We’re playing catch up again today, but I think you’ll agree that it’s worth the effort with this band. I wasn’t previously aware of Emily Kinski’s Dead, but the fact that they were on the Swiss Dark Nights label spoke well for their level of accomplishment. Everything I’ve heard from the SDN has been of high quality, so when I got a note from my contact form about this release, I investigated. Even though the EP in question popped while I was on travel last week and incommunicado.

The trio in question are Emily Kinski’s Dead, and they are formed from 2/3 of a early 90s German EBM band I remember called No Comment with René Eber and Thomas Kowa as well as all of Nine Seconds [which I hadn’t heard of] with vocalist Oliver Spring. Mr. Kowa manages to write a lot more than music, in ways that make this Monk positively green with envy. With Emily Kinski’s Dead they are all aiming for the mid-80s target of Post-Punk/club music and hitting the bullseye readily, as we’ll see now.

Emily Kinski’s Dead: Dancing On The Battlefield – SW – DL [2024]

1. Dancing On The Battlefield [extended version]
2. Why Can’t You Lobe Me [single version]
3. Cold Comfort [single version]
4. Dancing On The Battlefield [single version]

The flanged, chorused bass rumbled seductively as glassy lead synths picked out a crystalline melody. Then the purely Post-Punk guitar, like so many these days, ripped from the John McGeoch playbook, pulled us close to its vest and made its case compellingly. Motorik trommelmaschine added the crisp pace to make the dancefloor pulse as one while Mr. Spring’s vocals were touched with just the right amount of distortion for the Front 242 adjacent vibe they were shooting for.

All of this was achieved with a perfect mixture of Cold Wave Club music and a beguiling underlying warmth that was allowed to seep into the song via the prominence given to both the round tones of the guitar as well as the female backing vocals. All very circa 1985 with one prominent caveat. The lyrics here were a bracing excoriation of the mindset behind the climate crisis performed as an embittered dialogue between the two schools of thought on the issue. Listen below.

“Why Can’t You Love Me” was only a love song on the face of it. As the song progressed, it seemed to give insight as to the group’s name as it proffered a look in to the mind of a killer; full of short circuits and malfunction. The pulsating music bed was European and cinematic. It seemed fully ready to be imported into an appropriate period TV show like “Kleo.”

The pensive “Cold Comfort” was a good contrast to the more dance oriented material on this EP. vocals of Mr. Spring were once more smeared liberally with vocoder distortion, but the vibe managed to juxtapose incredibly despairing lyrics of love [and hope, as well] utterly lost with a music bed that I swear to you, evoked Duran Duran’s “Save A Prayer,” complete with synthetic shakuhachi solo!

These gents look like they’ve been around the block as much as I have, so their ability to strike just the right amount of dark club nostalgia with contemporary touches as in the lyric to “Dancing On The Battlefield” give us much to appreciate in their latest project. The whole effect is as if 38 years ago, Front 242 had suddenly had an urge to enlist John McGeoch on lead guitar to radically transform their sound! The press release had them citing Sisters Of Mercy, Joy Division, and Killing Joke and I certainly can’t fault with that notion. The EP is distinguished by a vintage extended version of the A-side making this a must to have along with single mixes of two more tracks and the “7” mix” of the A-side. It’s yours for €6.00/£5.05/$6.61 and the full album it heralds, “Black Light District,” is on track for an October release. Which we’ll be hearing soon. Until then, DJ hit that button!

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