Although you can hear plenty of nostalgic vibes running through Darkswoon‘s third and most recent album, Antivenom, – darkwave shade, brooding post-punk energies, ornate, gothic electronic, and a hint of those early synth pioneers before it all went overground – it feels nothing less than the sound of the here-and-now. As always, it isn’t the sonic building blocks that are important, but the musical architecture you create from them. Or, put another way, it ain’t what you do, it’s the way that you do it. And boy, do Darkswoon do it for me!
And if the title track is a dark and meditative opener, sensual, subtle, and serene, “Pacific City” perhaps lays out their hybrid humanity/machine, analog/digital creative collision point, a riff-grooved, depth-charge bass piece arrayed with edge-softening synths and cool binary beats.
This meeting of worlds is further underlined on “Devour My Eyes,” where the stygian musical backdrop becomes the perfect contrast against which Jana Cushman‘s very human, very natural, very worldly, and occasionally otherworldly vocals soar.
If “Blood Let” proves Darkswoon to be an expert at creating dense, delicious, cinematic soundscapes, then the album’s swansong, “Going Dark,” reminds us that they can make the sort of music that keeps the alternative dancefloor packed with the denizens of the night until dawn breaks.
One problem with being a music reviewer is that we tend to get too close to the subject. It is easy to zone in on and discuss the familiar parts of any new music, but taking a few steps back, as any normal person would, Darkswoon proves to be fascinatingly unique, forward-thinking, and wonderfully fresh.
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