Thomas More’s 15q6 socio-political satire Utopia – meaning “nowhere” – imagined a future way of life and social order in a fictional island kingdom.  Austria’s The Devil & The Universe took a cue from More and created their own utopia…of goats. In a world out of balance, the Viennese band is reluctant to face dystopian predictions: instead, they unmask the spectre of the future. 

In 2013, Ashley Dayour and David Pfister founded The Devil & The Universe, focusing on musical experimentation with magical systems; the herd was later joined by Stefan Elsbacher. Inspired by Krautrock, conceptual art bands like The Residents and Devo, and a generous smattering of the occult, the track “Viva! Goatopia” is a synth frenzy peppered with thundering drums and spoken word samples. They gleefully mix cinematic ambient sounds and driving beats in their cauldrons, don goat masks, and deliver it all with sardonic humour. “VIVA! GOATopia hallucinates the missed opportunities of the past without mourning them.

The video, directed by Edie Calie, shows the GOATopia in the once-promising world of an abandoned geodesic dome. The darkly funny video concept brings to life what was once described forty years ago by Fad Gadget: the attempts to control nature and society in the face of global disaster.

Watch the video for “Viva! Goatopia” below:

“Viva! Goatopia” follows The Devil and The Universe’s previous video, “The Great God Pan Is Dead (Long Live The Great God Pan)”, which was released at the end of November.

GOATopia continues the psychedelic feeling from their previous album: Endgame 69, ever innovating their sound. After all, Utopias themselves are created, destroyed, and rebuilt.  

GOATopia is out now on vinyl via AUFNAHME + WIEDERGABE, and on CD & Digital via SOLAR LODGE. (The vinyl should ship around February 17th).

Order Here

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The post The Devil and The Universe Return in Their Trippy Disco-Discordant Video for “Viva! GOATopia” appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

Watch the video for The Church Of The Goat featuring the vocals of Christina Lessiak above, and pick up TDATU’s new 4 track EP G 0 A T T R A N C 3

The post Black Lights and Black Mass | The Devil & The Universe do Trance in ‘The Church Of The Goat’ appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

Perfect for this time of year, The Devil and The Universe are releasing their next LP Folk Horror just in time for the Autumn Equinox on September 22nd.

The 8 track LP set’s the perfect atmosphere to bury the dream of summer in the dread of longer nights and flickering candlelight. The use of samples on in on par with with industrial heroes like Skinny Puppy, and the music is akin to the film composers that those samples are culled from, say John Carpenter, or Goblin, with the distinctly Pagan feel of 1973’s The Wicker Man.

Watch above the video for track number 5, Black Harvest and pick up the limited edition hand numbered LP here

The post The Goat grazes the fields in The Devil & The Universe’s ‘Black Harvest’ appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

More info on the Anniversary Party Here

Also, today on aufnahme + wiedergabe—two noteworthy EP releases are out:

Schwefelgelb | Dahinter das Gesicht

Veil of Light | Ursprung Remix

The post 6 Years of aufnahme + wiedergabe | An interview with Philipp Strobel appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

I really like it. It’s original and evocative. – John Carpenter

Such praise from someone like Carpenter is enough for me to stop typing now because that’s all you really need for confirmation of The Devil & The Universe’s new LP Haunted Summer that is released – and how fittingly – on Halloween this year.  The Austrian band does not disappoint as Haunted Summer picks up where their EP What Time Is Love? left off. I like to compare TDATU to Delerium (a Frontline Assembly side project) intertwined with Renegade Soundwave, and Psychick Warriors ov Gaia. If you’re not aware of these bands, all of them focus on tribal drums – the element that connects the tracks on Haunted Summer to one another.

Haunted Summer is more of a soundtrack than an album composed of disparate songs. Inspired by Lord Byron’s summer on Lake Geneva in 1816, with guests such as Percy and Mary Shelley (author of Frankenstein), TDATU evoked the ghost of that summer by living in a small chapel in the forest of Styria, Austria for four weeks. Byron, Shelley, and friends fought boredom that summer by ingesting drugs, sex and seances while the members of TDATU performed occult rituals to form their musical ambition. Psycholgically changed after that summer, many guests of Lord Byron’s were affected by the experience, especially Mary Shelley who went on to write her famous horror novel. To pull from someone else’s experience instead of one’s own is an interesting twist on the making of an album and it proved to be a positive outcome for TDATU.  There is a seriousness and sincerity within the storytelling of Haunted Summer – such in the manner of Victorian gothic fiction.

The album, mostly instrumental but littered with cleverly placed samples, creates a mise-en-scene for the summer of 1816. “Haunted Summer,” the first track, is an excellent precursor to what follows with its funereal tribal beats. I am inclined to love more dance and even techo-based, tracks such as “Stygian” (which means extremely dark, gloomy or forbidding), “The Goat Head” and “Calling of the Shades.” The first single, “Danaus Plexippus” is another stellar track with a killer bass line, reminiscent to oldschool industrial-techno sounds.

Being a skeptic of new music (coming from a severe love of 1980s music), I find The Devil & The Universe refreshing.  They pull from other sources that many current bands do not in terms of tribal sounds and drum patterns.  It is not an album for the commute to work, mind you, but is something to listen to in solitude.  John Carpenter is right: Haunted Summer is extremely original and without a doubt, evocative.

Details here to purchase their limited edition LP+CD on white vinyl.

The post Who Among You Believes in Witchcraft?: Haunted Summer Album Review appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

The new Devil and The Universe album “Haunted Summer” will be released this Halloween.

Pre-order Here: www.aufnahmeundwiedergabe.de/hauntedsummer

Bandcamp: https://aufnahmeundwiedergabe.bandcamp.com/album/haunted-summer

The post THE DEVIL & THE UNIVERSE – Danaus Plexippus appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

Rockpalast were at WGT this year, and captured a wonderful live performance from The Soft Moon, and interviews with legends UK Decay and Anne Clark, plus Ghost-Wave newcomers, The Devil and The Universe.  Links to the videos are in the gallery below.

 Plus-read our interview with Luis Vasquez of The Soft Moon here

The post Rockpalast Features The Soft Moon, Anne Clark, UK Decay, and The Devil and The Universe appeared first on Post-Punk.com.