Genre/Influences: Shoegaze, Cold-Wave, Industrial.

Format: Digital, CD, Vinyl.

Background/Info: Italian duo  Matteo Scarpa – Antonio Angeli is back on track unleashing their newest album as a collaboration between Shyrec (Italy), Sister 9 Recordings (UK) and Little Cloud Records (USA).

Content: The work takes off with a kind of Suicide, raw, Electro-Industrial cut with Shoegaze influences on top. The work progressively evolves into harder and darker pieces driven by fuzzy guitar play and hypnotic electronic treatments. From pure bombast carried by brutal rhythms towards softer passages the work covers different influences but remains pretty homogenous.

+ + + : Kill your Boyfriend is a band I’ve seen growing and evolving throughout the years. Their previous opus “Killadelica” was a true masterpiece and they simply moved on with “Voodoo”. The debut part left me breathless for its global power and hypnotic exposure. “The King” and “The Man In Black” both are pure sonic jewels driving you mad. The production of the vocals on top totally fits to the fuzzy, powerful, composition.

– – – : The softer “The Day The Music Died” can’t convince me for missing the power which makes the magic of the album. I also regret that their work only features 7 songs.

Conclusion: Kill Your Boyfriend sounds as the Shoegaze reincarnation of Suicide and it’s a great exposure.

Best songs: “The King”, “The Man In Black”, “Buster”, “Mr Mojo”.

Rate: 8½. 

Artist: www.killyourboyfriend.net / www.facebook.com/kyboyfriend

Label: www.shyrec.it / www.facebook.com/Shyrec

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

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Out via Sister 9 Recordings (Europe), Little Cloud Records (North America) and Shyrec (Itay) on October 14th is the all new album by the Treviso, Italy-based two piece Kill Your Boyfriend called “Voodoo”. But before that the duo (Matteo Scarpa and Antonio Angeli) delivers the first single “The King” for which there is also a video.

The video for “The King” takes cue from the same words of Michael Ventura that inspired Voodoo’s A site: “…let themselves be possessed not by any god they could name but by the spirit they felt in the music…”. The band states: “We decided to stage some kind of final act, where the actors are left alone at the centre of a crumbling stage and are possessed by a spirit guiding them frantically towards an inescapable ending. The spasmodic dance is a clear reference to The King or Rock & Roll and the Voodoo symbols represent the connection between the earthly and the spiritual world.”

The new LP follows “Killadelica” bridging the gap between post-punk (Death In Venice, Evabraun, Pyramids, etc.) and contemporary psych-nouveau. They have replaced the synth bass with a bass-guitar, and made sure that the electronic and acoustic percussion are fuller and heavier.

Here’ sthe video for “The King”.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil.

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Genre/Influences: Shoegaze, Industrial-Rock.

Format: Digital, CD, Vinyl.

Background/Info: Italian formation Kill Your Boyfriend has been active since 2011. The band went through a few line-up changes and became driven by the duo Matteo Scarpa – Antonio Angeli. They released a few number of productions, often mixing different influences together; sometimes more Shoegaze and Post-Punk orientated, but also exploring Industrial-, Ritual- and Experimental paths. “Killadelica” has been introduced as a work inspired by the band’s own stories and experiences resulting in eleven songs. Notice by the way the album is also available in vinyl, which has been released by Little Cloud Records in collaboration with Sister 9 Recordings.

Content: Even if this formation has already experimented with different sources of inspiration, Shoegaze however remains the main music style running throughout their works. It’s not that different on “Killadelica”. The songs are composed with heavy, Shoegaze guitar play mixed with Electronic treatments. The drum patterns are bombastic and sometimes pretty violent. The songs are constantly recovered with a dark, overwhelming atmosphere. It has something disturbing and aggressive while some songs are ending into an elevating effect. The last track is somewhat softer, and even reminds me of The Sisters Of Mercy, but it remains a dark driven cut. The production of the vocals is hard to understand, accentuating the foggy feeling recovering this work. 

+ + + : Kill Your Boyfriend has accomplished their opus magnum! This album is f****** brilliant for the way the duo merged Shoegaze guitar playing together with harsh Electronics and hard, repetitive beats. It creates a sonic hybrid between Shoegaze and Industrial music; the imaginary symbiosis between The Jesus & The Mary Chain and Suicide. It has a hypnotic feeling carried by an ominous atmosphere. It’s an extremely dark work. The song titles are all named after women first names, which accentuates a part of the mystery hanging over this work. As you don’t really understand the vocal parts –and yet, the production of the vocals is simply great, you only start to create your own stories. Tracks like “Jean”, “Agave”, “Elizabeth, “Eve” and even the calmer “Kathy” are totally representative of this work. 

– – – : I noticed a few songs, which don’t reach a similar high level, but you don’t hear me complaining.

Conclusion: I remember the early works of this band had something, but the true potential of the band didn’t emerge at the surface. A few years later Kill Your Boyfriend has now released a dark masterpiece. They’re not reinventing shoegaze, but elevating the style towards another dimension!

Best songs: “Elizabeth”, “Jean”, “Natasha”, “Agave”, “Eve”, “Kathy”.

Rate: (8½).

Artist: www.killyourboyfriend.net / www.facebook.com/kyboyfriend

Label: www.shyrec.it / www.facebook.com/Shyrec

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

www.side-line.com