Underground EBM Duo SDH Unleashes Their Sophomore Record Fake Is Real
The band’s highly anticipated second album is out today and awaits listeners with an exciting fusion of Darkwave, Artpop, and Italo Disco.
Fake is Real is SDH’s sophomore album, released today June 30th via Avant! Records. The underground EBM duo comprised of Andrea P. Latorre and Sergi Algiz hails from Barcelona and aims to shake up the scene with their tagline “cruelly sexy electronic music”. Standing for Semiotics Department of Heteronyms, their approach to arrangement and production is as proudly left-field as their acronym.
In the digital age an underground yet fiercely loyal fanbase is deeply important, and based on the hype on their Bandcamp SDH excel at this. After the revelation of only 3 tracks, Fake is Real has their listeners clamoring for their highly original brand of EBM that in some places has more in common with Artpop than the Darkwave and Italo Disco that inspire parts of it.
The long wait since their first album – over 5 years – has nevertheless seen them maintain a presence within the Spanish Darkwave and EBM scene. Their first single off the new album, “Denial”, is a cleverly crafted homage to the Italian poet Pasolini’s “La Negazione Deve Essere Assoluta”, showing the breadth of their influence – and a dark and moody music video by Pilar Gost.
What makes them so exciting is how they craft the atmospheric influences behind their music as opposed to simply looking at the classic arrangements popular within the scenes that have inspired them. It makes for bold and individual music; in the stand-out track “Hollowed Out”, trip-hop style vocal production and smooth synths make it a space-age yet melancholy piece that has soulful, dreamlike undertones.
It’s touches like this and the plucked synth sounds at the start of opener “Denial’” that means they’re consciously trying to break the mold. Since 2018 when they released their eponymous debut, plus the following EPs Against Strong Thinking and Maybe A Body, they have proven a capacity for reinvention that is consistently strong – with new and exciting features – in their sophomore. The hotly anticipated release of the album follows an exciting tour that took place over the month of June in support of fellow Barcelona band Fatamorgana and encompassed shows in Austria, Slovenia, Serbia, Romania, and Italy, amongst other destinations.
Fake Is Real is out now via Avant! Records and can be purchased here.
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SDH (ES)
Featured Image by Patricia Fort
