Black Rose Moves - Ghost Town (self-released)

Just because you can see where a song fits into the musical landscape doesn’t mean that there is no value to be had from continuing to mine that established sonic seam. Just because a band might wear their influences proudly on their bible black sleeves doesn’t mean they are not writing new chapters for that particular sound, scene, or genre. Both statements are certainly true of Birmingham’s Black Rose Moves.

It isn’t too hard to predict some of the albums you find in this duo’s record collection. Certainly, you would expect to see the likes of Depeche Mode’s Violator or The Sisters Of Mercy’s Floodland, those albums that straddled the divide between the post-punk goth band and the darkwave sound. As reference points go, places for inspiration and influence and to gather new infusions, these albums are certainly intriguing and fertile grounds.

But “Ghost Town” isn’t a song stuck in the past, anything but, and while it does indeed tip its hat to such early post-punk pioneers, while it is made up of the same dark and delicious sonics and alternative clubland pulse that echoed through that music, this is the sound of a band striding into a bright new future. Well, not bright…but you know what I mean.

Cool and clinical beats drive a brooding groove, electronic washes soften the edges and add mystique, and all manner of digital delicacies and shaded sonics, melancholic motifs, and pathos-filled vocals build a sound that connects the dark heart of a gothic past with the shadows of the unknown which lies before them.

Never has the darkness felt so inviting!

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