WL//WH Premiere: Iconic Post-Punk Legends THE WAKE Return with New Album “Perfumes and Fripperies”

THE WAKE, photo by Gish Baylox/ Baylox Arts

Almost 25 years since their last full-length album, the iconic post-punk band The Wake present their much-anticipated album ‘Perfumes and Fripperies’. The Wake are Troy Payne, Rich Witherspoon, James Tramel, and Daniel C. Formed in the mid-80s in Columbus, Ohio, and a fixture in the early- to the mid-90s goth rock scene, The Wake are re-emerging with a new offering, almost 25 years since their last full-length album. The band earned critical accolades as part of the ‘second wave’ of goth. Through their releases, appearances on many compilations and extensive touring with peers such as Skinny Puppy and Nine Inch Nails, The Wake secured their place in goth and roll history.

https://youtu.be/xECWs7GwSk8

“This is our first full-length release in nearly 25 years. We wanted to make an unforgettable album that would represent The Wake of 2020 while also honoring our legacy. Inspiration for the ten tracks was drawn from many disparate sources and circumstances as they were written and recorded over a rather long stretch of time,”
says Troy Payne, adding
“With themes like isolation, unrequited love, madness, multiple personality disorder, purgatory, loss, and regret – the album’s lyrical content is decidedly dark and introspective, as well as diverse.”

Ahead of this, The Wake presented the singles ‘Hammer Hall’ and ‘Everything (feat. Wolfie’), a.k.a. David “Wolfie” Wolfenden (guitarist for ‘80s post-punk icons Red Lorry Yellow Lorry), each providing a taste of lushly layered, powerful, dark soundscape laced with infectious hooks and signature vocals.

‘Perfumes and Fripperies’ album is the space between the weight of darkness and the hazy sheen of dreams. Here – dark, uneasy truths are revealed, fate and resolution come to terms, whispering dreams and memories dance together in the moonlight… there will be no sleep tonight.

From its inception, The Wake has been an unlikely band, from an unlikely place, making unlikely music, and doing well. In 1993, they debuted with the ‘Masked’ LP via Cleopatra Records, a landmark recording to this day. They toured extensively and had other successful releases like the AP Dance charting single ‘Christine’, an EP of songs remixed by Rosetta Stone, and their third release ‘Nine Ways’.

Recorded over many months in different locations and various circumstances in the band’s native Ohio, the LP comes together in one voice. This long-play was mixed by Matt Hagberg at VMS in Columbus, OH and mastered by Emily Lazar at The Lodge in NYC. As of October 30, ‘Perfumes and Fripperies’ is available digitally everywhere, including Spotify, Pandora and Apple Music and on CD via Blaylox Records. The album can also be obtained
directly from the band via Bandcamp.

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