“Vanishing Dreams” is a highly awaited new mini-album by Cold Colors, brimming with personality and inspiration as always. Wistful undertones and captivating melodies establish Cold Colors as one of the most prominent figures in the current French and European new wave scene. His music mirrors the sharpness and elegance reminiscent of the renowned Lyon duo, Deux, showcasing his talent for evoking beautiful emotions through his melancholic and catchy notes.
Marguerite Records announced Meccanismo Ritmico, a new multidisciplinary project that will involve artists who can think outside the box, inspired by the energy and spirit of the 1980s DIY subculture. The first volume contains 6 exclusive tracks by Diana Berti aka Violet Poison and Disappearer, 1/2 of Harlem Electronics, two already well-known names in the international electronic scene. The first part is dominated by the romantic and introspective minimal synth wave sounds of Diana Berti contrasted by the dirty and distorted EBM influenced tracks of Disappearer.
“Our thoughts are with the victims of the ongoing war and humanitarian crisis in Gaza: we are witnessing a gross violation of human rights and since the beginning of the conflict, we have often felt helpless in the face of all this barbarism and inhumanity. We have therefore decided to donate the proceeds from the sales of the compilation to PCRF – Palestine Children’s Relief Fund.”
“Strange World” is not merely an album; it’s a sonic expedition that probes the aberrations of a society shaped by the strange and transformative influence of technology. The music industry, a microcosm of this surreal universe, has become an intricate web of formatted reactions and impersonal interactions. Foreign, the musical observer, takes the audience on a solitary journey through the night—a time of introspection where raw feelings and emotions are eclipsed by the numbing shadows of social media and the relentless march of technology. The album resonates with an unmistakable romanticism, shrouded in a dark, mysterious atmosphere. Each track is a testament to the disquieting beauty found in the synthesis of opposites—the warm, pulsating beats of EBM intertwining with the ethereal melodies of synth-pop. The result is a musical landscape that is simultaneously haunting and alluring, much like the strange world it reflects.
Ferry Lane Records welcomes Teatre AKA Viktoras Urbaitis for its fourth release. ‘2 Songs’ presents the Lithuanian producer at his most introspective. On the A-side, ‘Alone’ offers a languid, bittersweet melody evoking the golden era of synth-pop. The B-side, ‘Low’ intensifies the mood while still embracing melancholy.
For more than thirty years, Ruud Lekx has been corrupting hearts and minds with his unmistakable brand of synthesizer music. Under his Rude 66 mask, this titan of electronics returns to Bordello A Parigi with twelve darkened tracks for ‘Conditioning Consciousness’. Tempos glide low in the opening incantations. From the breathy murmurings of “Magick Angels’ Invocations”, the listener is brought into Rude’s world. Shauna Lekx’s signature vocoder lyrics and blackened subject matter are central tenets, as are hauntingly delicate melodies. “The Riddler In Me” is a deep psychological journey through cable and circuit, an unsettling monologue accompanied by liquid analogue lines. BPMs are allowed to rise for the shimmering warmth of “In Exile” and in the reverb soaked “The Chariot”. But these are the outliers. Across the collection, percussion drives without ever being a central force. Instead, the focus is the bewitching and brooding compositions. Take the drugged low slung groove of “The Talisman of Algol” or the loose modulations of “Le Sagittaire”, here the listener is brought into the heart of the machines and the musician. The curtain close, “The Five Swords Of Venus In Aquarius” gathers a spread of influences, bringing them together into one piece. Synth. Soundtrack. Strings. All culminate in this superb climax, a climax to an album that broaches the boundaries between terrifying and terrific.
Third album from Rouen cold & arty band Love In Cage, between some cold synth electronic tracks, some post-punk anthems and a deep lynchian dark rock on the second half of the record. Perfect marriage of 80’s sound & contemporary music. A must have for wave & cold lovers.
Next Wave Acid Punx DEUX is the second compilation for Eskimo Recordings compiled and curated by Berlin-based Musician and DJ Luca Venezia, aka Curses, to explore the darker side of club music. Spread across 3CDs and three 2LPs Next Wave Acid Punx DEUX features a mammoth 49 tracks that join the dots between early industrial pioneers Throbbing Gristle, EBM legends like Nitzer Ebb and the post-punk experiments of people like Malcolm McLaren and Big Audio Dynamite with some of the most exciting artists around today, such as Boy Harsher, Nuovo Testamento and Years of Denial. Where the first Next Wave Acid Punx compilation was a personal journey for Luca, a lockdown inspired exploration of his record collection to find the thread that ran through the music that had soundtracked much of his life, DEUX is a celebration of that music let loose on the world, the thrill of music performed live, the smoke and strobe filled clubs you’ll hear it in and the artists you’ll find on those stages.
Jonathan Fitoussi & Julie Freyri are Model Alpha. 8 years on after their first album Dimensions, Perceptions is the duo’s second album and was entirely composed on analog synthesizers. Model Alpha is inspired by electronic artists such as Kraftwerk, Laurie Spiegel, Manuel Göttsching or early Detroit techno productions. An elegant blend of synthesizers and drum machines including remix by Chloé (Thévenin).
Poetical License was a brief project uniting Scottish born and Aotearoan (New Zealand) musician Mark Airlie and keyboardist and vocalist Keri Ansley after the duo met in New Plymouth. The solitary 7” came together in 1986, recorded at the infamous Auckland studio, The Lab. The A side’s fragile Footprints is as utterly charming as it is drenched in melancholia with a delicate glockenspiel lick and Ansley’s ethereal delivery of the vocals. On the B Side, Room 101 pivots to wonky rock and a more post-punk approach to composition. The two tracks shine brightly among an abundance of outsider gems made in Aotearoa during the 1980s
MEGABREAKZ is the brainchild of the collaboration between Oráculo Records, M.U.S.A. and Ombra Festival. It’s born to be a tribute to the iconic Valencia sound of the late 80s, when the city was a global epicenter of dance music, avant-garde exploration and cutting-edge creativity. The third part presents a new project from Curses, Tutto Vetro – No Mercy.
‘Psykhe’ sees Lithuanian musician and composer Gediminas Jakubka continuing to explore his distinct sound, but taking it in a new direction: a step away from the euphoric new age dance floor and into a significantly murkier, more precarious territory. ‘Psykhe’ is meant as a sonic simulacrum of the artist’s psyche during the pandemic – a quickened mind bred by a decelerated world. In that and other senses, the record is a modern take on the ‘80s/’90s Detroit ethos of dance music created for an illusory dance floor.
Emotive & gloomy synth-scapes that sound like a score to a movie that never was nor will be. Played and recorded on an Ipad. Analogue mastering by Guy Tavares.
Pablo Bozzi inaugurates his new label, Second Sight, with the various artists ‘Unknown Prospect’. The title says it all: boundless and vast, Second Sight’s intent is to promote the talents of innovative producers who defy genres in the pursuit of their own idyllic aesthetic.
As a part of Soil Records’ 5th anniversary we have a special 7 inch edition of Sololust “Too much Days on a Row”, originally released in 2020, with an additional rework of this emotive song by the master Rude 66.
Veyl welcomes Blind Delon to the label with a new album, La Métamorphose. Founded in 2016 by Mathis Kolkoz, the band currently consists of Mathis Kolkoz (Vocals, Guitars), Coco Thiburs (Bass) and Thom Mayor (Synths, Guitars). Fueled by cold bass lines and synthesizers of yesteryear, French post-punk and black romanticism, Blind Delon shatters genres and styles to create an evolved strain of synthpunk that wears its influences proudly while mutating into something totally new. La Métamorphose represents a fresh direction – a heavy, post-metal sound that’s full of emotion and raw intensity. ‘Le Crépuscule’ opens the album with a hard hitting piece that commences the experience perfectly. Next up, the group kicks things into high gear with the speedy, heavy-synth play of ‘La Violence’ featuring vocals by Fivequestionmarks, followed by ‘La Mort’, a blackened post-punk cut featuring Curses. Label head Maenad Veyl makes a guest appearance on the fourth track, ‘L’Homme’, which drifts into deep experimental melancholy with a cinematic feel. Keeping with this mood is the powerful ‘L’Affront’ featuring The KVB, which descends further into darkness before resurrecting with the immense feelings of ‘Le Sarcasme’. Track seven, ‘La Noyade’, drills into the skull with growling vocals and menacing synths which bleed nicely into ‘La Foule’, slowing things back down with a subtle yet lingering sense of dread. French project Poison Point arrive on ‘L’Envie’ which moves guitars back to the forefront for a raucous ballad that sets up the final piece and title track, ‘La Métamorphose’, the glorious grand finale of an album teeming with emotion and begging to be played again and again.
Puerta Negra delivers amazing industrial breaks covered in a very simple but extremely effective by funky bass lines perfectly finished by ensoniq style super synth leads culminated by harsh raged vocals sung in castillan language. This is for sure one of the most fresh and brilliant modern ebm work coming from the states recently.
The Hipodrome Of Music 