Somewhere in Berlin during a cold and foggy winter: Hyboid is recording his album “Sequencing the Apocalypse” directly to a 2-track recorder, using analog synthesizers and a couple of old effects units. Raw and no-frills. Influenced by the great French and German pioneers of the 70s, this is a soundtrack for dystopian minds in dystopian times.
The second Avidya release starts with Aphonia, L.A. based producer and sound designer Matia Simovich’s new solo (ad)venture. ‘Burning Fields’ jacking schematics were conceived of and from the severity of the California wildfires. Industrial, metallic, lo-fi Angels Of Pompeii are a by-product of Montreal’s Italian diaspora, an assemblage of Matt D’Alessio (Temple Records) and Anthony Gallati (Solitary Dancer), who pay homage to the motherland’s electronic pioneers like Kirlian Camera and Victrola. Moscow’s sons, Odopt (Discos Capablanca / Hivern Discs) explore cavernous, virulent techno and soporific atmospherics and tonality in Athma. Finally, St Petersburg’s Linja offers ‘Retreat’, a brooding aura of slo-mo-proto trance to wrap within the first essence of Avidya’s crown.
The latest issue of “Internets most controversial underground e-zine” the Shadow Wolf Cyberzine issue#10 is out now on Nightwind Records. A 19 track ‘cover tape’ compilation with various artists. The term ‘cover tape’ stems from when magazines came with a cassette tape full of music or software on the cover back in the 1980s/1990s.
After a long tradition of Italian Dance Wave compilations on Slow Motion, the time has come to let our darker (and most electronic) side shine. A new compilation, the first one on our international sister label Wrong Era: Sailor of Wrong Era, named after the infamous Berlin boat parties that became a true happening in Summer 2021. Eighteen tracks split into two volumes comprising the very own Wrong Era style, crafted by renowned veteran artists and upcoming international talents from all around the globe.
Fontela Games launches its very first boardgame Mascara. Presented on a vinyl gatefold 7 inch sleeve, Mascara is a mystery game for 2 players. The game soundtrack comes courtesy of Timothy J Fairplay and contains 2 exclusive tracks. The prolific British producer presents 2 deft synth workouts recorded in a seedy studio in Tottenham.
In 2012 Claus Fovea self released a cassette containing 10 tracks, he was at his Swedish beginnings. 9 years later Lux Rec re-discovered his tape and it still sounded so true and relevant to them that they decided to release it on vinyl. Claus then reworked some tracks, scrap some, and made few new. Florin Buchel mixed them down and Andrea Merlini mastered them. The result is a picture frozen in time, in between now and then, the struggle, and sadness, that fragile construction of hope shattered as time goes by, like nothing ever change. It is indeed, as he sings, just the same song playing all the time. Over and over.
Mannequin Records introduce you a brand new album by Johannes Haas aka L.F.T. (Love, Fist, Tears) – one of the hottest electro/wave names around the globe. Pursuing a stubborn DIY aesthetic with an extensive use of lo-fi technology, over compressed drum machines and tapes, over the last two years L.F.T. has released several records on different labels like Helena Hauff’s Return To Disorder and Elena Colombi’s Osaré Editions. Endorsing a distinctive contemporary sound, ‘Salz’ is moving forward to an highly authentic mixture of electro and synthwave, with a lo-fi analog power blended all over his tracks, somewhere between Liaisons Dangereuses, I-F and Bakterielle Infektion, bringing us back – and fresh as never before – the amazing early days of CBS Radio – now Intergalactic Fm.
An exciting horizon of textures, landscapes and evanescent worlds, close to a dreamlike experience, are synthesized in “Espai, Temps i Materia”, the title of the new HC Records reference signed by the Valencian duo Spammerheads, formed by Ana Escudero and David Garrido. An audio-visual project forged in 2019 under the punk concept “do it yourself” in which both sound and graphic creation (videos and covers) have been developed by the duo.
DAS DAS is a synth-punk duo from Berlin composed by Cosey Mueller (voice & Guitar) and Jo Schwund (synth & programming). “Leben in Bildschirmen” their second album, was release in April on Phantom Records and now it gets a release also on Detriti Records.
Squirrels On Film shares “Electric-Earthy-Esoteric” a haunted song cycle of kosmiche dark-wave/cold-rave sonic incantation from, Mexican born, Texas raised musician & DJ who currently resides in Vienna, Alyssa Auvinen Barrera aka LDY OSC. She uses synthesis, rhythm & voice to conjure layered compositions that draw from post-punk, techno, dub & underground synth-wave.
Pavel Fedoseev is KIKOK. As one of the few remaining members of the Komi tribe, he used the Komi words Ki (= arm) and Kok (= leg) as his brandname. Born in Kudymkar (capital of the Komi-Permyak nation) , now lives in Perm, no less than a 22-hour train journey east of Moscow, placing Fedoseev in what, he says, feels like cultural and social isolation. This 10 track album acts as a means to escape the monotonous cycle of his hometown. KIKOK works on this album with Loua (Luciana Russo) an electronic music producer based in Amsterdam. She’s taking care of vocals and voice snippets. The end result is a record that sounds both propulsive and hypnotic, an album that sounds like moving forward and in circles at the same time. Rich lashings of synthesisers pulse over beats that switch between techno thump and restrained ambience, with tracks seamlessly moving from dance floor stomp to woozy comedown let-up. Russian Rave Pop at it’s best. Perm is a disgusting city,” says KIKOK of his hometown. “It’s dirty, boring and rough. I’m afraid of walking outside; that’s why I sit at home and watch movies and make music.”
Italian DJ and producer Gianluca Pandullo a.k.a. I-Robots has chosen six of his favourite Electronic Emergencies tracks to reconstruct. The second part of a collaboration after a digital-only compilation of EE tracks by the founder of Opilec Music in 2020, the six rigorous reconstructions on this double 12-inch are long, luscious, and full of energy. “Move Like Rays” by Machinegewehr was injected with a high-energy vibe, while Das Ding’s “Want Need” was transformed into an electro classic. Skeleton Head’s queer anthem “Beaten, Bloody, Bruised” was given the percussion treatment, “Danza Obscura” by Borgie got an Italo Wave twist, and New Wave legends Chris Davis and M/A/N/O/S had their tracks worked over by dubby electro and minimal techno. Electronic Emergencies reconstructed by I-Robots consolidates the label’s frontier electronic underground reputation.
World, Interrupted’s debut EP “Deception, Follow Me” is out now on cassette via Detriti Records. Haunting industrial coldwave from Poland.
One of the bright talent emerging from the current Netherlands‘ electronic underground scene is the German and Amsterdam-based, ‘fetish-inclined’, vocalist and performer Sophie du Palais also known as “Vrouwe Fataal”. She presents debut solo LP ‘Endurance of Pain is the Power of Being’. Sinister industrial wave music exploring themes of lust, hedonism, technological obsession & millennial alienation. Across six tracks, Du Palais unravels a potent signature, driven by fierce, imperious Anglo-Germanic vocals and eclectic, dissonant sounds. Connecting techno, EBM, acid and electro with vestiges of dub and experimental electronics, on ‘Endurance of Pain…’ Du Palais conjures an abrasive, intoxicating depiction of lust, hedonism, technological obsession and millennial alienation.
Oráculo Records presents Black Light Odyssey, new beats recorded in L.A. by Anton Floriano and Craig Degraff.
The Hipodrome Of Music 