“Goth Housing” is the fifth album by Viennese producer Sundl. And: music for souls who cite the smell of basement vaults as their relationship status. Sundl calls it Goth House, and not without reason. On the one hand: sweaty euphoria, that manic sense of togetherness at 4:12 a.m. On the other: the noble pallor, the David Lynch curtain of the world. For Sundl, this is not a sham marriage. Rather, it is a passionate affair in the Père Lachaise cemetery, where optimism is buried in black turtlenecks.
To this end, “Goth Housing” first paints a vanitas still life as club music. Of …
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“Goth Housing” is the fifth album by Viennese producer Sundl. And: music for souls who cite the smell of basement vaults as their relationship status. Sundl calls it Goth House, and not without reason. On the one hand: sweaty euphoria, that manic sense of togetherness at 4:12 a.m. On the other: the noble pallor, the David Lynch curtain of the world. For Sundl, this is not a sham marriage. Rather, it is a passionate affair in the Père Lachaise cemetery, where optimism is buried in black turtlenecks.
To this end, “Goth Housing” first paints a vanitas still life as club music. Of course, without the hands-up promise, without the eternally stupid “something's about to happen.” Because here, it happens all the time – not as a formula for intoxication, but as critical infrastructure. Yes, Goth lives here. With a registration form. Without heating. And behind poorly insulated walls. An album like a building that casts longer shadows at night than during the day.
You listen to “Goth Housing” and think of everything at once: Robert Smith secretly taking ecstasy, vacant properties in Vienna’s Josefstadt, the total absence of vitamin D, and the question of whether black is really the answer or whether it just makes you invisible to the impositions of the outside world.
“Goth Housing” is probably not an album about darkness at all, but rather about consistency. About going ahead with something without having to constantly comment on it. So Sundl continues to build. Room by room. And it's only later that you realize you've long since moved in.
(c) Christoph Benkeser
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Music by Christian Sundl
except Organ Piece I by Andreas Karl
Produced by Christian Sundl
Mixed and mastered by Philipp Forthuber
Photography by Marija Jociūtė
Layout by Kathi Reidelshöfer
Vocal samples by Jane Augustine, Beat Street, Diana DiPrima, Crad Kilodney, Lorraine Plum, Kathleen Raine, Vernon & Burns
Released on cassette by Cut Surface and Wilhelm Show me the Major Label.
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