Skip to main content

She Past Away and their Anxiety Disco


     Turkish goths She Past Away are back with their third and long-awaited new album, Disko Anksiyete, a masterfully crafted blend of post-punk, dark wave and gothic rock (obviously). On Disko Anksiyete (Anxiety Disco in English), the duo comprised of guitarist/vocalist Volkan Caner and producer/keyboardist Doruk Ozturkan switch gears a bit and go into more pop structured/disco-y territory, but the band doesn’t completely abandon their typical sound. Easily their more accessible album, Disko is full of 80s cold wave/post-punk influence, alluding to the classic sounds of Joy Division and New Order. Caner displays unique musicianship and his singing is reminiscent of the Sisters of Mercy’s Andrew Eldritch, while Ozturkan’s keyboard washes and production are crisp, polished and solid.
photo: rockallphotography.com


     In comparison to their previous releases, debut Belirdi Gece and the sophomoric Narin Yalnızlık, both phenomenal albums, Disko is certainly the standout that will bring the band more popularity, and the payoff is evident. They will venture on their first North American tour this summer, and their only Texas date is sold out. If one considers their exclusively Turkish lyrics to be a language barrier, it most certainly is not, with many a night club spinning their music to packed floors of black-clad fans and the band having developed a sizeable cult following. Disko finds the duo expanding their sound, in which they explore more of the avant-garde sensibilities of goth and forgoing some of the more simplistic and traditional attributes of the genre. It is a diverse, gloomy affair with poetic-sounding lyrics complimenting a dark, minimalist sound, and if this album proves to be their biggest one yet, She Past Away will indeed grow into an even more excitingly innovative group. 

     With their large international appeal, couldn’t the band adopt even more universality and sing lyrics in other languages? Rammstein, another foreign export certainly not in the same caliber as She Past Away, do it. They have songs in English, Spanish and Russian in addition to German. She Past Away, however, stick to their mother tongue, and it works ever so beautifully. The need for another language in their music is almost unthinkable. Without any research into their English translations (I know, lazy), the vocal sentiments here conjure anxieties, nihilism, and the questioning of existence. It’s not often that one can dance and lose themselves to the darkness and feel as if they’re experiencing an ethereal awakening, and She Past Away is one of those few bands that can do it with such natural ease. If depressing and melancholic can work hand in hand in a beautiful way that it makes you pick cobwebs off the ceiling and step over dead bodies on the dance floor, Disko is it.

photo: brickbybrick.com

     The band has been around for a decade, and each of their albums showcases their particular points in time. Belirdi Gece found them building their footing, a debut with an obvious direction but still needing more time. Narin Yalnızlık has more solidity and structure. Disko Anksiyete is the sound of a band that now knows its place, akin to Depeche Mode’s Some Great Reward. Disko is for the fan of gloomy, danceable goth rock. It is for the new/cold wave kid. It is for the punks. It is an album for anyone that’s a fan of really good music, the listener with an open ear, for those enticed by the dark and mysterious. To miss this one would be a true shame.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Grim Folk: As Grim as It Gets

     San Antonio dark country/psychobilly band The Grim Folks have been taking the San Antonio music scene by storm, albeit in their own way. Not one to mix in with the rest, The Grim Folks deliver a fresh and exciting sound in a city obsessed with metal and Mexican regional music. It’s not to say they don’t fit the bill; simply, they aren’t the typical band you would expect to come across. That, however, is a damn good thing. At home with the punk and goth crowds, The Grim Folks play macabre songs inspired from “roots” Americana full of dark humor and superstitious folklore with an undisguised energy. They aren’t exclusive to particular crowds; they have a loose and inviting vibe anyone can enjoy.      “When it comes to writing lyrics, my influence is inspired by horror movies I watched as a kid or stories of the supernatural, “said Nathan Quintanilla, the band’s vocalist and rhythm guitarist. “That enticing feeling I get when seeing or hearin...
Post a Comment
Read more

Chelsea Wolfe Births Violence

     If the American Gothic movement had a sound, Chelsea Wolfe perfectly captures it.            Wolfe’s latest album (and sixth overall), Birth of Violence , brings her back to her gloomy folk roots. It’s a goth-tinged acoustic album, a departure from her harder, heavier and sludgy doom-metal heard in her previous releases, Abyss and Hiss Spun , two albums that followed the more accessible Pain is Beauty , whose title sounds like an art school kid’s expressionist project.      Acoustic offerings are nothing new for Wolfe. Her catalogue features a few here and there, and Unknown Rooms: A Collection of Acoustic Songs is as stated: a collection of acoustic songs from her earlier days.      Acoustic music has a tendency to be skipped over, but Wolfe’s should not. No matter how they’re performed, they are desolate, raw and impassioned. If her studio recordings can move you to the d...
Post a Comment
Read more

Them Are Us Too Make Amends

      The Bay Area’s euphoric dream pop duo Them Are Us Too began in 2012 with schoolmates Kennedy Ashlyn and Cash Askew playing well balanced eighties inspired synth-pop shoegaze. In 2015, they released their debut album, Remain , a gloomy tour de force to incredible acclaim. They built up a dedicated cult following, and that success hyped the anticipation for the follow-up to their big debut. Tragically in 2016, a warehouse fire claimed Askew’s life at 22 years old, putting the band’s career in uncertainty. However, through the ashes of tragedy arose a new album, Amends , the band’s second and final as TAUT (as fans call them) and it is a beautifully haunting piece of work filled with ethereal elegance and atmospherics.      Amends , as Ashlyn describes, is “a collection of songs that would have been the second Them Are Us Too record, an amendment to our catalog cut short, a final gift to family, friends, and fans.” Amends is a celeb...
Post a Comment
Read more