Psyche - Mystery Hotel

PSYCHE are the acclaimed dark synthpop duo founded by the Huss brothers Darrin and Stephen from Edmonton in Canada. They became influenced by the likes of SOFT CELL and FAD GADGET, developing their own special brand of horror electronics; the independently released 1985 debut album ‘Insomnia Theatre’ contained the raw mechanical menace of ‘The Brain Collapses’ and was a cult success in Europe. A wider breakthrough came with their second long player ‘Unveiling The Secret’ in 1986 which included ‘The Saint Became A Lush’, a track that was to become a favourite of noted DJ Trevor Jackson who included the track on the second volume of his acclaimed ‘Metal Dance’ compilation series released by Strut Records. But it’s PSYCHE’s third album ‘Mystery Hotel’ that signalled a turn towards a classic wave sound moving towards synthpop while expanding on their Gothic EBM template with tracks like ‘Uncivilized’ and ‘Eternal’, but it also saw the departure of Stephen Huss due to illness.
This hi-energy electro punk-blues predates Depeche Mode's ‘Personal Jesus’ (which was funnily hailed as a big thing) by 2 years, though of course Suicide did that (and much more extremely) back in 1977. And it is mostly Suicide that ‘Mystery Hotel’ harks back to. While the industrial influence heard on earlier material is less pronounced, ‘Mystery Hotel’ is in many ways the darkest Psyche album. The demons are alive on tracks like ‘Wake the Flood Unconscious’, just about the slickest under-three-minutes hangover track you've ever heard, and then there's the brooding, dense marshland that is ‘The Outsider’, a synthpop track that borders on psychedelia and shimmers with a brilliance that is possibly unmatched in the Psyche catalogue, and even poppier numbers like ‘Eternal’ and ‘Insatiable’ are, at their core, still melancholia at its finest.
But the tone of this record, and the key to its brilliant longevity, is the blues influence which is sometimes hidden but sometimes, like on the opener ‘Make No Mistake’, out in the open as if to say “yeah we do blues and new wave so what”. On ‘Mystery Hotel’, Psyche take Soft Cell and The Doors, and roll them into one crazy insomniac beast. And it works so well you don't mind being one of the insomniacs yourself. Personally I think the first three Psyche albums, which I now call the “Holy Trinity of Dark Synthpop” are majorly influential and stand the test of time, even if Mystery Hotel was a little more Pop, it has some great unique synth sounds and song styles as well.

Psyche - Unveiling The Secret [Remastered]

I originally posted a vinyl rip of this album back in June 2021 and have since purchased the CD remaster. It would be wrong to post the remaster (and I haven't) without re-educating everyone who pops through here, so with that in mind, here’s what I wrote earlier:

Combining synth pop and goth rock, Canada's Psyche built a solid fan base in Europe and a cult following in the rest of the world with their marriage of drama and melody. Initially surfacing as a minimal synth act with a bizarre, confrontational stage show, their work gradually became more pop-minded while maintaining a dark, brooding atmosphere. As one of Canada’s very first electronic bands, Psyche began in 1982 in Edmonton, Alberta, with brothers Darrin and Stephen Huss (or Evan Panic and Anthony Red as they liked to be called at the beginning) combining their love of horror, electronic music, and punk's D.I.Y. attitude. During their earliest days, Dwayne Goettel, who left the band shortly after and joined Skinny Puppy in 1986 contributed keyboards to the group.

Unsurprisingly for a band that was named after the Killing Joke song “Pssyche”, early demos got them an opening slot on Alien Sex Fiend's tour of Europe in 1984. French label New Rose approached the trio for an album, and Psyche delivered the self-produced Insomnia Theatre, released in 1985. Good reviews in the European press and an opening slot for Suicide set the band up for the successful follow-up, Unveiling The Secret, which included two standout tracks that would become goth-club monsters: "Prisoner to Desire" and the title track.

Released 35 years ago on the great New Rose label in Europe and C’est La Mort in North America, Psyche's Unveiling The Secret is in many ways the quintessential underground 80s synthpop achievement. Lauded by fans and praised by generations of musicians including Sven Vath, Joris Voorn, and Eskil Simonsson (Covenant), the album's title track has attained that rare status of an enduring cult classic. And if that is all that this album had going for it, that would be saying much. But there is so much more: tracks like The Saint Became A Lush, equally a powerful dance classic itself, appeared on Trevor Jackson's famous Metal Dance series, and Prisoner to Desire, which remix producer Joseph Watt of Razormaid fame claimed was "darker tougher synth pop than Erasure" is as good as the genre gets.

It's no wonder that this record of all Psyche's records is consistently said to be their greatest. It is on this record that Darrin Huss really perfected his vocal style and range. Every composition on Unveiling The Secret is a keeper. It's one of those albums that blows you away anew each time, and yet feels like a new album no matter the passing decade.

Psyche - Unveiling The Secret

Combining synth pop and goth rock, Canada's Psyche built a solid fan base in Europe and a cult following in the rest of the world with their marriage of drama and melody. Initially surfacing as a minimal synth act with a bizarre, confrontational stage show, their work gradually became more pop-minded while maintaining a dark, brooding atmosphere. As one of Canada’s very first electronic bands, Psyche began in 1982 in Edmonton, Alberta, with brothers Darrin and Stephen Huss (or Evan Panic and Anthony Red as they liked to be called at the beginning) combining their love of horror, electronic music, and punk's D.I.Y. attitude. During their earliest days, Dwayne Goettel, who left the band shortly after and joined Skinny Puppy in 1986 contributed keyboards to the group.

Unsurprisingly for a band that was named after the Killing Joke song “Pssyche”, early demos got them an opening slot on Alien Sex Fiend's tour of Europe in 1984. French label New Rose approached the trio for an album, and Psyche delivered the self-produced Insomnia Theatre, released in 1985. Good reviews in the European press and an opening slot for Suicide set the band up for the successful follow-up, Unveiling The Secret, which included two standout tracks that would become goth-club monsters: "Prisoner to Desire" and the title track.

Released 35 years ago on the great New Rose label in Europe and C’est La Mort in North America, Psyche's Unveiling The Secret is in many ways the quintessential underground 80s synthpop achievement. Lauded by fans and praised by generations of musicians including Sven Vath, Joris Voorn, and Eskil Simonsson (Covenant), the album's title track has attained that rare status of an enduring cult classic. And if that is all that this album had going for it, that would be saying much. But there is so much more: tracks like The Saint Became A Lush, equally a powerful dance classic itself, appeared on Trevor Jackson's famous Metal Dance series, and Prisoner to Desire, which remix producer Joseph Watt of Razormaid fame claimed was "darker tougher synth pop than Erasure" is as good as the genre gets.

It's no wonder that this record of all Psyche's records is consistently said to be their greatest. It is on this record that Darrin Huss really perfected his vocal style and range. Every composition on Unveiling The Secret is a keeper. It's one of those albums that blows you away anew each time, and yet feels like a new album no matter the passing decade.