The Cure meets The B-52s? That is one way to look at Plastic People, a jaunty danceable rock group that is equally into the goth / darkwave thing. Their album titled Good As You is from the AFmusic netlabel and fits right into their stable of artists who hail from the dark electro-pop arena. This album may be one of the livelier ones on the label with catchy songs, driving beats, and goth-style vocals. I really like “Time Desolation” and “My Proud” but each song sort of digs into your brain.

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Out of the electro-punk, darkwave fog developing over Chicago comes Black Math, a band that knows how to cook goth and electro-pop to a comfortable boil. Their self-titled album has ten brief tracks that equal a half hour of darkly fun music in a Bauhaus meets Cocteau Twins meet OMD sort of way. My only complaint is that the individual tracks tend to be way too short. It would nice to hear this band stretch out a bit. Nonetheless, it is a really good example of goth rock.

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Eddie Entropy is a Minneapolis electro-punk music project that lives on the dark side. Their music is eerie, multi-layered and beautiful in a post-modern dark-wave way. Their new full-length album is a free download from the Dark Winter netlabel and is titled Blot Out The Sun With Sex. They don’t come much darker than this yet there is almost a symphonic feel to the use of electronics and vocal recitation that work so well on these tracks. Highlights include the title track and “Afterlife”.

Also available is the EP No Tomorrow consisting of four tracks that continue the deep darkness. On the same download page for this EP are two singles including an interesting cover of Beck’s “Teenage Wastebasket”.

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Blot Out The Sun With Sex
No Tomorrow

The Nuri is a German band that has a hard rock edge with strong female vocals. The band can rock hard on “Left Back In a Box” or be softly luring on “Unfortunate Lovestory” or the instrumental “Unshackled Waters”. This is a nice album of music that lingers between progressive rock and darkwave/goth.

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I wished I liked this self-titled debut album from Italian Gothic rock vocalist Magdalen Graal. The music is quite lovely and shows a strong influence from alt. rock/gothic artists like Evanescence. Magdaen Graal has an exquisite and sensual voice that I never get tired of . Yet the weak production and beatbox percussion effect gets in the way of the otherwise excellent tracks. Still, I must give this album a recommendation to those who like their music on the darkwave side.

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A little Bauhaus, a little Cure…This Chilean band with the odd name of This Co. has the 80s darkwave electro-pop scene down cold. Their untitled album titled Untitled has great vocals and a goth drenched sound that mixes nicely with dance beats. Almost makes me want to raid my wife’s dresser and lay on the mascara…but not quite. Nonetheless, this is a professional sounding band with some great hooks. Definitely worth the listen. This one is from Clinical Archives and is far from their usual avant-garde stuff but no one ever faulted the netlabel for not being eclectic.

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Darkjet would probably be classified as Darkwave, dark electronica, or goth. Certainly the title of EZ Listening For Suicides and the corresponding title tune evokes some pretty disturbing images. Yet the music is melodic enough that even my classical music loving wife digs it. A better definition of the music might be dark electro-pop reminiscent of 80s stalwarts like OMD and Love and Rockets. A good example would be “Wish I Could Sleep” that appears to mix the robo-rock of Gary Numan with the matinee rock pulse of Roxy Music’s “Love is The Drug”. This is a nice album for the bleaker times in your life.

The album is available in various formats through the band’s web site .

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Hungry Lucy’s third release titled To Kill a King is their latest album to go into a Creative Commons License and may be their most commercial offering yet. Throughout this decidedly electro-pop effort there are strong hints of Madonna and Depeche Mode. Yet Hungry Lucy remains an unique group with a irresistible sound. Christa Belle is still the intimate yet powerful vocalist that anchors this band. Whether the track is upbeat as on the title track and its remix or cerebral as on “My Beloved” and “High Price of Mistakes”, the album retains a high musical quality.

To Kill A King is available in Ogg Vorbis and FLAC formats only. Be aware that if you download the huge zip file you will receive both file formats.

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While listening to her four free and legal online albums, New Zealand musician Jordan Reyne reminds me of a number of artists yet still manages to be uniquely herself. The first comparison is the most arguable, Reyne’s atmospheric background and her plaintive Celtic vocals hints of Enya yet Reyne is more darkwave than Enya could ever be. More accurate might be the Gothic renderings of Dead Can Dance. I also hear the epic combination of rock and electronic of Peter Gabriel especially on the two later albums. Yet the comparison game can only go so far, Jordan Reyne has clearly carved out a niche of her own.

Passenger (2004) is dark and hypnotic. Reyne remains a haunting vocalist throughout. The title track and “Waiting For The Sun” are stand-out tracks. I do hear that Enya influence, perhaps Enya by way of Brian Eno?

Birds of Prey (1997) is my favorite of the four album and the most accessible. The title tracks gives you a good example of the Peter Gabriel influences. Reyne in a bit sharper in her vocals on this album which rings best on the harder edged tracks like “Perfidity” yet milder songs like “Long Way To Climb” are quite impressive too.

While marked as albums by Jordan Reyne, The Ironman (2000) and The Loneliness of Creatures (2002) appears originally released under the name of Dr. Kevorkian and The Suicide Machine. Changing the name was a good move. Yet these two albums are very different from the artist’s other two efforts. These are dark ambient bordering on drone music. The albums convey a dark and disturbing musical environment. I prefer the other two CDs but these will have their moments for those into dark ambient.

All albums are available in 128kbps MP3. If you like the music, you can also purchase Jordan Reyne’s latest CD, How The Dead Live.

Update: The albums are still available but now require e-mail registration to download.

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Tamerlan inhabits a musically dark area that straddles goth, folk, and ambient. Predominantly acoustic, it hints of darkwave and rock yet sounds very mystical, almost medieval. Their album is titled The Antiexistence and it is eerie and relaxing, sort of new age on the dark side. Highlight tracks include the only vocal “Beneath the Moonlight” , the tribal “Manipura”, and “Arcane Dreams”.

The album is available from the Ekleipsi netlabel through the internet archive in MP3 and Ogg Vorbis format.

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If Party People in a Can is a reasonable example of what passes as party music in Portugal, I think I’ll stick to California. On the other hand, if you like your music in the nature of Bauhaus mixed with surf and lazy rhythms this super laid back band from the You Are Not Stealing Records netlabel may be your nirvana. Way Off, Where The Spirits Are is a bit of voodoo served up with panache and a little tongue in the cheek on the side. “Leaving The Home Tribe” has a low mysterious vocal that is paired with a roaming beat reminiscent of Wall of Voodoo. “Surfing With My 2 Little Brothers” is a light little surf homage of an instrumental and “Ayahuasca” definitely has Ennio Morricone in mind. A little surf, a little goth, and lots of atmosphere is what you get with Party People in a Can.

The album is available in 192kbps MP3.

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The Transister’s 2008 release is titled Under Control and it is a free and legal blast! The title tune starts this 25 minutes EP with a energetic riff that drives the equally forceful vocal. The energy of this danceable yet listenable album comes from a blend of punk, goth, darkwave, and electro-pop that is a more than a little hardcore yet has enough hooks and melody to entrap the most casual listener. I like “Walking in a Black Hole” and “JB is Dead” but the highlight has to be “Living Like a Superstar”, a smart and sassy number that is somewhere between Bauhaus and Disco. Goths, New Wavers and Dance freaks can all unite under this audacious album.

Under Control is available from AFmusic in MP3 and Ogg Vorbis format.

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Leave it to Mary Shelly Overdrive to celebrate Halloween with class. They just released two EPs titled Shock Theatre and Bride of Shock Theatre loaded with their customized shockabilly / hardcore metal nuances guaranteed to rock you and shock you.

Actually Shock Theatre is a re-release, having first surfaced a year ago. This version is slightly re-polished with the most obvious change being a revamped vocal duet from lead singer Mark Wood and bassist Wyckedevil Jones on Rob Zombie’s “House of a Thousand Corpses”. The Rob Zombie cover is my favorite song on the EP but the other five tracks also deliver the goods . The recordings starts with a sample of the notorious Blood Feast trailer then glues the tracks together with samples of other horror/gore films. A great party game would be to try to identify all the films represented on this EP. I think I got 100 percent right but I’ve been a hardcore horror film fan since my childhood when I would sneak out of the bedroom to watch the forbidden Creature Features while everyone else was sleeping.

Bride of Shock Theatre uses the same technique of audio samples to set the mood. The songs are equally hardcore and spooky, all being originals except for three covers of songs by Blue Oyster Cult, Bauhaus, and New Math. The covers are good but it is the originals that really bring this EP to life…or should I say undead? The highlight of the EP is the pulsing “Lament of Janos Slorzeny”. Both of these albums are required for any respectable Halloween party.

The two albums are available in 160kbps MP3. If you enjoy the music, support the artists by purchasing their new self-titled full album…and thanks for featuring the blurb, guys!

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D-alternative is a Polish duo consisting of Dorota Wierzchowska on vocals and Andrzej Drelinkiewicz on keyboards and electronics. The primary genre is basically Darkwave or Gothic with a bit Medieval or New Age creeping into the mix. Some of the past listeners have compared them to Delerium or Dead Can Dance . That may be true in the electronically based tracks like “Awakening” and “Spring” but D-Alternative really comes into their own when acoustic piano and Dorota’s mezzosoprano voice either dominate the proceedings such as on the opening “Judith” or go on their own in the acoustic duo versions of “Up Into Silence” and “Miracle”. These twilight tunes are like a walk in a very dark forest.

The album is available in 128kbps MP3.

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The German darkwave/electro-pop band Curious has placed their 2004 full-length release The Intimate Stranger on Jamendo as a free and legal download. The band has a heavy synthrock sound that harks back to The Cure and OMD while also showing a distinct Goth influence. The lush but driving “Thought of Angels” pretty much sets the pace while “The Silent Voice” is a haunting darkwave ballad. After these two exceptionally strong starting tracks, it becomes a little redundant for the 50 minute album but music still remains intriguing with some well crafted songs like “Your Apology” and “A Thousand Sunrises”, the best rocker in the set. This album is a nice addition to your collection if you like your rock slightly Gothic or have an infinity for Cure styled electro-pop.

The Intimate Stranger is available in VBR MP3 from the link below. You can also download it in 128kbps MP3 from their Last.fm page. If you like the music, support the artists by buying their CDs.

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