Faux Naïf

Reel Torque Vol. 33

Genre: INDUSTRIAL / WAVE / ELECTRO

Cassette

Boomkat Product Review:

Reel Torque obey the darkroom command of goth and body music Madam, faux naïf on a debut mixtape readied for kink ritual and bat dancers, ahead of her sets for Elegia and EXO at Annihilation Eve and The White Hotel, Manchester, 12th July, 2024.

faux naïf is a specialist DJ skooled in the dark arts at London’s legendary Electrowerkz in the late ‘90s / early ‘00s, and later in the decade at Berghain, where she and her coven introduced Reel Torque to the pleasures of Berlin. She spent many years behind-the-scenes at fabric in the 2010s before emerging as one of London’s most prized goth and EBM matriarchs via countless sets in the city’s kink and queer clubs, and her radio shows for Threads, The Lot, and Rinse FM, hosting the likes of Karl O’Connor, whilst guesting on Silent Servant’s Optimistic Decay for NTS, and most recently acting as support DJ for Nitzer Ebb.

In her role for Reel Torque, faux naïf picks up the flame from series alum, Annie Hogan - a pioneer of alt.club DJing - to explore two distinct, but interrelated, obsessions with contemporary darkwave goth and meat-motor musicks that dovetail prevailing tastes for this sound in the 2020’s underground club rhizome. No dilettante, faux naïf brings a lifetime immersed in the nightlife’s shadow economy and culture to selections that join the dots between then and now, all ripe for young goths finding their batwings, and veterans who can’t shake it.

Her A-side preps the room via a run of opulent modern classics and personal favourites tinted with a particular atmospheric license and swooning thrust sure to get goths on the ‘floor. The B-side speaks to her parallel interests in proper body musics, bending the timeline between original, sharp-elbowed ‘80s gear and its echoes in the ever growing scene of EBM techno that has taken hold with young, queer crowds who weren’t even born when it was first soundtracking the sanctuaries of society’s outsiders.

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