Gothic

[Music] E.E. Engström & The Twin Street Tree Trunk Love Ensemble – Small Town Curse

/ Rudy Carrera / 1 Comment


Darkjazz goes film noir. E.E. Engström & The Twin Street Tree Trunk Love Ensemble provide a gorgeous soundtrack to enjoy a dry martini with. Imagine the aforementioned Darkjazz mixed with something that would make Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds (gone instrumental) proud, not to mention having a twang of creepy country. The vibe is dark, unsettling, and hopefully just a taste of what should be an amazing 2019 for the group.

Should you have a Spotify account, I suggest adding the group here.

[Music] a place both wonderful and strange – The City Smells Like Cat Spit

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These fine folks must be from either New York or Los Angeles, as the euphemism cat spit (well, something more urine-related, anyway) seems to hold true in both cities to an ugly degree.

More importantly, that term serves as the title of an EP released by Brooklyn residents a place both wonderful and strange, who produce music that straddles the grimy Batcave-era London goth music scene with a more ethereal touch that would be familiar to fans of Dif Juz, Chandeen or even the Cocteau Twins.

I like the directions this EP is heading. It’s nostalgic, but there is a lot of fertile ground the band can plow in this style.

[Music] Midnight Radio – NOIR JAZZ

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I never thought I’d review a Signora Ward release here, namely due to a prejudice I’ve developed against modern noise, as too many releases sound like some idiot kid flipping on the vacuum and then recording it, and THEN having the nerve to expect someone to pay for that garbage.  Thankfully, I was wrong about this particular label.  Perdonami, Signora!

This compilation is a teachable moment for me.  Never, ever judge a record label by one or two releases, as every one of them have the capacity to surprise you with something utterly brilliant.

Thanks to groups like the Orchestra of Mirrored Reflections (friends of the blog whose works have been reviewed here in the past) and the Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble, I’ve begun to fall in love with the deep, creepy, noir-ish sounds they emanate.  Signora Ward have done a service in collection some of the leading lights of the darkjazz genre together to make one of the most enjoyable collections I’ve heard in a while.

I’ll do well to pay more attention to this label in the future!

[Music] Various Artists – Decay, Death and Darkness – Aural Visions Of Beksiński’s Art

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Zdzisław Beksiński was a Polish multimedia artist whose utopian realist works stood in stark contrast to his rather jovial personal demeanor.  He may have been an artists whose work could scare the hell out of you, but he was also quite a decent man who had a fondness for classical music, as well as some rock (his son, Tomasz, was a noted DJ who committed suicide in 1999).

Once again, the brilliant folks at Eighth Tower Records, a subgroup of Unexplained Sounds, have released a compilation whose subject inspired some of the most brutally dark ambient music artists active to come up with some bleak aural monstrosities.

[Music] Necromishka – The Space Between Us

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This is another weird, nearly terrifying, yet wonderful work from the nexus of musicians floating around Tel-Aviv and involving Tamar Singer.

Necromishka continue the neofolk tradition, mixing it with some of the hallucinatory vibe which gave early Current 93 its power.  The vocals in Beast of Prey, for instance, are slowed down to something so eerie that they should have belonged to a character in a David Lynch movie.

The other tracks give the feel of the soundtrack that should be made, if anyone is insane enough to try it, of Isadore Ducasse’s ur-Surrealist masterpiece, Les Chants de Maldoror.

[Music] Sieben – Crumbs (reviewed by Santa Sangre)

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Much respect to Peter Marks of Santa Sangre Magazine for reviewing my favorite Apocalyptic Folk violinist (and very cool chap) Matt Howden.

[Reviewed by Peter Marks] Ah just look at him on the cover in his Sunday tea time best. Flip the panel and you’ll see how thin the veneer is as a Guy Fawkes mask and full fencing uniform greet you; there can be no doubt that we’re living in extraordinarily perilous times with one guy […]

via Sieben – Crumbs — Santa Sangre