My Cabal

VINYL FORMAT. "My Cabal," the third single from School of Seven Bell's Alpinisms, has at its core a rather telling bit of wordplay. The word "cabal" - usually pronounced "kuh-BALL," meaning a secret, conspiratorial clique not unlike School of Seven Bells themselves - is here pronounced "cable," like the electronic connector. Appropriately, the song "My Cabal" reflects that strange conflation of technology and the supernatural, spinning a drum-machine throb, a few chiming guitars, and a My Bloody Valentine-style atmospheric "whoosh" into a sophisticated dream-pop anthem.

The "My Cabal" single's B-side component is particularly stacked, beginning with the melancholy instrumental track "My Camarilla," a gentle "response" from Cabal, the song's protagonist, to Camarilla, his lady love. A half-time remix of Alpinism's vocoder-laden "Chain" by UK ambient legends Seefeel follows. Finally, Jesu's Justin Broadrick re-imagines "Face to Face on High Places" as an overdriven fever dream, saturating the song with melting-film guitar tones and hard-edged electronic percussion. For all of Jesu's added sturm and drang, though, the song ends up somehow even sweeter.