Browsing Tag

Dark Ambient

Static Null looked into the void with his industrially ambient latest release, Blister

Posted on 6 May 2022
Static Null

The Lynchian oscillating effects and reminiscence to Big Black Delta make Static Null’s latest single, Blister, an instant feat of atmospherically dystopic beguile.

Instead of just lacing light with dark, Static Null fused warm reverb with cuttingly cold tones and opened the narrative between man and machine. Dark ambience may have been hitting the airwaves by the smorgasbord in 2022, but Static Null is a caustic cut above the rest.

His work subversively implants what it means to be human in soundscapes inspired by his idyllic Swedish hometown while mourning the loss of our humanity with a faint yet infectious sense of optimism. We can’t wait to hear what follows. Seemingly, neither can his 9k monthly Spotify streamers. He’s undoubtedly one to watch.

Blister is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Brikcs has released his dark genre-bending work of neo-classic melancholia ‘Coffers’

Posted on 9 November 2021

With its Cigarettes After Sex and Perfume Genius-level of artful magnetism, the cold ambience in Brikcs’ latest neo-classically-scored single, Coffers, is a rare reminder of just how sonorously beautiful music can be.

We scarcely felt that there was room for improvement the last time we heard Brikcs in December 2020 with his single, Water, but Coffers exceeded all expectations. With the lyricism falling into the sombre side of poetry and the grand piano melodies within the lush layers of reverb, Coffers is as elegant as it is haunting.

The extended instrumental interlude towards the outro is enough to affirm that Brikcs is one of the most criminally underrated artists of our generation. The beguiling mix of grandiosity and raw, gorgeously bleak emotion is nothing short of breathtaking.

The Icelandic multi-instrumentalist and electronica producer, Brikcs, cut his teeth in the music scene in rock and metal bands before turning his attention to genre-bending works of melancholia; a move that we will be endlessly grateful for.

Coffers is now available to stream on Bandcamp and  Spotify.

Follow Brikcs on Facebook 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Xeren Lia – Swipe Right to Drown: A Sultry Dark Pop Earworm Which Pays Ode to 90s Industrial Rock

Posted on 23 October 2020
https://music.apple.com/us/album/swipe-right-to-drown-single/1534283646

Swipe Right to Drown is the third single to be released from Texan Alt-Pop artist and producer Xeren Lia. It threw me right back to the 90s while greeting me with galvanizingly fresh energy.

Not many artists manage to replicate the sex appeal of Nine Inch Nails while simultaneously offering authenticity, but Xeren Lia manages it with ease. The soundscape may be slightly more turbulent than Trent Reznor’s sultry rhythms, but that perfectly ties in with the theme of Swipe Right to Drown which was penned after a bad breakup and a serial-dating experience. We’ve all been there, haven’t we? Desperately aching for connection, for something visceral, only to get wrapped up in superficial affection we want to scrub away the next day. I really hope I’m not alone there. But what I suppose I’m trying to say, is that Swipe Right to Drown is one of those tracks which stir up a smorgasbord of unexpected emotion and will set every one of your senses alight.

That definitely doesn’t happen every day. You won’t want to let this release slip you by if you’re a fan of the darker side of Pop.

You can check out Swipe Right to Drown for yourselves by heading over to apple music.

Review by Amelia Vandergast