldn’t help noticing how often Numan and his band were smiling and laughing. At one point during the show, Numan thanked the crowd and said, “I didn’t know what to expect (playing at a small venue in Indianapolis on a Sunday night), but this is fucking amazing.”

Yes, Mr. Numan it was.

Keep your mind open.

Thanks to the chap who scored this and let me photograph it.

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[Thanks to Dave for the press pass!]

Noir Addiction serve up a slick new single with “Serve Me Some Crime.”

Alternative-industrial rockers Noir Addiction present their new single “Serve Me Some Crime”, a sarcastic manifesto about embracing chaos and contradiction, where rule-breaking, humor and non-conformity become tools of personal freedom. Presented with a smashing new video directed & edited by ‪Jack Lucas Laugeni, it celebrates choosing instinct and madness over routine, control, and the suffocating seriousness of everyday life. This is the first taste of the album “Pretty Things Don’t Last”, forthcoming via Berlin-based Soulpunx label.

Emerging with a raw, industrial-tinged soul, Noir Addiction is a powerhouse trio that harnesses a dark, heavy aesthetic against a backdrop of classic rock ’n’ roll grit. Founded by Sonny Lanegan, who handles vocals, guitars, synthesizers, and programming, the band is rounded out by drummer Roberto Catanzaro and Nessie Zorba on keyboards and percussion. A seasoned musician and producer, Lanegan’s creative vision was shaped by cutting his teeth in Los Angeles’s high-octane music scene, where he honed his experimental style as singer-songwriter for White Pulp and co-founder of The Dead Good.

“Serve Me Some Crime” started from a really simple feeling: sometimes life gets too serious. Too structured. Too polite. The word “crime” in the song isn’t literal it’s more about breaking small, invisible rules. It’s about those moments when you don’t want to behave exactly how you’re expected to. A regular Sunday can feel predictable, almost scripted, and the song plays with the idea of shaking that up adding a bit of danger, irony, or mischief to something ordinary,” says Sonny Lanegan.

“At its core, the song is about freedom not the peaceful, inspirational kind, but the messy kind. The kind where you allow yourself to be contradictory, to not have it all figured out, to embrace a bit of chaos instead of pretending you’re always in control. It’s me saying: if life insists on being absurd, I might as well play along.”

Based in Italy, Noir Addiction has electrifying their way onto the music scene through their clever mix of glamorously haunting atmosphere, sense of decadence, rebellion and obsession, Noir Addiction bring a high-voltage fusion of dark rock, grunge attitude and shock-rock energy. By fusing heavy, distorted guitars and electronic textures with theatrics and raw emotion, they offer an immersive experience that is meant to be felt just as much as it is heard.

“There’s a lot of contradiction in the lyrics on purpose. Lines like “I don’t need forgiveness right now” or “I wear the joke to fight” reflect that push and pull between being sincere and hiding behind humor. I think many of us do that… we joke when things get uncomfortable, we act cool instead of saying what we really feel. The song lives in that space. Writing it felt like letting myself misbehave creatively. I didn’t overthink it, I followed the impulses that felt a little reckless. The lyrics came out in bursts, almost like I was arguing with myself. There’s tension in the song because that’s how I felt: torn between wanting to stay composed and wanting to blow everything up,” says Sonny Lanegan.

“When we recorded it, I wanted that tension to stay alive. We didn’t polish away the edges. The vocals needed attitude something slightly provocative, almost teasing. I wanted the track to feel cool but restless at the same time, like there’s something simmering underneath. We played with that contrast between restraint and release, keeping it tight in some moments and then letting it loosen just enough to feel unpredictable. That balance is really what gives the song its character”.

Sonny Lanegan brings years of behind-the-scenes studio and production experience to Noir Addiction. Many of his songs have also been licensed to and featured in American TV shows, cementing his presence in mainstream media and propelling him into notable collaborations with artists and producers, which has sharpened his sound and pushed his creative vision to new heights.

Lanegan eventually reconnected with his old friend Nessie Zorba, former bandmate in PostHuman, with whom they toured Europe, rekindling their deep musical connection and passion for relentless intensity and depth and channelling this unfiltered energy into this new, heavier, darker project. Drummer Roberto Catanzaro then joined in, bringing a new dynamic layer to their presence, his powerful and heavy-weighted performance adding body, urgency and raw impact to their overall sound.

Soulpunx is an independent record label and media production house founded in 2017 by music producer and film composer Konstantin Dellos. Dedicated to the creation and promotion of high-quality audiovisual art, the label’s focus is modern rock and alternative music. Beyond music, Soulpunx produces short films, documentaries and music videos, always emphasizing powerful storytelling.
As of March 20, “Serve Me Some Crime” will be available across digital platforms, including Spotify, Apple Music and Bandcamp. The full “Pretty Things Don’t Last” album will be released on July 16 via SoulPunx Records.

Noir Addiction will be touring in support of this EP, beginning with two special shows in Prague – at Subzero Prague on May 14 and at Chapeau Rouge on May 15.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Shauna at Shameless Promotion PR.]

Ora Cogan implores us to band together on “Division.”

“Division” Video Still – Directed by Ora Cogan, Micah Henry & Paloma Ruiz-Hernandez.

Ora Cogan releases “Division,” the second single/video from her forthcoming album and Sacred Bones debut, Hard Hearted Woman, out March 13th. Today’s single follows “Honey,” hailed for its “sweet Lauren Canyon haze” by Don’t Rock The Inbox and as a “cool, misty folk rock tune” by The Needle Drop. On “Division,” Cogan’s voice echoes across a stark, reverberant landscape. The song builds like a flare in the night, a plea against the numbing cruelty that’s come to feel routine these days: “Please don’t listen // Don’t give into the division // Feeding your lines // In some bitter mood again.” Cogan sounds like she’s summoning something, maybe a higher power, maybe the part of herself that knows how to sit with pain long enough to transform it.

“Division” arrives alongside an old world, horror-meets-fantasy video co-directed by Cogan, Micah Henry and Paloma Ruiz-Hernandez. Commenting on the video, Cogan says: “This video was filmed in Lilloet. There are three beings in this realm. The Human, The Oracle and The Demon. The Human is wrestling internally in a lonely world. They seek liberation from the torment inside. The Demon is the embodiment of the worst inclinations of the human. The oracle is the storyteller, urging the human to find understanding, to find a way through the internal battle.”

Watch the Video for Ora Cogan’s “Division”

Stream “Division”

Ora Cogan’s music is alchemical: part instinct, part ritual, and always conjured from the edges where life feels sharpest. With Hard Hearted Woman, she mixes haunted folk, psych rock, and a shadowy strain of country, building a realm where catharsis feels lush, mysterious and vital. Shaken by the tenor of modern life, Cogan pulled in a circle of kindred musicians and made a record shaped by someone who has looked into the abyss and decided, again and again, to choose curiosity.

Hard Hearted Woman grew out of a blur of cold-water plunges, long river swims, late-night ruminations with friends on art and politics, and long drives through the rural Lillooet landscape to visit her godmother. Alongside her band and guests from both the country and experimental worlds, she recorded with David Parry (Loving) at Dream Club in Victoria, B.C., as well as in her studio in Nanaimo, and remotely with Tom Deis. The result glows like something pulled from smoke and seawater — intimate, shimmering, and carved with wit as much as grief. It’s a swirling, jewel-toned ode to all the angels and the demons.

A work of devotion to mystery, to community, and to the strange power of making art in a fractured world, Hard Hearted Woman is a record about hardness and resilience; it’s the shell we grow so our most human, breakable selves can survive. Hard Hearted Woman is for anyone trying to stay open, even when the world makes that feel impossible.

Pre-Order Hard Hearted Woman

Watch the Video for “Honey”

Ora Cogan Tour Dates:
Fri. March 13 – Vancouver, BC @ The Pearl (Album Release Show)
Thu. March 19 – Brighton, UK @ The Hope & Ruin
Fri. March 20 – Oxford, UK @ The Nest
Sat. March 21 – Manchester, UK @ Yes Pink Room
Sun. March 22 – Newcastle, UK @ The Lubber Fiend
Tue. March 24 – Edinburgh, UK @ Sneaky Pete’s
Wed. March 25 – Glasgow, UK @ Room 2
Fri. March 27 – Galway, IE @ Roisin Dubh
Sat. March 28 – Dublin, IE @ Whelans
Sun. March 29 – Cork, IE @ Wavelength at Cyprus Avenue
Wed. April 1 – Sheffield, UK @ Sidney & Matilda
Thu. April 2 – Bristol, UK @ Rough Trade
Fri. April 3 – London, UK @ Dingwalls

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Ahmad at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Review: Scattered Purgatory – Post Purgatory

I’m not sure how to accurately describe Scattered Purgatory‘s new album, Post Purgatory, but I’m also not sure it’s possible. The Taipei duo blend multiple genres well: Trip-hop, industrial, motorik, synthwave, a bit of goth. The cover looks like an upside-down photo of a flooded underpass with a city (Taipei?) in the background. The world was turned upside-down for the band during the pandemic, and they emerged from it, like all of us, a bit puzzled by how time and space worked and what was certain. Human relationships and airy expanses craved during isolation now felt kind of weird. Time felt like “it can heal or it can destroy,” as they mention in the notes for the album.

“Atata Naraka” has wild tenor saxophone (courtesy of Minyen Hsieh) that blasts like its being played in that flooded underpass while you cruise over the floodwaters in a sleek Miami Vice-era boat. The thick bass and fuzzy guitar chords of “Wunai” sound like the set-up to a seduction sequence in a vampire thriller.

“Ephemeral Mind” is a good name for a good track that describes how most of the world felt during and after the pandemic. Our minds, preoccupied with distractions before the pandemic, and calmness of mind, became ephemeral to our doom-scrolling. Emerging from our cocoons made some of us realize we need to put the phone down, while others rushed to fill the silence of the world and our heads with even more distractions. The 1980s goth guitar chords on it are damn cool.

“Thundering Dream” is heavy with low bass and synth stabs that sound like they’re played by robots underwater. dotzio‘s guest vocals on “Moonquake” create a gorgeous trip-hop / chillwave track that you’ll probably put on romantic playlists all year. “Above the Clouds” has heavy metal guitar chords combined with soft vocal sounds and tripped-out synths to make something unpredictable…as is the short “KL20,” which is like Blade Runner background music.

“Ocean City, Mirage Tower” would also fit into a science fiction film as the lead character slurps noodles in a tiny place off a neon-lit alley waiting for robot bounty hunters to show up and ruin everything. It floats along like lotus petal along the rain-filled underpass, drifting from synthwave to dark funk to cinematic piano paranoia.

Time is weird. Scattered Purgatory figured this out years ago and made an album that has a title symbolizing multiple things: Emerging from the weird time of the pandemic (which felt like purgatory for many), becoming new versions of themselves (Post “Scattered” Purgatory), no longer dwelling on the past, mistakes, and regrets (essentially what purgatory is).

Time constantly happens, and yet it doesn’t. No is one really sure what the hell it is. It heals all wounds and also withers away everything. Now is the only part of it that exists. I’m writing this in my present and in your past. You’re reading it in my future and your present. All of those things are now, like this record.

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t leave the subscription box in purgatory.]

[Thanks to Kate at Stereo Sanctity.]

ADULT. wants you to know that “No One Is Coming” with their new single.

ADULT. is not cooperating. For over 25 years, the dystopian Detroit synth-punk institution founded by Nicola Kuperus and Adam Lee Miller has embodied steadfast frustration, distrust, and apprehension. One might expect the edges to soften with time, but ADULT. is not interested in the comforts of legacy. The duo’s music has never sounded as visceral, urgent, and downright angry as it does on the culminating, uncompromising Kissing Luck Goodbye, their scorched-earth 10th LP and fourth with Dais Records.

Built with upgraded gear and a whole new library of sounds, the material is crushingly dynamic, louder yet clearer, with Kuperus’ commanding delivery given greater prominence in the mix, outlining an arsenal of vivid, caustic calls, chants, and musings. Laughter, whether in the lyrics or as a possessed presence, serves as a leitmotif that speaks to the menacing absurdity of modern times.

“No One is Coming”, the album’s lead single is a poignant, bassline-driven industrial anthem that turns feedback into melody, the track attacks inaction in the face of fascism —

NO ONE IS COMING TO YOUR RESCUE… A lyric that was written in early 2025 and is even more relevant on its release date a year later. A song speaking to moral collapse and political corruption “to a T”. These subhumans attempting to run the show are more concerned with cashing in and political cosplay than the well being of mankind. While working on this album, I read an article from an esteemed environmental scientist about “what’s coming in the future”. What stuck with me was their point that we are entering a new phase in existence where the most important thing we can do is know our neighbors and know the strengths of each other and what resources everyone has. Who needs extra care? Who is on their own? This song was written as a call to arms. Be alert. Be aware. Be prepared. Stand up for yourself and look out for your community. We are better when we are united. Social media is wearing us down. Deluding us. The political landscape is horrifying, distracting, deranged and unhinged. We are seeing this go down in real time right now in Minneapolis… NO ONE IS COMING TO YOUR RESCUE… except ALL OF US! Keep speaking up! Keep using your right to protest and most importantly keep showing kindness to one another.

– Nicola Kuperus

Listen / Share / Playlist “No One Is Coming” | Official Video

ADULT. is known for high-stakes catharsis on stage, and recently deployed their back catalog of bass guitar songs from the 2000s, retracing the prescient Anxiety Always era partially out of necessity given the temperature of today’s political and technological dread. The response was instant and palpable: “We were in Paris, and the kids were stage diving. And I was like, this is rad. This is kind of the energy I want to get back into,” Kuperus says. The epiphany coincided with a series of setbacks — Kuperus’ bouts with chronic vertigo, the loss of their close friend and collaborator Douglas McCarthy of Nitzer Ebb, whom the album is dedicated to — all made profoundly worse under the looming regime. “We were stuck in the mud for quite a while after the election,” Miller says. “We had all the concepts, but we would just be like, ‘What’s the point?’” With failing studio air conditioners and dead car batteries (their sacred space for listening back to recordings), they often joked that the album might be cursed. Kuperus adds, “We’re just like everything’s breaking. We’re breaking. We’re broken.”

The sentiment didn’t stick, however, as they found themselves ultimately too super-charged by fury to sit still. From watching Musk’s disgusting nazi salute to seeing their community struggle under the new regime to waiting months for a tariff-inflated replacement subwoofer, the vibe heading into Kissing Luck Goodbye was four middle fingers pointed straight up.

Rather than retreat, ADULT. focused on the process, revisiting their setup, complete with their first new mics in 20 years. They obsessed over textures, amassing a massive sample library taken from old thrift-store albums, previously used and unused ADULT. ingredients and new field recordings, running myriad items, including the buzz of shop vacs, through various pedals. Pause Kissing Luck Goodbye at any moment, and you’re likely to count a dozen things happening at once in strange, dizzying, and dissonant harmony. Together with producer Nolan Gray, whose involvement resulted from a chance encounter (he happened to be the host of the short-term rental property where the two stayed — maybe there is still some luck, after all), the band pushed themselves harder than ever before to build a world with this record.

Songs took shape from unusual places: “No One Is Coming” got its tempo from a skipping record they captured through a cell phone during a bnb stay for Kuperus’ 50th birthday. “None of It’s Fun” blitzes with breathless urgency, high-speed glissades, and pointed lines like “OH I AM TEARING MY GUTS OUT / LOOK AT ME…DO YOU THINK THAT THIS IS AMUSING?” The closer, “Destroyers”, was the last song they recorded and encompasses the techniques that ADULT. has learned not just throughout the making of Kissing Luck Goodbye, but across their quarter-century as a pioneering collaborative project.

ADULT. Live Dates:

Apr 10: Pittsburgh, PA – Spirit Lodge
Apr 11: Baltimore, MD – Ottobar
Apr 12: Brooklyn, NY – Good Room
Apr 14: Raleigh, NC – Kings
Apr 15: Atlanta, GA – The Earl
Apr 16: Jacksonville, FL – Jack Rabbits
Apr 17: Orlando, FL – The Social
Apr 18: Miami, FL – TBD
Apr 21: New Orleans, LA – Gasa Gasa
Apr 22: Houston, TX – White Oak Music Hall (Upstairs)
Apr 23: Austin, TX – 29th Street Ballroom
Apr 24: San Antonio, TX – Paper Tiger
Apr 25: Denton, TX – Rubber Gloves
Apr 28: Albuquerque, NM – Sister
Apr 29: Phoenix, AZ – Rebel Lounge
Apr 30: San Diego, CA – The Casbah
May 01: Los Angeles, CA – Hollywood Forever (Masonic Lodge)
May 02: San Francisco, CA – Rickshaw Stop
May 04: Portland, OR – Mississippi Studios
May 05: Seattle, WA – Barboza
May 08: Minneapolis, MN – 7th St. Entry
May 09: Cudahy, WI – X-Ray Arcade

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Bailey at Another Side.]

New German Cinema releases her debut single – “My Mistake.”

Today the voice and songwriter of Fear of Men, Jessica Weiss, announces details of her debut solo album under the moniker New German Cinema. Set for release on March 27th via Felte, her new album ‘Pain Will Polish Me’ is preceded today with lead single “My Mistake”, which features guest vocals from Merchandise’s Carson Cox.

Weiss carries lyrical precision and emotional intensity into the stormy dark-pop gems on her debut solo album. ‘Pain Will Polish Me’ has been five years in the making, stretched between London and LA, built from late-night files, long silences and the quiet persistence of trying to finish something beautiful. Produced with Alex DeGroot (Zola Jesus, Cate Le Bon), it feels both forensic and devotional, the product of someone who doesn’t rush catharsis. It presents both solitary and connective, as if built from long-distance transmissions between two dream states.

Weiss calls the album a meditation on pop and European art-house auteur Rainer Werner Fassbinder. It tracks the ways intimacy and control fold into one another until it’s impossible to tell where one ends. The songs are about the parts of yourself that dissolve in love, and the small acts of violence that come with being known. They move through claustrophobic relationships, obsession, surrender, cycles of suffering that start to feel like devotion. The language is pop but the feeling is something stranger, colder, more interior.

The album’s lead track, online today, is “My Mistake” – a collaboration with Carson Cox of Merchandise, who comments “I was going to produce Fear of Men and instead we made something totally different I think. True collaboration which is my preferred way to work on music”. What began as an Italo disco experiment evolved into a goth club anthem, charged and restless. It captures the push and pull of Weiss’s themes – devotion as both destruction and release. Weiss has a knack for making pain feel both exquisite and familiar.

Speaking on the accompanying video, Weiss comments: “The video sets the emotional tone for the record, suspended between eroticism and nightmare. It draws on cropped mirror framing – a favourite device of Douglas Sirk used to explore themes of emotional and physical entrapment and characters’ inner psychological conflicts – moments of dissociation, and the television as a symbol of alienation, inspired by my perennial inspiration, RW Fassbinder.”

Video director Luke Bather adds: “Our initial starting point was, predictably, the New German Cinema movement. However, when we discussed the themes of the song in more depth, the video evolved into its own beast. Sex, death, repressed desire, and good old-fashioned Catholic Guilt all loom large in the video through a series of performance vignettes inspired by everything from the films of Rainer Werner Fassbinder through to the paintings of Francis Bacon and everything in between. Adding to this, we have the spectre of Carson haunting the video as a ghostly analogue broadcast interspersed with archival footage of Berlin in the 1970s; an inescapable reminder of the past and a nod to the original New German Cinema movement.”

“My Mistake (ft Carson Cox)” official video: https://youtu.be/3TVLCRnr2KM
‘Pain Will Polish Me’ album links: https://felte.lnk.to/new-german-cinema

The songs on ‘Pain Will Polish Me’ move in shadow. Layers of synth, vocal and guitar fold over one another, drawing from the cinematic tension of Fassbinder’s New German Cinema and the quiet dissonance of modern Berlin, where Weiss recorded fragments of the record, drifting between places that carry uneasy ghosts. Between dinner conversations about the city’s buried history and the surreal comfort of its present, she found herself tracing the outlines of love and loss, identity and dissolution. “Germany’s history is everywhere but it’s unsaid,” she notes. “Fassbinder brought it into view. I wanted to approach the same sense of unease through sound.”

The album artwork picks up these themes, hovering between the everyday mundanity of a Fassbinder domestic scene, and something less recognisable, punctuated by surreal elements that move us into dreamscape, both familiar and disquieting. The shell and sea reference Botticelli’s Venus: a figure born from sea foam created when Uranus’s severed genitals fell into the ocean – an image of creation through destruction. The shell becomes her vessel of birth, representing transformation, protection and fertility – the bridge between divine creation and human life. Weiss extends this theme of renewal to the personal; her baby daughter’s babbles feature on the record.

Weiss has long been fascinated by the seam between pop and theory, art and feeling. While Fear of Men continue to work on their next record, this solo project opens up her own private language- a collection that feels at once personal and archival, haunted and alive. Between finishing a Masters in Early Modern Literature at Oxford, starting a PhD, moving countries and jobs many times, she’s been piecing together a body of work that sits somewhere between diary, research and séance.

It’s an album about losing yourself in order to see what’s left. A document of love as obsession, repetition, survival. A meditation on love as both mirror and undoing, crafted in fragments, then pieced together into something whole.

New German Cinema live dates:
28 February – London, UK @ Sebright Arms
15 April – Brighton, UK @ The Folklore Rooms

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t make the mistake of not subscribing.]

[Thanks to Kate at Stereo Sanctity.]

Rewind Review: Belaria – Boost & Doubts (2022)

One of the descriptors for Belaria‘s Boost & Doubts EP on the record’s Bandcamp page is “dark disco.” That’s perfect. The sultry electro beats and vibe of the record is palpable. It sinks into you, moves you, and…alters you.

“Boost” blends disco with krautrock and synthwave into a pulsing, sexy smoothie. The beats on “Rest in B” (Does the “B” stand for “Beats?” Or “Boost?” Or “Belaria?”) pop and drip, while menacing synth chords wash over you like spotlights from an off-world colony ship. “Burning Inside” is the song spun by the replicant DJ on that ship as you walk into the exclusive lounge reserved for people who can afford the trip…or the android assassins who are there to deliver a message to those rich fat cats.

“Esteem” sounds like the theme to a forgotten late 1970s science fiction show that aired for perhaps half a season but was so brilliant and ahead of its time that the network didn’t know what to do with it. It’s fun, sexy, and practically makes you imagine a cavalcade of TV stars in tight outfits and slightly retro space ships.

The EP includes 12″ remixes of “Rest in B” and “Burning Inside.” The “Burning Inside” remix is the first song I heard from Belaria, and I was instantly intrigued. I love how her vocals are barely comprehensible or even noticeable in some cases. They sometimes sound like she’s speak-singing through a silk scarf, which only makes you lean in more to the song and the mysterious feel of her music.

Lean into this record. You won’t regret it.

[I’ll get a boost if you subscribe.]

Review: Odonis Odonis – self-titled

“We just started writing without any kind of preconceived notion of what we were trying to make. A lot of the songs just came from jamming…We wanted to make an emotive record and relay how we were feeling about all these massive changes that have been happening, not just in our lives, but in general. Like, where the fuck is the world heading? How is that affecting us? And how can we express it in a way that people can relate it to what’s happening in their lives? If we can make an honest record and put as much of ourselves as we can into this thing, you can’t replace that with a machine.”

Those are quotes from Constantin Tzenos, one half of Odonis Odonis (the other half being Denholm Whale), about their new self-titled album. The duo decided to create something that would push back against not only the stresses of the world at-large, but also their demanding other jobs (concert promotion for Whale – a field that’s always feast or famine – and film and TV composition for Tzenos – a field being taken over by AI programs).

“The Same” has them wondering why so much of everything feels familiar, and not in a good way, while they spin a bold sound that blends shoegaze with dark wave. “Hijack” continues this, with a thick Cure-like bass line and lyrics about reclaiming one’s narrative (“Don’t let them talk to power.”). That bass cranks up the power on “Come Alive” and yet the track is one of the trippiest on the album. “Work It Out” is a call for the band and their peers to get out of their doldrums and fix the stuff their parents and grandparents let go fallow (“My generation’s so dumb,” Tzenos complains.).

“When you’re breaking me down, well, I hope you had fun,” they sing on “Consumed” – a dark one that layers the synths and echoes the drums to nice effect. Then comes “Hunter,” which roars during the chorus and growls during the verses – much like some kind of predator…which might be a corporation, a billionaire, a politician, or in some cases all three in one.

The drum work on the nearly instrumental (the few lyrics are so layered with reverb that they become incomprehensible) “Distraction” is sharp, blending rat-a-tat snare work with crispy cymbal snaps. You can hear the duo’s “Let’s just jam and see what happens.” idea for the album in full here, and it makes me want a whole album of stuff like this from them.

“We Are Gods” is a punch at toxic, rich elitists who think they’re above everything and can’t admit how secretly miserable they are. Finally, on “Bliss,” Tzenos realizes that he, Whale, and the rest of us can find the very thing in the title (and “the sunshine,” as he keeps repeating) if we wish, are willing to do the work (or, in some cases, give up the work that’s been stifling us), and accept it.

It’s a good message to end an album and start a new year. We don’t have to keep doing the same things, voting for the same people, or putting the same job before our bliss. It’s there for the taking – as is this record.

Keep your mind open.

[Can I hijack a subscription from you?]

[Thanks to Alex at Terrorbird Media.]

Daniel Avery announces new remix album and tour.

Revered producer and composer Daniel Avery announces his new album, Tremor (Midnight Versions) — a reimagining of his acclaimed sixth studio album Tremor — out March 6th via Domino with lead single “Haze w/ Ellie (Midnight Version).” Remixing the entirety of the record himself, Avery presents a nocturnal counterpart to last year’s Tremor with a collection of darker, club-focused reworkings, drawing the record firmly into the late-night hours. Today’s announcement lands alongside news of a spring North American DJ tour.

Tremor (Midnight Versions) continues the world Avery created on Tremor, reframing its material through a techno lens and speaking directly to the dancefloor. Stripped back, intensified and retooled for the strobe light, these tracks channel Avery’s long-standing relationship with club culture while maintaining the emotional weight and textural depth that defines his work.

Two Midnight Versions have already surfaced, “Rapture In Blue w/ Cecile Believe” and “Greasy Off The Racing Line w/ Alison Mosshart,” offering a first glimpse of this shadowed universe. The full project expands on that energy, positioning itself as a vital bridge between Tremor’s expansive, collaborative spirit and Avery’s enduring techno lineage. Avery comments: “For every tremor, there’s a reaction. These are the Midnight Versions. Songs reimagined and sent directly into the night.”

On Tremor, Avery welcomed an inspiring cast of collaborators, including the likes of Alison Mosshart (The Kills), Walter Schreifels (Quicksand / Rival Schools), bdrmm, Julie Dawson(NewDad), yeule, Ellie, Art School Girlfriend, yunè pinku, and Cecile Believe. Each artist left their indelible mark, yet the record’s true power lies in the communal spirit at its core. Marking his debut on Domino, the album was mixed by Alan Moulder (Smashing Pumpkins, Nine Inch Nails) and David Wrench (FKA twigs, Frank Ocean), and mastered by Heba Kadry—each vital to the creative fabric of the record.

Stream “Haze w/ Ellie (Midnight Version)”

Pre-order Tremor (Midnight Versions)

Stream / Purchase Tremor

Daniel Avery Tour Dates
Sat. Jan. 31 – Brighton, UK @ Patterns ^
Sat. Feb. 21 – Brussels, BE @ Fuse ^
Fri. Feb. 27 – Birmingham, UK @ Hare & Hounds ^
Sat. Feb. 28 – Geneva, CH @ Audio ^
Fri. March 6 – London, UK @ Phonox Residency ^
Sat. March 7 – Bognor Regis, UK @ Bugged Out Weekender ^
Fri. March 13 – London, UK @ Phonox Residency ^
Fri. March 20 – London, UK @ Phonox Residency ^
Sat. March 21 – Manchester, UK @ Victoria Baths ^
Fri. March 27 – London, UK @ Phonox Residency ^
Thu. April 2 – Glasgow, UK @ Queen Margaret Union *
Fri. April 3 – Dublin, IE @ Opium *
Sat. April 4 – Belfast, UK @ Ulster Sports Club (b2b Richard Fearless) ^
Fri. April 24 – Toronto, CA @ Standard Time ^
Sat. April 25 – New York, NY @ Public Records ^
Thu. April 30 – Washington, DC @ Tigres de la Noche ^
Fri. May 1 – Chicago, IL @ Smoke & Mirrors ^
Sat. May 2 – Miami, FL @ The Ground ^
Thu. May 7 – Portland, OR @ Process ^
Fri. May 8 – Los Angeles, CA @ Into the Woods ^
Sat. May 9 – San Francisco, CA @ SquishFest ^
Sat. May 30 – Edinburgh, UK @ Dark Days (b2b Helena Hauff) ^

^ = DJ Set
* = Live Set

Keep your mind open.

[I’ll have tremors until you subscribe.]

[Thanks to Ahmad at Pitch Perfect PR.]