Lupe – Dark Room
LUPE – album «Dark room» (22 Μay 2021, self-release)
- The Corridor
- Eyes Cold
- Long Train
- Yet
- Torment
- Mid Interval
- The Crown
- Last Dance
- Dark Room
One year after the debut album “Burn”, Lupe releases his second full length album “Dark Room”. Lupe is the personal project of Michalis Latousakis, lead singer of the Greek gothic band Mosquito and member of the darkwave/neoclassical band Onism.
As a personal project Lupe is totally different than all other Michalis’ music activities. Lupe is an art rock/goth/alternative project that keeps an eye open to progressive rock, classical music and opera!
In “Burn” Lupe used a lot the improvisational ways to express thoughts and feelings coming from a certain moment in time or a situation. The result was an incredible improvised dark cabaret/goth album. On “Dark Room” things get way more structured for Lupe, especially as far as the songwriting is concerned. Still the emotional expression of the artist is one more time the basic thing.
The music in Dark Room is unlike anything you have ever listened to. You may think of some names like David Bowie or Bauhaus or The Phantom of the Opera while listening to certain songs of the album, but again it is nothing like them. I believe Dark Room is once more a personal matter of expression for Lupe. So, in this way it continues where Burn stopped, but taking another route.
In Dark Room Lupe uses both rock and classical music orchestration. This diversity makes the result rich. The melodies are of unmatched beauty. Lupe’s voice is fragile and dramatic, but at the same time it is also full of power.
The voice is used in the whole album as the basic instrument creating the atmosphere. The instrumentation is diverse. In Dark Room you will even listen to clarinet on the same titled song that closes the album!
The single “Eyes Cold” comes with a nice lyric video. Lupe’s vocals are hauntingly deep and creepy, but warm. He knows how to clearly sing all the notes and has his own well worked expressive ways.
The album’s production is exactly what was needed to preserve the warmness and feeling of this recording. I believe there has been a great effort put in all levels to make this album. Dark Room is a great album and it definitely deserves to be heard, not only from gothic rock or dark wave fans, but also from people into alternative music, indie rock, shoegaze and even opera.
Review by Mr Athens 79
Lupe links:
Band/Artist location – Athens Greece
Facebook – YouTube – Soundcloud – Bandcamp – Merch –
Reverbnation – Instagram – Apple – Spotify – Deezer
Check our page for Lupe
