Secret Life ‎– "Secret Life" (Secret Life Self-Released) 1984

They looked like the Belgian Duran Duran, but sound like 1st Album Modern English crossed with B-league Factory Records also-rans like The Wake.
The chanteuse sings in a strange ,but dramatic,,throaty pseudo operatic female baritone; which is at once laughable, yet compelling. I imagine she took herself very very seriously, which is almost obligatory for any Goth wave group worth their salt.
The flaccid Martin Hannett facimile production is perfect.Largely cymbal-less drums emulate a drum machine wrapped in several yards of loft insulation. Acoustically sterile basslines hang in the dank air, only to be scythed through by spidery guitar melodies to shed some dull light into the echo free claustrophobia........ooooooh! I could write like this all day.
Yep I love production values like this.Throw that bloody reverb in the garbage can.
Fear not, Secret Life are not New Romantics,or futurists...I think.....but I can imagine them all owning a Classix Nouveaux LP, or two?.....and rhetorically speaking, what's wrong with that!!?

DOWNLOAD secretly HERE!

Vita Noctis ‎– "Much Money Good Boy No Money Good-Bye" ( Camera Obscura ‎– K012) 1985

What was that?!....a sense of humour on open display????...laugh laugh cuckle chuckle.....several black stars on the Goth naughty list for these ,usually, suitably miserable Belgians.
Amusing,tee-hee-Hee, but socially accurate title aside.Vita Noctis deliver the same acoustically, and emotionally, dead dark wave as featured on their debut cassette from the previous year. I say acoustically dead, but I do sense a touch of amp spring reverb on the vocals this time around. It still sounds like the same entry level drum machine, which the concensus of opinion suggests to be a Boss Dr.Rhythm DR110(?)......a fine piece of equipment that sounds like a drum machine instead of trying to emulate a real drum kit(turns out it was a TR808 after all!). Of course, later this same year entry level Digital models started penetrating the basement level of bedroom musicians everywhere, and electronic instruments started to try and sound like the stuff they were designed to replace. A keyboard sounding like a crap trumpet is not my idea of technological advancement.Why not just get a trumpet, and have your synth sound like a synth?.....which of course we now do in the 21st century.

Tracklisting:

A1 Hade
A2 These Lies
A3 On A Day Like This
A4 Once In A Lifetime
B1 The Last Delay
B2 Against The Rule
B3 Expose
B4 New Image
B5 Execution

DOWNLOAD only if you have no money HERE!

Vita Noctis ‎– "In The Face Of ... Death" (Vita Noctis Self-released) 1984

Classic bedroom Dark Wave from Belgium on the cusp of 1985.
That drum machine is a classic sound that will live forever.
I'll hazard a guess at it being a later version of a boss Dr Rhythm;the one that came with its own padded silver case.At least, I hopeit is, but i suspect its just a TR808.
It says,'Recorded at the Noctis studio with 2amps and a cassettedeck'......in other words in the Noctis/Kips brothers bedroom, with girlfriend Martine reporting for duty.

The total lack of reverb, echo or any ambiance at all is impressive to say the least.All wet noise absorbed by the duvets and soft furnishings.The vocals,delivered in a strong Belgian accent, sound at times as if some drunk demon is on lead vocals, enunciating the slurred words backwards, like some hidden message on a Queen album.At times it even sounds like they had forgotten their lines but couldn't be arsed to do it again.....my kind of stuff.

This is the sound of acoustically dead teenage depression from the Belgian suburbs......wouldn't you be depressed too?

Tracklisting:

A1 Intro
A2 Pitch-Dark
A3 Introductary Works
A4 Hade
B1 Civilisation
B2 Hearing Noises
B3 These Lies
B4 Cleaning Day

DOWNLOAD teens in the face of death HERE!

The S-Haters ‎– "Stories As Cold As The Irish Sea" (Outer Himalayan Records ‎– OHR 005) 1982

Dunno about being cold, but the Irish sea is certainly radioactive thanks to the British nuclear reprocessing plant in Cumbria on the site of the world's first nuclear power station at Windscale/sellafield.
A slightly less amateurish follow up to 'Death of a Vampire',with a half decent, and dancable(?), sing-a-long opening number on side B; followed by the obligatory Joy Division experimental tune,as in "I Remember Nothing" or "Auto-suggestion".....but obviously, not as good.
The A-side, could easily be a first album Modern English out-take. Sounding rather like a proto-goth crowd pleaser to these malfunctioning ears.

Tracklist:

A -The Deepest Of Reds
B1- Drift
B2-Industry & Nature

DOWNLOAD from a radio-unfriendly radioactive sea of post-punk singles from 1982 HERE!

The S-Haters ‎– "Death Of A Vampire" (Outer Himalayan Records ‎– OHR 002) 1981

Ooooooo,scarey!?...did someone say Vampire?
Here's some amateurish proto-goth from 1981 on Rudimetary Peni's label. 
They so wanted to be Bauhaus, but at least they got in there before The Sisters of Mercy.(possibly?)
Goth! Another British export to apologize for!?

Tracklist:

A - Death Of A Vampire
B - Research

DOWNLOAD the vampire equivalent of Bela Lugosi in plan 9 from outer space HERE!