Cold In Berlin: “… And †he Darkness Bangs” / “The Lie”
Never short of the most noir of industrionics, how appropriate then that post-punk/no-wave urchins Cold In Berlin should have recorded their new double A-side single on the site of a former mental hospital and cemetery. That they’ve also drafted in one-time Depeche Mode and Liars producer James Aparicio should perhaps seem almost inevitable.
Anchoring itself to the more aggressive elements of the band’s excellent debut LP Give Me Walls , “… And †he Darkness Bangs” does just that, running with an ever increasing Goth-punk sneer, muscular drumming and some oh-so atmospheric chanting. More than deserving its equal footing, “The Lie” then strips back the eyeliner, bares its teeth and goes for the throat in a move to further align the London band with city-mate shriekback pioneers Kasms .
Given the band’s choice of typeface for this new single, never mind their choice of recent company (DJing with Robot Elephant Records boss Sebastian Weikart ), the closing inclusion of Heretics ‘ bass-heavy witch-step RMX of “… And The Darkness Bangs” comes as little but very welcome surprise. Ramping up the original’s industrial compression, crumpling the beat and invoking those genre-dependent machine-gun drum rips, it can’t help but then screw vocalist Maya ‘s words into poison-tipped shards.
All things considered, we await the forthcoming White Horse EP with anticipation.
~“… And The Darkness Bangs” / “The Lie” is released the 5th March 2012 on 2076 Records .~