Taking the stark and attention-grabbing War as its title, this triptych of songs explores the concept in its various forms, from the internal battles we all wrestle with to the more literal, world-shaking conflicts that hit the headlines daily.
“Hephaestus” kicks things off, liquid, danceable grooves balancing cool, spacious atmospheres and finally succumbing to searing guitars, a blend of nostalgic darkwave and modern alt-dance energy, music made between the purity of the moonlight and the neon glare of the club.
“Nothing Dies Quietly” is a strange and beguiling affair, just the sound of Jessica Bell’s hushed, almost spoken word vocals floating over a platform forged almost exclusively of beats, giving it a tribal feeling, like futuristic funeral rites or a prayer forged out of the sound of the dancefloor denizens as they unknowingly raise the dead with a sonic ritual.
The same spaciousness is found in “Frequencies Will Stumble,” initially at least, but as it runs, it gathers around it cinematic sonics and ambient washes, Vangelisian textures and haunting tones, adding weight and drive as it heads for the finish line.
Hollow Shift is all about space, about only ever coloring half the canvas so that the light gets in, so that their sonics are amplified by the negative space around them, and the natural atmospheres are still present, about using their big moves sparingly so that when big beats or raging guitars are encountered, their rarity is shockingly seductive.
Darkwave may be a scene set in motion many decades ago, but Hollow Shift and War prove that it is a genre that still has plenty of fuel left in the tank.
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