The black scene is back with a new creative core of a number of fresh neo-wave bands, and it seems as if the vast majority of them are avoiding the mistakes of the past: on the one hand, they deal openly with clichés in a playful way and keep many doors open – on the other hand, the dark goth soul is taken far too seriously to be sacrificed on the “unholy” mainstream altar. A number of strong genre bands released remarkable records in 2022 – but in the end none came close to “Liebe”, the second album by synthwave sensation Rue Oberkampf from Munich. The trio, whose martial name comes from the Paris metro station of the same name, had essentially performed strictly minimalist and therefore somewhat bulky EBM somewhere between Die Form and Kraftwerk on their debut album in 2019. Now, however, the elegant dark musicians have opened up to a much more stretched analog bouquet between techno and synthpop that enriches their beguiling wave coolness with pulsating grooves and, above all, exciting harmonies, which, however, continue to revolve around a gritty core cosmos. Despite occasional references to clear 80s roots, it also sounds very unique, anything but retro and is never closely attached to veterans like Depeche Mode or even black disco fashion waves like Future Pop or Cyber Goth. In other words: the vast majority of old electronic scene bands look rather scrawled after their own caricature compared to the confidently artful shadowy being of Rue Oberkampf, and even strong representatives like Wolfsheim surpass this promising group around the androgynous goosebumps singer Julia de Jouy in places. Wonderful!
Our annual charts were put together by the music critics of the “Freie Presse”. You can find all previous placements HERE.