It's not what we did in this instance, but sometimes it can be fun to review songs in a kind of blindfold test way; so you don't know who they're by or where they're from. Believe it or not, even some of the naffest popstars of days gone by had the odd classic hidden away as a B-side. Sixth June don't compare to them, because you'd expect that the style of this song is fairly representative of them as a whole. But if we did have no info, we'd be suggesting that this dark and menacing electronic post-punk was heavily inspired by the Berlin scene of the 1970s. It turns out that this duo actually are from Berlin, so that heritage may have been something they grew up with, as even those born years later will have been exposed to this music.
Continental electronic music has always been more rooted in darkwave sounds and industrial, cold atmospherics than the often overly cheery British scene anyway, and maybe that's a product of the environment: it may be over 20 years since the "iron curtain" fell, but its influence must still linger as so many people lived through those days. So really, 'Drowning' might be made from the residue that was left behind, not to mention those UK bands who took that atmosphere and included it in their own songs. Think Joy Division being remixed by Depeche Mode with a female vocalist. If this all sounds a bit bleak and forbidding, well, it is in a way, but only in the ambience it manufactures. The actual song is towards the high end of this style, and although it may not return the favour, there's plenty about this to love.
Sixth June's website
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