Straight from the heart of Vancouver, Total Chroma presents their sizzling new single called “Starvation.” This single serves as a third leading up to the release of their forthcoming new album, L A P L A N D — an exciting collection of scorching electronic music tracks is scheduled for release on October 14th, 2023 via Negative Gain.
Robert Katerwol, the creative mind behind Wire Spine and Weird Candle, has crafted a peculiar EBM track with this latest single “Starvation”. This haunting tune blends the beauty of art-rock melodies with the pulsating beats of late 80s acid house. It draws emotional inspiration from Soft Cell and Pet Shop Boys, and echoes the haunting styles of Cabaret Voltaire, Led Er Est, Xeno & Oaklander, Martin Dupont, and Kontravoid. The resulting sound creates a bone-chilling and ominous atmosphere that resembles the sensation of air pressure dropping before a storm.
“Starvation” was birthed solely on a hardware setup featuring Sequential Circuits DrumTracks, a Minilogue XD, Roland SE02, and Dreadbox Typhon. Garnering inspiration from an extensive array of sources, from Italo disco to classic EBM, minimal wave, and post-punk, Katerwol synthesizes these influences into a genre-blending, shimmering brew of dance-floor melancholia and catharsis, all seeped in a captivating, perspiration-drenched vitality.
Lyrically, the song creatively navigates the concept of romantic “starvation,” framing it within the story of a relatively fresh relationship that has moved past the initial honeymoon stage. The initial glow has dimmed in this haunting, dystopian melody, which delves into the unsettling territories of surveillance and oppression. It interweaves a raw, emotional human connection into the sharp-edged, arpeggio-laden synthpunk landscape.
Listen below:
LAPLAND is scheduled for an Oct 20th Vinyl co-release with Katerwols’s brand Verboden and L.A/Chicago-based record label Negative Gain Productions.
Since 2012, Katerwol has been actively producing, releasing, performing, and touring across North America, and the EU. Past projects/collaborations include Wire Spine, Weird Candle, Body Break, deth, Industrial Priest Overcoats, and Snit. Katerwol has shared stages with a multitude of acts, big and small, including Lebanon Hanover, She Past Away, Boy Harsher, Youth Code, Psyche, Severed Heads, Selofan, Nuovo Testamento, Kontavoid, Drab Majesty, Qual, High Functioning Flesh, Light Asylum, and more. When not producing music, or on the road, Katerwol keeps busy co-organizing the annual Verboden Music Festival in Vancouver B.C.
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