avant! records

Buzz Kull – Fascination LP [AV!080]

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The Aussie master of the dark synth arts is back in full force as Buzz Kull with the third album Fascination. Early days of minimal wave seem far away now that Marc Dwyer has gone full Body Music with new full-length, but there is a thread that binds Buzz Kull hits from the past with these ten new cuts: a thread of darkness proper to the most handsome man in the game and that’s here to stay. Cause this record is not just about music subgenres we all know and love, it’s about a feeling that comes alive only with the dark and drives you through the small hours just to leave you drained and filled at once.

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Buzz Kull – Fascination LP [AV!080]

SDH – Maybe A Body [AV!077]

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Two years after their previous Against Strong Thinking mini album, Spanish techno-meets-new wave duo SDH returns with a new, killer EP. There is a duality rooted deeply in the very soul of this project that is reflected in the line-up as well as in the music the band creates. While Sergi Alejandre is behind the machines propagating a wide spectrum of electronic beats ranging from techno and body music to synthpop and electro, Andrea Pérez offsets the night club vibe of the pounding drums with her emotional, romantic vocals. Remix duties go to Phase Fatale & Pablo Bozzi.

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SDH – Maybe A Body [AV!077]

Nuovo Testamento – New Earth LP [AV!074]

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NUOVO TESTAMENTO - New Earth

Nuovo Testamento is the Los Angeles & Bologna-based trio featuring members of Horror Vacui, Sheer Mag, Tørsö, Terremoto and Crimson Scarlet. With the addition of Chelsey Crowley on vocals, synthesists Andrea Mantione & Giacomo Zatti found that their initial coldwave tracks, originally written for the male voice, took on an undeniable synthpop feel. While still recording these songs for the debut Exposure EP in 2019, the band leaned into this evolution and their shared love of Italo disco, beginning to write what would become the New Earth LP. Recorded in isolation during a global pandemic, New Earth is a dark Italo record dappled with light. For eight new tracks, dancing synths perfectly balance the rich dream of a charmed life with melancholy. Guitars have taken a step back, allowing disco beats to flood the floor and joyful fun to prevail. The record anticipates a return to dance spaces, imagines shared experiences and celebrates personal power.

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Nuovo Testamento – New Earth LP [AV!074]

SDH – Against Strong Thinking EP [AV!068]

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SDH return with the Against Strong Thinking EP. The band continues to explore the musical language as a poetic form and trying to discover new questions that allow the great categories of thinking to be undone. Against Strong Thinking talks about the importance of facing all that categorical, dogmatic and conclusive thinking. There is a need for dialogue with everything that seems unquestionable. Again, the questions guide all the songs and, again, there is no single answer. Sometimes this doubt is fertile, sometimes it is painful and involves a total and profound loss.

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SDH – Against Strong Thinking EP [AV!068]

Qual – Cupio Dissolvi [AV!046]

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Lebanon Hanover’s bassist William Maybelline is back with his solo project. Qual strikes back with a three-track 12′ maxi-single. Each one of these new songs explore a different dimension of Maybelline’s approach to Body/Wave electronics. The title-track Cupio Dissolvi is what we may already call classic Qual: gloomy and throbbing, synth-driven and labyrinthine. A Bloody Blob explores new martial slants, with war-like timpani and a marching robot gait. Rape Me in the Parthenon is a 8 minute long dancefloor mayhem anthem scanned by some pounding techno drumbeat and EBM snare and pads.

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Qual – Cupio Dissolvi [AV!046]

CCCANDY – Lonesome Berlin LP [AV!007]

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Lonesome Berlin is the long time coming first LP from this German guy solo project CCCANDY. After the debut 7’’ on Eat! and the tape on Neue Strassen, we now have a proper full-length featuring twelve dark minimal synth pop songs. This is the sounds of the old Europe during the Eighties, when the Berlin Wall was still real: cold and catchy at once, minimal yet groovy. Greyscale bedroom electronics.

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CCCANDY – Lonesome Berlin LP [AV!007]