Poltergeists is a biweekly feature in which Michael and Wes share tracks that they have had on repeat over the past two weeks.
Michael
Lunch - “Not An Ocean”
Portland-based post-punk band Lunch brings a new single from their upcoming album Let Us Have Madness Openly. This is my first taste of Lunch, but judging by a quick scan of their previous release, I am excited to say that I am hooked! “Not An Ocean” has that very distinct post-punk sound brought gently into town by a finely painted hearse. It speaks to my deep love for spooky music set to that familiar punk background.
23:31 - “Labyrinthe (Hologram_ Mix)”
My newest obsession: 23:31 hits their debut album on Audio Trauma in all the best ways. It is a perfect blend for me: hard synths, deep beats, and an superbly eerie atmosphere that sulks and pulls its bloodied limbs through a very dark forest. This may be dramatic, but it has to be said! A Hologram_ mix?! Who could ask for more?! The original version of “Labyrinthe” was really good, but when you add Hologram_ to the mix it builds to such a beautiful blend of cinematic strings, atmosphere, and rhythmic noise.
Wes
M‡яc▲ll▲ - “The Stone And The Heart”
It’s interesting to look back at the original releases from M‡яc▲ll▲ and then to listen to the newer material; the changes from release to release are so smooth and incremental that it’s easy to not realize exactly how far M‡яc▲ll▲’s sound has come. “The Stone And The Heart” breaks that incremental momentum; rather, it is a large step away from the witchier tones of M‡яc▲ll▲’s earlier work. It builds on a movement M‡яc▲ll▲ has been making for some time towards more giallo inspired tones, and it continues to work wonderfully.
Frenquency - “Drop Down”
I’ve been off the future bass tip for a bit, and just recently I started exploring it again. One of the first bands I came across in this Bandcamp wormhole was Greyscale. In “Drop Down” Greyscale makes use of a lot of the future tropes that I enjoyed in the past; heavy, sometimes strange percussion rings out unconventional beats, deepening as the song progresses. The vocal sample and trap style hihats almost give it a sort of witch house feel; the whole song feels dark beginning to end.