Exile House vinyl

'Exile House' is the second full-length on Belgium's Onderstroom by Bay Area musician Gabriel Ramos (aka Ssleeping desiresS) who started this project in 2006 while living in Portland. Since then, it has gone through a number of name and personnel changes. Inventive darkwave pop on offer here, that pays homage to legends of yesteryear. You can almost smell the patchouli and dry ice on "Black Maria", while the neon-lit melancholia of "Can You Hear Me" is reminiscent of '80s era acts like Flock Of Seagulls. There's some spellbinding guitar work by Ramos throughout, best heard on the mesmerising "Dirt" and you can even hear him plundering the tombs of early goth (think Seventeen Seconds era Cure) on tracks like "Missing Person".