Synthwave To DarkSynth

Vandalism · MASKED [2020]

Epic banging industrial electro. EBM synthwave. Dark funky horror synth. Wave wave and waves and waves of retrowaves. What they now call darksynth.

 

When I started this blog I was following a few mysterious acts with zero music press attention and minimal internet footprints Miami Nights 1984, Lazerhawk and ActRazer. They were all on the Rosso Corso Records doing retro-licious 80s synth action soundtrack gear with elements of disco, jock rock, synth-funk and whatever else for your cruisin' pleasure. The title given to this micro micro-genre was outrun which I guess was eventually subsumed into the synthwave subgenre. The acts on Rosso Corso all fitted in with parallel stuff going on at the time like Zombi and at the synthy horror end of hypnagogia/vapour-wave acts on Not Not Fun like Sand Circles, Umberto and Xander Harris.

    

Anyway on their third album Skull & Shark (2013) Lazerhawk eventually melded the 80s neon kitsch vibe with the throwback horror synth vibe and, unknown to me at the time, ended up in a place later named darksynth which was a scene in its infancy (beginning the previous year) made up of acts like Perturbator, Carpenter Brut and Mega Drive. Seven years later we end up with Vandalism by Masked doing music that resembles hard late 80s/early 90s ebm/electro industrial rather than, say, the soundtrack to Knight Rider.

 

Power - Lazerpunk [2018]

Academic Agent recently made a video resource on the youtubes which was a pretty successful attempt at a comprehensive guide to the darksynth micro genre from what I can gather. His guide alerted me to all things darkened synthwave after Lazerhawk's Skull & Shark. He included this harsh dark bangin' EBM-esque number which couldn't be more far removed from the chilled cruising and neon tropical vibes of synthwave. 

Snow Strippers - Know My Name

Snow Strippers - Know My Name [2022]

Recently somebody smart rebranded 00s to early 10s hipsters as "Indie Sleaze" thus stripping it of its beyond the paleness, irrelevance and obsolescence in cultural cache terms as in "that shit is never coming back" so voilà it's now re-cycled and maybe even cool again... whatever all that means... wouldn't it be great if it meant the retarded ideological conformity of the last 15 years in the music industry was finished and now artists can go back to thinking and doing whatever the fuck they want without the fear of pitchfork mobs forming to destroy their livelihoods or blackmail them for not toeing the line.

Anyway... Snow Strippers' Know My Name sounds like prime 2009 witch house. 

Snow Strippers - Again [2023] 

Trash is the name of the game and it's certainly achieved here in a fake moronic kinda way.

Snow Strippers - Achin Like It's [2024]

Snow Strippers have got like 30 videos on their barely three year old youtube channel. Reckless youthful abandon in scuzzy dilapidated middle America is the vibe in most of them. 

All the electro/disco/trance/house put through an electro-clash bubblegum-techno-pop ringer and tranced even further for the retro hipster rave in your bedroom.

Snow Stripper - Only Way Out [2022] 

When you think maybe they pressed the crappy low-key trance preset button too many times then all of a sudden you realise this is one of the most tripped out ethereal jams ever,

Snow Strippers - Tragic Surprise [2022]

Electro-synthwave-chillwave with lil' mesmerising hooks. 

Also the video is pretty iconic: T-shirt for a flag. Bare breasts for America. Patriotic!

Hyperálom · VÍZ

Hyperálom · VÍZ

Stop the press! This is a brand new record released just yesterday! 

All your eerie gothic ambient sound design flavours combined for a dark woozy 2025 anthem. Glitchy ethereal wave to witchy nightmare gaze, VIZ might just become your new favourite gloomy sonic sorcerer.  

Angel's Throat - VÍZ

More woozy shenanigans as dream pop shifts into a gloomy electroacoustic nightmare. The Black Lodge relocated to rural Lost Highways of Transylvania.  

Sneaky Feelings - Send You

Sneaky Feelings - Throwing Stones [1984]

The most orthodox and least talked about of all the Flying Nun janglers. Sneaky Feelings' 1984 LP Send You is still a pretty underrated low key triumph despite gaining some belated acclaim ten years ago when Captured Tracks did a reissue. These guys eschew the tense jangles and the post-punk bass lines of their contemporaries in the international jangle underground for a more traditional sound that could have been created in the 60s à la Bob Dylan and The Byrds. Throwing Stones is timeless gold with its sparkling web of swirling jangles, splendid harmonies and sour lyrics. 

Sneaky Feelings - Not To Take Sides [1984]

We even get some ace atmospheric reverbed twang here amongst the bursting melodies, lush harmonies and kaleidoscopic jangles. Pure pop goodness for people not made for these times or those times. 

Pinball · Brian Protheroe

[1974]

We interrupt the 80s jangling for a moment to present this folky/soft-rock classic from one hit wonder Brian Protheroe. I'd never heard this tune until it turned up on one of those Junk Shop compilations in the 00s so I'm guessing this wasn't a hit in Australia. The stream of consciousness lyrics which include a list of things that keep going wrong are pretty funny. He feels like he's in gaol because he's run out of pale ale and the cat's just finished off the bread. Nick Drake-esque folk transforms into Shuggie Otis style smooth mellow funk jam which also contains excellent saxophone solo. The kids would probably call this yacht rock now but I don't know if they've realised that this one should definitely be in the cannon.

Primitons - Primitons

Primitons - Seeing Is Believing [1985]

More jangling from down south in the 80s, this time from Birmingham Alabama's Primitons. Seeing Is Believing from Primitons self-titled mini LP is somewhere between the menacing jangles of The Feelies and supreme pop melodicism of Shoes. Produced by Mitch Easter who even kindly provided the lead break.

Primitons - All My Friends [1985]

All My Friends is the crowning glory in Primitons small discography (of just 18 songs). Starts out the gate with that Feelies-esque nervy urgency then proceeds into almost shoegaze territory with a melodic almost psych-noise-pop chorus reminiscent of peak Pale Saints. The jittery to mellifluous song structure is a neat sonic trick analogous to the loud/quiet/loud method perfected by The Pixies a few years later. 

Ups & Downs - The Living Kind

[1986]

One of the great non-hits of the 80s. I mean sure it was a hit in the indie ghetto but how did this not crossover to become a chartbuster? Anywho The Living Kind has aged like fine wine. At the time Ups & Downs couldn't avoid being compared to The Church with this jangling Rickenbacker monster featuring Ploog-y drummage. Vocally though they were different and this melodically rich power pop with blood harmonies from the Atkinson brothers is incredibly crafty and catchy. These guys could have had a career as songwriting hitmakers for commercial Aussie pop stars I reckon...

People Going Nowhere · Crippled Pilgrims

People Going Nowhere - Crippled Pilgrims [1984]

Dark swirly bass, swirly psych jangles and downbeat lost lyrics. The lines between post-punk, neo-psych and the jangly pop of the day get blurred once more. We get the usual Television and Byrds inspiration and I guess for all these jangly bands there's always a lurking Feelies influence too. 

Has anyone ever written a book about this great 80s phenomena of jangling pop-rock? I mean it was so ubiquitous but all we ever hear about now is post punk, hardcore, blockbuster commercial pop, heavy metal and noise rock. Yet some of the biggest bands of the era employed a jangle strategy more often than not: The Smiths in the UK, REM in America, The Church in Australia, The Clean in in NZ etc. Plus all the fantastic second tier bands in each territory then the gazillion unknown groups in the jangly underground like Crippled Pilgrims. It makes zero sense that all those other aforementioned genres as well as goth, industrial, synth-pop are seen as more worthy than all our favourite jangly bands.   

Bleached Black - Self-titled LP

Bleached Black - I Was In Your Life [1985]

Then some bands were in a zone somewhere between REM and Husker Du. I Was In Your Life is hard edged power-pop, hooks and harmonies plus excellent backwards guitar solo. It's all done and dusted in a brisk two minutes. These guys missed out. Bleached Black had the electrifying tunes but sometimes notoriety just doesn't happen and their potential was never fulfilled. Forty years later this 7 inch single is going for sixty bucks on discogs.

Bleached Black - Morning Sun [1987]

This one's sorta somewhere between Died Pretty and Grant Hart. Morning Sun goes along splendidly in a harmonising, drumless  and acoustic manner. The production on this is fantastic so it's no surprise producer Lou Giordano later went on to produce many Alternative bestsellers of the 90s like Bob Mould, Lemonheads, Julianna Hatfield, Belly, Sugar, Live, Goo Goo Dolls and many more.   

There isn't a hell of a lot of info out there on New Haven, Connecticut's Bleached Black but it seems their self-titled LP from 1987 was dumped with little promotion, no singles and no videos, then they just drop off the face of the earth. It all seems very bizarre considering how promising they were but I guess there's an untold story that we just don't know. Anyway that's how the cookie crumbled...

Bleached Black - Let Me Take The Time [1987]

This time Bleached Black get dark and noisy. Let Me Take The Time is hard driving yet melodic post-punk with added feedback that's got a bit more of neo-psych flavour like Rain Parade crossed with mid tempo Husker Du. 

Bleached Black - Crisis [1987]

More driving buzzsaw neo-psych with surreal guitar interludes, intense lead and top harmonising. The hard hitting twin vocals of Stevo and Greg Prior are pretty infectious, right up there with peak Stipe and Mills and future legends Staley and Cantrell.

fIREHOSE - For The Singer Of REM

[1987]

More REM worship... well this not so much a rip off as a tribute. This is a pretty fantastic impersonation of an REM song too. Stipe and co were absolutely mythical in the 80s before they did terrible shit like Radio Song that destroyed all of that delicious mystique. 

P - Michael Stipe [1995]

Even Gibby Haynes of Butthole Surfers was dazzled by the great man, so much so that he wrote an excellent song about meeting him. Others name checked in the song include River Phoenix, Sophie Coppolla, Martin Landau etc.

REM - 9-9 [1983]

You tend to forget that REM were pretty fucking peculiar on those early records. I mean what the fuck are they up to on this tune? This ain't no radio friendly schlock à la Everybody Hurts. These southern eccentrics were incredibly inspired and distinctive.