Tag: Dais Records

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: ADULT. Returns with Incendiary “R U 4 $ALE”

Throughout the course of their 25-year history, Detroit-based industrial, synth punks ADULT. — Nicola Kuperus and Adam Lee Miller — have embodied steadfast frustration, distrust and apprehension. Typically for acts that have been together that long, the edges began to soften with time, but the duo isn’t interested or even remotely concerned about the comfort of legacy. 

Kissing Luck Goodbye, the duo’s 10th album is slated for a March 27, 2026 release through Dais Records. Reportedly, the album features music that may arguably be the most visceral, urgent, angry and uncompromising effort of their career to date. Built with upgraded gear and a whole new library of sounds, Kissing Luck Goodbye‘s material is crushingly dynamic, louder and much clearer with Kuperus’ commanding delivery being given much greater delivery in the mix, outlining an arsenal of vivid, caustic calls, chants and music. Laughter, whether in the lyrics or as possessed presence, serves as a leitmotif through the material that speaks to the menacing absurdity of our moment. 

The album will include the previously released single “No One Is Coming,” a rousingly anthemic and urgent scorcher, and the album’s latest single “R U 4 $ALE.” Much like its immediate predecessor, “R U 4 $ALE” is a hypnotic, urgent and forceful banger that features one of Kuperus’ most dynamic and unhinged vocal performances to date, anchored around an incendiary mantra of our age “The chaos is what they want!”

The song doubles as a declaration of intent: to meet a burning and rotting world of greed, disarray and abuse with defiant, masterfully assembled chaos. “You have two choices in this hellscape we’re living in right now, which is either fight or be depressed,” ADULT.’s Adam Lee Miller says. “Either one is okay. But, you know, our choice to fight back was simple.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: ADULT. Shares Urgent, Anthemic “No One is Coming”

Throughout the course of their 25-year history, Detroit-based industrial, synth punks ADULT. — Nicola Kuperus and Adam Lee Miller — have embodied steadfast frustration, distrust and apprehension. Typically for acts that have been together that long, the edges began to soften with time, but the duo isn’t interested or even remotely concerned about the comfort of legacy.

Kissing Luck Goodbye, the duo’s 10th album is slated for a March 27, 2026 release through Dais Records. Reportedly, the album features music that may arguably be the most visceral, urgent, angry and uncompromising effort of their career to date. Built with upgraded gear and a whole new library of sounds, Kissing Luck Goodbye‘s material is crushingly dynamic, louder and much clearer with Kuperus’ commanding delivery being given much greater delivery in the mix, outlining an arsenal of vivid, caustic calls, chants and music. Laughter, whether in the lyrics or as possessed presence, serves as a leitmotif through the material that speaks to the menacing absurdity of our moment.

The album’s lead single “No One is Coming” is a rousingly anthemic and urgent industrial scorcher anchored around a forceful baseline and noisy feedback that’s one-part dire warning, one-part call to arms that directly attacks inaction in the face of fascism. And at its core, it reminds the listener that there will be no calvary, no saviors, no deus ex machina to save us. We’re all we got. We’re going to have to save ourselves — or perish.

“‘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.'” ADULT.’s Nicola Kuperus says. “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.”

The accompanying video features the duo playing in front of a backdrop of edited stock footage of crowds clapping, dancing and consuming mindlessly as the surrounding world burns down.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstay TR/ST Shares Brooding and Uneasy “Performance”

Toronto-born, Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter and producer Robert Alfons is the creative mastermind behind the acclaimed JOVM mainstay project TR/ST. For well over a decade, Alfons has captivated audiences with a unique blend of dynamic vocals, emotive lyrics and late night sensuality. 

Alfons’ fifth TR/ST album, the TR/ST and Nightfeelings co-produced Performance is slated for a Friday release through Dais Records. The album’s title alludes to a friend’s offhand remark about the Canadian-born, Los Angeles-based artist’s intrinsically performative nature. Recorded in Los Angeles, the album’s material reportedly seethes with dread, lust, reckoning and abandon. Sonically, the production pair achieved a thick, smoky balance of eerie synths and fog machine low end paired with bruised, crooning vocals. The result is an album of material that moves between beauty and bitterness, rousing anthems and crushing anguish rooted by emotional turmoil, the lingering ghosts of guilt and the memories of those wronged and those still unforgiven. 

Alfons’ voice is the anchor in the storm, singing a collage of impressions and confessions with a smeared, stream of consciousness logic. He’s both observer and instigator, performer and playwright, liberated by the stage and the night.

Last month, I wrote about the Cecile Believe and Nightfeelings co-produced “Dark Day,” an ethereal yet uneasy track featuring eerily atmospheric and glistening synth arpeggios, skittering industrial clang and clatter serving as a foggy and unsettlingly brooding bed for Alfons’ bruised and aching vocal. “I think there’s something in the song about the flashes that come to you when you try to fall asleep, flashes that show you where you have unfinished business,” Alfons says of the song. “It was such a pleasure working with Cecile Believe and Nightfeelings on production for this track.”

Performance‘s latest single, album title track “Performance” continues a run of brooding and uneasy material, anchored around a foggy, strobe-lit fueled production featuring bursts of glistening synth arpeggios, skittering, reverb-soaked beats. Alfons’ aching and bruised delivery ethereally floats over the menacing soundscape.

Directed and edited by Bryan M. Ferguson and featuring cinematography by George Harwood, the accompanying video for “Performance” follows Alfons as he arrives at a grim karaoke bar. While he’s lost in his own performance, the sparse crowd is lost in their thoughts. You can almost feel the despair through the screen.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Geneva Jacuzzi Shares Sultry and Swaggering “Laps of Luxury”

Geneva Jacuzzi is a Los Angeles-based multimedia artist, whose immersive and unhinged performances are considered legendary: they often involve a psychotropic gallery of masks, costumes, confrontation and massive art installations. Her recorded music frequently features catchy hooks and cryptic moods dusted in 4-track grit. 

Earlier this year, the bedroom darkwave stalwart., multimedia artist and performer signed to Dais Records, who will be releasing her third full-length album Triple Fire on Friday.

In the lead up to the album’s release, I wrote about the following tracks:

“Dry,” a brooding and swaying bit of 80s retro-futuristic synth pop anchored around layers of glistening analog synth arpeggios and skittering beats paired with catchy, razor sharp hooks. Jacuzzi’s seemingly detached vocal singing lyrics about disconnection and uncertainty ethereally float over the dreamy arrangement and production. 

“I took a little break from writing music and when I sat down at home to record, ‘Dry’ was the first song to burst out,” Jacuzzi recalls. “The music came together so instantly it’s as if it had been waiting and perfecting itself for years in the ether. The chorus lyrics came that same week after I went on a date with Mike Judge and he never called me back (haha). I wasn’t upset or anything, but I had never been ghosted before and couldn’t help but equate modern love to an appliance you buy on the home shopping network.”

“Scene Ballerina” Triple Fire‘s third single continued a run of remarkably period specific, 80s inspired synth pop, with the song featuring glistening and arpeggiated synths, tweeter and woofer rattling 808s and catchy hooks serving as a lush yet dance floor friendly bed for Jacuzzi’s expressive vocal. Sonically seeming to nod at a synthesis of Jane Child, I Feel For You-era Chaka Khan and Larry Levan house, “Scene Ballerina” describes a very specific, attention craving personality that many of us have come across at some point or another. 

“We all know that person: The Scene Ballerina. Stirring up a whirlpool of drama. Leaping to the center of the spotlight, spinning lies, twisting stories. All for attention,” Jacuzzi shares. “A tragic character. I can name a few ;)”

“Laps of Luxury,” is Triple Fire‘s fourth and final, pre-release single. And as the album opening track, it sets the template for the album’s sound and aesthetic while standing out on its own. Featuring skittering boom bap, glistening synth arpeggios and strutting synth bass paired with Jacuzzi’s sultry, siren-like cooing, “Laps of Luxury” is a strobe-lit, goth-leaning club banger that’s seemingly indebted to Pet Shop Boys, Yaz/Yazoo, New Order and early Depeche Mode.

“‘Laps of Luxury’ is one of my favorite tracks on Triple Fire,” Jacuzzi says. “We spent the most time perfecting it in the studio. I was listening to a lot of Pet Shop Boys at the time and wanted to capture the light/dark ghostly dreamscape of castles and discos from another time. The lyrics are quite haunting and vague. The character is escaping in a car late at night. Processing the experiences that flood her mind and recounting them to the driver. ‘I’ve seen so many things/no one should ever see’… What did she see?!?! Poor thing. Obviously something unspeakable. One could only imagine.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Drab Majesty Shares Shimmering and Cinematic “Cape Perpetua”

Initially known for his work drumming in Marriages, Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Andrew Clinco founded  Drab Majesty back in 2011 as a way to create music as a solo project, with him recording every instrument himself. Clinco created the androgynous character Deb Demure for himself, as the face of the project. Alex Nicolaou, a.k.a. Mona D (keys, vocals) joined on in 2016, expanding the project into a duo.

Since signing to Dais Records, the Los Angeles-based duo have released three albums, 2015’s Careless, 2017’s The Demonstration, 2019’s Modern Mirror, which saw the project combining androgynous aesthetics and commanding vocals with futuristic and occult lyrics, to create a style and sound that the band’s Demure refers to as “tragic wave.” 

Released earlier this through their longtime label home Dais Records, and clocking in at 32 minutes, the duo’s latest release An Object in Motion sits somewhere between an EP and mini-album while also marking a new chapter in the project’s story: Written during a 2021 retreat to the remote costal Oregon town of Yachats, the band’s Deb Demure leaned into the neo-psychedelic resonance of a uniquely bowl-shaped 12-string Ovation acoustic/electric guitar. 

After early morning hikes in the rain, Demure would record ambient guitar experiments the rest of the day, tapping into “flow states,” in which he would let the sound lead the way. Those sessions were then refined or recreated and then later elevated with contributions from Slowdive‘s Rachel Goswell, Beck’s, M83‘s and Air’s Justin Meldal-Johnsen, and Uniform’s Ben Greenberg. Fittingly, the EP reportedly holds true to its title, as it captures Demure and Drab Majesty in a transitional state, and evolving while showcasing a series of potential futures from the project. 

I’ve managed to write about three of the EP’s singles:

  • The effort’s first single, “Vanity,” featuring Slowdive’s Rachel Goswell. Built around shimmering, reverb-drenched, 12 string guitar and gated reverb-soaked drum patterns. Demure’s plaintive yet commanding baritone is paired with Goswell’s imitable and expressive vocal, which seamlessly intertwine in an uncannily gorgeous, swooning harmony. To my ears, “Vanity” seemed like a synthesis of Lita Ford and Ozzy Osbourne‘s “Close My Eyes Forever,” Sisters of Mercy, Disintegration-era The Cure and Goswell’s work with Slowdive — or in other words, something that will warm the cold hearts of any goth. 

  • “The Skin and The Glove,” a lush, Smiths-meets-Slowdive/RIDE-like song built around reverb-soaked, shimmering 12 string guitar, a driving groove paired with the Los Angeles-based duo’s uncannily unerring knack for gorgeous harmonies and catchy hooks. But under the lush soundscapes is a song that thematically touches upon the endless march of time, and our inevitable mortality. 

  • Clocking in at a little over 15 minutes, An Object in Motion‘s closing track, the expansive “Yield To Force” is built around glistening, cycling strings, ominous slide guitar and shimmering synthesizer. The result is a composition that’s intuitive yet meditative with the instrumentation that spirals, sways, crests and ebbs like waves crashing into the shore.

Coincidentally, the EP’s last single “Cape Perpetua” is also the second instrumental track on the effort. Built around sparkling acoustic finger-picked guitar melody played through delay pedal, “Cape Perpetua” sonically is one-part brooding flamenco, one-part reverie, one-part raga with melodies and mood crash, congeal and dissipate throughout. The result is a something gothic, melancholy and cinematic.

Direted by John Elliott and shot on Super 8, the accompanying video for “Cape Perpetua” is a fittingly a brooding slow-burn that’s meditative, and mind-bending.

“‘Cape Perpetua’ is a slow-rolling track with tessellating psychedelia which inspired me to channel my Joseph Cornell and late-era Brakhage appreciation,” John Elliott says. “The goal was to capture simple objects moving in and out of stillness reflecting the ebb and flow of the widescreen guitar patterns. Upon discovering a partially dilapidated cemetery near my house, I found spinning pinwheels askew in the ground and late blooming flowers laced with synthetic flowers, all against a backdrop of partly cloudy skies and autumnal foliage. We explored this simple and profound surrealism by performing in-camera lap-dissolves and double exposures in an attempt to marry the ethereal magic of the song with the film we shot. The simplistic nature of Super 8 camera lenses paired with the imperfect nature of Super 8mm film creates a window into a world that feels like a distant cluster of memories, or a dream-like state complete with blurred edges and extemporaneous world-building.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Drab Majesty Teams Up With Slowdive’s Rachel Goswell on Brooding “Vanity”

Los Angeles-based multi-instrumentalist Andrew Clinco, also known for his work drumming in Marriages founded Drab Majesty back in 2011 as a way to create music in which he recorded every instrument himself. For the project, Clinco created the androgynous character Deb Demure. Alex Nicolaou, a.k.a. Mona D (keys, vocals) joined the project in 2016.

Since signing to Dais Records, the Los Angeles-based duo have released three albums, 2015’s Careless, 2017’s The Demonstration, 2019’s Modern Mirror, which saw the project combining androgynous aesthetics and commanding vocals with futuristic and occult lyrics, to create a style and sound that the band’s Demure refers to as “tragic wave.”

Drab Majesty’s forthcoming EP, An Object in Motion is slated for an August 25, 2023 release through Dais Records. Clocking in at 32 minutes, the release actually sits somewhere between an EP and a mini-album, and the effort reportedly marks a new chapter in the project’s legacy story: Written during a 2021 retreat to the remote costal Oregon town of Yachats, the band’s Deb Demure leaned into the neo-psychedelic resonance of a uniquely bowl-shaped 12-string Ovation acoustic/electric guitar.

After early morning hikes in the rain, Demure would record ambient guitar experiments the rest of the day, tapping into “flow states,” in which he would let the sound lead the way. Those sessions were then refined or recreated and then later elevated with contributions from Slowdive‘s Rachel Goswell, Beck’s, M83‘s and Air’s Justin Meldal-Johnsen, and Uniform’s Ben Greenberg.

Fittingly, the EP reportedly holds true to its title, as it captures Demure and Drab Majesty in a transitional state, and evolving while showcasing a series of potential futures from the project.

The EP’s first single, the brooding “Vanity” features a rare guest spot from Slowdive’s Rachel Goswell. Built around shimmering, reverb-drenched 12 string guitar, gated reverb-drenched drum patterns, Demure’s plaintive yet commanding baritone paired with soaring hooks. Slowdive’s Rachel Goswell contributes her imitable, expressive vocal, which seamlessly intertwines with Demure’s vocal in an uncannily gorgeous harmony. Sonically, “Vanity” seems like a synthesis of Lita Ford and Ozzy Osbourne‘s “Close My Eyes Forever,” Sisters of Mercy, Disintegration-era The Cure and Goswell’s work with Slowdive — or in other words, something that will warm the cold hearts of any goth.

The collaboration came as a result of a mutual admiration for each other’s world. “As a long time listener and devotee of Slowdive, a band that literally shaped my DNA as a listener and musician, it was truly humbling to have Rachel offer her iconic vocal stylings to this song,” Demure says. “Her voice is a sonic treasure and unmistakable. I’m infinitely grateful to call her a friend and am still pinching myself wondering —  how did we get here?”

“It’s no secret that I am a long time Drab Majesty fan so when Deb asked me some years ago now if I would be interested in collaborating it was an immediate yes,” Slowdive’s Goswell adds., “Honoured to give my voice to ‘Vanity.'”

Directed by Jai Love, the accompanying video showcases a cast featuring Drab Majesty, Rachel Goswell, Samantha Robinson and Isabelle Rose Nelson, and is shot with a nostalgia-inducing VHS haze that’s full of the heartache of a childhood innocence long gone.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Death Bells Shares Brooding and Anthemic “Take My Spirit Now”

Since their formation in Sydney back in 2015, Death Bells — Will Canning (vocals) and Remy Veselis (guitar) — have firmly cemented a sound that effortlessly blurs elements of post-punk and garage rock, centered around Canning’s baritone and Vessels’ wiry, reverb-soaked guitar lines. And as a result, the duo quickly became a mainstay in the national and international alternative/underground/indie scenes.

As Canning and Vessels have grown up and matured, the band has evolved through a handful of releases — 2016’s self-titled debut EP, 2017’s full-length debut, Standing at the Edge of the World and a seven inch through Funeral Party Records and a 2019’s “Around The Bend”/”Life Stands Still” single through Metropolitan Indian. 

The Aussie duo relocated to Los Angeles in 2018. The band’s current iteration has managed to really blossom: They signed to Dais Records, who released their sophomore album 2020’s New Signs of Life, an effort that saw them embracing their diverse tastes to craft expansive, hook-driven songs. As a response to pandemic-related quarantines and lockdowns, the duo secluded themselves at Bombay Beach last year, to record a live session that featured five tracks off New Songs of Life titled Live from Bombay.

Last year’s Between Here & Everywhere was recorded with Colin Knight at Paradise Studios. The nine-song album saw the duo adopting a collaborative approach, as they collaborated with an experienced cast of players on keys, strings, piano and backing vocals. The album’s material represents the pair’s continued growth as artists and people and deeply inspired — and informed — by the the vastness, messiness and oddness of their adopted home. Featuring lyrics that the duo consider “narrative, but not autobiographical,” the album’s material ebbs and flows from harrowing to hopeful, and are born of intrigue, intimacy and a sense of “looking outward,” as the Sydney-born, Los Angeles-based duo explain.

The album featured two singles I managed to write about:

  • “Hysteria,” which bristled with a sense of urgency and immediacy while being rooted in the personal and deeply universal — the search for meaning in a seemingly meaningless, mad world, and the desire to just pack up and leave it all behind. “’Hysteria’ was one of the last songs we wrote as we were putting together the new album,” the duo explain. “It was one of those moments where the tune just figured itself out. It feels urgent, immediate and honest, and we’re very proud of it.”

  • “Lifespring” a brooding and hypnotic bit of post punk featuring Vaselis’ wiry bursts of guitar, thumping four-on-the-floor, glistening synths and a relentless motorik groove paired with a rousingly anthemic chorus. And while being inspired — and deeply indebted — to the sounds of the late ’70s and early ’80s, the song describes our bleak moment with an uncanny specificity.

Between Here & Everywhere‘s highly-anticipated follow-up Take My Spirit Now is slated for a July 21, 2023 release through Dais Records. Written and recored late last year in intimate, focused sessions at Paradise Studios, after months of touring across North America and Europe, the new material sees the band introducing a decidedly new sound — jagged guitars careening through towering feedback and textured drums. The band enlisted longtime friend Burning Rose Records’ Morgan Wright to mix the EP. Wright’s background in electronic music influenced the more programmed elements of the material.

“Take My Spirit Now,” the first single and title track off the forthcoming EP is built around a sinuous and propulsive bass line, fluttering feedback, boom bap-like drumming, angular and jagged. reverb-soaked guitars paired with Canning’s achingly plaintive baritone, a dreamy bridge section and the duo’s unerring knack for writing bombastic, rousingly anthemic hooks. But the song is thematically touches upon love, paranoia and destiny — and features a weary and uncertain narrator seemingly questioning everything.

“Take My Spirit Now” was the first song that began to feel fully realized when we were recording late last year,” Death Bells’ Will Canning explains. “There’s something wild and dangerous about the sound of it, which inspired some of the chorus’ lyrics. The song is more about a feeling than a specific time or place. 

Directed by Colin Fletcher, the accompanying video follows an assortment of characters, including the band’s Will Canning sitting in the backseat of a car, going off on a ride — to an unknown and unseen destination. At points, the car drives on, without passengers. “We’re portraying a simple analogy — the idea that sitting in the backseat, going along with the ride, is fun. Sometimes you’re on the ride alone, sometimes with someone else,” Colin Fletcher says. “Who’s driving? Doesn’t matter. Where are they going? Doesn’t matter.” 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Death Bells Share a Brooding, Post-Punk Anthem

Since their formation in Sydney back in 2015, Death Bells — Will Canning (vocals) and Remy Veselis (guitar) — have cemented a sound and approach that blurs the lines of post-punk and garage rock, centered around Canning’s baritone and Veselis’ wiry, reverb-drenched guitar lines. The duo quickly became a maintain in the alternative/underground/indie scene both nationally and internationally.

Naturally, as the duo have grown up and matured into early adulthood, the band has morphed and transformed through the releases of their debut EP, their full-length debut and a seven-inch through Funeral Party Records and a 2019 single through Metropolitan Indian. 

The duo relocated to Los Angeles in 2018, where the current iteration of the band has blossomed: They signed to Dais Records, who released their sophomore album 2020’s New Signs of Life, an effort that saw them embracing their diverse tastes to craft expansive, hook-driven songs. As a response to pandemic-related quarantines and lockdowns, the duo secluded themselves at Bombay Beach last year, to record a live session that featured five tracks off New Songs of Life titled Live from Bombay.

Between Here & There, the Aussie-born, Los Angeles-based outfit’s third album was released yesterday through Dais Records. Recorded with Colin Knight at Paradise Studios, the nine-song album, which sees the duo adopting a collaborative approach features an experienced cast of collaborators on keys, strings, piano and backing vocals, not only represents the pair’s continued growth as artists and people; but also is inspired by the vastness, messiness and oddness of their adopted home. While featuring lyrics that the duo consider “narrative, but not autobiographical,” the album’s material ebbs and flows from harrowing to hopeful — and are born of intrigue, intimacy and a sense of “looking outward,” according to the band.     

Earlier this year, I wrote about “Hysteria,” the album’s fourth single. Continuing a run of material that bristles with urgency and immediacy, the song is rooted in the simultaneously personal and universal: the search for meaning in a seemingly meaningless, mad world — and the desire to pack up and leave everything behind.

“’Hysteria’ was one of the last songs we wrote as we were putting together the new album,” the duo explain. “It was one of those moments where the tune just figured itself out. It feels urgent, immediate and honest, and we’re very proud of it.”

“Lifespring” is a brooding and hypnotic bit of post punk featuring Vaselis’ wiry bursts of guitar, thumping four-on-the-floor, glistening synths and a relentless motorik groove paired with a rousingly anthemic chorus. Yes, “Lifespring” is decidedly inspired by — and indebted to — the late 70s and early 80s while bristling with a forceful immediacy as it describes our bleak moment with an uncanny specificity.

“We initially wrote Lifespring at a friend’s studio, before the last record was even an idea,” Will Canning explains. “I thought I had lost the stems, but discovered them recently on a USB that had been sitting in my jacket pocket for the last few years, so we were able to finally finish the song. The lyrical inspiration for Lifespring came from reading about a fairly spurious organization of the same name that were around until the mid-90s. Musically, it feels very different from anything we’ve done before; sleazier, groovier.”

The accompanying video follows a motorcyclist on a dirt road. The camera gently pulls out to give the viewer a gorgeous, cinematic view of the motorcyclist’s surroundings — before they meet up with a truck full of people.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Rancho Cucamonga’s Cold Gawd Shares a Dreamy New Single

Through a handful of releases, the Rancho Cucamonga-based shoegaze/post hardcore outfit Cold Gawd have quickly established a unique and refined take on shoegaze and post hardcore that draws from early aughts nu-gaze and R&B melodies.

The Rancho Cucamonga-based outfit recently signed to Dais Records, who released their latest single, “Moving to California in March.” Centered around lush and swirling layers of guitars, the new single brings the painterly textures of A Storm in Heaven to mind. But just underneath the placid and dreamy surface is a an anxious and uncertain air.

“‘Moving…’ is a song about the anxious feeling that is making— what you think is— the biggest next step of your life,” the members of Cold Gawd explain in press notes. “‘Stay in Chicago?’  ‘Go home?’  You’ll always ask yourself, ‘was that the right move?’ but every day remember why you left.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Tempers Share a Hallucinogenic Visual for Dreamy “Sightseeing”

New York-based synth duo Tempers — Jasmine Golestaneh (vocals) and Eddie Cooper (production) — have diligently carved out their own niche within dark indie, electronica and synth pop circles since their formation. After a series of digital singles released back in 2013, the New York duo began to solidify their sound and approach, a sleek, brooding, nocturnal take on synth pop and dark wave.

The duo’s self-produced album New Meaning is slated for an April 1, 2022 release through Dais Records. As the duo explain, the album is about navigating the unknown, coping mechanisms and exploring the nature of choice. The album’s ten songs reflect on the creation of meaning as a way to access liberation in times of transition and loss while speculating on the transformative potential that exists alongside the grief of living in a world that is an ongoing state of crisis. Much like their previously released material, New Meaning continues a run of nocturnal music, that’s introspective yet quietly intense. 

So far, I’ve written about two of New Meaning‘s previous released singles:

  • “Unfamiliar,” a song that sounded indebted to 80s New Wave while evoking our current moment — living in a world that’s gone even madder and more uncertain than ever before. 
  • “Nightwalking,” a brooding, hook-driven song centered around icy synth arpeggios, thumping beats, a relentless motorik groove and Golestaneh’s achingly plaintive vocals floating off into the ether. The song manages to evoke late nights wandering around with your thoughts as your only company. 

“Sightseeing,” New Meaning‘s latest single is centered around glistening synth arpeggios, thumping kick and Golestaneh’s achingly plaintive and ethereal vocals. And much like its immediate predecessor, the Soft Metals-like “Sightseeing” evokes nocturnal stills through sleeping cities with your own thoughts and regrets, in that liminal space between dreaming and being alert.

“‘Sightseeing’ looks at the thrill and struggle of urban life,” Tempers’ Jamine Golestaneh explains in press notes. “It’s a song about finding meaning by constantly dissolving, renewing, and redefining oneself, amidst the machinery of the city. The video explores how psychic traces left by memory can transform architecture, and animate parallel worlds. It’s also a continuation of an ongoing theme in our work, investigating the relationship between public and private space.”

The accompanying video by Los Angeles-based Clayton McCracken features a hallucinogenic mix of touch designer programming, vintage video technology, 3D animation and live improvisation that focuses on a journey through a city at night. His work predominantly deals with the role of natural forces in virtual environments, utilizing lights, liquids, and vapors to explore themes of entropy and technological impermanence which thematically fit hand in hand with “Sightseeing”. 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Tempers Shares Brooding and Icy “Nightwalking”

New York-based synth duo Tempers — Jasmine Golestaneh (vocals) and Eddie Cooper (production) — have diligently carved out their own niche within dark indie, electronica and synth pop circles since their formation. After a series of digital singles released back in 2013, the New York duo began to solidify their sound and approach, a sleek. brooding, nocturnal take on synth pop. 

The duo’s forthcoming, self-produced album New Meaning is slated for an April 1, 2022 release through Dais Records. As the duo explain, the album is about navigating the unknown, coping mechanisms and exploring the nature of choice. The album’s ten songs reflect on the creation go meaning as a way to access liberation in times of transition and loss while speculating on the transformative potential that exists alongside the grief of living in a world that is an ongoing state of crisis. Much like their previously released material, New Meaning continues a run of nocturnal music, that’s introspective yet quietly intense. 

Late last year, I wrote about “Unfamiliar,” a song that sounded indebted to 80s New Wave while evoking our current moment — living in a world that’s gone even madder and more uncertain than ever before. New Meaning‘s second and latest single “Nightwalking” continues a remarkable run of brooding, hook-driven material, with the song centered around icy synth arpeggios, thumping beats, a relentless motorik groove and Golestaneh’s achingly plaintive vocals floating off into the ether. The song manages to evoke late nights wandering around with your thoughts as your only company.

“I took a lot of long walks at a time when people had abruptly vacated NYC, and left the remnants of their homes on the sidewalks,” Tempers’ Golestaneh explains. “The city’s landscape became very surreal – a ghost town turned inside out. I was thinking about how to stay open, and embrace life derailed. The sky over the city was a real source of mystery, in it’s own world of pink sunsets, and sparkling nights. The contrast of that oblivious beauty amidst the pandemic chaos felt very special, and inspired the song.”

The New York-based duo will be embarking on lengthy national tour that includes a March 31, 2022 stop at Elsewhere’s Zone 1. In May, the duo will be in Europe for a handful of dates. But the word on the street is that Tempers will be announcing some more tour dates in the near future. Until then, tour dates, as always, are below.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: New York’s Tempers Release a Brooding and Icy New Single

New York-based synth duo Tempers — Jasmine Golestaneh (vocals) and Eddie Cooper (production) — have diligently carving their own unique niche within dark indie, electronica and synth pop circles since their formation. After a series of digital singles released back in 2013, the New York duo began to solidify their sound and approach, a sleek. brooding, nocturnal take on synth pop.

The duo’s forthcoming, self-produced album New Meaning is slated for an April 1, 2022 release through Dais Records. As the duo explain, the album is about navigating the unknown, coping mechanisms and exploring the nature of choice. The album’s ten songs reflect on the creation go meaning as a way to access liberation in times of transition and loss while speculating on the transformative potential that exists alongside the grief of living in a world that is an ongoing state of crisis. Much like their previously released material, New Meaning continues a run of nocturnal music, that’s introspective yet quietly intense.

New Meaning‘s first single is the brooding “Unfamiliar.” Centered around Golestaneh’s sensual and emotive vocals, glistening synth arpeggios, shimmering and reverb-drenched bursts of guitar, a hypnotic, motorik groove, and an incredibly infectious hook, “Unfamiliar” sounds indebted to 80s New Wave while evoking our current moment — a world gone even madder and uncertain than ever before.

“’Unfamiliar’ explores the idea of progress, and what qualities might be needed to actualise it,” Tempers’ Jasmine Golestaneh explains in press notes. “So often change is just a rebranding of the same structures and conventions, history repeating itself. But also on a personal level, it’s hard not to repeat mistakes, habits are so seductive. I was thinking about the power of liminal space, and how building a tolerance to unfamiliarity might be a revolutionary act.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Brooklyn’s Wetware Releases a Stark and Menacing New Single

Formed back in 2015, the Brooklyn-based industrial electronica outfit Wetware– Roxy Farman and Matt Morandi — quickly developed a reputation for odd and unpredictable live shows, which they further established with the release of their full-length debut, 2018’s Automatic Drawing. Slated for a June 26, 2020 release through Dais Records, the Brooklyn-based duo’s forthcoming sophomore album, the 11 track Flail reportedly captures disorientating confusion with a concentrated, nosier sound that pushes and pulls against electronic textures paired with frenetically delivered vocals. The end result is material that’s wild and unhinged sonic collage-like dirges.  

“Shiny Face,” Flail’s latest single is a sparse yet menacing track centered around droning synths, relentless clang and clatter and shouted vocals. And while drawing heavily from both industrial electronica and No Wave, the track manages to evoke the anxious unease and paranoia of our contemporary moment, a moment in which there’s no solutions, no answers and no ideas in the face of our near annihilation. 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Watch Detroit’s ADULT. Smash a Room in Frustration in New Visual for Tense and Claustrophobic “Total Total Damage”

Detroit-based multimedia and electronic music production and artist duo ADULT. — the husband and wife team of Adam Lee Miller and Nicola Kuperus — have developed a sprawling catalog of material that obscures and blurs defined genres and styles, while drawing from industrial electronic, house music, punk rock and visual art with releases through Mute Records, Ghostly International, Thrill Jockey, Third Man Records and a list of other labels throughout their two plus decades together. 

Slated for an April 10, 2020 release through Dais Records, the acclaimed Detroit-based electronic duo’s forthcoming album Perception is/as/of Deception was conceived, written and recorded in a temporary black hole they created: the duo painted their windowless basement entirely black, with the sole intention of sensory deprivation so that they could question their perceptions and witness the resulting ramifications. And as result, the album’s material may be the most introspective and punk-leaning they’ve written to date: the frustration and apprehension that has long been at the center of their work are heightened — but interestingly enough, the material was written with a much more head-on approach, making it forceful and strident.

Last month, I wrote about Perception is/as/of Deception‘s second single, the club banging “Have I Stated at the End.” Centered around a classic electronic body music production featuring industrial clang and clatter, tweeter and woofer rocking beats, shimmering synth arpeggios, an enormous hook and a repetitive mantra that questions the fragility and temporality of life “Total Total Damage,” the album’s third and latest single is a tense and claustrophobia-inducing track centered around industrial clang and clatter, layers of synth arpeggios and Kuperus’ howled vocals. Thematically, the song is a dystopian anthem that focuses on the slow and painful collapse of our society and systems and the growing uncertainty and uneasiness we all feel but while expressing the desperate cabin fever. 

While in social isolation, the members of ADULT. decided to build a room-like set indie their house for the Miller and Kuperus-filmed and edited visual for “Total Total Damage,” which features the duo losing their minds and destroying their room with a sledgehammer.  “We’re hoping that the video speaks to a lot of people, because everyone’s feeling cabin fever and wanting to get out, get back to ‘normal’ life,” the Detroit-based duo say in press notes. 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Acclaimed Detroit Duo Adult. Releases an Anxious and Uneasy Club Banger

Over the course of their 23 year history together, Detroit-based multimedia and electronic music production and artist duo ADULT. — the husband and wife team of Adam Lee Miller and Nicola Kuperus — have developed a sprawling catalog of material that obscures and blurs defined genres and styles, while drawing from industrial electronic, house music, punk rock and visual art with releases through Mute Records, Ghostly International, Thrill Jockey, Third Man Records and a list of other labels. 

Slated for an April 10, 2020 release through Dais Records, the acclaimed Detroit-based electronic duo’s forthcoming album Perception is/as/of Deception was conceived, written and recorded in a temporary black hole they created: the duo painted their windowless basement entirely black, with the sole intention of sensory deprivation so that they could question their perceptions and witness the resulting ramifications. And as result, the album’s material may be the most introspective and punk-leaning they’ve written to date: the frustration and apprehension that has long been at the center of their work are heightened — but interestingly enough, the material was written with a much more head-on approach, making it forceful and strident. 

“Have I Started at the End,” Perception is/as/of Deception’s second and latest single is a club banger, centered around a classic electronic body music production featuring industrial clang and clatter, tweeter and woofer rocking beats, layers of shimmering synth arpeggios, an enormous hook and a repetitive mantra that questions the fragility and temporality  of life while expressing frustration and unease. Unsurprisingly, the song evokes the unease and uncertainty of our time.