Photo: JSD
From the gritty heart of the Midlands to the pastoral plains of East Germany, Liam Butler and Sarah Neumann joined forces as Deep Bleak, creating music that delves into life’s darker corners with a clever touch. Their tale begins in London, where fate and mutual acquaintances brought them together. Butler, in search of a voice to complement his vision, discovered the perfect match in Sarah Neumann. Seamlessly slipping into her role, her voice proved to be an ideal fit for the moody, melancholic melodies they produce. Together, they have sculpted a sound that is as somber as it is sly.
Now, Deep Bleak releases their second single, Alive To Feel, from their self-titled debut EP. This dark electronic track kicks off with an eerie synth that harks back to the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, setting the stage for a strange blend of electroclash and operatic vocals. The result is a twisted mix that calls to mind the likes of Austra, Zola Jesus, Ladytron, iamwhoiam, and Glass Candy. It’s a haunting tune, one that lingers in the shadows, fusing the unsettling with the surreal in a way that’s both chilling and strangely compelling.
“I love this tune, it was one of the first times we ever used a modular synth, which felt like trying to play operation using the wrong hand whilst looking through binoculars,” says Butler. “But we landed on something really cool and for just three mono synth melodies, the tune really goes.”
“In this gap shame resides, as a heaviness or an attitude towards an action that shouldn’t have been but couldn’t have been otherwise in the relentless current of life,” says Neumann. “Owning up to all of what one is and the world has turned one into requires an appropriation of the other as a self-definition. That’s not an easy load to carry, it takes guts.”
Listen to Alive To Feel below:
The single was mixed by Kai Campos (Mount Kimbie) and Jung Kim (Gang of Youths).
Deep Bleak have been making music together for about two years now, around the time Butler wrote the instrumentals. “I think I was actually trying to work out Just Dance by Lady Gaga when I wrote that,” he adds jokingly, “Sarah’s vocals send it and make it this driving spoken word post punk tune, mixed with huge ‘dance track’ style chorus vocals.”
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