Hailing from Fayetteville, Northwest Arkansas, 5-piece White Mansion just caught my attention with last June’s “Everything In This Room Falls” 6-track self-released live debut album, proof of a band highly comfortable and powerful on stage, perfecting their modern and fresh take on 80’s tinged synth-laden post-punk and darkwave.
Formed around 2015, White Mansion, made up of vocalist Dusty Domino, guitarist Travis Keymar, keyboardist Andy Wade, bassist Jim Looper and drummer Eli Barrett, have just released a new single, title “Scarred”, the first, they announced, of many soon to come.
Thick, hypnotic, cold synth swells, both dramatic and haunting, filled with atmospheric reverbed layers of guitar, punctuated by a precise and powerful rhythm section. Creating an intense, desolate and mournful soundscape imbued with profound melancholy and longing. Perfectly encapsulated by deep charismatic vocals evoking a romantic love of imperfection and acceptance, leaving us with his final words “You have to be scarred to be romantic to know who you are.”
The DIY video perfectly captures the mood of the song as it displays a distorted, psychedelic, geometrically layered environment. A sluggish dripping liquid falls onto the surface as a woman perfectly applies lipstick over her exposed ‘scarred lips’.
