Author: acute.pop

[ep] Nuovo Testamento – Trouble

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Nuovo Testamento live in Milan’24

Neon-drenched and heartbreak-ready, Nuovo Testamento’s Trouble is a synth-fueled invitation straight to the goth nightclub floor. The trio lean into the shimmer of classic Italo and 80s new wave nostalgia, but never sound stuck in time, as the production is sleek, sharp, and undeniably modern.

The mini-album thrives on contrast: euphoric hooks laced with just enough shadow, driving beats softened by a bittersweet edge. It’s fun, it’s feverish, and it’s irresistibly physical, as every track feels engineered to keep bodies moving beneath strobe lights and fog.

Trouble doesn’t just revisit the past; it reanimates it, giving familiar sounds a fresh pulse that feels perfectly suited to right now.

Stream below and buy the EP here.

[song] Bathing Suits – I Can Be A Freak

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Photo by Matt Auger

Listening to “I Can Be A Freak” by Leeds’ Bathing Suits feels like falling into a trance where distortion, synths, and pounding drums completely take over. The track mixes industrial post-punk grit with techno intensity, holding you captive in its chaotic rhythm.

Freyja Blevins’ snarling vocals, paired with a warped sample of Estelle’s “Freak”, turn the song into something sweaty, elaborate, and totally unhinged. It’s less a single than a full-body immersion, an ecstatic, noisy surrender where you can’t help but lose yourself.

Check it out below, and grab the cassette release here.

[album] Mareux – Nonstop Romance

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Nonstop Romance by Mareux is a deeply romantic, synth-driven record that marries darkwave grit with emotional melodrama. It’s atmospheric, cinematic, and unflinchingly earnest, an intimate journey through both glamour and shadows.

Its approach to romance, dark, lush, and immersive, echoes the mood and intensity of the best work by Robert Alfons (TR/ST), though Mareux brings a warmer, more analogue edge. Like Alfons, he channels passionate darkness through synth nostalgia, yet infuses it with his own atmospheric and emotionally raw essence.

The record also features some of the finest singles in Mareux’s discography: songs that distil his signature sound into its most memorable and immediate form. “Laugh Now Cry Later,” “Wild at Heart,” and “Ébène Fumé”—the latter featuring brilliant Riki—are destined to linger in listeners’ minds long after the record stops spinning.

Each track feels like a vignette from an untold film, pulling the listener into a world where love is at once intoxicating and dangerous. The songs embrace a simple, minimal structure, yet they’re crafted with such precision and polish that they become utterly irresistible. When executed with this level of skill, minimalism can be as seductive and memorable as the most elaborate productions.

Listen below and purchase the album here.

[video] Marissa Nadler – Light Years

acute.pop

Marissa Nadler’s much-anticipated new album New Radiations arrives tomorrow via Sacred Bones and Bella Union. After captivating listeners with the title track and “Hatchet Man”, the acclaimed American singer-songwriter now unveils the third glimpse into the record: “Light Years”.

A haunting meditation on love’s slow fade, the single drifts through memories of connection once vivid, now dimmed with time. Wrapped in Nadler’s signature poetic intimacy, the track blooms with dreamy instrumentation, layered harmonies, and an atmosphere you can almost step inside.

Accompanied by a music video shot and directed by Nadler herself, “Light Years” is as much a visual reverie as it is a sonic one.

Watch below and pre-order the LP here.

[ep] Flooding – object 1

acute.pop

Flooding’s object 1, released last month, is a sharp, compact EP that distils the band’s knack for contrast into four tightly constructed noise rock songs.

Across its 17 minutes, delicate, ethereal vocals are set against bursts of drone-heavy intensity, mixing the fragility of slowcore with the bite of loud, antagonistic post-hardcore sound.

The mini-album feels like walking alone down a dark street at midnight, with every shadow alive with threat, yet the quiet wraps you in a strange warmth. Fear lingers at the edges, but you find yourself savouring it, as if the darkness has claimed you and made you feel at home.

Stream below and buy the release here.