mannequin records

VA – Waves Of The Future [MNQ100]

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Mannequin’s 100th – a compilation looking forward featuring an international and serious cast. The modern synthwave scene would be significantly poorer without the keen ear and tireless efforts of the Mannequin label run by Alessandro Adriani. Mannequin continues to go on exploratory missions to find the best and most relevant aspects of genres like acid, industrial, EBM, post-punk, coldwave and still more. Which brings us to Mannequin’s newest project and 100th release overall: the Waves of the Future double LP compilation, which itself is not a conventional retrospective collection. Case in point – none of the artists appearing on this collection have put out their own releases on Mannequin yet, despite acting as Mannequin’s unofficial ambassadors (via DJ sets and other means). This makes the set even more compelling rather than less so, since it shows how Mannequin fits into a larger picture that includes other scene leaders and label owners including Beau Wanzer, Willie Burns, Silent Servant and Ron Morelli.

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VA – Waves Of The Future [MNQ100]

Siekiera – Nowa Aleksandria [MNQ118]

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Nowa Aleksandria was Siekiera’s debut album, which crept its way into the back-end of the post-punk scene back in 1986 – an important year which seems to have marked the step-change which later led to the early dawns of rave culture. Out originally on the fledgling Tonpress, it has been repackaged here from the excellent Mannequin, an imprint which is fast becoming the hype beast of post-punk reissuing. As expected, the sound here is moody and direct, verging on the EBM end of the scale; harsh beats weave their way through distorted guitar bass, analogue fuzz, and a crestfallen sort of aesthetic that has taken much knowledge from the likes of Joy Division et al.

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Siekiera – Nowa Aleksandria [MNQ118]

Fred Ventura – Future Unknown – The Lost House Trax 1988-1992 [MNQ101]

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Conceived along the space of a few years and part of a big collection of unfinished experiments stored on cassette tapes, this eight tracks selection well represents Fred Ventura’s late 80s and early 90s infatuation with Chicago House, Detroit Techno, early Warp records and even a secret passion for EBM. Using a basic set up made of Roland Juno 106, Roland JX-8p, Oberheim DX, Roland TR909 and an Akai sampler, these tracks were never officially mixed and meant to be released until today. Minimal and hypnotic, dry and direct, both sides of the record show an instinctive approach to rhythms and basslines, typical of those days where computer didn’t have a predominant role in the creative process.

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Fred Ventura – Future Unknown – The Lost House Trax 1988-1992 [MNQ101]

Group A – Group A [MNQ117]

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Berlin based Japanese industrial synth duo group A make their debut on Mannequin Records with a killer 3-tracks self titled EP. Tommi Tokyo (synth, drum machine, vocals) and Sayaka Botanic (violin, tapes and sampler) released 2 studio albums and 1 live album in Tokyo, before to move in Berlin in 2016. With their mixture of dark minimal synth, avant-noise, striking visuals and performance art, the duo still carries on the very breath of early industrial pioneers such as Throbbing Gristle, Die Form, Klinik, Cabaret Voltaire. The EP was recorded in Tommi’s bedroom and later mixed together with Mannequin Records head Alessandro Adriani in his own studio in Berlin.

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Group A – Group A [MNQ117]

Sam De La Rosa – Earth Wart [MNQ109]

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Sam de la Rosa, best known under the alias Samuel Kklovenhoof of the band Led Er Est and with Karen Sharkey of The Coombe, is back on Mannequin Records for a stunning 4-tracks electro-wave-experimental release. Texas born but strongly connected with the New York cold wave and disco scene from mid 2000, and the Wierd Records family, Sam’s music is a clever mix of post punk, electronic hybrids, experimental pop and catchy melodies.

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Sam De La Rosa – Earth Wart [MNQ109]

Nocturnal Emissions – Nocturnal Emissions [MNQ102]

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Nocturnal Emissions has been one of the best kept secrets of the industrial genre since the 1970s. Led by Nigel Ayers, the band was one of the first to use tape cutting, avant-garde art, and underground video works to create a stage experience that was being cultivated by like-mindedartists like Throbbing Gristle and Cabaret Voltaire. The band moved on to using samplers and electronic noise in their early 80’s work, creating a twisted funk sound that would go on to influence everyone from Foetus to Negativland. They still utilized their former tricks, upping the ante with extremist performance art and more professional video displays. The group avoided signing to a major label, instead focusing on releasing their own music more effectively. They followed this path into the 90’s when they started http://www.earthlydelights.co.uk, an incredibly detailed website that promotes their various ideologies (they are strongly against the British monarchy and believe that citizens should have unlimited access to space travel) and constant release schedule. The band has released countless tapes and CDs of their material, and continues to unleash their noise through their website.

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Nocturnal Emissions – Nocturnal Emissions [MNQ102]

June – Mannequin Records Podcast 3

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Greek born recording artist known for performing and recording live electronic music using pre-midi synthesizers, sequencers and drum machines. Along with Trenton Chase, they are running their own record label, June Records that was established in 2010. Apart from his solo project, June has appeared under the alias Πρόσωπο (Prosopo) and he is also one half of the group Manie Sans Délire.

Continue reading “June – Mannequin Records Podcast 3” →

June – Mannequin Records Podcast 3

Mannequin announces 10-year compilation for 100th release

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The modern synthwave scene would be significantly poorer without the keen ear and tireless efforts of the Mannequin label run by Alessandro Adriani.  Adriani says it best when claiming that “there is no such thing as ‘old’ or ‘new’ music…only the music of now”. With this cogent statement of intent, Mannequin continues to go on exploratory missions to find the best and most relevant aspects of genres like acid, industrial, EBM, post-punk, coldwave and still more.

Mannequin announces its 10 year anniversary with a compilation of tracks from the labels closest friends for its 100th release, called Waves Of The Future.

Continue reading “Mannequin announces 10-year compilation for 100th release” →

Mannequin announces 10-year compilation for 100th release

Raw Ambassador – Shadows Of Evil [MNQ106]

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Berlin based Mannequin Records pushes out some proper Industrial/EBM bangers. Raised in Pescara on the Adriatic Coast and ow based in Frankfurt am Main Antonio Barbetta is debuting on Death of the Machines as Raw Ambassador. The heavy four track ep is created to burn every dancefloor with full Industrial vibes and a lot of EBM influences, giving us a small insight into his violent and rough sound.

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Raw Ambassador – Shadows Of Evil [MNQ106]

Police des moeurs- Dédales LP [MNQ110]

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Police des moeurs is a synth pop band formed in Montreal in 2010. Their debut full-length, after some quicky old out singles, is permeated by a cold, melodic and nostalgic music for broken hearts and dark minds. Police des moeurs is the soundtrack for the nuclear night, a transition moment between the end of utopia and the final ecological disaster. The world after the future. Police des moeurs main influences and interests are underground aestheticisms (1979-1981), industrial transformations and the process of electrification, norms and deviance, nuclear and environmental anxiety as well as paranoia, secret agents, spies and political extremists.

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Police des moeurs- Dédales LP [MNQ110]

Nacht’Raum / Band Berne Crematoire ‎– Expanded 1982​-​1984 LP [MNQ096]

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Mannequin Records to presents a LP compilation of Michael Antener (Swamp Terrorist) early 80’s minimal synth/industrial projects Nacht’raum (with Michael Stämpfli) and, as solo, Bande Berne Crematoire. Michael Antener made his first recordings in the basement of his parents house in a small village nearby Bern, Utzensdorf. He started BBC in 1980, a hybrid of Neue Deutsch Welle and noise/experimental, making a household name in the international home recording scene of the time and participating to many tape compilations. Teaming up with Michael Stämpfli as Nacht’raum, he self-released the untitled mini-lp in 1983. Coming out from the same town of Grauzone, the duo moved into the darkest minimal electronic sounds, choosing German as main language for the lyrics and a Roland Tr-808 as main drum machine, bringing the sound to a proto-electro dimension. Nacth’raum will be historically a real gem in the 80’s Swiss underground electronic music, together with Mittageisen, Grauzone, Liliput, The Vyllies. Michael, by the way, later teamed up with Ane Hebeisen and they went by the name of Swamp Terrorists, releasing seven albums and touring throughout the world until the end of the nineties. At the end of the nineties he sold all his instruments and became independent as a graphic artist.

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Nacht’Raum / Band Berne Crematoire ‎– Expanded 1982​-​1984 LP [MNQ096]

Atelier Du Mal – Noblesse Oblige [MNQ069]

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Brilliant comet of the Italian New Wave scene. Real deal. Atelier du Mal were formed in Florence in 1983 by Lapo Pistelli (synths, electronic drums), Iacopo Ficai Veltroni (bass, synth) and Ignazio Matteini (drum programming, percussions). Recorded in 1984, ‘Noblesse Oblige’ was the first and subsequently the only demo tape by the group, self-released using classic gear like Korg Ms-20, Roland Tr-606, Roland Tr-808, Roland Juno 60, Roland TB-303.

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Atelier Du Mal – Noblesse Oblige [MNQ069]

Techno Bert – Neue Dimensionen [MNQ094]

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Originally released in 1990 on Doremix Records, Techno Bert was the studio project of Robert Passera and Stefano Cundari, co-owner of Memory Records and mastermind behind some italo disco classic names like Hipnosis, Koto, Faxe. “Neue Dimensionen” was developed on Siouxsie & The Banshees’s well-known guitar riff of ‘Happy House’, in a techno crescendo, where the duo would have enjoyed inserting as many samples as possible by stopping only when the capacity of the sampler Akai S1000 memory would be full.

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Techno Bert – Neue Dimensionen [MNQ094]

Led Er Est – Dust On Common [MNQ099]

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Dust On Common’ from Led Er Est (Sam De La osa, Shawn O’Sullivan and Owen Hutchinson) was originally released in 2009 by the seminal Brooklyn based record label Wierd Records. The band’s first full-length release showed the three piece clearly breaking out of the minimal synth underground they have been a vitally integral part of since its inception in Brooklyn to create an undeniably contemporary set of highly crafted and restrained, icily psychedelic pop songs.

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Led Er Est – Dust On Common [MNQ099]

Orphx – Archive 1993-1994 [MNQ089]

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There are less than a handful of bands that can honestly say they were equally involved in the early 90’s noise scene, the mid 2000’s dark ambient scene, and what simultaneously emerged as the power noise movement in Europe. Orphx is one of these pioneers and have gracefully interwoven their tortured electronic architecture among the various subcultures of fringe electronics, while seamlessly continuing on to remain a vital part of the contemporary wave of industrial techno hysteria. Mannequin Records presents an archival collection from the what could be considered the genesis of Orphx’s unique sound. Inspired by early industrial music and new waves of noise from Japan and Europe, the compilation is gathers together some of the best material from their first two cassette releases along with previously unreleased tracks recovered from the original 4 track tapes.

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Orphx – Archive 1993-1994 [MNQ089]

JASSS – Es Complicado [MNQ085]

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Jasss returns with an instant-classic second single for Death Of The Machines. ‘Es Complicado’ is a percussive a-side driven track, a passionate industrial/futuristic wink to the past, while ‘No Chanche’ on the b side is opening a new path for her productions. The mind sick samples from the 1966 Bergman’s masterpiece ‘Persona’ leave the track – as the movie itself does – in a climax wrapped by a variety of interpretations, moving from tribal new beat rhythms and ending into an acid nightmare.

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JASSS – Es Complicado [MNQ085]

Din A Testbild – Programm 4 [MNQ093]

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‘Programm 4′ is their fourth album. Mixed and auto-produced by Mark Eins near the Wall in West/Berlin in 1983, the album was rejected at the time by Innovative Communication, considered too much synth/punk/techno’, while the new label managers were looking more into new age stuff. In fact Schulze eventually sold the label in 1983, which started to release a plethora of acts loosely grouped around the NAM genre.

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Din A Testbild – Programm 4 [MNQ093]