Altered Zones

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Altered Zones is proud to present the title track of Xeno & Oaklander's forthcoming Sets & Lights LP, which drops October 11th from New York minimal synth/coldwave stable Wierd Records. On the heels of their excellent, Repulsion-inspired video for "The Staircase," this second single affirms the New York duo's penchant for Baroque chromaticism, economical beat-programming, and mining the gap between camp romance and deep existential uncertainty.

The electrifying call-and-reponse between Sean McBride (Xeno) and Liz Wendelbo (Oaklander) doesn't just sound straight out of a rock opera set in the late '70s of Bauhaus and Christian Death; it describes a world in which life has become indistinguishable from performance. "The theater, the stage, the sets, the lights," intones a characteristically deadpan McBride against Weldelbo's soaring, crystal clear soprano. "The players who weary every night. They slash their arms, they slash their eyes." "Sets & Lights" is as flamboyant as it is restrained, and its underccurent of despair is all the more palpable because it never quite bubbles over the surface. --Emilie Friedlander, Altered Zones

MP3: Xeno & Oaklander: "Sets & Lights"

Sets & Lights LP is out October 11th on Wierd Records

Last Friday, FACT premiered "Staircase," the new single from Brooklyn synth duo Xeno & Oaklander off their forthcoming LP on Wierd Records, Set and Lights. Taryn Waldman's video is the perfect accompaniment to the track. Stripped of colour, the desolate interior of the house and its winding staircase becomes a center for the eerie interplay of loss, yearning, voyeurism, and maybe obsession, all coming to a psychic climax. With the chill of the drum loop trickling down your spine, the angular synth lines and Liz Wendelbo's ephereal vocals, "Staircase" is a captivating and dark track to lose your body and mind to. --Daniel Gottlieb, via FACT

MP3: Xeno & Oaklander: "Staircase"

Set and Lights is out October 11th on Wierd Records