Track listing: This Room

K4LT's Facebook describes them as "Desktop Doom from Berlin." Their Instagram profile expands on that a bit saying the group "performs a gloomy, multi-layered, melodic mix of Post Punk, Alternative and Dark Wave." That about captures it, in my book. So where does that leave us? With their latest single "This Room (Reprise)."

Gloomy? Check! Doom-sounding? Yup! And it's got layers galore and melody oozing all over the place. But what first caught my ear during my first listen was my own mind asking, "Is that a fucking harpsichord?!" I was wrong but I was close! The group has an Instagram post that demos their "Folktek modded Omnichord." Which, who the hell knows that that means? I didn't, so here's a reference guide for both our sake: folktek.com/products/modified-omnichord-om-84.

So K4LT rides with this mystery instrument of sorts, producing their own ominous variation of Electronica/Doom. And in "This Room" the device is set against a frighteningly (yet delightfully) cheesy keyboard preset backbeat. Then you add-in what seems to be a keyboard melody best suited for a pipe organ in Transylvania. The chords are depressingly minor and the vocals are barren statements set against the dark-as-black melodic soundscape manifested by the Omnichord and drum loop.

This is weird but I like it. Elvira Mistress of the Dark would like it, too...this morphing of B-52's "Rock Lobster" with "The Monster Mash." Somehow in its gloom "This Room" is still a pleasant space to hang out in. Check it out along with K4LT's other tracks on the K4LT Spotify profile.