post punk

VA – Bay Area Retrogade Vol.1 & 2 [DE075]

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VARIOUS - BART: Bay Area Retrograde Vol 1 & 2

Dark Entries have combined Bay Area Retrograde (BART) Volume 1 and 2 on a single CD. BART is Dark Entries compilation of underground music from San Francisco (and the greater Bay Area) made between 1978-1988. Towards the end of the 70s, San Francisco’s experimental music scene clashed with the aftermath of punk and gave birth to a vibrant underground. By the early to mid 80s the DIY music scene of the Bay Area was a hotbed for experimental and quirky new wave, post punk, and synthpop, quite similar to New York’s No Wave scene and Berlin’s Neue Deutsche Welle. This compilation connects the (transit) lines between these varied musical offerings and tells the secret story of eleven forgotten Bay Area bands. BART Volume 1 features a Korg-heavy assault from Danvilles utterly obscure Nominal State; two little-known left-field electronic dance gems from Batang Frisco and Quiet Room; Berkeleys answer to darkwave, Necropolis of Love; a synth-driven drama fest from drag performance troupe Wasp Women; quirky lo-fi gothic pop from one man band Distant Thunder; a gay Hi-NRG anthem delivered by Danny Boy and the Serious Party Gods; two lesser know gems from SF synth legends Voice Farm and Los Microwaves; and the futuristic pulsing synth-punk of Standard of Living and the Units. BART Volume 2 features slow, dystopian horror from pioneering industrial group Factrix; crushing, motorik noise from acid punks Chrome; amphetamine-driven synth punk from Red Asphalt; an early demo, never released on vinyl, from legendary post punk band Tuxedoomon; chilling atmospheric drone from Ki Di Me; leftfield new wave from Indoor Life featuring Patrick Cowley on synths; Los Microwaves more sinister side project Baby Buddha; gay drag icon Timmy Spence delivering an unknown camp classic, a pure instrumental electro-pop workout from Human Being Men; TR-808 fueled synth pop from Menlo Park duo Wonders of Science, and a poetic yet somber and haunting song from the mysterious Zru Vogue.

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VA – Bay Area Retrogade Vol.1 & 2 [DE075]

VA – Selection 1 [WP001]

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The first release by Worn Pop Records, independent label from Kiev, Ukraine, curated by Nikita Mekalin. Tracks by Ukrainian acts Cold Comfort, Aircraft, Geuxx, Londoners Sundaze and Neiv from Italy.

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VA – Selection 1 [WP001]

Executive Slacks – Executive Slacks EP [DE071]

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Executive Slacks was spawned in the humidity of post-industrial Philadelphia by three restless art students – Matt Marello, John Young and Albert Ganss. Starting out with performance art in subways, they soon took their angst-ridden act to galleries and night clubs. They recorded four songs in the fall of 1982 that became their self-titled EP released by local independent label Red Records in 1983. On their debut EP Matt Marello roars and churns out white-hot shards of guitar while John Young’s short-circuited noise machines and Albert Ganss’s industrial metal drums create dramatic body rhythms. The Slacks drew their influences from contemporaries like Cabaret Voltaire and Tuxedomoon, but also from extremes like disco and dadaism. Songs were created using heavily modified synthesizers and various percussive instruments: industrial steel drums, a filing cabinet, metal rods, and an African drum covered in antelope skin. Executive Slacks’ unique brew of primitive electronics, harsh guitars and aggressive vocals inspired many bands like Ministry, Front 242, Skinny Puppy.

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Executive Slacks – Executive Slacks EP [DE071]

Traxx / NPNK – Revenge Of The Poulet Cat [MME909]

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For those who have been following Macadam Mambo from the beginning, you must have noticed that eclecticism and craziness are definitively the main lines of the label. Well, this new release by Nation’s Traxx and Npnk will prove it once again. They have prepared 4 stunning edits, exploring Industrial, Minimal Synth Pop, EBM, Post Punk.

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Traxx / NPNK – Revenge Of The Poulet Cat [MME909]

Video Look – Kall Lycka [FLEXI011]

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Straight from the Gothenburg harbour comes Video Look. They were featured on flexi009 (Flexivåg), Fact mag 004 and has remixed Roladex, Love Surgery. 11 tracks of the finest working class synth-punk with harsh lyrics in Swedish.

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Video Look – Kall Lycka [FLEXI011]

Musumeci – Untitled (Traxx edit) [MNQ050]

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Musumeci tapes reissue, with their brutal body music plus, similar to DAF, CHBB and Liaisons Dangereuses, was one of the most acclaimed in the Mannequin Records 2013 productions. Traxx, the Chicago-based head of Nation Records, redesigned a raw live version of ‘Tag Fur Tag’ with what he described as a ‘hugly-tape Kode’

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Musumeci – Untitled (Traxx edit) [MNQ050]

Psyche – Re-Membering Dwayne LP [DE061LP]

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At the end of 1981, brothers Darrin and Stephen Huss and schoolmate Dwayne Goettel performed for the first time as Psyche in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Their live show was a combination of horror and electronics that was completely unprecedented in Western Canada. Although Goettel and the Huss brothers parted ways before Psyche was to release any material, the masters containing Dwayne Goettel’s performances were preserved in the band’s vaults. Now, 19 years after Goettel’s untimely passing in 1995, Dark Entries records presents ”Re-Membering Dwayne”, the original Psyche-Dwayne Goettel sessions. All tracks were recorded and mixed on 4-track during a single day in March of 1983. Psyche’s early material is visceral and abrasive, a far cry from the sleek, dark synthpop they’d later become known for. Psyche disquietingly conflate the organic and the mechanical, calling into question the limits of the human form. Each LP includes a 12-page booklet with excerpts from Darrin Huss’ diary, unpublished photos of Psyche with Dwayne, and an essay by Darrin reflecting on Psyche’s past and the Goettel legacy as well as lyrics. This collection is a glimpse at the early Canadian industrial scene and the roots of Skinny Puppy. Go take a walk in the past with an ear for the future; you just might learn something.

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Psyche – Re-Membering Dwayne LP [DE061LP]

Sandra Electronics – Want Need EP [MW054]

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Minimal Wave presents a 6 song EP by the UK/US duo Sandra Electronics. Originally formed as Sandra Plays Electronics by Karl O’Connor in 1988, the project has evolved over the years to become a collaborative endeavor with Juan Mendez (aka Silent Servant). Three of the tracks were first released as an Untitled 10” on Downwards in 2010, and the record quickly sold out. Those songs have been re-edited and remastered for this EP, and three more rare demos and live versions have been added. The songs can be described as hypnotic industrial electronic mantras with enigmatic keyboards and treated vocals. Each track draws the listener in, with its repetitive psychedelic percussion and dark affected vocal.

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Sandra Electronics – Want Need EP [MW054]

The KVB – Run Away [AMPLA075DD]

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The latest release for The KVB comes via Ample Play, a London label that’s best known for releasing the music of indie rockers Cornershop. The two-track Run Away EP sees the duo on form once again, with more curtailing synths, straitlaced drums and vocals clear as mud. Both tracks on the EP are somewhat contrasting, the title track being dancey and melodic, while “436” is a grungier version of sounds you could expect from Tropic Of Cancer or HTRK.

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The KVB – Run Away [AMPLA075DD]

The KVB – Minus One [AUK109]

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London-based “dark wave” duo The KVB are a productive lot. Somewhat remarkably, this is their sixth album since 2011. It further explores there trademark distant, discordant, murky sound, blending barely-audible vocals and shoegaze guitars with fuzzy tones, clandestine moods and atmospheric grooves. While they can do full-throttle noise – see the growling “Dominance/Submission” and “Something Inside”, which push reverb and multi-layered guitars to their limits – they’re actually at their best when exploring less intense pastures. There’s much of this on Minus One, with the wide-eyed “Passing By”, dreamy “Endless” and clandestine “Kill The Lights” standing out.

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The KVB – Minus One [AUK109]

Deathday – No Future [MNQ046]

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Deathday (formerly Deathday Party) is a Los Angeles based Experimental Post-punk band, formed in Santa Ana, California in 2008 by brothers Alex Guilln and Giovanni Guilln. While the title-track is an unreleased one, instead ”Dropped Into Obscurity” was already included in the Downwards compilation ”Click Heels” alongside with Tropic Of Cancer, Silent Servant, The KVB. On the B side Mannequin asked to the synth-master Legowelt to remix “After Dark”. Seldom has the post-punk revival seemed as urgent as with Deathday, who match their guitar driven dirges with esoteric industrial soundscapes and tape manipulation. Their music is often as bleak as it is violent, with low end cacophony bludgeoning the listener into submission. Lyrically, Deathday often invoke the violent culture hidden beneath the media, as well as explore the crippling aftershocks of isolation and the mysticism of the occult.

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Deathday – No Future [MNQ046]

Lè Travo – Erring And Errant [DE056]

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Lè Travo is the brainchild of Patrick Bollen from Tienen, Belgium. As a teenager in the early 1980s, Patrick would visit ”DeAtelier”, the infamous coldwave/gothic club in Leuven. He would be inspired by Joy Division and other Factory releases, The Danse Society and Cocteau Twins. He gathered a some session musicians and a female backup vocalist. Eventually Patrick bought a Greengate DE-3 sampler, using the brains of an Apple 2E with a keyboard bolted onto it. He crafted loops made from a deconstructed upright piano, hitting the strings directly with a drum stick. Lè Travo made their first appearance on a split LP with Fred A in 1984. ”Erring and Errant” is their debut 7 song LP originally released in 1985. For the reissue 3 bonus songs from the split LP have been added. The songs are coldwave in the vein of Weimar Gesang, Opera Multi Steel, and Clan of Xymox. Guitar, bass and sample interplay with piano and synthesizers with dark and forbidding crescendos in the fast numbers, and elegaic melancholy in the slow tracks. The vocals are delivered with a sense of urgency, while the lyrics are inspired by avant-garde movements such as futurism and constructivism, as well as science fiction and existentialism.

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Lè Travo – Erring And Errant [DE056]

Patrick Cowley – School Daze [DE052]

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11 track album by Patrick Cowley. Perhaps one of the most revolutionary and influential people in the cannon of disco music, Cowley created his own brand of Hi-NRG dance music coined The San Francisco Sound. By the mid-70ies, Patricks synthesizer skills landed him a job composing and producing songs for disco superstar Sylvester such as You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real), Dance Disco Heat and Stars. This helped Patrick obtain more work as a remixer and producer. Of particular note was his 18-minute long remix of Donna Summers I Feel Love. By 1981 Patrick released a string of dance 12inch singles, like Menergy and Megatron Man, creating the soundtrack for a generation. Prior to his passing on November 12, 1982, he recorded two more Hi-NRG hits, Do You Wanna Funk for Sylvester and Right On Target for Paul Parker. In 1981 Patrick was contacted by John Coletti, owner of famed gay porn company Fox Studio in Los Angeles. John had heard about Patricks music from the legendary Sylvester and proposed he write music for his films. Patrick jumped on this offer and sent reels of his college compositions from the 70s to John in LA. Coletti then used a variable speed oscillator to adjust the pitch and speed of Patricks songs in-sync with the film scene. School Daze is a collection of Cowleys instrumental songs recorded between 1973 and 1981 found in the Fox Studio vaults. Influenced by Tomita, Wendy Carlos and Giorgio Moroder, Patrick forged an electronic sound from his collection of synthesizers, modified guitars and self-constructed equipment. The listener enters a world of dark forbidden vices, introspective and reflective of Patricks time spent in the bathhouses of San Francisco. The songs on School Daze range from sparse prototechno to high octane funk to somber post-punk to musique concrete, revealing the depth of Cowleys unique talent.

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Patrick Cowley – School Daze [DE052]

VA – Trevor Jackson presents Metal Dance 2 [STRUT107LP]

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Strut present ‘Metal Dance’, a new compilation from one of the UK’s most respected DJ / producers, the man behind Playgroup and original founder of the legendary label Output Recordings, Trevor Jackson. Echoing elements of his renowned DJ Kicks mix from 2003, Jackson draws here on specials that have peppered his DJ sets for almost two decades. ‘Metal Dance’ mines deep and hones in on the more underground and danceable side of industrial, post-punk and EBM (Electronic Body Music), a phrase coined by Ralf Hütter of Kraftwerk but honed by later bands like DAF and Front 242 as socialist realist aesthetics were dragged onto the dancefloor during the mid-’80s. Jackson cherry-picks classics and rarities from this era, including a new edit of Nitzer Ebb favourite ‘Control I’m Here’ (sampled on Quartz’ rave classic ‘Meltdown’), the cold dance of Analysis’ ‘Surface Tension’, Neon’s dark ‘Voices’, re-interpreting a Master C&J riff from the early days of Chicago house, and hard-hitting dubs from Pete Shelley, Alien Sex Fiend and more. Herein lie sounds that have heavily influenced today’s crop of artists – from LCD Soundsystem and The Knife to Factory Floor and Hot Chip. Elsewhere on the album, Jackson brings in unexpected gems – a track from cult John Carpenter film ‘Escape From New York’ re-edited by Klein & MBO’s Mario Boncaldo, a lost album track by avant garde Spanish artist Diseno Corbusier and a UK promo-only mix of Yello’s ‘You Gotta Say Yes To Another Excess’.

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VA – Trevor Jackson presents Metal Dance 2 [STRUT107LP]