Perturbator Goes Post-Punk on New Single, “Dethroned Under a Funeral Haze”

Did you hear the first single from Perturbator’s new album, Lustful Sacraments, and think to yourself, “Cool, but where’s the synthwave?”

Then you’re going to be disappointed by its second single, too. Sorry!

But that’s just as it should be: after arguably helping to invent synthwave — and inarguably ushering it into the mainstream — Perturbator, né James Kent, has moved on. It was time. Doing the same old same old would’ve felt stale to both creator and listener.

So here we are with “Dethroned Under a Funeral Haze,” a track that’s still got plenty of synthy goodness but leans more into ’80s-inspired post-punk and new wave than anything John Carpenter or NES-inspired. Following last month’s “Death of the Soul,” which was an EBM / industrial banger, the latest shows yet another side of what’s gurgling inside Perturbator’s brain right now. This one hues a bit more closely to “Excess,” which first came out in 2019 and also appears on the new record. But it all works together, this mish-mash of music; this is the sound of new Perturbator. And I’m here for it.

Check out “Dethroned Under a Funeral Haze” below. New album Lustful Sacraments comes out May 28 via Blood Music; pre-order here.