LA post-punk trio Black Market Heart have returned with their new full-length, What Happens in the Dark, arriving alongside a new video for the title track. Forged in the pink smog glow of a Southern California sunset and the low hum of the 101 at dusk, the record finds guitarist and vocalist Spencer Robinson and drummer Shawn Medina, both formerly of The Lords of Altamont, joined by bassist and vocalist Tina Brugnoletti, pushing deeper into a sound that feels wired, nocturnal, and slightly unhinged. It isn’t beach postcard LA. It’s downtown after midnight, Echo Park liquor stores buzzing under fluorescent light and Silver Lake sidewalks still radiating heat. Maybe you’re holding it together on the sidewalk outside The Dresden, sunglasses still on at 11pm, a few too many Manhattans deep, cigarettes stacking up in the ashtray. You probably shouldn’t be driving, but you’re merging onto the freeway anyway, windows down, smoke whipping out into the warm air.
The title track, What Happens in the Dark, clocks in at a lean 1:40 and sets the tone immediately. It’s a desperate reach for connection, even if it’s temporary, even if it’s imagined. The accompanying video, shot in Brugnoletti’s 1967 Dodge Coronet, feels like The Cramps dropped into a Tarantino getaway scene with DOA‘s Hardcore ’81 blasting on the tape deck. All grit, all forward motion, no looking back. Elsewhere, Radio Smash leans into repetition like a mantra unraveling, while Coyote prowls with quiet menace, stalking empty streets and streetlight shadows. Self-Destruct With Me barrels straight into gasoline-soaked chaos. Without My Pills and My Brain is Poison strip everything down to exposed nerves, tackling isolation and chemical imbalance without flinching. The album also tips its hat to lineage without getting precious about it. A reworked Girl Dreams, originally recorded by Beck with roots in The Carter Family, and a distorted take on The Stingers‘ 1971 reggae cut Give Me Power, both get pulled through Black Market Heart‘s darker lens. They don’t feel like nostalgia pieces. They feel like transmissions rerouted through cracked amps and midnight air.
What Happens in the Dark doesn’t romanticize the night. It lives in it. It’s the sound of someone driving too fast down the 110 with the windows down, city lights smeared across the windshield, knowing full well the sun is coming but not caring yet. It’s headlights slicing through smog, cigarettes burning down to the filter, and a band that knows exactly what kind of night they’re walking into.
The post Black Market Heart Reveal “What Happens In The Dark” On New Album appeared first on ThePunkSite.com.