Severed Heads – Come Visit The Big Bigot [DE180]

Dark Entries present the deluxe 2xLP reissue of ‘Come Visit The Big Bigot’ by Severed Heads, one of the longest surviving bands to emerge from the Australian post-punk independent music scene. They began in Sydney in 1979, incorporating elements of ‘industrial’ noise-generation, tape cutting & looping and electronic sound synthesis. As the project developed song-structures and vocals were employed in a more-or-less recognizable mutant electro pop style. After many line-up changes featuring Garry Bradbury and psychedelic guitarist Simon Knuckey, Severed Heads was the vehicle for composer Tom Ellard. ‘Come Visit The Big Bigot’ was Severed Heads’ first record to be released commercially simultaneously in Australia, North America and Europe in 1986. It was a prime period for this ‘industrial dance music’ and Bigot was a respected album that did well from the tour they did with Skinny Puppy that same year. Quite a few people still define the band by this period. ‘Come Visit The Big Bigot’ was made on a Fostex 16 track recorder in Tom’s bedroom, employing the newly acquired AKAI S612 sampler and Roland SH-101 to create most of the drum sounds. The album signaled a new direction, flirting with the dance floor and the pop song. Presenting the Heads at their most cohesive, while retaining their distinctive musical stamp. Tom’s vocals are harmonized, slowed down, sped up, run through fuzz boxes, backwards, drum machine rolls, sampled guitars, horn sections, and voices but with a subversive rather than malevolent intention. Tape loops are more subtle and define their own space and texture. Like the original Australian version of the album, we’ve included a bonus disc featuring three extended remixes by Sydney DJ Robert Racic (who produced the edited 7” version of “Petrol” we reissued in 2015), plus three B-sides from the ‘Twenty Deadly Diseases’12” and two additional tracks from the same recording sessions. All songs have been remastered by Tom Ellard, who worked very slowly and methodically with much better equipment over two years, letting each track have its own breath.

listen

Severed Heads – Come Visit The Big Bigot [DE180]

NEP – Decadance [FOX002EP]

NEP - Decadance

NEP was a loose multimedia collective formed in 1982 Zagreb, ex-Yugoslavia. The founder Dejan Krsic collaborated with various artists in a quest of re-thinking the stale concepts of art history, position of the author and the barriers between pop and elitist high culture. Deeply immersed in pop-culture, politics and art theory Krsic’s search for perfect pop music with cutting critical edge peaked in 1989, the year Decadance track was conceived in studio, but has never been published. Pumping Roland 808 beats, with sampled vocals from Linda Cooper asking herself “How do I dance to this music?” were chosen by Fox & His Friends label owners Leri Ahel and Zeljko Luketic for a 12″ opener of the unknown NEP’s pop history. All material is restored and mastered from original reel-to-reel tapes and presented on wax for the first time and for this occasion, deconstructed and reinvented in a remix B-side by Snuffo. Snuffo splitted the title vocal into a new cut-up, now telling “Dance to this music” to its audiences.

listen

NEP – Decadance [FOX002EP]

Atelier Du Mal – Noblesse Oblige [MNQ069]

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.

listen

Atelier Du Mal – Noblesse Oblige [MNQ069]

L’Avenir – Soir [CBR012]

L’Avenir is the cold synth side project of veteran electronic musician and sound artist Jason Sloan. Known throughout the space and ambient music scenes for his contemplative electronic soundscape work for over a decade; Sloan founded L’Avenir as a side project in 2012 to explore his long time love of synthpop and minimal wave music created purely from analog and vintage equipment.

listen

L’Avenir – Soir [CBR012]

Negative Response – Oblique Angles [MR073]

Hand-picked selection of tracks by UK’s Negative Response in this initial limited run of 300 discs. Negative Response is a DIY minimal synth project that formed in 1980. They self-released 3 cassettes from 1981-1983 as well as playing a number of gigs from 82-85. The tracks embody a very melancholy atmosphere reinforced by their arsenal of early electronic analogue equipment. This collection will certainly appeal to fans of early bedroom synth artists such as John Bender and other DIY home recording moguls of the era.

listen

Negative Response – Oblique Angles [MR073]

Marker – Marker [MR072]

On his debut full-length album as Marker, New Orleans artist Mike Wilkinson eschews traditional pop catharsis for total submersion into a blue, luminous tunnel. Guitar, bass, and Wilkinson’s voice are all treated through a variety of outboard and software effects, gently blurring into one another. Written and recorded between 2012 and 2015, the songs distill themes of isolation and connection, unreliable memory, identity, and the problem of infinite introspection and its relationship with reality. Filled with surprise melodic turns and evocative, vaporous production, “Marker” is an immersive work of otherworldly pop, encouraging its listeners to retreat inside themselves.

listen

Marker – Marker [MR072]

Circa Tapes – Love & Venom [MR069]

Third full length album by Circa Tapes (solo project of Adam Killing of Kill Memory Crash). Following excellent previous releases on Romance Moderne and DKA, this third album displays the evolution of Killing’s spot on ability to masterfully blend dark early 80s synth, industrial and cold wave into a completely new entity. Much heavier and wonderfully darker, this LP will appeal to fans of classics like Skinny Puppy, as well as cutting edge EBM contemporaries such as Broken English Club, Boy Harsher and other cold wave / industrial hybrids.

listen

Circa Tapes – Love & Venom [MR069]

VA – Simple Music Experience Vol. 2 [MMLP505]

Macadam Mambo presents a special collaboration with friend label ‘Simple Music Experience’ from Bordeaux/Marseille. Contains original Industrial, Synth-Pop, Jakbeat, Post-Punk, Experimental and Contemporary music by underground artists from France. Originally it released on tape (SM05) in 2016.

listen

VA – Simple Music Experience Vol. 2 [MMLP505]

Lives Of Angels – Hole In The Sky [DE172]

Lives of Angels was the brainchild of Gerald O’Connell from London, England.  ‘Hole In The Sky’ is an 11-track compilation of material from the Lives of Angels archives. Including two tracks from the original ‘Elevator To Eden’ cassette omitted from our vinyl reissue, two tracks from Color Disc compilations and 7 previously unreleased tracks. This compilation features the very earliest Lives of Angels recordings “Call Moscow” and “Somebody Else” as well as the final composition from 1986 “The Infinite Corridor” plus original mixes of “After Dark” and “Look Out Kid” different than the versions on the ‘Color Supplement’ compilation. ‘Hole In The Sky’ is an impressive example of early ’80s home recording; a DIY interpretation of the elegance and ambition of the previous decade’s krautrock.

listen

Lives Of Angels – Hole In The Sky [DE172]

VA – Distant Waves II [DWR015]

Dead Wax Records presents “Distant Waves II”, a follow up of the well received 2014 compilation. This was compiled in three whole years (and a lot of research work) and is a collection of songs that share some common factors: they all were made in the 80s, they all feature synths and they all are extremely sought after, rare as hell or just previously unreleased. There are obvious style variations as each band here is unique but “Distant Waves II” is quite more homogeneous than its predecessor. We have the upbeat, danceable minimalism of Standing Ovation, Boris Dzaneck, Störung, Doppler Effect and Factoría Ribbentrop. The cold, moody melancholy of Broken Tables and La Valse. Virtually unknown acts like The Sixth Sense, Seeing Red and Almost Anyone, heavily underrated new wave giants like Grey Parade and Puppets Of Mankind. An unreleased synth pop masterpiece from Almost Alone here, an unheard 7” rendition of a worldwide dancefloor smasher by Nightmoves there. A total of 14 amazing tracks, all ‘instant classics’

listen

VA – Distant Waves II [DWR015]

Shoc Corridor – A Blind Sign [DE164]

SHOC CORRIDOR - A Blind Sign (reissue)

Shoc Corridor was the London post-punk quartet of Paul O’Carroll (Voice, Synth), Andy Garnham (Synth, Drum), Chris Davis (Guitar, Bass, E-Bow) and Nogi Prass (Synth) named after the Sam Fuller film from 1963. The group recorded a 4-song demo during 1981 in a tiny flat Chris shared with Nogi in Notting Hill. As their collection of instruments grew they set up studio a few blocks away in Andy’s flat at 20 All Saints Road. There they re-recorded Sargasso Sea’ along with On Reflexion’ on a TEAC reel-to-reel 4-track machine. In the summer of ’82, the band was booked into Decibel Studios in Stoke Newington for two and a half days with Mark Easton of Shout Records, where they reworked the two songs. The group usually worked through studio experimentation rather than constructing their songs in a conventional way. Their equipment list included a Korg MS-20, Wasp, Pro-One, Roland TR-808, WEM Copicat, guitars, bass, e-bow and an assortment of effects pedals. On Reflexion’ began as a Blancmange backing track, since Stephen Luscombe would sometimes use Andy’s 4-track, Korg MS-20 and drum machine. Chris has memories of Paul disappearing from time to time to the neighboring graveyard for inspiration, where they had to procure him from to lay down vocals. Their debut 3-song 12′ single, A Blind Sign’, was released in October 1982 on Shout Records. For this re-issue we’ve included the original skeletal Sargasso Sea’ 4-track demo from 1981. Evocative and dreamy, the music escorts you on a tour of icy landscapes, with Paul’s rich vocals guiding the way.

listen

Shoc Corridor – A Blind Sign [DE164]