Electronic reviews: Epileptics, VvvV, Shiny Darkness (2016).

EPILEPTICS: “Lesbic” (All Hail Pessimism) — glitchy obnoxious electropunk which takes the trancey EBM template and fucks around with it. First song from forthcoming EP The Sun Hurts My Eyes. A pile of other loose tracks on the Bandcamp and the SoundCloud. “Lesbic” doesn’t seem to have a video, so above is 2013 song “Eyeliner”. I mean, it’s probably witch house.

 

VvvV: VvvV (Detonic/ATRDR) — slow-building prog rock, of the sort descended from psychedelia, with the instrumentation of electroclash. A callback to the days when synths were new and drum machines were mostly bad. Patchy in places, but with excellent bits. Start at “Slugs” (lively, shaped like a single). Other favourites: “Getaway”, “Clean” (the single; they worked trance sounds in!), “Nation”, the finisher “Light”.

 

SHINY DARKNESS: Season 4 — industrial synthpop that owes as much as everyone in that field does to Depeche Mode, and the vocals aren’t a million miles from Dave Gahan either. The single tracks (“You Can Travel The World”, above, and “Dirty Morning”) remain representative. Other favourites for me include “The Place” (that intro is beautiful), “Black Swan”, “Life Is No Toy” and the second half of “Collection of Broken Things” when the beat gets going. “My Lady Is The Night” is a good closer. This album is well worth your time.

(This review is late because Facebook put the message with the review link in the “never look in this folder” folder. Facebook is not a good way to contact me.)

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