WL//WH Premiere: MISFORTUNES New LP “The Isle Of Tomorrow” via TONN Recordings

Misfortunes Image by Christopher Martin

#017 vinyl release of TONN RECORDINGS marks the second full-album “The Isle Of Tomorrow” by GR-based outfit Misfortunes and it is a peal of thunder in all aspects regarding the label’s quality and the same Misfortunes glorious effort to write, produce, and finally present an album that is seemingly beyond any alternative music control. Really, “The Isle Of Tomorrow” LP which releases today Sept. 24 is an imposing mountain of darkwave music, literally. But darkwave, as we consider it when blended with a full-synthesized ‘option’ and the post-punk feel all over. Darkwave, as we love it in its poetry and the whole artistic amplitude that is required, and like also, as the most bloody groovy darkwave of the ages like our melting shoes on the beloved and stained dancefloors that are killing us for decades now, a bliss!

Ioakim Vasileiadis is the sole heart and soul of Misfortunes, but is he all alone in there?! All songs are always written and performed by him but we see that our man always collaborates with various lyricists and poets, how lone can be an artist in a circle of literate people?

He says “I actually don’t really enjoy writing lyrics. I’m very fortunate that some of the people I am closest to in life are not only very skilled at writing, but also very much interested in being part of the project. In a way, I consider them Misfortunes members.”

The new album owns 9 songs and all of them have curious and odd lyrics while almost all the words in ‘The Isle...’ are poems, 3 of them written and rendered in the Greek language; ‘I am You’….hear me, I am a hack in the fabric of the universes, I am You; ‘At The End of the Road’....pilgrim on an empty journey, at the end of the road; ‘Black Cauldron’….two handfuls of cardamom, and an ounce of steel, my black cauldron. This is the slight idea of these three unique poems in the album while the rest are all written and rendered in the English language. The record has a sense-of-purpose in its whole narration that goes hand in hand with the music!

Warm sound all over the music in these 9 new songs, with targeted arrangements that explore the lyrics and vice versa, no cries and no sobs on the microphone but a pretty ‘sober’ vocalist who actually tells the words as if they were his own. All words (lyrics/ poems) by Markos-Valsamis Lyritsis, Constantinos Georgiadis, Nikolina Chatzipantazi, and Kosmas Lazaridis.

The concept of ‘The Isle…’ is according to Misfortunes quote

“It refers to the Diomede Islands, between Siberia and Alaska, separated by the International Date Line. Because of that, Big Diomede, the Isle of Tomorrow, is almost a day ahead of Little Diomede, the yesterday Isle. Inspired by this, I collaborated with Constantinos Georgiadis, who wrote some wonderful lyrics for the song ‘Diomede Islands’ (B-2). It’s from these lyrics and song that the album took its name”

…and all you’ll hear in this amazing new album is darkwave music with some minimal synth storms, and post-punk to the bone through occasional synthwave instances. You are right, the Batcave is still wide open!

Last, I’d like to explain why I didn’t give you by now any focus tracks. This is unnecessary for both me and you and the label and the artist. The entire tracklisting of the record is like a wide-open root for anyone to follow, to mix it up and shuffle it, to repeat it at will, and it all will end at the same docks of the Misfortunes terminal stations. The view from there is simply delightful my brothers and sisters. I am not surprised at all that TONN RECORDINGS chose to release this album, as I am not surprised at all that Misfortunes chose to work again with that precious boutique label from Belfast. I am going to turn it all loud now, here it comes!!!

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