Though he’s flirted with post-punk and new wave on EPs dating back to 2018, Stranded—the project of Atlanta-based songwriter David Mansfield—is turning a new leaf today with the release of his first single produced by Jared Artaud of The Vacant Lots. “Burnt Offerings” leans into the industrialist darkwave revivals spearheaded by contemporary labels like Dais and Felte Records while clearly pulling from more vintage influences.
“‘Burnt Offerings’ was inspired by the grooves of Sandinista-era Clash, but taken to a more atmospheric place,” Mansfield shares of the single marked by cavernous, deeply psychedelic guitar reverb akin to the noisy din of A Place to Bury Strangers. “If ‘goth disco’ were a genre, that’s what Stranded is going for.”
The track arrives with a found-footage music video, setting the vintage music to a compilation of equally retro imagery. Check that out below, and expect to hear more from Stranded’s forthcoming LP Velvet Trace in the coming months ahead of its planned fall release via Grey Market Records.