Cruel Black Dove
Cruel Black Dove descended on Glasslands in prime form, sporting their special brand of smooth edged death rock, dark charisma, and pulsing industrial beats. Using sex appeal as an element of a cohesive live aesthetic rather than a contrived stab at being provocative is something that doesn’t happen often enough. Cruel Black Dove manages to walk the right side of that line with practiced style. It probably helps that burqas would – make the band look absolutely terrifying – not be able to hide the deceptive and intricate vocal arrangements, not to mention the skill behind their performances, male members of the band included. We see you back there, guys.

Other Crimes
Beginning their set with a song that resembled what surf rock might have become if Dick Dale had spent his teen years holed up in the Chateau des Amerois, instead of uh, going surfing, Other Crimes set a pattern for what followed: darker reorderings of the rock subgenres a band normally takes for granted or discounts entirely when listing their conscious or deliberate influences. The songs’ thoughtful arrangements and carefully managed momentum evidenced the care that went into writing them and crafting them into something so affecting. Dalila Pasotti’s voice proved dynamic and expressive, with deep roaring tones shifting into softer lilting moments. As evidenced by their almost unrecognizable rework of Iggy Pop’s “Gimme Danger,” other Crimes has an unquestionable ownership of their sound.

-words by Luke Carrell
-photos by Tyler Flatt
-more photos, vids, mp3, etc can be found at http://www.pendu.org/events/past/07-13-10

La Big Vic
When a band opens a set with a pop friendly, vocoded piece, followed by a five-minute-plus exercise in soundscape building, you know you’re in for an experience. Whether positive or negative, it’s hard to know at that point. La Big Vic’s live show definitely falls into the former. To be vague, it’s music that’s both maddeningly familiar and unexpected, either emerging from a devotion to one influence that you can’t quite place or a thousand somehow rendered unrecognizable. To be particular, it’s strongly melodic, 4/4 beat driven sections flowing seamlessly into stretches dominated by delayed violin and vocals in a graceful orbit around a core of synthesizers and effect washes. Something that’s simultaneously this diverse and cohesive is rare and what directions La Big Vic will take in the future is anyone’s guess, but for now, enjoy.

Prince Rama
With fans (mechanical) blowing full blast, Prince Rama took to the stage in a swarm of the big beats and effect unit tinged evocations that have earned them so much global love and attention. As fans (human) began to crowd the stage, it became apparent that either Prince Rama’s chanting had inadvertently summoned a heat elemental from beyond the void or that furious dancing can make you sweat. Only science can say which. Either way, the sweat lodge vibe close to the stage added a tactile element to the experience that nobody seemed to mind. After all, if there were a telescope that could find and subsequently record the wavelengths of the Planet o’ Good Vibes, it would sound suspiciously similar to Prince Rama. There was a strong sense that if the crowd could have sung along, they would have been. Instead, they settled for transfixed gazes, bouts of aforementioned dancing, and an audio induced buzz one fan described as “[feeling] good enough to stop smoking cigarettes.” Wow.

-words by Luke Carrell
-photos by Tyler Flatt
-more photos, vids, mp3, etc can be found at http://www.pendu.org/events/past/07-06-10

PENDU brought S4LEM to Glasslands in NYC on January 5 of this year along with Chicago’s GATEKEEPER to kick off our weekly “Horror Scores for the Dancefloor” party devoted to dark-as-fuck dance music from past to present. Our friends, Russ and Kristin from “Sold Out” were at SXSW this year and interviewed S4LEM about their upcoming projects and more.

Interview with SALEM by Russ and Kristin from SOLD OUT Magazine.

-posted by Todd Pendu Brooks

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The spirit of darkness has covered 2010 in a giant shroud of fog machines and awesome synth madness… This is the year of danceable gloom and doom… and White Car are bringing this spirit to NYC. PENDU is very excited to present the NYC debut of the duo known as White Car who along with Gatekeeper are putting Chicago on the map as one of they most exciting places currently producing new dark electronic dance music. White Car fuse elements of italo and horror soundtracks with spaced-out funk and post-punk leanings. There are elements that may point to the past, but these guys are no retro outfit trying to recapture a time long gone; these guys are reinventing the past to construct the future of 2010 and beyond. They released their EP on Rainbow Body Records only a few days ago, but it’s hype has been building for the last several months. Come out and see what the fuss is about. Below are videos and mp3’s as well as a link to a mixtape curated by White Car.

Come see WHITE CAR @ Glasslands in Brooklyn on March 9 as part of the Pendu-curated Weekly Dance Party known as HORROR SCORES FOR THE DANCEFLOOR… See you there. Check the flyer here: http://www.pendu.org/events

LISTEN: WHITE CAR

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Exclusive Offering by White Car

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WHITE CAR MIXTAPES

From Vice Magazine
http://www.viceland.com/music/2010/01/white-car-made-us-a-mixtape-and-some-snazzy-graphics

From Mishka NYC
http://mishkanyc.com/bloglin/2010/01/16/white-car-mix01-classic-industrial-ebm-free-download

Go to White Car’s official website here: http://www.white-car.net

-posted by Todd Pendu Brooks

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Pendu is bringing S4LEM (http://www.myspace.com/s4lem) to NYC! Yes, it’s true…. Right now, there is no doubt that Salem is creating a unique presence in electronic music. Epic dark murky depressed; Perfect for the HOPE-less world we live in. People that haven’t heard them always ask what they sound like and it’s great hearing the varied responses. Their sound is elusive for a description that falls into a particular genre, but they’re not forcing this. This is not contrived strangeness. In my mind, their sound couldn’t exist in any other time period other than now and in the future. Nothing retro here. It’s black…Bleak even. A kind of Bleak Majik. A soundtrack for the disaffected and disowned. Deep tones laden with a backbone of syrupy Tylenol-3 skrewed beats in a sinister hazy swirling of poolwater-drowning darkness: Salem create a tense kind of skrewed-shoegaze (“skrewgaze”). Nihilism for Urban Youth. In some ways, even though the music is aesthetically removed from from metal, it still has me imagining what buzzsaw black metal would sound like if it were fucked with by the late DJ Screw or by Three 6 Mafia but with ethereal vocals rising from the haze. They’re amazing, plain and simple. No hyperbole needed to sell the greatness of their work. There are bound to be imitators coming along behind them, but we know who the originators are.

- Todd ‘Pendu’ Brooks

Salem + Gatekeeper at Glasslands on January 5, 2010 -- Cya @ Thee Show! Buy Tix at http://www.pendu.org/store

SALEM -- DIRT from ACEPHALE on Vimeo.

Gucci Mane -- Round One (SALEM remix)

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