Night Tongue – Human Things
Similar artists: Chelsea Wolfe, Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance, This Mortal Coil, Emma Ruth Rundle
Genre: Gothic / Dark Wave, Indie Rock, Alternative Rock
Night Tongue make allusions to rare, ancient, otherworldy rituals with their music and presentation. Audiences are encouraged to buy into the mystery.
Love and art have a lot of things in common, but one of the most important, surely, is an emphasis on secrecy. The lover, just like the artist, must never tell the other person or people involved about what they are trying to do. To make something that appears to be holy sound trite is the worst strategy.
No, what they must do is keep feeding the mysterious force that powers these inventions. Whether some secret hides at the end of this journey is suggested but not promised. And if it turns out that no great treasure exists by the finale, that’s not important. The ride should be worth the price of admission.
Night Tongue’s “Human Things” is made to sound like a pagan ritual and acts as an invitation for audiences to silently join in. It’s music, of course, that blends its psych-rock tendencies with old folk traditions and spirituality. But its full effect can only be felt provided you join in fully.
The World At A Glance – Moth
Similar artists: SubRosa, Helms Alee, 40 Watt Sun, Blind Girls
Genre: Post-Hardcore, Screamo
The World At A Glance are going on a trip where they’ll be travelling far and living hard. They don’t know where it goes to. And they’re hoping that you’ll be coming along.
Maybe rock n’ roll has said all it’s allowed to say. It hasn’t done the world that much good anyway. Sure, some people went dancing, some people got married, and others cried all night long into their drinks. But how much does that really matter in the grand scheme of things?
Perhaps we have enough pop songs about love and hate, wealth and poverty, excitement, and boredom. We can all just listen to those or shuffle them through AI apps and render new versions of them.
Maybe it is time that rock music started searching for something containing a higher spiritual weight. And traditional strategies just won’t do. The World At A Glance’s “Moth” is not a pop song as it doesn’t have a clear goal. Rather it’s an exploration. The super-distorted guitars and murmured, guttural vocals work more as an incantation rather than hooks meant to keep you gripped. Perhaps this is the only direction rock music could still go in after all that’s happened.
