“Dark Charm” - Sugar Scars
Photo Credit: Artist EPK
If there’s one thing Sugar Scars have mastered, it’s turning contradiction into cohesion. Their new single, “Dark Charm,” the first taste of their upcoming sophomore record Dark Spark White Light (out November 21, 2025), feels like a perfect continuation of the boundary-bending path they laid down with last year’s critically acclaimed Rhythmic Body Reflexes.
From the opening seconds, “Dark Charm” doesn’t just introduce itself—it casts a spell. The percussion is steady but sly, a heartbeat-like pulse that locks into a snare-driven dance rhythm. Layered on top is a bassline that doesn’t just support the groove, it hypnotizes it—slithering, confident, pulling you deeper into the trance. This is the kind of rhythm that makes your hips move before your brain even notices, a push-and-pull of dark joy that feels as natural as it is unsettling.
Then come the vocals—drenched in reverb, ghostly yet intimate. They don’t just tell you a story; they wrap around you like a whispered confession in a crowded room, something both deeply personal and cosmically far away. It’s a delivery that blurs joy and sadness into the same sentence, that strange bittersweet duality Sugar Scars thrive on. It’s gothic in its bones but psychedelic in its afterglow, reminding you that this isn’t just a song—it’s an experience.
And that’s the real trick of “Dark Charm”: it’s built like a contradiction, but it works. Joy and sorrow dance together. Darkness and light flicker like neon reflections in wet pavement. The sound is familiar—electronic dreamscapes, indie dance energy, shoegaze haze—but twisted into something so uniquely theirs that you can’t quite pin it down. Call it gothic, call it psychedelic, call it El Paso-to-Juarez genre alchemy—whatever it is, it works.
Photo Credit: Artist EPK
The single also hints at what’s coming with Dark Spark White Light: an album that promises to be as genre-fluid and polished as anything Sugar Scars have done, while pushing even further into that perplexing aura they’ve made their signature. In an era where image often overshadows artistry, the duo’s refusal to put themselves front and center makes their mystique even stronger. The focus is the music—its atmosphere, its contradictions, its strange beauty.
“Dark Charm” drops September 19th, with the full album to follow November 21st, and if this single is any indication, Sugar Scars are about to carve themselves even deeper into the underground with something both haunting and irresistible. Add in a West Coast tour in early 2026, and it looks like this “dark joy” spell is only just beginning.
If you’re ready for a track that feels like dancing through a dream where joy and grief blur into one neon-lit memory—“Dark Charm” is waiting for you.
“Dark Charm” is available now on all major streaming platforms
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