Category: Music

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Messa – The Spin

It’s dark like gothic but not black metal or post-punk goth, it’s well-crafted musically but not over the top progressive metal, it’s slow in tempo but not at all doom or sludge. I was a bit confused when they listed things like jazz and dark ambient in their influences, and then, the track The Dress goes into a full-on jazz depart before jumping into a cinematic transition and ending up with a fantastic solo and then the crystal clear vocals arrive… They really have it all. Still, it’s not a mish-mash of things but a perfect amalgamation and genre-bending.

Overall, Messa is just one of those most eclectic dark rock bands that put the sweetest sorrow in my throat. And The Spin is a beautiful album, gives me shivers over and over again. I can easily listen to this on repeat.

Update: I’ve just listened to the previous albums of Messa and now it’s clear why they mention stuff like drone, dark ambient, doom, or stoner as references for their music. There are actual full tracks with these aesthetics on earlier records. However, I think The Spin is a lot more evolved and cleaner version of their sound. It’s not so much all these styles living side-by-side anymore but having a great blend of these sources into one coherent voice.

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Marie Davidson – City Of Clowns

It’s this fringe kind of electronic music, with an electro aesthetic, electroclash perhaps. It’s exciting and interesting and has things to say, feels fresh and different. It has become my third big thing that I’ve stumbled upon in 2025 (after Heartworms and Ela Minus).

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Ela Minus – Día

This woman has been keeping me mesmerized for about a month now. I stumbled upon Upwards randomly and can’t not listen to this album all the time.

Her music has a strong kinship with electropop classics that have this eerie vocal nature to them, like The Knife. However, her personal character, creativity, and connection to the hardware aspect of electronic music production gives me strong Björk vibes, too. And yet, she’s definitely her own thing: it’s not like I get reminded of these other performers and I get back to listen to those, but I stick with Ela’s album and keep listening this.

Beyond the fantastic music her lyrics are also so smart and interesting and artistic. There’s message to be told, layers of ideas to unfold. I don’t even know when was the last time I was looking up and reading lyrics for an electronic music record to understand properly all it has to say.

I do believe this is an album to mark and remember. I’d love to have it on vinyl and put it on display as one of the milestones of this year.

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Dear Omen – The S Tapes

I went to see a science lecture and there was a band playing before, that was Dear Omens. It’s hard to describe the experience when a bunch of science nerds are waiting for a speech about brain functions and what they get is a stage lit with candles, faces painted white, and loud full-on goth rock in their faces.

Besides being extremely surprising, it was also an amazing performance and absolutely impressive music. Listening to the record brings back the memories and it’s a great album, even if a short one. I’m happy that I can remember Fay Ruza’s absolutely commanding stage presence while listening to the songs, that definitely gives the experience an extra edge.

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Heartworms – Glutton For Punishment

I don’t know whether I’ve ever waited for a debut album so much like this one. I’ve been listening to the singles a ton and was checking the countdown regularly. By the end I knew the date by heart. Finally it’s here, and there’s zero disappointment. The songs that have not been out as singles are as brilliant as the rest, and the whole thing works amazingly well as an album. Coherent, beautiful, unique, fantastic sound, fantastic journey.

If there’s going to be something to take the album of the year title from this one, well, then this will have been a super strong year for good records.

Funniest thing, I haven’t even checked tour dates until a few days ago, when I realized she will be performing in town in two weeks. Could I be any more excited? No, I couldn’t. I feel the vibes of Zeal & Ardor when their debut dropped and I was there in a club concert on the tour, and now I cannot even get a ticket for their arena tour. I feel the same level of rising star here, although I secretly hope that she can be just successful enough to fit into a larger concert hall in a year or two, but without going to the stadium.

Btw, on the note of goth being on the rise, if that is a thing, we may see her leading that trend to a larger audience.

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Touché Amoré – Spiral In A Straight Line

I saw these guys yesterday live and I previously hadn’t listened to a full album, just went on an invitation. It was a very powerful, high-energy gig, mostly dominated by Jeremy Bolm’s stage presence, and lots of stage diving (by people from the crowd, not Jeremy) and occasionally wall-to-wall mosh pit. Touché Amoré is one of those hardcore bands that are just dripping authenticity that I can’t resist.

Now, the day after I’m listening to their latest record and it’s pretty good. I assume as I go towards the previous ones they will get rawer. I’ll check that out.