Band of Fabrizio Chiari (ex keyboardist of Kirlian Camera) and produced by Charlie Mallozzi (already involved in Kirlian Camera), Angelo Bergamini collaborated to the 12″ Eyes Of Glass.
synth pop
IKO – ’83 [MR038]
Medical Records is beyond elated to finally present to the world the first official reintroduction and reissue of the iconic IKO “83” LP. This coveted album by minimal synth aficionados around the globe has been out of print and very rare since it’s original release in 1982. Hailing from Montreal, Canada, IKO has always been shrouded in mystery. All 3 members come from an academic background (electroacoustic composition, etc), and they met at the University of Montreal in the music department. Taking from their collective influences of 60’s pop, prog and minimalist composers as well as early industrial, they played in a few early bands before solidifying the all-synth incarnation of IKO in it’s definitive lineup. The LP was originally released on Manhattan Formula.
Pressures / Roladex – The Voices [MR030]
Roladex meet up with Pressures for a split EP of new wave choirs and industrial drum machine beats on this 7″ from Medical. While the former are a relatively new duo from New Orleans, the latter have already released on Medical and are back with a vengeance. “The Voices” by Pressures is a fast-paced, nigh-time jam with some nutty percussion work and a vast sea of lonely pads and solemn voices. On the B-side, Pressures give us “Glass Statuette”, a poppy beat groove that’ll stick in your head for hours, no thanks to its seductive and playful vocals.
Pink & Black – Sometimes I Wish [ERC015]
Emotional Rescue takes a look towards the dancefloor sounds of Britain underground 80s electronic synth-pop scene for their next release. From Dallas’ infamous ecstacy fueled Starck club to the Le Palace in Paris, it was such music that while not gaining wider pop recognition, become classics of their time and the secret finds for today’s DJs.
Kirlian Camera – Uno LP [DE073]
Dark Entries is proud to release Uno, a collection of early recordings from seminal Italian electronic act Kirlian Camera. Keyboardist/vocalist Angelo Bergamini founded the project in Parma in 1979, initially naming it Suicide Commando, before discovering another project using the same name. By 1980, Angelo had recruited singer Simona Buja, keyboardist Fabrizio Chiari and bassist Mauro Montacchini. Their demo cassette, Dawn, attracted the attention of Italian Records, a popular independent label. The following year, Mauro left the band and was replaced by Giorgio Vecchi, and the band recorded their first mini-LP, Kirlian Camera. Uno compiles the 4 songs from the mini-LP on Side A and the 6 songs from the demo cassette on Side B. Also included is the bonus track Minitech, originally released in 1981 on flexi-disc. Kirlian Cameras clean, minimalist new wave is marked by strong haunting melodies, slow moving synth washes, and stark, dramatic vocals.
Void Vision – Sour EP [MNQ049]
Void Vision is a Philadelphia based solo female Minimal Synth / Cold Wave project from Shari Wallin. Already included by Rough Trade in their seminal Synth Wave compilations, the single is anticipating her full lenght ‘Sub Rosa’, out for Mannequin Records later in 2014. Remix by Vanzetti & Sacco aka Jos Van Galen with Otto Kraanen, the boss of the acclaimed Bordello A Parigi from Rotterdam.
Hipodrome Podcast 016 – Dunkeltier
This is the recording of Dunkeltier’s aka SneakerDJ session at the pre-party for the STRCamp festival in Vilnius, Lithuania in July 2014.
Dunkeltier is going deep into obscure things (edits that will come on Macadam Mambo Edits Rec. and Rat Life Rec.), then turning into sweet uptempo synth tunes.
Opera Multi Steel – Opera Multi Steel EP [DE067]
Opera Multi Steel was born during the winter of 1983 in Bourges, a city in the center of France. The band started off as a trio with Franck Lopez (Vocals, Keyboards, Guitars), his brother Patrick L. Robin (Vocals, Percussion) and Catherine M. Marie (Keyboards, Vocals). They began to record demos utilizing a Elex Keyboard, Casio VL-Tone, Roland TR-606 drum machine, guitars and pedals. Layering organ-like keyboards over drum machine snares and a woodwind recorder, they created a unique style of Medieval or Baroque synth pop. The result was a 4-song debut, eponymous EP, released in 1984 on their own label Orcadia Machina. The songs range from fast and bright, New Wave influenced by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark’s “Electricity” and slower, brooding Darkwave ballads like “17 Seconds” “Faith” era Cure. All songs were sung in French with lyrics about feeling of nihilism, disgust with life and escaping to a botanical garden in search of redemption. It was a pre-cursor to their darker and classic French coldwave sounds of their debut album “Catherdrale” released the following year.
Popsimonova & Zarkoff – Die Brucke [JAMTRAXXSP003]
Ideally in transit between yesterday and today, between adolescence and maturity, between an arcadian dimension and a more actual reality made of mirrors and metal, here it is the sonic trip for these two singular characters, Zarkoff and Popsimonova, a taste of sci-fi retro comics, as the bridge of hyena plisskinn in Carpenter ‘1997 escape from ny’ or the characters of the bridge of William Gibson, the master of cyberpunk american literature. The minimal futurstic attitude is deformed, exagerated, distorted, in some case it becomes just a cold expressionism, violent sintetic colors as the sky of Munch, but the scream this time is purely electronic… The bridge, this eternal symbol of passage, the union of opposite realities, in this case reflected itself in the music, with deep roots that lie in the past (for the analog instrumentation) and then leap into the future, materialized from essential and modernist musical structures. Each human being builds its own bridge, a piece at a time, and so it happens the magic of communication, it takes place. In Die Brucke it happens in the ideal musical dialog between this two singular characters, with their composite way to write songs. Including two L.A.S.’s Crime Remixes.
Solitude FX – SFX [ENFANT025]
Solitude FX is no stranger to Enfant Terrible. This German Duo has been present on the great Dutch label since the first compilation from 2006. This new album consists of 10 super melancholy lo-fi minimal synth tunes for the true new wave fan…
Josh Cheon – Label of the Month Mix: Dark Entries
This Perfect Day – No Frills, Just Noise [SS015]
This Perfect Day was a band formed in Manchester, UK around 1981 by vocalist/blues harp player John Sama Snowden and synthesiser player Mik Hayes. John had the street-cred having previously been vocalist with The Limit and for a short time was the vocalist with The Passage during which time they played gigs alongside Joy Division. Mik, by contrast, had no street-cred, having been bass guitarist with a semi-pro cabaret/covers band, playing 2 hour sets of pop songs every Saturday night. The antagonism between the two, the fight between atmosphere and melody characterizes This Perfect Days sound… in fact the name This Perfect Day is an attempt to convey this. It comes from the novel by Ira Levin in which everything on the surface is perfect, but underneath this surface is an underbelly of pure scum! Their music was never intended to be synth music in the classic Kraftwerk / Human League / OMD / etc sense. It was music that just used synthesizers because they didnt have a drummer or a guitarist. They immediately started writing their own songs, bouncing music from track to track on a Revox B77 tape recorder, using a monophonic ARP Axxe and a Soundmaster SR-88 drum machine. Over the next 2 years, besides playing a number of gigs in the northwest of England, they were able to record a total of 13 songs on 8-track tape at Bootleg Studios, Stockport, UK, culminating in the final session with the recording of The Garden and The Time of Your Life, which utilized the polyphonic capabilities of their new Crumar Stratus synth. The Garden and The Time of Your Life were put together as a double A side single purely for promotional purposes. Copies were sent to record companies, radio stations, DJs, etc. but no-one was interested, so the music finally faded away. No decision was ever made to stop… life just took over… until now…
Kline Coma Xero – Kline Coma Xero [MR036]
Medical Records presents the debut full length release of Kline Coma Xero. Formed in 2012, Kline Coma Xero is a group whose work embraces elements of early minimal synth wave with distinctively thoughtful lyrics and evocative melodies. Kline Coma Xero’s Tony Williams has had his roots planted in various projects in the past, spanning a realm of styles from experimental noise, tape loops and early industrial. Using a writing style that employs the use of hardware sequencers driving analog instruments rather than computers, Kline Coma Xero produces a uniquely oblique interpretation of past-meets-present in modern electronic music.
Information Society – Insoc EP [MNQ053]
The ”Insoc EP” contains the first official recordings from the legendary Minneapolis music collective Information Society led by founder/producer Paul Robb. Originally released on vinyl in 1983 the EP became extremely difficult to find. Now, for the first time since 1983, Mannequin Records is giving it a new birth on wax, this time including a bonus track ”Charentiesm” never appeared before in any format, which is the first track ever recorded by Information Society in 1982.
V2 Schneider – Tape Works 1981-85 [VOD126]
The finest German Minimal / Synth from early 80’s NDW Underground by V2 Schneider. For this release Jurgen Schweighart, alias V2 Schneider, sat down, saved and listened to approximately 50 original master tapes, reels and cassettes from 1980 to 1985 including his official tape releases ”Vol. 1” (1981), ”Blues” (1982), ”Abgrund der Gefuhle” (1984), ”Nr.1 in Hong Kong” (1985), ”After A.I.D.S. Symphony” (1985) and many so far unreleased hidden treasures, demos and out-takes. At the request of VOD-Records, none of the tracks were remixed or edited and therefore kept in their authentic original and charming form.
LeLu/Lu’s – Operating On Specific Cues: Early Works 1982-86 [VOD125]
LeLu/Lu’s were an early to late 80’s electronic/synth-based project based around Deni (in the early 80’s known as Yo-Yo and nowadays known as Timekode). In 1985 they released a fantastic 12 song tape on Unlikely Records (URT91) called ”Operating on Specific Cues” which forms the basis of this 25 track 2 LP-release While the tape is still rather unknown to fans of synth music, the three 7”s released from 1985-87 (on Alain Neffe’s Insane Music as well as Possum and R&D Records), with the outstanding tracks ”Spaceman Bassman”, ”Africa” and ”Fragile Thing”, are better known to the minimal synth/wave community and collectors of 80’s wave and minimal synth vinyl.
Rational Youth – Cold War Night Life Recordings 1981-84 [VOD124]
One of Canadas first synth-pop groups, Rational Youth was formed in the summer of 1981 by Tracy Howe (The Normals, Men Without Hats, Heaven Seventeen) and Bill Vorn (U, Sacred Noise). Within the 10+ years that Howe put Rational Youth on indefinite hiatus, their early vinyl recordings (1981-1982) became much sought after collector items, and had been re-branded as minimal-synth. This 5LP set with booklet provides an almost complete overview of their works from 1981-1984.
Neud – Play [BAP024]
Neud is a trio from NYC and Zagreb consisting of Nico Nightingale (Neud Photo), Iva Viskovic (Croatian chanteuse), and Pierre Klein (MOX). They’ve been producing their own brand of Italo/Space Disco the ‘old skool’ way since last summer. Ranging from sexy, groovin dizko to deep, dark and dancey trax.
Traxx / NPNK – Revenge Of The Poulet Cat [MME909]
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.
The Hipodrome Of Music 