In a darkwave and electronic post punk desert such as exists currently, one must applaud Geodesic Records for consistently being able to find some of the best talent in this now niche-niche-niche genre. The latest find of the multi-genre label is a duo called Raudiver, whose multilayered sound only gives way to more layers of meaning and darkwave depth. Their debut album, Leave Before Dark, released on Friday the 13th (obviously), is the modern sonic answer to phantasmagoria.
Everything about Raudiver (pronounced ‘raw diver’) is ghostly and gothic, down to even their name and where the album was recorded. The husband and wife duo Charles Eddy and Lauren Villareal Eddy named their project ‘Raudiver’ after author and parapsychologist Konstantins Raudive, who wrote a famous-to-those-circles book, Breakthrough: An Amazing Experiment In Electronic Communication With the Dead, about the phenomenon known as EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomenon), which theorises that the voices of the dead can be picked up on radio frequency or microphone recordings. If that weren’t enough, Raudive’s name literally means ‘cry’ in Latvian. The recording of the album took place in a Victorian studio on Galveston Island in Texas that’s been around nearly 150 years and survived a deadly hurricane in 1900. The gothic scene is certainly set.
The Eddys’ earlier project, EL LAGO had many of Raudiver’s shoegazey elements, with wall of sound guitar work and wall of sound sonics, but fans might be surprised to lean that many of the elements of this very polished darkwave sound and goth aesthetic happened largely by trial and error. They didn’t necessarily intend to create a goth album.
We went in with a no-rules writing style for this record to encourage any ideas to be explored and allow the songs to develop fully.
Said ideas were, indeed, fully developed, and the resulting album is about as pristine as one can get whilst still muddling through the maudlin tones of darkwave and indie goth. With such a defined sound, however, the album is surprisingly varied. Vocalist Lauren Villareal Eddy’s almost celestial, tinkling voice slices through the rich, dense darkwave tones in many of the tracks like ‘Mary Tombs’ and ‘Find a Heaven’, creating a sort of Sleigh Bells-meets-Bauhaus effect that’s as charming as it is emotive. In other tracks like the industrial-tinged ‘True Faith’, and ‘Cold Calling’, Lauren smooths out her vocals and shows a more sensual and foreboding side that gives a bit of Siouxsie Sioux or Shakespeare’s Sister.
The layers continue with the music, which is a heartfelt homage to synths: dreampop, industrial, darkwave, post punk and shoegaze mix together in a way that’s experimental yet melodic and leaves the listener not knowing what to expect from song to song. The opening track ‘Leave’ is a desperate, emotional nod to Love and Rockets while the very next track, ‘Mary Tombs’ is, in the band’s own words, ‘a goth-pop melodrama for Omnichord.’ Despite it being heavy and spooky with Lauren’s lyrics centering around toxic relationships and emotional turmoil, it sounds like Leave Before Dark was a lot of fun to make.
Moody, relatable, haunting and with just a touch of pop for funsies, Raudiver have hit on a winner with Leave Before Dark. While it remains to be seen whether Charlie and Lauren will do more with this project or go back to EL LAGO, fans can likely respect the same interesting and creative take on minor chord manipulation from this duo. In the meantime, goth fans everywhere are likely to have this album on repeat, especially in this darkest time of year.
Leave Before Dark is out now and can be purchased on Bandcamp (with limited edition CD and vinyl options) or streamed on Spotify. Check out Raudiver’s YouTube channel for more videos including a cover of Blue Öyster Cult’s ‘Nosferatu’.