ARTIST SPOTLIGHTS: Spook-E, Plvgues
It was a dark danceable night at Bremen Cafe on Thursday with sets from producers Plvgues and Spook-E as well as Detroit “deathgaze” duo Vazum. Shoegaze project HUMID was supposed to play but unfortunately was unable due to an equipment issue.
Spook-E has been making dark, witchy dubstep music since 2018-19, as he explains. “Honestly, Plvgues was one of the biggest influences for me,” he said. “I love dubstep but sometimes I don’t feel super motivated by it. But then I listened to Plvgues and it felt like a horror movie, and I saw him and he ended up being just the greatest guy ever – now we’re best friends. He helped me get Ableton and I just started pounding into it. I’m actually an ill.GATES Producer Dojo member so I get one hour lesson a month, which also helped me really get going. I’ve been getting more comfortable and now I’m trying to have more steady releases.”
Halloween is a huge theme in Spook-E’s music and aesthetic. His most recent single “In A Hearse” dropped earlier this year in February. He said about the song, “It starts with a dubstep drop and then goes into this trappy-synth-808 outro with the vibe of driving around in a hearse on Halloween night with Frankenstein and all the monsters causing havoc. Then you get home and it’s over.”
Spook-E’s set Thursday consisted of mostly unreleased material. He’s got new single called “Get Some” dropping in the next couple weeks. “I wanted to make something more dance-y,” he said.
Plvgues is a witch house and post-industrial electronic artist known for donning a veil during his set. He’s been producing music since late 2017 and started performing in early 2018.
His latest album “Volos” dropped in October 2021. On its concept, Plvgues explained, “I’ve always been inspired by black metal and folk metal and dungeon synth…things like that. Theme-wise, I’ve been very into Slavic lore and ritualistic practices, and over the last few years I started researching and diving deep into the depths of theories and what the ancients did. That theme mixed with modern electronic I always thought worked well, like when you hear a lot of dark side trance. I wanted to make music that captured that. One translation of “Volos” is essentially the horned God in native Slavic spirituality, and he was also the deity of the underworld; the song “Planes of Nav” is about that. “Nav” is basically a woodland forest in the underworld, and so at the time when I was making it, I’d look for inspiration by going into the forest at night.”
Plvgues shared what he’s working on now. “I just started building a new music studio, so I’m just getting back into it now. I’ve got a couple tracks I’m working on where just the foundation is there right now…they’re very heavy and gritty…I’m just seeing what I can get away with as far as distorted bass and how loud I can make the kicks punch with it still being ethereal. These tracks are inspired by the angry times we’re in; I’m pissed off and we’re all pissed off, but there’s a spiritual side to anger that I think will be part of the next release.”
The only show Plvgues has scheduled as of now is in November in Detroit for SKULL 2022.
