popwreckoning

Do you believe in ghosts?

If you’re a skeptic like I was, allow me to introduce you to sleep-rock group, Picastro, whose three members are nothing short of ectoplasm-drenched poltergeists. Lead singer Liz Hysen sounds like the ghost of Joni Mitchell, combining the legend’s deep tones with an unsettling hollowness. Hysen’s voice is a strange combination of spooky and soporific, as if she was trying to lull you into a sleep from which you would never awaken. Cellist Stephanie Vittas, doesn’t make her cello weep; she makes it moan. With a terrifying cello and an incredibly disconcerting voice, Picastro knows exactly how to make your skin crawl.

In their fourth studio album, Become Secret, Picastro made a conscious effort to be disturbing, experimenting to create the most strident chords possible. Become Secret is a subtly striking compilation of moans, sighs and lullaby.

The album starts with “Twilight Parting,” a minimalist song with brazen simplicity and awkward tonalities. Mind you, the awkwardness is the desired effect, not a mistake. The next few songs work together to further the awkward atmosphere, combining self-made chords with constant bass lines to create contrasting textures of harsh instability with calm repetition. In “Split Head,” Hysen truly acts like a ghost, capriciously popping in and out of an instrumental to deliver a sporadic verse.

Picastro then eliminates all doubt of their undead status on “Suttee.” The entire song consists of the band going a cappella and repeating “You will never love again” for one and a half minutes. The final track, “A Neck in the Desert,” sums up the entire album; it starts with simple instrumentation, then builds up with increasingly bitter chords and culminates in an instrumental sigh.

Become Secret made a believer out of me: not just of ghosts, but of the whole Gothic-sleepy rock genre. Picastro is the gothic Beethoven. Their music is the soundtrack to Edgar Allen Poe’s dreams. I have never heard a more melancholy cello or a more unsettling voice. Stereotypes be damned: Picastro is a genuine talent and Become Secret comes highly recommended by this recanting ex-nonbeliever.

Track Listing:
01. Twilight Parting
02. A Dune A Doom
03. Pig & Sucker
04. Split Head
05. I Know My Time Now
06. Neva
07. Suttee
08. A Neck In The Desert
09. The Stiff

Picastro: website | myspace

If you’re feeling a little down and a little dark, brought on by a sudden dose of interminable heartbreak, yet managing a little youthful edginess and looking for some gloomy mood music, lift your record needle and slip on Heartbreaker by The Dark Romantics.

Heartbreaker is the second full-length album from the Florida natives that extract their name from a sub-genre of American Literature, Dark Romanticism. That period consists of eloquent word play from such writers as Edgar Allen Poe, Emily Dickinson and Nathaniel Hawthorne; not the happiest of our literary minds. The album is no different. If indie rock was alive and well in the 1800s, Poe would be sitting alone in his dreary study, isolated at his desk, wearing his trademark grey suit, black ascot with whiskey in hand, pouring his pain into “Annabelle Lee” and Heartbreaker would be his soundtrack.

The album is by no means a seminal piece of work, coming at the heels of bands that have already covered the Goth, dance rock sound; The Killers, Interpol and She Wants Revenge. In fact, lead singer Eric Collins eagerly channels Brandon Flowers, but without the yearning passion and power that Flowers can belt out. The entire album actually runs on like a slower version of “Jenny Was A Friend of Mine.”

The record, though, does carry a sleek and sexy mysteriousness to it and each song is a similar mix of pop, indie rock, synths and stylistic gloom. “She’s Loaded” is the dance track of the album with an excellent, vibrating guitar/bass that powerfully and exotically opens the song and menacingly shakes it home.

“The Death of You” captures the mystique of the nighttime aura with its macabre surf/spy guitar riff. This is the type of music video where you would see a gorgeous girl (with lots of eyeliner) in a blood red dress, running away afraid, yet slightly curious, into a deep, dark green forest flooded with moonlight.

One of my favorite tracks is “Gimme A Kiss,” which employs a sharp, distorted guitar that powers over a light, bouncy piano, while Collins sings in a monotone drawl that solidifies antipathy of a love lost.

Title track “Heartbreaker” is a melancholy piece reminiscent of a dreary lullaby. But probably the most dynamic song on the album is “Heartbreaker Pt. 3,” which is an instrumental slice of the title track, with vocals run heavily through a vocoder, creating a wonderful electronic mystique, particularly when matched with impending doom like drums. It sadly ends too soon.

Heartbreaker is a solid listen for those moments when you need a little solace and self-inflection and The Dark Romantics definitely have talent in their lush, deep synth pop sounds. However, they fail to provide originality in their hooks and melodies that would keep listeners coming back for another dose of heartbreak.

Heartbreaker will be released on September 9th by Lujo Records.

Tracklisting:
01. Heartbreaker Pt. 3
02. Love & Pain
03. Hush Your Mouth (download)
04. The Death of You
05. This Is Young Love
06. Let’s Ride (download)
07. Never Been Loved
08. She’s Loaded
09. Heartbreaker Pt. 2
10. Gimme A Kiss
11. W.G.L.Y.
12. The Perfect Place
13. Heartbreaker

The Dark Romantics: website | myspace
Lujo Records: website

Written by: Ali Hussain