The term ‘cruelty’ is so limiting according to our cultural expectations of it, an act may give perceived ‘good’ to the perpetrator and ‘bad’ to the victim. It may give good in the long run and bad in the short run or vice versa. The unifying factor to all forms of cruelty is Ghoulia.
Following up on his contribution to the first Five Years Of Tears compilation, Randstad steps up to the bill and delivers his first solo release for Pinkman Records. Six tracks ranging from twisted industrialized beat trax to brain melting weirdo dance. A great cross-over record for adventurous DJs and fans of the cold, minimal DIY sound of the 80s alike.
Mannequin boss Alessandro Adriani returns with his second full-length, ‘Morphic Dreams’, this time on Stroboscopic Artefacts. Throughout eleven cuts painstakingly executed but lacking not an iota of the fresh, spontaneous oomph that made his sound stand out of the crowd of techno producers to have emerged over the past decade, Adriani lays the foundations to a suspended sound imaginarium, governed by its own rules and principles of gravity. Revolving around the notions of sublimation and quest for inner balance, ‘Morphic Dreams’ is comprised of four distinct sequences, conceived and designed as reflections of four mental states, each of them linked to the four alchemical elements – i.e. Water, Earth, Air and Fire.
Cardinal & Nun from Marseille delivers his debut EP for L.I.E.S. with a four track no holds barred synth punk assault. Injecting energy into the dead, channeling chaos and turmoil into his music, he rips through four tracks with a rough yet somehow elegant approach…raw to the bone yet flawlessly arranged. Synths that sound like guitars, guitars that sound like synths, metallic drum machines with a human touch and deranged vocals fuel this record til the end. Think Screamers meet Chrome meet Liasions with a healthy dose of southern California gutter punks on meth and you’re in the right place.
Hard hitting duo TV.OUT return to L.I.E.S. with their 2nd EP for the label. Clocking in with four tracks, these guys move with ease from classic Frankfurt style New Beat to teeth grindin, lower bpm EBM and Hague style electro, all tracks suited for the club. Head right to the opener XTC for an immediate 8 minute expansive modern day lesson in dancefloor drama- strings and claps perfectly placed as the bassline drives you insane. Fast forward to ”Black Out” for a slower paced harder hitting beating, air raid sirens scream as the metalworks clang on. TV.OUT at the top of their game with this one.
Dark Entries presents two new EPs from De Bons en Pierre, the duo of Beau Wanzer & Maoupa Mazzocchetti. Beau Wanzer spends the majority of his days sifting through paraffin embedded animal tissues and reading old issues of Fangoria, occasionally breaking his monotonous routine to record in various fits and bursts. As well as solo material, he is also in numerous projects including Streetwalker, Mutant Beat Dance, Civil Duty, and Corporate Park. Maoupa Mazzocchetti is the pseudonym of Florent Mazzocchetti, a French producer based in Brussels. His sonic vision is one which constantly straddles the line between wild experimentation and rhythmic compatibility, drawing influence from early concrète, 80’s tape scene and Birmingham school techno. After working together on the ‘Crepes’ EP that we released in 2017, De Bons en Pierre reunited for a two day recording session in Brussels. The duo recorded 13 tracks that we’ve split across 2 EPs with 6 tracks on ‘EP No. 1’ and 7 tracks on ‘EP No. 2’. Beau says, “We hooked everything up and just pushed play. We didn’t really discuss much about the process….it was very ‘spur of the moment’.” The equipment set up included a Roland TR-808, TR-606, SH-101, CR-78, CR-8000, two Syncussions and effects. Each EP contains 25 minutes of dance floor perversions that tackle an array of rhythmic forms. Sludgy synths, serrated percussion and viscous distortion goops over leviathan rhythms.
Beta Evers returns to Sonic Groove Experiments with another re-issue of one of her classics from the late aught decade. Three cuts of seductive vocal-charged post-punk, wave / body music.
Pinkman delivers another sturdy record for the connoisseurs of discomforting electronics. The second 5 Years Of Tears release unifies 6 artists, each with their own interpretation of the labels ill-famed sound, embodied in vibrating basslines, metallic beats, and corrosive acid. Gear yourself up for yet more nerve-racking music and get accustomed to the obscurity of this series of releases, because the madness is all but finished.
Cititrax presents ‘Dream Bleeds’, a new vinyl release by Brighton, UK based producer L/F/D/M aka Richard Smith. ‘Dream Bleeds’ overflows with body jerking industrial, raw acid/techno, and hints of the warehouse sound of the late ‘90s and the caustic spirit of EBM. Richard Smith says about ‘Dream Bleeds’, “attaching meaning to songs is often arbitrary but when the visceral feeling of music, particularly instrumental body music, is laid bare, the interaction is immediate and physical. These tracks thread together; each starting point completely open, each new step informed by the last. I find it interesting that the process is the same but the outcome somewhat unexpected; shaped by emotion, inspiration or even constraints of time, they evolve as they do in that time. They reach a different end point due to that evolution of circumstance.”
Art Kinder Industrie was a band from Tarbes, south of France. Formed in 1988 by Xavier Vincent (R.I.
P.) and David Carretta it was the first EBM act in France to have distilled the legacy of DAF, Front 242 and Nitzer Ebb. Active between the end of the eighties and beginning of the nineties their output consisted of a few self released tapes and various live performances. Lux Rec selected 6 tracks produced between 1988 and 1990 to be released on vinyl. In collaboration with Unknown Pleasures Records.
Long time kept in the pipelines, we are proud to welcome the discreet, although agitated newcomer Legion 808 conveying his debut vinyl release on the label. Composed while stuck in some kind of hallucinated trance, his mind and body cemented behind the four walls of his Parisian apartment, the Frenchman ultimately unleashes a scathing first entry into his discography. Taking the shape of a vicious six track mini-album, long brewed with ruthless humor, oozing fever and nervous breakdowns, ‘Tombouctou Crisis’ feels as vigorous as a slap in the face. Making up for some of the best industrial bedroom music we’ve heard as of late, he always manages to find his way back to the surface throughout the many layers of bizarre grooves and caustic humor, zealous snare attacks and strange nursery rhymes. Only to uncover a depressurized atmosphere of sorts; from which a strong smell of burned asphalt never gets off your clothes.
Alessandro Adriani, the Mannequin Records label boss, will release next month a new album called ‘Morphic Dreams’ on Lucy’s Stroboscopic Artefacts. The album is preceded by the EP ‘Embryo’, an immersive four-track micro-odyssey spanning across jagged ambient scopes, unmapped acidic grounds and further leftfield-friendly sonic territories.
Splattered vinyl with a silk screen printed cover and a huge poster inside. Lustpoderosa`s eclectic lifestyle continues with its very first various artist compilation. A clash of generations in sonic form, ranging from slow and heavy industrial beats to gloomy minimal wave. Four contemporary tracks and two reissues from 1984.
Violet Poison aka Obtane aka Bakunin Commando aka Diana Berti aka Francesco Baudazzi with the first release on Blame Records. Mesmerizing electronic music with a bit of EBM echoes, including a stunning remix by Broken English Club.
Rotterdam is miserably cold and rainy. Plagued by gentrification and technological unemployment, the harbor city is slowly turning into a desolate, mechanized metropolis. Secretly tucked away on the outskirts, if you know where to look, there are a few remaining military bunkers. This is where the city’s youth go sporadically to relieve their anger and grief. During these nights, they tirelessly rage to the dystopian sound of Gamma Intel’s slow-burning electro and hypno-acid, before returning to the struggles of their daily lives.
