Sacred Skin + Rare DM at Neue Zukunft

LA new-romantics meets NY dark pop in Berlin.

Sacred Skin

Los Angeles-based Sacred Skin explore the vastness of spellbinding, anthemic pop music. The first single, Colder was released in March of 2021 and stole the hearts of dark souls everywhere with their melancholic undertones and pitch perfect songwriting. Subsequent singles landed them early live shows at LA’s Substance Festival and famed venue the Hollywood Palladium supporting AFI.

The succession of singles and live dates led to the release of their first LP, The Decline of Pleasure in May 2022. With its distinctive new wave arrangements and powerhouse vocals, the album is unlike anything in its class. Their use of early digital outboard gear and samplers, namely the Sequential Prophet VS synthesizer and the EMU Emulator II, retains a classic studio feel that is timelessly unique. Sacred Skin’s second LP Born in Fire was released on September 13, 2024.

https://www.instagram.com/_sacredskin_/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3C1y4RKLX5U

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ktwdw3M87E

Rare DM

Dance Music, Dark Matter, Direct Message, Dungeon Master, Distant Memory… People have tried to decipher the meaning behind the name Rare DM, but really it’s the Brooklyn-based singer, producer and multi-instrumentalist Erin Hoagg.

Rare DM is Hoagg at her most vulnerable and visceral, as she mines dates, breakups and other adventures to make revealing, romantic darkwave dance-pop music. With a collection of vintage analog synths, Hoagg transforms the mundane into the magical, transposing real DMs she’s sent and received into songs that reflect on the fractured nature of modern communication and online dating. Her songs are dark and deeply intimate, rendering in raw detail the search for that special connection we all crave, but rarely find.

VICE commended her 2019 debut album, Vanta Black, saying Hoagg’s “synth programming shimmers, [and] her drum machines burst with vintage warmth.” Her new work continues to explore the dark side of modern life, but now she’s more seductress than sad girl.

Rare DM lives up to her name in live performance by utilizing a DAW-less setup—dancing between an Octatrack, a Machinedrum and other analog gear. 2022 alone saw Rare DM opening for Molchat Doma, headlining Verboden Festival (Vancouver) and performing at SXSW, Cold Waves X (Chicago), Flesh & Steel (NYC) and selling out Synthicide’s debut Goth Boat “Synths at Sea” in New York. This May she will be supporting Drab Majesty on their tour across Mexico.

https://www.instagram.com/rare_dm_/

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=51AwgDxM8U0

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kGQi4TfyfOw

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