“Desolation Sounds” is the meaningful title of the second 4-song EP, and first physical Cassette release, from the “energetic raw Post-punk” Swedish outfit Fashion Cult, to end a reflective 2023 for Berlin‘s Detriti Records, mainly set on the label mastermind Davide Lace‘s own project Words and Actions album release, hopefully introducing a new year packed with unpredictable early finds we had been accustomed to for a long time.
Dark, vibrant, and intense throwback 80s Post-punk sound, as harsh as it is genuine and expressive, for the most part danceable, powerfully grafted with ominous murky edges of gritty Deathrock and gloomy Gothic Rock, while retaining an abiding torn melodicism.
The Stockholm five-piece, including T.G.T.B. and Satellitstat members, forge a powerful combination of rousing unremitting rhythms commanded by unbridled and urgent drumming and meandering bass throbbing, with angular, cutting and restless guitars along with deep, at times layered, angsty vocals, that compliment perfectly with the overwhelming, richly dense sonic bulk of such an engulfing release of heartfelt immediacy and visceral pain-fueled energy.
“Sundown”, definitely the standout track off the lot, is laced with lovelorn lyrics that brood in the tragic reflection of a broken relationship.
Relentlessly charged by unbridling bouncing drum beats, and compulsive brooding basslines, sometimes veering on the foreground with pulsing humming bleakness, whilst abrasive, grating guitar riffs and insistent dramatic spiky strains echo with penetrating stabbing pain atop cold haunted baritones, simmering in an obsessive sorrow, only to explode in resonant shouts of hopeless bitterness.
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