Learn how to pray for the pleasure of having nothing
Here for you, so choose me, use me, lose me, until I die
Love can make a person remarkably inventive about the terms of their own disappearance. Give everything away, call it devotion, and eventually even the damage starts looking like proof that something extraordinary is happening. On Like Moths, Italian dark synthpop project Hermidgets follows that reasoning to its terrible conclusion, with two people drawn into a relationship whose destructive potential has become part of its appeal. The single accompanies a disturbing new video and offers the fourth preview of a third album expected in early 2027.
A deep, bass-heavy opening gives way to rhythmic, buzzing synthesizers, with Hermidgets’ baritone entering low and assured as the bassline and percussion settle into a thoroughly danceable groove. That persistent synth melody keeps everything moving, its abrasive edge making the tune all the more satisfying. There is something of Fad Gadget in the electronics, a trace of Brendan Perry in the voice’s sonorous gravity, and the immediate appeal of a late-1980s club hit in the way the parts fit together. The singing lends the song its weight; the rhythm makes carrying it feel almost indecently easy.
The chorus lands hard on “She grants me a loaded gun,” then leaves room for the synth line to take over, its bright, wiry melody carrying a little of the peculiar magic of an old eight-bit machine. That instrumental turn is a hook in its own right, drawing the ear straight toward “I will never be the same without your deadly grace.” Hermidgets has written one of his best songs yet, catching the listener between the pleasure of an exceptionally good refrain and the awful bargain being sung.
The lyrics make surrender sound increasingly devotional. “Learn how to pray for the pleasure of having nothing” imagines a point at which the loss of identity, possessions, and boundaries becomes something actively sought. The repeated invitation to be chosen, used, and discarded gives that desire an unsettling clarity. Both people remain caught in the attraction, feeding a bond they understand may consume them. By the time the moths appear, the fire has become the destination, and the promise of being wanted has swallowed any concern about what might survive.
The video gives that disappearance a physical form. Shot in stark black and white against a dark background, it confines our attention to Hermidgets’ head, bare shoulders, and hands as white modeling clay obscures and distorts his features. Palms press against the face; fingers pull the material into ridges and folds; the mouth opens through a surface that seems continually on the verge of closing over it. The face becomes a succession of unstable sculptures, with black pigment introducing another disturbance late in the performance. At moments, the effort of singing seems to be the only thing keeping a recognizable person visible beneath the mass.
There is a strong resemblance to Frank Tovey’s shaving-cream performances as Fad Gadget, where a familiar substance smeared across the body became an instrument of grotesque theatre. Hermidgets’ stated inspiration is French artist Olivier de Sagazan, whose transformations of the face and body provide a more direct point of reference for the clay and contorted gestures. The video concept developed independently of the song, making their eventual correspondence especially apt: the figure physically works at his own erasure while the lyrics describe an equally willing dissolution. It also extends Hermidgets’ longstanding commitment to anonymity, allowing the face to occupy the entire frame while withholding the usual reassurance of a recognizable artist.
Watch the video for Like Moths below:
Hermidgets is an Italian electronic project built on years of experience in the studio and onstage, with songwriting, performance, and self-produced visuals bound together by a deliberately anonymous identity. Distorted synthpop, darkwave, and intimate songwriting form the basis of the work, while the decision to keep personal biography at a distance gives listeners room to establish their own relationship with it.
The debut album, The Mire, appeared in November 2020, introducing songs including This Is Over and Nothing’s Perfect. A Flaw and Perks followed in 2021, eventually joining Meaninglessness and We Tend to Disappear on the June 2024 mini-album NIHIL. For that record, Hermidgets worked with a deliberately limited setup of two analog synthesizers, drum samples, and voice, using those restrictions to concentrate the arrangements and their emotional force.
The next album began to take shape publicly with Fall Apart in July 2025, followed by Sundown that December and Could I Be Better in March 2026, the latter revisiting Could Be Better from the debut. Like Moths continues that sequence with some of the project’s most immediate songwriting and most confrontational imagery.
Like Moths was mixed by Matteo Sandri and mastered by Giovanni Versari. The single is out now, with Hermidgets’ third album expected in early 2027.
Listen to Like Moths below and order the single here.
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The post “Your Gaze Consumes Me” — Dark Synthpop Artist Hermidgets Follows Desire Into the Fire in Video for “Like Moths” appeared first on Post-Punk.com.
