Joshua Creek Precisely Captures the Excitement of Going Into the Dark for Night Time Adventures on “Thrill”

Joshua Creek, photo courtesy the artist

Joshua Creek’s economy of composition on “Thrill,” a track from his new album Phenomena which released April 22, 2022, serves well his aim in the writing and production of the song. He wanted to capture the excitement and anticipation of going out into the dark and night time adventures. His energetic yet light and lively piano figure paired with a shuffling percussion line that is joined by other electronic drum sounds to fill out the texture and some light delay on the bass line that sits deep yet evocatively in the mix. In a song that lasts two minutes twenty it stirs the imagination with recursive compositional structure that brings themes in and out of the song so that it feels like a pleasant and memory looped to remind one of a feeling that is difficult to convey with as much precision and quiet power as Creek does here. In moments it may remind one of one of Coil’s more upbeat and classically-inspired pieces or that of producer William Orbit. Listen to “Thrill” on YouTube and follow Joshua Creek on Spotify below.

Death Hags Invite us to a Haunted Christmas Night on the Icy Moons of Titan on “North Pole Chaos”

Death Hags, photo courtesy artist Bandcamp

Death Hags apparently tried to craft a sound like one would imagine the winter solstice to feel on one of the icy moons of Titan (one of the moons of Saturn). The resulting composition “North Pole Chaos” begins with a distorted drone and spiralling and sparkling tones akin to “First Dark Ride” by Coil. But when Lola G’s vocals come in singing “Silent Night” it’s spooky and gets more spectral as the vocals process into echoes that layer and flow into the stream of textured drone and intermittent blips that merge with a low atmospheric for an overall effect like one has become part of the surrounding, frigid environment before a more clear, bubbling melody pushes the low, distorted, distant howl to the edges of hearing. The effect is like stepping into a mysterious cave that blocks the chaos of a windy, winter storm outside, the vocals returning to beckon your back out into the primordial weather of the surface of a distant celestial object. The vibe recalls the mood of H.P. Lovecraft’s 1939 story “In the Walls of Eryx” and how the prospector in the story fades away while recounting his observations for the search party that eventually finds his corpse in a invisible maze on Venus—haunting yet oddly beautiful. Listen to “North Pole Chaos” on Bandcamp and take a chance on the rest of the album Frozen Santa which is a fascinating mix of brooding synth pop and experimental, wonderfully creepy ambient works. Connect with Death Hags at the links below.

Death Hags on Instagram