Ian Hicks – Radio Rituel 29
synth wave
Stephen Huss – Galaxy [AD011]
To honor Stephen Huss and his impressive career as musician with Psyche (together with brother Darrin Huss) and as a solo artist, Artificial Dance decided to release his solo work on vinyl for the very first time. The Galaxy LP is a collection of 6 tracks recorded between 1983 – 2005 and selected by Artificial Dance, together with Darrin Huss, to give a complete overview of Stephen as a solo musician. These wide-ranging synth instrumentals were recorded between 1983 and 2005 and you can clearly hear the range of talent through the early Psyche influences to his further experiments in the electronic genre. Let Galaxy be your guide into this unique musical experience created solely by Stephen Huss.
VA – All Stars Vol.3 [FRV034]
Frigio Allstars 3 comes from the murky underbelly of electronics, where the nights are long and the days are short. Ashen tones pricked with lighter shades, all smeared with attitude in this collection of underground tracks made for the underground. Daniel Holt dives deep into the darkness with the nine minute industrial throb of “Vaccuous Transient.” A stomping beat pierces sci-fi score synthlines in a track brimming with menace. Grey people debuts on Frigio with the grime smeared jack of “Bruxism.” The flip is all first timers to the Madrid label with Scannoir offering “De Panaesher.” Sitting somewhere between synth lament and uplifting wave, this track is a true modern classic from a member of the GOTT camp. Madrid’s very own Negocius Man follows with “101 Wars” a winding worming work of glazed electronics to kill any dance floor and the amazing finale, “The Smile Of The Body” coming care of Bari’s talent based in Berlin under the moniker of Sons Of Traders.
VA – Wrongful Convictions [AH003]
After a pandemic induced gap since the last release, Artificial Horizon makes our first foray into the digital realm with tracks from Sophie Du Palais, Mavridis, Petros Spatharos, Kafkactrl, AIR LQD, Future Relics and Roberto Auser. As a temporary antidote to this ever more cryptic world, the ‘Wrongful Convictions’ V/A brings together artists from all corners of Europe who share an affinity for the spectral side of the sonic plains.
Interviews – Bitterfeld #06 [BIT006]
Leipzig’s Interviews returns to Bitterfeld for his second EP of power electro, techno and EBM plus another new wave anthem on the B2.
Morah – PNKMIX-56
Das Ding – Your Content Will Arrive Shortly [MTRONW007]
Another exploratory and bulletproof data delivery by Das Ding, returning for his second record in the Mechatronica White series following ”I Am Not A Robot” from last year – this time assisted by Heap’s radiant interpretation on the flip.
Kris Baha – Starts To Fall [PS009]
Kris Baha returns to his imprint Power Station since ‘Mind Your Head’ in 2016 with 4 mutant industrial cuts ready for a dancefloor of 1.‘Behave’ begins with a hypnotic sequence guiding the listener through the piece as sonic sirens screech from the cavernous dystopian wastelands of 2020.
Vinilette – T.O.P mix
Kinder Aus Asbest / Rosa Nebel – Split EP [LXRC42]
The first Lux Rec release after summer is a split EP that puts together two musicians from different regions, different backgrounds. On the A-side there’s an old acquaintance of the label, Kinder aus Asbest, with Life after Death and Washed Away. As hopeless as it gets. On the B-side there’s Rosa Nebel, and upcoming artist from Austria that matches perfectly, with his dystopian views on society, the core dissatisfaction for humankind that Lux Rec has.
Logic System – Unit / Clash [TD004]
Tempo Dischi is an Italian label created on a mission to discover and repress classics and rare Italian gems of the italo disco, afro and cosmic scene. With the support from all the main players who has made that era magic, we work to put back on records stores shelves a piece of art that may have been lost but it’s still timeless. The fourth release is a double A side release from the japanese electronic music pioneer Hideki Matsutake. Composer, arranger and programmer he is certainly known as member of the Yellow Magic Orchestra with Ryuichi Sakamoto from 1978 to 1982. In 1981 he launched his own project Logic System, producing essential songs like ‘Unit’ and ‘Clash’ that are included in the seminal album ‘Logic’.
Zero Call – Stellar Wind [OR81]
The italian project Zero Call produces pure Italo Disco with perfect brushes of EBM- infused retro synthwave. Punchy snares, pulsing basslines and dramatic synths behind monochromatic female spoken vocals. Including the main track “Stellar Wind” + 2 remixes by Technobeton and Arkademode + 2 recovered tracks from his past discography.
Linea Aspera – Linea Aspera II [L//001]
Linea Aspera return with their second full-length LP, combining analogue production techniques with evocative emotional authenticity that ties themes of inherently human experience to cosmological concepts of physics and astronomy.
Borgie – Hyper Delta Space [EE032RTM]
For the third time, Bosnian DJ and producer Borgie has delivered an astonishing 4-track 12-inch to Electronic Emergencies. Transcending the here and now, he rockets into Hyper Delta Space, where desire, emotions, pain and memory are transformed into telemetric signals. The sheer distance, emptiness and darkness of the outskirts of space are intertwined in the tracks. Disco noir or dark techno, it’s not an issue. Resistance is futile.
Potter Natalizia Zen – Magari [ELP054]
Master synthesists Colin Potter (NWW), Alessio Natalizia (Not Waving) and Guido Zen reprise their supergroup for Ecstatic with a seductively serpentine follow-up to their superb debut from a couple of years ago. PNZ’s pulsing, twanging, expansive ‘Magari’ was recorded between 2018-2020 in the slipstream of ’Shut Your Eyes On The Way Out’, which is surely one of the strongest new kosmiche-related albums of recent years. Where that album refreshed classic styles of European synth music for modern ears, ‘Magari’ – meaning “I Wish” in Italian – adapts their style to the unique Afro-Latin lilt of Brazilian music with central use of the Berimbau; a single-stringed percussion instrument commonly associated with the elegant martial art/dance of Capoeira, which the band’s Guido Zen brought home from his travels in South America. Combined with their juicy, almost fleshly arps and Guitar pedal-generated computer voice, the results are wonderfully wide-eyed, embracing bouts of motorik rhythm beside vertiginous noise wormholes and mystic tone poems that speak to a cumulative experience spanning decades spent hunting for life between the wires.
Like their first LP, much of the recording took place remotely or in pairs, and rarely with all three present, before the parts were mixed down at Colin’s studio in Leytonstone. In its journey between the intricate meters and perpendicular vectors of ‘Too Much Traffic’, and their mesh of curdled tones with their phone recordings of a manic preacher in Camberwell on ‘Saved’, they variously recall Craig Leon’s alien invocations of Dogon folk tales as much as the heady dissonance of Alessandro Cortini; producing outstanding pieces of tangibly haptic substance in ‘Sergio’ and infectiously tip-of-tongue Berimbau twang on ‘Gennaio’, and for good measure, something like Phil Collins gently losing the plot after healthy dose of Ayahuasca in ‘Fill’, while ‘Ancora’ sounds like Basic Channel scoring Herzog’s Aguirre.
Halv Drøm – Slum Vatic [F//019]
In his debut LP on the imprint, Fleisch collective co-founder and resident Halv Drøm crafts esoteric body music inspired by loss, nostalgia and ego-dissolution. With groove, finesse and nothing to prove, he processes his past and future through an arcane haze of post-punk guitars and industrial field recordings.
Interstellar Funk – Crack Mix 376
Jyl – Jyl [MW075]
Minimal Wave presents a reissue of Jyl‘s self-titled full-length album from 1984, originally released on Klaus Schulze’s Inteam label. Born and raised in California, Jyl travelled to Europe in her twenties to dance and met several talented and like-minded collaborators along the way. She ended up in Germany, and worked with Ingo Werner, Angela Werner, and Klaus Schulze, on what would become one of the most important and forward thinking electronic albums of the time. Shortly after its release, the song “Computer Love” became a mini-hit along with the album’s opening track “Mechanic Ballerina”. The lyrics of “Silicon Valley” and “Computer Generation” are reflective of the times and have become even more relevant now, 36 years later. The production and song arrangement on the album is immaculate. The synthesizers, drum programming and vocal contributions complement Jyl’s voice perfectly. The album contains an incredible depth beyond a regular dance album likely due to the spirit of the people behind it – the list of contributors add to its significance and near-mythological mystery.
VA – Apocalypse Domani [GDD2]
Emerging like the blind dead from ancient tombs hidden amongst the seemingly lost ruins, connected by ley-lines and mystical signet rings comes twenty-three undead club-hits from across the globe from Giallo Disco alumni past, present and future. Electro meets Dark-Ambient via Low-Motion Techno and styles in-between, Giallo Disco is proud to present a digital only V/A for your late night summer walks or woodland rituals and remember… always aim for the head…
