Everything But The Everything x Sophia Prise – Hotshot
A good murder mystery needs more than a corpse and a detective. It needs all of the tension in between someone becoming the victim and the killer being found out. All of that tension makes the story worthwhile or helps it sink like an anchor of galvanized steel. Without that tension, not even the signature of a famous writer can help it reach an audience.
So-called “dark music” has to function within the same parameters. Sure, your attention can be drawn to the costumes, to the people on stage dressed as goblins and vampires. But that wears off quickly. Sure, the singer can tell you that this is a song about terrible and incredible things. But unless the singer can also prove it, then it’s off to the next ghoulish band.
Everything But The Everything & Sophia Prise’s “Hotshot” is something of a murder mystery set to music. The sound itself is inspired by the kinds of classic goth-rock bands obsessed with sounding as if their music was blasting out of a cathedral. There’s tension here, certainly. But, for the most part, it’s also resolved satisfyingly. The big reveal does enough to make you want to pause, rewind and look over all of the details that you might have missed the first time that you went over the plot.
Pascagoula – Insecurity Breach
They do advise you to learn your history. Those who don’t know it are bound to step into the same mess indefinitely, they warn. And, while diligently reading your history may very well help open your eyes about the world around you, it may also turn you into a depressive, hopeless mess. Tread at your own risk, and go deep into your history only if you think you have the stomach to handle it.
What you’ll discover are, apart from the odd invention and an athlete breaking a record in the Olympics, horrors beyond belief. Worst of all, the more you dig into the past, the more you’ll notice that very few new stories have come into being. The same forces fight in the same ways and make regular people suffer. There’s no reason to even pick a side. All are corrupt and ready to use you to do their bidding.
There’s plenty of reason to despair. But if you should so feel inclined, it’s best to do it in a confined space and then leave your disappointment there. Pascagoula’s “Insecurity Breach” is written with that in mind and offered to people who feel a similar sense of dread. The world is an unsafe place, and it is getting worse. At this rate, we’ll all be mentioning the Golden Age of the 2010s soon enough. Pascagoula’s hyper-aggressive brand of hardcore-inspired sounds could just be the thing we need to remind us.
