Jamestown, NY’s STCLVR is back with a throbbing new post-industrial single, “Gutterlungs.” Seemingly taken from a DJ set performed by Lucifer Himself, the track combines Hacienda-ready drums and synths harkening New Order and Happy Mondays and pairs them with Helvete-approved guttural screams soaked in fuzz and reverb. George Moore, the mastermind behind STCLVR, laments achingly over its concise three and a half minutes, dragging listeners further down the void with each bone-breaking drum loop and every lung-tearing scream, all melding together in a twisted maelstrom of gut-crushing pulses and thuds: “In a sweat-soaked bed, so old and dead, gutter habitat, expressionless stare.”
Like sitting cross-legged without affect staring blankly down the middle of a crowded, sleazy nightclub dance floor in the strangest part of town, the completely polar dichotomy between the track’s danceable backbeat and the hopeless, nihilistic dread within Moore’s wails proves to be the song’s biggest strong suit. “Gutterlungs” and its sheer force serve as an imminent and bleak reminder of the agonies and tribulations of day to day life, that much of existence is pain. But while the human that grasps this pain may fall into complete and eternal despair, rather than end it all, perhaps it’s just easier to dance it away.
Mixed and mastered by noise legend Derek Rush, “Gutterlungs” is available now on all music platforms.
Written by Jesse James Kaufman