…And when we’re appropriating quotations from My So-Called Life you know that this relationship is getting extremely serious.

A triumvirate composed of John Holland, Heather Marlatt, and Jack Donaghue, Salem employs the screwed-and-chopped production techniques of southern hip-hop, mixes in ghostly vocal melodies and bursts of apocalyptic rap, and finally drenches it all in a dense and sedative synth bath. The result is a sound so gorgeously doomed that it’s startling and exquisitely painful (or, in other words, perfect). Pulsating with a frantic heartbeat, this ecstatically grim—and dare we say pornographic—debut from three midwestern savants has us remembering the first time we ever heard Joy Division and fantasized about slitting our wrists, romancing the undead and terrorizing the living.

Slip these tracks into your angsty niece’s iPod playlist and show her what it really means to be emo.

Salem – “Whenusleep” (mp3)
Salem – “Redlights” (mp3)

SALEM – DIRT from ACEPHALE on Vimeo.

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Salem (myspace.com)