Tacono Gate is a Brooklyn-based solo artist, who has been making and releasing music drawing from 70s krautrock, New Wave and contemporary lo-fi rock in obscurity from his bedroom since 2019.
His latest single “Goner” is a swooning, motorik groove driven, 80s New Wave-inspired bop centered around glistening synth arpeggios, industrial thump and an icy vocal delivery paired with an enormous hook. While sounding indebted to A Flock of Seagulls, Depeche Mode, John Carpenter soundtracks and others, the song is rooted in bittersweet regret over a relationship the song’s narrator took for granted — and now recognizes is either on the ropes or over because of it. Throughout there’s a mix of tacit awareness and denial over the situation that feels familiar to anyone who’s been a direct cause of a breakup.
“This is a song I worked on for 24 hours, high as shit, and then left sitting in my folder for months during a deep depression,” Tacono Gate says. “The original lyrics were something like ‘I don’t have words to this song / I haven’t written words / I haven’t written anything.’ I came back to it recently and realized I really like it — normally I hate the stuff I put out by the time it’s released and can’t listen to it.”
“There’s an obvious darkwave influence, but I was also inspired by the big synth sounds and some of the wilder emancipatory energy of Queen a la Radio Ga Ga ‘I Want to Break Free,’ etc. and an Argentinian new-wave band called Virus. There’s some post-punk energy, maybe channeling a little Julian Casablancas on the vocals too, and I used the Magnetic Fields‘ ‘Strange Powers’ as a reference track for some of the overall tonality of the track. It’s definitely heavy on the ‘80s, but I think I made something new. tonality of the track. It’s definitely heavy on the ‘80s, but I think I made something new. I never want it to be derivative even when I’m wearing my influences on my sleeve.”
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