One of the best things about nearly all the records on our year-end list for 2021 is that they are free of any pretension. This is perhaps why so many of these songs so perfectly capture the spirit of the 80s, a decade with music unabashedly lacking in self-consciousness yet wearing its heart on dayglo and pitch-black sleeves.

Nuovo Testamento’s Italo Disco meets Danceteria synth-pop revival on their first full-length LP is the epitome of this. Harkening to the days where multiple genres coalesced under the unified iridescence of one shimmering disco-ball, Nuovo Testamento’s New Earth is the perfect dancefloor soundtrack and my choice for album of the year. From the opener “Michelle Michelle”, to the closing track “Intuition”, every song on the album could be a single. New Earth is a mesmerizing blend of synth-driven dance music and post-punk, almost necessitating there be a Top of the Pops revival with dancers from Hot Gossip and Zoo swaying to each track like those post-lockdown clubgoers featured in the video for “The Searcher”.

Xeno and Oaklander continue the Italo theme with an album that showcases why Liz Wendelbo and Sean McBride (Martial Canterel) are the premier duo of analogue synth-pop, and how much the international music scene owes to their unrelenting genius. “Poison”, “Afar”, and “Infinite Sadness”, are ensnaring with their euro-pop authenticity, feeling as if on a Wierd Wednesday night at Home Sweet Home in NYC, you got lost in the copious fog enveloping the dancefloor and suddenly found yourself in a French disco circa 1982-84.

It’s always telling when your favorite songs on an album are not the singles, and such is the case with Kaelan Mikla’s Undir Köldum Norðurljósum (Under the Northern Lights). While their collaborative track with Alcest, “Hvítir Sandar” is a spellbinding shoegaze ballad, amazing in its own right, and “Stormurinn” is thunderous and bewitching with its dark alt-rock cohesiveness, I personally find tracks like “Örlögin”, and “Halastjarnan” as opalescent gems shining bright on an album that demonstrates why that these super cool queens of coldwave are naturally from Iceland.

RIKI’s second album Gold takes its inspirations from luminaries like Bowie and Bryan Ferry and transmutes them through Jungian alchemy into the shimmering “Florence and Selena”, one of the best-written and performed songs of the year. The album’s lead single “Marigold” isn’t shy about evoking the pop-sensibilities of Strawberry Switchblade, and “Viktor” gets all the post-punk cred in the world, being a love letter to the legendary Viktor Tsoi of Russian band KINO. A personal favorite is the LP’s midpoint, “Sonar”, a synth-driven track whose disarming vocal melody and sorrowful lyrics feel like the bridge between Gold, and its vastly different self-titled predecessor.

I would say that Veil of Light’s fantastic new album Landslide is the culmination of a nearly decade-long career, but the way this Swiss duo gets better with each progressive album, that statement could very well be false in a year or two when their next full-length comes out. “The Prayer Wheel” in particular is the standout track from a record you turn to when everything falls apart.

Below, in addition to the above top 5,  is my full list for Best of 2021, followed by the top picks from our Senior editors Frank Deserto, and Andi Harriman.

Alex’s Picks:

LPs:

1. Nuovo Testamento – New Earth

2. Xeno and Oaklander – Vi/deo

3. Kaelan Mikla – Undir Köldum Norðurljósum

4. RIKI – Gold

5. Veil of Light – Landslide

6. Pink Turns Blue – Tainted

7. The KVB Unity

8. Ploho – Phantom Feelings

9. Actors – Acts of Worship

10. Traitrs – Horses in the Abattoir 

11. Creux Lies – Goodbye Divine

12. Glaare – Your Hellbound Heart

13. Odonis Odonis – Spectrums

14. Motorama – Before the Road

15. Sculpture Club – Worth

16. Kraków Loves Adana – Follow The Voice

17. Aurat – Zeher

18. Catherine Moan – Chain Reaction

19. Whispering Sons – Several Others

20. Wingtips – Cutting Room Floor

EPs:

1. Kontravoid – Faceless

2. Ritual Veil – Keep Looking Down

3. Minuit Machine – Basic Needs

4. VR Sex – Cyber Crimes

5. Leathers – Reckless

Singles:

1. Second Skin – Eyes Closed

2. Double Echo – The Bairn

3. Soft Kill – Cicero

4. Deathsomnia – Akinesia (She Past Away Remix)

5. Pulsations – Of Vultures And Sickles

Frank’s Picks:

This year felt brighter, bolder, more confident than the last. The world still burns, but I reckon we all did a lot less doomscrolling and a lot more celebrating as the year unfolded and live music began to fill the air once more. Music flourished, with longstanding projects coming out of hibernation with their strongest work to date while many new, inspiring artists melded genres and came out of the gate swinging, eager to carve out space in the musical wilderness.

Every artist on my list simply knocked it out of the park this year, whether it be the c86-flavored UV-TV‘s third offering (which clocked the most listens of anything on my list thus far), new projects from familiar faces such as Meridiane or Aeon Station (both albums which will be released in full shortly after this list is published, but I promise they’re excellent), or solid singles from bands such as Soft Kill and Deserta, which pave the way for what should be an equally incredible 2022. I’d like to give a special shoutout to Bitumen, a project I just discovered on our site one week ago, but have become a recent obsession of mine, tapping in an early 90s 120 Minutes soundscape that sounds both familiar, yet exciting.

Either way, I always find myself hopping genres between ambient, dark synth, italo,  dream pop, EBM, jangle, and good ol’ classic guitar-driven post-punk so much in my day-to-day listening, it’s no wonder my list is equally expansive, showcasing all the cross-genre pollination and highlighting how expansive this scene truly is.

Much love to everyone here on this list and all the artists we’ve covered this last year. See and hear you all in 2022

LPs:

1. Xeno and Oaklander – Vi/deo

2. UV-TV – Always Something

3. Nuovo Testamento – New Earth

4. Kaelan Mikla- Undir Köldum Norðurljósum

5. Desperate Journalist – Maximum Sorrow!

6. Aeon Station – Observatory

7. Meridiane – To Walk Behind the Sun

8. HTRK – Rhinestones

9. Odonis Odonis – Spectrums

10. Bitumen – Cleareye Shining

11. John Carpenter – Lost Themes III

12. Zanias – Unearthed

13. ESSES – Bloodletting for the Lonely

14. Low – Hey What

15. Last Ice – Last Ice

16. Rosegarden Funeral Party – In the Wake of Fire

17. Glaare – Your Hellbound Heart

18. Pink Turns Blue – Tainted

19. Dry Cleaning – New Long Leg

20. Kanga – You and I Will Never Die

EPs:

1. Lycia – Casa Luna

2. 149 – 149

3. Kontravoid – Faceless

4. Minuit Machine – Basic Needs

5. Ritual Veil- Keep Looking Down

Singles:

1. Soft Kill- “Cicero”

2. Just Mustard- “I Am You”

3. Vain Warr- “Fuck In the Fire”

4. Deserta – “Lost in the Weight”

5. Ships In the Night- “First Light”

Andi’s Picks:

This year felt different. As the residual to the tragedies and terrors of 2020, the music that was released this year had a new spirit—there were no boundaries in style or genre. Everything fused together: EBM and punk, deathrock and synthwave, industrial and pop all merged to create exciting music that didn’t feel overplayed. And as a continuation of last year, the prominence of EPs remained, leaving its succinct format to both emphasize and constrain (in the best way possible) an artist’s vision. Further, Second Skin’s series of singles were bold and unlike any other music this year with their lush and glittering new wave productions. It was a gutsy move but it paid off: “Eyes Closed” was, without a doubt, my favorite song of 2021 and it kept me wanting more.

However, layered and high production was not always at the forefront: the simplistic EBM of Deutsch Amerikanische Fruendschaft’s Nur Noch Einer once again proved why Gabi Delgado and Robert Görl’s legacy will remain for many decades to come. Forty years after Alles Ist Gut, DAF’s final offering to the world is raucous punk at its very best but, at the same time, also retains a purity dipped in synth melancholy. DAF never followed rules and never desired to do so—rest in peace, Gabi.

This idea of a give-no-fucks attitude that defied borders became noteworthy in my list. From Italo-disco created by deathrockers, Nuovo Testamento, on New Earth, to the melodic aggression of Un Hombre Solo’s Rotundo Fracaso EP, that element of surprise is what, ultimately, stood out for me. 2021 was genreless: it bred a romantic and diverse new world, one that we can all revel in.

LPs:

1. Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft – Nur Noch Einer

2. Nuovo Testamento – New Earth

3. Veil of Light – Landslide

4. Blu Anxxiety – Plaay Dead

5. Riki – Gold

6. Zanias – Unearthed

7. Male Tears – Trauma Club

8. Aurat – Khaar

9. Mvtant – Gore + Mirrorshade

10. Pink Turns Blue – Tainted

11. Affet Robot – Fiyasko

12. Pixel Grip – ARENA

13. Nox Novacula – Ascension

14. Esses – Bloodletting for the Lonely

15. Front Line Assembly – Mechanical Soul

EPs

1. Un Hombre Solo – Rotundo Fracaso

2. Kontravoid – Faceless

3. Cabaret Voltaire – Shadow of Funk

4. Minuit Machine – Basic Needs

5. ¿LA PREGUNTA? – S/T EP

6. PC World – Order

7. Été 97 – Far Away

8. Rogelio – Love Pig

9. Ritual Veil – Keep Looking Down

10. Newboy – Newboy

Singles

1. Second Skin – “Eyes Closed”

2. Double Echo – “The Bairn”

3. Second Skin – “Colder”

4. Boy Harsher – “Give Me A Reason”

5. O/X – “Falling Into”

Listen to tracks from all our picks on our Post-Punk.com Best of 2021 Spotify Playlist below:

*Article artwork by Pasha Smith Designs

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Ahead of the release of OutRemixed, The Foreign Resort spoke with members of TRAITRS, Creux Lies, NITE, Bootblacks and more, on their thoughts on reworking each track for the new remix album.

“When we first started reaching out to bands asking them to remix our songs for the album OutRemixed, we thought of it as a fun way of hearing how our music would sound when interpreted by our good friends who play in bands that sound different from us, thus getting a different approach to the songs. We’re fans of all the bands who have done the remixes, so we considered it a total win win. Then once the remixes started coming back, we realized that sending our tracks to fellow musicians for remixing, they came back more as remakes. Some of our instruments were removed and instead new guitars, drums, keyboard and even vocals by Candélabre’s Cindy Sanchez and Creux Lies’ Ean Clevenger had been added – which we really loved!”

In a chat with Sean from TRAITRS, he said “Half the fun with remixes is hearing something subtle in the song that the artist didn’t pick up on. A path not taken so to speak. Remixes allow me an opportunity to extrapolate a whole new song out of just a fragment or two from the original.” Chatting with the remixers about their approaches, we realized some had things in common, other had different approaches. Michaël De Almeida from Candélabre said, “To me a good remix has to stimulate your brain and ears with a of back and forth movement between the original track and the reworked one. You have to be humble and creative at the same time towards the song, and bring something new to it with your own sensibility while using a sound material that is not from you. It’s finding the right balance in combining two particular approaches in one single song.” At the other end Bootblacks’ Barrett Hiatt said “We look at remixing the same way we look at writing for Bootblacks. Anything goes. We try not to limit ourselves by any expectation of what people think we should sound like, and simply write what excites us at that moment. Remixes are great because we can use them as exercises in crafting, in ways we might not think to do otherwise.”

The result has made OutRemixed an extremely diverse album. In the remixers’ own words:

She is Lost (HAPAX Remix)

“When I first listened to the song, I fell in love with the vocal line and the lyrics and immediately thought it would be nice to work on a retro wave version slower than the original version and reminiscent of the electronic soundtracks of romantic movies of the 80s. I imagined a masquerade party where two people fell in love only from the looks, dancing without ever meeting and then in the crowd were lost without ever finding each other again. So I started looking for synth and guitar sounds that were dusky and melancholic.”

Burn in the Night (NITE Remix)

“After hearing TFR’s song, Burn In The Night, we had visions of a sleek, black, and futuristic motorcycle racing through the desert at night. We were worried at first that TFR wouldn’t like the remix because of how structurally different it is. We made that decision in the creative process based off feel, and we were happy with the outcome.“

Hearts Fade Out (Then Comes Silence Remix)

“I wanted to make it sound like Mikkel was crawling around in a snake pit with a high fever delirium. What kind of snake pit? That’s up to your mind to decide.”

Obsessing (New Canyons Remix)

“I love busting out my old as fuck drum machines for remixes.”
“I was channeling some early Ministry, Skinny Puppy vibes…”

Send Your Heart to the Riot (Creux Lies Remix)

“This remix was the first opportunity to get all four of us in a room to work on something new together since our initial writing sessions for Goodbye Divine. Our idea from the get go was to take the track into a more danceable way and bring out some more light in an already beautiful track. After we laid the sequenced arp and drums down with Mikkel’s vocals, everything seemed to click, this was the vibe to go forward with and the ideas just kept coming. Hearing the remix get a live treatment was amazing and they definitely did it justice!”

Hot Summers (Melted Mirror Remix)

“I was thinking about all the NIN singles I used to listen to as a teenager and how hearing the remixes was often the most exciting part. […] My approach to the remix was influenced by some of the NIN remixes. I felt that the production on the original song was already top notch, so decided to try and make it totally different rather than just ‘pump it up’.”

Clouds (Candélabre Remix)

“…we removed the more dynamic elements of the song: we cut down the bass and most of the drums and we tried to bring those melodic elements up, like the guitar arpeggios and the atmospheric keyboards parts. We added slowed drum machine parts, something more crawling or tribal and a fat low arpeggio synth bass line with a different melodic progression that gives Mikkel singing maybe a more epic feel to it.” “Finally, Cindy’s voice added vocal layers, which create a foggy celestial mood on the track. […] we wanted to leave the door open for ethereal soundscapes and gentle melancholic vibes.” 

Clouds (Vapour Trail Remix by Gordon Young)

“I loved the original’s sense of brooding density and thought I’d try to keep that but steer the production in a completely different direction and see where we ended up. The core instrumentation of the remix is based around 3 interweaving modular lines, with loads of little details in the background along with snippets of the original instrumentation, and the drums are all synthesised ‘on the fly’ – no samples! Rather than stretch out the format I tried to keep it quite brief, to retain the melodic impact of the song, and kept Mikkel’s excellent vocal up front.”

On how these new remixes influenced their music going forward, The Foreign Resort adds:

“As an unexpected bonus, we found new ideas in the remixes and decided we would use Creux Lies’ remix of “Send Your Heart to the Riot” and NITE’s remix of “Burn in the Night” as inspiration for how we perform the songs live. We did this once before when Andre Obin remixed our song “Suburban Depression” back in 2016. You could say that we’re remixing the remixes into new versions played at concerts. So, lookout for a more uptempo “Send Your Heart to the Riot” as well as much more simple and fuzz guitar-infused version of “Burn in the Night” this autumn.

OutRemixed will be released on November 19th via Artoffact Records.

Order Here

Follow The Foreign Resort:

• theforeignresort.com
• Facebook
• Instagram
• Twitter

The post Danish Post-Punk Outfit The Foreign Resort Interview Their Remixers for New “OutRemixed” Album appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

Unearthed from the band’s past, “Ghost and The Storm” is a soaring darkwave track fraught with emotional intensity. This was one of the very first songs the band had ever recorded with producer Josh Korody, who collaborated with the band once again on their forthcoming new record.

“Ghost and the Storm’ is exactly that – a ghost of a track,” explains Shawn Tucker. “A forgotten spirit from our past. It was too ahead of its time for us to even know what to do with it at the time we wrote it, so it remained in anonymity for several years. The song is about having false beliefs, blind and empty faith, believing your entire life that when you die you’ll go somewhere better but the reality is you just return to nothing, nowhere. To sleep and never remember your dreams is equivalent to how we die,”

The song’s striking video features actor Vince Groulx, who embodies its underlying theme of struggles with mental health perfectly.

Sean-Patrick Nolan elaborates: “The video pays homage to “Rabbit In Your Headlights” by UNKLE, one of our all-time favourite songs and videos. It depicts the uneasy feeling of questioning your own sanity as it slowly slips away from you. We intentionally left it ambiguous as to who this troubled man is and what’s causing him to be so paranoid and erratic. We are our only connection to the outside world, so when the line between reality and fiction is gradually blurred and you start to feel ill at ease in our own mind and flesh, that’s a truly terrifying and isolating thing to experience. Vince Groulx did a great job of capturing that sense of foreboding paranoia while your emotions jump from one extreme to another. The human mind is more vulnerable and susceptible to these fluctuations than we realize.”

Watch the video for “Ghost And The Storm” below:

“Ghost and the Storm” is featured on Horses at the Abattoir, which is set for release on November 19, 2021, via Freakwave.

Order Here

Follow TRAITRS:
Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram | Soundcloud | Twitter | YouTube | Spotify | Apple Music

The post Post-Punk Duo TRAITRS Blur the Lines Between Reality and Fiction in Their Video for “Ghost and the Storm” appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

The latest track, “Mouth Poisons” is a soaring guitar-driven anthem, churning with passionate vocals, and a powerful bassline—altogether alluding to the sound of the Mancunian post-punk heroes of the 80s, as well as traces of London’s Suede, and Crawley’s Cure.

On writing the song, Traitr’s Sean-Patrick Nolan explains:

“‘Mouth Poisons’ was initially supposed to be a fast, angular punk track and it remained in this form for several months until Shawn wrote the bass guitar part and completely changed the way I heard the song. His melodic bass line brought out a sadness and vulnerability in the track that I didn’t know was there. All of a sudden this frantic punk song sounded more like The Smiths or New Order, so I completely rewrote my synth part to tease out those elements even more. The break before the outro is one of my favourite parts on the album.”

On the lyrics and themes of the song, Shawn Tucker adds:

“The core sketch of this song was written late at night at a very good friend’s place in Frankfurt, Germany. ‘Mouth Poisons’ is an extremely personal song and lyrically I set myself up as the main target. It carries an air of ‘come see what’s going inside of me that wants to burn down everything in sight’. Definitely my favourite single we have ever released to date.”

Watch the video for “Mouth Poisons” below:

On writing Horses at the Abattoir, the follow-up to 2018’s Butcher’s Coin, the band explains:

Nolan: “To me this whole record is about passing time and aging; the frailty and impermanence of existence. How everything we know and love exists briefly before disappearing into nothing. This record covers a wide emotional spectrum from the beautiful to the horrific, overwhelming strength to heartbreaking vulnerability. We started writing ‘Horses In The Abattoir’ in Toronto during the summer of 2018 and continued writing the album on tour overseas. If there was any spare time between shows, we spent it writing in backstage areas, hotels and while crashing on the couches and floors of our closest friends. The album encapsulates both the promise and darkness that we experienced during this very exciting, but equally intense period of our lives. Professionally, TRAITRS was on the rise and our shows were getting bigger and better, but personally both Shawn and I felt like we were crumbling under the weight of personal loss, depression and exhaustion. It was a life-changing time period, for better and for worse, and ‘Horses’ documents both the darkness and light that Shawn and I endured during this time. Lyrically and musically, this is the most personal and brutally honest we have ever been. Blemishes and all, this is who we are.”

Tucker: “The theme of the record pulls heavily from the title: taking something innocent and beautiful and ending its life for no reason. In retrospect, ‘Horses’ captures the darkest period of our entire lives and that hurt bleeds out all over the record. I can definitely say we are still the same band, but certainly not the same inside ourselves. Somehow ‘Horses’ became its own beast and solidified its own place in the world. At times it seemed like all we had left was ‘Horses’ and the record felt much stronger and self-contained than us. We stepped out of ourselves for a while, imploding, almost not finding our way back. We just were not that well to be completely honest. It was a destructive time and I didn’t even realize what was happening until the storm had finally passed. Despite all this, we had written 17 songs, over a hundred fragments and were excited to start a new phase of our career with Freakwave Records. When I hear this record, it pulls things out of me that you might not want to feel or confront, but that’s what making art should be about. This record’s filled with anger, sadness, beauty, hurt, love, loss and beyond. I’m very proud of this record. It’s our best work to date, hands down, our post-depression record.”

“Mouth Poisons” is featured on  Horses at the Abattoir, which is set for release on November 18, 2021, via Freakwave.

Order Here

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“I became obsessed with minimalist composer Phillip Glass,” says Sean-Patrick Nolan. “His music completely changed the way I thought about melodies and composition, so Oh, Ballerina began as this minimal and abstract piano piece with some atmospheric textures and very little else. I listened to the demo late and mid-way through the improvised recording, it was like the song suddenly revealed itself to me. I suddenly heard the drums and bass in my head. I grabbed my laptop, quickly programmed some drums and we finished scripting it all the next day,” says Sean-Patrick Nolan.

“I approached Oh, Ballerina the way I imagined Placebo challenged songs like Brick Shithouse or The Bitter End,” adds Shawn Tucker. “Keeping it simple, minimal, but punchy and effective…Lyrically the track focuses on obsession with someone else to the point of murder, based on a true story I had come across online. I felt the tone of the story perfectly mirrored what’s happening in the track instrumentally, dynamically, and vocally. Keep running away now because you’re scared.”

The track was recorded by and produced with Josh Korody (F*cked Up, Japandroids) at Candle Recording Studio, with mastering by Pete Maher (U2, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Depeche Mode, Nine Inch Nails, Prince).

Accompanying the release is a gorgeously filmed and self-directed art house horror-style video. A wonderful mystery surrounds the clip, augmented with spooky fog in an unsettling dusky light.

“We filmed the video…with a small crew in an abandoned ghost town in Ontario called Cooper’s Falls. With the help of Google satellite images and a bit of good fortune, we found the abandoned and decrepit house in the middle of a forest. We wanted a non-linear plot where by the end, it’s unclear what the fog represents, why we entered the house, if and when we left or whether or not we were there the whole time? Are these doppelgängers watching themselves entering and leaving the barn?“

Watch the unsettling video below:

Nolan and Tucker have developed a large international fan base the old-school way: producing good music, playing live constantly, and putting on the best show possible. The duo used the COVID-19 self-isolation downtime creatively to work diligently on new material, culminating in TRAITRS‘ new LP this autumn,  Horses In The Abattoir (released via Berlin label Freakwave).

On the 19th of November, the album will be released on vinyl, CD, and digitally.

It can be pre-ordered and/or pre-saved here.

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TRAITRS’ Sean-Patrick Nolan and Shawn Tucker have developed a large international fan base the old-school way within the past four years: producing good music, playing live wherever and whenever possible, and then giving their best on every damned evening and – to put it bluntly – thereby winning over pretty much every single person in the room.

Songs like “Thin Flesh”, “Witch Trials”, “Youth Cults” and “The Lovely Wounded” have been essential parts of the setlists of Cool Goth DJs around the world when you actually still could go to clubs.

The Toronto based duo used the COVID-19 self-isolation downtime creatively to work diligently on new material, which will see the light of day in 2021. Official news on this will follow in the coming weeks and months.

As the rampant pandemic currently dictates, TRAITRS met in a video call with their new label partners in the form of Celsius Management + Hardbeat Promotion Managing Director and Freakwave Co-Labelhead Eric Burton and Schubert Music Managing Director / Head of Recorded Music and Freakwave co-label head Thomas Thyssen to toast the signing of the contracts and the future collaborative shenanigans.

Shawn Tucker (TRAITRS):

“It’s a huge honour for TRAITRS to be the first band announced on the Freakwave roster. It was crucial for us to find a new place to call home and we’ve found it with Freakwave. I couldn’t be happier to start the next phase of our career with this talented team led by Thomas Thyssen and Eric Burton. With the support of Freakwave, Sean and I can continue to develop and produce our art to the best of our abilities on a much larger scale.”

Sean-Patrick Nolan (TRAITRS):

“Our goal from day one was always to create music and art in the freest and purest manner possible in the hopes that one day we could potentially live off of our art. With Freakwave and Schubert, it appears this may in fact become a reality. This is an exciting time for us and an exciting time for our fans. 2020 absolutely fucking sucks, but Shawn and I and the entire Freakwave family have busted our asses to ensure next year is a much better one.”

Eric Burton (Celsius Management + Hardbeat Promotion, Managing Director + Freakwave, Co-Labelhead):

“Starting the machines of our Freakwave label with TRAITRS is great. The band is highly motivated and knows exactly where they want to go. I am very happy to be able to accompany TRAITRS on this new path.”

Thomas Thyssen (Schubert Music, Managing Director/Head of Recorded Music + Freakwave, Co-Labelhead):

“Since we have been working with TRAITRS on different levels for a longer time already, this next step and signing them to label- and publishing deals was ultimately only a logical consequence. In any case, we are immensely happy to welcome one of, what we believe, by far the most exciting and promising Post-Punk acts of the modern era as the first band to be signed to Freakwave.”

While we wait for new material from TRAITRS, you can find their back catalog on the duo’s Bandcamp page here.

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“We’d talk for hours about certain albums that give you goosebumps, chills, a feeling inside that can’t be explained and we wanted to attempt that”, says singer/guitarist Tucker on capturing the record’s sound and feeling.

With “The Suffering Of Spiders”, TRAITRS were indeed successful in this endeavor; conjuring a classic post-punk bassline into guitars that burn like a midnight frost, or the ember of a clove cigarette.

Ironically, in seeking inspiration for the new album, the duo began to turn away from their classic Goth and post-punk influences and began experimenting with a more electronic sound.

“While writing and recording demos I was listening to a lot of experimental electronic artists,” says keyboardist Nolan. “Tim Hecker, Ben Frost, Prurient and Pharmakon were where the inspiration initially came from.”

The result is a dark, mournful album that while still sounding like the bands early influences (The Cure, Sisters of Mercy) has a more industrial edge to it and surprising cinematic influences.

“The concept is that the songs represent an old torturous house and the different hurt filled lives that lived through it for generations, like a collection of loosely connected horror stories. But as the writing progressed the album took a life of its own and became much more like John Carpenter’s In The Mouth of Madness where it played on your darkest emotions and what started as fiction soon the feelings became reality. “

Butcher’s Coin is out May 19^th on Pleasence Records, Manic Depression, and Alchera Visions.

Pre-order Here 

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These sessions became the band’s debut EP Rites & Ritual. The EP’s first single “Witch Trials” reflects the development that occurred during their time at Candle, and according to Nolan was among the first songs they worked on together and one that set the tone for project. “We always had an idea of how we wanted Traitrs to sound and ‘Witch Trials’ was the first song we wrote that met our expectations,” he says. “We recorded it at Candle with Josh Korody and the whole thing has been one of the best experiences we’ve had. The vibe at the studio is amazing and Josh truly is one of the best producers in the city. He’s able to pick up on nuances and textures before we hear them and he knows exactly what a track calls for, it could be the tiniest thing but it makes a world of difference to a song and brings it to its full potential.”

Rites & Ritual will be available June 24th on Pleasance Records.
The EP is available for preorder here.

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