Coldwave/Synth charts

Review: Drab Majesty was first set up by Andrew Clinco in the beating heart of the US music industry, Los Angeles. It's here, in a metropolis defined by both glitz, glamour and plastic, and wild experimentation and unconventional thinking, that the artist once best known as drummer in Marriages adopted a new androgynous persona, Deb Demure, and then drafted Mona D (Alex Nocolaou) as keyboardist and vocalist. That was 2016. Now here we are today, a few albums deep and faced with their latest offering. An Object in Motion takes bold strides in many directions, from the beautiful, natural ambient of 'Cape Perpetua' to goth-shoegaze worthy of Gary Numan himself, 'Vanity', the EP moves away from typical readings of genres like dark wave and takes us on a journey to a place defined by synthesised ethereality.

Review: Contemporary LA cold-punks Drab Majesty bring together coldwave and and shoegaze for their latest EP, An Object In Motion. The four tracks therein are examples of those styles' most atmospheric and ethereal facets, showing off the distinctive vocals and guitarwork of the project's mastermind, Deb DeMure, the androgynous alter ego of one Andrew Clinco. A swirling, emotive fusion, something between Slowdive (enlisting the help of Rachel Goswell one track) and Romo, emerges.

Review: Drab Majesty's latest EP 'An Object In Motion' is a deep mix of blackgaze and goth psychedelia, consisting of just four tracks flirting with a mystical, guitar-driven spirit. Don't let the number of tracks deceive; the project clocks in at just under half an hour, in large part thanks to the long-form number 'Yield To Force', which pits strange distant alarm sounds against graveyard-shifting fingerstyle guitars, in what amounts to a night-drive around old town suited well to any atmospheric surrealist crime flick. Only your first and last tracks use vocals, and when they do, the combination of deeply high-and-low-end registers are great complements for the artists' lyrical musings on misery and wonderment.

Review: Described by their label, Dais, as "a stirring new chapter" in their musical story, 'An object of Motion' has its roots in a coastal break main man Deb Demure made back in 2021. It was material recorded there, largely using a vintage, bowl-shaped 12-string guitar, that formed the basis of the four-track mini-album. These recordings were then expanded on with help from collaborators Rachel Goswell (Slowdive), Justin Meldal-Johnsen and Ben Greenberg. It's a decidedly psychedelic set all told, with Demure and company blurring the boundaries between neo-folk, psychedelia, the Cure, shoegaze and the sort of saucer-eyed, turn-of-the-90s bagginess associated with the Stone Roses. Most impressive of all, though, is 'Yield To Force', an undeniably cosmic, layered and effects-laden instrumental that ebbs and flows over 15 magical minutes.