VA – Next Wave Acid Punx DEUX [Eskimo]

Next Wave Acid Punx DEUX is the second compilation for Eskimo Recordings compiled and curated by Berlin-based Musician and DJ Luca Venezia, aka Curses, to explore the darker side of club music. Spread across 3CDs and three 2LPs Next Wave Acid Punx DEUX features a mammoth 49 tracks that join the dots between early industrial pioneers Throbbing Gristle, EBM legends like Nitzer Ebb and the post-punk experiments of people like Malcolm McLaren and Big Audio Dynamite with some of the most exciting artists around today, such as Boy Harsher, Nuovo Testamento and Years of Denial. Where the first Next Wave Acid Punx compilation was a personal journey for Luca, a lockdown inspired exploration of his record collection to find the thread that ran through the music that had soundtracked much of his life, DEUX is a celebration of that music let loose on the world, the thrill of music performed live, the smoke and strobe filled clubs you’ll hear it in and the artists you’ll find on those stages.

chapter 1 / chapter 2 / chapter 3 / CD

VA – Next Wave Acid Punx DEUX [Eskimo]

EYE – Honolulu / Saigon [KH047]

Laurène Exposito releases her 3rd album on Knekelhuis. Honolulu / Saigon is a collage of unreleased material, and previously on cassette released work. Some songs go even back to the era of Sabine and ties in wonderfully with Laurène’s previous work. She’s been performing some of these tracks back in the days.

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EYE – Honolulu / Saigon [KH047]

VA – Precious Decay Selections Vol. 3 [OR118]

Oráculo Records long time partner in crime Carlos Grabstein rules Berlin based Miseria records. Started as a DIY cassette and digital label back in 2021, the imprint is clearly focused and specialized in ultra-rare synth based darkwave compilations. Now in 2023 Miseria joins forces with Oráculo Records to present a selection of his best releases to date in vinyl format for the very first time, presented in double gatefold format in a one-off truly limited edition of 300 copies lacquered pressed on 180 gr. high quality solid black vinyl.

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VA – Precious Decay Selections Vol. 3 [OR118]

Cosmetics – Baby LP [CITI030]

Cititrax present a new album by Cosmetics, a Vancouver-based synth wave duo formed by Nic Emm and Aja Emma in 2008. Cosmetics reappeared in 2022 after having been relatively quiet since its very memorable releases on Captured Tracks in 2010. In 2023, the band returns with a phenomenal full-length LP entitled ‘Baby’. Their music is sultry, minimalist, and atmospheric, backed by lush analog synths and sparse drum machines. Aja’s seductive vocals cut through the perfectly crafted dark synthpop forming a filmlike narrative that draws us in. The ‘Baby’ LP will have you listening on repeat and the single featuring alternate versions of two songs from the album will bring you from your bedroom listening to the dance floor. Cosmetics continue the lineage of Minimal Wave into the present day.

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Cosmetics – Baby LP [CITI030]

Plague Pits – Creatures [TNP04]

Plague Pits is a collective from Bern, Switzerland. Inspired by the DIY electronic tape underground of yore, they play disco dirges for the Anthropocene – cold wave for a heating planet. After a string of DIY releases on their bandcamp page, on Transnecropolitan and Young And Cold Records, the band released their first full length album “Creatures“ on DIY label Transnecropolitan, from Bern. “Creatures” was conceived and recorded over a span of six months in early 2022 and contains eight songs that are just as inspired by the clattering electro-industrial rhythms of the mid-eighties as by early electronic post-punk and its krautrock forbears. The record lyrically centers around all manners of exploitation – of human beings, other living creatures, and our planets resources. 

Plague Pits – Creatures [TNP04]

Schicksal – Perpetuum: Cycle I [MEC078]

Schicksal is the alias of Rudi Huybrechts from Belgium. Heavily inspired by Front 242 first album “Geography”, DAF’s elektronische körpermusik “Alles Ist Gut” and of course Kraftwerk’s “Man Machine” and “Computer World”, Rudi bought his first Roland SH-101 synthesizer and started in 1982 with Schicksal to experiment with synths and drum computers. He spent lot of hours programming and composing on his bedroom and recording everything on a tape recorder. A selection of these old tracks are included on this album. You can definitely feel the vibe of this period and the place where the songs were created: the old industrial town of Hoboken, the culmination of the cold war and the aim of a young musician to combine melody and harmony into minimal electronic music.

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Schicksal – Perpetuum: Cycle I [MEC078]

Max & Intro – We Design The Future [MEC083]

Max & Intro was a short-lived duo formed by Vincent Max and Intro Johnnie in Belgrade. In 1984 they composed “Ostavi Sve” (in English: “Leave Everything”), probably the greatest ex-Yugoslavian minimal synth song of all times with heavy rotation on radio and even TV appearances. It was a tribute to Fairlight synthesizers, in that time non affordable for these young musicians and became an obsession, especially for Max. In 1985 was published their first and only release “We Design The Future” including “Ostavi Sve” and the B-side “Beogradska Devojka”, another synth gem.

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Max & Intro – We Design The Future [MEC083]

Dissemblance – Centauresse LP [LIES195]

After her debut on Mannequin in 2019, Dissemblance now arrives on L.I.E.S. with her second full length of somber, cold wave and emotional bedroom pop infused songs. This time around we hear the Parisian artist add a new arsenal of instrumentation to her repertoire, incorporating live drumming and a wide array of synthetic instrumentation on top of her drum computers providing a backdrop to showcase her stark vocal performances throughout the album. Meticulously constructed, this record displays the full range of Dissemblance’s musical dynamics as she pulls the listener into her universe where dreams and reality tread a thin line, one blurring into the next with no beginning nor end. She expertly brings together a diverse group of styles and sounds from different areas of the electronic spectrum making them her own. An extremely unique and strong display of modern minimal synth pop that pulls equally from the past whilst propelling towards the future.

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Dissemblance – Centauresse LP [LIES195]

ADN’ Ckrystall – Frankraut [MMS606]

French electronic pionner, ADN’ Ckrystall, became a legend in the Minimal-Synth scene when his first album “Jazz’Mad” (from 1982) was rediscovered and re-edited via the two biggest labels in the genre : Minimal Wave (circa 2005) and Dark Entries (circa 2012). Following this new interest, a bunch of unreleased materials reappeared and went out mostly directly through Erick (ADN)’s control, under compilations, coffrets (V.O.D.) or albums that never had the chance to come out before… But one piece was still missing, the album just following “Jazz’Mad” called “Frankraut” and here comes the story… During the covid year of 2021, Erick finally found the tapes forgotten somewhere at his parents house since 1984. After relistening to it he decided to bring them back to life. “Frankraut” was a project born from the reflexion about the concept of marrying (and not the opposite) the romantico-poetico side : naive melodies flirting with research and experimentations in the electronic music “à la française” like illustration, “bilbliothèque sonore” (library) or music for film… and the cold, mechanic, motorik, hypnotic, psychedelic free explosive and creative side of the Krautrock.

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ADN’ Ckrystall – Frankraut [MMS606]

Plague Pits – Punishment & Extinction [YCR-161]

Plague Pits is a collective from Bern and Zurich, Switzerland. Inspired by the D.I.Y. electronic tape underground of yore, they play disco dirges for the Anthropocene – cold wave for a heating planet. “Punishment & Extinction” compiles some of the stand-out tracks from an array of self-released, cassette-only EPs Plague Pits have put out since late 2021. 

Plague Pits – Punishment & Extinction [YCR-161]

Schulverweis – Mehr b​/​w No Future [FLR03]

The third release on the Ferry Lane label comes from Schulverweis, the German duo formed by Levente Pavelka and Johannes Haas (L.F.T.), presenting a new record revisiting the idiosyncratic Neue Deutsche Welle sounds. On the A-side, Mehr merges electro with wave while on the flip we have the snazzy garage punk of No Future.

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Schulverweis – Mehr b​/​w No Future [FLR03]