The second release on Italian label Il Silenzio Del Rumore comes with two amazing Mick Will edits.. Collectors editions, this consisting of a 12′ colored vinyl plus a photo insert and a totemic object from the picture set, in transparent plastic sleeve.
Frigio Records is on the road again with Le Chocolat Noir. The Croatian artist, known for Disco Panonia and his work as Honored Matres, is no stranger to Frigio, having featured on All Stars Vol 1 in 2014. “Transform EP” is introduced by the industrial mental sounds of “Greedy Pets” which brings a new name to the roster as June delivers his interpretation of it. A grimy wave edge is pursued by the Greek machine man for a driving take. The original staggers into being. Drums slip and bass rumbles in a tense and terse piece of gritty music. Then Le Chocolat Noir offers the dark and looming “N.E.T.”. Blackened lyrics are sampled as thick bars of synth and licks of acid make for a menacing curtain fall on side A. On the flip side, the steely claps and burbling bass are rinsed in metal for the gleaming EBM infused “Doing Dishes” with vocals ghost beneath the currents. Following up, vocals ghost beneath the currents, vocals picked up by Colombia’s Cute Heels as the electronic savant debuts on Frigio for a simmering aquatic remix.
Dark Entries present “Household Shocks”, a 16-track compilation of UK DIY/Synth/New Wave/Post-Punk originally released in 1980. The album showcases 9 bands from the thriving post-punk scene in Scunthorpe and the North of England. Operating on a shoestring budget, co-producers Chris Leaning and Paul Singleton (both of One Gang Logic), released “Household Shocks” on Stark Products, a label they founded in 1979. At almost 50 minutes of music, the album took four weeks to produce at the Studio Playground in Lincoln. It was supported heavily by the late Radio 1 DJ John Peel.
ZYX are the duo of Inge Graf and Walter Zyx. They formed in Vienna, Austria in 1977. Committing themselves to the “aestheticisation of everyday life” in all fields of art, their works with video, photography, graphic design, and music are visually influenced by Pop Art, Constructivism, Futurism, Dadaism, Beat culture, and the electronic rock of the 60s and 70s. They are considered pioneers of multimedia art worldwide, and continue to remain active to this day. ‘Trust No Woman’ is the debut album from ZYX, and was released in 1981 on the label RCA Music. It was recorded, mixed and mastered from March to August 1981 at their own Sun Moon & Stars Studio Vienna. They designed short, punchy songs around a barrage of analogue synths, rock-solid electro beats and tempered, low-key vocals. Cold and claustrophobic atmospheres collide with mechanical rhythms The songs are sung in English with a heavy German accent, and lyrics channel obscure existentialist dialogues. Despite the sombre tone, there lingers a touch of the enthusiasm that accompanied the influx of affordable technologies and new media of the era.
Having begun life as a bedroom project for then Southampton-based Nicholas Wood to experiment with ideas around minimal electronica and shoegaze, The KVB has grown with partner and collaborator Kat Day. The now Berlin-based productive pair have released four albums of woozy and immersive anthems since 2010. ‘Of Desire’ is The KVB’s most fully formed record to date, taking in influences such as Death In Vegas, Scott Walker and Roxy Music to create something that is at once familiar and yet inventive and original. Steeped in musical history, it’s an album that hums with devotion and captures a band ready to emerge from the underground and embrace an ever-growing audience. “Being able to produce from home meant we weren’t restricted.” Wood says remembering The KVB’s early days. Many of the songs on ‘Of Desire’ date back to these earliest bedroom recordings, including lead single ‘In Deep’. “It’s about longing,” he adds of a song powered by a motorik beat and distorted blasts of icy guitars.” There’s definitely a romantic undercurrent to the record.”
Second volume of ‘Der Zeltweg – Italian Tapes Industrial Music 1982-1984’, the legendary Musumeci’s tape label existed for some few years in the early 80’s. Edition of 500 copies on 160 gram black vinyl. Coloured Vinyl. While the A-side is filling all the music produced by some of their side projects (Errata-S-Corrige, Gasdehyde and Herpes-Z) that we already introduced in the first volume, plus an unreleased Musumeci very early studio track ‘Apologia/Musumeci’, the B-side is presenting for the first time the full reissue of ‘The Psychophatic Blossom – Il Fantasma della Libertà’ tape (Der Zeltweg 002), an unexpected guitar-bass-noises experimental album, permeated by philosophical declamations in Italian language and short pulsating rhythmic compositions.
Minimal Wave presents an album of long lost tracks by Dutch electronic music pioneer Das Ding, entitled “Missing Tapes”. Danny Bosten formed Das Ding as a solo project in the early 1980s and released his music and friends’ music via his own cassette label called Tear Apart Tapes. At the time, he was studying graphic design at art school, and in turn he ended up designing the artwork, cassette-sleeves and illustrations for the label himself. Meanwhile, he recorded his own music as Das Ding. Powerful dark electro, he made several addictive and danceable tracks which later become Minimal Wave hits. Danny made all his music in his bedroom which essentially turned into a small recording studio. He went on to release many of his own tapes and also played some live gigs. Old tapes were uncovered around 2010, and Minimal Wave released a remastered version of “H.S.T.A.” and select other tracks. A wave of renewed interest followed the record’s release and soon people were in touch to propose live shows. Twenty years later, and after some deliberation, Das Ding was reincarnated under its old moniker but now with a revised line-up and a working set-up that reflected inevitable technological change. Recently, Danny came across further tape archives from those early days. And from the batch, we selected our favorites to present to you in vinyl release form.
Following the recent release of So Low, a compilation of early ‘80s synth, industrial and cold wave classics and undiscovered gems curated by Optimo’s JD Twitch aka Keith McIvor, The Vinyl Factory are set to release specially commissioned remixes of two tracks on the 16-track compilation by rising UK producer Powell and Hamburg’s Helena Hauff.
Schaltkreis Wassermann returning with a 2LP album including all their 1980’s minimal synth and soundtrack productions from around the recording sessions of their debut album Psychotron. The bands captured the impressions from the LSD dimension, converted them into synthetic sounds and bringing them to the listeners mind with their music releases. An unique form of art, expecially exciting if you are minding they are from the inner circle of group around Albert Hofmann (the explorer and designer of the substance LSD which changed the world in 1960s). Stella and PJ lived in Albert Hofmans house, on weekends they done their LSD research sessions in their studio, experimenting with their ARP2600 synthesizer. Some tracks made it on their debut album Psychotron, the rest is available now on their 2nd album „SKW“.
The first release from Sign Bit Zero features two powerful edits from Mick Wills. Giving new life to the track, ‘Center’ by Ale Mania, a San Diego based band, the cuts here contain wholly new structures with a greater focus on the oppressive yet powerful vocal parts and the uplifting string section. By extending the (acoustic) drum track and giving it the groove and strength we have come to associate with his edits, Mick has created a unique take on the new wave / dark wave genres – ideal for any DJ who wants to showcase this sound in a club-focussed context. ‘Center’ originally appeared on the EP, ‘A, who sings that beat?’ on Volar Records and was written by Andrew Montoya.
Montreal-based electronic duo Essaie Pas is comprised of Marie Davidson and Pierre Guerineau. Both are respected musicians in their own right – Marie having released two acclaimed solo records, with Pierre being best known for production work on underground Canadian musicians such as Dirty Beaches and Femminielli. Essaie pas was born on a hot summer night in 2010, releasing some ultra-limited singles which culminated in their debut LP, Nuit de noce (Teenage Menopause Records) in 2013. The mix of drawling guitars, français mumbles, and minimal electronics caught the ear of DFA Records, who booked the pair to open for Factory Floor on their first North American tour.
Spain’s Domestica are up to their usual antics, and this time it’s the second instalment of their excellent Domestic Landscape series, a varied and much-coveted collection of perfectly contemporary post-punk and coldwave oddities from the 1980s. We’re in love with every track on here, and we’re not exaggerating, this gear is of the highest calibre, and all very much relevant in a DJ nowadays. Think Optimo in the midst of a smokey, mid-morning set in a dark basement, and you’re almost there. Track upon track of solid gold discofied industrial music. Killer; highly recommended.
”Civil Defense” was—and still is—a tone poem. It was written in 1984 and first performed in various beatnik-esque coffee houses (with a simple beatbox) in and around Chicago. (I went to college on a full poetry scholarship– believe it or not!)”, as Danny himself says, and we think it’s right. It is considered to be one of the earliest vinyl releases of House Music. LDdlm is honored to bring you this ” long lost piece of the puzzle” in the retelling of Chicago House Music history. The LDdlm edition of the original recordings documents the enduring legacy of this iconic piece of audio history, including the long lost Ron Hardy edit and a reshape of the edit of Ivan Smagghe for the first time on vinyl.
The Rubber label may proudly hail from the iconic Lowlands area known as Den Haag, yet their sphere of influence clearly stretches much further. First up is secret Amsterdam weapon Robert Bergman, laying down some deviant acid box action in the shape of “Broadcast From Ceres” which dovetails nicely with the more psychedelic overtones of “Masquerading As Stars” from Brussels-based duo Tav Exotic. The master Das Ding opens the B-side with the subaqueous “Divebomb” whilst the unheralded Safe Swim plunges into the deep end of experimentation on “Pictures Of Skies”. It’s left to Diagonal pair Bronze Teeth to wrap up matters with the rip snorting squat party techno of “Easygroove” which was clearly produced with The Hague in mind.
The Hipodrome Of Music 