Aura Bora – Sour Skittles
Similar artists: Cub, Tiger Trap, Charly Bliss, Chumped, Martha
Genre: Punk, Pop Punk
Bands nowadays tend to resemble a bride dressed all in white that’s been forced to walk all the way to the supermarket after a rain storm. Everyone about her is perfect. There’s been so much thought put into every detail of her appearance that it’s inevitable that she’ll ruin everything just by walking around. Hell, should she even try to move too much, she’ll end up ruining it.
With so much fancy technology at the producer’s disposal and radio interested only in pristine, pitch-perfect sounds, bands have their work cut out for themselves. How do they manage? Usually, they don’t. There’s no way that they can actually recreate the sound perfected in the studio. And, so, the vast majority of them either choose to work with backing tracks when playing live or hide from performing in front of people altogether.
Aura Bora sound like a band that’s never been considered by a producer on “Sour Skittles,” but who nonetheless have great ideas. Yeah, there’s a fantastic song underneath all of this; you just have to let your ears do a bit of digging. You can’t take radio pop-rock bands anywhere. Could they play in front of a biker gang in a grimy club? No. But Auro Bora could. They’d start a fight and the people whose noses would get busted would remember the music in their way back home.
Dorian’s Steaming Shadow – Hold On to Me
Similar artists: The Cure, Depeche Mode, Fontaines D.C., IDLES, U2
Genre: Post-Punk, Gothic, Dark Wave
Playing goth-rock music is a quaint, wonderful thing. Yes, this is one of the most powerful, emotionally evolved genres of music. But it never feels like it belongs to this era anymore. Like historical reenactments, rebuilding of 1950s muscle cars, and playing rockabilly while sporting an Elvis hair-do, this is not something that you associate with present times.
And that is particularly why we need to prize and reward the musicians who are bravely taking this route. Yes, we need fresh goth rock because most of the best songs from this genre are 40 years old.
But more than most genres, goth rock has rules that practitioners must adhere to, and these rules go far beyond the need to dress entirely in black garments. Those who venture down this path are required to have excellent knowledge of the history of goth rock.
Brand-new Polish goth-rock band Dorian’s Steaming Shadow has a pristine understanding of what making this kind of music entails. “Hold On to Me” echoes 80s-style production. It’s a song designed to be mysterious, one where the truth is never entirely revealed. And it’s no bore, either. The vocals go from a whisper to a shout, keeping the song moving and encouraging audience engagement.
