Following their EP ‘Grotesque Radio’ in 2021 Golem Dance Cult are back with their debut long player. Coursing through its experimental black heart of Gothic Electro post-punk n pop, this due of Laur, and Charles have pulled in the services of some like-minded fellow musicians to add depth and flavour to their already assorted box of tricks. Adding riffs and tricks to create a sprawling collection of diverse tunes of twisted Goth pop. From the opening twitches and samples of ‘Prologue: Kill The Radio Brat’ you hit the twisted distorted thump of the bass thing before being whisked off on a siren synth entitled ‘Dalek Rhetoric’. The journey takes you around a bleak dark Bauhaus/Daniel Ash like city that doesn’t sleep and everything you touch bursts into song or a pulsating rhythm – Dark, Noisy and twisted rhythms – I like it especially when it can be heard at volume several streets away.

The album moves in mysterious ways lurching from darkened corners of your mind with a tick here or a stray riff there. ‘Schadenfreude Addict’ is like Heaven 17 if they were a resurected Zombie surviving on a steady diet of Phil Oakey and MManson if he went pop and not metal.

‘Carpe Noctem’ has a rolling riff whilst ‘Ghost of Las Vegas’ is bleak and laid back whilst ’21st Century Dogs’ bubbled with mischief. The album is fairly space even with the synths and sampling its the big dark guitar chords or mermering basslines that make it dark and different sure there are influences like Joy Division and Numan which make it accessable but the pop meets dark Goth is where the gold lies not an easy feat marrying the various genres that can be abrasive but when it works its glorious and I find myself visiting this album and opening a door on any particular song to find something drawing me in be it strange creepy bird whistsles or broken guitar riffs over shuffling backbeats on ‘Dark Breakers’ or the fractured stomp of ‘Going Warpath’ its all good.

‘She/He My Kryptonite’ is like a MDMA enduced Cramps attack put through the mixer and spat out. They do hit pop paydirt on the darkend ‘Feels Like Tuesday (Deja Vu)’ and the Cello is spine tingling – most excellent. Topped off and drawn to a close with the charming ‘Demi-Monde’ with its dreamy melody its a great way to sign off a really impressive album of darkened tones that will impress anyone with a blackened heart and a twisted pop desire. Go check em out – after dark of course.

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Author: Dom Daley