Marking a little more than ten years since David Bowie’s passing, Toronto’s (Canada) darkwave art‑rock entity Double Eyelid returns with a striking homage: a reimagined version of "No Control". The track, originally nestled within Bowie’s 1995 album Outside—his celebrated reunion with Brian Eno—finds new life in a 2026 interpretation crafted for today’s goth, industrial, and darkwave audiences.

Bowie’s Outside era was a moment of bold reinvention: a pivot toward the abrasive textures of ’90s industrial, a period that saw him touring with Nine Inch Nails and embracing a more fractured, experimental sonic palette. Double Eyelid’s rendition leans into that tension while reshaping it through their own aesthetic lens. The result is a brooding, low‑end‑driven pulse wrapped in warm, layered atmospherics that subtly echo early‑’90s Depeche Mode, all anchored by an impassioned and emotionally charged vocal performance.

For vocalist and project founder Ian Revell, the song carries deep personal resonance. "I started listening to Bowie around 1993, and his work spoke to me so deeply that I dove head‑first into everything he released — and found he had so many different sides," Revell reflects. "It was difficult to reconcile the bleakness of the Berlin trilogy with the warm and sunny vibes of the Bowie that was out in the world making Black Tie White Noise. When Outside came out a couple of years later, I was thrilled he was working with Eno again, and over the moon to see him play live with Nine Inch Nails. Outside is still a challenging album, but it has aged remarkably well. ‘No Control’ is a layered song that says a lot without revealing anything; covering it was entering into an enigma. It’s personal, it’s global — it’s all deranged, indeed!"

Double Eyelid has long carved out its own niche in the goth and darkwave underground. Emerging in 2012 with the cult hit "Dead Is Better", the project released its acclaimed debut album Seven Years in 2014, followed by the 2016 remix collection Broken Mirror, which featured contributions from scene luminaries such as Psyche, Leæther Strip, nTTx, and Double Echo.

The years that followed brought a steady presence on festival stages, including Mechanismus, Absolution, and Morecambe’s Bats in the Attic, sharing lineups with acts like Light Asylum, Empathy Test, Priest, and Cold In Berlin. Between 2020 and 2023, Double Eyelid released a series of singles produced by Live Evil Productions and Erik Gustafson (Adoration Destroyed).

In 2025, the project unveiled its most ambitious work to date: a long‑form reinterpretation of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Tell‑Tale Heart, further cementing Double Eyelid’s reputation for theatricality, narrative depth, and sonic experimentation.

Now back in a studio‑focused phase, Double Eyelid hints that more releases are on the horizon. Their rendition of "No Control" stands not only as a tribute to Bowie’s enduring influence but also as a reminder of the project’s own evolving creative force — one that thrives on reinvention, atmosphere, and emotional intensity. Link