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Review: 'Mayflower Madame'
'Ludwig Meidner'   


-  Genre: 'Punk/New Wave' -  Release Date: '19th November 2020'

Our Rating:
As an old goth, I tend not to be a massive fan of new goth. By which I mean most of the school of the school of ‘86 onwards, meaning most second wave and post-millennial stuff leaves me colder than a Siberian witch’s grave in January. Call me a traditionalist, call me picky, whatever. The problem for me is that so much of this feels so derivative: it’s either old goth done badly, old goth done indie, or techno/disco goth done badly.

Mayflower Madame stand out because they not only do it well, but bring their own twist. They’re clearly steeped in the old-school trappings, down to the hat-wearing and monochromatic imagery, not to mention the guitars dripping chorus and the whole production being drenched in reverb. They get brooding and atmosphere. And they’re all about death and graves, which may be beyond cliché, but even one of the most legendary goth-deniers, Andrew Eldritch, has enough references to graves and burials in his lyrics to suggest that eve the mot post-punk, non-goth of so-called goth acts weren’t averse to such matters.

Sonically, Oslo’s finest, Mayflower Madame, owe more to The Mission, but they’ve got a psychedelic, surfy slant to their sound, and their second album, ‘Prepared For A Nightmare’ plunged deeper into darkness than their debut, ‘Observed in a Dream’, and ‘Ludwig Meidner’ is entirely representative, aiming for a sound single selection – and this one’s about dancing on graves..

Inspired by (and dedicated to) German expressionist painter Ludwig Meidner (1884-1966), ‘mostly known for his apocalyptic landscapes and cityscapes which portray the chaotic modern world as a ferment volcano about to erupt’, the song places its inspiration into a contemporary context, describing ‘a relentless search and longing for sources of intensified emotions in the mechanized concrete jungle’.

It's dark, it’s tense, it’s angular, and it’s dense, and it’s gripping and quite simply got everything and more you’d want from a gothy post-punk tune.

  author: Christopher Nosnibor

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