News

Mothlite: New SIngle in August

• 16th Jul 2012

Seeing In The Dark, the new single from Mothlite, is released on Kscope on August 13th. Mothlite is the brainchild of Daniel O’Sullivan (Ulver, Æthenor, Miracle, Grumbling Fur) and the single is taken from Dark Age, the band's second album which was released earlier this year on Kscope.

Dark Age, the follow-up to 2008’s The Flax Of Reverie, was recently rated as one of the top 50 albums of 2012 so far by The Quietus, who described it as, 'a startling, frank examination of the human (and perhaps especially male) condition delivered via synth bombast and towering choruses'. The NME stated; 'listening to 'Dark Age' can feel like sensory immersion… the album transcends genre, yet takes elements from the dark shadows of industrial rock and the glitch of electronica…it's a beguiling affair', while Wire noted that 'O'Sullivan is steadily carving a niche for himself as a highly accomplished avant-pop polymath.'

O'Sullivan himself describes Dark Age as “Dark megalomania, contradictions and paradoxes, and general bleakness”, yet rarely does such subject matter get delivered with such soaring pop aplomb, as can be heard on Seeing In The Dark, now available to stream on Kscope Soundcloud:

Dark Age has allowed O’Sullivan to break free from the confines of genre, taking influence from the likes of Tears For Fears and Kate Bush from his parents’ record collection through the industrial and gothic textures of DAF, The Cure, Coil and Dead Can Dance to the hardcore punk of his own personal roots. Indeed, O’Sullivan’s use of contradiction within the style of the record is a very deliberate choice: “If it was too bleak, with melancholy overriding the whole thing, then I’d counteract it with a huge chorus or huge hook”

Now the album is done, O’Sullivan is ready to move onto new things. “To be honest, I’m really glad that it’s over,” he says. “I felt like I couldn’t move until I got that out there.” Work has already started on a new Mothlite record and gigs are in the process of being booked for a tour later this year following a successful album launch gig which Prog described as scaling 'magical heights, this is eclectic art rock taken to the next level'.

O'Sullivan put together a new band for the show, the talent of which allows him to realise his ambitious plans for the Mothlite shows; “now that the drama has played out and everyone can see what it is, I can almost do a theatrical version of the scenes within. I don’t want to look as though I’m crying down the microphone night after night if we go on tour. I’d rather have a show.”