synth pop
Linea Aspera – Linea Aspera LP [DE031]
Dark Entries is proud to present the debut album of contemporary British band Linea Aspera. Linea Aspera is the London duo of Ryan Ambridge (Synths/Programming) and Alison Lewis (Vocals/Synths). They began the project in November 2011, technically drawing inspiration from electronic music from the early 1980s. For their debut album they utilized small, simple analog synthesizer set up: Roland SH-09, Roland Juno 6, Vermona DRM MKiii, Korg Poly 800 and Analogue Solutions Semblance. Linea Aspera’s sound includes clear influences from early electronic body music, classic synth-pop and, in some instances, industrial and noise. Lyrically the band incorporates the sciences of osteology, neuroscience, and anthropology weaving a new medical language around themes of desire, despair and renewal. Linea Aspera serve up an icebox of dark doom riding on Alison’s powerful vocals with a soft but sharp touch.
ADN’ Ckrystall – Jazz’Mad LP [DE030]
Dark Entries is excited to release the 30th anniversary edition of ADN’ Ckrystall’s debut album “Jazz’Mad.” ADN’ Ckrystall is the moniker of synthesizer wizard Érick Moncollin from Tarbes, France. In 1977 Moncollin spent time in Paris experimenting with synthesizers, jamming alongside composers Vangelis and Tim Blake. It was here that he obtained a prototype of the Korg MS-20, a legendary synthesizer. The entire album was recorded over a 4 day period in 1980. The sound of “Jazz’Mad” revolves around the synthesizer, utilizing the instrument to all its capacities. ADN was Influenced by New Wave bands that incorporated keyboards into their songs like Gary Numan/Tubeway Army, and Simple Minds, as well as Prog Rock and Krautrock bands such as Hawkwind, Heldon, Gong, and Neu!. The result is an unconventional and discordant conglomeration of synthesizers, drum machines, and vocals that cradle the edge of the brain. Most of the songs are long instrumental pieces but when Érick sings his lyrics favor love, drugs, and science fiction themes.
The KVB – Secret Thirteen Mix 033
Intergalactic Gary – Pains Of Passion Mix [RDR004]
More from the Roller Disco reissue series, as Intergalactic Gary’s tongue-in-cheek tribute to the joys of camp ’80s synthesizer music gets a deserved repress. For the uninitiated, Intergalactic Gary is a Hague-based synth fetishist and notorist Italo digger. Here, he showcases a tiny fraction of his unrivalled collection of (largely European) synth-pop and disco oddities, mixing up 19 tracks that will be new to all but the most dusty-fingered of collectors.
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Lives of Angels – Elevator to Eden LP [DE032]
Dark Entires is honored to reissue the long out of print debut album “Elevator to Eden” by Lives of Angels. Lives of Angels was the brainchild of Gerald O’Connell from London, England. In 1974 he worked at CBS studios mastering recordings from tape to disc. By 1977 he joined his first band Mystery Plane, led by school mate Mark Harvey and later joined by his soon-to-be wife Catherine. Gerald branched off in 1980 forming Lives of Angels as an outlet for his own compositions. He recorded, produced and played all of the instruments on “Elevator to Eden” between 1981 and 1983, using a primitive set up of drum machines, one keyboard, guitar and a tape echo. Influenced by the Krautrock sounds of Neu! and Amon Duul II as well as US psychedelic rock, Lives of Angles crafted their own unique post-punk sound. “Elevator to Eden” was originally released in 1983 on cassette by Color Tape Records, the label started by Gary Ramon of Modern Art. Then in 1986 Fire Records remixed and re-released the album on vinyl but the band was not happy with the mixes. This reissue features the original 4-track cassette mixes of “Elevator To Eden” on vinyl for the first time ever. The LP includes 9 songs featured on the original Color Tapes release. All songs have been remastered for vinyl by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley directly from the original master tapes.
Leo Mas – Hot Tape 001
Bonjour Tristesse – On Not Knowing Who We Are [LFL006]
Stress – Conspiracy Theory LP [DE027]
Stress is the duo of Alan Rider and Phil Clarke from West Midlands, England formed in 1981. Stress combined electronic rhythms and keyboards with bass guitar, vocals, percussion, and cut-up samples. They created catchy electronic pop songs that fused accessible & experimental elements with a pointed lyrical edge. “Conspiracy Theory” is an 11-song ‘best of’ compilation album featuring tracks from the first two cassette albums with “The Prayer Clock” from Third Mind Records, ‘Life At The Top’ compilation LP and “Tear It Down” from the ’Compulsory Overtime’ compilation LP. Each song has been carefully remastered by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley.
VA – Danger Electrified Tracks [LSD008]
After the club tropicana sounds of Bang the bomb its time to roll the sleeves up and get down to the business end of this trip. Touching down on planet Subturanus in search of the real underground shit Light sound dark do not disappoint digging deep into its core and excavating strange alien like sonics which had previously been lying dormant. Onyx ”Robot world” kicks things and what a start! hailing from Boston Massachusetts this 1982 cassette only release is almost completely unknown to all but a few. So ahead of its time with its production and ”Robots are taking over the world” drone vocal this is an absolute must for people who are fascinated with the history of house music and is surely worthy as a missing piece on the ever expanding jigsaw puzzle.
Symmetry – Themes For An Imaginary Film [IDIB037CD]
Three years in the making, Symmetry – the project that began as a conceptual tangent between Glass Candy, Chromatics, Mirage, & Desire’s more abstract sides – finally sees its release this month. “Themes For An Imaginary Film” is two hours of claustrophobic cinematic bliss compiled for Painters, Writers, Photographers, Designers, Cruisers, Night Walkers, & Dreamers. Adrenaline drips thick like syrup across a horizon where memories become blurred scenes behind the windshield & yesterday’s faces fade as the road strobes to aggressive rhythms. Romantic melodies linger in the rearview mirror as chimera bells saturate the electric fog that’s slowly rolling in. Over the span of thirty-seven tracks, Symmetry embraces the elegance of European noir, cut with a lean & violent American razor. Directly in your face & breathing down your neck one minute, & escaping beyond the night sky the next. The attention given to color & detail on these recordings is more graphic than musical. More visual than aural. With no flashy virtuosity to clutter the mood, the album’s pulse thrives on the empty pockets of space left in the wake of throbbing bass & the faint flicker of electro candlelight. Minimal, strict, & always in motion, there’s an oppressive overtone throughout the record that winds itself tight as a clock. Johnny Jewel & Nat Walker (Chromatics & Desire) give us propulsive moments that are more rhythm based than Pop, & less reliant on a lyrical presence than their other projects. We hear elements through the veil & color of analog synthesizers & rhythm machines from the early 1970s, resulting in the suspenseful & patient territory pioneered by the hands of John Carpenter, Claudio Simonetti, Wendy Carlos, Klaus Schulze, & Krzysztof Komeda. Symmetry is not Pop. Stripped to its most primitive & visceral core, this is music written for picture. Your life is the film & this is the soundtrack.
VA – Les Annees Folles [GOOILAND01/ET016]
This record is a soundtrack for excentric nightlife, bringing back to life images of wild parties at artists workspaces in Paris in the 1920’s, early mornings in Belgian nightclubs in the late 1980’s and driving classic Italian sports cars during long hot summer nights.
VA – Electric Voice Compilation [EV034]
Electric Voice Records presents a collection of 18 pop-rock post-punk tracks. With contribution by Innergaze, The KVB, Soft Metals, HTRK, Jeff & Jane Hudson, Horrid Red and others.
Ssleeping desiresS – A Voice [FLEXI004]
Degada Saf – No Inzro [MNQ009CD]
Degada Saf was a transgressive-dada-ist musical combo coming from Veneto, Italy. Degada Saf played a synth-electronic music, a kind of involved no-disco with no-sense lyrics in esperanto. Their music suggests a peculiar mixture of post-modernism synthesized electro assaults, new wave’s imaginative minimalism and pop art aesthetic vision. “No Inzro” makes constant interferences between rigorous avant-gardism, alternative music styles and colorfully plastic electro pop. The spectrum of musical imagination reveals a lot of good surprises, notably with the opening theme “La Rhumba de Shang Hai” which directly gives the tonality of the entire album: kitschy retro-popish ambiences based on dancing minimal hypno pulses and efficiently cold melodies. A groovy and captivating electro experience and a pretty decent introduction to the band’s very own musical universe.
Inhalt – Vehicle EP [DE024]
Dark Entries presents the the debut EP “Vehicle” 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. In the “Vehicle” EP the brutality of the analogue transistor rhythm section meets the sincerity of the human voice.
Vocoder – Cuadro Sinóptico [DE026]
Dark Entries presents a 4-song compilation from one of the finest groups of the Spanish New Wave/Techno-Pop scene of the 1980s. Vocoder were a quartet from Zaragoza, Spain formed in 1981 by Keyboardists Antonio Laval, Alfonso Olarte, Antonio Tenas and vocalist Pilar Pellicer. “Cuadro Sinóptico” compiles both 2-song 12″ maxi singles as one 4-song EP. All four songs were recorded during 1984-85. A futuristic sound for the modern age topped with Pilar’s charismatic vocals. Lyrically they address robotic love, disco dancing, and the tropical island of Mindanao.
Pye Corner Audio – Black Mill Tapes Volume 3: All Pathways Open [PCA003]
Right then, our Head Technician has sworn that he will have the next instalment of Black Mills Tapes ready for us by the end of January. Volume 3: All Pathways Open comprises a further twelve tracks lovingly transferred from those now fabled 1/4″ and cassette tapes. The Advisory Circle kindly lent a hand and retransferred ‘Electronic Rhythm Number Eighteen’ for which we are very grateful. Our Head Technician tells us this particular segment had been giving him a fair bit of trouble, so the help was appreciated.
Josh Cheon – Who are you Dark Entries?
Hard Corps – Clean Tables Have To Be Burnt LP [MW035]
Minimal Wave is proud to present our 35th release, a full length LP release entitled “Clean Tables Have To Be Burnt” by UK legends Hard Corps. 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 frontwoman 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. Now for the first time ever, rare unreleased versions of Hard Corps tracks from the 1980s have been remastered and are being made available.
The Hipodrome Of Music 