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Band: Chiron
Album title: The Sun Goes Down
Release date: 14 January 2022
Label: Dark Vinyl Records
Genre: Darkwave, Dark Electro, Post-Punk, Ambient
Tracklist:
01. Surrender
02. Rage
03. Sadly
04. Darker Days
05. Let Us Begin
06. Deep Inside
07. Frantic
08. Forsaken
09. Decline
10. That Feeling
11. Torn
12. Darker Days (Jean Marc Ledderman - Remix)
After seven years of silence, the Australian darkwave/post-punk act Chiron returns with a new album, and it's, by all means, the best album that Chiron ever released. For those who never heard of this name before, Chiron is the brainchild of the ex-Ikon vocalist Michael Aliani (aka Carrodus). On this album, Michael gets joined by the current member of Ikon, the bass player Dino Molinaro. Dino was a member of the Chiron's original line-up in 1997. For the first time, Chiron introduces the saxophonist Leanne Coe. The Sun Goes Down offers the darkest output by Chiron so far, and with it, the band distances a bit from post-punk. The album thematically deals with dark themes like isolation, loneliness and loss, and those perfectly suit the overall mood of the music presented on this record.
The album, which will in the first place please fans of gothic and dark music, offers a lot of diversity. It certainly gets to the genre borders with many experimentations, especially in the second half of the album ambience gets moody and cinematic, sometimes even reaching dark ambient. Michael Aliani devoted himself to those compositions, as it vibrates smoothly, it's dynamic but melancholic and depressive as it can get. Because of the fantastic yet tasteful insertions of saxophone, the sound flirts with dark jazz and minimalistic noir music. The expansive use of electronics and keys is ambiguous, sometimes to keep the rhythmic sequence running, other times to deepen the atmosphere, or simply to add that necessary dose of darkness. Michael Aliani's raspy deep vocals go from total coldness to warm emotional tone, sometimes spoken, sounding absent, distant, other times omnipresent and talking to the listener with pure devotion.
The album consists of 11 hypnotic but original songs plus one remix of "Darker Days" done by Jean-Marc Ledderman. The songs range from rhythmic grooves like is "Sadly", danceable ones like the opener "Surrender", melancholic cold ones as it is "Darker Days", which sounds even better in its remixed form, and atmospheric gloomy ones like the rather cinematic "Forsaken". Sometimes we hear tribalistic samples like in "Let Us Begin", but what enthuses the most are deep, reverberating and exploiting bass lines, maybe the best use of bass I ever heard in the entire darkwave genre. Rarely there are some obscure post-punkish guitars to be heard, and sometimes we can enjoy in mournful cello.
One of the best songs on The Sun Goes Down is the cold and moody "Deep Inside", but you can't get past the psychotic frenzy called "Frantic". Toying with the cold wave, jazz, ambient, experimental electronics, and anything goth, Chiron delivers a smooth, modern, sometimes dreamy audio experience, from start to finish. There's more, and each song brings forth something different, something addictive and utterly dark. Throughout it is deep, haunting, vibrant and emotive movement, it's meant to shake the listener from inside out. The experimental ambient nature of Chiron is present in the instrumental psychedelic dark jazz rendition "That Feeling", but the true face of Chiron reveals in the scatty piece "Torn".
Chiron did a very good job on The Sun Goes Down, far from average. It's far from being an 80s rip-off, and it also distances a lot from their kindred souls Ikon, as it offers modern experimental dark music with many twists and turns. Sometimes sounding almost like a lost child of Joy Division and Bohren & Der Club Of Gore, but it doesn't limit anywhere. The challenging songs should get experienced in solitude, with a glass of good whisky, but some of the pieces should be discovered by clubs DJ's and played there as potential hits. Eerie but weird romantic, danceable and moody, yet much more, this is Chiron on The Sun Goes Down. This is where darkwave gets expansive, where post-punk turns cinematic, and where dark electronics dance together with gloomy jazz.
The review was written by Tomaz
Rating: 8/10
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