Tag: Vaura

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Perhaps best known for his work drumming in Brooklyn-based bands like Vaura and Tombs, Charlie Schmid is stepping out from behind the drum kit, as a multi-instrumentalist and singer/songwriter of his own right with his solo recording project Del Judas. Schmid’s Del Judas debut Deity slated for a July 13, 2018 release through Primal Architecture Records, and interestingly enough, the album and its respective material is a decided change of sonic direction from his previous work; in fact, Del Judas is largely inspired by a childhood growing up listening to country music — in particular, Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline and Hank Williams. As Schmid says in press notes “I fell in love with Silvertone by Chris Isaak when I was a kid. I always knew i could add to the genre and put my own stamp on this style, but I didn’t feel ready to step out from behind the drum kit until now.”

“Through the Glass” is Deity‘s latest single and while it features Azar Swan’s Zohra Atash contributing gorgeous backing vocals, the single is centered around Schmid’s Chris Isaak-like crooning, a haunting and hushed arrangement of shimmering and twangy guitars played through reverb and delay pedals, gently padded drumming and a propulsive yet unfussy bass line. As Primal Architecture’s label boss Josh Strawn, best known as a member of Azur Swan and Vaura says in press notes, Schmid’s Del Judas debut could very well be “the soundtrack for a future David Lynch film” — and while that is a fair description, I’m also reminded of the work of Daughn Gibson, who also specializes in a spectral yet contemporary take on broodingly dark country; but all of those various comparisons are linked by a sultry and vulnerable sensuality rooted in a desire to enjoy the pleasures of the present moment as a way to escape the pain and ache of the lingering ghosts of one’s past. As Schmid explains, “This record is about the eternal interplay between the sex drive and the death drive. It’s about killing yourself, figuratively and literally. It’s about parts of yourself dying off as you go through different romantic relationships in your life and the rebirth that happens through both sensual pleasure and psychic growth.”

 

New Audio by William Ruben Helms

Over the course of the past couple of years, you’ve likely come across a handful of posts on the Brooklyn-based JOVM mainstay post-punk act The Harrow. Deriving their name from a name of a device used to punish and torture prisoners in the Franz Kafka short story “In the Penal Colony,” the band can trace a portion of their origins back to 2008 when its founding member Frank Deserto (bass, synths and electronics) started it as a solo recording project that expanded into a full band in 2013 when Deserto recruited Vanessa Irena (vocals, synths and programming), Barrett Hiatt (synth, programming), and Greg Fasolino (guitar) to flesh out the project’s sound. As a quartet, the Brooklyn-based act released the “Mouth to Mouth”/”Ringing the Changes” 7 inch and their full-length effort Silhouettes to critical praise across the blogosphere including The Deli Magazine, The Big Takeover, Impose, AltSounds as well as this site for a sound that is deeply indebted to The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Joy Division, and others —  although with Silhouette, the material, which was mixed by friend and frequent collaborator, Automelodi’s Xavier Paradis revealed a band that had been subtly experimenting with and expanding upon their sound, as their sound took on a bit of an industrial feel, as though nodding at Depeche Mode and New Order.

Up until relatively recently, some time had passed since I had written about them; however, in the last few weeks, the band announced that they will be releasing a remix album Points of View, which would be comprised of remixes, re-workings and re-imaginings of the material off Silhouettes by various friends, collaborators and associates as part of a “living” album that will grow as they receive additional contributions to the album.  And fittingly, the album’s first single was Xavier Paradis’ propulsive, dance floor-friendly remix of “Kaleidoscope” in which industrial clang and clatter and tweeter and woofer rocking beats are paired with the original’s shimmering guitars and Irena’s ethereal vocals — and as a result, the remix retained the spirit and mood of the original, while being a subtle new take.

Interestingly enough, if you had been following the site since the early days, you may recall that I wrote about the Brooklyn-based synth pop duo Azar Swan. Comprised of singer/songwriter Zohra Atash, who was a touring vocalist with A Storm of Light and multi-instrumentalist and producer Joshua Strawn, who was a member of Blacklist, Vaura, Vain Warr and others, the duo’s current project can trace its origins to when Atash and Strawn ended their previous project Religious to Damn in 2012. And much like it, The Harrow it had been some time since I had written about them — that is until now, as the duo remixed The Harrow’s “Secret Language,” giving an already stark minimalist song an even moodier, retro-futuristic John Carpenter soundtrack vibe.