Renee Barrance (keyboard, vocals), Nikolai Sim (bass), and Danny Brady (machines, programming, vocals) recorded the album at None Gallery, the trio seeing the recording as a capsule of their live set at the time.
Barrance and Brady had previously met in Berlin, where they saw Suicide’s Martin Rev play a concert and talked about forming a band. Barrance called it "a formative and wild night" when I catch up with the band over a pint.
"There’s a lot of trying to bring the human aspect into electronic music," Brady says of the band’s recording and live sets.
"Trying to combine live sounds and electronic performance, there’s nothing prerecorded and everything’s on the spot."
Sim explains further: "Electronic music has its own culture around it, but we’re not that. We’re a band that uses electronic instruments.
"Our sound is so much more fluid than just the darkness. Of course, sometimes we’re referencing horror genres and things of a dark nature, or coldwave, things with cold sounds, and cold feel and approach, but then there’s things like garage in Renee’s keys or disco in my bass lines, or other types of dance music like house and techno."
Dealing with the subconscious, sci-fi, nightmares and dreams, album opener and title track Shadow Self plays like a gothic horror film remix of The Phantom of the Opera theme song, Janina is a tropical, sweaty pop song, while in closing track Dreams Brady takes over vocal duties, channelling a more care-free Ian Curtis singing over New Order.
The album is out here via Fishrider Records and in the European Union and United Kingdom via Occultation Recordings.
NADIA REID
Having just arrived home from sellout shows in the UK and Europe on the back of her critically acclaimed new album Preservation, songwriter Nadia Reid is back home, briefly, before heading out on the road once again.
She’ll headline two hometown shows in the Port Chalmers Town Hall with support from friends Flora Knight and Sean Donald, and the Broken Heartbreakers.
SOMETHING A LITTLE BATTY
And finally, a quick plug for Space Bats, Attack! and The Bats.
The Bats are kicking off their NZ-UK-European Tour for new album The Deep Set, and Space Bats are fresh off a fabulous Radio One Live-to-Air currently streaming on YouTube, working on a much-anticipated new album of their own.
Hear it, see it
• Elan Vital’s Shadow Self is available now on LP, CD, and digital from fishriderrecords.bandcamp.com
• Nadia Reid Preservation Tour 2017, Thursday March 30, Port Chalmers Town Hall, with support Flora Knight and Sean Donald, at 7.30pm, and Friday, March 31, with support from The Broken Heartbreakers.
• The Bats The Deep Set Album Release Tour, tonight at Nga Maara Hall, North East Valley, with support from Space Bats, Attack!. Doors 7.30pm. Tickets $30 from Relics Music and undertheradar.co.nz
