New Law Nightmare was a project from the late 80s fronted by a guy named Rik Savering. The act is probably most notable for having two great darkwave songs on a couple of the excellent Grindstone Compilations (um... re-upload to come soon, I suppose). There is almost no mention whatsoever of this 1988 EP, aside from some store that has a copy for sale on a couple online sites. This has completely escaped notice from pretty much everyone. Now, we can’t let that continue, can we?
When I
found this in a local store recently, I was immediately grabbed by the somber
dark “touching pop” style of the first song, Witch Trial. With some truly
remarkable synth lines and perfectly emotive vocals, it’s a wonderful song.
Other songs mix a bit more guitar into the sound – in some cases I’d prefer the songs without it. “Upper ten”, for example, is a great dark synthpop song, but the
short guitar solos stand out a bit too much, especially since they are so loud in the mix. Even so, the guitar-heavy
songs aren’t bad… it’s just that the instrument is more prominent than necessary
and stands in sharp contrast to the melancholic synthpop with which it’s paired.
Fortunately, the formula does work wonders on the final song, “Only As”, with an unstoppable beat and synth line,
and whose shrieks and wails of guitar actually work to enhance the track. Overall,
this is a good EP with a couple excellent tracks, and several valiant attempts
that just didn’t quite get the right balance of sounds. I’d be interested to
hear if he released anything else under this moniker – hopefully more songs on
the caliber of Witch Trial are waiting to be discovered.
New Law Nightmare: S/T EP
1988, Vuv Records
A1 Witch Trial
A2 Upper Ten
A3 Say
B1 Déjà vu
B2 Fifteen Shadows