Growl
A broken neon sign hums, glitching in the dark. Pointing hellwards. Into the sonic basement. The underbelly of this industrial kingdom. Metal chains clank somewhere in the distance. Smoke bleeds from open wounds in the concrete. Whispered vocals and heavy guitar lure you towards a pulsation you can feel in the air as you climb towards the tunnels below the city. You are nearing the heartbeat. Synths blur your senses as you stumble onward, in search of the brooding bass that continues to build. It calls you. It calls you. It calls you. This is hardcore darkwave. This is dark electronic pop. This is Growl.
ARENA, Pixel Grip (2021)
If you’re looking for power, Pixel Grip has got you covered. The Chicago-native trio has been making industrial grit pop for six years now, and they keep getting bolder. While their 2025 LP Percepticide: The Death of Reality is a strong record, but I prefer the understatement of ARENA (2021). The record gracefully plays with electro-rock, dark club energy, and cursed synth melodies.
From the “Your pussy wait, my pussy go” of ALPHAPUSSY to Boy Harsher-like lust of Pursuit to indie R&B groove of Play Noble to the genius build-up of Dancing On Your Grave, ARENA captures darkwave in its entirety. Setting aside the few holes in the production (vocal and otherwise), ARENA is mystifying, intimidating, and ravenous.
ICU RUN, Camilla Sparksss (2025)
I was excited for this album as soon as I Camilla Sparksss released I Like The Noise. The single was an obnoxiously seductive assortment of textures compiled into something that fell inbetween acid breakbeat, bitch techno, and pop electronica. With facsinating foreign instrumental influences (that I am not knowledgable to place exactly), I Like The Noise is one of the hottest songs of the year.
Sparksss builds on this energy in the complete LP ICU RUN, though it takes more subtle forms. In French, Italian, and English, she invites us to step into our own alter egos. With show-off confidence, direct desire, and a taste for thrill, Sparksss stirs heavy, industrial textures onto an electo-pop canvas, leaving us with something truly robust.
Manual For Dying, Patriarchy (2025)
The self-proclaimed “snuff-pop pioneers” have returned in 2025 with a hard-hitting portrait of mania. Speaking of portraits, the album cover is one. Patriarchy is a duo with their own little one that they take from tour performance to tour performance. This is one of the many factors that make Patriarchy accessible - at least more so than the other artists featured on this playlist.
Among the other factors are Patriarchy’s lyrics, which feature occasional pockets of vulnerability like “I miss your warmth, the way your body’s stronger than mine” mixed in amongst the lines about keeping your boy on a leash. Meanwhile, Actually Huizenga’s intentionally unpolished and occasionally imperfect voice keeps us tethered to something in-reach. The album is clear, instructive. In this way, Manual For Dying is true to it’s name, teaching us exactly how to sink into the darkest corners of our desire and destruction.
No Sound, Mercy Girl (2025)
No Sound is the Glasgow-based Mercy Girls’ newest release. While only an EP, it packs a punk comprable to the LPs featured in this playlist. It is a high-intensity four-track lineup jammed with lush synth and dark feminine mystique. It honors the feeling of wandering in a dark city, losing yourself in movement, in others, in corporal experience. It is a record for getting out of your head and searching for something undefined.
(My one complaint was cutting No Sound short. The end is an absolute tease. I would have loved an extended version of that track.)
SANG D’ENCRE, Potochkine (2025)
At the intersection of electroclash, dark theater, and club sweat, there is the beautiful SANG D’ENCRE. In their fourth studio album, French duo Potochkine emerges shadowy and reserved while still offering something danceable and dynamic. The album is perfectly paced, sophisticated, grandiose. The production is varied but consistently impressive. Through and through, SANG D’ENCRE feels like a coherent and complete piece of work.
Hard-hitting tracks like Partir balance out well the droning of tracks like La Source, leaving something measured yet impressive. I would have welcomed more songs out of my own greed, though I applaud Potochkine for making something so thoroughly rewarding without wasting a song.
