Hyper dream pop meets palpitatingly paced new wave indie and post-punk in the latest single, Haunt, from one of Indiana’s most prodigal sonic protagonists, Lumen Loraine, who has already garnered millions of streams to date, featured on several editorial Spotify playlists and appeared on Pharrell’s devoutly followed Apple Music Podcast, OTHERtone.
As jarring as it initially seems for those tones to blast past you at warp speed instead of being enveloped in the kaleidoscopic choral and reverb-swathed textures which spill from drawn-out progressions, once you grow accustomed to Cayo Coco’s electrifying frantic energy which efficaciously contextualises the need to outrun your demons, you’ll see that they have exactly what it takes to stand at the vanguard of the evolution of indie.
The official music video for Haunt, which premiered on October 18th is now available to stream on YouTube.
If djamesk13 wasn’t a solo artist, you’d be forgiven for wondering if Paul Banks had added a new project to his legacy. With echoes of the early Interpol records lingering in the guitar’s reverb entwined with an atmosphere which could only be described as Lynchian, the latest single, The Left-Over Piece of the Puzzle, is an alluring pool of tonal and textural mesmerism.
When you’re not busy being consumed by the artful effects applied to the post-punk nuances, you will find the time to find the melancholic beauty in the release. While some people lament because a piece of them of missing, others are alienated by the unshakable feeling that there’s no place where they can fit in and feel at home. This one is for anyone who has felt a kinship with Camus.
The Left-Over Piece of the Puzzle was officially released on October 8th; stream it on SoundCloud.
If you fell for the rancour of the Fall and Public Image Limited, prepare to be consumed by the latest darkwave post-punk hit, I Believe in Noise, from Ireland’s most ensnaring powerhouse, Movment.
With the manifesto-esque lyricism, the unfaltering conviction in the vocal lines and the sirening synth lines that effortlessly coalesce with the angular stings from the lead guitars, Movment bred a dark and murky atmosphere within I Believe in Noise. But as the track title would lead you to believe, there’s salvation oozing from every chord.
If you have a hard time believing what you hear and see in our post-truth reality, I Believe in Noise will give you a place to put your faith that resistance isn’t futile. Adam Curtis couldn’t have written the hit better himself.
I Believe in Noise follows two successful studio LPs and the Red Death Sessions EP and harbingers the disquietness to come in the third album, Reinvention, which will be released on the 24th of November via EPITRONIC.
I Believe in Noise will be released on September 15; hear it on SoundCloud.
Illinois’ premier indie outfit, Subatlantic, is on scintillatingly atmospheric form in their single, Critic, taken from their hotly-anticipated LP, Say It Again.
With angular guitar lines that will reel you into the centre of their darkwave pop universe, vocal lines that could give Debbie Harry a run for her money and the coldly beguiling tones spilling from the reverb-heavy keys, if Dead Can Dance, they’d dance to Critic, which unravels as a revelation of ethereal ingenuity.
With Becca Rice at the helm of the fourpiece, which has been dropping the temperature on the airwaves since 2008, Subatlantic has established itself as a dynamic powerhouse to watch; with soundscapes to suit every conceivable mood, there is undoubtedly something for you lingering in their artfully textured discography.
Stream and download Critic via Bandcamp or snag yourself a limited-edition colour vinyl pressing of the LP, Say it Again.
For the exact same reasons I fell in love with Editors from the first hit, I felt my pulse quicken to the snappy electro-indie gravitas and vocal magnetism from the indie rock raconteur Griffin Robillard, in his single, Laws of Longing (LOL).
The production is as polished as it is colossal as it wraps around the die-hard romanticism in the lyrics and the dance-worthy rhythms evocatively heightened with every ardently pitch-perfect vocal stretch. With Grant Eppley (The National, Maggie Rogers, Spoon) in charge of production, it was never going to be lacklustre. Yet, clearly, the raw material already came with a scintillating sheen.
When most people endure a broken-off engagement, they fall into an insular vacuum of self-pity. Notably, it did little to quell Griffin Robillard’s intensely passionate drive, which puts a visceral amount of momentum into Laws of Longing. It is just one of the singles found on his upcoming debut album, Big Pieces Energy, penned-post-heartbreak and due for release on March 10th.
‘VIOLENCE’ is the serendipitously timely new single from the Irish indie post-punk outfit, Movment; the pit-worthy call to arms in the wake of widespread apathy is exactly what our society confounded in fear of failure and futility needs to hear.
The boisterous chugging basslines roll with the percussive punches to fuel VIOLENCE with the aggravated energy required to stand up to the forces which make no bones about oppressing us. Under the fiery duress of Martin Kelly’s angsty vocal lines, the galvanically pulsating furore of the stagnation-emancipating record heightens to the nth degree while affirming that if utilised properly, anger can be one of the most powerful driving forces known to man.
Now that John Lydon is a national embarrassment and the gloss has been taken off PIL, it is all too refreshing to have Movment on our radar.
Violence will officially release on November 18th. Watch the official music video on YouTube and check out Movment’s official website.
Post-Punk is back with vengeance in Night Gallery’s new album, Caught Hiding, which features the standout single, Suddenly.
The Peter Hook-Esque stabbing basslines and chaotically kaleidoscopic sonics of Poison Ivy pull together to create the ultimate anthem for those ailed with the kind of off-kilter psyche that is so accurately portrayed in the lyrics. The portrait of the tendency of mental tilts creeping up on you at whiplash speed and the toll that takes is as striking as it is resonant.
Night Gallery found the perfect balance between emotionally raw and sonically finessed with Suddenly. Few post-punk revivals hit the mark as urgently and viscerally. Ben Nelson’s ability to vocally boomerang from Ian Curtis to Julian Casablancas-style energy is something no one will be quick to forget.
Caught Hiding will officially release on October 14th. Check it out for yourselves on SoundCloud.
Kablamo self-proclaims their debut self-titled EP to be personal, genuine and, at times, indulgent; I can fully attest to the indulgence being universal once you slip into the seminal single, Unnatural.
Unnatural unravels through dreamy guitar melodies, glassy synths and ragged post-punk basslines beneath the dream pop vocals which mellifluously breeze through the sentimentally heartfelt release, which all too readily imparts the emotion. An evocative response to the kaleidoscopic colour of Unnatural is non-optional.
Any fans of Deerhunter, Beach House, Tame Impala and Wild Nothing will undoubtedly want to sink their teeth into this paradoxically ambiently striking release.
The debut self-titled EP hit the airwaves on September 9th. You can hear it for yourselves by heading over to Spotify.
Taken from their critically acclaimed album, The Body Abdicator,Vukovar’s standout single, Place to Rest, is a neo-gothic dream. Laden with poetry, “death becomes the absence of the self/ it’s all in the mind”, shoegazey reverb, and strident Jack Ladder-Esque electronic percussion to feed energy into the expressive ennui of the darkened synth-pop track.
In their own words, their 2022 LP is a ‘metaphysical and esoteric wasteland disguised as a pop album’. If the IQ of an artist got them to the top of the charts, Vukovar would be unstoppable in their ascent. Anyone with an affinity for existential philosophy, Echo and the Bunnymen, House of Love and The Chameleons won’t want to let this luminously talented act slip them by. One hit and the swoon-worthy single will affably haunt you for a lifetime.
Check out the official video for Place to Rest via YouTube.
It is a bitter-sweet time for post-punk with most modern outfits becoming a parody of the pioneers by fixating on assimilating sonic texture over bringing the same substance that made us fall in love with the genre in the first place. Palais Ideal, consisting of John Edwards and Richard van Kruysdijk, who have previously collaborated with members of Wire, Bauhaus, Christian Death, Coil, Legendary Pink Dots and Swans, are the refreshingly existential antithesis.
The Netherlands-hailing duo’s seminal 2021 album, Negative Space, is an existential howl into the void where the façade of common sense, decency, and dignity existed. Every high-octane hook that draws you deeper into this manifesto of an LP resonates as an act of resistance.
With its Kessler-Esque guitars cutting through the caustic overflow of the vintage synths, the harbinger of an opening single, The Overseer, makes a meal out of your rhythmic pulses as the lyrics and vocals affirm that not every sane mind has been cowed into radio silence.
Results is a riotously electric post-punk indie earworm with enough anthemic power to minuscule the production on your dust scattered records paired with an intuitive mix of light and dark aural ephemera, the kind of balance that allowed the Smiths to reign indie supreme. Metaphorically, this maturation of the Sweet and Tender Hooligan has picked up plenty of vitriol since he declared that in the midst of life, we are in death, and rightly so. There is no abyss deep enough to absolve the sins committed through our collective lack of self-awareness.
With a Richey Edwards-style lyrical opener, “self-obsessed is so indulgent, why live in oblivion?”, Reject the Anaesthetic instantly became a paradoxically enlivening highlight. In contradiction to the demands of the title, the even-kilter guitars, melodic basslines and percussion that is tighter than the government’s welfare budget start to deliver the psych-tinged soporific aural medicine to prove just how easy it is to pacify people into suggestibility.
The Voice of Reason is so beautifully just that. Just when you think you have Palais Ideal pegged, the compassion starts to pour, coming from a well of unequivocal understanding for ultimate sucker-punching consolation.
Anything for a Thrill is a frenetic continuation of Reject the Anaesthetic, which strips the glamour right off the back of the libertine. It is gorgeously bold in its unapologeticness when holding people accountable for chasing highs after their dreams have disintegrated around their own self-destruction.
Concluding with the moody industrial post-punk Posthuman cry, Age of Intransigence, Negative Space fades to a final close and leaves you wondering how you are going to contribute to society beyond passivity, ego, insecurity and pedestrianism (on a good day). If Palais Ideal started a cult, I’d be the first in line with goat blood on my hands.
