Since first emerging in 2012, Buzz Kull, the long-running project of Marc Dwyer, has steadily carved out a space within the underground that feels direct and enduring. Working at the convergence of darkwave, minimal synth, and industrial, Dwyer has refined a sound where stark electronics carry genuine sentimentality.
Deep Hate, his latest EP, features four tracks and is the artist's most driven and fully realized statement yet. The EP is forceful without losing precision, propelled by tense percussion and harsh, robust synth lines that move ahead decisively. Under the propulsion, there is a flow of alienation and nostalgia, with Dwyer's voice caught between constraint and desire. The end effect is industrial pop at its most distilled, all direct and raw in its ferocity.
The record's influences are obvious but not overstated. Present are modern synthpop's melodic economy, early industrial's abrasion, and EBM's body-first emphasis. Yet, Deep Hate feels entrenched in the present, with its midnight mood precisely echoing everyday fears.
A quartet of remixes extends the EP, with contributions from PIG, Kontravoid, Cold Cave, and Spike Hellis.
The newly unveiled video for Black Gate exhibits the EP’s sharpest edge. Hard and infectious, the track distills the pressure at the heart of Deep Hate, and the music's propulsion is rendered in stark visual form. This is Buzz Kull at his most immediate.
ZR