Cold Cave, ADULT., Vowws
While there’s always room on the radio spectrum for well-constructed robotic rock, it’s somewhat mysterious how the chocolate aesthetics of goth somehow merged with peanut butter electronics of dance music, to beget such mechanical melancholy. At least darkwave explorer Wesley Eisold, aka Cold Cave, recognizes that his muse is best explored and absorbed via singles, rather than EPs or albums. Back when he was still playing with the more rock-centered Some Girls and Give Up the Ghost, he was already showing an affinity for short-form minimalist bands like New Order, and that’s the sort of tinny, emotional drone he’s been delivering over the course of around a half dozen singles for the past few years. The accompanying videos are full digital trickery that tends to flash in such layered overloads that one fears being driven into either psychopathy or an epileptic fit. He’s played San Diego around a dozen times since 2009, making the rounds from Soda Bar to HOB, the Hideout, Space, Music Box, Casbah, etc. The tour bringing him to the Belly Up on March 19 includes Detroit dance-punk band Adult.