All posts tagged gothic

Dancer In The Dark – All I Ever Wanted

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As I look back across my musical life, Vancouver’s The Organ became important to me around the time I first moved to Manchester and I started to engage with artists outside of the mainstream. Those initial experiences of flicking through the records in Piccadilly were the beginning of my love for discovery and I still cherish much of that period’s collection. The Organ released only one LP ‘Grab That Gun’, seemingly due to both label and touring pressure, but it’s fair to say their recorded output deeply ingrained itself on me. I heard from a friend a while back that after taking a break from music, guitarist Debora Cohen had started a new project and have been keeping an eye on things ever since…

Taking her name from the Lars Von Trier film Dancer In The Dark (probably one of the most depressing films I’ve ever seen) Cohen is displaying all the magic that made The Organ so special. It’s certainly clear she was one of the creative forces behind their ability to write great pop melodies, along with singer Katie Sketch whose vocal ability was a driving force, but All I Ever Wanted is evidence enough that Cohen is more than capable of holding her own. At times the subtle and arresting arrangements remind me of Interpol, guiding us to a breathtakingly beautiful and melancholy conclusion.

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http://dancerinthedark.bandcamp.com/

Trianglecuts – The Sinner

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“I just wanted a little piece of heaven”

Trianglecuts is an emerging project from Manchester based artist Gwendolen Osmond. Channelling the gothic electronica of Zola Jesus, The Sinner is her strongest work to date, built around an array of elemental textures and dark landscapes. Her voice is seductive and confessional, breathing above a twinkling piano arrangement. Although still in the development stage, it’s certainly exciting to see a very clear direction in both sound and vision.

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Phill Young

Vierance – Shift

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Today I stumbled across Vierance, a gothic electronic duo from Toronto, consisting of Matthew Cangiano and Kathryn Warner. Its hard when making a discovery like this not to immediately throw in the name Crystal Castles, as they share both the same city and the same sense of conflict and urgency with each other.

That’s not to say Vierance have nothing distinct about them, far from it… as the sound they have created is more insular, seeped in atmospheric and melodrama. Warner’s vocals are reflective, almost desperate and undeniable beautiful.

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Buy Vierance EP: http://vierance.bandcamp.com/album/vierance-ep

Phill Young