Maenad Veyl – Somehow, Somewhere They Have Heard This Before [PBD10.5]

Pinkman welcomes Maenad Veyl to its roster of artists for his debut release in the form of the labels second tape. ‘Make Them Remember’ sets the gloomy mood with clattering percussion and ghostly synth lines. The messy drum patterns of Taiko Death Rhythm’ are breaking up the cold mist. The A-side of the cassette is completed by the melodic slow burning energy of ‘D.M.M.R.M’. On the other side ‘State ov Apprehension’ and ‘Sotto Gli Occhi Tutti’ further darken the character, to then pave way for ‘In Ruins’ to finish the damage with it’s ethereal, yet soul ripping guitar riffs.

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Maenad Veyl – Somehow, Somewhere They Have Heard This Before [PBD10.5]

Intrzn – Zones [CHAR013]

Nico Nightingale, aka Neud Photo, is no stranger to collaborations. The New Yorker’s latest sees him teaming up with Cristiano F. Grimaldi to form INTRZN, a partnership meshing a free style approach to melodies with cold rhythms. Their “Zone” quartet is a twilight of fluctuating moods. Percussion is bare, allowing bright bars to shine and darker moments to fester. Music which in one breath is elated and uplifting and, the next, dejected and downtrodden.

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Intrzn – Zones [CHAR013]

Ernestas Sadau – Gonzo On Tour [PBD009]

Pinkman’s Broken Dreams welcome a new midnight malcontent into the fold, Ernestas Sadau debuts with his first 12”: Gonzo on Tour. Sirens blare, samples hiss in a haze of static before a grizzled snare introduces “Riots in Jail Near Kaunas.” Grubby basslines curl into shards of acid, full figured thump sweetened by fragile bars. “Crackheads from Lyon” is steeped in the traditions of garage bands and D.I.Y. punk. Strings snarl and sneer at crashing drum beats, lonesome notes floating in the surge. The foul tempered “Hiroshima (Acid Breaks Your Body Mix)” demands the flip. Beats break and buckle under the leer of lewd 303 lines, a finale bubbling over with violent intent.

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Ernestas Sadau – Gonzo On Tour [PBD009]

Identified Patient & Sophie du Palais – Aborting Your Dreams [PBD10]

Having already debuted on the Pinkman main label, Identified Patient now steps up for the Pinkman “Broken Dreams” series. The whole EP is furnished with the sinister and commanding vocals of Sophie du Palais, also known as ‘Vrouwe Fataal,’ creating an infectious vortex of panic and scare to abort your dreams. Throughout the release, hazy percussion is carefully seasoned with the bitter synth lines and guitar riffs from Lasznkioff. The first track, ‘Peaceful Panic’ is in full seduction and fetish mode, setting the scene for the better corners. ‘Sleep Without Rest’ violently tightens up the leather and gives you your kicks for thrills. The EP ends with frenzy: messed up intermezzos with Lasznikoff, mixing up an 808 with his destructive guitar rig and, as he states, ‘everything is done.’ Throughout the release, hazy percussion is carefully seasoned with the bitter synth lines and guitar riffs from Lasznkioff. The first track, “Peaceful Panic” is in full seduction and fetish mode, setting the scene for the better corners. “Sleep Without Rest” violently tightens up the leather and gives you your kicks for thrills. The EP ends with frenzy: messed up intermezzos with Lasznikoff, mixing up an 808 with his destructive guitar rig and, as he states, ‘everything is done.’

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Identified Patient & Sophie du Palais – Aborting Your Dreams [PBD10]

Bionda e Lupo – Die Kinder Aus Dem Park [CHAR12]

Bionda e Lupo are like little you’ll have heard before, a boy/girl band like no other. Synth wave is fed a line of modern alienation, delusory disco to a disdainful drum beat, house emptied and ridiculed. Rhythms are stark, melodies are as mechanical as the lyrics. “Zug Der Vogel” is sparse, vocals intertwine in an empty embrace whilst bars sparkle. “Twoi Glasza” is more playful. Bright words shimmer against sweeping strings. The past is parodied across the EP but nowhere more so than in “Die Kinder Aus Dem Park.” A former classic dug out before being peppered by machine gun percussion. The stilted rhyme of “Eckstein” closes, a ballad of bittersweet images and lost hopes.

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Bionda e Lupo – Die Kinder Aus Dem Park [CHAR12]

TYVYT|IYTYI – Platforms [PBD008​.​5]

TYVYT|IYTYI. A dusty tape of six tracks unearthed beneath the Pinkman Broken Dreams division. Nothing is known about this unnameable artist apart from his sound. A legion of hiss marches across the cassette, a blighted beat bites into lancing synthlines that bellow and writhe in their pitiful attempt to escape. Strings are left to howl in turmoil in tracks born out of a crude joke and wry smile. Mick Wills offers no condolences, the Stuttgart man lashing away any humanity with his embittered edit. Found in the pit, made for the pit.

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TYVYT|IYTYI – Platforms [PBD008​.​5]

Retrograde Youth – We’re Not Humans Anymore [PBD008]

RETROGRADE YOUTH - We're Not Humans Anymore

A new recruit has been drafted into the Broken Dreams ranks. Retrograde Youth, also known as Felipe Marin, takes up his position with four tracks of tooth and nail electronics. His style is ensconced in EBM, but trying to pin him down is near impossible. Guttural techno aches through the clang of metal and the rattle of rhythms, wave lances in with spiking synth lines as lost samples stalk. Music for scarred psyches that will leave hearts and minds raw.

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Retrograde Youth – We’re Not Humans Anymore [PBD008]

Roberto Auser- Color Of Your Soul [PNKMN021]

AUSER, Roberto - Color Of Your Soul

Four years after his excellent Eclipse 12″, Roberto Auser is back on a Rotterdam staple: Pinkman. Color Your Soul has adopted some, but not all, of its older brother’s attributes. Lumbering with menacing intent, the title piece leaves wreckage in its bruising wake. “Do You Want To Believe” is cut from the same deviant cloth. Grunting rhythms stomp on tortured strings, industrial shrieks cry beneath the boot of a raging beat. The closer, “Wake U Up”, has Auser toying with his victim. Steam hisses, acid lines bulge, pistons pound and sirens blare in this boiled work of brooding brutality.

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Roberto Auser- Color Of Your Soul [PNKMN021]

Annanan & Maroje T. – The Brooklyn Sessions [PNKMN020]

The Brooklyn Sessions bring together old and new Pinkman friends. Annanan returns, this time with Maroje T, for three pieces of NY darkness. Acid tainted torment opens the 12″, pain and rejection catalogued in the barren “Confrontations in Terms of Sexuality.” “I Saw You” maintains that cold edge. Militaristic percussion is dipped in industrial grease, lost samples circling in a haze of distortion. The pair explore reduction with tracks being boiled down to leave only distilled dread behind. The breathy vocals of “I Am” close, drum patterns looped into machine groan and the aching abyss.

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Annanan & Maroje T. – The Brooklyn Sessions [PNKMN020]

Identified Patient – Weeshuis Der Verloren Zielen [PNKMN019]

Identified Patient debuts on Pinkman with a brimming 12” with claustrophobia and paranoia. Acrid acid lines have been boiled down and smeared across cranking percussion. Sired in a soup of static, a blackened groove stalks the entire EP. Dusty beats are rinsed in smelting liquor, a smouldering EBM undercurrent surfacing as the noose tightens to a close.

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Identified Patient – Weeshuis Der Verloren Zielen [PNKMN019]

Alessandro Adriani – Fall Elsewhere and Shatter [PBD007]

Alessandro Adriani weaves a nightmarish scenario as the Mannequin man returns to Pinkman’s Broken Dreams with four hardened works. Beats are shaven into rigid points as EBM echoes are speared with contemporary contempt. Throughout the quartet are moments of exotic abstraction, psychological stresses and visceral disorders. Music for sleepless nights and addled minds.

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Alessandro Adriani – Fall Elsewhere and Shatter [PBD007]

Jann – Murder People [PBD006]

Jann arrives on Pinkman with a soundtrack of breathless panic, an ode to a blighted world of diesel fumes and indifference. Rhythms are grizzly, gored and torn. Thick chords judder, revving like a clapped-out engine as metal slashes at savaged snares. Acid scorn is poured on this inhospitable world, amplified by the haze of distortion that clouds Jann’s hard and cold vision.

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Jann – Murder People [PBD006]

Das Ding – Industrial Universal [PNKMN18]

Das Ding, the dutch wave savant, arrives on Pinkman with four works of full bodied synth sorrow. Freezing rain pelts rusting machinery, a barren land of decay stretches out onto dancefloors. Rasping rhythms and lumbering bass buttress bitter chords and grinding notes that compel bodies to move. And within the dereliction, behind the dilapidation and rot, burns a purity of expression that is emblematic of Danny Bosten’s consistent quality.

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Das Ding – Industrial Universal [PNKMN18]

Timothy J. Fairplay – Where Is The Champion? [CHAR-LP01]

Charlois present “Where is the Champion?”, Timothy J. Fairplay’s first full length solo album. Twelve shifting, shuffling and shimmering tracks make up this debut. Cruising the highways and byways between proto-techno, horror disco and forlorn wave, Fairplay conjures up his creations from metal and smoke. Saturated snares, clipped claps and warbling chords are dusted with distortion. And this idea of distortion, manipulation and the blurred line is omnipresent. Innocent and sinister, cruel and playful, accepted boundaries are brazenly ignored as engines growl and synthlines soar.

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Timothy J. Fairplay – Where Is The Champion? [CHAR-LP01]

Black Merlin – Phase One [PBD005]

Pinkman stoke the furnaces of despair, fuelling them with Black Merlin. Conveyor belts grunt out resentment, cold chords curl, synthlines sneer and pallid percussion punctuates. Noise echoes above, hammered clanks exploding into shards. Below the work continues, sweat smeared stains and hissing airless gasps. In the end, all is swallowed; gulped into the gaping assembly line.

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Black Merlin – Phase One [PBD005]

G-String – Seductive Games [PBD004]

G STRING - Seductive Games

G-String brings something new to the Broken Dreams pot. Stripped down, bare bones blackened machine music. Decoration is removed, the ornate purged. In their place sit burnt out remains. Chords are hollowed and scraped, rhythms smeared and smudged as loneliness is amplified. A stark and spartan statement of grey skies and dark eyes.

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G-String – Seductive Games [PBD004]

Le Chocolat Noir – Models Unrepresentative [CHAR010]

LE CHOCOLAT NOIR - Models Unrepresentative

Croatia’s Le Chocolat Noir debuts on Charlois with four cuts of embittered, EBM inspired, electronics. An EP of contrasts. Wrenching vocals are scored by brash synthlines. slicing snares, countered by a cold and bright hope. Frigid warmth from the heart of Zagreb.

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Le Chocolat Noir – Models Unrepresentative [CHAR010]

Betonkust & Palmbomen II – Hotel Breukelen [PNKMN017]

BETONKUST/PALMBOMEN II - Hotel Breukelen

Betonkust and Palmbomen II are back with their second collaborative effort. This time on the Dutch Pinkman label. Six brand new tracks that seem a lot darker than their previous work. Somewhere between Belgian new beat from 1988 and the West Coast Sound Of Holland. A lo-fi nightmare that turns out to be reality. Pounding drums, paranoid acid patterns and angsty out of control synth choirs.

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Betonkust & Palmbomen II – Hotel Breukelen [PNKMN017]