She Past Away's "X" and West Coast Tour: Feb 3 - 7

An overview of the concurrent, interrelated, and offshoot genres of the original synthwave and post-punk sounds from decades past and their 21st century contemporary revival have been mapped by Vice in their, "A Brief History of Musical Waves from New to Next". Assembled in compilations like the now-classic, “The Minimal Wave Tapes: Volume One” which focused on the coldwave and minimal wave strains, and the the recent genre overview presented in “No Songs Tomorrow: Darkwave, Ethereal Rock, and Coldwave 1981-1990”, offer an all-inclusive cornucopia of variables within the subgenre. Taken together, these compilations represent an overarching map of a sound that was born of the settling dust of the tumult of post-punk's upending of the topography of rock and noise music. Expressed through a more uneasy, existential, often edgier and sexually charged sound than their more commercial compatriots, darkwave retained its post-punk values while utilizing the same technology, and dancier, more upbeat tempos of new wave. The balancing act of its particular brand of starkly minimal, angular, existential electronic dance pop of alienation and heartbreak is presented by The Guardian in, “‘The Body was the Drums, the Brain was the Synthesiser’: Darkwave, the Gothic Genre Lighting up Pop”.

A cross-section of artists within this subgenre, Molchat Doma, The KVB, Xeno & Oaklander, Kite, The Soft Moon, Twin Tribes, Drab Majesty, and Boy Harsher, express a spectrum of variations on an aesthetic of darkly romantic, sexually fetishistic, and imperially fatalistic thematic concerns. In describing Boy Harsher's sound as a "moving choker-collar muscle-mash" which "contains a dark power, an atavistic pull", the music press has rightly depicted the central components from which the variables pivot and deviate around. The Turkish duo She Past Away, comprising Volkan Caner and Doruk Öztürkcan, have developed their own particular strain within this sound. One that leans more heavily into the earliest post-punk baritone ruminatuions of bands like Bauhaus, and the dissonant asceticism of Joy Division and Suicide, with musical lines that express a harder, more angular post-punk affinity. Announcing as much in interview, "We are a Gloomy Punk Band in Essence", She Past Away's sound is ironically best represented in the sprawling double disc assembly of remixes by their contemporaries heard on "X". They return domestically with a second leg of their most recent tour on the album, with a date at Seattle's The Crocodile.

Molchat Doma's "Belaya Polosa" & North American Tour with Sextile: Jan 25 - Mar 7

Inspired by the goth and early electro-industrial sounds of the 1980s and 1990s, a new generation of darkwave and synthwave producers have found novel variations and generated a music of 21st century nuance to its particulars. The balancing act of its particular brand of starkly minimal, angular, existential electronic dance pop of alienation and heartbreak is presented by The Guardian in, “‘The Body was the Drums, the Brain was the Synthesiser’: Darkwave, the Gothic Genre Lighting up Pop”. A cross-section of artists within this subgenre, Molchat Doma, The KVB, She Wants Revenge, Xeno & Oaklander, The Soft Moon, Twin Tribes, She Past Away, Drab Majesty, TR/ST, Kite, and Boy Harsher, express a spectrum of variations on an aesthetic of darkly romantic, sexually fetishistic, and imperially fatalistic thematic concerns. In describing Boy Harsher's sound as a "moving choker-collar muscle-mash" which "contains a dark power, an atavistic pull", the music press has rightly depicted the central components from which the variables pivot and deviate around. An overview of these concurrent, interrelated, and offshoot genres, and their contemporary revival was mapped by Vice in their, "A Brief History of Musical Waves from New to Next". Compilations like the now-classic, “The Minimal Wave Tapes: Volume One” focused on the coldwave and minimal wave strains, while the recent “No Songs Tomorrow: Darkwave, Ethereal Rock, and Coldwave 1981-1990”, present an all-inclusive cornucopia of variables within the subgenre.

Taken together, these compilations offer an overarching map of a sound that was born of the settling dust of the tumult of post-punk's upending of the topography of rock and noise music. Expressed through a more uneasy, existential, often edgier and sexually charged sound than their more commercial compatriots, darkwave retained its post-punk values while utilizing the same technology, and dancier, more upbeat tempos of new wave. Few contemporary artists embody this intersection of new wave and harder-edged sonic aesthetics than Belarusian artists, Molchat Doma. Their sound is a concoction of the recognizable components of synth-driven new wave, staccato drum machine, angular guitar and plodding bass of post-punk, with the additional reflection of a hauntological looking back to the monumental ruins of the Soviet era. In more senses than one, "Molchat Doma: Is Caught in the Crosshairs". Social media, relocating from Belarus to the United States, and signing to Sacred Bones the domestic haven of all things neo-goth, have contributed significantly to their rise in prominence within this scene. In doing so, they have also made new compatriots of labelmates like Sextile, and their electro-industrial sound as heard on "Push". On tour beginning this month in support of last year's "Belaya Polosa", Molchat Doma and Sextile will be channeling post-Soviet melancholia and fetishistically energized Los Angeles electro when they intersect for a night at The Showbox, Seattle.

TR/ST's "Performance" & US Tour with Provoker: Oct 31 - Nov 23 | Modernwav Festival at Music Box San Diego: Nov 22 - 23

While a relatively narrow aspect of the bandwidth of music within the goth and early electro-industrial sounds of the 1980s and 1990s, darkwave and synthwave express novel variations and nuance to its particulars. An overview of these concurrent, interrelated, and offshoot genres, and their contemporary revival was mapped by Vice in their, "A Brief History of Musical Waves from New to Next". Compilations like the now-classic, “The Minimal Wave Tapes: Volume One” focused on the coldwave and minimal wave strains, while the recent “No Songs Tomorrow: Darkwave, Ethereal Rock, and Coldwave 1981-1990”, present an all-inclusive cornucopia of variables within the subgenre. Taken together, these compilations offer an overarching map of a sound that was born of the settling dust of the tumult of post-punk's upending of the topography of rock and noise music. Utilizing technology which would become a central component of the concurrent new wave movement, these artists applied the rhythmic dance structures and synthesizer-focused songwriting to a knowingly distant, colder aesthetic. While much of the transitional state of post-punk toward new wave began to be focused around commercially-minded outsider pop, a darker undercurrent did survive. Expressed through a more uneasy, existential, often edgier and sexually charged sound than their more commercial compatriots, darkwave retained its post-punk values while utilizing the same technology, and dancier, more upbeat tempos of new wave.

Inspired by this era, and the balancing act of its particular brand of starkly minimal, angular, existential electronic dance pop of alienation and heartbreak, a new generation of producers have come to the fore, presented by The Guardian in, “‘The Body was the Drums, the Brain was the Synthesiser’: Darkwave, the Gothic Genre Lighting up Pop”. A cross-section of artists within this subgenre, Molchat Doma, The KVB, She Wants Revenge, Xeno & Oaklander, The Soft Moon, Twin Tribes, She Past Away, Drab Majesty, TR/ST, Kite, and Boy Harsher, express a spectrum of variations on an aesthetic of darkly romantic, sexually fetishistic, and imperially fatalistic thematic concerns. In describing Boy Harsher's sound as a "moving choker-collar muscle-mash" which "contains a dark power, an atavistic pull", the music press has rightly depicted the central components from which the variables pivot and deviate around. One of the more distinct deviations of the sound can be found in the fiery synthwave of Robert Alfons' TR/ST. Initially working as a duo with Maya Postepski of Austra on a series of albums for Arts & Crafts, Alfons' project is now largely a solo enterprise. This series of changes he explored with Interview Magazine, and in conversation with the San Francisco Chronicle, "TR/ST Pushes Past Fear to Create New Atmospheric Soundscapes". Now with his new home of shared compatriots on the Dais label, “Performance” brings the sound Pitchfork described as, "the sonic equivalent of a fashion show put on by depressive pill abusers; malevolent, but mightily sexy" on tour across the country with the Bay Area's Provoker. Following a date in Seattle, the tour's final destination will be at Modernwav the "Two-Day Industrial Darkwave Event in San Diego", an all-inclusive showcase of darkwave, synthwave, dark gothic and post-punk electronic club music.