Black tape for a blue girl

Given where Black Tape for a Blue Girl began over thirty years ago with founder Sam Rosenthal’s exploration of brooding, extended electronics and strings meshed with deeply revealing lyrics and darkly textured, melodramatic vocal performances, it’s striking to see his muse and inspiration reach a new peak with his recent 11th and 12th albums (These fleeting moments, and To touch the milky way). The ethereal, gothic and dark ambient stylings that made the band one of the originators of American darkwave are in full force on these recent releases.

Rosenthal reinvigorated their classic sound with Fleeting‘s return of original vocalist Oscar Herrera, absent from music for 17 years. In 2018, To touch the milky way brought in vocalist Michael Plaster (of Soul Whirling Somewhere) to complement Dani Herrera’s emotional and heartfelt voice. The band emerged from the studio with powerful, gorgeously yearning tracks born from the same place as their 90s classics Remnants of a deeper purity and A chaos of desire. Sam’s lyrics explore the existential predicaments of time’s passage, choices questioned, and loves lost.

Rosenthal’s pensive electronics and revelatory songwriting has made fans of director David Lynch, former adult actress Sasha Grey, writers Poppy Z. Brite and Caitlín Rebekah Kiernan. Supporters of the music regularly tell Rosenthal that it was the emotional and personal connection to the music they felt during times of stress and personal crisis that knit them to the band’s moving sound.

Currently Kickstarting the 30th anniversary edition of Ashes in the brittle air on 2CD and clear vinyl LP. Remastered with 21 bonus tracks.