Pop & Rock Новости

Daniele Ippolito compose songs of Ambient, Synthwave, New Age, Dark-wave, Progressive and Soundtrack styles. He dislike to define himself under a specific style cause his influences goes from Italo-Disco to classic music and from SoundTracks to Dark-Wave. He already collaborated for some artists of Pop and Techno music. But his foundations will stay on the 80’s style sound called also 80s revival, one of his phylosophy is to work with only vintage synthesizers hardwares who will give to his songs a warm and unique.

Sweet chilling wave sounds... Lyrical and poetik style !

Australian musician, composer and producer Ex Ponto aka Ivan Mašić has self-released dozens of albums with improvisation collective, Council of Elders, and experimental no-wave band, Wunderlust.

For his Offen Music debut Ex Ponto is constructing an alternative civilization of grace, post-sarcasm and intuitive response.

„In A Quarry...Far, Far Away“ is a 15 minutes long wandering with Joseph and August Norster around The Quarry, Beech Forest, Victoria, Australia, January 27, 2020.
Life affirming „Golden Hours“ is an alternative to the general wait for extinction and completition of a suicide program out there. An ode to the moments when sunlight turns magical.
„Shed 14“ is a personal reminiscence of the legendary club in Melbourne.

Stacks is the Belgian duo of Jan and Sis Matthé. These Antwerp residents build and undress different timbres and textures into vocal-hooked songs, flouting the rules of pop in the process. We at Knekelhuis appreciate this immensely and are delighted to work with them. ‘Love and Language’ is a romantic, moody pop-not-pop record in which everything falls perfectly into place.

Portland’s act DANCING PLAGUE is well known for synth wave and minimal synth addicts, having already been included two times on past Oráculo Records VA series. This EP mini album is conformed from a selection of his last two self- releases; “Bleak Moments” and “Songs of Others”. As usual on him, we could expect torn poetic messages wrapped by classical, minimal and sentimental pop structures.

Following on from our 2018 repress of his debut album “Content to Write in I Dine Weathercraft “ we’re delighted to present an Anthology of Stano’s productions spanning the start of his solo career in 1982 to his 1994 “Wreckage” LP. Featuring 18 tracks from the five LPs he released in that time span on double vinyl with extensive liner notes, it is a comprehensive look at one of Ireland’s more enigmatic musical characters.

A member of the legendary punk / post-punk group The Threat which disbanded after lead singer Maurice Foley disappeared to join the Hare Krishnas, he had set up his outsider stall early on. The Threat had Stano on synths, one of the first female bassists in Deirdre Creed and their debut single was produced by progressive trad musician Donal Lunny of Planxty. Stano’s solo career of improvised electronic music continued in this vein of the unexpected – sitting outside both the country’s mainstream and alternative rock scenes.

An indigenous musical industry with few resources even at the top level – studios, labels and venues being scarce – and with few of the cross water big independent acts venturing over the Irish sea to play Dublin in the early 80s, it was an isolated place where due to its intimate size the more traditional rock bands nestled in close proximity to the few electronic acts. News travelled through a small scene via fanzines such as the influential Vox, which was associated with Stano publishing his poetry and releasing his debut 45 « Room », the Peel & Fanning shows of course and the newly established Freebird records.

Eschewing both live performance and the spotlight for studio collaborations he worked with a number of Irish musicians - Roger Doyle, Michael O Shea, Daniel Figgis, My Bloody Valentine - and following the debut on local rock label Scoff records he signed to German experimental label Dossier where a further two LPs – 1986’s The Protagonist 28 Nein and Daphne Will Be Born Again the following year - were released. Signing to U2’s Mother records, he released their first Long player “Only” on the label which garnered praise from the UK music press including LP of the week in The Guardian. The final LP of this anthology featuring collaborations with Colm O'Coisoig of My Bloody Valentine "Wreckage" was released on Independent label Hue Records in 1994.

Belgium based Luminance continues to build his multiverse and embarks on a journey towards the infinite, meandering through a melt of genre-defiers best likened to darkwave/EBM/ambient/industrial/dark electro. Seeking in his roots and influences, wich include psych, ambient, black metal, krautrock and mixing it with modern shapes of synth music, the artist crafts a extremely intense second full length. This double LP has been slowly evolving in the artist's mind over the last few years and offers 10 truly manifold tracks as saga panels to guide us through the passage of existence.

Repress

Following up on his contribution to the first Five Years Of Tears compilation, Randstad steps up to the bill and delivers his first solo release for Pinkman Records. 6 tracks ranging from twisted industrialized beat trax to brain melting weirdo dance. A great cross-over record for adventurous DJs and fans of the cold, minimal DIY sound of the 80s alike.

Tarotplane offers up a new portal of possibility, entitled Light Self All Others, on the Impatience label. An unshackled mind melt of amorphous Berlin School electronics, glistening guitar tones, snatches of disembodied voices and rumblings of percussive melody, Light Self All Others is an invitation to introspection, turning Tarotplane’s sky seeking kosmiche towards a resonant, contemplative core. Drifting between dreams, the record is infused with an emotional ambiguity that veers from foreboding to catharsis via pointed sonics of often unplaceable origin.

Light Self All Others emerged from a wealth of material collected over the period from 2019-2021. In a self-described “haphazard” process, Tarotplane throws down hundreds of loops, riffs and samples, intuitively collaging disparate nuggets into form which the self-taught guitarist can riff over. Following some heavy-handed post processing, the emergent sound is too busy to be strictly ambient, too zonked to be considered rock, instead resting on a modern psychedelic perch of it’s own somewhere in between.

Light Self All Others seamlessly cycles through ten tracks over the course, each piece constituting a beguiling, valuable piece of a vibrant whole/hole. From opener Pedestrian To Freeze Frame’s gently pulsing pads and soaring lead lines a feeling resembling optimism emerges, while Supermarket Tropicals could be a call to prayer from a utopian future, or equally hold music at the local ketamine clinic. A Fraught Parallel’s hazy urgency seems to foreshadow an imminent demise, cryptic effected samples attempting to get a warning through but thwarted by an engulfing hum and swooping guitar, and Portals Of Possibility’s ritualistic drone is anchored to a gently beating morse code rhythm while the thunder cracks and threatens to capsize the ship. Album closer Paradise Adjacent scrambles the signal one last time, a slo-mo showdown from a sci-fi saloon. With acoustic guitar, an idealist monologue and some fx pedals it closes the curtain with the kind of lonely, disorienting cosmic koan it’ll take a lifetime to answer.

Light Self All Others offers Tarotplane’s most complete work, a thrilling, expanding head trip from a parallel future.

Tarotplane is PJ Dorsey, from Baltimore, Maryland. He’s previously released records on 12th Isle, Lullabies For Insomniacs, Noir Age and VG+.

DIE NEUE ZEIT

Old time? New time!

And of course an exciting time - and thus time for DIE NEUE ZEIT and their eponymous high-speed statement "WIR SIND DIE NEUE ZEIT"!

But who is behind DIE NEUE ZEIT? We simply don't know! And we don't want to know. What we know is that these two daredevils race through their theme tune with sheer intensity - there simply is no stopping them - and you better don't - because when that cow bell gets loose … heaven forbid!

For extra extensive play of "WIR SIND DIE NEUE ZEIT" we strongly advise to make good use of the vocal AND the instrumental version playing both back and forth until all dancers surrender to the rhythms of DIE NEUE ZEIT.

Now tanz' die neue Zeit und geh' in die Knie und klatsch in die Hände, beweg' Deine Hüfte! The new time has come!

New Swiss label Rababoo is proud to present his first release: Marcel de Sie! Oscillating between melodic industrial and shaky psychedelic music, Mr. de Sie overcomes his first 3 tracks with a static approach of electronic low drifts – in that sense, we decided to call it a soundtrack “to schuss'', in dedication to all our skiing friends from here and there. The First 2 tracks, “Filter Seq'' and “Mezzo FM'' pitch the tone of the EP and are built as explorations of dance floor narratives, with the purpose to generate a wave state of mind through a real sound experience. While the first track is a relentless technoïd filter-driven smasher which immediately bleeps your mind and floods it with sound, the second track unleashes a cascade of sounds that bring any lost hiker and drive him into a shamanic waltz in the mountain.

The Title track “Poetic Frame” is a direct response to these soundscapes, where howling disturbing synths are at times chimera that fractures the pattern and calls you back into reality.

For his 1st release, Marcel de Sie is joined by Greek producer Anatolian Weapons (Dark Entries) and Belgian’s Victor de Roo (Stroom) for the remixes. Each one delivers a proper interpretation of the 3rd track of the EP « Poetic Frame ». While Anatolian Weapons explore a tribal trance sonic journey that can drive a dervish dancer crazy, De Roo makes use of his distinguishable style and creates the most abstracted version of this track. Not scared to apply kind of a trap snare ratcheting, he brings us to a space urban take.

Put your seatbelt on, seasons are not existing for long anymore.

»C'est Disco« was the first studio album by the Italian band Rats. It was released in 1981 by Italian Records and is a record strongly inspired by the wave and dark scene of that period. The band's line-up featured vocalist Claudia Lloyd on vocals, and on guitar the only member present in the more famous version active in the late '80s and '90s, Wilko Zanni, who in the next album would take Claudia Lloyd's place on vocals.

»Obsessions« is clearly a cult single of the era and one of their Neon's personal highlights. The band recorded the 4 track live in April 1982 and then reprocessed the take at Kindergarten Studio. The twelve inch was then released on the highly influential indie label Materiali Sonori. Neon is still considered as a legend of the Italian new-wave scene, one of the leading figure of the Florence underground movement that spread between the late '70s and the early' 80s.

Hailing from Barcelona, Silvia Konstance and Viktor L.Crux (a collaborator of Nurse With Wound and J.Arbeit from Einstürzende Neubauten) developed during the last years a unique music style recognized as "Tribal Wave".

Mixing synth bassline arpeggios and live percussions, noises and congas, industrialism and tribalism, Italian and Spanish, Dame Area are running across the same path and breathing the same air of the EBM/Industrial driven Diseño Corbusier or the drum compositions of Roberto De Simone.

Starting to play live and releasing their music in 2018 for their own label and venue Maja Roja (with the support of fans like Julian Cope and Yamatsuka Eye), their incessant touring schedule has already seen them play all over Europe in the past couple of years. Since 2019 they also play live as a trio with Jesse Webb from Gnod/Anthroprophh at the drums/percussion.

Melody As Truth is proud to announce ‘There Up, Behind the Moon’, a collaborative album from Romanian musician Ana Stamp and Jonny Nash. For this collaboration, the pair spent over two years researching, arranging and recording Romanian folklore songs, aiming to give new context to these traditional, forgotten melodies.Throughout the album Ana’s vocals sit in delicate balance with Nash’s signature minimalist arrangements, accompanied with cimbalom, piano, double bass and guitar.

‘Bright Girl’, ‘For You I Am Missing’, ‘On a Mountain Realm’, ‘Sacred Conversations’, ‘Noble Tree’ are arrangements from traditional Romanian “star songs” and carols, usually sung in connection to various rituals that take place throughout the year. ‘Clouds Passing By’ is a cover of a traditional song, covered by Oșoianu Sisters.

In addition the album contains two classical piano compositions by Romanian composer Sigismund Toduță’, ’Upwards’ and ‘There Up, Behind The Moon’ to complete the atmosphere. Ana’s contemplative, thoughtfully paced re-interpretation and performance of these pieces reflects feelings of waiting and longing over time.

In describing her first album ‘There Up, Behind The Moon, Ana says “it represents an important element of my connection with Romanian folklore and the country landscape that encompasses many feelings, ranging from longing to joy or melancholy at times. Rituals and traditions are part of our roots that we take with us wherever we go.”

RECOMMENDED
As the title suggests, this is the third instalment in the Err Rec Library series. Following on from Urban Spaces (Vol.1), and Science & Technology (Vol.2), part three is themed around wildlife and nature, although that might lead some down the wrong garden path. Less bird noises and gentle wind noises floating on an ambient dreamscape, more arpeggiation saturated in an air of mystery. Half the arrangements here could have soundtracked an episode of The Twilight Zone, but crucially all sound human, or at least of this world, rather than some other.

As per the other outings in this series, all arrangements are original, and call on some esteemed and experienced composers to realise grandiose ideas. Production involves analogue synthesisers, electric instruments and acoustic alike, with the overall result being a captivating oddity that can't help but inspire you to consider the wonders of this strange, beguiling life.

10 Track LP - Japanese multi-instrumentalist Masahiro Takahashi's latest album, Flowering Tree, Distant Moon, is a meditation on seasons and distance. Recorded in isolation at his temporary home studio in Toronto, following the coldest winter he’d experienced to date, this is a collection of hushed, lush color wheel electronic vignettes.

Flowering Tree, Distant Moon was created using an array of instruments including software synthesizers, granular samplers and a shruti box. The original Not Not Fun cassette run sold out quickly and this Telephone Explosion re-release will be Takahashi's first official vinyl offering.

The songs shimmer and sway, unspooling in sparkling arcs and alternating between reverie and lullaby. Inspired by blooming apple trees, gagaku music, the nostalgia of immigrants and longing for home, Flowering Tree, Distant Moon moves from soothing to surreal, a swirl of quiet melody and imagined landscapes, as transportive for its listeners as its maker.

A project based variously in the Midwest, the Bay Area, and currently Nashville, Stacian has produced two full length LP’s, a smattering of EP’s, including the very recent “X2020” EP (Death Decay Magic, 2020) and now FRACTAL ID: an album that deconstructs and expands upon the cold-wave refinements and dystopian soundscapes of its predecessors “Songs for Cadets” (Moniker, 2012) and “Person L” (Night School, 2017).

Stacian is a longtime vehicle for dance floor alchemist, electronic artist, and producer Dania Luck, who delivers for Chicago’s CLEAR a collection that synthesizes a wide breadth of influences; from varying strains of minimal wave, to the darker baroque flourishes of German new-wave and post-industrial— all while scavenging the displaced futurism of early analog electronic music.

From the glam-spattered invocation of “Dance With Me” to the frenzied snare-hits of “Read Me”, to the post-industrial stomp of “We Are War”; FRACTAL ID unfolds like a map of hypnagogic states. By the time we reach “The Well” and “Idea of Home” a trapdoor in the dance floor has opened to an otherworldly abyss, where pulsating analog beats materialize, and glimmering arpeggiations illuminate the icy well of our shared technological isolation.

Stacian’s FRACTAL ID is a propulsive and perilous journey to the depths, of dynamic rhythmic modulations and expansive sonic textures; a lone ray of light that bounces and refracts along the cavernous sub-levels of the club floor.

Tsampikos Fronas aka June takes a departure from his dance orientated earlier work. Recorded between 2018 and 2020, Window of Time sees the Berlin-based producer explore sparser arrangements than his previous releases.

The record unravels like a dystopian cyberpunk novel, something akin to William Gibson’s Neuromancer. Both the title track and ‘Stratagem / Predator’ create an increasing tension that builds through repetitive sequences. The arpeggiated synths on ‘Year 2092’ evoke images of sprawling metropolitan city scapes, while the claustrophobic mood of ‘The Master of Electricity’, the first track written for the album, wouldn’t go amiss on a soundtrack to a sci-fi thriller like Blade Runner.

Created using modular synthesizers, analog sequencers and analog polyphonic synths, Window of Time eschews melody in favour of cold, pulsating rhythms. Combined with haunting choral toplines and minimalistic flourishes, such as those on album closer ‘Elegy’, June invites the listener on a free dive into their subconscious; to navigate boundless, unexplored territories.

Paralelo is the solo project of Raul Q. de Orte (also member of Wind Atlas). Since his early dark wave and synth pop recordings he has evolved with strong personality to his own style that could be redefined as cold electronic amidst anxious pop. His last tape "Synth Protesta" can be consider as a pure underrated gem of the spanish synth wave. Retro and contemporary at the same time, Raul sings against the modern reality demanding explanations to the world.

This new record "Iberromance" continues the essence of "Corazón Roto Por Siempre y Orgulloso", but here we have a wandering soul that returns defeated and hassled from a lost war. A beauty and crystalline piece of work.

The Army Of God are on the march. Glorious slow-mo dark wave vibes on this debut cut, Salvation. The original is followed by a re-structured dub version. Spaventi D’Azzuro turns in a sophisticated re-make all over the flip – simultaneously exposing his Italian roots and the era he grew up in. Repress!

Periphylla the sub-label of Diffuse Reality releases its first vinyl reference with an album by the duo I Tpame I Tvrame,formed by Franc Kurti, from Albania, and Dina Hajrullahu, from Kosovo. The duo’s style is a mixture of darkwave, industrial and other post-punk genres, and they have a sound of their own, led by Dina’s mystical voice and the wide range of sound they possess.

Sung in the language of the in-between-worlds, diasporic human snacks are vibrating their sonic manipulations in tribute to the lonely & oblivious Mr. Naster.

Pulses interpreted and expressed by Nushin Naini on fried farsi-like vocals & bass. Nicolini on drums, sax and miscellaneous objects.

RED/YELLOW MARBLED Vinyl

Internationally revered, multi-faceted artist Arnaud Rebotini arrives on Veyl with the new EP, 'New Territory'. While venturing into a wide array of musical genres and sonic realms, the release is still unmistakably Rebotini, fueled by infectious electro-body grooves and hypnotizing vocals.
From the utterly addictive, pulse pounding allure of “Special A” to the more industrial techno strains of 'A Noise Rose', Rebotini delivers a myriad of interconnected tracks which traverse fresh auditory landscapes but maintain a common circuitry. The poignant, anthemic lyrics of 'No More Love (No More Hate)' resonates loud and clear while the throbbing, Giallo flaire of 'Italian Sex Drive' sends shivers down the spine.
'The Pale Eastern Christ' injects a haunting atmospheric mood while the title track is irresistible ebmwave that falls perfectly in between the lines for an indelible sound that only the French producer can conjure. Rebotini’s work continues to shatter boundaries and fuse genres while essentially pioneering a category all of his own. 'New Territory' furthers the legend and keeps us begging for more.

Randstad is the production and DJ moniker of dutch multimedia artist Thomas van Linge, co-founder of the record labels BAKK and Rubber and freshly relocated to Berlin. After first hearing his rhythmic drum
workout on ‘Metalloid’, his contribution for this year’s ‘Still Life’ compilation, we’re glad to have tapped his second EP ‘These Serpents’ for Veyl. Randstad is pushing his idea across the spectrum of industrialized beat music for this outright roaring 6-tracker ideal to tear down clubs when they finally re-open in 2036.

This is Lost Soul Enterprises big 15th release on wax, a tidy compilation of off-kilter dance floor cuts and misfit synthpunk anthems.

Side A commences with the gothic, neon-soaked Miami bass of ALONZO's "Cruising with Pap," featuring sinister verses delivered by a shadowy syrupsipping secret guest vocalist. Up next is bucking bronco NICK KLEIN's slow-mo industrial headbanger "Posture Test. The sonic equivalent of a sweat-soaked concrete floor, it lurches along at its own mechanical pace amid the metallic hiss and howl. Lastly, wild synth lines and ethereal dubbed-out samples dart in and out over a tough, punchy rhythmic foundation in NAEEM's "TLX," an android's sci-fi electro vision gone haywire.

On the B side, HEIDI SABERTOOTH's "Was It You" launches us deep into chugging acidic territory, combining enigmatic spoken vocals and a psychedelic, slowly evolving SH-101 line over a persuasive groove. Like a slap in the face after that comes raucous synth-punk powerhouse SSPS with "Paradise Lozt," raw as fuck, chanting a litany of dystopian tales atop pumping drums and a wash of demented organ-like synth stabs. Finally we close with the short but powerful "New Vape City" by the nomadic DOUCE ANGOISSE - an absolute earworm, a doleful coldwave ballad whose lush production plays perfect counterpoint to the icy, deadpan sentiments within.

“Humblekids” is the first studio album by Fiasko Leitmotiv. This work is a journey in multiple dimensions of music and narrative, and even if its deep roots are certainly electronic, the listener will land in different atmospheres, different genres mixed together in new keys, with new meanings, all in a post punk environment. from a narrative point of view, “Humblekids” presents two main styles, one metaphisical and one surrealistic, and somehow the second seems to carry the first one in a mix of tragedy and irony. “Hanako” and “Balls” , the two singles from the album, underline the presence of theese two different but coexisting approaches,tied together in a necessarily sense, like darkness and light , day and night.

Mesmerizing electronic music with a bit of EBM echoes, including a stunning remix by Broken English Club.

Grey Marbled Vinyl

The year is 1981. The Kiel-based PostPunk / Wave underground outfit NO MORE releases their second ever single „Suicide Commando“ and their world changes forever. Well, not only their world – THE world.
What began as an independently published 7“ single became a cult classic, a genre defining – and defying – song, an all-time dancefloor favorite of many, a timeless signature piece that escaped its original realm of PostPunk x Wave x Indie x Alternative to also become engrainedin the DNA of modern electronic dancefloor culture most prominently in the beloved late 90s permutation presented by DJ Hell which became a classic in its own right. Now the year is 2021. Four decades have passed and NO MORE's „Suicide Commando“ is
back once again - well... the song actually never left! -, this time harking back to the very beginning, the original vibe and the original format.Remastered and re-released with the original tracklisting and paying homage to the original artwork „Suicide Commando“ will be available in 7“ format for the first time since 1981. And staying true to the underground blueprint this 40th anniversary re-release edition once again is put out on the circuit through a small independent label: the Intrauterin Recordings offspring El Caballo Semental which also released NO MORE's „123456789 *baze.djunkiii & Herr Brandt Dream A NuDream Remix“ as a limited to 200 copies one-sided, colored whitelabel 7“ edition in 2019.

The music by Yan Kruau & Michele Ottini was first released in 2017 on 60 tapes only. Subject To Restrictions Discs makes them available on vinyl for the first time. Very raw, somewhere between darkwave and electro with soundtrack elements, the 6 tracks on “L’ultimo Di Noi” explore a yet not so common musical world. This release is limited to 200 copies.

Pink Vinyl
Minimal Wave presents West View, a double LP of rare demos and newly remastered classics by UK duo Vicious Pink. Vicious Pink was an electrifying synth-pop duo formed by Josephine Warden and Brian Moss, who met in a smokey Leeds nightclub in 1981. The pair formed their band Vicious Pink Phenomena and soon after went on to provide gloriously off-kilter backing vocals for their friends, Soft Cell, completely unrehearsed. Later, they dropped Phenomena to simplify their name. Between 1982 and 1986, they released seven singles that all reached the UK dance charts, despite the fact that their ambitions never lay in commercial success. To this day, their music remains artful, catchy, and provocative.

West View compiles material from their early days together, featuring previously unreleased demos as well as newly remastered classics like Cccan’t You See and My Private Tokyo. The double LP is housed in a glossy heavyweight sleeve, accompanied by a 12-page LP-sized booklet featuring the duo’s entire ‘how it happened’ story, unpublished lyrics, and unpublished photos from those early years. The double LP is limited to 999 copies, half the pressing is on neon pink 160-gram vinyl the other half on 160-gram black vinyl.

Minimal Wave presents West View, a double LP of rare demos and newly remastered classics by UK duo Vicious Pink. Vicious Pink was an electrifying synth-pop duo formed by Josephine Warden and Brian Moss, who met in a smokey Leeds nightclub in 1981. The pair formed their band Vicious Pink Phenomena and soon after went on to provide gloriously off-kilter backing vocals for their friends, Soft Cell, completely unrehearsed. Later, they dropped Phenomena to simplify their name. Between 1982 and 1986, they released seven singles that all reached the UK dance charts, despite the fact that their ambitions never lay in commercial success. To this day, their music remains artful, catchy, and provocative.

West View compiles material from their early days together, featuring previously unreleased demos as well as newly remastered classics like Cccan’t You See and My Private Tokyo. The double LP is housed in a glossy heavyweight sleeve, accompanied by a 12-page LP-sized booklet featuring the duo’s entire ‘how it happened’ story, unpublished lyrics, and unpublished photos from those early years. The double LP is limited to 999 copies, half the pressing is on neon pink 160-gram vinyl the other half on 160-gram black vinyl.

From the same continental cosmic egg that hatched Marc Moulin, Marc Hollander and Belgian synth-fusion combo Placebo comes your favourite new Franco-Flemmish pop discovery!

Placing the microscope over the central motif of the bands onomatopoeic 1978 triptych known as Mein Maschine Ist Schön (My Machine Is Beautiful) this very rare proposed single edit from the group’s third album - backed here with another deeply conceptual sliced of deep orchestral symphonic psych from Schell’s short-lived FF Boom project from the previous year.

This limited edition 7” (500 only) precedes the release of a double LP compilation COS Mix in the summer.

Compact in name but wide-eyed in nature, it’s understandable how the 70’s band known simply as COS has remained trapped in the tight cracks between pop stardom and prog indulgence where other like minded names like CAN, Zao, Neu! And Egg have managed to squeeze into gaps of your record collection. In presenting one of the band’s most infectious and potentially crossover legible tracks on this exclusive user-friendly 45, COS mastermind Daniel Schell not only breaks an unlikely new format for this lesser-known femme-fronted, electro/jazz fusion/prog pop opera/would-be disco cinematic six-piece but also sends a sonic telegram to a new generation of futurist pop aficionados ready to explore the deep realms of his band’s dense, expansive and consistently rewarding catalogue.

Placing the microscope over the central motif of the band’s onomatopoeic 1978 triptych known as Mein Maschine Ist Schön (My Machine Is Beautiful) this very rare proposed single edit from the group’s third album combines the type of warm, brooding, discoid funk and nymphish Morse code vocals that unite fans of Stereolab, Curved Air, Jan Hammer, Emerald Web and Ursula Dudziak not to mention Schell’s own close friends, the aforementioned, Hollander, Moulin and Placebo.

A prog rock 45 might sound like a contradiction in terms but with a band like COS you can only expect them to defy convention. Backed here with another deeply conceptual sliced of deep orchestral symphonic psych from Schell’s short-lived FF Boom project from the previous year this suitably compact introduction to your new favourite COSmonauts provide digestible versions of some of Schell’s finest moments and clears the decks for future explorations of a wider musical universe waiting to be explored. Turn on this beautiful machine and let yourself melt into the COSmix.

What Plus instruments? The title implies the secondary nature of the tools used to produce the sounds, maybe even of the sounds themselves. The means of making sound are not important, but the sounds themselves are, but even beyond them there is a force, a grumbling. Maybe best represented by the first sound heard on Plus Instruments “Februauri- April 81”, a sound that is more felt than heard. The grumbling persists throughout the album, not in the same sonic way but things gyrate and repeat until they are mineral and not purely auditory. Using toys, drum machines, and other homemade electronics designed by front person Truus de Groot, the band manages to obscure every song into a hard to maintain mix of No Wave drive, New Wave sheen, and dance music groove. Consisting of Truus, Lee Ranaldo and David Linton, the trio smashes the sound of early 80s New York with the equally as progressive European experimentation of the time. Completely without total contemporaries, Plus instruments make music free of bounds from time, labels, and place. Originally released by Kremlin records, run by Sonic Youth’s future manager Carlos Van Hitfje, Domani Sounds proudly presents Febrauri-April 81' featuring brand new liner notes by Hitfje himself.

Left Ear re-surface with a compilation of music from Italy’s original “homewave” band the ‘Influenza Prods.’. TIP!!!!

Bruno De Angelis and Giovanna Gulinello unwittingly met in London in the late 70’s, after being introduced by a mutual friend. Both Bruno and Giovanna arrived with varying ambitions. Giovanna wanted to learn English or be a painter, while Bruno found work at the Royal Post Office, which he found testing.

It wasn’t until Bruno rescued Giovanna from an awkward date that the pair became a couple. At the time, music was just something they did for fun. Bruno already had an acoustic guitar and G bought a bass. Those were the days when you could start a new band, whether you could play or not, and new independent labels were springing up. Rough Trade Records was literally around the corner.

In 1981 the pair moved back to Italy and found an apartment in Rome. It’s here that they began to focus on their music and where they started ‘recording’ their tracks. First, they would record the rhythm, maybe add the Gigster (the name of their “cheap drum machine”), the bass, and then, as they made a copy of the first cassette onto a second cassette they would add guitar, more synth, or both at the same time. After that, it was not unusual to copy from the second cassette back into the first cassette adding even more “stuff”.

As with many artists during the early 80’s, the Influenza Prods’ sound was the direct result of the accessibility of emerging electronic instruments and the recording equipment available to them. The duo was resourceful and inventive, acquiring new equipment as resources allowed. They recorded dialogue from British Soap Operas on their TV set, which were later added to their tracks, while further making use of their family’s cutlery sets, which were used to fill in certain percussion sections

The duo’s homespun recordings found a web of admirers in the unofficial distribution of tape trading and mail-art scenes. Despite the DIY ethos and the fact that most tapes were handmade, the Influenza Prods managed to ‘release’ three tapes which comprised of the Greatest Tits (1983), Cheek-A-Bomba (1984) and Quasi Solo (1985).
Bruno and Giovanna were sadly subjected to serious family problems, including the loss of loved ones in their lives and eventually parted ways, concluding the Influenza Prods. However, to this day they remain close friends who keep in touch regularly.

limited press, be fast... order, to secure your copy!!

Repress

Art Teachers goes deep into modern sounds with its delightfull ambiance accompagnied by
freaky "glurps" vocals. Fuzzy connection between (US) Motor City & Stuttgart (EU) amplified by dark
synth lines and the mechanics of new wave in full effect! Ltd - 250 copies.

Russian producers Namesis and Sunko, show us their origins with this album. Where we can find a very marked roots between synthwave, Ebm and coldwave.
Voices that make you shudder from the depths of your being.
It also has three remixes that perfectly capture the matrix to take it to the next level, each remixer in the field that feels more comfortable.
On the Knees is an album full of power, strength and grit.

Detlef Weinrich (Tolouse Low Trax) and pals as cult Dusseldorf electronic group, Kreidler return with another spellbinding full-length. Industrial, krautrock, post-punk, continental pop instrumentals and experimental club touches.