‘Glitching Sky’ is the final single before London-based The Pixel Rain’s long-awaited album, A Sense of Danger, arriving at the end of the month. Since I have been a bit tardy in covering their recent singles, and since all four have been bundled together on the streaming platform whose name we shall not speak, I thought it made sense to treat this as an EP teaser and a taste of what is to come. So I will.
The title track of this musical amuse-bouche leads us in, a pulsing, pumping electro-infused darkwave delicacy, a song slowly rising through a sea of synths, from the quieter corners of the alternative dance floor to a real fist in the air, an anthem. Not only a great kick-off but an indication that the band’s more synth-driven sounds are now very much front and center.
‘A Sense of Danger’ floats in behind it, sinister and seductive, a blend of soft sound washes and searing sonics, a musical moodscape shot through and shattered with blinding flashes of musical menace. ‘Sacrifice’ pushes the dynamics even further: the lulls lower, the crescendos higher, making the transitions between them even more impressive.
Fittingly, ‘Last’ rounds things off…the one track where guitars, rather than digital decadence, lead the charge: a perfect blend of analog sounds and digital delicacy, and a reminder that the gothic/darkwave world was one of the first genres to blend the two.
This quartet of songs shows that denizens of that world are not only still doing so, but doing so better than ever.
