Prior to releasing the entrancing, pulsating darkwave LP Private Life last year through Dais Records—who specializes in that very specific genre—Tempers had released a similar brand of post-punky synth tracks called Services through the Berlin-based label Aufnahme + Wiedergabe, which boasts a similar (though more Euro-centric) aesthetic. Today, though, the NY-based duo of Jasmine Golestaneh and Eddie Cooper are bringing the record back to the States with a Dais re-release of their debut.
Although the repressing arrives in December, today the pair are getting us excited for the project with a brand new take on the album track “Bright Over Me,” which they’ve reworked as a haunting acoustic ballad, and plan to include on the digital version of the re-release. You can hear that below, and pre-order the record here.
In addition to the new single, you can also hear a playlist the band put together inspired by their return to their old material. Stream the playlist below, and read on for some commentary.
JASMINE
The Chills, “Pink Frost”
I have a tendency to listen to a song non-stop when it moves me, this is my most recent one. The repetitive vocals mimic a traumatic thought process where your mind is on loop, but then the sweet guitars and driving drums are like a healing wave that warms the panic. I love that contrast, oppositions are something very central to our sound.
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, “From Her To Eternity”
At the start of quarantine I went through a phase of watching a lot of Wim Wenders. Music plays an important role in his movies, the soundtrack and film are like one and the same thing. I think of songwriting as soundtracking an internal film of ideas, feelings, memories, and like to approach music with that kind of cinematic vision. I really love the final scene in Wings of Desire where the newly mortalized angel character meets up with his beloved trapeze artist at a Nick Cave concert. The film inspires a sense of possibility in the face of seeming tragedy, which is a sentiment to hold onto in these dark times.
Kurt Cobain, “And I Love Her”
I had insomnia this summer, and I would entertain myself by digging around artists I listened to as a teenager. One night I found this obscure solo Kurt Cobain demo, and I was mesmerized. There is something about his mournful droning melodies that soothe a primal ache. The next day I met up with Eddie to record some vocals and I found myself improvising melodic drones. In the context of Tempers, it sounded pretty psychedelic.
Marine Girls, “A Different Light”
This song is extremely simple but its emotional sincerity is so pure that it feels rich and full, without drums or any kind of embellishment. True authenticity is fearless, it doesn’t need to hide behind anything, and it’s deeply moving. We’ve been playing with stripping things down in our songs recently, letting them be stark and intense.
Chris & Cosey, “Eternal”
I’ve been listening to this track while going on walks around NYC, and it’s a fitting soundscape. A lot of small businesses are boarded up, there’s an eerie sense of vacancy, but there are also these outdoor restaurants on the sidewalk encased in foliage—as you walk along the pavement you may suddenly find yourself in a corridor of plants wandering through intimate dinners, picking up pieces of deep conversation. There’s something derelict and tender about this instrumental track that’s capturing the mood of the city for me.
EDDIE
Spiritualized, “Shine a Light”
All the early Spiritualized/Spacemen 3 songs have a beachy innocence that I can’t really relate to, but it’s aspirational for me: I wish to laze about in a studio in London in 1990 recording experimental space rock. I don’t know if they were actually lazing about, but that’s the way it sounds. I also always love a saxophone out of nowhere.
Forever Grey, “Drawn to the Water”
I like the interplay between vocals and music in this track, that upward-bending vocal melody driven by the rigid backing. It sounds like a motorboat powering through big waves, its bow repeatedly cresting.
BOAN, “Mentiras”
This is one of those songs that doesn’t seem dark to me at all, but which I’ve learned over time counts as dark/cold/synthwave or whatever. When I hear it I’m in a fog-filled venue after a show in Frankfurt, I’m too tired to stay long but can’t go back to the hotel yet.
Bowery Electric, “Beat”
Shoegaze with breakbeats seems like an aesthetic that would age poorly, but “Beat” doesn’t at all. The monotone vocals and droning synths are so restrained, and have that hypnotic warm/cold duality I always like.
Rowland S. Howard, “Shut Me Down”
This is the saddest song—I mean, certainly because he died soon after its release, but in general, too. The verse even sounds like a dirge. Things brighten up for the chorus, suddenly we’re in a singalong kind of bounce, but it doesn’t last long and then we’re back in the depths. The lyrics are self-flagellation and bitterness throughout, and it’s a reminder that those things can stick with you all the way ’til the end.
