This summer saw Occult A/V unveil Nightworks, a trilogy of EPs on Deathrage Records which push into the balance of earthly and otherworldly forces. From the dancey drones of Slow Fade Into Oblivion to the brighter, more nostalgic vibe of follow up What Was Forgotten Is Now Alive, Kumler holds up an image of human society both striking and slightly strange. Though in this strangeness he finds some higher truth. The influence of figures like Fisher and Adam Curtis is made apparent, a view where eeriness and peculiarity are not some deviation from reality but its underlying nature. A vision of a world that’s lonely and volatile and shot through with drastic action—plagued by its dark histories and aborted dreams.

Today sees the the release of the trilogy’s final EP, Speculative Apocalypse. Further pushing the balance from human warmth to cosmic weirdness, the release offers a sublime vision of the end of the world. One that exists beyond humanity, as captured in the distorted lead single ‘Corpses in Bloom’. Here the nostalgia is erased along with everything else, vapourised into the very abstract forces from which it all emerged. A phenomenon at once terrifying and glorious. The EPs serve “to remind us that human history is nothing more—and our lives nothing less—than reverberations of the big bang,” the label explain, and Occult A/V proves itself a project capable of outlining such weighty themes.

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Pass/Ages are a duo, Caitlin Grimalkin and Jonn Gauntletier, from Vero Beach, Florida. They’re a darkwave band, drawing upon all kinds of late 70s and early 80s influences to create dark and shadowy synth pop. Their debut full-length, Taken Underneath, has recently been released by Katuktu Records.

Opener ‘As It Rises’ sets the scene, building from mean-sounding fuzzy guitar and the hollow pulse of percussion, thick with a sense of morbidly romantic ruin. But for all the nostalgic reference points, Pass/Ages are making music for the here and now. The ominous, apocalyptic atmosphere isn’t concerned with blast radius and toxic fallout but rather rising sea levels, the irresistible advance of all-engulfing water.

Buildings collapse, rivers rise up
against the city walls
the ocean roars with laughter as
she wipes the slate clean

‘Possession’ is a ghost story, the narrator welcoming another spirit into their body, while the title track is lush and dramatic, containing just one repeated line that again captures a sense of futility. “When the tide pulls in,” they say, “I am taken underneath.” ‘How Much Did You Take?’ has a thumping bass line and floating ice-cool vocals, while ‘When the Sky Ignites’ sounds harsh and fractured, synth pop for a sub-zero Cold War concrete wasteland, now left to gather weeds and ivy.

Named after the meadows of the Greek underworld, ‘Asphodel’ continues this stark and ominous feel, while ‘Cavalcade’ feels murky and spacious, Grimalkin’s dramatic lyrics delivered with a soul-sucked dead-eyed calmness.

But you mistook their cold eyes for starlight,
And you mistook their breath for the wind,
And you mistook their skeletal limbs
For the branches of the trees

Finale ‘Materialize Me’ finishes things off with one last blast of off-centre synth pop, delivered first person from the perspective of some malignant being. “I live on the edges,” Grimalkin sings, “the breath and the mist, the space in between,” and the enveloping sound has you believing every word.

Taken Underneath is out now on cassette via Katuktu Collective.

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