THROAT – We Must Leave You

On their 2018 album ‘Bareback’, noise rockers Throat created a sound that took the darkness of goth, the angular elements of post punk and the abrasiveness of industrial to create a record that was one of rock’s most confronting since The Birthday Party bowed out with ‘The Bad Seed’ in the early 80s. Sometimes sounding like Die Haut, sometimes like Fugazi crossed with something much darker, It’s fair to say, the album wouldn’t have been for everyone, but the way Throat took their influences, pushed forth and created something contemporary for the time of release was more than admirable.

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THE REAL GONE SINGLES BAR #34

Welcome back to the Real Gone Singles Bar, the place where we take a look at some of the individual mp3s that have landed in our inbox over the previous few weeks. Despite January traditionally being a quiet time, we’ve gathered a few great tunes this time around, capturing some of the typical SB variety, ranging from huge rock riffs, to a goth laden throwback, and even a tune with its heart firmly in a Laurel Canyon past… As always, we hope you’ll find something new to enjoy.

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THE REAL GONE SINGLES BAR: A NEW YEAR’S EVE LOCK IN 2023

After launching the Real Gone Singles Bar in June 2023, we found ourselves covering an even broader range of music than before. It became a natural home for anything that mightn’t see a follow up album, or music that, perhaps, might not lead to a full review. The popular feature also became an easy way to introduce people to new music, and our inbox became very busy. Naturally, by limiting the feature to eight tracks per week, not everything made the cut. In fairness, not everything deserved to, but we heard a lot of stuff that was too good to not share.

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TULIPOMANIA – Dreaming Of Sleep

The word “alternative” gets bandied around a lot in the music world. It’s used to describe all kinds of guitar based music – even stuff that’s found its way into the mainstream long ago – but there are still plenty of genuinely alternative bands out there. It would be hard to consider the dark moods of Decommissioned Forests, or the strange jazz meets metal noise of Kilter as anything but. Tulipomania are another act who’ve wilfully taken their own musical path within a truly alternative niche, rarely concerned about commercial success.

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STELLA WEMBLEY – Wasting My Time EP

A year on from her unsympathetic reworking of Bowie’s ‘Loving The Alien’, Stella Wembley’s ‘Wasting My Time’ brings the listener more detached post-goth/electronica that listeners will either love or hate. Stella has rarely approached her music in the most user-friendly way – which can be a good thing – and here, her love of rigid rhythms and reverbed vocals goes into overdrive. The track’s blend of robotic beats and strange synth tones sets up something that could loosely be described as goth-disco, like an old Mute Records track remixed by Georgio Moroder, but once you make it past the confronting coldness, there’s something weirdly appealing. The way Wembley shifts between strange croons and stylised yelps just accentuates any surface oddness, whilst the cold music and wantonly mechanical rhythm harks back to an alternative (early) 80s in the best possible way. Yes, this number is likely to be divisive, but at least it makes a definite impression.

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