4 out of 5

Label: Library of the Occult

Produced by: Alan Sinclair

Library of the Occult kicked up after synth- / darkwave had gotten a firm foothold in the industry, and several labels and bands were dedicating themselves to not only the style, but the whole faux soundtrack approach – scoring or rescoring 70s and 80s genre films, actual or made up. As much as I’m apt to roll my eyes at any trend, while I was rolling my eyes at this one I was also sampling its outputs – I’m part of the target demo.

LotO has flirted with artists I quite liked several times, but since the label’s initial releases in the early 00s, its formula hasn’t quite clicked for me, with a bit of a discrepancy in the art style and album “themes” versus the actual music. While that shouldn’t matter if the music’s good, it was a barrier to entry for me, continually questioning how the tunes served whatever tale I felt like the packaging was implying, and then maybe there’s a Catch-22 of the music trying to tell a story style for which it wasn’t equipped.

I write this in 2026, with one of my favorite synthwave artists – Repeated Viewing – appearing on the label, and I’m starting to think it’s time for a reappraisal. RV (Alan Sinclair) works pretty exclusively in a realm of 70s horror movie scores, and I think you can see LotO embracing exactly that shtick over the past year or so. I mean, I get the avoidance: the most generic version of this is kind of exactly how one might typify synthwave – doing riffs on Carpenter – but that’s where the equation of If The Music’s Good does come into play: when you’re in a genre of soundalikes, putting out material that’s better than your peers is exactly how you differentiate yourself. Back that up with LotO’s really lovely design (it’s always been noteworthy; my gripe was just how it synced with the tunes), and I’m primed to praise Repeated Viewing’s Break the Faith.

Which: surprise – is pretty dancey! Alan Sinclair’s contribution to the label tweaks his formula a bit to ante up the pace: moody beats and a weighty atmosphere of staticy voice samples and swelling synths are all a bit more playful; this is a dancefloor record for witches and ghosts. That seems to be backed up not only by the music itself, which could be said to add a bit of disco to the music, but in the somewhat lighter tone of the song titles, which avoid references to death and killers and instead conjure that first part of a deal with the devil – when you’re kind of reveling in the allure, and the power: the title track drips with atmosphere before the dancey beat, and a bit of the normal veil of ominousness, drops; Dance of the Wicked and Truth of Dare continuing the trend, albeit with their own distinct vibes – the former slightly more upbeat, the latter with a bit of mystery. Flying Ointment is kind of the peak of this sound, almost sans any overtly creepy undertones, which is the appropriate lead-in to the story’s / album’s shift: Lurch the Letch.

This is also the album’s only slight misstep. It’s the longest of the bunch, and there’s a hard stop in the middle when things transition somewhat back into shadow. Except that hard stop isn’t exactly when the transition happens. Instead, the song essentially just continues, albeit with some lost steam, and Sinclair doesn’t really capitalize on the structure to build to a conclusion.

The rest of the album does, though. Trill is an appropriately harsh – given its name – interstitial that is, perhaps, the true gateway to the swirling of dark forces (and sounds) that take over the final two tracks.

Break the Faith is pretty peak Repeated Viewing: Sinclair’s storytelling is almost always good, but this one feels especially tangible, and just as he used his last album to experiment with his sounds a bit, Library of the Occult gave the artist a great outlet for trying on some dance shoes as well.