The Dark Corner: Tropico de Cancer’s Pecado de Amor

For us metalheads who moonlight as goths and vice versa, The Dark Corner will attempt to shed light on new happenings in the world of new wave, post-punk, darkwave, and all things goth-adjacent. If this sounds up your shadowy alley, light a clove and prepare to get moody.

Apologies for letting so long pass between the first edition of The Dark Corner and this one, but I trust all eight of you reading this are very capable of finding your own goth-y goodness based on recommendations I got in the comments section last time. I did manage to squeeze plenty of goth, new wave, synth pop, and otherwise ’80s-driven experiences into this summer, though: I watched The Jesus & Mary Chain play like they never went away at Brooklyn Steel, danced to Echo & the Bunnymen in an open-air venue with my best friend in Ohio, drooled over Trent Reznor at the Nine Inch Nails performance at Panorama Fest, flew to London to see Sisters of Mercy at the legendary Roundhouse, caught night two of Depeche Mode at Madison Square Garden, and found the darkwave underground hiding out at a Drab Majesty show in a newer Brooklyn venue, Sunnyvale. All of this left me a bit fatigued on seeking out new albums, but one particular gem shone through: Tropico De Cancer’s Pecado de Amor.

Having spent the summer fully immersed in the Twin Peaks universe (bless Reznor and his leather gloves in episode eight), I’ve acquired en even stronger taste for all woefully dream-laden sounds, and this Lynchian death rock album couldn’t have hit at a better time. While everyone rightfully creamed their jeans over the latest Rope Sect (self included!), I wanted something with a bit less black metal-tinged production quality and this mysterious act delivered.

While the band prefers to keep things very private online, they were more than happy to provide some info for me when I reached out via their Bandcamp contact email. Formed by Argentinian duo Cenzabella and Carolina Forcinitti in Temperley, Buenes Aires, Tropico de Cancer strictly identify as no wave: “We don’t want to be a synth pop or coldwave duo that are so in fashion these days. Our performances are chaotic, we prefer a messy show than a boring and cold one.”

This warmth and chaos is evident from the first few notes of the steamy opener, “Nuestro Puente.” It’s not a stretch to imagine some extended Tarantino striptease bathed in red light set to this tune, with its heatwave-inducing guitars and sensual vocal delivery. The heat carries over into “Al Caer” — which lives up to its English translation “when falling” — as it’s easy to imagine a seductive dance between two strangers with less than pure intentions with one another. The chugging bass line in “El Emperio” is a fitting continuation of the mid-album danceability before breaking into a more on-the-nose interpretation of no wave with the closer “Aveces,” less dark and seductive, but perfectly in line with the sound of no wave revolutionaries Sonic Youth circa the Daydream Nation era. The twist of hearing this type of music in a language other than English is not only fresh and entertaining, but it also de-centers the Euro-centricity of this brand of music, a much-needed diversifying factor when everything that falls into the modern category of rock starts to sound recycled and one-dimensional.

While there don’t seem to be any social media ways to keep up with the band yet, you can follow them on Bandcamp and check out the name-your-price album here below.