Photography By Will Mecca
Mortwight: The graveyard performance was first Mortwight show (and, debatably, the first proto-TXDS show) took place at Old Alton Cemetery here in Denton alongside the Ft Worth dungeon synth project Illuminator. My friend Will Mecca, proprietor of Left Hand Path tapes, put it together. The plan was to play battery powered synths (I played a Microkorg through Boss reverb and EQ pedals, if that is of any interest to anyone) through a battery powered amp, the latter of which of course didn’t work so we ended up hooking it up to someone’s truck battery. In spite of these hitches, it was a somber and magical affair, played after sunset for a small gathering of companions amidst the gravestones while the wind blew. Both sets were recorded by local noise artist R. Buttrum and later released on Left Hand Path Records as the Beneath Autumn Stars. Will is also a fantastic photographer and has been documenting Texas Dungeon Synth shows from the beginning. His pictures and video of Mortwight performances are personal favorites.
Lone Stars
When I first heard about the Texas Dungeon Siege (TXDS), I erroneously referred to it as the Southwest Dungeon Siege for more than I care to admit. Looking at the poster for the event, the design looked raw and underground more fitting of a black metal or punk show. This led me to believe that TXDS was a pop up festival which was riding the wave of excitement of the Northeast Dungeon Siege (NEDS). It wasn’t until I looked at the lineup and saw not only reputable artists but many of them veterans from NEDS. I then started to follow the social media accounts and saw an entire ecosystem of live fantasy entertainment operating not only out of The Tiny Minotaur but around the greater Texas region. I then met Mortwight and Assorted Potions at NEDS with the latter wearing a coat that made them look like a character out of cyberpunk RPG. I finally realized that one of the artists, Apoxupon, ran a tape label called Mystic Timbre which I used to shop at for liminal ambient and dream music. A new label, Engraven Records, seems to also be a spiritual successor and operates as a base for Texas DS artists. I then was clued into Illuminator, Moon Presence, and Hexpartner all of them with music so vastly different from each other but operating under the same tent. This was not a group of copycats making a one off show but rather a self operating group of artists who have already had a giant head start on making a scene.
Dungeon synth’s history is marked by its willingness to experiment and also put its price for entry at almost free. This accessibility has allowed newer artists to come together eventually connecting to ones already existing. Texas Dungeon Synth (also hilariously called TXDS) existed before the pandemic, with strange musicians playing in a spooky graveyard powered by truck batteries. The pandemic saw many people inside still with creative energy who then started to turn towards online communities for outlets. It is this incubation period where I personally feel dungeon synth shifted to something new and picked up once people started to go back out. A few years later TXDS (the event) is one part of a larger venture which is connecting disparate musicians spread out over one of the largest states in America. Texas does not scream “dungeon” in its aesthetic and the distance between these towns is like traveling across state lines for anyone not from the Midwest. Despite these perceived trappings, TXDS (the event) was a big step for this burgeoning scene but also seems like something that will precede other events in 2024. Originally, I wanted to put this article out before TXDS (the event) but the more I began talking to these artists, the more rich and vibrant their scene started to coalesce. I needed to wait for the article’s photos to be developed since the fest was being documented on actual film. Dungeon synth might be the easiest genre to start with as TXDS (both) is a coalition of outsider electronic musicians who are operating as a magnet for the strange and creative in perhaps the last place you would expect it to happen.
Alder Deep
Among the sprawl of tagged buildings and food truck parks, there is an unassuming venue. Without a sign it just looks like a fenced in house except for the shirtless muscled bouncer holding an axe. It should be stressed that the entirety of TXDS is pushing into many spaces in the greater Texas area outside of this venue. It should also be stressed how utterly gorgeous The Tiny Minotur was for a show of this nature. With the spirit of a renaissance far mixed with the intimacy of a private wedding, acts at the TXDS event performed in a small open air rotunda among actual stone columns and the sound of a bubbling fountain near the back. Here you could pay for drinks using large coins and most of the area was shaded in a canopy of ivy and vines. It was a show which had the person you just sat next to on a bench drinking dangerously strong cocktails put on a cloak and play ethereal drone for 40 minutes. Despite being the same size as most bars, it felt larger with mazes of interest stretching through its interior. The venue allowed for a group of people, most who had already seen each other at previous synth festivals, to talk among a soft fantasy atmosphere and then go play their set before returning to your table.
“Do you need a bladed weapon?”
Will Mecca, the person recording everything on film and VHS tape, was making sure the artists had everything they needed. Vaelestraz was next and Will was making sure, like some sort of fantasy concierge, she had everything including an array of weaponry for the show. Vaelestraz chose a broadsword and a scimitar which was used later to smash a 100$ keyboard. Most of the people working the the event were a part of the collective and were either helping set up the next act, filming the entire set, monitoring the Twitch stream, or smoking weed behind the soundboard. In fact everyone who I had been talking to over the past few weeks was doing something related to show and was probably crashing on couches somewhere since half of them were in from out of town. This scene was a group of artists who were also staff who were also longtime friends who just wanted to make this thing work.
I don’t want to talk about the entire weekend since I was only in attendance for half due to hilarious other events going on at the same time (a friend’s wedding). The times I did get to attend, the skyline was the only thing to break immersion with the complete escapism the venue had to offer. Over time though I started to appreciate the apartment complexes and graffiti which peaked through the veil of fantasy as it offered a true picture of what TXDS (both) was about. I appreciated the fact that this 90 degree muggy weather was a break from the hellish landscape which Texas usually receives. Everything around us is apart of what is happening. From the deep noise to forest sounds to traditional dungeon synth to something indescribable, the event was not built to escape but synthesize experiences into something new. This was a scene of anomalous experiences woven together where ethereal vocal loops stitched with a keyboard smashed like some glam rock show. This space was anything the artist and fan wanted and maybe the venue’s encouragement of cosplay fantasy allowed its attendees to get in character and explore the person they wanted to be. TXDS (both) offered little restrictions on what you could do as in Texas that weekend, there were little gods and zero masters.
Interview with Mortwight, Apoxupon, Assorted Potions, Hexpartner, Illuminator, & Moon Presence
Tell me how Texas Dungeon Synth (TXDS) started.
Mortwight: Texas Dungeon Synth arose primarily because of individual artists and performers coming together to create an active live DS scene in Texas. In that sense, I would say TXDS’ identity is very tied to the live performances, which started in earnest in 2022 with a couple shows in Denton and Austin. That said, it’s hard for me to identify a singular starting point for Texas Dungeon Synth as a coherent scene. TXDS’ pre-history involves a few individuals spread across a few different places in Texas. TXDS coalesced around the then-infant live dungeon synth scenes in the Dallas Fort Worth metroplex, Austin, and then a bit later Houston. A few of us got together to arrange a few live gigs both up here in DFW where I live and down in Austin where Apoxupon and Assorted Potions dwell. Illuminator and I drove down for a couple of performances there amidst other electronic or experimental artists, and for a show at Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studios in Denton which was the first proper all-DS show we did together. That show was Mortwight, Illuminator, and Moon Presence from DFW and Apoxupon and Assorted Potions. Since then the live activity has picked up; especially in Austin, where Apoxupon hosts a monthly Dungeon Synth night at the Tiny Minotaur and in Houston, where Hexpartner has been very active in booking shows.
Illuminator: It’s been wild. The growth of the network has happened really quickly. Obviously, it’s still quite small, but I find out about new artists in TX regularly. In my opinion, it hasn’t really ever been and still isn’t a scene in the way I understand it. Most of us don’t live near each other or have the opportunity to spend time together outside of shows. But, it’s definitely a network now of people who have a passion for listening to and making this odd synth music with some relationship to dungeon synth.
Texas Dungeon Siege (Also TXDS) is taking place at the Tiny Minotaur, a live action role playing tavern. Would you consider the Tiny Minotaur integral to the dungeon synth scene?
Mortwight: The Tiny Minotaur has been a central part of the live scene here, especially in Austin where they’re based, because they provide a consistent venue for us to host live DS shows. Live dungeon synth is so new in general that, especially when we were starting to book shows, many venues were either confused or uninterested in putting us on. TM, in contrast, has been friendly to dungeon synth performances from early on. I do want to take this opportunity to shout out a few other places that have let us book cool dungeon synth shows: Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studios in Denton; the Black Magick Social Club in Houston, and the Echo Bridge Appreciation Society in San Antonio. The festival is likely the biggest TXDS event we will have to date. The smaller shows are more intimate affairs, driven by the DIY passion that should define dungeon synth in general. When we first started doing these shows most audience members had no idea what to expect and had often never heard of dungeon synth to begin with. As we carry on with our activities it has been a pleasure to see returning audience members and to meet dungeon maniacs who have come out to the shows.
Apoxupon: Yeah, they are. They put a lot of work into building a unique space with a mood that happens to vibe perfectly with what we’re doing. They wanted to be a dungeon synth venue and gave me the opportunity to freely book dungeon synth shows there, which has resulted in our monthly DS Nights; it’ll also be the location for the inaugural Texas Dungeon Siege. They even gave me a job running the sound and curating the nightly background music (dungeon synth, ofc) and gave a permanent spot for me to set up a physical storefront for my distro, The Dungeon, so I get to be up there on a nightly basis meeting folks and punishing them about making their own dungeon synth and coming to our shows and starting a tape collection. It’s been integral as an IRL hub for us to build out the DS base in Austin.
Outside of a larger festival like TXDS, what do smaller shows look like?
Apoxupon: Interestingly there are some regional differences across the cities, and even venue to venue really, when it comes to what the typical DS show looks like in TX. In Austin, my main focus is on running all-DS events that are specifically billed as Dungeon Synth Nights and feature only DS artists on the bill, focusing entirely on maintaining the DS aesthetics and atmosphere over the whole event. I’m also interested in establishing live DS as a desired component to other events that seek to evoke a similar atmosphere or mood as we do with our music and performances; last week, I played a set and DJ’d DS at a medieval / fantasy art show fundraiser for Palestine. On Thursdays I live soundtrack DS + sound FX along with a persistent open table DnD game at Tiny Minotaur. Since the earliest DS sets we played in Austin were at two weekly electronic/experimental music showcases (MeMerMo and EMP) and they have mostly been happening at Tiny Minotaur lately, our homegrown crowd here is largely constituted of ambient/experimental music fans and fantasy enthusiasts. We’re starting to make the natural move into the metal crowd too — I’m personally very excited about playing at my favorite local metal venue, Lost Well, for the first time in June, alongside Hillsfar, Mortwight, Moon Presence, and a bunch of crusty metal bands. Assorted Potions plays on a bunch of non-metal and non-experimental mixed bill stuff and is really good about bringing heads in from scenes we’d otherwise never interact with. Tiny Minotaur is outdoors and, owing to its purpose as an immersive fantasy tavern, is fabricated to look consistent with the DS feeling — we play the shows in an ancient elven temple structure — and it definitely lends a unique feel to photos and videos of performances there. We have consistently drawn between 80-120 people to each of the DS Nights there, which isn’t too far from our official max capacity even for the Texas Dungeon Siege, so the regular shows there still feel big, although the duration of the Siege is going to increase the scale greatly. I’m planning to start trying to find some even more unconventional locations for us to play in the coming months — among the ideas I’m working on are a show by the giant troll they just built at a park here, and live soundtracking DS to old movies at a drive-in theater.
Our shows in San Antonio thus far have been a lot different, mainly being mixed bill shows with metal and hardcore bands organized by our SA allies No Mames Distro and Satanic Panic (my first SA show was earlier this year, opening up for Houston ritual folk group, Ak’Chamel, alongside Ravnblod). Even there, our presence grows stronger though: last year, it would only be a single DS opener on a mixed bill; this summer, we are running our first show there with equal DS — myself, Crypt 3000, and Assorted Potions — to metal/hardcore bands (3). So our crowds there definitely tend more towards metal/hardcore than electronic/experimental, although the fantasy-enthusiasm remains. Because the frequency of shows here isn’t very great yet, and the success of each show has been largely dependent on the rest of the bill’s popularity, I don’t think I have a great reading on what our typical turnout is like; although the upcoming show I mentioned will be the best chance to gauge that yet.
Dallas is what you might call the birthplace of Texas DS, in terms of being the location of the first intentionally Texas Dungeon Synth shows, although it remains one of our scrappier outposts to this day. We haven’t really made any great inroads with any venues or promoters in the city proper, so we’re sorta confined to some places around the periphery: Max is able to get us booked at Rubber Gloves in Denton, and there’s a record store in Arlington and a comic book shop that have booked us before. Because we aren’t working with any other promoters and do the booking ourselves up there, it does mean that most of the shows we run are specifically DS, with less frequent appearances on mixed bills and other venues by Mortwight, Moon Presence, and Illuminator. DFW has not yet been cast completely under darkness, so to speak, but we’re working on it.
Houston has been an interesting case so far, as last year it was only a single DS artist performing there, Hexpartner, hopping on a variety of mixed bill shows — electronic/experimental rather than metal/hardcore — and not in coordination with us and the TX DS project. We became acquainted near the end of 2023, bringing them out for their first show in Austin for the DS Night in January 2024, and then Mortwight and I went and played the first intentionally-Texas Dungeon Synth show in Houston with them in February at Black Magic Social Club. That show at BMSC was one of my absolute favorites so far — awesome venue with an insanely cool stage, great turnout, lots of merch support, and just a ton of love and interest from the crowd. Funnily enough, Mortwight and I were back at BMSC in March as attendees at the Hell’s Heroes Afterparty that Hillsfar played after the first day of the fest, which had a similarly electric atmosphere and reaction from the crowd. BMSC is a decidedly metal bar, and naturally the Hillsfar show being HH-affiliated means that the DS shows there have tended toward the metal feel. So it has been some very high recent peaks in Houston, but I have to make special mention of the absolute grind Hexpartner not only was on before joining forces with us but has continued to be on since, spreading the dark gospel of Texas Dungeon Synth on all kinds of electronic/experimental mixed bills — as it is with such grinds, it cannot be said that every single one of those shows was a highest peak, and so I commend Hexpartner for gutting out the duds and doggedly continuing the pursuit.
As for the performance aesthetics and staging, we love setting up our ritual altar with bones, antlers, heavy chains, haunted photos, and copious LED candles. Lots of fog when we can get it, although we’ve been having trouble tripping power everywhere with the fog machines — woopsies. It’s been fun to watch us all incrementally up our performance game, adding additional instruments and bells and whistles and going for more elaborate costumes and theatrics. A funny thing about suddenly deciding to perform music you never thought you’d play live is you’re basically getting to invent and re-invent what is the best or proper way to perform it each and every time you do. Each new performance is another opportunity to see what I can add to the mix and how I can engage the crowd and make it more interesting to watch me make noises on stage. And while there’s definitely a blueprint for what a typical dungeon synth performance looks like — established largely by black metal and dark ambient performers, and exemplified by what we’ve seen at NEDS and will see at TXDS — there are also definitely not any consequences or like hand-wringing over trying something new or different. The blueprint for DS performances is still very much being written, I think, and that’s what makes it exceptionally thrilling to be a part of.
Assorted Potions: Dungeon Synth Nights happen pretty frequently and have been great. Texas is filled to the brim with amazing artists. The horde is ever-growing. Hexpartner has been putting in a colossal amount of of work in H-town, Del S. Pleaux and Goblet Grotto are making their live debuts at my next show on 4/26, and that’s just a small smattering of goings-on. Smaller shows are more intimate events at a few different venues around town (like Quacks and Tiny Minotaur). Many of us play mixed-bill shows; those are great because (at least for my mixed-bill appearances) it’s the first time many people have seen dungeon synth live, let alone been made aware of its existence. A few other local musicians have told me “I’ve never seen anything like that live before, I didn’t know it could be done.” I tell them “why yes! And there are many of us that do it! Here’s a flyer, come see a show at The Tiny Minotaur or wherever any of us are playing at around town, and you should start making Dungeon Synth too!” The mixed-bill shows are some of my favorites because I’m just a general obsessive about music. I’ve played with amazing hardcore and metal bands, some 70s style rock outfits, harsh noise…I love it all. I think many of us share that sentiment. Nearly all of us have played mixed bill shows and been able to put more people on to the world of Texas Dungeon Synth and DS at large. It’s Austin, there’s a lot of music happening all the time. It’s a big rock ’n’ roll town, but I think it’s got the most active DS scene in the world. Texas in general has been averaging tens of events every month since the year started. I’m personally a huge fan of a few of the indie rock and -core adjacent bands that we have. I’ll selfishly plug my Instagram @assortedpotions here, but every musician I’ve ever shared a bill with is worth your time. You’ll see a number of flyers for artists that I’ve played with out of town as well, all of them are also worth your time. I’m really lucky I’ve played with so many great musicians, and I’m especially lucky that there are a lot of us who are working together to make TXDS have strong momentum AND bring more people into it.
How did you get started making music and playing live? It seems like the two were not far off from each other. Do you think your project was created with the intention of playing live eventually?
Assorted Potions: I’ve been releasing music since I was in high school. It started out with solo jokey bedroom indie-rock songs being haphazardly uploaded online. Dungeon Synth came to me around this time; I was voraciously consuming as much underground music as I could possibly get my hands on. As I entered my twenties, I wanted to put together a band to play live and maybe do weekend tours. That dream fell apart multiple times consecutively in all of the cliche way that bands never make it off the ground. In the early 2020’s and decided that I wanted to go full steam ahead with solo music since I was tired of wasting time putting bands together that never even made it to the studio or the first gig. I was falling in love with DS so I wanted to pursue that, and I had every intention of performing live as soon as I could. I’ve always liked being on stage, I’m actually a drummer by trade, and I wanted to perform regardless of the genre I was making. It took awhile, as well as chance encounters with Engraven Records and Steven from No Mames Distro, but through meeting those two, and then Mortwight soon after, I started gigging around Austin pretty regularly.I emailed Anthony (Engraven Records/Apoxupon/Lost Tales) as soon as I finished Assorted Potions 1 and moved to Austin, that’s how we first became acquainted. Steven recognized my shirt at a Metal Merch meetup on East 6th street (I’m still notorious for wearing my own merch around town) and he linked me with a number of other people, including Illuminator, Mortwight and Anthony, who were intent on making live Dungeon Synth a recognizable thing. I don’t think I knew of any American live DS shows at that point other than whoever played at the Northeast Dungeon Siege in years prior. After linking with that crew, I played my first show at Captain Quacks in South Austin on 10/11/22. It’s been pretty nonstop ever since, especially with Anthony putting in a lot of work with regularly scheduled Dungeon Synth nights that have been pretty successful. Out of town TXDS shows have been great as well, especially with artists like Moon Presence (Dallas), Crypt 3000 (San Antonio) and the list goes on.
Hexpartner: I’ve been writing music and performing for the past two decades. I was a piano accompanist for the choir at my Catholic church as a teenager and also played violin in grade school orchestra. After I stopped practicing Catholicism, I tried to get as far away as I could from sacred choral music, playing guitar in proto punk bands and recording weepy singer-songwriter stuff. Thanks to the now-defunct Modular Houston, a modular synthesizer interest group, I discovered synths in 2022 and it became an outright obsession; I loved how creativity could get you further than pure technique with synths, which I found to be the opposite with classical music. My partner, Alan Linnstaedt, an illustrator who designs all my cover and concept art, showed me Ulk, Fief, Malfet, and DIM‘s music and I became obsessed immediately, holing up in our bedroom to try writing my own. Around this time, I had been attending experimental shows in Houston and wasn’t aware of an existing dungeon synth scene in Texas. Experimental musicians and bookers Danny Kamins and Sofia Bernstein each gave me the opportunity to play live and I figured that the experimental music community would appreciate dungeon synth. What I didn’t anticipate was the Houston DIY music community at large taking to dungeon synth. Over the past year, I have played over 30 multi-genre shows in Houston, including a hardcore festival benefitting the Houston chapter of Food Not Bombs, the Houston Music Classifieds 1 Year Anniversary show, and an experimental showcase organized by Coextensive Collective where I performed a live dungeon synth score to scenes from Anna Biller’s film “The Love Witch.” I’ll be opening for The Body and Dis Fig this July, which is the biggest show I’ve been booked on! I agree to play every show I’m invited to because I think most people would like dungeon synth if they were exposed to it. More often than not, I’m right!
Illuminator: Well, I’ve been making music in and out of bands — mostly punk/metal/grind — for a while, i.e. since the mid-90’s. In 2015, i left my last conventional band and simultaneously started looking for other ways to make music and developed an interest in synths. I was actually more inspired by dance music and synthpop initially, but things took a turn. I became aware of DS, etc. via a musician from Dallas and started looking into it. It really resonated with me and I felt like it would be fun to attempt making some of my own. Eventually I found a concept I found inspiring from a songwriting standpoint. So, I think it was something I started doing because I love making music and found myself with undirected creative energy. I definitely didn’t think it would become something I’d perform. I found Mortwight’s stuff pretty early, though and in 2021, we sort of reached out to each other about the possibility of a show. M. started touring himself, and once we made the connection with Engraven and Assorted Potions, the momentum just kept building
Moon Presence:Most of my musical “career”, which started in about 2007, has been playing in punk and metal bands like Cleric, Tyrannosorceress and Dead to a Dying World. When I first started focusing on synthesizer based music during the pandemic and created Moon Presence I really had no clue what sort of scene existed for my brand of synth prog/dark ambient/dungeon synth or whatever you want to call it. At the time I hadn’t really considered playing live gigs because of the pandemic and the nature of my music but when Will asked me to play my first show in 2021 it was hard not to turn down. That show was great but I had a bit of trouble finding where I fit in when it came to live performances after that. Since I had been used to playing in mostly metal bands, that’s where most of my contacts were but I didn’t really feel like I fit in at those sort of live performances. I had a couple good experiences playing random ambient or multi-genre gigs but it wasn’t until I played with Mortwight and Apoxupon for the first time in March of last year that I really felt like I found my place. Since then it seems a good size scene of dungeon synth artists as has come together from all over Texas in an effort to promote and organize events centered around this music and at the heart of it is the Tiny Minotaur in Austin with Anthony booking monthly TXDS shows along with other gigs for touring artists sprinkled in. Grace and Max have also been doing tons of work booking shows in Houston and DFW areas respectively and those have been a great success as well. Really the scene seems to be thriving and growing constantly and everyone involved has been super helpful, kind, and easy to work with. Moon Presence is my project and Sacred Rumination is the label I created to put out my first tape although I haven’t released anything else on that label at this time. I’ve been fortunate enough to have Anthony help release one of my other tapes for me through his label Engraven and most recently Memory Terminal released my album Rellichs on cassette.
Texas is not known for their euro medieval flair. How do you think the city has taken to regular dungeon synth outings? Has there been any attempt to use regional flair or culture into DS. Do you have Spanish speaking fans or artists?
Mortwight: Yes, Texas is perhaps one of the least “dungeon” places imaginable, at least by that standard of European medievalism. I assume by the city you mean Austin? I don’t live there so can only comment on the turnout and reception of the shows I’ve played as Mortwight, which has been enthusiastic. Austin seems to have an appetite for strange and unusual music performances, so I think it’s a good place to do DS shows. As far as I know, none of the artists involved in TXDS has really incorporated Texas’ regional culture into their work. The closest we’ve come is the cover art for the Texas Dungeon Synth compilation, which imagines a necromancer’s dungeon hidden beneath the Alamo. “Texas” as a culture certainly doesn’t influence my work as Mortwight, although I suppose the proximity of death merchants’ Lockheed Martin and Northrup Grumman (among others) might have intensified the hate and despair I poured into Militant Melancholia. As far as Spanish language DS projects here I’m not aware of any. We do have Latino supporters and collaborators though. Shout out here to Steven Garcia of the NoMames distro who has been instrumental in the development of our scene.
Hexpartner: Texas may be far-removed from cosmopolitan and European flair, but what we do have going for us is a return to brutal, medieval-esque policies, namely when it comes to taking away reproductive and religious freedom! I think that Houstonians and Texans in general take to the escapism of dungeon synth. Houston life can be hectic and stressful due to the sprawl, traffic, and lack of zoning. Most people move here strictly for work (especially in oil and gas, the Texas Medical Center, or NASA), not to seek out experimental art and DIY music shows. That leaves a small portion of folks who are overwhelmingly supportive of fringe acts. I should also include here that Texas Renaissance Festival, the biggest ren faire in the country, takes place an hour north of Houston in Magnolia, TX, while Austin has Sherwood Forest Faire and Dallas has Scarborough Renaissance Festival, so I suppose the euro medieval flair of Texas is all confined to tiny pockets.
Five (Six) Releases
As per usual with these types of interviews, I asked for five releases which would encapsulate the sound or give people a starting position into this scene. I enjoy having other people craft a starter package into their local scenes since they are the ones with the most knowledge. Mortwight was careful to add
Texas Dungeon Synth is a diverse and diffuse scene and that these represent only my perspective. Here are five, which both capture the diversity of the sounds of Texas Dungeon Synth and contain material that has featured prominently in the live performances. These are also the five artists who played that first (indoor) Denton dungeon synth show so they are of particular significance to me. If I were allowed a six pick it would be the first self-titled Hexpartner release.
I don’t know what I was expecting but it certainly wasn’t this. Texas doesn’t usually strike me as a place which would house such forward thinking musicians who are constantly exploring new sounds and collaborating. I also wasn’t aware of active noise artists who were recording graveyard shows for release on tape. This is perhaps something I should have been expecting from a place which is hosting almost weekly events since artists are coming together hanging out and sharing new ideas while powering up synths by truck batteries. It took a few of the musicians to get back to me with responses mainly because they were putting on an elaborate event. Also the photographs still needed to be developed as they were on 35mm film. This time between the event gave me a chance to listen to these records and put them in context of a live scene happening in Texas. These artists have all tuned to the same radio channel which is covering the greater part of Texas and this siege is just one of the opening programs.
2019. Sweet. Im already confused. Apoxupon was a name you saw floating around 2021 with the Realm and Ritual release of Nameless and Formless. If you are like me you opened it up and went “wow this is weird.” If you were like me that moment stuck with you since the rest of the catalog was a diverse collection of music slightly unanchored from reality. How the Garden Grows is perhaps the most accessible beginning into this artists work as it presents forest synth which, much like the painting by Henri Rousseau, offers an escapist journey into worlds that do not exist on this plane of being but rather are transmissions from an outer realm.
2020. TXDS began in earnest with the graveyard show between Mortwight and Illuminator. In Ictu Octuli is not a graveyard performance though a cold crypt like atmosphere can still be felt through an album of regal stoicism. Illuminator is inspired by a “fictional Medieval manuscript Illuminator” and its music is the sound of careful artistry in turning simple letters into elaborate artwork. My wife texted me during the performance who was playing as the music floated through the venue providing something surreal and delightful. I quite enjoyed the dense foliage which canopied most of the attendees during Illuminator’s set which made the entire magical and highly academic.In Ictu Octuli is contemplative and spends many hours not uttering any words locked away in some windowless room.
2022. Threadmage’s Curious Encounter with the Fae Folk is a split between Assorted Potions and Deep Gnome. Though one of them is not from Texas, the project behind Assorted Potions still regards this split as a turning point for their sound. Deep Gnome also played on Saturday so here we are. Threadmage’s Curious Encounter with the Fae Folk is goddamn delightful and between the comfy lofi synth among Sheryl crow covers. There is a feeling of utter playfulness which runs on both sides of this split and which empowers both. This split rests between two self titled releases from Assorted Potions and is a wonderful entry point. I remember first hearing Assorted Potions through the 2022 release Assorted Potions which was both comforting and raw as if it was a blanket left outside for the night. Assorted Potions is less a person and more a ball of energy which casts a radiance around them. I don’t really believe in Fae creatures but if you told me they were real I would have a running list of who is really one of them.
2020. There are two videos for both songs on the release by Moon Presence. For 27 minutes the video for “Moon Presence” shows a picture of a sun (?) slowly passing through the frame. The video is worn as if it was pulled from an esoteric VHS tape in some undisclosed evidence locker. the music which sounds like it could be a backdrop for a Twin Peaks episode also adds to this feeling of uncanny unease. Moon Presence has a strong theme of space but through the lens of forgotten media. Moon Presence most certainly operates on the far side of dungeon synth with being perhaps the most minimal and raw out of the entire group of artists. This minimal sound is contrasted by an strong aesthetic which looms over the listener urging them to look closely into the shadows on the moon.
2024. If we are going to talk about diversity of sound, Mortwight is an example of something which sounds sort of like dungeon synth but dark, weirder, and more unnerving. Released in 2024 but the haunted label Attic Shrines, Militant Melancholia explores industrial music and martial ambient both sounds which have only been approached by a few people in the world of dungeon synth. Mortwight is not an escapist experience unless you wanted to whisk yourself away to a world of despondency. Through distorted samples and brooding melodies, Militant Melancholia is a harsh lens in which to view reality.
2023. Hexpartner most certainly fits within this scene of artists and by that I mean everyone sounds different so this is right at home. I did not know how to approach Hexpartner since all I knew was the artist was a classically trained musician who was making neoclassical darkwave / ethereal wave more than any other identifiable dungeon synth. Hexpartner is not only utterly unique but comes from an artist who is actively promoting live dungeon synth throughout greater Texas. The care and craft which goes into Hexpartner is astounding and anyone slightly interested in what ghosts would make if given the chance to release a record.
Hermit Knight
Deep Gnome
Assorted Potions
Redhorn Gate
Forgotten Relic
Magic Find
Bog D’wella
Above is a 2023 show by Assorted Potions with all of the aesthetic markings of a show that looks captured somewhere in 1989. I don’t think the use of analog media is fooling anyone about the time period, rather we seem to be in an era where no one is a part of any time. Will’s channel documents not only TXDS but also the local scenes through various time periods which feel random at times and completely magical at others. There are more videos being uploaded everyday as YouTube took down the original channel, wiping out an estimated “couple thousand videos.” As someone who likes to document things I felt honored to see a chapter in probably a giant book being logged. I am also grateful for artists who document things in their own unique way as no one can be everywhere at once and sometimes we need scribes to write things down.