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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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’.
Restless Idylls is the first full length album from Tropic of Cancer, the solo project of Los Angeles-based Camella Lobo. Lobo debuted in 2009 with ‘The Dull Age’/’Victims’, a 10” single on Downwards and the first of three collaborations with Juan Mendez (Silent Servant). Two years later came a second Downwards release (‘Be Brave’, remixed by Cabaret Voltaire’s Richard H. Kirk), followed soon after by The Sorrow Of Two Blooms on Blackest Ever Black – the label’s third release and one if its most cherished. Since then there have been 12” releases on Mannequin, Sleeperhold Publications, Ghostly International (a Part Times Punks Sessions live split with HTRK) and a limited edition compilation, The End of All Things, compiling singles and unreleased recordings. Restless Idylls marks ToC’s return to BEB and consists of eight new recordings written in Los Angeles, with additional production from Karl O’Connor (Regis) in New York and London. Its themes? The usual: romance, devotion, pain and helplessness. Mixed up mortals struggling against the brute mechanics of fate, and proving unequal to the task. A forced retreat into private, precious idylls of longing, faith, mystery, even misery. The urgent motorik of lead single ‘More Alone’ is perhaps a misleading foretaste of the full-length, which is more lush, languid and extravagantly despondent than previous TOC material. Troubled hymns from an empty room, in a drowned world. A sensual and sepulchral psychedelia.
Lost Race Records presents Shades 10” the new album from Barbiturates, featuring 8 synth-pop & new wave tracks.
Minimal Wave presents the 47th release, a release of early 1980s ritualistic minimal electronics by French duo DZ Lectric + Anthon Shield. The songs are selections from their 1985 cassette release, Confessions D’Un Masque. Having been active in their respective projects, the duo came together naturally in 1981 and over the years began recording music together. They shared a similar philosophical outlook and love of music, from classic rock like The Velvet Underground and The Stooges, to the edgier, industrial and no wave stuff that was coming out at the time, bands like Throbbing Gristle, Suicide, and Tuxedo Moon. They performed a number of times at special venues and festivals in Europe, creating intense and engaging live performances with minimum equipment and an abundance of spirit. They also released many tapes throughout the 1980s. Their music is challenging and hypnotic. Brutal and aggressive at times, overall the message speaks more about human ritual than anything truly sinister.
“After a self-titled debut EP in March (through which the band demonstrated potential yet), Crystal Soda Cream has released their first full-length album which is called “Escape from Vienna”. Consisting of Theresa Adamski (drums, synths), Philipp Forthuber (guitar, vocals) and Sebastian Ploier (bass), the Austrian trio proposes an intense journey across the shady corners of mind. Philipp’s voice, dissonant and dynamic, going insanely from breathy to harsh tones, guides this exploration of claustrophobic and melodramatic soundscapes. Rooted in Post-Punk and tinged with early New Wave sounds, their music is elegantly decadent, with the forseeable dose of uprooting and introspection, but also enough compelling and varied.”
Los Microwaves was a San Francisco-based synth-punk trio who formed in 1979. The main line-up included Meg Brazill (vocals, bass, synthesizers), David Javelosa (vocals, synthesizers), and Todd “Rosa” Rosencrans (drums, bass). Their recorded output consisted of a handful of 45′s and their lone LP, “Life After Breakfast,” released on the legendary Posh Boy records in 1981. Creating sound and music from the fusion of techno-punk, new wave pop, and electronic music, Los Microwaves featured a quirky audio theater that was best experienced live and from the dance floor. Sporting a combination of earlier portable synthesizers, bass and processed percussion, the music continues to deliver a unique groove. “Life After Breakfast” contains 13 songs full of teen angst, jerky rhythms, melodic chants, and punky shouts. Meg’s vocals are cheeky and peppy, recalling the anti-pop sound of The B-52′s, Devo and early XTC.
“Foundation” is the new EP fromlis’ Especially Good, the most exciting band from Detroit in recent memory. The eight track EP showcases the trios dynamic energy of Julio Dominguez’s vocals, Joe F synthesizers and drum programing and Paul Kiry’s bass – culminating in songs that are equally raw, brutal and honest. The sound of E.G. exists in a space of its own, but one can hear influences of Throbbing Gristle, Factory Records and Detroit Techno in the rhythms and sonic textures throughout “Foundation”. Recorded and mixed in Detroit by Sam Consiglio and Adam Lee Miller (of Adult). Released on Est. 83′ Records, a sub-label of FIT SOUND.
The Hipodrome Of Music 