SCreature
Old Hand New Wave

Personally (if we overlook a very brief period in my life) I have never been too into genres like darkwave, and generally, I find the sounds and goth aesthetic frankly insufferable, more so than few other things in the world of music. Yet, I must admit that after listening to a couple of tracks by the SCreature (Liz Mahoney, Miranda Vera, Sarah Scherer, Chriss Orr) from Sacramento, California, and being positively impressed, I went on to seek their new and latest album, released on January 19th on Ethel Scull Records, and found frankly interesting content that goes beyond the typical claustrophobic schemes of the genre.

SCreature, after all, have a distinctly post-punk style and attitude, but definitions like darkwave or goth definitely feel too narrow for them. "Old Hand New Wave" has the typical characteristics of the wave from the eighties, but the references go beyond that hermetic and self-contained darkwave and look with a certain curiosity towards the no-wave of the New York scene of the early eighties. Meanwhile, the same style of vocalist Liz Mahoney is instead poised between the nihilism of John Lydon ("Gone Cold", "Hit The Void"...) and the more theatrical and garage style of Lydia Lunch ("Induction", "Last Scene Alive", "Movements"...). The sound refers at different times to the same Public Image Limited ("The New Eve", "Gone Cold", "Hit The Void", "Last Scene Alive"...) and distinctly to Siouxsie & The Banshees ("Waiting for a Light"). "North of Order" lies halfway between Wall of Voodoo of "Dark Continent" and Teenage Jesus and The Jerks, but the most interesting moments are probably the abstract mysticism of "Induction" and the solemn tones of "Another Mask", the frenzy of "Movements" recalling the most inspired moments of Bauhaus.

Characterized by guitar riffs sharp as blades, compulsive riffs, obsessive and hypnotic vocal performances, and bass lines as minimal as they are sustained, "Old Hand New Wave" is an acidic, hallucinatory album, where in the end, you can even hear some rock-blues nuances. Some call it death-rock, I think it’s simply post-punk, but in the end, these are just words and pointless definitions. It is much better to directly listen to the album to convince oneself of the quality of this group's sound.