The Wiltshire Gothic; Deadlight Dance

With howling, coarse baritones Nick Fletcher, the main vocalist of Marlborough’s gothic duo, Deadlight Dance chants, “here comes the rain, and I love the rain, here she comes again,” proving two things: one; he’s never been a milkman, and two; they’ve covered the Cult classic Rain on their upcoming second album, The Wiltshire Gothic, released tomorrow, 29^th March 20224. I’m one step ahead, you are advised to catch up….

If the time of the Black Death brought about radical advances in music and arts, we’re engulfed in a similar epoch post-lockdown; lone contemplation and plotting is paying off with overwhelming creative output, and Deadlight Dance is a perfect example. Messages exchanged between two members of an ex-St John’s Sixth Form late eighties gothic band, Nick, and multi-instrumentalist Tim Emery, was the root, a retrospective passion to return and pay homage to their influences. The result, a reunited touring duet finding a new-wave-gothic gap in the market, and the recording of an astounding debut album, Beyond Reverence last year.

The debut was superb original material top-heavy, nodding to their influences through substantial synths and drum machines; to suggest the Wiltshire Gothic is an addition to the concept is wildly off mark. Live, the pair appeased audiences through covers, with a strengthening acoustic take; think how Gary Jules stripped back Tears for Fear’s Mad World in 2003, add some lutes, you’re close enough to the picture. It was Tim’s idea to record them, and Nick’s wish to do so in an Anglo-Saxon church. Tim said, “we wanted to capture that side of the band. We were moving forward with the sound from the first album, but this was no more or no less valid.”

On 28^th November 2023 Deadlight Dance played some of their favourite covers acoustically at the 12^th century All Saints Church in Alton Priors and with help from filmmaker Haunting the Atom, shot a promotional video. They felt it vital to clarify the church had no heating and averaged 3^o; but hey, you are goths, I thought you liked coldness?! “My initial idea was to involve Nick Beere of Mooncalf Studios,” Tim furthered, “and record them live there, with a view to perhaps releasing them.” Tomorrow you can hearken the result, essentially join them in that church.

The Wiltshire Gothic is a love letter to the songs of Deadlight Dance’s early days playing music, discovering bands, and then ultimately discovering themselves, through music. A love letter you can copy and paste because the effect is a thing of beauty. Three songs each from The Cure and The Cult, two of Joy Division, one being Love Will Tear Us Apart, naturally. Others from Bauhaus, Fields of the Nephilim, The Mission, The Weeknd, Sisters of Mercy, and lastly, the one alongside love tearing us apart which you need not have been a goth to appreciate, OMD’s Enola Gay. But hey, this is so encapsulating it’s enough to turn Roy Chubby Brown into a goth!!

If I award points for doing what it says on the tin, The Wiltshire Gothic is off the scale. For me, with mandolin, mandocello and bouzouki blessing these covers, subtle bass, and Nick’s evocative and mood-fluctuating vocal range, I’m taken back to my innocence of youth, and its drive, born of frustration and anxiety for the mysterious direction life might take me. New to the Marlborough area, as a teenager, friends took me exploring the sights they might’ve taken for granted, off the beaten track. I’m there again, sharing a bottle of red wine, perched atop West Kennet Long Barrow or the Devil’s Den, gazing into the sunrise. And Robert Plant resonates “oh, dance in the dark of night, sing to the morning light,” from a busted-up cassette recorder. The Wiltshire Gothic is this enchanting, the selection of lutes, the pure acoustics ringing out simplicity, breathes the fire of a dragon into authentic, timeless folk.

And there it is, yeah, Deadlight Dance are recapturing the gothic classics of their youth sublimely. In the video Nick stresses the flexibility of goth-rock compared to the confines of archetypal folk, but if these are the songs you took out with you, on your Walkman, even if just to Marlborough’s Priory Gardens during school lunchbreak, then they are, in essence, your folk. They may’ve broken the mould, and that’s good, isn’t it, that’s what post-punk was all about? And that is what The Wiltshire Gothic not only recaptures, but reimages, divinely. It’s as if Robert Smith sang his songs in an 18^th century Wiltshire field, whilst uprooting turnips!

“Because of the unique instrumentation,” Nick explained, “we didn’t worry too much about staying too close to the original versions and felt we could be respectful to the original artists in how we interpreted their music. It’s not a radical shift in direction for us; this has always been part of our sound. I would imagine we’ll follow this up with another dramatic musical tangent.”

The Wiltshire Gothic is released via Ray Records on Friday 29th March 2024, streaming everywhere worldwide. Available on Bandcamp. A limited run of physical copies is available from the band. The album is accompanied by a short film of the day that is released on YouTube on release day, we will add the link tomorrow. Deadlight Dance have an album launch on Sunday 14^th April at The Blue Boar in Aldbourne from 6pm.