In November 2016 Brussels, Belgium-based music curators and stalwarts of the local music scene Fernando Wax and Phil Blackmarquis began selecting their favorite exclusive and unreleased gems from the Wave /Post Punk /Synth /Electro /Ambient styles, presented in their produced WAVES Radio Show and culminated in “My Precious! – A Waves Radio Show Compilation” through their co-founded independent record label Red Maze Records.
Seven years later, the Fourth Volume of “My Precious! – A Waves Radio Show Compilation”, due to be released on June 14, 2023, unveiled “Unbending”, the fourth track since 2021, by Her Descent, a Dark Ambient/ Experimental/Industrial duo from Liège, made up of Venema (Cello, composition, synths) and Catherine (lyrics, vocals), paired with a soul-stirring video by Fernando Wax himself.
“Unbending” channels a dusty, underground coal mine filled with a relentless mechanical momentum fueled by hypnotic clattering and shuffling rhythm patterns, gurgling low ends and eerie synth swathes, around a moody vocal intensity, alternating numb listless pain with reactive angry screams, breaking momentarily into an insightful interlude of stark airless clarity where light buzzing electronic bolts and childlike celestial airs, “Break the Spell” of magnetic repetition whilst escaping into the moonlight.
The thought-provoking visuals by Fernando Wax sync 20th-century industrialized era clips with the dark psychological essence of the soundtrack to connect the dots between modern dystopic worldviews and the haunting fragments of humankind’s nefarious past. Fine-crafted editing triggers alert perception by blurring surreal edges and slowed time-lapse manipulations over visions of heavy labor and secret, after-hours political rallies, to suggest deceptive forces are at play.
Check out Fernando Wax and Phil Blackmarquis’ WAVES Radio Show, broadcast on Brussels’ Radio Vibration, on Mixcloud.
“My Precious! – A Waves Radio Show Compilation Vol. 4” album is due, Vinyl 12″+ Digital, on June 14, 2023, via Red Maze Records.
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