Crawling out of your skin
A silhouette walking in
Trapped in silence
It’s impossible to see
Pleasure can make an unreliable compass. Follow it far enough and pain starts to feel inviting, confinement becomes comforting, and the distinction between escape and oblivion grows less certain. Montreal trio SEXSOMNIA examine that uneasy surrender on Subspace, setting the body’s contradictory signals against two bass guitars and a cold electronic beat.
The accompanying video for Subspace unveils SEXSOMNIA’s first new material since their August 2025 EP, Forbidden, offering a tantalizing first glimpse of Raven(ous), their forthcoming EP, due in early 2027.
Subspace opens with eerie synth pads and chilly electronic exhales before a deep synthesizer melody meets the dark, supple movement of post-punk bass guitar. The percussion establishes a steady, insistent pattern, leaving room for the low-end melodies to develop. Around fifty seconds in, additional coldwave textures and feminine moaning samples heighten the sense of anticipation. Nearly a minute passes before Philip Faith makes his entrance, his smoldering gothic delivery lending the words the measured cadence of an incantation.
For all the sampled sensuality surrounding him, Faith takes the sole lead-vocal role for the first time on a SEXSOMNIA single. Earlier releases drew on the contrast between his dark, gravelly register and feminine guest vocals; here, he moves between exposed, vulnerable phrases and a more commanding delivery. Mastered by Martin Bowes of ATTRITION at The Cage Studios, the track gives the band’s dual bass guitars room to carry the melody beneath its atmospheric electronics.
The lyrics describe physical sensation becoming unreliable: skin feels alien, movement gives way to restraint, and pain gradually becomes pleasure. Heat and cold coexist as the body waits for release, while breathlessness and the desire for an embrace draw the speaker further inward. By the closing repetitions, temporary relief has become a wish to remain inside that altered state forever.
Faith explains:
“Subspace is a voyage into the in-between realm of pure, unaltered pleasure, bliss, abandonment and ecstasy; a place where nothing can affect or harm you. But there is a danger in confusing the numbness and perfection of this state with reality. Subspace is the Eden of the senses.”
The video gives that Eden a distinctly biomechanical appearance. Blue-lit figures with metallic-looking skin move among corrugated tubes, their hands passing across faces and bodies in scenes of close, otherworldly intimacy. The Giger-inspired imagery turns physical attraction into something both alluring and faintly threatening, matching the song’s uncertainty about where pleasure ends and confinement begins.
Between these encounters, the band performs through thick haze and saturated magenta, cyan, and white light. Bass players become silhouettes, Faith stretches his arms towards the camera, and close-ups catch the long, pointed metal fingers of his glove. The contrast between the vivid performance footage and the colder, enclosed scenes gives the song’s promises of release an unsettling visual counterpart.
Watch the video for Subspace below:
Founded in Montreal in October 2021 by Philip Faith with Pat Gaudette, and joined soon afterward by Michael K. Rien, SEXSOMNIA put two bass guitars at the melodic center of their music. Their early post-punk and proto-goth foundations meet electronic rhythms and synthesizers, with influences spanning The Cure, Joy Division, Propaganda, Giorgio Moroder, Trentemøller, and Ladytron.
Their debut album, Transcendent, appeared in 2024 through France’s Manic Depression Records. Last year’s Forbidden EP featured guest vocalists Marita Volodina of Poland’s Stridulum and Isabelle Young, alongside an ATTRITION remix.
Listen to Subspace below and order the single here. The forthcoming Raven(ous) EP is expected in early 2027.
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The post “As Your Mind Dissolves” — Montreal Darkwave Trio SEXSOMNIA Surrender to Sensuality in Video for “Subspace” appeared first on Post-Punk.com.
