The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
Joe Talbot needed a scent. The Idles frontman came to David Seth Moltz with a memory, something about friendship blooming in dark times, the way a slice of Black Forest cake tastes better when the pines outside are ash-grey and smoking. Moltz took that feeling and turned it into Gateau Blackout, released in 2024. It is, in the truest sense, a collaboration: one man remembers, another renders.
Fire as a note is rare and risky. Most fragrances hint at warmth, at smoke, DS&Durga puts actual combustion in the base. Combined with cocoa and vanilla, the result isn't dessert-quiet. It's the whole bakery, slightly on fire, in a way that works. The iris adds a powdery coolness that keeps the sweetness from becoming cloying, a counterbalance that makes the smoke feel intentional rather than accidental.
The evolution
The opening hits cherry first, bright, slightly tart, the kind that stains. Pine and incense follow within minutes, adding structure. Then the cocoa arrives: not sweet chocolate, but the dry, slightly bitter dust of cacao nibs. The jasmine and iris lean powdery in the heart, almost cool against the smoke. By the drydown, you're left with embers, vanilla, and something skin-adjacent from the musk. It lasts past a full night. The next morning, there's a trace of smoke on fabric that smells less like fire and more like memory.
Cultural impact
Gateau Blackout exists at the intersection of two distinct creative worlds: DS&Durga's Brooklyn indie romanticism and Joe Talbot's post-punk urgency with Idles. The collaboration brought a working-class, emotionally raw sensibility to niche perfumery, a category not known for understatement. It's the kind of fragrance that invites conversation, whether that's about the smoke, the cake, or what it means to translate a memory into something you wear.
The House
DS&DurgaD.S. & Durga is a Brooklyn-based fragrance house founded in 2007 by husband-and-wife team David Seth Moltz and Kavi Ahuja Moltz. David Seth Moltz, a self-taught perfumer and former indie musician, composes all the house scents while Kavi handles visual design. The brand creates immersive fragrances inspired by specific feelings, places, and cultural moments, ranging from the American West (J. Crew Homesteader's Cologne, 2013) to historical periods (Beverly Hills 1985, 2010) and abstract emotional states (You Kill Me With Silence, 2018). D.S. & Durga is notably a perfumer-owned house, giving the founder creative control across the entire brand. Their catalog spans chypres, colognes, and aromatic compositions, with later releases including Royal Purpure and King Majesty Bergamot Chypre (2024). The brand operates from Brooklyn, New York, and has developed a following among fragrance enthusiasts drawn to its narrative-driven approach.
The Creator
David Seth MoltzSelf-taught and deliberately unconstrained by classical training, Moltz favors an unconventional palette that includes unconventional materials alongside traditional ones. His fragrances tend toward the narrative and atmospheric, often featuring sharp contrasts: sweet against…
