Pop & Rock News

The teen girl falling in love with greasy biker melodrama that set The Shangri-Las on the scene was beaten to the core when English high society child Lynn Ripley -better known as Twinkle- took it to the next level on her own composition "Terry". Penned at the tender age of sixteen, Twinkle's lyrics were found so twisted and bad tasty that the song got the honour of being banned at the BBC thirteen years before the Sex Pistols ran the same luck with "God Save The Queen." A ban that, as you would have guessed, instead of hiding the song from the era's teenage record hunters made it even more coveted. Thus "Terry", Twinkle's first 45 issued on Decca in October 1964, became an instant top 5 hit in the UK and was released successfully worldwide as well as covered by many bands (like Claude François French version or Los Extraños cover sung in Spanish).



The success of "Terry" encouraged Decca to release other comositions by Twinkle, along with her recordings of songs by other songwriters, in 6 singles and one EP published between 1964 and 1966. Another of Twinkle great tunes, "Golden Lights", was covered by big Twinkle fan Morrissey and The Smiths in their 1986 "Ask" 12" EP.



The 14 songs from the Decca 45s are collected in this fatastic LP, housed in an amazing period style sleeve w/backflaps and including a gatefold insert with photos and first hand told liner notes by Twinkle's own sister Dawn James, a music journalist working for New Musical Express back in the 1960s.



It comes in a limited edition of only 500 copies : if you like sixties girl-pop sounds like those of The Shangri-Las, pop stars like France Gall, singer-songwriters like Margo Guryan and Phil Spector-ish productions you must get your copy of Twinkle's "Golden Lights" before it sells-out!

Serious Trouble is back with a split EP by Dolphins and JATIBE. Two yet unknown collaboration projects delivering two multifunctional switch-hitter on heavy 180 gram vinyl. One to raise -, one to relieve TENSION. Both literally guided. To avoid any risks and side-effects we recommend a cautious usage.

A limited edition 40th anniversary version of Unknown Pleasures will be released on June 14th, almost forty years to the day after it was originally released. The LP will be pressed on 180g ruby red vinyl with an alternative white sleeve resembling the original design idea.

It's a celebration of one of the most important albums of our time as well as a landmark in music/design crossover history.

One of the most significant debuts of all time, the album’s legacy continues to endure with NME claiming it to be ‘simply one of the best records ever made’

The Force Dimension was formed in the late 80’s by René Van Dijck and Tycho de Groot. After some demos and appearances on compilations, the band signed a contract with the Belgian label KK Records. Their self-titled debut was released in 1989 curiously on two different versions, one produced by Luc Van Acker (Revolting Cocks) and the other co-produced by Dirk Ivens (Klinik, Dive). The duo continued developing a very unique sound mixing EBM, industrial and different electronic influences. In 1990 they finished what is considered their definitive work, “Deus Ex Machina”, followed by the mega club-hit “Algorythm”. The band released another single next year, “New Funk”, and after a couple of compilations stopped to work together in 1997. During the next years there were some failed attempts to reunite but it wasn’t until 2013 when The Force Dimension was resurrected by René Van Dijck.
“Deus Ex Machina” is being now re-released on an expanded edition with all original tracks plus some bonus including remixes of “Algorythm”, some rare tracks from old compilations and new versions of the unreleased songs “Fatal Erection” and “Scanners”. Limited edition of 500 copies on double vinyl and gatefold sleeve.

Celebrating a Decade of Dark Entries with a compilation titled ‘Tens Across The Board’. We revisit our roster and chose 10 songs from 10 bands from 10 different countries spanning the years 1981-1993. The songs flow in chronological order and have never appeared on vinyl, with 7 of the songs previously unreleased.

The compilation begins in 1981 with Parade Ground from Belgium, the duo of brothers Pierre and Jean-Marc Pauly with help from Patrick Codenys and Jean-Luc of Front 242. “The Light’s Gone” was one of their earliest experiments and employs a stark minimalism with modular synthesizers, guitar reverb and tape delay. Next we venture to Granada, Spain in 1982 to meet the trio of Diseño Corbusier. Influenced by Cabaret Voltaire and Dadaism, “La Esperanza está en Antenas” was the band’s take on melancholic pop fueled by a robotic DR-55 bass-line. Sailing the Mediterranean Sea to Athens to meet Greek electronic goddess Lena Platonos who shares a demo from 1983. “Μια Γάτα Σασ Περιμένει Στη Γωνία” translates to “A Cat Is Waiting On The Corner” and is possibly the witchiest sounds we’ve shared yet, ending with a blood curdling scream. Frozen in 1983 we cross Ionian Sea to Messina, Italy and visit Victrola, the duo of Antonino “Eze” Cuscinà and Carlo Smeriglio. They’ve unearthed a melodic instrumental version of “Luca” fueled by a Korg Polysix and TB-303. Traveling across the Adriatic to Slovenia circa 1984, where Borghesia are working on their album ‘Ljubav Je Hladnija Od Smrti’. “Magla” translates to “Fog” fitting for the thick, somber electronics of Aldo Ivancic providing a dense atmosphere for the baritone vocals of Dario Seraval.

On Side B we go down under to Sydney and excavate a hidden Tom Ellard song recorded in 1984 under the alias Lord Metal, an anagram of his name for copyright reasons. “Ga Duum Blitzfonika” is a slow-motion, unadulterated dance groove originally released on the cassette compilation "Independent World”. Skipping ahead to 1986 in Tours, France we salute X-Ray Pop the minimum new wave duo of Didier "Doc" Pilot and Zouka Dzaza. They contribute the hypnotically fragile “Corto Maltese” that originally appeared on the cassette compilation ‘Plop’. Crossing the German boarder we arrive in Dortmund at the apartment of Andreas Sippel of Second Decay who recorded the instrumental demo “Lübeckerstrasse” in 1988 with partner Christian Purwien. Utilizing an TR-808, SH-101 and Arp Odyssey this cold slice of futurism was named after the street Andreas lived on. Traveling westward to England, specifically Basildon, Essex to the teenage bedroom of From Nursery To Misery, the trio of identical twin sister vocalists Gina and Tina Fear and keyboard player Lee Stevens. “Contentment” is an introspective, ethereal pop song with child-like vocals that originally appeared on the Belgian tape compilation ‘Heartbeat Vol.4’ in 1989. Finally, we return home to San Francisco and close out the compilation with Cyrnai the moniker of multi-instrumentalist Carolyn Fok. “Digital Grit Box (Demo)” was an outtake from the ‘Transfiguration’ album sessions recorded in 1993, utilizing dark dance drum beats made with MIDI sequencer programs Studio Vision and Sample Cell.

All songs have been remastered by George Horn at Fantasy Studios. The vinyl is housed in a custom designed jacket by Eloise Leigh featuring our label’s colors black-white-red with connect-the-dots pattern linking the 10 songs via maps/timeline/location, all relating to the reissue process, plus source images from San Francisco, our hometown. For this landmark release we've also printed a 2-sided fold-out wall poster that includes every artist we've released in our first 10 years 2009-2019 in black, red and silver metallic ink, plus an 8x11 insert with lyrics, notes and photos.

Two things become immediately clear when you hear “Body Electric”, the third original album by White Haus, João Vieira (X-Wife / Dj Kitten)’s solo project. The first is that we’re faced with an insatiable music lover, with an exemplary historical awareness. The second is that is music, although it channels all that passion, does it in such a way that is increasingly all his own. The thing is, that if on one hand, in these twelve new tracks, we’re assailed by the presence of the tutelary Talking Heads and their satellite projects, by Vivien Goldman, Sexual Harrassement or Konk’s New York No Wave, by the electronic pop of Soft Cell or New Order, by the hybrid funk of Prince and his Minneapolis accollites, by the Italo-Disco inspired by Giorgio Moroder or Patrick Cowley or the Acid House of Adonis or Maurice.

The first longplayer by this Minimal Synth Wave band from Los Angeles. Image Of Life is a side project of the singer of the band PURE GROUND.

Emotional Rescue returns to the music of British "pop" band Furniture, with an EP of the band's own extended versions, remixes and unreleased takes of their particular output.

Taken from three 12"s that followed When The Boom Was On (ERC072), the songs included cast a light on their development from 3 to 5 piece, adding Sally Still (bass) and Maya Gilder (keyboards) and the new male/female frontline. The subsequent broadening of their line-up and sound meant they could start to address the kind of pop music they wanted to play.

After the early releases garneered radio play and reviews, Furniture were launched into the melee of '80s pop. An anomaly, the band found they attracted a specific kind of "intense" follower, who were often beguiled by Furniture's freaky normality. This was addressed on the 1984 release, 'I Can't Crack'. A more urgent version of the sound Furniture had debuted with 'Why Are We In Love', the track, sung by Tim, was based around a sequencer-like rhythm played live by drummer Hamilton Lee, and a clarinet part played by Tim's brother, Larry Whelan. A mix of bleakness and euphoria, the song was and is a favourite of the band and considered one of their best self-productions, as well as becoming a latter day club play.

This is followed by the studio experiment 'Throw Away The Script', where the band wrestled with sequencers and synth-pop, but then countered it with a free-jazz sax solo. Found on the flip of the double A -side of 'Love Your Shoes' 12", this instrumental version too became an underground club hit, including a cult play at Fran Lenaer's influential Valencia club, Spook Factory. Played loud, the studio mastery, trickery and oft-accidental discoveries come to the fore, with tissue-damaging frequencies giving extra sound system shaking bottom end.

The B-side continues the band's love of making extended mixes with 'Dancing The Hard Bargain'. Co-produced with Tim Parry (formerly of Blue Zoo), they threw everything at these 12" versions. Able to relax and focus on the sounds they really liked, rather than the ones thought more commercial, this can be clearly heard on this compelling, percussive mix, a stop-start breakdown becoming a band hallmark.
To close this collection is the mammoth 'Bullet'. Again sung by Whelan, an edited version of which debuted on the 1986 Survival compilation of Furniture tracks called 'The Lovemongers', here this previously unreleased original take is centred on a mesmeric tape loop, live drums and a guest appearance by violinist Helena Bjorelius.

DESCRIPTION
Absolute madness unearthed by Paul Ebhart and Florian Stöffelbauer aka Heap for Wiener Brut's third release
Chicago-meets-Vienna-vibes - music way ahead of it's time produced in the 80s by short-lived formation Aktionskunst Gerasdorf aka Athletico Kunst Gerasdorf, a project that is well known for it's contribution to the legendary Viennese sampler ‚Die Tödliche Dosis'.

808-driven beats programmed by René Radikal (R.I.P.) backing Melanie Delval's tender voice, with multiple guest musicians (e.g. Fritz Grohs) rounding things up and adding their spice to the laidback jams alongside stand-out musical heavy hitters. A composition of sound you never heard before.

Nao Katafuchi is a Japanese artist who makes electronic music with a guitar & a semi vintage synth box, creates his own world of cold romantic wave. Stahlgrau is his 2nd longplayer.

Positive Disintegration is the long-awaited - genuinely, it's been four f*****g years - second album from Diät. When we think back to the time that Blackest Ever Black was based in Berlin, we think of Diät. Or more accurately, we think of cheep beers, terrible customer service, and then Diät. A four-piece comprising two Australians and two Germans, all with long histories in hardcore, these punks-on-wave (as one gig poster hanging in our office bog memorably put it) were the best live band in the city, and best all-round geezers, during those strange in-between days - channelling the bleak crunching attack of early Killing Joke, the terse minimalism of Crisis and the Mob, the chorus-pedal grandstanding of peak Chameleons (maybe) and the bittersweet pop impulse of the Cannanes (definitely) into songs that spoke eloquently and angrily to our contemporary first-world malaise. Or as they themselves put it: the sound of checking your bank balance to see if you've been paid yet...and you haven't.

Their 2015 debut LP, Positive Energy, is a modern classic - lyrically still sifting through the psychic detritus of real-gone teenage years in the Perth and Sydney 'burbs, while also addressing the decadence and dreariness of exile in Europe, it perfectly captured both the necessity and thrill of escape, but also the absolute futility of it. Today's novelty is tomorrow's grinding monotony...innit.

Now here comes Positive Disintegration. Things have changed. Not so much musically - a few fizzing synth-lines and drum-machine jabs aside, it's the same make-up as before...muscular, pared-down, cranked-up...tough new wave. Which is a relief. Nah, the main difference is that the faint glimmer of light that used to lurk in Diät's songs has been properly snuffed out. Whether surveying the smouldering wreckage of that thing thing we call "personal life", or zooming out to comment on the global political impasse (uh-oh!), the conclusions reached aren't encouraging. Self-doubt has hardened into self-loathing. Disappointment, dejection, disdain, despair...all the D's in effect. This is music for when the bubble has burst but you're still living in it. For when the pessimism that used to be a pose, possibly some kind kind of armour or salve against the total banality and fuckwittedness of the world around you, is now your only mode of being. Yeah, you missed the bus...and there won't be another one.

Recorded at Dong Xuan Productions. Mastered by Daniel Husayn. Art by Yuta Matsumura and Made Ollosp.











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Oráculo Records proudly presents “OMBRA FESTIVAL Unusual Sounds Gathering Volume 1”, a vinyl compilation created to celebrate the very upcoming second edition of OMBRA FESTIVAL, that will take place next november 29th and 30th in different spots of Barcelona. Released in a one-off limited edition of 300 copies it includes unreleased material by some of the artists that joined OMBRA FESTIVAL project and that majorly will be part of the scheduled OMBRA FESTIVAL live shows. Featuring new music by THE PRESENT MOMENT, CELLDÖD, PSYCHE, RNXRX and WE ARE NOT BROTHERS. All tracks has been specially remastered by Eric Van Wonterghem at Prodam Berlin.

The Hacker needs no introduction. The 4-track 12-inch 'Nancy' on Electronic Emergencies finds him at his best - oscillating wildly from electro to new wave, his true musical roots. For the title track, he collaborated once more with post-punk hero Michael Zodorozny, vocalist of Crash Course in Science, resulting in a slippery wet dance floor killer. The three instrumental tracks have a gritty feel, breathing over the cold wave atmosphere.

A fruitful collaboration between lyricist Andrew Birtles, composer David Watts, producer Dave Foister, and the beautiful voice of Kym Amps of which only two tracks were released on a 7". Now, almost 40 years after the original release date, the full album finally sees the light of day through Monte Cristo.

Kym Amps' powerful and moving vocal performance is supported by minimal electronic new-wavish arrangements that were produced with, at the time, cutting edge equipment.

Cologne-based producers Ripley and Benway aka Kitbuilders have been producing electro for many years and released their music on labels like Breakin´ Records (DMX Krew-label), Electrecord, World Electric, Television, Vertical, Ersatz Audio and many more. Their new album Reality (on Vertical/Kompakt) twist electro and dark synthpop into exciting new shapes and deals with themes of death, loss, destruction and introspection. The album combines the influence of many sources like Chris & Cosey, Devo, Aux 88, Lydia Lunch, William Butler Yeats („A Drunken Man´s…“), Suicide, Associates, dystopian 60s-songs, Mantronix and many more. The resulting music is an emotional and fresh sound tapestry that spins a vibrating web of analog Synths, 808-drums, harsh, overdriven noise, song structures and the unique vocals and lyrics from singer Ripley creating an atmosphere of tense, sinister moodiness. The album contents two remastered Kitbuilders-classics (Reality, In the Year 2525).

Factory Benelux is proud to present a deluxe 5 disc vinyl box set edition of Always Now, the debut album by cult Factory Records group Section 25, produced by legendary sonic architect Martin Hannett and sleeved by Peter Saville.
All tracks are newly re-mastered from the original quarter-inch tapes. The first 1000 copies of the box set are pressed in coloured vinyl: disc 1 (black); disc 2 (clear); disc 3 (yellow); disc 4 (red); disc 5 (silver). The outer case in printed in PMS 123 with spot varnish.
The 16 page booklet features unseen images by noted photographer Philippe Carly and texts by founder members Larry and Vin Cassidy. Also included is the first ever interview with guitarist Paul Wiggin, whose sudden departure in late 1981 saw Tony Wilson try (and fail) to recruit pre-Smiths teenager Johnny Marr as replacement.
Recorded as a trio at Pink Floyd’s Britannia Row studio in London in January 1981, Always Now combined austere post-punk rhythm and noise with elements of Can, Krautrock and modern psychedelia. Key tracks include Friendly Fires, Dirty Disco and New Horizon, along with C.P. (a collaboration with Hannett) and Hit (extensively sampled by Kanye West for the track F.M.L. on his 2016 album The Life of Pablo).
Disc 2 gathers together several non-album singles from 1980 and 1981, including Charnel Ground, Je Veux Ton Amour and debut EP Girls Don’t Count – the latter produced by mentors Rob Gretton and Ian Curtis (of Joy Division).
Disc 3 offers a complete live show professionally recorded at Groningen (Netherlands) on 26 October 1980, as part of a Factory package tour.
Disc 4 is part-improvised second studio album The Key of Dreams, recorded and produced by the band themselves a few months after Always Now, and released by Factory Benelux in June 1982.
Disc 5 consists of further experimental material recorded in 1981 and self-released on a cassette called Illuminus Illumina. This final disc closes with an extended (and previously unreleased) live encore jam recorded with all four members of New Order at Reading University on 8 May 1981.
“One of the best albums Britain's second city has unleashed” (Uncut);
“In 1980 their bass-driven mantras were thoughtlessly dismissed as second-rate Joy Division, but hindsight judges them more kindly. The wind-dried skeins of their blasted guitar harmonics and skimped electronics gauntly cling to the songs’ skeletal frames. With telltale titles like Babies in the Bardo their Buddhist interests hang heavy over these early stirrings. But, combining a bass-led drone with a characteristic groaning vocal, Charnel Ground succinctly pins down Section 25's pre-disco appeal” (The Wire)

incl. Download Code

The collection features internationally acclaimed artists such as Haruomi Hosono, Ryuichi Sakamoto and Joe Hisaishi, as well as other pioneers like Hiroshi Yoshimura, Yoshio Ojima and Satoshi Ashikawa, who deserve a place alongside the indisputable giants of these genres.

In the 1970s, the concepts of Brian Eno's 'ambient' and Erik Satie's 'furniture music' began to take hold in the minds of artists and musicians around Tokyo. Emerging fields like soundscape design and architectural acoustics opened up new ways in which sound and music could be consumed. For artists like Yoshimura, Ojima and Ashikawa, these ideas became the foundation for their musical works, which were heard not only on records and in live performances, but also within public and private spaces where they intermingled with the sounds and environments of everyday life. The bubble economy of 1980s Japan also had a hand in the advancement of kankyō ongaku. In an attempt to cultivate an image of sophisticated lifestyle, corporations with expendable income bankrolled various art and music initiatives, which opened up new and unorthodox ways in which artists could integrate their avant-garde musical forms into everyday life: in-store music for Muji, promo LP for a Sanyo AC unit, a Seiko watch advert, among others that can be heard in this collection.

Kankyō Ongaku is expertly compiled by Spencer Doran (Visible Cloaks) who, with a series of revelatory mixtapes as well as his label Empire of Signs (Music For Nine Postcards), has been instrumental in shepherding interest in this music outside of Japan. Together with Light In The Attic's celebrated anthologies I Am The Center and The Microcosm, Kankyō Ongaku helps to broaden our understanding of this quietly profound music, regardless of the environment in which it's heard.

Algebra Suicide was a Chicago poetry-music duo consisting of poet and visual artist Lydia Tomkiw and musician Don Hedeker. They formed in 1982 and self-released a 4-song EP that year. It featured a 60's Vox Guitar Organ, a precursor to the synthesizer guitar, and a Multivox Rhythm Ace drum machine. In 1984 they released their 2nd EP ditching the guitar organ for a Casiotone MT-40. Their debut album ‘Big Skin’ was released in 1986 on cassette and featured 13 new compositions with more complex arrangements. A vinyl compilation album, "The Secret Like Crazy", was released in 1988. It collected 20 tracks picked from ‘Big Skin’ and the first two EPs plus unreleased songs. In 2012 Dark Entries released an 18-track compilation of their first 3 singles with bonus tracks.

‘Still Life’ is a 16 track compilation that collects the 9 remaining songs from ‘Big Skin’, 3 songs from ‘The Secret Like Crazy’, and 4 songs from various compilations. Lydia and Don call their approach "Avant Garage" citing inspiration from Patti Smith, Frank O'Hara, Leonard Cohen and Lou Reed. Don plays guitar in a hauntingly stark style like Glenn Branca, Tom Verlaine, or Vini Reilly. He then adds Casio keyboards and minimal electronic percussion, creating a moody, atmospheric backdrop for Lydia's poems. Lydia's words span a broad range of twisted real-life observations, and are delivered in a deadpan fashion with her distinct Midwestern accent.

All songs have been remastered by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. Each LP is housed in a jacket designed by Eloise Leigh and includes a 16-page booklet with lyrics, press clippings and photos. Though Lydia passed away in 2007, her genius lives on in these recordings. Please respect her decadence.

Blind Delon was founded in 2016 by Mathis Kolkoz—a French artist who draws his energy from coldwave and synthwave references channeled through the use of ancient synthesizers, icy bass lines and black romanticism, all combined with a raw elegance and melancholy.

Discipline - Blind Delon’s first album features a stunning sound design, laced with dark energy and a daring lyricism. The album, although written and composed by the band, is an all star collaboration with Kris Baha, Lapse Of Reason, Incendie, I Hate Models, and others.

For the 11th release AM collaborates with Rio de Janeiro based label Outra, to shine a light on a lesser known era of the rich Brazilian music history. The record compiles six slightly edited or 'fixed' late 80's / early 90's Brazilian pop songs that touch all basic elements of old school hip hop, new beat and electro: drum computers, heavy use of funky (guitar) samples, rapping and scratching, except for that last track which is a sexy melancholic Portugese tune that felt so good to end with. As usual in a white discobag hand-stamped with a little drawing by Frank Koedood.

Luca Venezia, aka Curses, has with his Carcassonne-Mini LP, written and produced a cold wave dream filtered through how all the sci-fi movie soundtracks of the eighties should have sounded like; picture The Cure on a study visit in John Carpenters studio in 1983.

This six-track Mini LP is Curses first release on Hoga Nord Rekords and you can place his music beside other artist in the HNR artists stable, like Jamie Paton and Pardon Moi - eighties influenced dark and expensive sounding electronic music. Luca Venezia also solves the task of putting vocal elements in the tracks with sharpness and precision; the heavy processed reverberating overdubs float in and out on a tastefully low level in the mix.

Outside the safe studio walls the discourse is polarised and dumbed down to headlines and introductions, to guttural noises and simplification. Curses music is part of your antidote to this regression and is nor black or white nor simple or safe.

Fockewulf 190 was a New Wave group from Milan formed in 1980 by Vittorio Barozzi aka Victor Life and Dario Dell'Aere. In 1979 the duo met outside a cinema and began a lifelong collaboration of projects: Diamond Dogs, Ice Eyes, Demode Boulevard and Fockewulf 190, named after the model jet planes Dario fanatically built. Musically, the duo were inspired by the Human League's Reproduction' and John Foxx's Metamatic', while they took visual cues from the New Romantics Visage and Ultravox. With the Fockewulf 190 moniker, they created their own dark blend of Italo disco and New Wave, and released two singles in 1984 and recorded an album's worth of music that eventually saw the light of day in 2010.

By 1983, local DJ and guitarist Salvatore Nonnis aka Stan After was added to the group. The band were searching for a producer and found Giuseppe Mincioni of Market Records who serviced the local DJs at the Taxi Club where Stan worked. Mincioni immediately proposed to make a hit with the Italo Disco production team Miki Chieregato and Roberto Turatti behind such acts as Den Harrow, Joe Yellow, Stylóo, Flexx. Dario handed them a demo called Walking Out' and Turati thought the John Foxx-esque vocals were not commercial enough so they suggested vocalist Fred Ventura. Fred accepted their offer and wrote lyrics for the song politically inspired by living in a world divided in East and West, the Cold War, terrorism, and street violence. The debut single Body Heat' was released in 1984 on Market Records with the band's name misspelled as Fokewulf and vocals wrongly credited to Dario. Clocking in at over 6-minutes, the song features Fred's New Beat style vocals over melancholic, sweeping keyboards and hard edged drum rhythm patterns. On the B-side is an instrumental version with the occasional Hey you take a look at me' chorus. All songs have been remastered by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. The record is housed in an exact replica of the original jacket featuring a black and white mannequin bust shrouded in fog by Filippo Maniscalco. Each copy includes a double-sided postcard with lyrics, notes and photos. This reissue is dedicated to Vittorio Barozzi aka Victor Life who passed away in 2014.

The Belgian duo San Soda and Red D entered the world of recorded music some 12 years ago with the inception of Red D’s label We Play House Recordings. A few years later their collaboration continued in the studio with the start of the FCL project, leading to original and remixed club hits.

In the meantime both have gained considerable mileage and reputation as adventurous DJ’s who are not afraid to take risks and with a ‘no boundaries’-approach to playing music. Being Belgian they continue to find inspiration in Belgium’s rich music and clubbing history, which led to the ‘Our Beat Is Still New’ compilation in 2013 on We Play House Recordings. Both San Soda and Red D contributed some tracks and thus the aliases Nick Berlin and Max Erotic were born.

Fast forward to today and Club Belgique, a concept Red D has been brooding on for quite some time. A true tribute to Belgium’s club (music) heritage which consists of club nights and also a new label for fresh material by himself and San Soda in his Nick Berlin guise. This release brings you that new material in the form of two tracks situated between new beat, synth pop and italo disco. Long live Belgium!

“The year is 1982. Rita Mitsouko has not yet recorded its eponymous debut album. The pile of ashes that once was Disco is still smoking on the field of Comiskey Park. New Wave is a phrase, Post-Punk Rock a thing. In France, young musicians dream of New York City – some with more devotion than others. Lapassenkoff are to early 1980’s downtown New-York what seminal New Wave act Marie Et Les Garçons (who met John Cale on their way to CBGB) are to the city’s musical scene in the late 1970’s: an unexpected cousin from Lyon.

Indeed, going through Shing ‘n’ Tsé! sometimes feel like an impromptu meeting between John Lurie and Tom Tom Club in the basement of some French record store. If we press pause for a minute, a question comes to mind: how on earth such a unique blend of funk, post-punk, jazz fusion & hip hop (!) – more easily associated with, say, The Mudd Club, than with Les pentes de la Croix-Rousse – made its way to the brains of three French musicians?

The answer probably lies in a Swiss chalet, some 40 kilometers away from Zurich. Sent there by the wise people from Mosquito (the label which also gave Ramuntcho Matta and Carte de Séjour the opportunity to record their first album), the band experiences Alpine ennui and mysterious neighbours (a certain Carlos Peron, for instance). That is probably during this stay in Swiss meadows that they opened a Pandora’s box called experimental music, leading them into recording the mind-blowing sample-based – and accidentally proto-everything – M Le Maudit,, that would later grace Belgian airwaves via the famous Liaisons Dangereuses radio show.

But if we’re looking for a bigger picture, M Le Maudit is just an example of how inventive their approach to music was. This compilation is a testimony of a decade-long feverish flirt between the Lyon trio and dance music. From the infectious electric boogie cuts Shing A Ling and Roadie to the somehow euro-house-fuelled Ma Poubelle Angelina, via many unclassifiable yet iconic songs like Bossi Le Bosseman or Fièvres, Frissons, the compilation demonstrates one thing: Lapassenkoff took the road less traveled by and contributed to a different history of French Pop music.”

Pierre-Arthur Michau.

Factory Benelux presents a new deluxe 2xCD edition of Sparks In A Dark Room, the second studio album by Dutch electronic group Minny Pops, originally
released by Factory Benelux in May 1982.
Formed in Amsterdam in 1978 by vocalist Wally Van Middendorp, Minny Pops took their name from the primitive Korg drum machine which propelled their austere, post-punk rhythms and provocative live performances. An early association with Factory Records in Manchester saw the band work with producer Martin Hannett, share stages with Joy Division and New Order, and become the first Dutch band to record a BBC radio session for John Peel.
Sparks In A Dark Room is their second studio album, originally issued on Factory Benelux in May 1982. Self-produced by the group, the album was recorded without a guitarist and as a result sounded unusually polished and layered, its smooth sequencers and motorik rhythms often redolent of Moroder, Kraftwerk and Cabaret Voltaire. Bonus tracks include the non-album singles Time and Een Kus, as well as demo tracks and an EP by instrumental splinter project Smalts.
This new edition on FBN also adds a bonus disc featuring an entire live performance (13 tracks), recorded at Amsterdam Melkweg on 7 April 2012 on their 30th anniversary tour, with original members Wally Van Middendorp, Wim Dekker and Pieter Mulder joined by new guitarist Mark Ritsema.
Tracklist:

1. Mountain
2. A Feeling
3. Tracking
4. Crack
5. Vital
6. Blue Roses
7. Wong
8. Experience
9. Dream
10. Night Visit
11. Trance
12. Time
13. Lights
14. Een Kus
15. Son
16. Secret Story (demo)
17. Schitterende Ogen (demo)
18. Time (demo)
20. Werktitel #7
21. Werktitel #5
22. Werktitel #1
23. Werktitel #8

1. Kogel
2. Blue Roses
3. Tracking
4. Vital
5. Goddess
6. Dolphins Spurt
7. Wong
8. Night Visit
9. Secret Story
10. Time
11. Trance
12. Mental
13. Son

Exactly two years after their latest Front Teeth LP, the Zürich-based duo VEIL OF LIGHT is back with a new album called Inflict which will be out May 10 on Avant! Records. This is their fourth full-length and their industrial-tinged synth-based post-punk keeps on getting better, making Inflict their strongest release to date. In these eight new cuts you'll hear how their sound has gotten heavier, bulkier, even more beat-driven. Tracks like So Hard and Holy Wars display drums pounding like noises from a rusty machinery, synths on You Done Me Wrong and Fact2019 they’re so sharp they can slice through your skin, Europe and Animal Instinct feature melodies from the abandoned industrial district of your ghost town. We could go on but you are probably aware of what these two Swiss are all about, and if you don’t you'll know the Veil Of Light when you face it. Artwork by Basel-based visual artist and photographer Samuel Trümpy. Limited edition LP on orange vinyl!

Le Raccourci is a welcome introduction to the world of modern classical identity Sebastian Gandera. The impressionist landscapes of a sensitive soul self-reflecting, these miniature compositions alternate across a rudimentary set up of piano, field recorder, sampler and four track. Melancholic utterings hastily captured some 100km east of Paris. Classically trained by the same teacher as his parents, Gandera first began recording in the confines of his university dorm room, inspired by a C60 from friend and future collaborator Bernard Odot (A Gethsémani). Humbly existing without sparing a thought to music industry or career, Gandera's personal effects surfaced via the European and US cassette networks from 1988 to 1994. Impressively accomplished for the DIY scene they orbited, these tapes were issued in scant quantities, rendering his pieces as private secrets shared and duplicated in small concentric circles. Aside from a sole, avowedly traumatic performance, the material was never shared in a live context.

Kris Baha is back on Pinkman Records following up his 'Can't Keep The Fact' EP last year with another great release rich in energy, rhythm and under the influence of his Master. In 'My Master' Kris expertly fuses the past and present amidst sonic aesthetics of 80s new-wave, minimal synth and post-punk - all this in amongst fierce percussion, wired sequenced baselines and his vocals up front, revealed and out of the dubby shadows. The result is 6 tracks dribbling with nostalgia in a 2019 context and in classic Kris fashion, can be played on the dance floors of your mind right through to dance floors of reality. In this release Kris submits himself, wholly to his master, which is himself. Who is your master?'

Limitierte Regenbogen-Picture Disc Edition /// Die Queen of Pop meldet sich mit neuer Musik zurück und ja, sie ist immer noch die Queen of Pop. Vier Jahre nach ihrem Nr.1-Album "Rebel Heart" kommt "Madame X" mit dem mysteriösen Cover. Mit dem Album feiert Madonna ihre Liebe zu Latin Music und der Kultur, aber auch viele andere globale Einflüsse, die sie in ihrem Leben und in ihrer Karriere prägten. Sie ist ja schon ganz gut rumgekommen in all den Jahren. Was Madonna schon immer ausmachte, ist die Liebe zum Zeitgeist der Musik, so sind wie immer aktuell in der Popwelt angesagte Produzenten am Start. Als erste Single gibt es „Medellín“ mit dem weltbekannten kolumbianischen Reggaeton-Sänger Maluma.

From a new label set up by Claudio Mate, partner in the Dub-Ito label, responsible for the killer Soloist & Second Apartment and Dark Star LPs. Mate is a Japanese music fanatic, who has guested on Japan Blues' NTS show. His painstaking research in this field unearthed the works of Be-2.

Be-2 was the brainchild of cosmic rock guitarist Zen Oikawa and Psycho. The band released two flexi discs and a cassette on Oikawa's Inner Space Records in the early 80s.

Prior to that, Oikawa ran a cosmic rock band called Space Mandala, Be-2 was his merging of that style with the new wave moves of the early 80s. Since then, he has been music director for projects for anime giants Studio Ghibli, contributing to the soundtracks of Kurenai no Butta (Porco Rosso) and Omohide Poro Poro (Only Yesterday).




BE-2 "Minimum In Survivable Human Race Unit" was composed between 1982 and 1984. Available on vinyl for first time, and featuring unreleased tracks. A blend of of proto-techno, noise, ambient, channelling Manuel Gottsching, Ashra Temple, Klaus Schulze, and The Durutti Column,.

Little Lost Boy was a short-lived project that came into fruition in the wake of the break-up of the Danish post-punk iconical band Moth. This ultra deluxe edition put together the best stuff they have recorded between 2016 and 2019. A true gem for any post-punk and new wave sonic aesthetics lover. All tracks have been specially remastered for long cut vinyl by Eric Van Wonterghem at Prodam Berlin.

Six composers compiled on one EP. Everyone with its own approach stepping into the long history of New Wave, EBM and Synth-Pop from Switzerland. For the first release of the newborn label ‘Subject To Restriction Discs’ focus on analogue production with all its variations.

It all began when gearheads from all over Switzerland came together to indulge their love for analogue synthesizers and drum machines. This led to a project at which end a tape compilation resulted. Only 70 tapes were made and almost got forgotten. Now is the time some of these tracks find their way to a new medium and a bigger audience.

Mount Liberation Unlimited are Tom and Niklas, two Swedes from space who have spent the last 5 years carving out a particularly vivid niche in contemporary electronic music. Their previous work has seen them connect with an impressive list of global dance powerhouses: New York’s Beats In Space, Melbourne’s Superconscious and Munich’s Permanent Vacation have all released 12′’ heat from the duo, while their hometown buddies at Studio Barnhus provided an outlet for what has been perhaps their biggest and boldest release yet, 2017’s double smash single Double Dance Lover. Their live shows are fervent, fast-paced and very multi-instrumental affairs, performed non-stop at an increasingly prestigious list of clubs and festivals, serving as prime examples of the MLU boys’ core obsession: the interaction of human rhythm and electronic pulse. They have their own great little radio show on Gilles Peterson’s Worldwide FM! Australia loves them! They got their artist friend Tom-Hadar Elde to sculpt their heads for their debut album cover! That self-titled debut, to be released May 31 on Studio Barnhus, has been in progress since the very formation of the MLU project in 2014. It contains some of their earliest work and of course their very latest – all perfected at the Neve desk of legendary Gothenburg studio Svenska Grammofonstudion, in cahoots with mix engineer Christoffer Berg (Depeche Mode, Robyn, Fever Ray).

Bigwax Records is proud to launch its label, Les Masques, with the reissue of the only album of the obscure band from Marseille, The Students. Released in 1985 in relative confidentiality, "Students In Summer" reflects the carelessness of a bourgeois youth cradled in FM hits, new wave, Sade and Stranglers, and the way of life of these medical students who left regularly Mediterranean shores to surf the Basque coast. Lo-fi, sunny and ultra-cool, this rarity of French pop eighties is here remastered from the original tapes.

A passionate tribute to a time before techno... or was techno already there? Beautiful and highly limited package, gold/silver labels, dot-matrix printed insert and sticker included. Don't sleep.

What to say about THE PRESENT MOMENT? they are just one of the best synthwave bands of XXI century, and everyone knows that, maybe that's why some of their previous releases are being sold at obscene prices. After 5 years of painful silence, they are coming back with their 4th studio album, probably their most professional studio project to date, a very mature production where they play with their usual raw synthpop and ebm style but as well with more italo synthesque and even progressive rock ambiences. A truly masterpiece from any point of view. All tracks have been specially mastered for LONG CUT vinyl by Eric Van Wonterghem at Prodam Berlin.

“Introducing COSMIC RESIDENTS v. 1, the first in an ongoing compilation series from Cosmic Resonance Records. This series will showcase emerging talent from Toronto’s underground creative electronic music scene.

This first edition features local favourites and Cosmic Resonance residents Radiant Aura Faculty (aka Raf Reza), KOREA TOWN ACID and Hemingway along with (and making their vinyl and Cosmic Resonance debut) Body Butter, WeTurnToRed and Smoke & Shadows.

On the A-side, Hemingway kicks things off with Astralnauts, a deep, dubbed out boogie breakbeat burner dedicated to explorers of the astral plane featuring fellow label don Chris Evans on rhythm guitar. Radiant Aura Faculty (aka Raf Reza) takes us even deeper with the mystical 'Cid Pit Riddim', a slamming 707 acid bender sure to melt any dance floor. Things get slippery with Body Butter’s debut single ‘Lights In The Hallway’, a timeless operatic pop opus featuring Neil Rankin (aka Burt Sugar), Chris Evans (aka Mr. Bliss) and Hemingway behind the board.

On the flip side, things heat up with Shamanta Chandran’s project WeTurnToRed (recently releasing their debut EP on ORO Records), featuring the progressive modular techno odyssey 'Warm Winter', an escape from Toronto’s long and tumultuous blizzards. Emerging from the Mahogani Forest, Korea Town Acid reinterprets Hemingway’s emotional ode to the jazz aesthetic 'Blue Notes' with her trademark cerebral rhythms and a masterful bassline that elevates the original to new heights. Closing it off, we have an amazing collaboration between Curtis Clark (aka Smoke of Lab.our Music) & Em Zy (member of Nikki Fierce) called Smoke & Shadows with their stellar debut single Convincing Thoughts that features Em Zy’s hazy vocal emanations amidst a backdrop of mystical reverberations and a dark, powerful groove.”

Minimal Wave presents an LP of tracks by Belgian synthwave luminaries The Misz, entitled The Lonely Crowd. The Misz formed in Gent in 1983 by Jan Van den Broeke and Dries Dekocker at a time when they had both just relocated from the country. They lived on the same street and collaborated freely with the limited equipment they had, which always centered around the Fostex 250 4-track tape recorder. They used an unknown monophonic synthesizer, casio synths, roland drum machines, hand drums and guitars through effects pedals, improvising with their voices and often and included friends for additional voices and sounds. They captured these sonic experiments and sometimes released them on cassette in editions of 100-200. They were also included on numerous cassette compilations throughout the 1980s on labels like Mad In Belgium, The Cassette Factory, 3RIO Tapes, Minimart production, Fraction Studio, Cauchy Productions, Home Product, R.R. products, ZNS Tapes, and Body Records.

The Misz described themselves as young, immature and bit strange yet totally bold and fearless. They sang about what surrounded them from world politics and environmental catastrophes to love and lust. The songs on The Lonely Crowd span from various cassette releases and have been remastered from their original reel to reel tapes.

The LP is pressed on 180 gram vinyl as a limited edition of 600 copies, the first 100 are in white and the remaining 500 in black. The cover and inner sleeve are printed on matte heavy card stock featuring photographic collages, typography and design by Peter Miles.

Kez is a mysterious yet very prolific Cornish musician whose extensive material has been kept unreleased almost in its entirety. He rose from the ashes of punk and in 1979 being only 17 he was already experimenting with blending numerous forms of music and twisted electronics. He was part of several acclaimed acts like Aaah…! And Imago, but regarding his main project ARTISTIC CONTROL, only the cassette album ‘Bless it all’ saw the light of day in 1984. After Kez decided to go ahead on his own without any further musicians in 1985 and dive deeper into more synth based tunes, he recorded many songs on a 4-track cassette recorder with the only help of Karen Kay doing backing vocals. None of these songs would have been heard by anyone if Kez himself wouldn’t have shared some of them through Youtube, creating a cult following instantly. We have chosen the ones that in our opinion best represent Kez’s awesome musical imagination and skills and have made them available on a physical format for the first time ever. Ten songs are included in this vinyl release; three come from the mentioned 1984 ‘Bless it all’ cassette-only album, the rest being recorded between 1985 and 1987, with some of them 100% previously unheard.

We are excited to present you this selection of ARTISTIC CONTROL songs on an EXTREMELY LIMITED, HAND NUMBERED EDITION OF 165 COPIES, housed in a matt finish sleeve with insert (lyrics and credits) and including a download code. Download features five additional songs not on the vinyl.