King in Yellow - Dark Passengers (self-released)

King in Yellow has always been great at forging new music out of recognizable sounds from music’s rich past. In particular, to the more rock and alternative end of the spectrum, they look for inspiration, juggling jarring angularity with walls of shoegazing sonics and doing so brilliantly.

Dark Passengers, their latest four-track EP, goes to an even more specific place for its references, a post-punk dark-scape that was perhaps most exemplified by the formative gothic sound of the UK’s post-punk scene.

The title track, in particular, is a heady blend of Bauhausian bleakness and Ian Curtis’s brooding baritones. Arrayed around it, “Lucid Dream” blends Johnny Marr’s jangle with darker designs, and “Hand in Fan” has the density and drive, intricacy, and ornateness of the early 12-inch singles of The Sisters of Mercy.

It is only with the final song, “Desire Path,” that we cross back over the Atlantic to find parallels; its barking deliveries and claustrophobic intensity seem to owe something to The Pixies, a band that I’m sure I have mentioned before when looking for comparisons. And if all of this name-dropping makes the band sound as if you have heard it all before, you haven’t, but echoes of what they do are certainly found in some of the most adventurous and exploratory bands of the alternative scene on both sides of the ocean.

King in Yellow has always walked through shadowed creative realms, always used weight and intensity as its weapons of choice but done so with a dexterity and deftness that turns such blunt instruments into something more finessed and sharpened. Dark Passengers is the sound of the band continuing to hone such skills.

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