Demo-Rec: Full Fleshed

Despite the Internet opening up basically unlimited access to music and radio from across time and space, Naarm (Melbourne, Australia)-based community radio station PBS.FM remains a vital listen for its passion, curation, and opportunity for discovery. From shows such as "Club it to Death" with its focus on Australian and New Zealand DIY obscurities, to the heavy dub and reggae selections of "Riddim Yard", or the beats and breaks of "The Blend", the sheer vitality, vibrancy, and eclecticism of disparate music nerds working collectively is enchanting.

It was via "Club it to Death" that I stumbled over FULL FLESHED’s enigmatic Demo. Despite its brevity – 3 tracks clocking in at under 5 minutes collectively – it contains some of the more seductive songs within broadly the Goth and Darkwave milieu at present.

Opener ‘Axed and Full Fleshed’ clicks in like a solid, wispy Gothic cliché before a killer synth lead enters and the song descends into a wonderful Witch-House-esque mess of noise.

Second track ‘Validation Fixation’ is by far the best written ‘song’ on the EP. Wistful vocals float between subdued synth melodic lines with a lovely, languid sense of narrative. Time and space slow and open up, while the interplay of melodic aspects create an engrossing harmonic deluge of pleasure.

The arpeggiated synths of closing track ‘Destruction Time Again’ bring to mind SILENT SERVANT’s Lust Abandon, if slightly less taut. Running under foggy, breathy vocals that seem to expand across multiple registers and you have a gorgeous little snippet of Darkwave lusciousness. As is all of the demo, to be honest.

by Michael Burns