As the darkness creeps in from the depths of the north, the restless spirits of the underground rise from their eternal slumber. Like a chilling reckoning, the creatures of the night emerge from their graves, summoned by the pulsing rhythms and haunting melodies of Up Norths’s latest offering. This cassette tape release unleashes a malevolent force of EBM and dark electronics, conjuring an unholy alliance of sounds to possess your soul. Let the shadows consume you…”
MVQX bringing some fire from the Nothing Was There Records archives.
Subject To Restrictions Discs and Default Mode Records are joining forces to release “Unbändige Kinder”, the debut album by Angelo Repetto and Nicolas Balmer, under the alias Konstant. Both have been active in the Zurich scene for a long time and have come together to create their own language. “Unbändige Kinder” blossoms from the burdens of days gone by and describes their world in a phase of change and new beginnings. They define their own musical form by constantly looking ahead, driven by New Wave, Kraut and Post Punk. The album is characterised by rawness, bluntness and the syllables from the heart.
Dame Area unveil their highly anticipated fourth studio album, “Toda la verdad sobre Dame Area” (“The Whole Truth about Dame Area”), a collaboration with the renowned labels Mannequin Records and Humo Records. Formed in 2017 within the vibrant underground scene of Barcelona’s Màgia Roja club, Dame Area comprises the Italian-Catalan duo Silvia Konstance and Viktor Lux Crux. They fuse industrial-tribal polyrhythms with minimalist synth basslines, drawing profound inspiration from avant-garde masters such as Esplendor Geometrico, Throbbing Gristle, Suicide, Einstürzende Neubauten, Can, Coil, Swans, Big Black, and Wolf Eyes. This record represents a new phase in Dame Area’s discography. It’s a big step up in terms of sound, composition and ideas. This record it’s the perfect representation of what they have been playing live the last three years and what most people know them for.
Belarusian post-punk / synth pop group Molchat Doma have always exuded the kind of brutalist aesthetic of the architecture that adorns their album art. It’s cold, gray, imposing, industrial and yet there are human hearts beating within those foundations. In the wake of their breakthrough success in 2020, the trio endured a polarity of experiences, from the nadir of an uprooted life and forced relocation away from their native Minsk to the apex of headlining massive shows across the world. It was in this headspace that the band settled into their new home of Los Angeles to finish writing their fourth album Belaya Polosa, a testament to change in difficult times, a love letter to the digital pulse of the `90s, and a technicolor reinvention of the band’s somber dancefloor anthems.
Formed by high school buddies Andreas Gregor and David Rout, Techniques Berlin started in 1984 experimenting with synthesizers, drum machines and guitars. In the early stages, the band was heavily influenced by UK new romantic acts The Human League, Visage, Yazoo, OMD and Depeche Mode, as well as rising Canadian synth-pop bands Rational Youth, Men Without Hats and Trans-X. It took them a few years to master their electronic toys and create a unique blend of addictive electro-pop melodies and beautifully crafted alternative beats. “The Extension of Machines” compiles 13 extra rare and unreleased tracks from the vault.
As the world got even worse in the past ten years, Mujahideen’s songs from 2014 about greed, vengeance, culture slaves and the human factor are more relevant than ever in 2024, as it seems that the world is trapped in a vicious circle, which summons new dawn of Fascism. Therefore, Dead Language still sounds like a prophecy of wrath accompanied by a shivering crossover of post punk, dub and industrial, inspired by bands like Suicide, P.I.L, The Fall, Mark Stewart & The Maffia, Section 25, Psychic TV, The Young Gods and The Chameleons, which offers a captivating but desperate introspection into the abyss of humankind.
Detriti Records presents another release by Frech artist Tout Debord.
Dark Entries celebrates its 15th anniversary by returning to where it all started, the initial darkest entry: Eleven Pond’s masterpiece ‘Bas Relief’, an ultra-obscure album from 1986 that would become a definitive dark pop holy grail. Eleven Pond was James Tabbi (vocals, acoustic guitar), Jeff Gallea (drum machine, synthesizer, vocals), Jack Schaeffer (guitar) and Dan Brumley (synthesizer, samples, vocoder, melodica). They met in Rochester, NY, while attending art school, brought together by their shared love of 4AD and Factory Records. Taking cues from acts like Joy Division, Fad Gadget, and For Against, Eleven Pond’s infectious basslines, churning guitar riffs, and atmospheric synths will charm all fans of moody music. But what really makes Bas Relief shine is the timeless songwriting on classics like “Tear and Cinnamon”, “Portugal”, and the anthemic “Watching Trees.” With only 500 copies in it’s initial release, ‘Bas Relief’ resurfaces with a fresh remaster that corrects a pitch shift from previous reissues. ‘Bas Relief’ is a true lost relic of the cold 80’s and an essential piece Dark Entries history.
Doppler Effect is the brain child of singer and songwriter James Straight. Started in Boston in 1981, the band explores what Straight calls the encyclopedia of electronic music. Since its inception the band has explored and incorporated almost all styles of electronica from Ambient to Industrial, Techno, Synth Pop, EBM, House, Dark Wave, Acid and Disco, with a touch of Punk and Funk around the edges. It all depends on the song as Straight sees his work as mini films he’s Directing, a sort of seeing with your ears. Utilising the whole paint box to achieve the desired effect, his only rule is it must work for the song. “Genesis: Studio Recordings” compiles a selection of songs recorded between 1981 and 1985. Including lot of unreleased songs and early versions ranging from synth-punk and new wave to minimal wave and synth-pop.
The seductive sounds of Portugal swing to Dark Entries on Rock Rendez Vous: Música Moderna Portuguesa 1985-1986, a compilation of vintage Iberian synth, wave, and postpunk gems. The legendary club Rock Rendez Vous (RRV) opened its doors in Lisbon in 1980, heralding a new era in the Portuguese underground. Although touring acts like Killing Joke, Danse Society, or Echo & the Bunnymen graced its stage, RRV more vitally served as ground zero for a new generation of Portuguese bands, one simultaneously in touch with broader international musical movements while being invested in establishing a national sonic identity. Rock Rendez Vous culls 9 tracks of prime Portuguese indie tunes from the Música Moderna Portuguesa compilations released in 1985 and 1986, documenting the heyday of this movement. Jangly and brooding postpunk gems like “Levante” from Jovem Guarda, Projecto Azul’s “New Sides,” and Essa Entente’s “Festa Final” are well-represented here. Meanwhile, quirky Balearic-laced synthpop gems like D. W. Art’s “Mate” or Zona Proibida’s “Musak” add a subtly regional flare. Rock Rendez Vous: Música Moderna Portuguesa comes housed in a sleeve designed by Eloise Leigh featuring a photo of the club RRV, and also includes a double-sided insert with lyrics, photos, and liner notes.
Formed by high school buddies Andreas Gregor and David Rout, Techniques Berlin started in 1984 experimenting with synthesizers, drum machines and guitars. In the early stages, the band was heavily influenced by UK new romantic acts The Human League, Visage, Yazoo, OMD and Depeche Mode, as well as rising Canadian synth-pop bands Rational Youth, Men Without Hats and Trans-X. It took them a few years to master their electronic toys and create a unique blend of addictive electro-pop melodies and beautifully crafted alternative beats. “The Language of Machines” compiles a selection of original recordings between 1985 and 1991, including some favorite tunes and a few unreleased tracks/versions.
Dark Entries celebrates its 15th anniversary with legendary synth-punk deviants Crash Course in Science. Dale Feliciello, Mallory Yago, and Michael Zodorozny formed CCIS in 1979 after meeting at art school in Philadelphia. As a gesture born of equal parts punk irreverence and brute necessity, the band incorporated toy instruments and kitchen appliances into their aggressive, angular sound. Their anthems “Cardboard Lamb” and “Flying Turns” from 1981’s Signals From Pier Thirteen EP have been staples in adventurous DJ sets for over 40 years – yet some of their finest work is to be found on Near Marineland, a full-length LP recorded in 1981, but remained unreleased in its time. Near Marineland shows the band moving into more diverse and polished territory (although it’s still as abrasive as sandpaper). Tracks like “No More Hollow Doors” and “Jump Over Barrels” highlight CCIS’s singular knack for embedding infectiously monotone hooks in their stiff-yet-funky grooves. Elsewhere we see CCIS going fully unhinged, like on the searing “Someone Reads” or the demented “Pompeii Spared”, where a spray of honks is barely glued together by a frantic synthetic pulse. While this masterwork of malfunctioning analog electronics has surfaced on a few occasions – this first time stand alone remaster includes four never-before-released bonus tracks and includes a lyric sheet. Near Marineland is crucial listening for all devotees of synth-punk and minimal electronics.
That true beauty lies in the essentiality and meticulous combination of a few elements is sometimes not just a cliché. The delicate blend of Roland CR-78, acoustic guitar and dissonant organs that intertwine in ‘Open Windows’ is a vivid demonstration of this. It is these few elements, now distant and hinted at and now close and deafening, that paint the backdrop of melancholic nostalgia where laconic whispers move the listener within the paintings that bear the sonic signature of Human Figures, the project of Daniel Lewis known also as Daniel Holt. In the 8 canvases of Open Windows the folk tradition is repainted in a more contemporary guise: the sweet and sad litanies are alternated with fast and frenetic stornelli in which the combination of tradition and experimentation constitutes the stylistic signature. The open window through which the listener has the opportunity to look out in this album does not, however, give onto a natural external panorama. It projects into an inner world where introspection and silence are the only chance to grasp its sublime beauty.
Cold wave duo The KVB are back with their new album ‘Tremors’ on Invada Records. The KVB returns to the darker sound that embodied their earliest releases whilst retaining the infectious pop of their last album ‘Unity’. The band have dubbed their new album ‘dystopian pop’, and wrote it with the live show in mind; full of energy, hooks and dynamic moments. Writing the album between Manchester and Bristol, and recording alongside James Trevascus (Billy Nomates, RVG), the band have drawn on their own back catalogue and the music that inspired them at the very beginning of their artistic journey. The end result is the most complete album from The KVB to date, full of emotive impact and pop hooks presented in a uniquely shadowy atmosphere and with an idiosyncratic detachment that adds to the cinematic quality of their sound.
The Hipodrome Of Music 