Ex-Voto - Don't Look Back 1982-1990

Ex-Voto formed in Los Angeles in 1982 and did not release a record until 1990. Eight years working the LA goth and deathrock circuit produced exactly one four-track 12" on the band's own label, which makes them one of the least documented groups in a scene that was never especially organized to begin with. This anthology finally fixes that, pairing the 1990 EP with a stack of unreleased material from across the decade.

The Anglo influences are not hidden. Sisters of Mercy, Alien Sex Fiend and Joy Division are all audible, but the record carries the particular cold, spare quality that separated Southern California deathrock from its British cousins, closer to Kommunity FK or VooDoo Church than to anything out of Leeds. "The Devil's Work," "97 Crosses" and "Never Again" come off the original 12", cut at the band's own Poor Alice Studios in Garden Grove. "My One Desire" and "I Ache For You" come from the vault. Shades of EBM creep in at the edges, quietly predicting the industrial wave about to break across the 90s.

Despite the thin discography they were genuine scene fixtures, appearing on the 1988 American Gothic compilation alongside Screams For Tina, Death Ride 69 and Premature Ejaculation, and later across a run of Cleopatra comps. The band eventually relocated to New Orleans. For anyone working the deeper end of the American goth canon, this has been a gap for decades.

Ten tracks on Phantom Chord, PC 7. The first proper collection of a band most people have only read about.