Single Art by Tom Lescovich
There is a chill in the air, the kind that bites through wool and leather and forces you to pull up your collar against the icy fingers grasping for the exposed flesh of your neck. The sun sets too early and shadows stretch and twist in ways that make familiar corners unsettling. The walk home becomes a nervous affair, pace involuntarily quickened as your heart pulses against your ribcage. Eyes shine in doorways, piercing outward from the narrow slit between low knit caps and high pandemic masks, tracking your every movement. Watching. It’s out there, that thing borne of the kind of darkness that lives behind the bathroom door when you’re alone in your apartment at 3am. You can’t escape.
Cindy Cane’s “The Darkness” has been lurking around the back alleys of Spotify since last year in demo form, a lo-fi specter hovering in the dusty recesses of late-night shuffle mode just outside the frame of conscious perception. The demo version was constructed around a suggestion of terror bundled beneath heavy cloaks of bedroom production that fostered a campy, Vincent Price kind of vibe. Never one to settle, bandleader Tom Lescovitch continued to tinker with his creation like an obsessed Dr. Frankenstein until it achieved inhuman perfection. Emerging once again in time for Halloween, the final rendition of the track has evolved into a sleek, menacing affair primed to pounce on unsuspecting victims.
Squelchy, pulsating synths lay a dank foundation as the track slinks into an irresistible darkwave groove amidst ambient electronic glitchcraft and percussion dry as fallen leaves skittering over empty cobblestone streets. Chiming guitar solos echo off mausoleum walls to soar higher than cathedral buttresses eerily illuminated by the cold silver of a waning moon. Lescovitch’s vocals, thin and vaporous, hover on the ground like grey mist hanging low over jagged tombstones, a haunting funeral shroud casting a deathly haze over lonely effigies weeping black moss. From everywhere and nowhere a droning mantra radiates between the stones as if the dead themselves are chanting in chorus, “I am the one that haunts your dreams.”
Cindy Cane had been on a hot streak throughout 2019, rapidly building a reputation as one of the most dynamic live acts in The City in anticipation of releasing their debut album in time for Halloween this year. 2020 obviously had different plans for us all, but especially for a band like Cindy Cane that lives and breathes by performing live without a recorded LP to fall back on. “We had planned to release [the album] on October 30th of this year, but we feel like the better move is to wait for a more appropriate time. It needs to be performed live!” says Lescovitch about the pandemic precipitated delay, deciding instead to release “The Darkness” to terrorize Halloween playlists. If this first bite is any indication, Cindy Cane’s debut album is going to be a real killer and their return to the stage should not be missed.
“The Darkness” is available via Cindy Cane’s Bandcamp. Stream the track and add it to your Halloween playlists on Spotify. Follow the band on Instagram.
