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.
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 Each LP includes a 12-page booklet with excerpts from Darrin Huss’ diary, unpublished photos of Psyche with Dwayne, and an essay by Darrin reflecting on Psyche’s past and the Goettel legacy as well as lyrics.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.
The Games truly were visionaries and pioneers. They never got the credit they deserved because they were not in the right place at the right time and lacked the contacts good management could have provided. This album is a must for all synth-pop enthusiasts and lovers of quality pop anthems. It earns its place as an historical masterpiece when you consider the dates when these songs were released and the timeless relevance of the songs to the world today.
“‘Let’s Leave Reality,” the debut LP from Florida’s intergalactic synth duo, Os Ovni. Let’s Leave Reality features eight tracks of experimental electronic pop lost in time and space. The psychedelic harmonies and colliding layers of synths paint a vision of a future that isn’t so much bleak as it is paranoid. Hyper-paced drum machines buzz under the shimmering structure of the synths. Logan and Omebi’s vocals stir in perfect harmony glazed with lost celluloid inspired visions.
Medical Records presents it’s second contemporary artist release with Roladex. Using an arsenal of analog instruments, Roladex nostalgically borrows ideas from music of the past to carefully craft a unique brand of futuristic-mechanized pop, with an emphasis on songwriting and layered production. Weaving sparse, sequenced arpeggios into fuzzy bass and bubbly melodies to create a bed of sound where they layout a somehow bright melancholia. Part minimal synth-wave, part dream pop. The opening track “Anthem For The Micro-Age” sets the tone with dreamy atmospheric synth textures and interwoven male and female vocals. “Love Surgery” is chock full of pop hooks and synth leads interspersed with angular guitar accents. “Empty Streets” has an almost minimal John Bender bedroom aesthetic. Fans of early Wire (esp 154), Drinking Electricity, Fad Gadget and even noisy 90s shoegaze are sure to enjoy. Presented on high-quality 180gram heavyweight electric blue transparent vinyl and features a bonus LP insert with lyrics.
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.
A special series called Dark Entries Editions, dedicated to 12” singles made for the dance floor. The first release in this series is Victrola, the duo of Antonio ”Eze” Cuscin and Carlo Smeriglio from Italy. The band formed in Messina, but later relocated to Florence to join the rich musical scene there with Neon, Pankow, Alexander Robotnick and Diaframma. Beginning as a 4-piece combo (two guitarists, bassist, drummer) in 1979, they slimmed down to a synthesizer and guitar-based duo a few years later.
This new compilation is created to celebrate the 10 years of activity of Enfant Terrible. ”I Am Enfant Terrible” makes clear the traditions ET has been working in but at the same time is an album with the broad spectrum of sounds they are interested in. From indie pop to new wave to minimal synth and from noise to elektro and IDM and ambient, from poppy to experimental to dance music. This is what Enfant Terrible is…
This is not your ‘usual’ L.A.S.’s Crime album, as if something had gone wrong in cloning, and what came out is magically different and at the same time deeply consistent with the productions of the 80s … with the participation of bands, artists and DJs from all over the world, the result is a beautiful mutant vinyl…7 songs remade as extended versions, a ‘size’ of song so diffused in ’80s, half way pop and dance.
Light Sounds Dark continue their impeccably curated endeavours this year, with a self titled compilation put together by their ‘International Communication Network’ adding a sense of accomplishment to previous 2013 transmissions such as that collection of archival Mutant Beat Dance material and the superb Dark Matters Too compilation. Those whose pants were charmed off by that latter release will find much to enjoy and investigate on this double vinyl selection. An undisclosed international cast of record diggers from San Francisco, Chicago, London and Manerbio (that’s in Italian province Brescia in case you were wondering) have selected 16 tracks that feature Dutch tape experiments in sound, murky industrial punk, proto techno, abstract synth pop and more. Not quite sure about the fluorescent pink cover art though…..
Mannequin Records is proud to present a true pearl of the Italian Minimal Synth from the 80’s. Tommy De Chirico founded the post-punk band Politburo in Turin during 1981 togheter with Maurizio Rubinetti (Sick Rose) and Massimo Aluffi (Ivan Siberia). On his own, he released the 7″ “Close Your Eyes / Flower Into The Factory”, produced and recorded at TKS Studio by the Monuments’ Mauro Tavella between 1982 and 1983 and subsequently released by Turin’s Shirak Records in 1984. Presented here are also 3 bonus demo tracks: a rare version of “Close Your Eyes”, and 2 out-takes from 1983, “Vuh-Ya” and “Tuxedo Dance”.
We are pleased to announce a strictly limited edition release of rare tracks by UK legends Hard Corps. Hard Corps were true innovators of the 1980s UK synthpop scene. Hard Corps gained some notoriety for their unique and uncompromising live shows throughout the 1980s. It was the juxtaposition between their hard edged industrial sound and the fragile and enigmatic vocals of French front woman Regine Fetet that created an unusual dichotomy, lending to their strength of character as a band and thus allowing them to stand out from the rest. By 1985 Hard Corps had signed with major label giants Polydor. This enabled the band to work with a couple of their favoured and respected producers, Martin Rushent (known mostly for his exceptional work with the Human League) and Depeche Mode producer and Mute Records supremo, Daniel Miller. These sessions provided the public with just one single due to the labels non-promotion, Je Suis Passée, a sweeping arrangement of breathtaking beauty, combining pumping sequences and sheer power of emotion of Regine’s voice. The band went on a major tour with The Cure in 1985 and Depeche Mode in 1988, before finally disintegrating. As a follow up to Clean Tables Have To Be Burnt (2012), Rarities compiles the outtakes and demos that were left behind. Tracks that truly never saw the light of day.
The newly forged CGI label debuts with a 12″ release from Featureless Ghost, a Atlanta-via- Brooklyn duo hotly tipped with the online content farm after releases on the Crash Symbols and Night People labels. Describing themselves simply as ‘synths/rhythms/voices/moods’ the Featureless Ghost pairing of Matt Weiner and Elise Tippins occupy the crawl space between synth pop, wave, industrial and nascent forms of techno, which manifests itself in two intriguing original tracks in “Sugar coated” and “Cybersapien”. Kudos to CGI for the remix commissions too, with both Scott Fraser and Beau Wanzer excelling – the latter’s take on previous FG single “Flash” is a particular highlight here.
Dark Entries is proud to release the sophomore EP “Occupations” from San Francisco based synth trio INHALT. Consisting of European and East Coast natives– Matia Simovich, Bryan Gibbs, and Philip Winiger– INHALT’s core operative strategy is of sonic fidelity and integrity rather than nostalgia. The record was produced over a year and a half, and mixed in both Austria and California, employing the best of modern and vintage techniques and technology. The sound is INHALT’s interpretation of the border between the voice driven song form and the expansive, extended 12″ arrangement. It is informed equally by the soundtracks of John Carpenter, as much as the vastness and sheen of Trevor Horn.
Mannequin are pleased to present a crown jewel from the early 80s Italian Minimal Synth scene. The Monuments came into being in January 1981 in Turin when Mauro Tavella (keyboards, programming) and Andrea Costa (keyboards, voice) pooled their artistic experiences. From the outset they produced exclusively synthesised music, following the natural evolution in electronic music from the early days with monophonic synthesisers to the latest virtual sounds generated with the aid of computers.
The Hipodrome Of Music 