Deadlight Dance New EP Chapter & Verse

Marlborough gothic duo Deadlight Dance are due to release an EP of new material. It’s called Chapter & Verse and it’ll be out on Ray Records on 13th September 2024……

Nick Fletcher and Tim Emery, aka, Deadlight Dance, stripped back a collection of their favourite new wave-goth classics and recorded them at the 12th century All Saints Church in Alton Priors last November, releasing them as an album, The Wiltshire Gothic, in March. If the Wiltshire Gothic excelled in uniqueness for acoustically recreating the sounds which inspired them, Deadlight Dance prove they’re no one trick pony with this new EP, as while it equals to the eminence of The Wiltshire Gothic, it does so for entirely the opposite reasoning.

After this acoustic beauty of echoing mandolins the effect is immediate, Deadlight Dance pull out heavy synths on this EP, a stark difference you may also find in their live gigs, swapping from acoustic to synths at the halfway house. It’s electronica punchy and as positively eighties as the original new wave and gothic songs they covered for The Wiltshire Gothic, of Joy Division, Sisters of Mercy, Fields of the Nephilim, et al, but all five tracks are their own work, completely original.

The only similarities with the last album is that there’s a theme, this time within the subject matter rather than the production, and naturally, it’s as proficiently entertaining. The concept here is something to appease their old English Lit teachers at the Sixth Form where they met, as each track is inspired by a book character, in one word titles. So, the tracks are Montag, Rosemary, Charrington, Judas and Monster, leading me to rustle my mind’s archives as to the books they represent; I got four out of five without Google, honest, sir, do I get a merit mark or something like that?!

Opening sonic, like OMD in their prime, book-burning firefighter Guy Montag of Fahrenheit 451 is the first subject and this is the only tune here which uses a sample, from the 1966 film adaptation I’d imagine, but I’ve not seen it, only read the book like a good boy! Obviously, futurism fears, flames and the controversial connotations of Ray Bradbury’s magnum opus is ideal for a gothic related song, and we are off to an engagingly good start.

The second song is the one I guessed incorrectly, it’s the girlfriend of the neurotic Gordon Comstock in Orwell’s Keep the Aspidistra Flying, Rosemary Waterlow. Concentrating on her relationship frustrations, the song is a haunting echo in plodding synths, again, an ideal candidate for Nick’s howlingly vocals.

Sticking with George Orwell, though this one remains instrumental, the antique dealer come undercover Thought Police agent in Nineteen-Eighty-Four, Mr. Charrington is the next subject. Again, it’s a haunting sound enough, it needs no vocals, it twists in metallic scraping undertone, dark and mysterious futurism, it would evoke the perfect mood for the score to any possible remake, or in turn the soundtrack to the previous UK government who seemed to view Orwell’s masterpiece a self-help guide; apologies, couldn’t resist adding that!

Fourth tune in, is called Judas, no prizes for citing the book it comes from, but after the gloom of Charrington, the sound is surprisingly uplifting, capturing the pop side to classic goth rock, like The Cure. I’m undecided if the song is sympathetic to the actions of Jesus’ grass Judas Iscariot, if it furthers to question the integrity of the bible more generally, or both. But it’s an interesting atheistic angle, and an astutely written song.

There’s a bass stomp verging on techno intro to the final song, Monster, reminding me of a fast coming of Jaws, then the synths swirl and Nick’s off thirty seconds into the melodic narrative of Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, or the The Modern Prometheus, a gothic novel indeed. It caused me to consider Frank Miller’s reinvention of Batman, a character who’s mysteriously shadowy edge was lost through the passage of commercialisation, particularly via TV, and how he gifted us The Dark Knight version.

Frankenstein portrayals are so commonplace, and often comical, it obscures the harrowing nature of the original story. As they do with all the book characters here, Deadlight Dance captures the mood, the intensity and torment of Mary Shelly’s monster, through music, as by Sergei Prokofiev captured the characterisations of Peter, the Wolf and other animal side characters. It’s an absorbing prose, excellently manufactured, and brings gothic rock of yore back into the forefront. Not forgoing, when contrasted with the Wiltshire Gothic, it shows diversity in Deadlight Dance, both are returns to “concept” in albums, something dearly overlooked in today’s one track Spotify world. It leaves me wondering where they’ll go next, but feeling confident each new progression will contain cognitive connotations amidst this hail of gothic rock, and these are the elements which makes each release a treasure.

Chapter & Verse will be released on Ray Records on 13th September 2024, across streaming platforms and available to buy on Bandcamp. Follow Deadlight Dance socials to keep in the know.

Find Deadlight Dance supporting Canute’s Plastic Army at the Tuppenny, Swindon on 19th September. 

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  1. Pingback: JP Oldfield & Deadlight Dance Down The Cellar – devizine.com

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