Cold Cave - Cremations

Embryonic dark wave developments

The last couple of years have seen Philadelphia’s Wesley Eisold’s Cold Cave project embraced by the pseudo-gloom denizens of tightjean hipster-dom. A slew of lo-fi sex slave synth hymnals have travelled rivers coursing with mascara and absinthe, forming misanthropic soundtracks to youthful nights of nihilistic passion and mornings spewing regret and existential anxieties.

This collection of cassette, single and early demo jive documents Eisold’s formative quest for a singular aesthetic. It’s blatantly apparent what he’s after – seeking to drape the pumped-up white noise machismo of Whitehouse and Prurient across the shoulders of 80s pop tropes (New Order, Erasure, Depeche Mode) to create a bestial, loathsome sort of sonic lust. But such clear-cut ambitions make assessment of the end result a turkey shoot. Many of the pieces that form Cremations fall short, amounting to the kind of aimlessly confused cameos that Men’s Recovery Project would have left on the cutting room floor. Cold Cave is still in its infancy, though, and a comparison of these early works with more recent declarations of intent trace an arc of ascending glories. Indeed, the three opening tracks here (taken from the Painted Nails EP) show signs of the unit’s inherent potential, indicating that Cold Cave’s best is yet to come.

3 stars 3 stars 3 stars

Hospital Productions | HOS-248

Reviewed by Spencer Grady
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