You move with emotionVia Negativa (in the doorway light)
In my warped imagination
Are you failing?
Are you collapsing?
New York’s avant-garde synth-pop sages Xeno & Oaklander—Liz Wendelbo and Sean McBride—announce the release of their latest album . The album’s concept, drawn from the philosophy of negation—“the study of what not to do”—suggests that absence reveals essence. It’s a subtle dance between form and emptiness, between sound and silence, where each note balances upon the edge of nothingness.
Crafted in the pair’s shadowy studio sanctum, these compositions started as embryonic piano lines and grew into elaborate, interconnected modular synth systems. McBride, ever the architect, adds what he calls “harmonic padding,” weaving together tuned percussion and a “spectral transfer device” to shape the album’s rhythmic architecture. The outcome is a deeply textured masterpiece that captures Xeno & Oaklander’s fascination with the tension between raw spontaneity and measured exactitude.
From the first note, the album breathes, pulses, and shifts, a carousel of moods and masks, driven by the band’s obsession with drama, the dance of personae, and the theatrics of human experience. Each track unfurls like a murky tale, a tragic procession of souls lost in a treacherous mercury mine, either gasping from poisonous fumes or swallowed whole by collapsing caverns. A seesaw tension emerges, teetering between utopian, Teutonic synthetic pop and lyrics dripping with tales of spectral silos, shattered mills, and the traumas buried in mineral excavation. Wendelbo captures it best: “The heavy machinic din of extraction in contrast with the enchantment of the mined precious gems and metals.”
The production feels deliberate, intricate, yet the emotional pulse stays sharp and striking. Via Negativa (in the doorway light) thrums with electric life, darting between frantic choruses that conjure images of shattered mirrors, fractured beams, and specters trapped in static air. These are no hollow gestures; they sing for a new cybernetic dawn, echoing with purpose.
From bilingual ballads to bloodstones (O Vermillion) to cosmic chrome dance hits (Lost & There) and EBM indulgences, Xeno & Oaklander reaffirm their mastery over the dance between technology and poetry. Snaking through cables and conjuring synesthesia, they mine melodies and myths, their muse still gilded in red and silver, tuned to the strange and unseen, thriving where logic falters.
One strutting EBM standout, Actor’s Foil, explores themes of tension and composure, layering a sense of unease over precise, controlled movements. It’s an anthem of being watched, of striving to stay steady under the weight of perception. Lyrics echo the pressure of presence, a world where intention twists with performance, where every emotion belongs to an inescapable system, rigid and theatrical.
Listen below:
See Xeno & Oaklander on the road in North America this November and December. In February, the band will also be making an appearance at this year’s Grauzone Festival in The Netherlands.
Listen to Via Negativa (in the doorway light) at the link below, and order the album at the links here.
Tour Dates (includes newly added dates)
- Nov 17 Pawtucket, RI – Machines with Magnets
- Nov 18 Montreal, QC – Bar Le Ritz PDB
- Nov 19 Ottawa, ON – House of Targ
- Nov 20 Toronto, ON – Ground Control
- Nov 22 Cleveland, OH – No Class
- Nov 23 Indianapolis, IN – Black Circle
- Nov 24 St Louis, MO – The Sinkhole
- Nov 26 Chicago, IL – Beat Kitchen
- Nov 27 Milwaukee, WI – X-Ray Arcade
- Nov 29 St. Paul, MN – Turf Club
- Dec 1 Salt Lake City, UT – The International
- Dec 3 Portland, OR – Dante’s
- Dec 4 Seattle, WA – Substation
- Dec 5 Vancouver, BC – The Cobalt
- Dec 8 Los Angeles, CA – The Paramount
- Dec 9 San Diego, CA – Soda Bar
- Dec 10 Landers, CA – Retreat Center
- Dec 12 Denver, CO – Hi-Dive
- Dec 14 Kansas City, MO – MiniBar
- Dec 16 Louisville, KY – Whirling Tiger
- Dec 17 Chapel Hill, NC – Local 506
- Dec 19 Baltimore, MD – Metro Gallery
- Dec 20 Brooklyn, NY – TV Eye [Record Release Party]
- Dec 21 Philadelphia, PA – Milk Boy
- February 4: Newcastle, UK at Zerox
- February 5: Glasgow, UK at Audio
- February 7: London, UK at Lexington
- February 8: Den Haag, NL at Grauzone Festival
- February 11: Toulouse, FR at Dernière Neige
- February 12: Bordeaux, FR at IBoat
- February 13: Vigo, ES at La Fábrica
- February 14: Madrid, ES at Maravillas Club
- February 15: Barcelona, ES at Sala Vol
- February 16: Marseille, FR at Molotov
- February 18: Munich, DE at Blitz
- February 20: Esslingen, DE at Komma
- February 21: Leipzig, DE at Moritz Bastei
- February 22: Berlin, DE at Lark
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