For its 48th release, Dame-Music welcomes back Meshes to the label, this time for his first full solo EP showcasing his fresh take on the modern EBM sound. Israel based producer Meshes marks his return to the label with his Always Against EP, including a remix from the label boss Bloody Mary. Full dose of heavy analogue bass, powerful percussion and punkish vocals across all 4 tracks.
Siarem, this experienced artist is a sound artisan. The secret of the extraordinary quality of his spotless and calibrated sound could be his exclusive use of analogic gear. For this new release he introduces five tracks where Techno and Electro are mixed with EBM and Industrial.
The Romanian duo Le Brouf presents “Pattern” a 11 songs LP released by Diffuse Reality’s sublabel Periphylla Records. The band goes through several musical genres and styles, from post punk to alternative rock with electro and industrial influences. Composed of Edward Nicoara and Mircea Floruț, Le Brouf was founded in 2017 in Oradea, Romania.
Cititrax presents a highly anticipated 12” from An-i, the musical moniker for Berlin-based Korean American Doug Lee. Doug has been DJing and producing records for two decades under various aliases and collaborations. The return of An-i has found him in even more brazen territory than on previous releases. He moves between musicality and chaos while remaining intriguing throughout – a testament to his uniqueness and integrity. The opener, ‘Rabble’, tonally crude and menacing, backed with a relentless primitive machine rhythm and a psychotic vocal parodying mob mentality, points at the absurdity of take-down culture. ‘Rubble’ follows, a mighty stripped-down instrumental dub. The flip, ‘Chapel Perilous’, is a wandering spaced-out journey into the psyche. It reflects on loss and ultimately freedom from one’s ego identity, meandering an uncertain path that results in a spiritual epiphany.
L.F.T. aka Johannes Haas is back on Mannequin Records with a brand new 6-tracks EP “Hollow Head”. Blessed by the vocal features of Rosaceae (the bloodthirsty breaktbeat ‘I Want To Be A Witch’), Nils Fock (the banging wave ‘Hörst Du Das’) and Petra Flurr (EBM anthem ‘Panzer Tanz’), L.F.T. music evokes a urge of dancing while simultaneously embracing a DIY aesthetic, creating a sonic universe where past, present, and future converge. The Hacker is joining the pack with his interpretation of ‘Panzer Tanz’, turning the track into a straight techno banger. L.F.T. is a visionary artist who takes listeners on a mesmerizing journey through a sonic landscape that fuses elements of electro and new wave aesthetics.
Ricardo Laine debuts on Pinkman with 10 tracks of cinematic new beat that are captivatingly packed with tension and high drama. From the opening synths of breakbeat-laden chugger ‘The High Tide’, an unnerving sense of dystopian dread builds from track to track and doesn’t let off until the very end. ‘Asleep In Their Myst’ is another chapter in the evolution of the mysterious Toronto-based artist Andre E-R – also known under the techno moniker R-oderick – and an emotionally charged reflection on self-discovery and shame. Filled with industrial jack and twisted electronics, the album is a wall-to-wall collection of club-ready compositions that are all killer, no filler.
Mysterious project recorded in Berlin in 2018, a shadowy collective brings a collection of cold synths, ominous tones and analog drum machines. Various Positions exist as the collective vision by five anonymous artists. On ‘Irrational Flashbacks’, Various Positions have created a unique atmosphere likened to the the reverberation of a gunshot ricocheting through city streets though while still maintaining the impact of a hollow point bullet absorbed into the chest; a resounding testament to the artists’ ethos towards the obliteration of identity and their self imposed state of obscurity.”
With distorted arpeggiated synthesisers and cold metallic drum-machine patterns, William Wiffen from Yorkshire invites you to his sonic warzone. Höga Nord Rekords presents R.E.D. (Rapid Ear Damage), a stripped and harsh take on postpunk, motorik and EBM. With haunting and reverbdrenched synthesizers, Wiffen’s new project sometimes resembles acts like Two Lone Swordsmen in their dirtiest moments. R.E.D. is not a wholesome and pleasant experience. Heavily modified vocals, used more like an additional instrument, breaks through the distorted, hard, backbeat, contributing to the feeling of being trapped in a mental slit trench or bomb shelter: no light coming in – only sound.
Pablo Bozzi inaugurates his new label, Second Sight, with the various artists ‘Unknown Prospect’. The title says it all: boundless and vast, Second Sight’s intent is to promote the talents of innovative producers who defy genres in the pursuit of their own idyllic aesthetic.
Soil’s 5th anniversary is just around the corner and they chose some tracks that were released in the past years on tape and now gave them a spin on a 7 inches edition. This is the case of Magnum Opus & Revetop track “Fear in our Veins”, Colombian artist collaboration released in 2021 and now it comes with an authentic destroyer remix by Autumns.
Natural Sciences Recs and Harsh Reality Music team up for the first reissue of Henry Hektik’s Motion P. Music. A figure who collaborated with M. Finnkreig and active in the 80’s German underground and tape trading circuit, he disappeared off the grid, leaving few documents of his music behind, with the handful of remaining tapes swallowed by mould or fried in electrical accidents. What is left is true unhinged tracks from the edge, with six cuts of jacking proto-house (Haiwasa, T.B.A), night-stalker surveillance wave jams (Hong Kong Wedding Night), Black ops narco paranoia (Private Apocalypse) and static knuckle-dragging workouts (Here Comes Escape).
Dark Entries’ resident scuzzmasters De-Bons-en-Pierre return with the “Card Short of a Full Deck” EP, featuring six tracks of their signature sludge. In 2016, Beau Wanzer and Maoupa Mazzocchetti fused forces in order to infect the world with their mutant analog strain, a noxious hybrid of 80’s DIY cassette electronics and 90’s Birmingham techno. Card Short of a Full Deck follows 2017’s Crepes EP and 2019’s EP No. 1 and EP No. 2, all released via Dark Entries. Their latest salvo features six tracks composed for a live performance in 2019. While a damaged sense of whimsy has pervaded their previous work, Card Short sees the duo ramping up the absurdity to obscene levels. Skittering rhythms dance over ghoulish basslines and haunting, rave-evocative chords on cuts “Le Râle du Mâle Alpha” and “Puddle Points”. Elsewhere, like on “Card Short of a Full Deck” and “Accidental Surgeries”, contorted vocals battle careening synths amidst post-apocalyptic waste.
Kri Records strike back with a cassette compilation under an appropriate name: Trust the Rust! Nasty electro cuts are served by LA-based Ole Mic Odd, Italian producer and the Gravitational Waves owner DJ Nephil, British veteran Chupacabras and Russian producer Larionov. The Electro part of the compilation is closed by the local Ljubljana legend operating as a DJ and Honest Work label owner, 198319831983. EBM-ish march is saluted by Black Dot, the duo of Christian Kroupa and Le Chocolat Noir. Christian has also joined forces with the Dallas and Science Cult native Aura Nox. NYC and wave EBM bangers are represented by R Gamble, Spinal is an up-and-coming producer from Chile having released a great EP on Pildoras Tapes, while Bianco Negativo from Marguerite Records wraps up the release.