Thanatoloop is a side project from the Chilean experimental musician Michel Andre Leroy Valdes, famed for his work with his main band, Un Festin Sagital. This peace is a look to a surreal hazy scene which would go perfect with absinthe and reading Les Chants de Maldoror by Comte de Lautréamont.
Darkwave
[Music] Sieben – The Other Side of the River — Santa Sangre
[Reviewed by Peter Marks] So for those of you who didn’t check out the digital releases Sieben peppered the internet with recently here’s an inducement to go and do so. This is by no means the complete track-listing nor is it in the original running order but what has been compiled here should provide more […]
[Music] Goran Trajkoski – Na Svetov Ubavina (Koncert)
Goran Trajkoski, lead singer of two of Macedonia’s most legendary bands (Anastasia and Mizar) is seen here performing new music. We very much look forward to a new album from Goran.
[Music] Mizar – Svjat Dreams
Behind only Laibach and Bijelo Dugme (White Button), Mizar were the most powerful name in the Balkan rock music scene, and crossed over into Darkwave with ease. This is a cover of The Eurhythmics’ classic hit, “Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This,” done with a heavy dose of Byzantine goth.
[Music] Thy Veils – Sun Sun
Wonderful news for dark ambient fans! Romania’s own Thy Veils have released a new single, pointing them into a different, somewhat tribal and pulse-filled direction. I look forward to hearing more!
[Music] Creation VI – Myth About Flat World
Dmitry Fedoschenko pointed me to this new release on his label, Black Mara Records. It is a slow, deep, echoing ride down a chasm into a digital cave, where the sounds envelop you much in the way the masters like Steve Roach and Robert Rich, especially in his collaborations with Lustmørd, used to do. Black ambient has a wonderful future in Russia.
[Music] Obscurus Orbis – Kost Ar C’hoat
I tend to find ‘pagan’ metal to be as corny as it is heathen. Still, some of these bands have amazing talent, and manage to blend old and new rather well. Obscurus Orbis, a band from Jūrmala, Latvia, fit the bill very well.
[Music] Novogradska – Коњаници
Truly one of the best artists working in Macedonia, Novogradska has a decade’s worth of amazing work in electronic music, indie and soundtrack work for the legendary film director Milcho Manchevksi.
[Music] Isihia [Исихия] – Lord I Called Thee [Господи Возвах]
[Music] Kismet – Love Will Tear Us Apart
Every time I go to Skopje, there is always someone who asks why on Earth I’d bother to come and stay such long periods of time in what they feel is an insignificant city in the heart of the Balkans. You can thank this song, the disc it came on, and a friendship with Gorazd Capovski and Ilija Stojanovski, for this.
I had worked at Tone Casualties records as an A&R Manager, and came across this disc while at my evening job, buying weird music for Aron’s Records (RIP). I had passed through what was then Yugoslavia a few years past, and knew a bit about Macedonian music, but the combination of goth/darkwave and an ethnic, Byzantine sound, came as a huge revelation. I never, in a million years, thought Love Will Tear Us Apart would sound perfect with bagpipes. A pleasant surprise which still strikes a chord after 20 years.
