Memory keeper. Mostly music, some movies, series, video games. Obscure darkness meets pop culture glow.
I saw Adam Tristar on a goth club night headlining after like ten other concerts. It was a duo performing live and they stood out so much from the others, like it would be a professional act after a list of DIY bedroom bands. Well, that’s probably a pretty good approximation of what happened.
The music is all along the goth aesthetics with electronic coldwave synths. Hits close to my heart.
Definitely one of my new personal hypes for this year. It is an epitome of a goth rock album that is right in the middle lane of my alley, pretty much occupying the whole street. It’s a perfect, epic record that gives me goosebumps. It’s also interesting how some heavy metal flavor is sprinkled in here and there.
I just checked my Last.fm stats and this album is already on the top of my artist and album lists for 2023. Wow, I knew I listened to this a lot, but I wasn’t aware this much. And with every listen it just grows stronger.
The last album from Kontravoid I found mainly EBM while this one is primarily cold wave. It’s not as great as the previous one but still worth noting.
It’s just a single track but an important return of O. Children’s singer as a solo effort. It’s hard to say from this one song what to expect from him next, but most probably will keep the direction where his band was heading with goth moody ballads.
In 2010 I was overwhelmed to see a bunch of newcomer goth bands who could pour fresh blood in the veins of this genre that just keeps coming and going with a heartbeat that does one forceful thump once every five to ten years. In ’10 I stumbled upon Led Er Est who made a debut the year before, then O. Children’s first record came out this year, and these two etched a mental note to the start of the decade for me. So, this is why I’m really happy to see something new again from this Okandi guy.
Little synthwave touch added here and there, but luckily that’s just tidbits, most is still goth and coldwave that keep setting the mood. La Maldad is the most surprising track, which sounds… playful? As it starts it somehow reminds me of CSS. Super weird, out of place, but that’s also something to love.
Krautrock with the mood of the Only Lovers Left Alive soundtrack. I got back to this one a few times befor posting. (Usually this doesn’t happen because of hesitation but when I don’t want to remove something from my Play Later list because then I come across it a few more times.) Also, nice album cover.
I feel this to be the least special of the three albums so far, but that said with having the high bar of Ritual Howls itself in mind.
Let’s give it some context. In 2009 I had this first shock about the resurgence of new and really authentic goth music that came with Led Er Est and O. Children. Then there was this second coming with the likes of Ritual Howls, The KVB, and She Past Away. Nowadays I’m just not surprised anymore that good new goth music can happen. As unlikely as it is, it’s a wonderful thing though.
Psychedelic rock and post-punk and cold wave.
Such authentic industrial music this is. Love it.
On Bandcamp they tag themselves as apocalyptic pop, which is kinda right. Flavours of goth and industrial in a music rather dark and sexual.