DRIFT. – Black Devotion EP
A welcome release from the pain of banal musicians. So long have I dealt in things dark, yet constantly weak in the sense of suck. So typical for extreme music, rely on aggression. Must the dark always be as such? No, sometimes delicacy is needed, something ethereal and frail. Like a gaunt bride under a veil, to whom you are wed and who shall soon die, she raises the lace from in front of her eyes. Black curls frame her jawbone, running down to the point where her neck meets the base of her skull and she stares deep into your face. Her lips move forward with her eyes empty and open, you raise your trembling fingers to her cheeks, finding them cold, running the tips to the back of her skull, its hardness tightening her ailing flesh. Her eyes stare through you as she accepts your lips, not reciprocating the kiss, merely receiving. From the cold touch of her dry skin, you open your eyes to see nothing in your hands as they run in the air through a mist as she dissipates like a specter. Ah the melancholy of tortured love, dying love, or of an idea never achieved, only thought, an obsession left in own’s mind. The creation of music to fit such an image is timeless, yet demanding for the very reason that it must recall the past while placing itself into its own present, looking ahead to what has yet to come as a final gasp from a dying generation as love continues to crumble. How much I needed to feel this way after all the metal I’ve received recently, all the garbage, swept up by the current of DRIFT. and Black Devotion.
It’s been awhile since I’ve checked out anything by AVANT! Records, and actually doing a cursory site search to it seems I never did, at least on the new site, so let those words die. Well, I can at least say I was familiar with them before, I just can’t remember how, or what, only the why. Those words can cough a little, but not die, because now I can always say I know of this wonder of darkness, DRIFT. The only thing uncertain is whether or not another period was necessary after the name, because it itself has a period. Should I waste more time as I am known to do, on proper punctuation? DRIFT. is the solo project of Nathalia Bruno, who’s been haunting the outskirts of the scene like a looming shadow over the shoulder of a shoegazer for a few years, including synthwave trio Phosphor and floor worshipers Leave The Planet. DRIFT. is an expression purely of Bruno herself, who refers to her direction as ‘devotional synth.’
That devotion is of the afflicted type. Perhaps a prayer from a patient with bone cancer in full realization that today is the last, and yes, no one is listening, anywhere, except they themselves. It’s fruitless, and those words spoken in vain is the paint with which Black Devotion has been composed. Sometimes when artists take the solo path, it’s a method to verify they exist outside of the respective band they’re in; an attempt to verify “I don’t need them, I need me,” when really without ‘them’ they are nothing but a name. Often I’ve had to admit that truth in the digital world with some of these promos I receive, and I thoroughly enjoy the pain it causes, and the comment wars because that equals more site exposure and Facebook likes. No need to reveal such failures again, that’s already been done, but let us be thankful that DRIFT. is an example of the complete opposite, and yes, something one should desire. Black Devotion is like the sickly whisper of a dying lover that lingers in your head until the moment you pass. Bruno’s usage of electronics is kept under a mist, like walking in a damp city in the morning when night has just lifted, but the neon still glows. Her electronics are simple, but tightly weaved with the understitch of her spectral voice. This type of music usually works much like it did in the 80s, since that’s the essential inspiration usually. The vocals, if they even exist in this type of music, are presented as too much of a showcase. DRIFT., however, utilizes them as another instrument, so to speak. They’re thin, yet heavy with emotion, aimlessly floating through the music itself, and drawing the listener into a morose state of unbeing. It’s another part of an entire image, which cannot exist singularly. Regardless of my perception, it’s clear this is easily the best example of this type of music in probably the past decade. Bruno might want to consider, no offense, forgetting those other things, and focusing on a solo career, because rarely do I give anything a perfect, and everyone knows it, and like I’m important, I think.
Written by Stanley Stepanic
DRIFT.: Black Devotion
AVANT! Records
5 / 5
