electronic / synthpop

And now for something a wee-bit different. We don't often review dark pop albums here on Merchants Of Air but this one is too enjoyable to be ignored. Besides, a good friend of mine has just walked in and he loves this kind of music. So right now I'm going to write a review using tips, hints and references from Stephan. 

The Bedroom Witch, a dark pop project of Los Angeles-based recording and performance artist Sepehr Mashiahof. On 'Diaspora' the artist investigates the Bedroom Witch’s origin story as an Iranian-American Trans Woman. The result is an intriguing collection of electronic tunes.

The music on 'Diaspora' ranges from gloomy trip-hop over electronic dance tunes to new wave inspired synthpop. In fact, the first band that comes to mind is Depeche Mode. Not only in the nature of the music but mainly in the vocal lines. Here and there it seems like Dave Gahan is singing. 'At The Gates' could be a Depeche Mode hit. It's also one of my personal favorites here. My buddy Stephan also recognizes influences from Peter Gabriel and I like to add Zola Jesus to that mix. Synthpop galore, so to speak. 

The album opens with 'Shadow Self', using electronic sequences and impending beats before the vocals appear. 'She Told Me She Feels Alone' is a lingering dark synth tune with piteous vocals. The first real highlight is 'Sea Of Insects', a dance tune that opens like Front 242 and swiftly evolves into a potential Pet Shop Boys song. The Influences from the eighties are perfectly clear on 'Diaspora'. That's for sure. An certain moments even Madonna came to mind. Don't ask me why.

Another favorite of mine is 'Shapeshifter', a highly danceable piece of music with gloomy overtones and playful synths. This is a potential fan favorite, I think, but in all honesty, I do not know that much about this region of the musical spectrum. All I know is that 'Diaspora' is a more than decent album, with some highly convincing tunes. If you are a fan of synthpop, you should not miss out on it.


Serge

synthwave

Enzo Kreft’s album Control is an attestation of what’s going on in our society. The clear view of the Belgian electronic artist was translated in twelve powerful dark tracks of electronic music. With precision this DIY artist repeats and confirms the visions of George Orwell and Aldous Huxley, how robots and artificial intelligence are already ruling and determine our daily life.

Control is about total control and so is Enzo Kreft. The threatening sounds build a cold dystopian atmosphere without possible escape. Enzo Kreft’s harsh and cold lyrics reflect the military-like machinery domination and it’s controllers. With his dark synthwave escapades Enzo Kreft evokes images of a fearful apocalyptic society filled with paranoia and despair. 

The dramatic sounds and beats on the track Book Burnings are supported by sound excerpts from Fahrenheit 451(1966 François Truffaut) and The Burning Of The Books May 10, 1933. The used reflections of the past on this very strong song gave us a feeling of tragic asphyxiation. This bold man, dressed in black, opens a window where you can see the past, the present and the future at the same time.

Musically noting new was added with this album. The structure of the tracks is precise and very good sounding. We heard varied new wave/electro influences and inputs but they only make the concept of this release stronger. Mindshift could have been a Kraftwerk song without any doubt. Some tracks are dance-able (but who wants to dance… in dystopia).  Enzo Kreft made a clear statement with this album. Control is a mind fucker that puts a heavy warning boot on the listeners face. This awesome piece of work with intelligent content and brilliant ambiance will stay in our blood for a long time. Resistance is futile…

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Patsker

electronic

bandcamp

We remain in France, where we're still being treated to instrumental music with a story to tell. This time however, we focus our attention to the stubborn electronics of Kai Reznik. His new album, 'Dead Space Between Stars' is something you won't hear often, although you really should.

Throughout the first few songs on this album, the phrases 'downtempo synthpop', 'hacker music', 'eighties movies' and 'a very happy Fad Gadget' appeared in my mind. It's still not easy to categorize the music on 'Dead Space Between Stars', and that makes it an interesting piece of work in my opinion.


The album opens carefully with 'Albatros'. First a little intro before the beats and synths kick off. From the on, Kai Reznik takes the listener on a futuristic eighties trip. Yeah, I know that sounds weird, but in no time you'll be driving through Back To The Future. 'Chapter Eleven' is one of my favorites. Here, Reznik adds something impending, dark basslines and pummeling electronic drums. This one comes quite close to an all-electronic version of post rock. Title track 'Dead Space Between Stars' does something similar. It turns an electronic lullaby into a vintage game music.

But it's on 'Turning To Ghost ( feat. M.A.D )' when I suddenly realize that there is a certain hip hop element in here. These tracks are quite solid foundations for rap tunes. Now I know why Reznik describes his own music as "alternative". It's one of those sounds that simultaneously do and do not fit it with a number of genres, even though it has its own, distinctive character. I'll end this review with another favorite of mine, 'Night Pink Drops', a tune that will make you want to drive Kit through an episode of 'Knight Rider'. So if you are into good old fashioned synth music, this one deserves a spot on your shelves.


​Serge 

electronic / synthpop

Club Mayz is the DJ and producer alias of Belgian artist Matthias Yzebaert. The multidisciplinary approach in his music shows the various talents of this Ghent based artist.  Club Mayz embraces the spirit of synth pop music with a dreamy twist on his third release. Matthias Yzebaert is a visual artist, graphic designer, gallery owner, DJ, performer and producer.

The music sounds easy, Utopian and has some interesting paths to follow. With a relaxing mood the synth pop floats from a cinematic like style to a soft melancholic temper. The gloomy pop vibe has a special effect in the music, which has its inspiration in the synthesizer music of the 80’s.  The smooth retro style contains some vocal parts (Mirage) that reminded us of Brian Eno’s singing in the early days of his career.

The Gift Of Surrender is an album with inertia and psychedelic plies that encourage the listener’s brain cells to make space for new ways of fantasizing. Club Mayz created a sonic universe with surprising atmospheres producing an addictive effect. The woolly moods are the perfect company for long dreamy drives through the lonely night.

This piece of work gets better and better and reveals more details after each listening trip. The catchy desolate slackness grabbed us into the electronic creations and soundscapes of this album. The Gift Of Surrender is the first release of Club Mayz on vinyl, limited to 200 pieces. Club Mayz delivered the perfect soundtrack to stare at sky and watch the fluffy clouds slowly passing by. Top gloom pop.

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Patsker

electro / minimal synth

Wool-E Discs

Well, it’s time for a blast in the past with some old school electro presented by a collaboration between Unidentified Man and Chroma Carbon. This underground duo created a varied approach of dark, retro electronic (body) music called Memento Mori . 
Francois Ducarn aka Chroma Carbon is singer of the French cold wave band Factice Factory and co-singer of the synth project Sine Silex. Unidentified Man is on the other hand an analogue synth project, founded in 2013 somewhere in Belgium. With no musical skills and boosted by DIY ethics the Unidentified Man started experimenting with analogue instruments and a field recorder. 


The music on Memento Mori  is a blend of dark electro and electronic underground pop music  from the late 70’s to the mid 80’s. The tracks don’t add anything new to the genres but show that the love and interest for EBM and electro with a dark attitude is still alive and potential. The black and cold content of the songs is high, thanks to Chroma Carbon’s creepy burial voice melted with the beats and retro synths of Unidentified Man.

The duo has experimental drift and brings the nostalgic electronic body music memories and the legendary periods of the starting new beat period back to the surface. We could mention all the big names that appeared in our head while listening to this album, but we have decided to keep them unidentified. Buckle up and play this retro limited vinyl. The vinyl edition includes a download code that contains the bonus track Acrylique,  a previously unreleased Unidentified Man / Chroma Carbon demo track. The dark electro wavers won’t regret to have this release in their hands.

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Patsker

dark electro / synthwave

The NightStalker is a solo project of Bram Van Cauter. This Belgian artist has a very keen vision of combining different styles of music. Deathbringer is his personal ode to the eighties’ horror and sleaze culture. His fascination for crime, serial killers and dystopia are the guidelines through his solo debut album.

Deathbringer starts with an intro, narrating the atmosphere of old horror movies. A mysterious organ sends us back into the seventies. Footsteps in the dark and deadly female screams start a soundtrack of Gothic and other terrifying stories. The NightStalker shows how a mix of metal guitars and synths can work perfectly in harmony. The tension on this album is high and surprising. The samples of conversations and whispering during the mostly instrumental tracks create a strange feeling.

Bram Van Cauter was the guitar player and songwriter of the extreme Belgian metal band Herfst. He worked together on some of their recordings with super producer Dan Swanö. His metal inheritance on the guitar sound and riffs played on Deadbringer is obvious. But no, this isn’t metal. The album has a very high electronic body music level mixed with soundtrack-like parts. Repulsive Compulsion is the best example. This pumping track takes you deeper into the thoughts of a serial killer. The electro beats and guitar riffs bring a Gothic mood of threatening darkness.

The guitars on the tracks are tightly played while the synths and orchestrations create a cinematic vibe. This music gives you the feeling of a long night ride on an endless and abandoned motorway. The audio of this old school horror movie soundtrack is obscure but still recognizable.  On Grave Pleasures the saxophone parts sound even deadly sexy. 

The NightStalker presents with Deadbringer a world of fear and swarthiness with a large variation of music styles melted into a beautiful attainment. Tape and vinyl of this surprising and wonderful album are available through the artist’s Bandcamp page.

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Patsker 

dark ambient

bandcamp

A fifteen minutes EP with four tracks, Dark Hymns lives to the glory of its simple, but energetic and suggestive title. With a very dark, subtle and obscure sound, the sensitive premises of the style are afflictive to the fullest – despite being paradoxically peaceful and serene –, and seems to anticipate the imminence of a profoundly terrible doom. While the work presents to the audience a very simple and surreal sound, its nuances are dense, and the excellence of its atmosphere dissipates a graceful and somber fear over the boundaries of the melodies. There is nothing too exceptional or extraordinary about this work, but for dark ambient genre enthusiasts, the vivid, morbid intensity displayed by the artist behind the project is certainly vast, very meaningful, and spiritually consistent. 

electronic / darksynth / dark electro / synthwave

Crossing Lights is an album released on June 22, by German electronica/ synthwave act Collapse Project. A wonderfully splendid album, with eleven tracks – Where everything began, Crossing Lights, Arise from the darkness, M.e.n.s.c.h., Pursuit,
Bloody Dancefloor, Cemetery Walk, Starfighter, Nightshift, Test Drive and Rewind – this marvelous and majestic state of the art work has colorful harmonies, a vibrant, lucid and energetic pace, an intense and cohesive style and a superb sense of rhythmic rapture. With softly pungent, dense and dynamic mordacious melodies that engraves its formidable intrinsic strength at the voracious pace of the music, the album is fulfilled with a tremendously aggrandizing and creative originality, displaying a talent that has everything to stand out as uniquely authentic in the contemporary underground scene. Showcasing a sensational musical grandeur whose artistry is effectively sidelined with the most vivid and hallucinating melodies, the genuine musical abilities of Collapse Project is a gigantic cosmic evolutionary step in what concerns the general development of the genre. With some of the most beautiful songs that I’ve ever heard, Crossing Lights is an unprecedented milestone in the history of electronica. Certainly, deserves not only to be fully appreciated, but highly highlighted as one of the most beautiful, sensational and singular albums ever conceived. 

death metal 

Coffin Birth is an album released on July 20, by Californian death metal group Extremity. With eight songs – Coffin Birth / A Million Witches, Where Evil Dwells, Grave Mistake, Umbilicus, For Want Of A Nail, Occision, Like Father Like Son and Misbegotten / Coffin Death – the record is a satisfactory, lucid and efficient, but hallucinatory and hazardous death metal album, that works decently the most traditional elements of the genre. With heavy, fast rhythms that exposes the voracity of their style, Extremity showcases a peculiar, brutal, direct style, atrocious to the core of its corrosive nature. Despite the fact that the album at some rare passages becomes a little predictable and monotonous, this does not affect the general layout of the sound, nor does any damage to the competent and precise style of the band. Their aggressive strength is somewhat inherent to the most brutal and extreme ramification of the genre, and the name of the band certainly stands for it. While you can’t expect too much of innovative features on this record, Coffin Birth displays a decent amount of virtuosity, talent and definition, and certainly honors the genre with a virulent and passionate degree of astounding sonorous hostility, that will entertain avidly the most dedicated enthusiasts of extreme death metal.    

grunge / stoner rock/ power metal / black metal / alternative rock

Released on June 22, Desolation is an album by alternative post grunge/ power metal rock group Khemmis. With six tracks – Bloodletting, Isolation, Flesh To Nothing, The Seer, Maw Of Time and From Ruin – this gracefully peculiar, audacious and cohesive record showcases the splendid abilities of a band that does an amazingly superb and exceedingly sophisticated work in their amalgamation of several different genres and styles of music. With a power metal core heavily infused by a post grunge alternative rock density, the music of Khemmis has its own singular and energetic creative groundwork, fuelled by an outstandingly voracious and rude nitroglycerine spontaneous synergy, that explodes directly in the brain of the listener. A little reminiscent of more classic and mainstream acts like Manowar, Creed and Blind Guardian – although exposing a formidable degree of uniqueness – the band does a surprisingly splendorous and excellent work on Desolation, that reveals itself as a marvelous, profoundly genuine and sensational album, all the way through. Undoubtedly, Desolation deserves to be classified as one of the greatest masterpieces of the year.  

electronic

A beautiful, outstanding, lancinating and colorful EP, Gated Soul has four tracks: Blues For Jekyll, Last Raver, Hocus Pocus and To The Woods. With beautiful melodies, and very sensible, delightfully plausible harmonies, there is a genius spontaneity coming out from these songs that actually make you feel quite enthusiastic about it. With an exceedingly serene, but at the same time ostensibly sensational and mandatory vibe, the artist reveals a subtle, but formidable sense of originality on the framework of the sound that is the embodiment of this work. From within, the melodies gradually expand from a synergy that relocates the rhythm directly to the point of its graciously moving syncope. Exposing lucidity and showcasing an extraordinary degree of creativity, this electronic music artist from Great Britain has no fear in demonstrating his superb, masterful and singular talent, that easily reinvigorates in a more sophisticated sonorous artistry the greatest elements of electronica. Here you have four amazingly wonderful songs, that you will be pleased to hear over and over again. 

black metal / death metal

A very impressive, hostile and energetic album – although widely using exceedingly crude and conventional elements by some standards – Krwawy Sztorm, by Polish extreme metal group Moloch Letalis, is an aggressive, furious and bloodthirsty album. Only thirty minutes long, the record has nine tracks: Wielka Egzekucja, Sztorm, Krwawa Ziemia, Zatańczysz Ze Mną Kurwa W Piekle ?, Przysięga, Zdychaj Psie, Palownik, Gotowy Na Piekło and Żar. With ostensive and abrupt rhythmic grievances, the style of the group is simple and direct, a little reminiscent of punk rock, given the atrocious voracity, objectivity and rudeness of its style. With a solid fidelity to the most brutal aspects of the genre, the work is amazingly competent and full of acid rage. Although there is nothing too aggrandizing nor original about the work, certainly this album is a pearl for avid enthusiasts of the genre, since Moloch Letalis literally practices closely the most ardent, extreme, raw and violent aspects of death and black metal, executing a refined breed of these marvelous genres. If you like astoundingly heavy material, Krwawy Sztorm is something you would like to hear. 

electronic / techno / industrial 

With six tracks – Entrance of Gargoyles, Dance or Die, The Order, Mechanical Vampire, The Cavern of Noise and Theunderdogme 2018hardrem1x – The Cavern of Noise, by techno industrial French artist McClane is a formidable, very intuitive and lancinating work. With abrasive and disruptive rhythms, increasingly grotesque and infuriating harmonies, cohesive dilapidation of sound and very unpredictable, dense musical compasses, The Cavern of Noise is an interesting work of art, astoundingly engraved at forefront of the best tradition of techno music. With elements that plays on the fundamental axis of the noise and industrial genres, the artist evokes at the colorful blast of the music an atmospheric vitality that rejuvenates the harmonies and the anatomy of the music. With a lucid, compulsory and graceful creativity that is exponential to the ardent mordacity of the melodies, on this album, you certainly get the best the genre will ever offer you. The title track – The Cavern of Noise – is absolutely the best, and will leave you with the dense exposition of what electro techno music should really sound like. 

black metal

Mysteries of Earth, released by British black metal group Blutvial on July 5th, is a formidable, lucid and splendorous album. Fully energized, mortally intense and with sordidly aggressive, rapturous and impulsive, but lugubrious and poetic guitar lines, Mysteries of Earth is better described as a marvelous state of the art work. With ten amazingly placid and cohesive tracks – beneath the moon, black silence, existential rite, vault of unrest, carving nihil, midwinter's halls, urnacht, doomed to eternal night, in praise of noctula and where graves spring open – this fantastic work, besides its subtle originality, extraordinary grandiosity and proverbial musical audacity, consolidates firmly and brings about intrinsically the best qualities of the genre: hostile mordacity, somber harmonies, an aggressive stylish impetus, creative melodies, a rapid pace and an exceedingly volatile density. With the organic virtue of a profoundly vital and conscious musical dynamic, you can certainly highlight this record as one of the best black metal pieces released this year. Mysteries of Earth is a punctuating device and a majestic work of art in the history of the genre.     

black metal

Cosmic Autumn is the debut album of an eponymous black metal project from Germany. Released on July 13, the record has five tracks: The Last Deception, Event Horizon, Indistinct Visions, Realms Of Eternal Light and Solitude (Instrumental). With a beautiful and very original musical layer, very sober and proficient, the sound is definitely strong, sensitive, dynamic and fundamentally cohesive. Although the record retains the fury typical of the genre, Cosmic Autumn is also a lesson on sincere and poetic artistry, as the music revolves itself around a shroud of mortifying serenity, like a twilight that dies in the agony of an everlasting moment of unspeakable affliction. Since the music translates into sound these imponderable passages of pervasive anger, the overall loyalty of the project’s style to the genre is emphasized, but without compromising the ability of the artist in showcasing his own peculiarities. A very good work, that certainly exposes the mordacious talent of an exponentially promising black metal artist, Cosmic Autumn is the opening gate for a musician that has everything to aggregate into the genre a whole new conjuncture of possibilities, with his audacious and ostensibly brilliant creativity. 

stoner rock/ psychedelic rock 

bandcamp

Earthborn is an album released by Greek stoner rock group Stone Age Mammoth. Forty minutes long, the record has seven tracks: Fearless, The Dark, Whispers, The Mysterious Life Of Mr Krips, The Secret, Earthborn and My Darkest Hour. An exceedingly calm, methodic and meticulous, but exceedingly vigorous and lucid album, undoubtedly, Earthborn is a fantastic state of the art work, that dissects, reverberates, comprehends and exposes the best aspects the genre has to offer. With singular, serene and soft guitar lines, a configuration of sonorous walls that grows from the sincere stylish leniency of the group and a marvelous sense of timing that knows from instinct what has to be done, Stone Age Mammoth has a formidable artistic security and a powerful domain over the genre, that comes out naturally. Revealing itself as a graceful masterpiece as the album evolves and revolves around its own atmosphere of calmness, omniscience and existential perception, the glorious creativity of the group certainly highlights them among other bands of the genre. With a singular conjuncture of sonorous qualities, Earthborn deserves to be greatly regarded, widely appreciated and publicized as the wonderful and fantastic work of art that truly is.

black metal

Nostalgia is an EP released on July 23 by German black metal artist ColdWorld. With five tracks – Cosmos Devourer, Demon Speed, The Dark Ages, Let The Devil In and Silva Nigra – the EP, almost twenty six minutes long, is concise. Exceedingly beautiful, with the typical elegance that is an engraved milestone of the artist, the proverbial guitar lines and the poetic harmonies anticipates the general conflagration of its overall majestic serenity, deeply fulgurated with the sensible character of its everlasting, elegant and somber  horizon of artistry. With rapid passages that are profoundly surrounded by graciously atmospheric interludes, the music on Nostalgia is overloaded with the imperial fragrances of its own rudimentary darkness, that is sustained by a lucid and dense, but marvelously whimsical ferocious resentment, whose vitality extrapolates the shadows of its own arrogant beauty. With everlasting precipices of color surrounding the rhythmic fortunes of the songs, I must confess that I wasn’t particularly overwhelmed by this work. Nevertheless, Nostalgia has all the elements that are characteristic of a ColdWorld work, and, to a certain extent, has enough qualities to be deemed valuable for its sincere and splendid level of singularity.    

post rock / experimental

Return is a three tracks EP released on July 25, by a musician from India, who works under the nom de plume of Phet. With three marvelous songs – Return, Distance and Liberation – Phet works very distinctively the interior perception of the harmonies, to articulate an ascendant, protuberant and expansive, but at the same time discreet, lucid and introspective degree of sonorous exhilaration. With a pungent, incisive axis of conscious melodic devices, correctly assimilated by the lenient, but purposeful stability of its glorious symbiosis of organic dissonances, that seems lethargic at first, the intrinsic nature of the rhythmic serenity that grows within this musical horizon slowly works towards the digressive elements of the harmonies, revolving around a certain complexity that obliterates the cosmic volatility of its formidably eloquent style. With a futurist, colorful, modernist musical approach that made the external shape of the songs, indeed, to sound in an exceedingly beautiful and elegant fashion, Return can be positively described as a very gracious, audacious and original work of art. The last track, Liberation, I would certainly highlight as my favorite. If you want to listen to something very surprising, astute and genuine, I definitely recommend this marvelous and surreal EP. 

Wagner

electronic / synthpop

To quote the legendary John Cleese in Monty Python's Flying Circus: "And Now For Something Completely Different". We leave the world of guitars and drums behind us and make place for synths and drum computers. Even more so, we leave this weird year 2018 behind and jump right back to the eighties.

Night Club is a duo from Los Angeles, California that seems to focus on good old fashioned synth pop. That sound got them a spot on the 'Everybody Still Hates You" tour with Combichrist and Wednesday 13. A bit odd if you ask me but why not.

The album opens with an intro, 'Beware!' which makes place for the infectious title track. This stuff aims directly for the darker dancefloors with a sweet, elaborate and highly danceable sound. There is something Pet Shop Boys meets Ladytron here. 'Schizophrenic' is even more catchy. Goldfrapp comes to mind, but also bands like Depeche Mode and Lords Of Acid, be it a bit more gallant and less decadent. None of this is very unique or innovative, but that doesn't matter. This whole album is fun, massively enjoyable if you like some good old fashioned synthpop.

'Blood On Your Blade' feels like Nitzer Ebb trying to write an early eighties hip hop tune but replacing the raps with dazzling female vocals. It's followed by one of my favorites here, the bass-heavy 'Candy Coated Suicide'. This will get many black-skirted asses shake, no doubt about that, and so will most of the other tunes on this album. The opening line of 'Therapy (Get High) says "I don't have many friends", but rest assured, Mark & Emily, you're definitely winning a bunch of fans with this music. Some of them might look a bit strange but they're nice people.

This might be one of the most radio friendly synth pop acts in recent history. There is nothing gritty, occult or dark about Night Club. With their sound firmly rooted in the electronic eighties, Night Club revives a style in a highly convincing way. This is actually suited for large audiences, for pop festivals and for goth clubs alike. This stuff put a smile on my face and I'm sure it is potent enough to do that with audiences everywhere. So yeah, I will recommend this album to all you eighties-freaks out there. You know who you are...


​Serge

post-metal / doom / alternative rock

dark jazz / ambient / experimental / trip hop

hardcore

acoustic blues

dark ambient / noise

doom / occult metal

death metal

black metal / doom / death metal

post punk / synth pop

breakcore / industrial

alternative rock / blues

facebook

style of Tool and quite a bit of grunge - vocals that remind of Cobain included. So go buy this one if you appreciate something that refuses to fit into one box.

ambient / experimental

Pany Rosas Discos

ethereal / drone

drone / ambient / experimental

dark ambient / electronic

electronic / synth pop

electronic / experimental

drone / dark ambient

drone / ambient

dark ambient

bandcamp

dark ambient

dark ambient

techno

techno