Cologne, Germany is the home of electronic pioneers, from Karlheinz Stockhausen, to krautrock legends CAN, to 80s darkwave. For the last three years, post-industrial duo Deathdrift has added to the long list of musicians from the storied city of underground raves and subculture. “Deathdrift is new aeon music that deals with the matters of the soul in a cold industrial world,” explains vocalist DS, who cites Thobbing Gristle and Fields of the Nephilim as influences.
Deathdrift’s unique foothold of electronica dwells in the night: their latest single, “Incending Night,” is a shadowy soundscape evoking the bleak aftermath of the pandemic era. The track is heavy, plodding, dark, and atmospherically dense- but strangely mesmerizing. With its textured, partly minimal passages Deathdrift explores the dichotomy between the sterile and organic with their minimalist synth melodies and a haunting baritone that aggressively meanders into ragged growls – it paints a scene of musical art noir with the devil in the details. With this song, the band’s harsh electronics and minimal melody feel both claustrophobic and psychedelic, resting in an uneasy liminal space somewhere between the digital and spiritual.
This is reflected in the DIY video, directed by Katarina Lokas, where the band lurks in the forest at dusk growling out the track in a primal scream.
The band’s debut album Liminal Nocturnes comes out via Bandcamp on March 02, 2023. Liminal Nocturnes is an “alchemical death trip through the inner wilderness mirrored in the “golden” twenties’ empty cities at night—a transcendental journey from secular triggered pain to otherworldly finality.” It’s 21st-century shamanism manifested in sound.
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