The pale hordes who descend on Whitby for the biannual Goth Weekend may just have found the perfect soundtrack for their journey.
With esteemed Cocteau Twins/This Mortal Coil producer John Fryer at the controls, York-based duo Mary and the Ram have come up with a modernist take on coffin-rattlers like Bauhaus, Love and Rockets and The Sisters of Mercy.
Fryer is also famed for his work with Nine Inch Nails and you can feel the brooding influence of Trent Reznor on the electronic post-punk twisted love story of debut A-Side The Cross.
Nick Cave-like gospel handclaps give way to nagging, insistent keyboard line and penetrating subterranean vocals.
Both band members boast strong pedigrees of the Northern arts scene.
Singer, guitarist, programmer Kiran Tanna founded contemporary dance company VIAPERFORMANCE, while drummer Dom Smith is the editor of Soundsphere magazine.
Their appetite for drama is evident on the B-side to the new single, seven-minute opus The Dream.
Described by Tanna as an attempt to capture a ritualised, pervasive feeling, it’s a hallucinatory spoken-word monologue set to washes of electronica, which explodes into a throbbing mass of overdriven guitar and pulsating beats.
The single will be followed by an EP in the Summer, with live UK dates to follow.
- Digital single The Cross b/w The Dream is out now through Anonymous Records
- For more on Mary and the Ram visit their Facebook and Twitter sites
