Browsing Tag

Dark Cabaret

faSade – Freedom to Carry (Is Not Free): A Dark Cabaret Plea For An End to The Right to Bear Arms

Posted on 6 November 2024

In the Avant Garde production of faSade’s dark cabaret rock single, Freedom to Carry (Is Not Free), the artist plunges deep into the heart of one of America’s most polarising debates. The jazz-imbued track, saturated with theatrical verve, doesn’t shy from voicing the harrowing price paid by innocence in the face of the nation’s gun culture.

With each lyric, faSade delivers visceral blows, but none as sharp as the one imparted through the strikingly sombre line, “Your freedom to carry is not free when I have to carry my child to the cemetery”.

The fierce outcry against the so-called freedom of gun ownership accounts for the loss of the cost of children’s lives while delivering an anthem mourning those lost to the bullets of mentally ill assailants and a rebuke of society’s complacency.

With America on the brink of electing a new leader, the timing of the track couldn’t be more poignant. faSade holds a mirror to the grim realities of a society that chooses the profits of the gun industry over the safety of its youth as the artist condemns the political powers that perpetuate this cycle of violence for electoral gains, and the societal indifference that allows domestic abusers and despondent individuals access to firearms.

Through Freedom to Carry (Is Not Free), faSade implores listeners to awaken from their idle states as mere legislative changes could preserve countless futures.

The official video for Freedom to Carry (Is Not Free) premiered on October 18th; stream the video on YouTube now.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Jessamine Barham melodised marionette melancholy in her compelling vignette, Puppet Girl

Posted on 21 September 2023

Every time the dark indie folk singer-songwriter Jessamine Barham turns her creativity to the composition of a new baroquely imaginative piano score, complete immersion in her archaic vignettes is non-optional.

In her seminal avant-garde single, Puppet Girl, the San Diego-hailing artist melodied marionette melancholy by inviting you into a world of powerlessness, subjugation, and betrayal.

Taking the single at face value, you will enjoy a jaunty Evelyn Evelyn-esque cabaret tune; look a little deeper at what is written between the lines, and you will lock into an exposition on the limitations life can find a way of imposing on us. No matter how free we think we are, we all come with strings attached, making Puppet Girl a resonantly dark reflection of reality.

Puppet Girl is now available to stream on YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

In an act of divine imagination Jessamine Barham advocated for carnival performers in her anachronistic single, Freak Show

Posted on 19 August 2023

In an act of complete ingenuity driven by compassion and divine imagination, Jessamine Barham advocated for the rights of performers in carnivals in her aptly carnivalesque single, Freak Show.

While AHS Freak Show gave a view into the exploitation of performers when it aired on our screens in 2014, it didn’t even come close to cutting to the bone as sharply as the lacerating lyrical volition in Freak Show.

Sure, the waltzy, anachronistic cabaret instrumentals cushion the blow and add a jaunty air of playfulness to the release, but there is no escaping the revelation that everyone who has ever attended a show that parades deformity and disability participated in a sick and twisted session of voyeurism. If you love Amanda Palmer, you’re going to fall head over heels for Freak Show.

Roll up to the Freak Show by heading over to YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Go down the rabbit hole with Observe the 93rd’s histrionic alt-rock anthem, Mad as a Hatter

Posted on 2 June 2023

Observe the 93rd created the ultimate contender for the histrionic alt-rock anthem of the year with their latest single, Mad as a Matter. If you could imagine what it would sound like if Highly Suspect veered into the spooky symphonic cabaret arena, you’ll get an idea of what you are in for when you hit play, but bank on getting more than you bargained for with this maniacally exhilarant hit.

With whirling dervish-esque symphonic keys contorting into gyrating progressions and the industrial rock descent into deeper obscurity, Mad as a Hatter takes a common trope and stretches it out on a tightrope of experimental innovation. The syncopated pseudo-trap hit will be hit with fans of Tallah, Wage War, Stolen Babies, Fable Cry, Poppy, and Schoolyard Heroes.

Mad as a Hatter is as un-archetypal as tracks get, which makes it all the more impressive that Observe the 93rd effortlessly implanted earwormy choruses. So far in their career, they’ve been voted Best Alternative Rock Band and Best Male Vocalist at the Central Pennsylvania Music Awards in 2021. And they’ve supported Three Days Grace, Stone Temple Pilots, Seether, Puddle of Mudd, Drowning Pool, Saliva, Joyous Wolf, From Ashes to New, and P.O.D.

Stream the official music video for Mad as a Hatter on YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The Fairweather Friend pained an illusion of entropy with the descending melodies in their dark cabaret score, Zoetrope

Posted on 11 December 2022

With their distinctive brand of despondent dark cabaret, the up-and-coming histrionically enthralling artist, The Fairweather Friend, left us arrested with their latest single, Zoetrope.

The bitter-sweet neo-classic crescendos bring a touch of archaic elegance to the single as the Westworld-Esque honkytonk piano keys diatonically hammer home the sinking sensations portrayed by the lyrics, which allude to the dizzying disposition of entropy. Zoetrope easily up there with one of the most resonant singles I’ve heard this year, beating Amanda Palmer’s cover of Surface Pressure by a cinematic mile.

We can’t wait to hear what else is in the pipeline from the criminally underrated artist and their inhibited compulsion to extend solidarity to anyone out there who knows just how much the touch of ennui stings.

Zoetrope was officially released on November 23rd. It is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Rock n roll’s suavest literary savants, Dead Writers, reached the pinnacle of decadence in their Dostoyevsky-inspired debut music video, Lisa

Posted on 9 December 2022

Dead writers pulled out all the suave stops for their rock n roll cabaret single and debut music video, Lisa, inspired by Dostoyevsky’s Notes from the Underground.

The second single from their debut EP is a slight departure from the gothy Manics-Esque gravitas we heard from their previous release, Among Spirits. Nevertheless, the same zealous dedication to their savantic sonic interpretation of classic literature lives and breathes through the decadent tale of resilience which follows the tale of a young woman trapped in a life of prostitution.

With themes of isolation, self-resilience, and salvation in the turn-of-the-century set music video, it is clear that modernism hasn’t abstracted us from those character arcs. Pulling parallels and finding resonance within this tinged with demure darkness Avant-Garde riff-caressed feat of rock n roll that will leave you arrested by the unparalleled artistry is all too easy.

Lisa is definitive proof that Romance isn’t dead. It crescendos throughout the tenderly nostalgic balance between sadness and admiration of feminine power. I’ve often maintained that no man wrote women better than Richey Edwards; Paul Shine may have just set the bar a little higher with Lisa. It amorously rivals the lyrical salvation that will perpetually reside in Little Baby Nothing.

“Inspired by Dostoyevsky’s novel Notes From The Underground, the song tells the story of isolation, self-reliance and the eventual salvation of Lisa, a young woman trapped in a life of prostitution. Lisa is able to detach herself from the danger and despair of her environment and the challenging presence of a bitter client, thus reshaping the original narrative and becoming the heroine of her own tale.

Lisa represents unwavering strength of character. She dreams of freedom but is brave enough to wait for the right moment to escape and knows how to navigate the circumstances. She is the ultimate quiet strategist.” – Dead Writers

The official music video premiered on December 9th. Lust over it on YouTube.

Stream & purchase the single via Bandcamp. 

Follow Dead Writers on Instagram and Facebook. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast