After releasing a staggering series of twenty-five EPs between 2015 and 2020, Berlin-based Darkwave tour de force Vlimmer (aka Alexander Leonard Donat) finally unleashed its debut LP, Nebenkörper, at the end of last summer.
Now, following the critically acclaimed album release, Vlimmer is back with, the blistering, brutal, and raw new standalone single, “Erdgeruch”.
The song is stuffed to the gills with ghostly synth soundscapes, eerie vocals, and industrial tribal drums. Indeed, this gothic sensory overload is an apt metaphor for modern times; as our lives are doused in perpetual news, social media doom-scrolling, climate change, and personal difficulties. Yet “Erdgeruch” manages to grasp a pop appeal that Donat purposely avoided with previous releases.
You hear a Robert Smith influence in Donat’s passionate German vocals, as well as shades of Sisters of Mercy, Red Lorry Yellow Lorry, and Heaven 17. Donat continues to take the listener on an aural odyssey across the River Styx into the deep recesses of the human psyche.
This particular track’s dystopian devotion and relentless drive swells the senses with menacing urgency – something we’re all feeling heavily lately.
Listen below:
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Photo credit: Ulrike Donat
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