TVAM - Ruins

Some albums produced in this period serve as a kind of encyclopedia, or at least a compendium, of past musical experiences that in the TikTok era come back for a refrain, a melodic hook, a meaningful incipit attached to a meme. This is how younger listeners discover music in the age of social media: frames, bits, seconds of sonic ecstasy. Whoever gathers these sonic stimuli into a finished form does work similar to that of Joe Oxley, a Manchester musician who devotes his output to weaving the music of the past into a musical flow in the present. Compilation music, one might say, at times citational, but that's precisely the value of it.

Through an album by TVAM, the musician's alter ego, one can discover or rediscover a fragment of the bands and music that shaped the electronic-tinged post-punk era. It's an operation with its own coherence, since it delves deeper, develops ideas, and invites discovery, going beyond the surface level of the meme.

The first album, "Psychic Data" from 2018, mainly gathered his listening habits in the kraut-rock and industrial realm, with abundant use of analog synths and powerful cosmic-music structures. It was a dialogue between himself and his synthesizers, drivers of a dark, spacey sound. With "High Art Life" from 2022 (released on Invada Records), TVAM sprinkled a dash of psychedelia over a sonic palette already well established in its electronic expressiveness, continuing to turn the past into new music. On that album, rhythmic power and guitar use enriched the sound with shoegaze influences, further confirming the encyclopedic spirit of the project.

This third album, "Ruins", just released on Invada, leans even more than its predecessors into the enjoyable game of citation, while at the same time developing the post-punk discourse, the darker dark strand, and confirming an interest in the ethereal atmospheres of shoegaze. Every song is a citation, like a meme from which a gem of the past is extracted (mostly from the 80s), every sound is crafted to renew what made that sound unmatched in the first place.

The opener, "Comfort Collar", starts off with a gothic chord progression and recalls some tracks by the Cure from their "Disintegration" period, with the same attention to sound texture that characterizes Robert Smith's band. There's a layering of guitar sound, enriched with keyboard flourishes, on a mostly instrumental track. "The Gloom" then evokes the ethereal, dramatic sound of early Ride, placing us in the slower, darker corner of shoegaze, a genre spawned by post-punk in the 90s.

The majestic "Real Life" brings back the 4/4 martial pulse of darkwave rooted in the 80s but best expressed by more recent artists such as Soft Moon or Cold Cave. The track is driven by a menacing bassline and obsessive drumming, alongside Oxley's whispered vocals. "Powder Blue" pushes things even further toward mid-80s alternative rock in the vein of Big Country: a powerful, driving track in which acidic keyboards chase after guitar bends. "Follow Me" is a danceable electronic number in the style of Cabaret Voltaire, complete with the obsessive axioms that come with it.

"Winter Rose" is a tribute to the beloved Sisters Of Mercy: the sound is softened by a distant voice, but the chord progressions are close to those of the dark-rock band par excellence. "Love Like Glue", on the other hand, is an electronic romp that recalls the exploits of New Order's "Power Corruption & Lies", with the same airy melodic openings.

"Ruins" is an intoxicating roller coaster on which to lose your head, a ride you'll never want to get off, a concentrated dose of great music that leads you to discover plenty more. Buy your ticket and hop on the ride.

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05/04/2026