Stroom hold a light to the delicious Belgy dirge “pop” of Adult Fantasies, sifting Nico-meets-Coil and Jonnine-esque gems from their run of late ‘80s/early ‘90s LPs for Antler and Sub Rosa. This label is all nostalgia for shit we never knew existed but which we feel like we’ve known intimately before – same thing we always say – a kind of unheimlich fuckry that’s pretty much a genre all of its own by this point. If that’s too vague, give this a listen if you’ve ever found yourself bawling to Martin Gore’s cover of ‘Motherless Child’, Sylvian & Sakamoto’s ‘Bamboo Houses’ or Lena Platonos’ ‘Bloody Shadows from Afar’. yeah.

‘Towers of Silence’ plays thru a dark dream of urbane ennui and poetic mood enhancers that have somehow escaped our attentions until now. Marbled with fine mycelium veins of lowkey audness that link back thru the label’s NSRD and Pablo’s Eye to Fred A and Hessel Veldman, the sound of Adult Fantasies is faithfully brooding and darkly sexy if you like that kind of thing, and all sequenced to perfection for a quietly oozing and woozy sensation of a record.

Drawing songs from ‘8 Neo-Pathetic Scenes’ (1988), ‘For The Time Being’ (1989), and ‘The No-Sleeping Feeling’ (1994), the elegantly druggy vocals of Dirk Seghers blend with his keys and synths by Gerrit Valckanaers and guitars from Gerry Vergult in a late night dedicated style, all slowly paced and sculpted in-the-mix to exquisite degrees. We’re talking about treasures like the Coiled dirges of ‘Twilight’ and ‘Life In Transit’, or the icy minimalist elan of ‘Cage’, or the ideal opener ‘Under A Steelplate Sky’ recalling everything from The Velvets to Jonnine and CS + Kreme.