A Lichtschacht is a narrow column of sky visible from the bottom of a basement stairwell. That’s the image the new German five-piece Misere have picked to plant their flag with on their debut single, a name that says there’s light up there even when the walls are still closing in.
Premiering today as a lyrics video, “Lichtschacht” is the first piece of music the band have made public, and it lays out what they’re about more plainly than any biographical sketch would.
Most of Misere’s members carry visible scene history. Vocalist Micha and guitarist Serkan both also play in Cages, the screamy emo-hardcore outfit from the same Ludwigsburg corner of southern Germany, and Micha previously played in We Had A Deal and Schรถnleben. Guitarist Mike represents Shove It, bassist Sven from Xiao Pangzi, drummer Pete from Royal Tea Club. The overlap with Cages makes the comparison unavoidable, and Micha isn’t trying to dodge it.
“If you know Cages, the screamy emotive DIY-hardcore outfit from Ludwigsburg, Germany, you might already have a rough idea of what Misere is about, or maybe not,” he says.
“Serkan and I are in both projects and I think that shared history is audible whether you’re looking for it or not. Both bands come from the same place, emotionally and literally, and I guess that shows. Early 2000s emo/skramz looms large for all of us. For me both outfits rather focus on expressing emotional unrest and neither band has much interest in aggression for aggression’s sake. Still, Misere feels like a different animal to me.”
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The difference, he says, is about directness. “Where Cages‘ songs twist and turn sitting with a certain kind of emotional tension, Misere tends to go more straight for the throat. The post-hardcore influence feels more immediate somehow, the songs are punchier, even when the melodies open up into something more expansive. Where Cages fidgets and scratches at something worth finding, Misere pushes hard in a straight line to get there. What I find exciting about Misere is trying to hold those two things together, the directness and the emotional depth.”
The other split is language. Cages writes in English. Misere writes in German. “That wasn’t a given,” Micha says, “and I think it changes something about how the personal and political sit next to each other in this songs. Even though there’re quite some similarities concerning my lyrical approach in both bands, writing about your own vulnerabilities and your place in the world feels different in your mother tongue, more familiar, somehow, more exposed.”
“Lichtschacht” has more in it than a debut single usually carries.
Clean guitar lines open the track wide before the distortion crowds back in. Even when the song picks up speed there’s air around the parts, feedback hanging in the corners, drums driving without flattening the dynamics. The melodies open out into long stretches that nod at the kind of work The Saddest Landscape and early Caravels were doing, while Micha’s screams sit on top of song structures more melodic than the genre tag usually allows. The recording lets every player breathe. Ferdinand Fรผhrer tracked and mixed it at Fieser Schwan Recordings. Will Killingsworth handled the master at Dead Air Studios.
The title is also the song’s central image. “Lichtschacht, a narrow column of sky visible from the bottom of e.g. a basement stairwell, is a fitting metaphor for what Misere is trying to achieve,” Micha says. “Finding a sliver of light without pretending the walls aren’t still closing in.”
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Lyrically, the song is about what people pull out of each other when they hold together.
“Lyrically the song celebrates social connections and the resilience that can derive from them. You might say, the track’s theme is finding strength in togetherness and undermining set standards/norms.”
More music from Misere is expected later this year. For fans of The Saddest Landscape, Just Went Black, early Caravels and Yage.
The labels involved are:ย Shove Records (Italy), Dancing Rabbit Records (Germany), Strictly No Capital Letters Records (Great Britain), Through Love Records (Germany), New Knee Records (United States).
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