Many journalists, lazier ones than I, would simply label Twice Dark as Dark Wave and be happy to leave it at that. But, as the new album Telekinitic proves, that would be to miss the finer complexities and the merging of genres that take place at its heart, to dismiss the sound as one dimensional and to suggest that it conforms to one particular template – it is not, and it does not.
And that is also to forget the fact that Dark Wave was less a specific sound and more a general scene, an umbrella term for an array of interlinked styles and creative pulses connected by themes of romance and feelings of pathos, cool digital designs, and dance-fueled energies. Telekinetic echoes with all of that, for sure, but so much more, too. And the “so much more” really keeps things interesting.
Across seven songs, we move from understated, ticking dark dance sounds, with “Night Shifts’” celebration of that nocturnal world of neon flashes and clubland beats, shaded streets, and the faint crack of dawn rising in the east, to “Necromantic’s” New romantic tinged tale of afterlife encounters.
“Phoenix” is ominous and anthemic, “Mind Trap” is the sort of blend of dance-pop and gothic groove that we don’t hear enough of these days, and the title track is as big as any rock number, yet fashioned from bits and bites, zeros and ones, digitalia and dance euphoria.
Don’t think of Telekinetic as the sound of the past; there is more here that is new than that which relies on old sonic tropes. This is the sound of those past glories being reimagined for a new audience. The sound of the torch being carried into the future. The sound of the familiar being made fresh. Whether you remember those old scenes and sounds or are looking for something new, forward-thinking, and apart from the tired and tried and tested pop and rock forms, Telekinetic ticks all the boxes. And then some.
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