post punk
Phase Fatale – Redeemer [HOS494]
‘Redeemer’ is the brutally seductive debut album by Phase Fatale, a key player in the recent charge of EBM and post punk-informed industrial techno infecting ‘floors from his home city, NYC to his DJ residency at Berghain. In Dominick Fernow’s Hospital Productions, Phase Fatale finds a fitting home for his personalised brand of clinical, rictus rhythm programming and searing synth and guitar lines, adding a vital streak of black and blue electric energy to the legendary label in its 20th year of cultish operation. In seven parts, ‘Redeemer’ follows the direct, his deeply personal realisation of weaponised sonics, upholding a strong tradition of techno as a prophetic exercise or ritual to gird dancers and listeners for the onset of future war. It presents Phase Fatale as an ultimate emissary of electronic violence and domination in the process, steeling the limbic system and muscle memory thru a fine-tuned disciplinarian approach to pharmacokinetics and biomechanics.
Morah – Voltage EP [MA012]
The twelfth Modal Analysis release brings Athens based Morah to the frontline of the label’s roster, along with the New York based, Vapauteen on the remix duties. Voltage EP carries 3 original tracks by the Greek electronic music producer, along with a very special reintrpretation by the American artist, also known as Shawn O’Sullivan. Aesthetics vary from slow and hypnotic rhythms to driving EBM riffs and harshly distorted percussions. Morah approaches the sound of Modal Analysis while maintaining his distinct charachter as a producer, using here field recordings and processed vocals.
Todd Sines – Phormix Podcast #103
Vitor Hublot – KESS 06 [KESS06]
Former masked techno crusader Adam Rivet started the Kess Kill imprint a couple of years ago, to showcase some lesser known talents from the ’80s scene in Europe. French producer Guy Clerbois began his musical career by transforming sounds: creating rhythms with scratched vinyl records and altering their playing speeds plus detuning his guitar. In the mid eighties, he began what would become the very concept of Vitor Hublot, making shifted reworks of existing ones. All compositions originally issued on the ‘185 Millions De Francophones Et Moi, Et Moi, Et Moi…’ LP via his own Psoria Discs in 1986.
Keine Ahnung – Keine Ahnung [DE174]
Keine Ahnung was a quartet from Wörth am Rhein, Germany formed in 1980. The original line up was Rolf Schmuck, Franz H. Rodenkirchen, Elke Fuchs and Olaf Schumacher. Hermann Kopp from Stuttgart, a friend of the band, contributed a composition on their first LP and became a full member in 1985. The band members shared a common interest in industrial, pop, avant garde literature and cinema. They recorded three LPs in 6 years, two of which remain unreleased. In March 1983, Keine Ahnung recorded their self-produced and financed debut LP in two days in a small studio in Stuttgart (12 hours total). The mixing was done in one day in a studio in Karlsruhe, April 1983. The self-titled LP was released later that summer on their own PASSIV label in an edition of 1000 copies. This record obtained recognition far beyond the German borders. Keine Ahnung in the studio and live were completely different. Studio time was expensive in these days, so the music was minimal electronic pop, expertly crafted and razor sharp man machine music. The live sound utilized more complex synthesizers, tapes, guitars, metal percussion and custom built electronics. The beats and bass lines came from the Roland 606/303 duo triggering a KORG MS-20 for the bass drum. The track “Funkbild DPA” is a spontaneous “live in the studio” recording, that gives a hint of what the live sound was like. All four members would take turns singing and playing the instruments.
Flesh World – Into The Shroud [DE182]
Flesh World is a dream punk group formed in the summer of 2012 in San Francisco. The quartet includes Scott Moore (Guitar, Synths), Jess Scott (Vocals, Guitar), Andrew Luttrell (Bass, Backing Vocals), Sam Lefebvre (Drums). Jess and Scott met while loitering around the Panhandle district, listening to records, gossiping, and playing live shows around town with their bands (Scott plays in hardcore group Limp Wrist and Jess played in the indie pop band Brilliant Colors). The pair immediately bonded over a shared love of The Velvets and The Mary Chain. They began writing songs in Scott’s lofted bedroom in the City and took their name from a XXX magazine. The fully formed band released their first self-titled 6-song EP in December 2013 for London punk imprint La Vida Es Un Mus Discos. Two 7” singles were followed by their debut album ‘The Wild Animals In My Life’ released in 2015 on Iron Lung Records. ‘Into The Shroud’ is Flesh World’s fifth release and sophomore album, and their first for Dark Entries Records. Each of these songs speak to a chaotic or sometimes eclectic period of influence of different books, ideas, drawings, saints, stories, and aims gathered in the two year writing process since the previous album. Themes of this record include writer, advice columnist, and Dreamland actress Cookie Mueller, the youth’s effect on the general political psychosis of nostalgia, icon Billy Fury, and the writings and drawings of Jean Cocteau as a hovering guide for living with less rules. The record is a topological map showing the cities of the Bay Area and Los Angeles in rapid change, looking to the books, records, and artists paid study to in order to create continuity in the constant flux of the city, the punk show, the gay world, and the rest of the environments Flesh World insulate themselves in for survival. The group’s dynamic has greatly solidified on this album with a brilliant new rhythm section.
Nacht’Raum / Band Berne Crematoire – Expanded 1982-1984 LP [MNQ096]
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.
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.
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.
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’
Shoc Corridor – A Blind Sign [DE164]
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.
VA – Selectors 003 [DKMNTLSLCTRS003]
Dekmantel’s Selectors series now continues with an edition curated by Marcel Dettmann. Although he’s now known as one of the world’s most celebrated techno artists, even Marcel Dettmann had to start somewhere. Long before he ever held court at Berghain (or its predecessor, Ostgut), he was just another young boy in Eastern Germany, one whose earliest encounters with capitalism involved spending every penny he could scrape together down at the local record shop. In those days, it wasn’t techno that got him excited, but new wave, post-punk, industrial and EBM acts like Front 242 and Depeche Mode. Get back to his roots right here.
UnknownmiX – Chew Some More [LXRC031]
UnknownmiX was a band active in Zürich between 1983 and 1992. Their music is a mixture of free vocalism, new wave and industrial, they released five LPs and three EPs. Out of their discography Lux Rec selected four tracks, remastered from the original tapes, and presented as a sampler EP. Four tracks that fit perfectly to the label’s tonal view. An ode to those Zürich days, when excesses and uncompromising choices were a badge of honour. And music was something to fight for, or fight with, or dive in and die.
Broken English Club – The English Beach [LIES094]
British techno veteran Oliver Ho has released some fine material as Broken English Club since debuting the alias back in 2014. The English Beach, Ho’s second BEC full-length and first for L.I.E.S, is the audio equivalent of a trip to a run-down North Sea coastal resort on a wet Wednesday in November. Full of end-of-days electronics, stripped-back industrial techno, moody minimal wave shufflers and bubbly EBM workouts, it’s as authentic a tribute to early ’80s electronic experimentalism as you’re likely to hear all year. Highlights include the Nitzer Ebb style bounce of “Pylon”, the foreboding, desolate electronica of “Rust Ballad”, the angry electro moodiness of “Carrion” and the rolling, organ-laden autumnal bliss of “The English Beach”.
Qual – Cupio Dissolvi [AV!046]
Lebanon Hanover’s bassist William Maybelline is back with his solo project. Qual strikes back with a three-track 12′ maxi-single. Each one of these new songs explore a different dimension of Maybelline’s approach to Body/Wave electronics. The title-track Cupio Dissolvi is what we may already call classic Qual: gloomy and throbbing, synth-driven and labyrinthine. A Bloody Blob explores new martial slants, with war-like timpani and a marching robot gait. Rape Me in the Parthenon is a 8 minute long dancefloor mayhem anthem scanned by some pounding techno drumbeat and EBM snare and pads.
Adbaloons – Mad Motor [MEC025]
Adballons (made-up word from ‘advertising balloon’) was a duo formed in Tokyo and active only between 1986-88. Equipped with some gear (Casio CZ-5000, Teisco S-110F, Roland MC-202, Roland TR-909, Korg KPR-77) they released just one 7′ in 1987 and played some shows in local clubs before disappear and become part of the obscure and inscrutable Japanese underground scene.
VA – Danzas Electricas [MMLP404]
Macadam Mambo is launching a special compilation of adjustments made by friends and members of the label (Kilian Krings, Sneaker/Dunkeltier, Obermannkind, Panoptique, Mori Ra, Shiny Boots, Misha Geylen, Smagghe & Cross, Guillaume des Bois, Johan Ressle). Mostly very obscure tracks in Sacha’s ‘Metalic vibe’, from post-punk to synth-pop, experimental and more.
Led Er Est – Dust On Common [MNQ099]
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.
Din A Testbild – Programm 4 [MNQ093]
‘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.
The Hipodrome Of Music 