The past two years have found Austin’s dark lord Xander Harris (a.k.a. Justin Sweatt) on a heavy transfigurative trip, overhauling his live rig, detouring through an expansive soundtrack project celebrating the 20th anniversary of Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash, touring outside Texas (from New Orleans to the Netherlands), plus a host of other inner-life turmoils and metamorphoses—all of which have seeped into the synthesizer soil of his stunning second full-length, The New Dark Age of Love. From the first shimmering hovercraft tones that kick off album opener “Night Fortress,” the growth is glaring; gone is the slasher camp and horror tropes of Urban Gothic, replaced by sleek, streamlined post-industrial cold-wave dystopias. A Ballardian mood of paranoia, doom and technocratic elegance reigns, from icy, sci-fi night-drives (“Tristitia,” “Vultures of Tenderness”) to sweeping cyber-gothic dread symphonies (“Legacies,” “When Prophecy Fails”); even the few forays into overt VHS splatter-score worship (“I Still Look Young in the Dark,” “Bring Me Their Heads”) are executed with a similar sense of future-shocked metropolitan menace. Echoes abound of classic Chris & Cosey urban wasteland synth-pop, Umberto’s vintage evil, and Klaus Schulze at his most candlelit and Crowleyian, but The New Dark Age of Love is unquestionably Sweatt’s story to tell, and it’s a tome. Xander Harris "Night Fortress" by NOT NOT FUN
LP $13.00
04/16/2013
CD $13.00
04/02/2013
MP3 $8.91
04/02/2013
***Italians may do it better—ice cream, genuine leather, synth splatter—but everything’s still bigger in Texas. Like this X Large redux from Austin’s X HARRIS. He calls side A the “High Heels Remix” which is chop-shop talk for shoegaze if yr shoes happen to be red patent pumps. Less gore than before, more vast unknown than he’s ever shown, side B soars like the flight of a DJ navigator who’s recently returned home to realize he’s left the ‘80s far behind, it’s almost 2012, and everyone he loves has aged and moved on without him. But the force is still strong with this one. If Xander Harris had a hammer, he’d beat down John Carpenter’s door, turn that Carpenteria into a Danceteria, and make that grave-waver Sweatt. Finally, an escape from New York.
12" $10.50
05/03/2011
MP3 $2.97
05/10/2011
***The debut full-length by this classically trained Austin synth/drum-pad whiz rips like an ‘80s horror-stalker VHS take on Umberto's ‘70s giallo/Goblin-isms. creepy neo-Carpenter action in the best possible vein. Forthcoming 12-inch on 100% SILK is imminent.
LP $14.00
04/05/2011
MP3 $9.90
04/05/2011