Monica Richards & Anthony Jones - Syzygy

The Celestial Alignment

The paths of gothic icons collided on a cosmic scale with the 2018 collaborative release, Syzygy. An astronomical term denoting the rare alignment of three celestial bodies (like the sun, moon, and earth), Syzygy acts as a breathtaking musical eclipse between Monica Richards and cinematic ambient composer Anthony Jones (of Monastic). Born from the electric energy of their preparation for a special joint live showcase at Wave-Gotik-Treffen (WGT) in Germany, this 6-track EP was conceptualized as a literal mash-up and artistic fusion of their individual solo histories.

The technical architecture of Syzygy is brilliantly weird and uniquely experimental. Rather than simply writing a standard set of new duets from scratch, the pair smashed their distinct solo catalogs together—interlocking vocal stems, instrumentals, and themes to mutate old songs into completely new arrangements. Richards' sharp, ancient-world darkwave vocal phrasing beautifully intertwines with Jones' dramatic, baritone vocals, heavy harmonium work, and sweeping, cinematic electronica. Released via Danse Macabre, this collaborative experiment proved so wildly successful that it laid the groundwork for their expansive, full-length dark-ambient project, Aestuarium.

Monica Richards - Kindred

The Fauna Symphony

With her third solo album, Kindred (released in late 2013), Monica Richards closed her elements-themed trilogy by rooting herself deep into the heartbeat of animal spirits and kinship. If InfraWarrior was the heavy soil and Naiades was the unpredictable depths of the ocean, Kindred is the air, the fur, and the wild fauna. Funded directly through a passionate crowdfunding campaign by her dedicated fanbase, this 13-track collection represents an entirely self-guided, highly intimate exploration of our interconnectedness with the natural world.

Musically, the album is an eclectic, multi-textured tapestry that operates largely as a solo effort, though layered with exquisite, remote contributions from a circle of close friends. Reconnecting with her historic musical roots, Richards features bass work from Steve Willett (of her pre-Faith and the Muse post-punk band, Strange Boutique) alongside stunning strings from Paul Mercer and cellist Marzia Rangel. It is an album that gracefully balances nostalgia with avant-garde field recordings, demonstrating that the ultimate strength lies in community, ancestry, and the creatures we share the earth with.

Monica Richards - Naiades

The Oceanic Metamorphosis

Monica Richards completely submerged her artistic vision in the elemental power of water with her stunning 2012 sophomore solo album, Naiades. Named after the fresh-water nymphs of Greek mythology, the album represents a massive conceptual pivot from the fiery, martial earth-worship of InfraWarrior. Moving into vastly more fluid, ambient, and avant-garde territories, Richards crafted an immersive aquaphonic universe that flows effortlessly between neoclassical beauty, industrial darkwave, and sweeping symphonic arrangements.

Self-produced and deeply personal, Naiades was released alongside a breathtaking 32-page hardbound art book, elevating the project from a standard musical album into a complete multimedia literary experience. Richards handles the vast majority of the instrumentation herself, though she brings back a few trusted collaborators—most notably virtuoso violinist Paul Mercer and former Faith and the Muse touring cellist Marzia Rangel—to flesh out the record's rich, organic textures. It is an album that doesn't just use water as a metaphor; it captures the actual, terrifying duality of the element—its capacity to heal, wash away past traumas, and violently destroy.

Monica Richards - The Strange Familiar EP

The Missing Link: The Strange Familiar

Before diving fully into the vast waters of Naiades, we must stop at the essential bridge: The Strange Familiar EP. Released in 2011 via Danse Macabre, this 5-track, 28-minute transition piece serves as a vital sonic signpost. It sees Monica Richards subtly shifting away from the dense, heavy earth of InfraWarrior and beginning to float toward the liquid fluidity of her next era.

Featuring key Faith and the Muse live alumni—guitarist Steven James (Christ vs. Warhol) and cellist Marzia Rangel—the EP acts as both a fierce backward glance at her deathrock roots and an experimental testing ground for her future.

Monica Richards - InfraWarrior

The InfraWarrior Genesis: 

Monica Richards—the visionary force best known for anchoring the legendary darkwave outfit Faith and the Muse—shattered creative constraints with the 2006 release of her debut solo masterpiece, InfraWarrior. Stepping out from the collaborative shadow of her primary duo, Richards engineered a staggering 14-track sonic manifesto that serves as a bridge between ancient matriarchal mythology and modern ecological urgency. It is an album born from a profound personal awakening, deeply tied to her real-life immersion into permaculture and the fierce reclamation of the divine feminine.

Far from a mere continuation of her goth-rock lineage, InfraWarrior is a sprawling, 70-minute cinematic ritual. Richards loops together an elite vanguard of underground heavyweights—including dark ambient architect Lustmord, avant-garde siren Jarboe, and Collide’s kaRIN—all masterfully balanced by the pristine mixing of Chad Blinman. The result is a fiercely independent audio-theatrical experience. It demands to be heard not just as music, but as a living, breathing invocation of nature’s raw, untamed power.

Faith And The Muse - Where The Land Meets The Sea

When a band spends nearly two decades building an entire universe out of shadows, mythology, and subverted genres, a standard, chronological "Greatest Hits" album simply will not suffice. Released on 11 March 2016 through Danse Macabre Records, Where the Land Meets the Sea: The Best Loved Songs of Faith and the Muse serves as the definitive, beautifully curated retrospective of the band’s legacy. Rather than handing the track selection over to a disconnected record label, Monica Richards and William Faith personally picked 30 tracks that defined their creative journey across five seminal studio albums, framing this compilation as a deeply intimate love letter to their fans.

The packaging itself leans heavily into a tactile, DIY zine aesthetic, arriving as a limited-edition double-CD digipak featuring an extensive 16-page booklet designed entirely by Monica Richards herself. Instead of dry recording dates and clinical liner notes, the booklet is stuffed to the brim with personal memories written in the duo's own words, surrounded by rare archival photographs and original album art. True to the band's obsession with artistic duality, the tracklist splits their sonic identity into two elemental halves: "The Sea" (Disc One) and "The Land" (Disc Two), drawing a stark, gorgeous line between their ethereal, acoustic folk dreamscapes and their aggressive, driving post-punk anthems.

Faith And The Muse - Shoumei

At the very twilight of their active recording career, Faith and the Muse accomplished something radically transformative. Released in 2010, Shoumei (Japanese for "illumination" or "proof") serves as the definitive document of their final, monumental creative era. Capturing the band live at the iconic venue Numbers in Houston, Texas, on May 8th, 2010, the release was unleashed both as a multi-camera live DVD and a pristine live audio album through their independent The Mercyground imprint. Rather than coasting on past gothic-rock nostalgia, this era saw the duo completely reinventing their stage manifestation into a multi-sensory piece of performance art.

The release stands as the companion piece to their critically acclaimed final studio album, 2009's Ankoku Butoh. Stepping far beyond traditional darkwave tropes, Monica Richards and William Faith deep-dived into Japanese avant-garde dance, Shinto mythology, and blistering tribal percussion. Backed by an expanded live lineup featuring taiko drums, violins, cellos, and live Butoh dancers, Shoumei serves as the literal "proof" of an underground titan firing on all cylinders, blending eastern ritualism with Western post-punk.

Faith And The Muse - Live In Mainz Germany October 16th, 1997

To truly understand the DNA of Faith and the Muse, you have to look past the dense layers of studio production and catch them stripped bare, interacting with an audience in real-time. Live in Mainz, Germany - October 16th, 1997 is a snapshot of the duo captured at a pivotal, transitional peak in their early mythology. Recorded live at the historic cultural center The Reduit in Mainz during their legendary European "Vera Causa" acoustic tour, this performance serves as an intimate document of alternative music history. It was a tour that actively challenged the bombastic, wall-of-sound conventions of late-’90s gothic rock by leaning into quiet intensity.

Though the concert itself transpired in 1997, this elusive audio document was primarily circulated as a highly sought-after limited-edition CDr distributed directly via the band’s webstore and at select concert merch tables. It is the ultimate manifestation of the DIY zine ethos—unpolished, authentic, and curated by the artists themselves for their most dedicated inner circle. Shifting away from heavy distortion and synthesized backings, the performance showcases Monica Richards and William Faith using acoustic instruments and minimal arrangements to breathe fragile new life into their growing canon.

Faith And The Muse - Vera Causa

The dark alternative underground holds few treasures as enduringly mystical as Faith and the Muse. Formed in 1993 by the multi-instrumentalist sound-sculptor William Faith (formerly of Christian Death and Mephisto Walz) and the ethereal writer, artist, and vocalist Monica Richards (of Strange Boutique), the duo established themselves as the premiere architects of American darkwave. Their sprawling, cinematic sonic universe masterfully knits together the jagged bones of post-punk, the lush tapestries of neoclassical darkwave, and the ancient, thumping rhythms of Celtic folk. They don’t just write music; they conjure ritualistic landscapes that map the deep sub-basements of human myth and emotion.

Released on 23 October 2001 via Metropolis Records, Vera Causa (Latin for "True Cause") stands as the definitive mid-career grimoire of the band’s legacy. Acting as a bridge between the fading twilight of the 1990s gothic scene and the dawn of a new millennium, this 28-track, two-disc compilation operates less like a standard "Greatest Hits" commercial cash-in and more like an intimate, dusty archive opened for the faithful. By gathering a sprawling hoard of unreleased studio cuts, rare demos, radical electronic remixes, and sweat-soaked live recordings, Vera Causa offers an unedited, raw blueprint of Faith and the Muse's creative alchemy.

Faith And The Muse - Ankoku Butoh

Released on October 31, 2009, via Danse Macabre Records, :ankoku butoh: arrived after a six-year silence and represents the ultimate creative peak of Faith and the Muse's dual history. Named after the avant-garde Japanese dance form Butoh (translated literally as "dance of utter darkness"), the album is a profound conceptual exploration of Japanese Shinto beliefs, animism, and folklore. Stripping away the Western historicism of their earlier works, Monica Richards and William Faith threw themselves into studying organic Eastern instrumentation, creating a dense masterwork that plays out like an ancient, theatrical ritual for the modern age.

Recorded between March and October 2009 at Zone 0 in Los Angeles, the 13-track album runs for a tight 46 minutes, but carries a monolithic sonic weight. It was famously packaged as a massive multimedia experience, including a comprehensive DVD containing music videos and live tour footage. Far from a surface-level aesthetic choice, the duo actually studied traditional Taiko drumming structures to construct the record. By combining martial Eastern percussion and Shinto field sounds with blistering deathrock and ethereal wave, they delivered what they rightfully described as "13 brand new atavisms for the warrior within".

Faith And The Muse - The Burning Season

Released on July 8, 2003, via Metropolis Records, The Burning Season is the explosive fourth studio album by Faith and the Muse. After taking a four-year hiatus following Evidence of Heaven, Monica Richards and William Faith emerged from the studio with a completely modernized, raw aesthetic. The duo abandoned the velvet-lined, candlelit history lessons of their late-90s work, stepping into the chaotic light of a new millennium with their most confrontational, politically charged, and stylistically unpredictable record to date.

Recorded at Wisperthal studios, the 12-track record stretches across 52 minutes of pure, genre-defying rebellion. Rather than pandering to the safe, formulaic expectations of traditional gothic rock, the band threw industrial electronic beats, 1940s dark lounge jazz, blazing deathrock punk, and tribal drum circles into a creative pressure cooker. The Burning Season remains a towering testament to artistic survival—a sonic clearing of the brush that proved Faith and the Muse were entirely unafraid to set their own legacy on fire to build something more vital.

Faith And The Muse - Evidence Of Heaven

Released on August 24, 1999, via Apocalypse Records (and Metropolis Records in the US), Evidence of Heaven marked a dramatic stylistic shift for Monica Richards and William Faith. Moving away from the waterlogged Celtic myths of Annwyn, the duo turned their creative gaze toward the grand, candlelit decadence of the European Renaissance, Baroque, and Victorian eras. The album is a conceptual masterpiece steeped in themes of romantic melancholy, mortality, spiritual longing, and historical drama, perfectly capturing the fin de siècle anxieties of the approaching new millennium.

Recorded at The Eye Socket, the 13-track record presents a highly sophisticated, high-art evolution of the darkwave genre. The band stripped back some of their heavier post-punk guitars in favour of acoustic madrigals, authentic period instrumentation (including prominent use of the viola da gamba and lute), and rich, operatic vocal harmonies. Evidence of Heaven is widely considered Faith and the Muse’s most elegant and structurally refined hour, solidifying their reputation as the undisputed aristocrats of the 1990s dark alternative movement.

Faith And The Muse - Annwyn, Beneath The Waves

Released on June 11, 1996, via TESS Records, Annwyn, Beneath the Waves is the immersive second studio album from the darkwave powerhouse duo. Following the critical success of Elyria, Monica Richards and William Faith plunged headfirst into the misty realms of Celtic and Welsh mythology. Named after Annwn—the Welsh underworld of eternal youth, abundance, and phantoms—the album is a concept piece that trade-offs the dusty catacombs of traditional gothic rock for an expansive, submerged fantasy world dripping with folklore and maritime tragedy.

Recorded between October 1995 and March 1996 at The Eye Socket studio in California, the 14-track record stretches across 58 minutes of sonic experimentation. It represents a bolder, more indulgent era for the band, where they successfully fused traditional European folk instrumentation with cinematic neo-classical dynamics and aggressive post-punk guitars. Annwyn solidified Faith and the Muse not just as standard-bearers of the 90s goth scene, but as master world-builders of the dark underground.

Faith And The Muse - Elyria

Faith and the Muse showcase a bittersweet musical composure and a dramatic sense of romanticism within darkwave compositions. Monica Richards and William Faith, the duo behind the gothic Elizabethan melodies and Victorian soundscapes, involved themselves in dark rock and roll early on, playing in various bands and creating musical chaos before the ethereal mystery of the Faith and the Muse.
Monica Richards, already a punk rock girl in the early '80s, became the face of the D.C.-bred band Strange Boutique. It was more hardcore punk than dreary goth rock aesthetic, and her time with the band also included opening gigs for the Meat Puppets, Bad Brains, and the Circle Jerks. She formed Madhouse in 1983, and that band released several singles and a debut full-length, but by 1987, Richards had re-joined Strange Boutique once more. Richards and her bandmates went on to become one of D.C.'s biggest alternative acts, later sharing the stage with Killing Joke, UK Subs, and Xmal Deustchland, as well as releasing two EPs and an album. In 1993, while on the road in support of The Charm, Strange Boutique opened a series of dates for the Shadow Project, and that's when Richards met William Faith.
Faith had previously worked with Christian Death, Mephisto Walz, and the Sex Gang Children, and by the mid-'90s, he wanted another musical outlet besides being in a group. His musical work with Richards led her to move to his native Los Angeles on a permanent basis so that the two could fully focus on Faith and the Muse. Their first musical composition was a cover of the Bauhaus classic "Hollow Hills, which would be featured on the 1996 compilation A Passion of Covers: A Tribute to Bauhaus. In 1994, they issued a debut album titled Elyria, which grounded the underground club hit "Sparks" and two years later, Annwyn, Beneath the Waves was released. The lush fairy tale elements were far more haunting this time around, marking Richards' and Faith's commitment to artistic creativity. Countless tours and festival dates across Europe and the U.S. filled the remainder of the '90s, and upon 1999, the band released another album, Evidence of Heaven, as well as Richards' and Faith's own label, The Mercyground. While recording Evidence of Heaven, however, they endured the sad suicides of Christian Death's Rozz Williams and Faith and the Muse bassist JT Murphy, as well as Richards' grandfather. Such dire times called for a well-deserved break, and the two set off to hibernate in their L.A. digs. Two years later, they rekindled a spark, for the Faith and the Muse inked a new deal with Metropolis and surfaced with their fourth album, Vera Causa, in October 2001. This particular double-disc included previously unreleased remixes, covers, and live tracks alongside cult classics like "The Unquiet Grave" and "The Silver Circle." In 2002, Richards contributed vocals to the Viva Death self-titled effort. A year later, Faith and the Muse returned with their first album of original material in five years. The Burning Season, which appeared in July 2003, marked the pair's most experimental work.

In 1994, the underground darkwave scene witnessed the birth of a profound sonic partnership when veteran underground vocalist Monica Richards (of Madhouse and Strange Boutique) teamed up with multi-instrumentalist William Faith (of Christian Death, Shadow Project, and Mephisto Walz). Operating as Faith and the Muse, the duo quickly carved out a distinct identity by rejecting the rigid boundaries of traditional goth rock. Instead, they forged a sweeping, theatrical soundscape that merged the shadow-drenched roots of post-punk with the delicate, transportive beauty of ethereal wave and neoclassical arrangements.
Their 1994 debut studio album, Elyria, stands as a foundational masterpiece of mid-90s gothic subculture. Over 14 tracks, the album serves as a rich tapestry of historical mysticism, romantic tragedy, and cross-genre experimentation. Spurred by Richards' soaring, chameleonic vocals and Faith’s intricate arrangements, Elyria effortlessly shifts from thunderous tribal drumming and driving basslines to acoustic neofolk and lush orchestral strings, creating an immersive, otherworldly atmosphere that feels less like a collection of songs and more like an ancient ritual.

Various Artists - Every One A Classic!!! Vol.1

The One-Hit Wonders of '77: 

For obsessive record collectors seeking the true outer limits of the late-1970s British music explosion, Every One A Classic!!! Volume 1 functions as a legendary blueprint for crate-digging archaeology. Released as the inaugural instalment of a notoriously mysterious, highly coveted multi-volume bootleg CD series, this 15-track anthology completely bypasses the familiar major-label gatekeepers. Instead, it zeroes its sights on the fiercely localized, "one-and-done" underground acts from the 1977–1981 British punk, mod revival, and power pop boom. Most of the bands compiled here released only a single, hyper-scarce 7" single before vanishing into absolute obscurity, making this release a literal holy grail for subcultural preservation.

While sibling volumes in this archivist series lean heavily into jagged street punk, Volume 1 skews beautifully toward the chiming, melodic, and intensely energetic world of UK power pop. The collection represents an era when the initial iconoclastic shockwave of '77 had settled into a highly democratic DIY format. Armed with high-register vocal hooks, heavily overdriven guitars, and frantic, driving tempos, these obscure regional acts proved that the energy of the punk revolution wasn't exclusive to London's fashion elite. It is an unvarnished, wonderfully uneven, and vital time capsule that rescues brilliant suburban songwriting from absolute historical erasure.

Various Artists - Riot City-Complete Singles Collection (The Sound Of UK 82)

Leather, Bristles, and Studs: 

For purists tracking the secondary detonation of British punk, the 2021 box set Riot City: Complete Singles Collection (The Sound Of UK 82) functions as an absolute brick of sonic concrete. Released by the reissue experts at Captain Oi! (an imprint of Cherry Red Records), this exhaustive 4-CD collection gathers all 33 singles issued by the legendary, Bristol-based independent label between 1981 and 1984. Founded in part by Vice Squad drummer Shane Baldwin, Riot City became a furious, unapologetic ground zero for the subgenre known as "UK82"—a faster, harsher, and intensely political breed of street punk that weaponized the raw fury of '77 against the grim backdrop of Thatcherite Britain.

Boasting a staggering 118 tracks, the package captures a chaotic, fiercely localized community that turned independent record distribution into a radical act. Of the label's short-lived but highly influential catalogue, 27 individual releases crashed into the era's highly competitive UK Independent Chart, turning regional kids into underground heroes overnight. To complete the picture, the compilation includes the incredibly scarce 1982 Riotous Assembly bonus LP. Complete with meticulous original sleeve art reproductions and unfiltered archival liner notes, this anthology stands as a definitive, sweat-and-beer-stained document of a vital subcultural uprising.

Various Artists - Shock Waves Vol. 1

Shards of the Minimal Wave:

For obsessive diggers of the obscure, the European synth underground of the early 1980s is an infinite goldmine, and Various Artists - Shock Waves Vol. 1 stands as one of the ultimate, holy-grail compilations of the subculture. Originating from Germany as an unofficial underground CDr release, this 12-track collection bypasses even the standard indie chart-toppers of the era. Instead, it tightly scopes its focus around the hyper-obscure, self-released, and long-lost minimal synth, cold-wave, and early electronic body music (EBM) anomalies recorded between 1980 and 1985.

The compilation acts as a dark mirror to the mainstream synth-pop explosion of the decade. Rather than utilizing high-end commercial studios or sleek digital gear, the artists featured here operated in bedrooms and tight basement setups with primitive analogue synthesizers, basic drum machines, and a distinctly bleak, post-punk ethos. It functions as a crucial piece of archival detective work, mapping out a continental underground network—spanning Germany, Belgium, and the UK—where regional musicians were translating corporate alienation and cold-war anxiety into icy, mesmerizing dancefloor rhythms.

Various Artists - Silhouettes & Statues, Gothic Revolution 1978-1986

Charting the Shadows:

For anyone seeking to understand the architectural blueprints of subcultural gloom, Silhouettes & Statues: A Gothic Revolution 1978–1986 stands as the definitive, multi-disc testament to an era. Released in June 2017 by the archival pioneers at Cherry Red Records, this sprawling five-CD box set chronicles the transformation of post-punk's jagged shards into the fully codified, backcombed landscape of gothic rock. By tightening its geographical lens strictly around the UK alternative underground, the collection traces how a bleak, regional response to the hangover of punk rock evolved into a massive, multi-headed cultural phenomenon that left an indelible, ink-black stain on the 1980s.

Clocking in at over 80 tracks and accompanied by an exhaustive hardback book, the compilation successfully side-steps the lazy stereotype of goth as merely a theatrical fancy-dress party. Instead, it functions as an essential, alternative history book. The tracklist charts the musical lineage chronologically, beginning with the stark, freezing industrial reality of the late 1970s, moving into the ferocious, tribally-charged "positive punk" era, descending into the hedonistic basement of London's legendary Batcave club, and finally culminating in the grandiose, arena-leaning dark alternative anthems of the mid-1980s. It is a monumentally heavy, essential deep dive for subcultural purists and sonic historians alike.

Various Artists - The Indie Scene 1981

Mapping the Transition:

For listeners looking to understand the precise moment when the raw energy of punk mutated into the diverse landscapes of alternative pop, goth, and synth-wave, Various Artists - The Indie Scene 1981 serves as an invaluable sonic time capsule. Originally released in 1992 by the archival specialists at Connoisseur Collection as part of their acclaimed multi-volume series mapping British independent music, this 22-track retrospective captures a pivotal year of creative explosion. By focusing heavily on tracks birthed on fiercely independent labels, the compilation side-steps mainstream major-label polish to document a landscape where artists were actively rewriting the rules of what pop music could sound like.

The beauty of the 1981 edition lies in its chaotic, brilliant lack of sonic uniformity. Here, the minimal funk of post-punk college favorites rubs shoulders with the neon-drenched beginnings of synth-pop and the primordial sludge of early goth-rock. Rather than filtering the era through a single genre lens, the compilation presents 1981 as a wild west of musical experimentation where guitar-slinging traditionalists, art-school dropouts with drum machines, and brass-heavy jazz-punk ensembles all shared the same underground charts. It is a vital record for subcultural purists, preserving both the massive indie crossover hits and the deep-cut oddities that defined the dawn of the 1980s alternative boom.

Various Artists - Gary Crowley's Punk & New Wave, Rare Punk Gems & New Wave Nuggets 1977-1982

For anyone who thinks the story of late-70s and early-80s British guitar music begins and ends with the Sex Pistols and The Clash, Gary Crowley's Punk & New Wave, Rare Punk Gems & New Wave Nuggets 1977-1982 serves as a massive, overdue wake-up call. Originally released in 2017 via Demon Music Group, this sprawling compilation was lovingly curated by legendary UK broadcaster Gary Crowley alongside his Soho Radio co-host Jim Lahat. Instead of leaning on the well-worn corporate-approved anthems of the era, the duo dove headfirst into the dusty crates of the DIY movement, emerging with a treasure trove of forgotten 7" singles, obscure self-releases, power-pop masterpieces, and frantic mod revival stompers that had previously never made the leap to CD format.

Spanning an expansive, multi-disc tracklist, the collection captures the true democratic explosion of the post-punk zeitgeist. From inner-city art students experimenting with primitive synthesizers to suburban teenagers playing their first chords in rented church halls, the collection represents the pure kinetic energy of a subculture rewriting the rules of the music industry in real-time. With striking zine-like liner notes and unparalleled historical context, this compilation isn’t just a archival document—it’s a living, breathing celebration of the one-hit wonders, the regional legends, and the beautiful weirdos who kept the underground ablaze.