Liebeskid - Silvery Clear and Snow (2021)

 

GENRE : singer-songwriter, dark pop, downtempo, dark ambient, trip-hop, Germany

RECORD LABEL : self-released

Liebeskid is a solo music project of Anja Nischwitz - a Russian songwriter living in Germany. I randomly came across this song while I was trawling through Bandcamp. It's a slow dark haunting ballad that makes me feel like I'm dissolving. The song is driven by dramatic tremolo'd keyboards, and backed perfectly with bursts of pulsing dark trip-hop electronics, and Nischwitz's beautiful accented vocals centered down the middle of the mix. A lovely winter song. She has a bunch of other songs/releases on Bandcamp too. Go check them out.

Stream/Download the song here :

https://liebeskid.bandcamp.com/track/silvery-clear-and-slow

Feast of Smoke (2021)

 

GENRE : psychadelic blues, freak folk, psychadelic rock, alternative, indie rock, dark pop

RECORD LABEL : Perpetual Doom

Feast of Smoke is the husband/wife duo of Paul & Amber Oldham, and this is their fantastic debut record. They managed to merge ghostly psychadelic blues with whispered downtempo folk, dirty punk riffage and straight-up rock n roll. To steal a quote from the music website Raven Sings The Blues  - ''This record is both intimate and aloof'''. I think that description nails the vibe. In fact, I find quite a lot of interesting juxtaposition going on in this record. It's dirty and beautiful, weird and wonderful, comforting and eerie, haunting and reticent, joyful and depressing... even the way both their voices seem to float in and out of tune, but somehow create a great overall tone.

I was anticipating the release of this album for what seems like forever. I can't explain why I was getting so impatient and desperate...I just was. It was a shitty year, and something about this album convinced me that I was going to love it. Maybe it was a combination of the artwork and Perpetual Doom's great promo work...I don't know, but it felt like months of unbearable torture. When it finally came out, I played the shit out of it, mostly during pitch black commutes to and from work. The songs are cool and comforting, yet they also make me feel kind of sick and anxious. I love it though, and I'd highly recommend it. I really hope this great musical duo release more in the future.

Stream/Download the album here :

https://perpetualdoom.bandcamp.com/album/feast-of-smoke