Walking in the summer soil, so disruptive, waking them up
Leaving with entrusted force
Feel the darkness trimming the soul
Of Wax emerged from Bernardus Fritz’s forsaken solo foray into dark disco and psychedelic grooves, revived and reshaped with the raw edge of John Tampubolon’s jagged guitar and the distant, spectral vocals of Zara. This unlikely trio—bound by their restless creativity—breathed life into a project that dances between the hypnotic hum of synthesizers and the sinew of stripped-down soundscapes.
Of Wax’s music, a skeletal study in synth-driven styles, digs deep into the roots of post-punk and Italo disco, peeling back the polish to reveal the pulse beneath. Each track sways with fluid intent, bending and twisting familiar forms into something both intimate and unrestrained. From bare-boned interludes that whisper like secrets to frenetic anthems, Of Wax moves like liquid light, shifting seamlessly between the still and the storm. Their sound hums with a raw honesty, a striking alchemy born of three distinct voices colliding and creating.
The songs on Tribes took root in a restless longing, a need to flee the stifling grip of pandemic lockdowns.
“After a virus wiped humanity off the face of the earth, a man was left to navigate a desolate landscape of crumbling cities, driven by the desperate hope of finding another living soul,” the band explains. “His journey through ruins brings him to face the ultimate test of survival in his quest for human connection.”
Left to smolder on the backburner, these tracks simmered for years, finally unearthed and finished long after the world began to breathe again. The EP stirs a strange brew of fantasy fiction and a wistful hunger for an age that may never have existed, conjuring stories and characters brought to life through the hum and shimmer of vintage synthesizers.
Polyphonic arpeggios ripple like incantations, FM synthesis buzzes with electricity, and padded choruses swell with spectral warmth, all bound together by high-driven guitars drenched in reverb and refrain. It plays like a concept album, not merely a reflection of the pandemic but its cinematic reimagining—a horror soundtrack for unseen fears and unspoken isolation. Echoes of Goblin, Depeche Mode, and Clan of Xymox reverberate, their specters lingering in the ethereal grit of these sonic tales spun from yearning, escape, and the uneasy space between.
Remedy strikes hard and fast, a battle hymn against the shambling hordes, fueled by the desperate hunt for a cure to the creeping contagion. Soul shifts inward, a solitary survivor clinging to flickers of hope, whispering to himself in the quiet chaos to find purpose amid the wreckage.
The tale grows taut in standout track Howl (featuring Amira Waworuntu), as a search for refuge in the forest twists into terror, the woods alive with the groans and grasps of the undead. The synth work on this one is especially inventive and strangely catchy. Survival slips further from their grasp in Carry On (featuring Pandji Dharma), where a ragged band presses forward, running as the odds grow thinner, their resolve worn but unbroken.
The journey crescendos in Tribes, as salvation roars in the form of an unlikely escape. A mysterious vehicle shatters the silence, ushering the weary crew to safety in a hidden cave—a brief reprieve from the relentless pursuit of the lifeless. Together, the tracks pulse with dread and determination, a saga of humanity’s defiance in the face of decay.
Listen to Tribes below and order here.
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