Fragments Volume 2
Photo by Niki Boon, New Zealand
WL//WH “Fragments” series is a bunch of great releases from the past months that I couldn’t find the time to review due to a heavy schedule at work during the summer. This new title in WL//WH does not replace the “Reviews” section but I want it to work as an addition to our “library”, as something extra for you, and as a big Thank You to all those artists and the record labels that sent us all these promos. Listen Loud!!!
FRONT LINE ASSEMBLY – “Purge (Black Asteroid remix)” single [Artoffact Records]
On June 7, the Canadian electro-industrial legends Front Line Assembly published an outstanding remix of the leading single “Purge” (that is taken from their last album ‘Mechanical Soul’ -2021, through Artoffact Records. Here, Mr Bryan Black (AKA Black Asteroid) offered another alternative view on FLA‘s music and took off an already gifted piece from the band’s “recipes”. I think I must have heard it about 100 times by now as it is so cool and nice; groovy, dirty, shiny, EBM phantasmagoria for the dedicated dancefloors of the world!!!
SLIGHTER – “Welcome to Riot City” LP [Brutal Resonance Records]
Slighter from Pennsylvania in new cyberpunk adventures on electro-industrial background with their new opus ‘Welcome to Riot City’ LP through Brutal Resonance Records. The album has 10 stories to tell about the most advanced new Blade Runners…it is a heavy album with unique interest, and surely their best release to date and with ultra good sound!!! Hint; the record also sounds like a concept album…it is quite cinematic and occasionally wild.
SPIRYT – “Blood Twins” LP [Self-Released]
From the city of Toulon en France, Spiryt self released their new album ‘Blood Twins’ on May 27 featuring Kimberly from Bow Ever Down on vocals and lyrics. It is a very good album in the streams of the wider darkwave realm. With 10 beautiful dark songs and a record that has the appropriate voice to dress the stories she sings, Kimberly has a magnetizing voice and she is a skilled singer too while Jluc Courchet (Spiryt) on the other hand, is an equally skilled songwriter. The new album hides inside some pretty striking tunes and incidents that combine the dark ambient inspirations with very modern darkwave music and Jluc says “I’m so proud of this album and the voice of Kimberly is just marvellous”. I totally agree with that, it is all music created with great care and it is immediately heard!!!
SPECTRA*paris – “Modernism” LP [Dependent Music]
This is the new album from the singer of Kirlian Camera, Elena Alice Fossi. Read carefully the letter you will find in the following link and you will clearly understand why this album is so good and so imposing. Go ahead!!!
VAZUM – “Angel” single [Self-Released]
VAZUM from Detroit released another wicked deathrock tune on June 24, as always Zach Pliska & Emily Sturm managed to create again some pretty excessive dark music and here their ‘deathgaze’ chant is flirting with the seeds of the early Christian Death who were a kind of their own. ‘Angel’ is furious, is dirty, is too much, and by all means, is a digital single that rocked me for good and on repeat!!!
No.2 – “In The Beginning Of A New World” LP [Jealous Butcher Records]
No.2 is a threesome from Portland and they play that glorious indie alternative rock as it came out of that territory already from the 90s. Their 11 new songs are like a bunch of really groovy and salty rock and roll music mostly suited for a live gig, not that I didn’t enjoy them at home but you know, Rock and Roll needs a stage to make it all clearly happen and with the proper care and the fuzz, yeah!!!
Written by Loud Cities’ Mike
