Back in 2019, Asheville-based post-punk outfit Secret Shame released their debut Dark Synthetics, a record which introduced their distinctively shadowy sound. Combining post-punk foreboding with the black crystalline clarity of 80s goth, the album was simultaneously emotive, energetic and eerie. A style held together by the urgency of Lena Machina’s vocals.
Secret Shame are about to head back to Asheville’s Drop of Sun studio to work on a follow-up, and to celebrate they have unveiled a brand new single, ‘Hide’. Despite its relative youth, Drop of Sun has quickly become renowned in the area, welcoming Wednesday, MJ Lenderman, Indigo De Souza and Angel Olsen among others, but ‘Hide’ holds the honour of being the first ever single recorded at the studio back in June 2021.
Far from being a throwaway single, ‘Hide’ is every bit as intense as any other Secret Shame track. A ferocious, no holds barred descent into the depths of a psyche, emerging if not triumphant then somehow born again. Seeing the world anew. As Machina writes:
The abysmal valley you’ve been sleeping in for your entire life sparks into a fiery horizon without warning. You’re too caught off guard by this sudden change to notice that flames are growing. Rapidly, they eat up everything on the outside of your shell and pursue the light inside of you. They pull it from you and exfoliate you with sharp teeth and burdens. The flames leave no room for judgment or improvement; they only leave room for denial and the harsh stripping of what once made you who you are. You twist and burn.
Slower this time and with even less thought given towards it, the heat grows cold and lonely. The cold towers over the flames and extinguishes them, ready to move on to better meals. It washes over the embers and creates a consistent ash, smoking on your rubble. Once the heat has subsided and all that’s left is isolating cold, the emptiness makes room for a blinding and spectacular light. Everything parts to reveal something clean and new. It’s a beautiful feeling, but still sharp. This new iridescent light has you realizing you don’t know who you are anymore. You’ve been scalded repeatedly and you can’t recognize yourself. You can’t sink into this. You don’t know how to handle the beauty
