We speak of losing time as though we might find it again, tucked into a coat pocket or waiting beneath the furniture. The hours spent enduring something difficult are especially cruel: they can feel endless while consuming whole stretches of a life. Grief, fear, and exhaustion can leave us suspended between the need to keep going and the suspicion that we are standing still. Swedish-German duo EFFATA give that uneasy reckoning the weight of a prayer on Losing Time, which they describe as “a psalm-like lament in the face of adversity.” With heavy electronics bearing down around its aching melodies, the song gives voice to the effort of holding on when consolation feels remote and the clock continues its indifferent work.

Bringing together Ralf Blagau and Linn Cleve, EFFATA combine industrial density, darkwave melody, and the emotional intensity of post-hardcore. Originally released on July 7, Losing Time now receives a performance video that places the duo inside the full glare of their light show and lets the song’s mounting urgency guide the camera.

A dense, repeating electronic surge opens the track, with broad cinematic synth pads spreading above its hard mechanical movement. When the guitar enters, its sun-warmed tone lends the arrangement a beautiful ache, the melodic figure stretching across the relentless electronics beneath it. Blagau’s wistful vocal sits deep within that activity, swimming through the mix as though struggling to keep his head above a mechanized sea. The distance between the tenderness of the voice and the pressure surrounding it gives the song much of its emotional pull.

As Losing Time develops, the guitar phrases grow more expressive and the singing gathers force, moving from submerged yearning toward something closer to a cry of appeal. Guitar and voice gradually gain the upper hand over the industrial weight, giving the closing stretch its sense of release. There is a psalm-like quality to that escalation, a lament made stronger through the act of singing it. Listeners drawn to Author & Punisher’s crushing electronics, The Soft Moon’s agitation, and Drab Majesty’s expansive guitar melodies will find familiar points of reference in the duo’s combination of physical force and exposed feeling.

An ornate cross at the opening establishes the video’s devotional undertone before the camera moves between Blagau at the microphone and guitar and Cleve at her keyboards. Vertical light bars cut through the smoke, shifting between purple, amber, and stark white, while close views of hands, faces, and instruments give way to shots of the pair performing together. Cleve raises an arm above her keyboard as Blagau leans into the microphone; by the final stretch, his whole body seems caught up in the effort. Shot by Stefan Heyn and edited by EFFATA, the film gives that escalating performance room to fill the frame.

Watch the video for Losing Time below:

EFFATA began in 2020, initially taking shape as a dark-folk and post-rock trio before developing into the partnership of multi-instrumentalist and producer Blagau and Swedish synthesizer player Cleve. Our earlier coverage of Worldless explored their singles Tabernacle and Forgetful, already revealing an affinity for spacious guitar arrangements and emotionally direct performances. Blagau has also spent years on the road managing and working as a technician for Einstürzende Neubauten, Melvins, Ulver, and Eyehategod. The duo bring that extensive live experience to performances accompanied by a custom, audio-reactive light show.

Listen to Losing Time below, and order the single here.

Losing Time by EFFATA

Follow EFFATA:

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The post Industrial Darkwave Duo EFFATA Share Video for Pslam-like Lament “Losing Time” appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

Source: Post-Punk.com

Candy is a song that has always carried one of rock music’s crueler realizations: sometimes you do not discover the size of a love until the relationship has already become an archaeological site. By 1990, Iggy Pop had spent enough years writing about appetite, danger, boredom, sex, survival, and self-destruction to know that regret could be every bit as physical as desire. His duet with Kate Pierson turned that knowledge into one of the strangest hits of his career, a breakup song where memory keeps rewriting the emotional ledger after everybody has gone home.

Jenny Bates and Andrea Sicco step into that old argument with an advantage: their voices already seem built for opposing sides of the same conversation.

Sicco comes from the noirish New York underworld of Twin Guns, The Disappearing Act, and The Art Gray Noizz Quintet, bringing a low, smoky vocal tone with a measured, lived-in gravity. Bates, meanwhile, draws from Bunny X, Diamond Field, and her years in musical theatre, singing with clarity, warmth, and enough force to meet Sicco on equal footing. Their voices occupy different registers, but neither dominates; the appeal comes from hearing two distinct personalities carry the same regret from opposite ends.

Candy is about realizing too late that somebody mattered more than you knew at the time. The relationship is gone, but the feeling has become clearer in retrospect, which is one of life’s meaner tricks. Iggy sings from inside that recognition, looking back at a love he failed to understand while he had it, while Kate Pierson’s voice gives the memory another dimension, as if the past itself has answered him. The song is less about reunion than irreversibility: the knowledge that love can remain vivid long after the chance to do anything about it has disappeared.

Together, Bates and Sicco make Candy feel less like a museum-piece cover and more like two adults reopening a letter they probably should have burned years ago. The emotional machinery remains brutally simple. Somebody mattered. The realization came late, but time kept moving anyway.  They lean into that ache without smothering it:  Sicco gives the verses a weathered intimacy, while Bates brings an open, commanding presence that gives the exchange its lift. When their voices meet, the contrast feels conversational, with each singer carrying a different shade of the same recognition. The guitar brings a slight western menace, while the synth elements widen the space around the vocals without turning the arrangement into period cosplay.

Recording the track at Sear Sound adds another layer of accidental poetry. Iggy Pop recorded there, and Bates and Sicco now enter the same building to reinterpret one of his best-known songs, surrounded by hallway notes, drawings, and decades of New York musical history. These hallowed, yellowed rooms have also hosted the likes of David Bowie, Talking Heads, Peter Gabriel, Tina Turner, and U2, giving the session the peculiar feeling of taking place inside a working archive rather than some embalmed monument to rock history. (In fact, the personnel there agree: it is still very much a place of action and not a museum!) The accompanying video, filmed by Alice Teeple and Jenny Bates, keeps the camera close to that atmosphere, catching the pair at work inside a studio whose walls have absorbed more than their share of famous voices.

Watch the video below:

Some songs survive because everybody remembers the chorus. Candy survives because everybody eventually becomes the person who wishes they had known then what they know now.

Follow Andrea Sicco:

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Follow Jenny Bates:

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Photo: Alice Teeple
The post Jenny Bates and Andrea Sicco Share Video for Cover Iggy Pop’s and Kate Pierson’s Bittersweet Duet “Candy” appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

Source: Post-Punk.com

Only a shadow, only a shadow, only a shadow
But she looks like you

Heartbreak has a peculiar way of making an unreliable eyewitness out of an otherwise sensible person. A stranger becomes a former lover, an empty street offers evidence of a reunion, and suddenly you are wandering outside in pursuit of someone who has already made their position quite clear. The Cleaners From Venus gave that miserable little predicament an improbably lovely guitar hook on Only a Shadow, a song whose romantic unease has been finding fresh company since 1982.

Brooklyn post-punk outfit ADMIN now joins that company with a faithful, dreamier rendition of the song, released October 15, 2026, via PaperCup Music. It accompanies two new versions of their own material: Marathon Times (Trash Moth Remix), reworked by guitarist Amelia Hazen, and Not Bad (KaeoFLUX Remix), courtesy of producer Ryan Casey.

The original appeared on Midnight Cleaners, the Cleaners’ third cassette album, released in December 1982. Formed by Martin Newell and drummer Lol Elliott, the English group pursued homemade pop with the resourcefulness of people who had little patience for the machinery of the record business. Their early recordings circulated through independently distributed tapes, carrying elaborate melodies and eccentric ideas well beyond the rooms in which they were recorded. By Midnight Cleaners, Newell was working largely alone, bringing drum machines and additional synthesizers into his four-track recordings.

Only a Shadow distills that approach into a remarkably immediate song. Its bright, repeating guitar figure, steady beat, and slightly remote vocal give the melody an inviting surface, while the words introduce rejection, nervousness, and the suspicion that every passing resemblance might be something more. The tune has the economy of classic British pop and the unsettled temperament of post-punk, with the modest recording lending the whole encounter a private, faintly uncanny quality. Later covers by MGMT and Small Black, alongside Captured Tracks’ 2012 reissues of the early Cleaners albums, chart its passage from cassette culture into the repertoire of subsequent generations.

ADMIN brings a brighter finish and a little more air to the song, placing greater emphasis on the bassline’s supple groove. Above it, the familiar guitar hook takes on a softer, dreamier resonance, its notes ringing out with an almost weightless ease. There is something of French coldwave’s more romantic sensibility in the treatment, as though Little Nemo had taken the song into their rehearsal room. That added spaciousness gives the melody room to bloom around the rhythm, making the yearning feel a little more exposed. The arrangement remains close to the original, with the affection audible in how carefully ADMIN preserve its proportions.

For the band, the song also marks the beginning of their own musical relationship:

“This collection of singles is really about momentum. We kinda love the idea of just continuing on with different lenses and angles in the wave of the last EP cycle. Our cover of Only A Shadow is also actually the very first song that we all started playing as a full band and in hind sight it kinda represents so much of the creative alchemy we try to encapsulate. We had about 30 extra minutes of time in the studio during the Mirrored Construct sessions, so we just ran it live a couple times and that’s what ended up on the record. We didn’t really reinterpret it either, it’s more of an homage to the original being such an incredible song.”

That same impulse to keep a productive session going extends to the accompanying remixes, which revisit material from Systems, their 2025 debut EP, and this year’s Mirrored Construct. KaeoFLUX takes on Not Bad from the former, bringing an outside producer’s perspective to the band’s catalogue. Marathon Times, meanwhile, receives its overhaul from inside the group, with Hazen working under her Trash Moth name. Frontman Ian Jacobs explains how both versions came together:

“The remixes are also something that came to us through catching a solid wave of momentum. My friend KaeoFLUX (Ryan Casey) who is an incredible producer and also one of the masterminds over at Samples From Mars was able to put together a remix of Not Bad from our first EP and his sonic palette and imagination absolutely nailed it. And then the remix of Marathon Times that Amelia (ADMIN, guitarist) did was absolute magic. She actually played it for us, unknowingly, on our last little tour and I think we were all just blown away with what she created and wanted everyone we know to hear it too. Kind of awesome to find out you have a top notch remix producer in the band.”

Hazen’s Marathon Times remix replaces the original’s measured restraint with more forceful percussion, insistent synthesizers, and a groove that gives its tension somewhere physical to go. The combination suggests New Order’s balance of melody and motion, Boy Harsher’s charged intimacy, and the darker club instincts of Depeche Mode. Its energy comes through a carefully reduced arrangement, with each element contributing to the track’s forward movement. The idea began with a practical adjustment made for the original music video.

“I first had the impulse to make a remix of Marathon Times when we used a 2x sped-up version of the original song to accomplish the music video’s slo-mo effect.” says Hazen. “While that version was kind of manic, it made me think that the original had a lot of untapped energy to offer. Every sound I selected from drums to bass to atmospheric effects had to be something that was able to carry that energy; I applied the practice that less is more, and after building it up across a few concepts, made myself cut out anything that wasn’t serving the song.”

Watch the original video for Marathon Times below:

ADMIN’s mix of angular guitars, layered synthesizers, and driving rhythms has already taken them onto stages with of Montreal, Pure Adult, and ISTA. Alongside Jacobs on vocals, synthesizers, and sampler, and Hazen on guitar and vocals, the group features Arif on bass and Piyal on drums.

Only a Shadow / Marathon Times (Remix) / Not Bad (Remix) is out now via PaperCup Music. Listen below:

Follow ADMIN:

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Bandcamp

The post Brooklyn Post-Punk Outfit ADMIN Share Cover The Cleaners From Venus’ “Only a Shadow” and Two New Remixes appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

Source: Post-Punk.com

Only a shadow, only a shadow, only a shadow
But she looks like you

Heartbreak has a peculiar way of making an unreliable eyewitness out of an otherwise sensible person. A stranger becomes a former lover, an empty street offers evidence of a reunion, and suddenly you are wandering outside in pursuit of someone who has already made their position quite clear. The Cleaners From Venus gave that miserable little predicament an improbably lovely guitar hook on Only a Shadow, a song whose romantic unease has been finding fresh company since 1982.

Brooklyn post-punk outfit ADMIN now joins that company with a faithful, dreamier rendition of the song, released October 15, 2026, via PaperCup Music. It accompanies two new versions of their own material: Marathon Times (Trash Moth Remix), reworked by guitarist Amelia Hazen, and Not Bad (KaeoFLUX Remix), courtesy of producer Ryan Casey.

The original appeared on Midnight Cleaners, the Cleaners’ third cassette album, released in December 1982. Formed by Martin Newell and drummer Lol Elliott, the English group pursued homemade pop with the resourcefulness of people who had little patience for the machinery of the record business. Their early recordings circulated through independently distributed tapes, carrying elaborate melodies and eccentric ideas well beyond the rooms in which they were recorded. By Midnight Cleaners, Newell was working largely alone, bringing drum machines and additional synthesizers into his four-track recordings.

Only a Shadow distills that approach into a remarkably immediate song. Its bright, repeating guitar figure, steady beat, and slightly remote vocal give the melody an inviting surface, while the words introduce rejection, nervousness, and the suspicion that every passing resemblance might be something more. The tune has the economy of classic British pop and the unsettled temperament of post-punk, with the modest recording lending the whole encounter a private, faintly uncanny quality. Later covers by MGMT and Small Black, alongside Captured Tracks’ 2012 reissues of the early Cleaners albums, chart its passage from cassette culture into the repertoire of subsequent generations.

ADMIN brings a brighter finish and a little more air to the song, placing greater emphasis on the bassline’s supple groove. Above it, the familiar guitar hook takes on a softer, dreamier resonance, its notes ringing out with an almost weightless ease. There is something of French coldwave’s more romantic sensibility in the treatment, as though Little Nemo had taken the song into their rehearsal room. That added spaciousness gives the melody room to bloom around the rhythm, making the yearning feel a little more exposed. The arrangement remains close to the original, with the affection audible in how carefully ADMIN preserve its proportions.

For the band, the song also marks the beginning of their own musical relationship:

“This collection of singles is really about momentum. We kinda love the idea of just continuing on with different lenses and angles in the wave of the last EP cycle. Our cover of Only A Shadow is also actually the very first song that we all started playing as a full band and in hind sight it kinda represents so much of the creative alchemy we try to encapsulate. We had about 30 extra minutes of time in the studio during the Mirrored Construct sessions, so we just ran it live a couple times and that’s what ended up on the record. We didn’t really reinterpret it either, it’s more of an homage to the original being such an incredible song.”

That same impulse to keep a productive session going extends to the accompanying remixes, which revisit material from Systems, their 2025 debut EP, and this year’s Mirrored Construct. KaeoFLUX takes on Not Bad from the former, bringing an outside producer’s perspective to the band’s catalogue. Marathon Times, meanwhile, receives its overhaul from inside the group, with Hazen working under her Trash Moth name. Frontman Ian Jacobs explains how both versions came together:

“The remixes are also something that came to us through catching a solid wave of momentum. My friend KaeoFLUX (Ryan Casey) who is an incredible producer and also one of the masterminds over at Samples From Mars was able to put together a remix of Not Bad from our first EP and his sonic palette and imagination absolutely nailed it. And then the remix of Marathon Times that Amelia (ADMIN, guitarist) did was absolute magic. She actually played it for us, unknowingly, on our last little tour and I think we were all just blown away with what she created and wanted everyone we know to hear it too. Kind of awesome to find out you have a top notch remix producer in the band.”

Hazen’s Marathon Times remix replaces the original’s measured restraint with more forceful percussion, insistent synthesizers, and a groove that gives its tension somewhere physical to go. The combination suggests New Order’s balance of melody and motion, Boy Harsher’s charged intimacy, and the darker club instincts of Depeche Mode. Its energy comes through a carefully reduced arrangement, with each element contributing to the track’s forward movement. The idea began with a practical adjustment made for the original music video.

“I first had the impulse to make a remix of Marathon Times when we used a 2x sped-up version of the original song to accomplish the music video’s slo-mo effect.” says Hazen. “While that version was kind of manic, it made me think that the original had a lot of untapped energy to offer. Every sound I selected from drums to bass to atmospheric effects had to be something that was able to carry that energy; I applied the practice that less is more, and after building it up across a few concepts, made myself cut out anything that wasn’t serving the song.”

Watch the original video for Marathon Times below:

ADMIN’s mix of angular guitars, layered synthesizers, and driving rhythms has already taken them onto stages with of Montreal, Pure Adult, and ISTA. Alongside Jacobs on vocals, synthesizers, and sampler, and Hazen on guitar and vocals, the group features Arif on bass and Piyal on drums.

Only a Shadow / Marathon Times (Remix) / Not Bad (Remix) is out now via PaperCup Music. Listen below:

Follow ADMIN:

Instagram
Bandcamp

The post Brooklyn Post-Punk Outfit ADMIN Cover The Cleaners From Venus’ “Only a Shadow” and Share Two New Remixes appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

Source: Post-Punk.com

Sie taten Buße, die Gebrüder de Witt, ob sie wollten oder nicht. Buße ist in diesem Fall ein Euphemismus für Lynchjustiz, denn als die Gebrüder am 20. August 1672 von einer aufgebrachten Meute ermordet wurden, waren ihre Körper fürchterlich verstümmelt, sogar einige ihrer Körperteile wurden verkauft. Jan de Baen hielt das grausige Ereignis in dem Gemälde „Die Leichen der Gebrüder Wit“ fest, und es wurde zu einem der berühmtesten Kunstwerke der Niederlande dieser Zeit. Dieses berühmte Gemälde inspirierte, so grimmig es eben ist, THE LOVECRAFT SEXTET zu ihrem fünften Album „Penance“, die damit eine Brücke zur Gegenwart schlagen.

Verglichen mit dem süffigen „The Horror Cosmic“ ist „Penance“ eine sehr komplizierte Angelegenheit. Wie in „Miserere“ stecken Themen aus Klassik bis Black Metal in dem Material, insofern ist „Penance“ der logische Nachfolger zum 2022er Werk von THE LOVECRAFT SEXTET. Jason Köhnen verbindet katholische Lithurgie mit der Düsternis und Brutalität des Black Metal und bringt all das in eine Darkjazz-Ästhetik, angesiedelt in der Epoche des Barock. Das klingt sehr kompliziert und verkopft, und tatsächlich ist „Penance“ weit weniger greifbar als die vorigen Alben des Projekts. Dabei ist der Beginn mit „Si Quaeris“ noch relativ klassisch und nah an dem, was Jason Köhnen unter THE LOVECRAFT SEXTET bisher geschaffen hat, mit einigen Variationen: Eine pechschwarze Atmosphäre, vergleichsweise wenig zugängliches Songwriting, dafür aber viel Atmosphäre, höllentiefe Growls und der Lillian Tongs Soprangesang.

Vielschichtiger Darkjazz, der auch in Richtung Black Metal und klassische Musik schielt: THE LOVECRAFT SEXTET erschaffen mit „Penance“ den Quasi-Nachfolger zu „Miserere“.
Der einzige Jumpscare kommt im Anschluss: In „Symbolom Apostolorum“ führen THE LOVECRAFT SEXTET das Chaos der „Black†White“-EP fort, dieses Mal triggert der gewalttätige Ausbruch allerdings mehr das lichtlose Chaos des Black Metal anstelle von Grindcore. Das Stück wirkt etwas zerfahren, auch wenn das abschließende barocke Klavierthema einen Schauer über den Rücken jagt. Das anschließende „Anima Christi“, das zwölf Minuten lang über einem Zeitlupenthema meditiert, lässt sich ebenfalls nur schwer greifen. Die Musik auf „Penance“ scheint eher improvisiert, dabei aber auch etwas ziellos, vielleicht auch der Drones und den verstörend aufeinander geschichteten Sounds wegen. Daran kann der berührende Gesang von Lilian Tong ebenso wenig ändern, wie das leidenschaftliche Saxophonspiel von Colin Webster. Mit „Requiem Aeternam“ schaffen THE LOVECRAFT SEXTET dann doch noch fast, die Magie aufleben zu lassen, die auf „Miserere“ gegenwärtig war.

Am Ende, wenn in „Confiteor“ erst die Finsternis zum Schneiden dick und die Boshaftigkeit körperlich spürbar wird und die Brücke subtil zu BONG-RA geschlagen wird, bevor sich „Te Deum“ wie das Erwachen nach einer schrecklichen Tat anfühlt, wenn Trauer und Scham nach der Gewalt übrig bleiben, wenn sich der Staub gelegt hat, dann werden die Parallelen dieser grausigen Geschichte zur heutigen Zeit sichtbar. Die Barbarei ist nicht aus der Welt gewichen, Brutalität ist noch immer da, im Menschen verankert. Sie manifestiert sich inzwischen nur vorwiegend im digitalen Raum. Inwiefern dieser Zusammenhang nun konstruiert erscheint oder auch nicht sei dahingestellt. Zumindest zeigt das, wie sehr „Penance“ dazu einlädt, auch die Gedanken auf die Reise zu schicken.

THE LOVECRAFT SEXTET lassen ihre Kompositionen auf „Penance“ mehr in Richtung Improvisation driften.
Es sind drei Jahre vergangen, seit THE LOVECRAFT SEXTET zum letzten Tanz luden – irre eigentlich, denn es scheint, als wäre „The Horror Cosmic“ erst vor kurzem erschienen. Es ist ja auch verwirrend: Jason Köhnen ist dauerpräsent, zum Beispiel mit BONG-RA, THE ANSWER LIES IN THE BLACK VOID und dem jüngst wiedervereinigten THE KILIMANJARO DARKJAZZ ENSEMBLE. Neues Darkjazz-Material gibt es derzeit allerdings nur von THE LOVECRAFT SEXTET. Und so schön es ist, dass die länger werdenden Nächte nun eine passende Untermalung enthalten: Dieses Mal fehlt trotz der dichten Atmosphäre dieses verführerische Element, das einen mit samtigen Fesseln an diese pechschwarze Kompositionen fesselt. Schlecht ist „Penance“ aber deshalb noch lange nicht, im Gegenteil: Wer dem Darkjazz verfallen ist, wird auch an diesem Album seine morbide Freude haben.

Wertung: 7 von 10 Galgenbäume

VÖ: 16. Oktober 2026

Spielzeit: 38:15

Line-Up:
Jason Köhnen : Guitar / Upright / Drums / Organ / Vocals / Electronics

Guest musicians
Colin Webster : Saxophone
Lilian Tong : Soprano

Label: Debemur Morti Productions

THE LOVECRAFT SEXTET „Penance“ Tracklist:
1. Si Quaeris (Official Audio bei Youtube) 
2. Symbolum Apostolorum
3. Anima Christi
4. Requiem Aeternam
5. Confiteor
6. Te Deum

THE LOVECRAFT SEXTET „Penance“ Full Album Stream bei Youtube 

Mehr im Netz:
https://thelovecraftsextet.bandcamp.com/
https://www.darkjazz.org/
https://www.jasonkohnen.nl/

Source: Vampster