OKLAHOMA CITY (Free Press) — With a glitchy, purple-and-black aesthetic and quartet of dour, one-word track titles, you’d be forgiven for anticipating Neon Cathedral’s debut EP ‘Velvet’ to be a brooding descent into darkwave melancholy.
You is perhaps shocked to as an alternative discover a assortment of deeply affecting and rousing tracks that might be as a lot at house in an enviornment as on a darkened Goth membership stage.
Primarily a duet, Neon Cathedral started life as an outlet for the darker musical tendencies of Shirley Sanders and Shawn Stafford, each former members of buzzy, experimental indie-rock outfit Haniwa in OKC. When that group dissolved, the duo started slowly discovering their legs and creating what would turn out to be Neon Cathedral.
Music and Movie
by Brett Fieldcamp
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Their shockingly lush and polished house recording ultimately resulted in only one single, “Anniversary,” in early 2023, earlier than the pandemic interval compelled them towards the inevitable stretch of quarantine recording that seemingly enveloped each house studio-equipped artist over this previous year-and-a-half.
Somewhat than decide to a full album’s price of each flight of shutdown fancy, as we’ve seen with the vast majority of “Covid albums,” Sanders and Stafford sought to tighten and fine-tune their sound and concentrate on perfecting simply these 4 tracks.
And excellent them they did.
It could be simple to reel off a listing of shoegaze and darkwave acts that bear passing similarity to Neon Cathedral’s sound, however doing so would solely give the impression that the songs on “Velvet” are outlined by simple characterizations of Goth-pop synths and reverb-drenched guitar. These components are clearly right here, however solely to function bedrock for a remarkably wealthy wellspring of influences.
Sure, there may be a variety of My Bloody Valentine floating round these songs (an apparent favourite, even named by Stafford immediately,) however Sanders’ ethereal, floating vocals extra simply recall one other atmospheric 90’s underground mainstay: Mazzy Star.
Equally, there are many nods to fashionable dream-poppers like Washed Out or The XX, however there may be concurrently a significant resemblance to Danish art-pop/prog-rockers Mew within the band’s skill to navigate stadium-ready choruses and triumphant, epic singalongs inside the dense manufacturing and experimentation. It’s not all simply darkish New Wave right here. It’s a lot extra.
“We each take heed to a variety of totally different music,” Stafford tells us. “I’d say the primary affect for the sound is a mix of shoegaze, Goth rock, and darkwave sort stuff. There are tons of bands I may listing, however I’ll chorus from hitting you with the grocery listing of moody reverb music.”
For the reason that 80’s heyday of the New Wave and Goth actions, bands like New Order, Depeche Mode, and presumably greater than some other, The Treatment, have seen numerous imitators which have so clearly missed the mark of what made these bands join with listeners. Neon Cathedral takes apparent inspiration from every of these three, arguably in completely equal measure, however they don’t concentrate on the clichéd or drained tropes related to them.
They aren’t simply pulling dancefloor drum machines and catchy synth hooks from New Order, they’re pulling the Submit-Punk urgency. From Depeche Mode, they aren’t appropriating the sneering detachment or church-bell drama, they’re targeted as an alternative on the dense, pitch-dark ambiance and underlying loneliness. And when evoking The Treatment, they don’t waste time imitating the pained vocal affectations or theatrical melancholy, as an alternative zeroing in on the otherworldly layering, the “include me” reassurance, and the completely excellent lead guitar melodies.
With these powers mixed, Sanders and Stafford have crafted one thing that at all times nods to their influences with out ever disappearing into the type of pastiche or emulation too usually seen from fashionable New Wave and Goth revivalists.
In keeping with Stafford, that’s as a result of they’ve a way more easy and admirable aim in thoughts than mere imitation.
“It’s about creating an environment within the music that evokes a sense.”
The 4 songs on “Velvet” are lush, real, stirring, and over approach too rapidly. Right here’s hoping that we get a full-length launch someday quickly.
Neon Cathedral’s “Velvet EP” is obtainable for pre-order proper now on Bandcamp, and drops in full Friday, August sixth. The band shall be performing a digital set for Circle Lotus Media on YouTube Sunday, August fifteenth. Sustain with them on Instagram @Ne0ncathedral.
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