Daniel Holt – Phormix Podcast #164
synth pop
VA – Aleatory Chaos Third Chapter [OR71]
The Spanish label Oraculo Records presents Aleatory Chaos Third Chapter, a various artist including four cord wave / synth pop tracks coming from Xymox, Vacant Stares, Oby Wolf and Abu Nein.
VA – Ecdisis Vol 2 (Bartoszek Edits) [FRV032]
Frigio Records is consistently plumbing the depths to unearth exciting talent. Bartoszek has been corrupting and manipulating tracks to fit floors for years, editing and slicing past pieces to breath new life into them. The German artist has turned his hand, and scissors, to four tracks from a spread of musicians from far and wide for Frigio’s latest: Ecdisis Vol.2.
Grauzone – Raum [WRWTFWW003]
First ever vinyl maxi-single release for “Raum”, Grauzone’s best-kept secret and underground mega-gem from 1980.
Ambros Seelos – Ambros Seelos [369.059]
Private Records is back with the archives of SONY Music and the library archive of Ambros Seelo. The German musician Ambros Seelos recorded this psychedelic Disco, Afro Funk and Jazz magic during the 1970’s and early 1980’s.
Sebastian Melmoth – The Dynamics Of Vanity [AD08]
Since forming in 2006 post-punk experimentalists Sebastian Melmoth have been on a thoughtful and adventurous musical journey. In a constant state of aural evolution, the London-based four-piece has a delivered a string of albums and EPs that variously touch on everything from garage-rock, grunge and lo-fi pop, to electro, new wave, dark ambient and music concrete, all the while drawing on a myriad of literary and artistic influences. The band’s first release for Artificial Dance digs deep into their admirable and eye-opening catalogue and draws together some of the Amsterdam-based label’s favorites from the more electronic end of the band’s output. Entitled “The Dynamics of Vanity” – a comment on Western culture’s obsession with rehashing the past and the band’s own in-built distrust of artistic naval-gazing – the set is not a ‘best of’ retrospective but rather a ‘sort of’ selection of stylistically interconnected cuts that gives a very specific snapshot of the band’s work.
Dissemblance – Over The Sand LP [MNQ136]
Exploring the balances between pop song writing structures, 80s cold wave bedroom style electronic production, and dreary gloom rock, Paris based Mathilde Mallen aka Dissemblance presents her debut lp “Over the Sand” for Mannequin Records. Over the ten tracks Dissemblance treads the fringes of a blurred dream world, using her bass guitar, voice, and drum machine as the backbone to create haunting yet soothing pop atmospheres in her songs.
VA – Tens Across the Board [DE260LP]
Celebrating a Decade of Dark Entries with a compilation titled ‘Tens Across The Board’. We revisit our roster and chose 10 songs from 10 bands from 10 different countries spanning the years 1981-1993. The songs flow in chronological order and have never appeared on vinyl, with 7 of the songs previously unreleased.
Tornische – Interiorismo [CITI028]
Cititrax presents a full length LP by a new duo called Tornische. Julio Tornero and Hanna Chamiarytskaya (aka Anneq) got together in Madrid after having met through mutual friends. Immediately, they bonded and found a musical chemistry between them. They went into the studio and began revisiting Julio’s unreleased archives, incorporating what he had already recorded years ago with fresh sounds and Neu Deutsche Welle style duets. The result is a modern, chaotic, take on 80s European new wave, 90s detroit electro, and contemporary indie pop. The energy level is always high, the melodies are catchy and the vocal delivery and lyrics futuristic, subversive, italo-disco / punk, and surreal.
Eye – Metamujer [KH026]
EYE is back. Metamujer marks the third installment on the Knekelhuis label and we’re extremely happy to release this document of another chapter in Laurène Exposito’s life. Recorded on various locations ranging from the Swiss mountains to the chalky coasts of Brittany, Metamujer is an 8-track ode to salty love and closeness to nature, a tribute to a modest lifestyle à la Henry David Thoreau. Far from being praise for self-sufficiency, this new LP is deeply influenced by Laurène’s environment. We can hear Korg MS-10 created synthetic waves (Sanatorium) and birds (Luscinia), but one can also catch her singing in Italian, one of 3 languages spoken in Switzerland. Still minimalist and yet more aesthetically diverse, her new sounds are on the edge of EBM and synth pop, between classic minimal wave tunes and rustic ballads on acid.
Turquoise Days – Further Strategies [MW072]
Minimal Wave presents a full length double album entitled “Further Strategies” by synthpop band Turquoise Days. Hailing from Jersey, Channel Islands, Turquoise Days was formed in 1981 by Luciano Brambilla and David Le Breton shortly after meeting at a nightclub in St Ouens called Waves. They used Roland synthesizers and drum machines, as well Yamaha synthesizers and Fender guitars along with tape effects and vocals. Throughout the 1980s, they self-released many cassettes, as well as the renowned masterpiece Grey Skies / Blurred 7” single. They were selected for the Radio Luxembourg song contest in 1985 and received press for their releases and appearance there. Their music can be described as melodic, emotive new wave. The music featured here includes the songs from the long sold out Alternative Strategies release from 2009, remastered, along with a a collection of previously unreleased material.
Boy Harsher – Country Girl Uncut LP [NUDE012LP]
Self-styled “minimal synth duo” Boy Harsher has released some fine music over the last few years, though little quite as on-point and majestic as 2018’s “Country Girl” EP. Here they offer up a new-look “uncut” edition of the stylish set, which expands the original four-track set via a quartet of previously unreleased recordings from the same period. You’ll find the original EP – complete with the throbbing but picturesque “Motion” and dreamy “Country Girl” – on side A, with the bonus material on the flip. Of these, we’re particularly enjoying the gentle pulse of “Underwater”, and the “Please” era Pet Shop Boys flex of “Send Me A Vision” and “Westerners”.
Boytronic – The Robot Treatment [MM0007]
After a ten year hiatus, original Boytronic vocalist and songwriter Holger Wobker (ex – Kamerata/Beachead), returns with the former Boytronic frontman James Knights (Scarlet Soho/KNIGHT$) to release the brand new Boytronic album, The Robot Treatment.
De Ambassade – Duistre Kamers [KH025]
Something was brooding in the furthest outskirts of Amsterdam. The isolated concrete suburbs of the western part of the city constituted the ideal dwelling place for the writing of De Ambassade’s debut album Duistre Kamers. Pascal Pinkert, accompanied by bass player Timothy Francis, searched for new horizons and managed to find them on this next chapter in the evolution of De Ambassade. Icy electronics display a love for NDW, ragas and raves. Beneath the surface lies a deeper Dutch language narrative celebrating free speech and thought, starkly in opposition with a world where alienation and solitude create ever more distance between all beings. After releasing two, by now classic 7” ep’s, a long player will shine brightly. The album release will feature a long awaited live performance with additional band member Mian.
Kris Baha – Palais [CDALP003]
‘Palais’ is a 12 track multi-faceted exploration of Kris Baha’s musical sensitivity. The one man band’s namesake LP title, ‘Palais’ is based around the concepts of alienation, detachment, melancholia and lust. All songs written, performed, recorded and mixed by Kris between 2015 – 2018 in Berlin, laced in his signature industrial sound. ‘Palais’ encompasses a range of shades from dance-floor works ‘ Living Nothingness’, ‘Brink Reality (Part 2)’ & ‘Non For The Sane’ to experimental cinematic undertones ‘You Told Yourself This Would Get Worse’. Also embodied are modern classics like the machine funk metallics of ‘Steel Sands’ and ‘Defied’, a year 2042 cyber punk hit. There’s even a dark room inspired theme for the black leather lovers. From his own batch of psychedelia to post-punk and electronic romanticism this album is full of surprises and we at Cocktail d’Amore Music are absolutely proud to present this outstanding work.
Cosmo Vitelli – Un Episode Psychotique EP [DLM024]
Les Disques De La Mort presents the meaner side of Cosmo Vitelli. The aptly titled “Un Episode Psychotique” is disco gone wrong, italo with neurosis, straying from polished clichés, musical yet strangely anxiogen. This is turned into an Eighties monster by GOTT aka Sneaker and Scannoir. Their Creatio Instrumentalis is a cold funk monster.
VA – Hooch! [SAMEHEADS002]
Second Installment of the Sameheads’ bi-annual vinyl compilation highlighting the Berlin based bar / club / playground / space / collective / cult / whatever’s musical mavericks. An-i, Franz Scala, Alexander Arpeggio & Marlene Stark, Epsilove & Ohlandy, Anklepants and Umlaut are all featured at the top of their game. A unique-clutch of oddball bangers.
Curses – Carcassonne [HNRBS003]
Luca Venezia, aka Curses, has with his Carcassonne-Mini LP, written and produced a cold wave dream filtered through how all the sci-fi movie soundtracks of the eighties should have sounded like; picture The Cure on a study visit in John Carpenters studio in 1983. This six-track Mini LP is his first release on Hoga Nord Rekords and features eighties influenced dark and expensive sounding electronic music. Luca Venezia also solves the task of putting vocal elements in the tracks with sharpness and precision; the heavy processed reverberating overdubs float in and out on a tastefully low level in the mix.
David Carretta – Nuit Panic [BSR032]
David Carretta is the author of a modern techno that paradoxically draws its roots in the best of the 1980s. On Nuit Panic, his first solo album for ten years, the incisive and hypnotic melodies of “Face” and “Prince of the Cook”, interpreted by David, or “Dark Candies” sung by the Berlin artist Aga Wilk, evoke his obsession for disco italo and the seductive tones of the synth-pop of New Order or Depeche Mode. The martial beats and hypnotic synth lines of “Come Here Come Down”, “Destination love” or “In case of emergency”, recall the sound of the cold and percussive electronics of the EBM, a music nourished by the nihilism of punk and the metallic sounds of the industrial current, which had then invented Front 242 or Nitzer Ebb.
Shakti – Verboden Dromen [STREP-028]
Before becoming Belgian new beat and techno titans, Praga Khan and Chris Inger were collaborators in a new wave influenced band called Shakti. “Verboden Dromen” gathers together the best of the outfit’s work recorded between 1987 and 1990, offering up tracks that join the dots between intoxicating synth-pop, moody new wave, hypnotic grooves and dark and sleazy dancefloor moments. All of the tracks have stood the test of time remarkably well, with highlights including the humid and exotic chug of “Kamasutra”, the hallucination-inducing tropical fever of “Demonic Forces” and “Shanah”, and the bustling, club-ready bounce of “The Awakening”, which sounds like the Thompson Twins after one too many tabs of acid.
The Hipodrome Of Music 