Misery and angst united behind masks of ourselves as I was doused in millions of possibilities before your eyes. You, you were all over my flesh, my pores - this deplorable duplicitous deception. We have made multitudes of mistakes in the name of it, yet I could not bare to think of it any longer. Desperate to rid my being of this foul, tepid, rotting malodor - your stench staining my skin like a nagging shadow.
Back in January, I wrote about Dark Mother’s dulcet, hypnotic track, “Glass Cast”. They are now back with, “Anda”, a 6 track release full of witching rhythms and thaumaturgic undertones. At times the vocals alternate between an innocent, alluring maiden and later transforms into possessed woman who wails and ululates until there is nothing left but echoing screeching and yelping. Vociferation drenched in reverb and distortion intertwine with humming synths and trilling drum machines. A cradlesong for playful, hellions - gurgling caoineadh crooners.
Get it here for $3
♪ File under: electronic, dark, oh dark mother
♫ W0LCNUM - It will never be
♫ W0LCNUM - It will never be
Terribly aware, overwhelmed with terror and mounting nerves, I began gnawing at fingers. Drenched in sweat, my finger tips became pruned - wrinkled and rugosed. Biting harder, my teeth clenched tightly on the folded, rumpled skin that rested in between my front teeth. Pulling. Twisting. Gnashing. Chewing. Without much thought, I devoured the skin off my finger tips one after the other. Sometimes spitting, sometimes swallowing the salty, dry flesh that fell on my tongue. And after I finished ridding one hand of all branding, I instinctively removed the unwanted finger tips on my other hand. Adorned in blood and decay. Without identity. Anonymous animal - unnamed and uncredited.
W0LCNUM’s vexing and menacing track, “It will never be”, plays out like a demonic warning that what you desire will never occur. Luring you into the tenebrous reality that, maybe, your ambitions are foolish. Nebulous and murky, the synths drone and wail in languid anxiety as diabolical babble soliloquizes - terrorizes - amidst occasional sounds of guns ready to fire. Blasting - disturbing the building suspense. Urging. Warning
Get the 5 song Ep, “Sickness”, here.
♪ File under: dark, electronic, this is my (witch) house
♫ SVENG∆LI
As my eyes began to shut, I could feel my body drifting away. Lost in unconsciousness, I felt my muscles, my tendons, and skeleton slowly settle. My pained neck would pop and creak as my little bones shifted into their rightful place. At that moment, I realized I could still see through my illuminated, thin eyelids. Blackened specks, like small constellations, formed and danced across my fleshy lids. Grand light shows - like red dwarfs birthing - exploded and pulsated. I could feel my body twitching uncontrollably as my breathing became more shallow and labored. Unable to escaping this all consuming state, I eagerly succumbed to the celestial condition my id was humbly prostrating to. Astral awareness - transcendental, transmundane travels.
SVENG∆LI creates down tempo tracks that float and undulate through the cosmos. Late night, universe dancing with your best companion - your partner in crime - as synths glisten and glimmer across pitch-shifted samples. Anticipating what is to come after small, pregnant pauses tease for something more grandiose - the payoff realized. Nebulaic journeys - scintillating sounds.
Soundcloud | Tumblr
♫ Bonus:
SVENG∆LI - Trust
SVENG∆LI - Current Conditions
♪ File under: electronic, down tempo, 2 step
♫ Ivvvo - With You
♫ Ivvvo - With You
I would emerge, full of vigor and lust, at the silent, pitch black hours of night. Engulfed in flames, I would watch my beloved writhe and wiggle in vicious glee. My eyes, fixated in frustrated adoration, would intently watch you change shapes. The wanton vixen, the engorged pig, the frail imp - dancing carefree and shameless before me. Fully aware that this unison was only temporary, I became silently enraged - uncomfortable, anxious, and despondent. Forever vexed to observe you from afar - until that glorious, golden bell thundered and roared - relieving me from my libertine desires. Autonomous archfiend. Mephistophelic martyr - sacrificed for my rampant, lustful proclivity.
Filled with snaps, booming distortion, and impish pitch-shifted vocals, Ivvvo’s ep, “Her”, is a gorgeous, engaging entry to the darker electronic genre. Samples, often stretched and contorted beyond recognition, writhe and drift alongside the muted nebular, thundering bass lines. The gentle, stuttering reassurances nudge and pull - tugging at your reservations - hoping you abandon your worldly ties and become inundated with Hadic indulgence. Like slipping into the tenebrous tides - adrift in caliginous waters.
Get the 5 song EP, “Her”, here.
♫ Bonus: Ivvvo - Morning Dream
♪ File under: dark, electronic, this is my steez
♫ Lust - Dark Water
♫ Lust - Dark Water
Fueled by wanton and rampant fantasies, you became preoccupied. Obsessed with the repugnant fables, you began to grow more and more distracted. At night, when the air was stagnant, you would rest your racing, throbbing head in your makeshift bed. Your night time stories - horrific and grotesque tales - were your extension of your suffocating adoration. Arms would bind and twirl, bones would splinter and shatter, teeth would clack and grind, and flesh would flower and fragment. Giddy, you would imagine sundered organs, cleaved and atrophied - exposed and exploding. Shriveled tongues would travel across parched and parted lips - lipsticked in liquid gore. Ecstatic, your head roll back and forth, creaking and cracking, as your small, eyes rolled back - swallowed and engulfed. Startled, you would jolt to back to consciousness - disappointed in your reclusive, ordinary reality. Secluded. Alienated. Woeful, fictional exterminator - drowning in your extirpating fabrication.
Lust, from Colorado, is dark, sensuous giallo-disco. Atmospheric, impeding doom intertwines with alluring, enticing, atramentous rhythms - delving into near-engulfing sense of debauchery. Whether it is the arousal of the senses in a non-horrific state or pure lascivious terror, there is an underlying hint of hedonism that envelops the constant sighing, exhaling instrumentation. Gruesome and persuasive apex - the pinnacle of panic - rising in a foreboding swell of sinister synths.
Get it here |Soundcloud
♪ File under: electronic, giallo disco
♫ Purple - I will never see you again
♫ Purple - I will never see you again
Concerned I would be remembered, I began an attempt to cover up the bloodied, crimson footprints I unwillingly left behind. My oily fingertips, stained from the gore, feverishly began to wipe away the reminders of brutality. Twirling. Snaking. Distracted by your weakened wails and lamentations as they echoed through the bare, carnage-tinged halls, I began to shake with madness. Hurried, I finished erasing the evidence of my existence when I realized that my work wasn’t near completion. Cracking my jaw, my twisted neck and back, I slowly snapped every contoured vertebrae in place. Determined to extinguish every sign of my existence. Vehement vanquisher. Eager exterminator.
Portugal’s Purple embraces and creates dreamy, instrumental gothic soundscapes. Foggy and lush, with ambrosial, vexing synths that creep and ascend - often lurking, crawling, slowly escalating to a gentle, intoxicating build. The instrumentation wails and moans while accompanied by clandestine, unsure handclaps. Until the crescendo, humble and hesitant languidly reveals itself. Unknown, coaxing provocateur - convincing you to abandon all inhibitions.
Download the EP here.
♫ Bonus: Purple - Escaping to the Mountains
♪ File under: electronic, dark
♫ Black Marble - Pretender
♫ Black Marble - Pretender
Unable to shake the rituals embedded within your soul, you began to execute what you felt you were obligated to do. Barely shaking sleep from your fragile and failing bones, you began your journey your designated spot. With each step, your knees would crack and splinter - soaking the cloth in a copper hue. Muttering words of encouragement, your mantra of determination, you would grip your broken hand tighter around the knapsack filled with trinkets of nostalgia. Alone and frightened, you made your way to your secret destination - shrouded in mystery and horror. Your gauzed, swollen face began to tremble as you openly carried out your purpose. Shivering, sutured shaman. Plastered and dressed.
Dark, jangly goth pop from Brooklyn’s Black Marble. Akin to 80’s goth pop, Black Marble conjures up images of mellifluous misunderstandings, yearning psyches, and aching woeful youth. As the guitars twang and tangle, synths dance and shriek amidst the lo-fi hints of muted musings. Classic.
Get it here | Soundcloud
And check out their “Flowers In The Attic” video for “Pretender” here:
♪ File under: gothpop, lo-fi, coldwave
♫ The Long Wives
♫ The Long Wives - Odd Funerals For New Beasts
O, how my pleas fell upon deaf, unwavering ears. Stern and standing upright, towering before my shivering, quaking knees, you delivered your frightful sermon of injustice. Your voice boomed and thundered, as your spiteful tongue pushed out toxic psalms. Placing your engorged, calloused hand upon my sweat-ridden brow, you changed to intonations of removal - desiring to sequester that which I had become. As a mountain before me, you gesticulated your desires and propositions. Soliciting. Shrieking. Shouting. Spitting. Stomping. Striking. Unable to withstand the pressure building in my brain, my neck began to mimic writhing, serpentine movements. Fully fatigued, my cervical vertebrae finally snapped in two. My eyes rolled entirely in the back of my head as my arms flailed and danced. Overcome with extreme, enraged bravado, you applauded wildly. Bedeviled, demented disciple - phantasmagorical devouring.
The Long Wives is the solo work of one artist - Brandy St. John. She creates vexing, intriguing goth-folk compositions with little more than a guitar (sometimes a piano) and a rich nebulous voice. On the edge of breaking - near enthrallment - crooning and cooing to entice the malignant spirits which cavort and frolic in promise of possession. A tortured troubadour recalling remorseful, tales of woe and captivation.
Bonus:
♫ The Long Wives - Holy Water
Soundcloud.
♪ File under: dark folk, goth folk, freak folk, my kind of folk
♫ Taps - Fluttersad
I will confess how taxing writing short pieces of prose can be. With every piece, I find myself trying to fit the music - to conjure a story which fits the mood, the lyrics, or even artwork. This entry for “Fluttersad”, is a different story all together. It feels a little silly trying to create a “serious” composition when staring at artwork of a small, timid, teary eyed yellow pony that represents “kindness”.
The track itself sparkles and undulates with pitch shifted, warbling samples begging and reassuring, “fluttershy, why are you sad? don’t you cry..” Clandestine, small shrieks interject - squeaking and chirping - bleating over pounding beats. Truly addicting.
Get more here |
♪ File under: electronic, my little pony, pretty pony
♫ KnO▼1edge - Dvvn There
Engrossed in my grotesque transformation, I would pick the scabs that began to manifest on my once delicate, nimble, pink flesh. The new, scaley skin would easily break as I squeezed and pulled. Hoping to eject every drop of poisonous blood that was now coursing through my translucent veins, I created a nightly sanguine ritual. Afraid of digesting the vile, contaminated liquid, I would expectorate fluids until it was tinged red - splattering the porcelain with crimson, Pollock-esque drops. As I rose to survey the specks, I could feel the hemoglobin slowly disintegrating - what was once aqueous was now lose and gritty. I was constantly flaking, shedding and discarding the greying skin off my saddened and desperate body.
KnO▼1edge’s “Dvvn There,” is a deeply textured track which flirts with a darker, vexing side. Accompanied by claps and bewitching, distorted samples, they play out like a gradual unraveling of what once was. Impish voices taunt and play - coaxing - begging - wanting desperately to appease - until you have no choice but to succumb to whatever urges you so desperately longed to deny.
♫ File under: electronic, dark