Pop & Rock News

Trystero comprises Scottish/Luxembourgish producer Thomas Lea Clarke (aka MR TC) and Low Bat, otherwise known as one half of the formidable duo Jean-Luc. Their debut album, Sfumare e Vedere, was conceived over three days aboard Urban Boat, a 1960s barge transformed into an arts and performance space. Moored along the river just outside of Paris, the duo embarked on a joint residency, discovering their complementary creative energies and a mutual passion for all things strange and psychedelic.

As frontman, Low Bat is a fire-powered poet, his unparalleled stage presence resonating through Trystero's music. The French native and fluent German speaker has a natural flair for languages. For this project, he sings in a combination of Italian and English about love, loss, and class struggle, constructing surreal wordplay about pelicans and puttanesca. Meanwhile, Clarke's drone-lead electronic accompaniment takes its cues from sizzling acid, 1990s snap rhythms, post-punk, krautrock and shoegaze. Firmly rooted in these tripped-out genres, Trystero journeys to entirely new cosmic dimensions.

NTS presents European Primitive Guitar, a compilation of instrumental guitar compositions, mapping out European analogues of the American Primitive Guitar movement, spearheaded by John Fahey in the 1950s. European Primitive Guitar spans works directly influenced by and responding to Fahey’s approach to composition, alongside works by artists that arrived at similar conclusions independently. The music is, at once, both starkly traditional and contemporary. This is no more evident than with the opening song on the compilation, Spanish guitarist Albert Giménez’s 1982 composition Conte Xinès. The song draws on numerous idioms of music - flamenco, jazz, ambient music, and guitar soli - within its shimmering arpeggios, culminating as a decidedly Spanish music that has collected the ephemera of the guitar’s travels before returning home. The compilation also explores wider ideas around experimentalism happening in Europe during the time of this anthology. German composer Hans Reichel not only developed new ways of playing the instrument, but also new ways of building guitars - pushing the boundary of what a guitar could be and how it could sound.

repressed !

Brothers Hom Yu and Jiun Chi returned to Taipei in 2017 after finishing their studies. Since then they began to explore their mutual obsession for Taiwanese occult-inspired art and vintage superstitious imagery, channelling it through music. Mong Tong means many things in Chinese, but the translation they choose to fit their music is “the east-side of dreams”.

Growing up in Taiwan in the 90’s, the brothers listen to 電子琴音樂 which they describe as “relaxing Chinese synth pop” along with video game soundtracks, psychedelic music, doom metal and sound collage/library music. On “Mystery秘神” these inspirations combine with the dark humour of Taiwanese folklore and a love of conspiracy theories to form what they describe as “a psychedelic journey to the east.”

Album Description
Recorded in their home studio in Taipei, “Mystery 秘神” is a psychedelic journey into Taiwanese folklore combined with the 80’s media obsession with the supernatural. It’s a record that manages to combine nostalgia and tradition with humour and an underlying intrinsic earthiness to create something unlike anything else out there.

Nation’s Sub label Kode presents a new project between Chicago’s visionary Traxx and Athens, Greece June Records label mates Tsampikos Fronas & Trenton Chase as External/Internal…a new wave electrabeat collaboration.

This 1st 12” showcases 2 tracks with different energy and emotions drawing musical influence from the early 80s pre-proto sounds of alternative and progressive chemistry and also offbeat rhythms that creates tension of feelings in character and musical arrangements with vocals sung on both productions from Trenton Chase.

A-Side:
Trespass concludes the storm of
emotion, reaching the end.
The need to find long gone harmony
and existence. Coming to peace with
the inner self while taking a self made
path into the kosmos without pushbacks and interruption. Pure melodic freedom

B-Side:
A Conviction of Fantasy is an eruption
of emotions and confusion while trying
to maintain sanity. Avoiding truth and confessing while keeping balance is impossible. Lost in the abyss where
reality and fantasy is hard to perceive.

" CONFUSION AND SIMULATION
feeling of disorientation
a HYPERMODERN hym
For posthuman ontology. "

Berlin-based dark electronic music duo NNHMN – creates moody, dark electronic dance music infected with haunted synth sounds, eerie ambiences and mysterious female vocals. NNHMN have built up a local following and has been appreciated by numerous alternative festival organizers. The night-infused, arps-driven production is undeniably entrancing.

The newest 8-track album titled – Circle Of Doom – mirrors the state of the world we are living in. The album encapsulates eight existential tracks for the modern body music lover – body music – for the contemporary listener that is not necessarily drowned in the faraway past only, who is aware of electronic music genres that are flourishing in the world right now.

Live expect smokey electro-pop, a gloomy but sexy atmosphere, trancey techno, the fever of dance peaks and vocals that might put you into happy hypnosis or nostalgic ecstasy.

New World is the fourth album from Nipaluna (Tasmania) via Meanjin (Brisbane) based artist Scraps. Over the past ten years, Scraps has proven to be one of the biggest unsung heroes in the Australian music underground. Her sound draws links between 80s and 90s synth pop and club music whilst remaining firmly set in the contemporary Australian underground. Her first album since 2016’s highly regarded “TTNIK” - New World takes us deeper into her infectious universe of abstracted wave classics, free form humour and contagious songwriting. These are charming pop songs with a certain indistinguishable glow floating around them. This album sees Scraps distilling what we love about her sound even further to produce one of her most realized albums to date.

If uncertainty was according to Zygmunt Bauman in 1999 one of the conditions characterizing the post-industrial society this is even more true today. We weren’t sure to return to tell you with sounds our vision of things but in the end here we are.

Pries Akis of Shaknis & Egzotikka is a journey in uncertainty, but not the social one, the inner one of relationships and love. It’s a tale of the individualistic vision that feeds on narcissism and super ego to feed itself. Decadence and nostalgic atmospheres but charged with a positive energy imprinted on both sides of a 7″ ready to push you into your introspective leap.

A two-track EP, “Pries Akis” by Shaknis & Egzotikka, is a journey in the uncertainty of relationships and love. It’s a tale of the individualistic vision that feeds on narcissism and super-ego to exist. Decadence and nostalgic atmospheres, charged with positive energy, imprinted on both sides of a 7″ ready to push you into your introspective leap. “Pries Akis” / “In Front of Your Eyes” EP was born between two producers from different backgrounds with similar tastes. Electro producer Shaknis inspired the early ideas of the EP using his analog equipment, creating a solid foundation for Egzotikka. A Cold Wave producer, guitarist, and songwriter formed the identity of this new analog post-punkish-sounding EP.

80’s instruments such as classic Roland drums, Polivox, and Fender guitars were used to create the modern Lo-fi sound filled with lyrics about narcissism, toxic relationships, and super-ego driven by a strong belief in a fucked up society.

This EP was recorded during the spring of 2022 in London, UK, and Šiauliai, Lithuania.

Melbourne auteur Andrew Wilson (Andras, A.R.T. Wilson, Wilson Tanner) soils the 'Australian songbook' with a collection of fragile, private and deranged songs of parrots, pancakes and gelignite amidst the Victorian Gold Rush of 1850s.

Old Gold is filled with fakes and fools, rumbling stomachs and acousmatic terrors - a lonely, self-pitying search evoked by faintly medieval folk music that sounds almost period-perfect but somehow, oddly, wonderfully spoiled.

Gut string guitars, water-logged mandolins, bar room banjos and no-fidelity piano all sound perfectly organic - except they're not. No acoustic instruments were handled in the making of the record, including environmental sounds which were generated during a residency at Melbourne Electronic Sound Studio. The reproduction of familiar sounds via inorganic means situates the record in a moonlit, melancholy hole of its own.

Old Gold was written, played and recorded by Andrew Wilson, and mastered by Mikey Young. Artwork is by Luca Schenardi.

Andrew Wilson has released records as Andras, A.R.T. Wilson, Berko and House Of Dad and he is one half of Wilson Tanner. His work has appeared on labels including Beats In Space, Efficient Space, Growing Bin Records, Public Possession, Dopeness Galore, Mexican Summer and his own Punp imprint.

Melody As Truth present “Melodies In The Sand”, a collection of works from Czech artists Irena and Vojtěch Havlovi.

The husband-and-wife duo began working together in the mid 80’s as part of experimental ensemble Capella Antiqua e Moderna, a unique association of musicians whose repertoire spanned various styles of European classical music.

With an inventive and unorthodox approach to both historical and modern compositional techniques and interpretive procedures, the Havel’s have steadfastly developed a unique and musically autonomous language which continues to expand to this day.

Spanning their early work in Capella Antique e Moderna to recent pieces recorded for Viola De Gamba, ‘Melodies In The Sand’ is presented to the listener with the simple aim of shining a light on these incredible musicians. Their work has within it the ability to penetrate and enrich the innermost corners of a perceptive human soul, a gift which they share with sincerity and humbleness.

Lyckle de Jong’s debut LP ‘bij Annie op bezoek’ captures moments of his encounter with Annie. An elderly lady in her mid 80’s, who has been living in quarantine for almost a decade.

The album has a cinematic feel and inherents several interludes of Annie singing her favourite ‘Schlager’ songs, recorded live in her living room. It feels like entering a different world - Annie’s world…

About fifty years ago, Annie met her husband at The Camera, a movie theatre in Leiden. Both were working there at the time. One day Annie had to get something from the projection-room. It was dark, so she wasn’t able to see much. All of a sudden she felt a hand on hers, but strangely enough, she didn’t startle. She felt something very special, a feeling that has never left her, up to this day. It was the hand of her future husband. Exactly then he told her he loved her and had done so from the very first time he had seen her. This was somewhat remarkable; Annie liked the guy, Seban was his name, but didn’t really know him all that well, moreover she was a couple of years older and he was a Moroccan muslim living in the Netherlands of the 1960s. Nothing terrible, but regrettably the ’60’s was a different time. They still married and moved into a brand-new flat apartment in the Merenwijk in Leiden. A flat and neighbourhood that has since lost its glory. Annie and Seban often vacationed together in a caravan. They went to Morocco together, where Annie met his parents. She converted to Islam, but in her own way. She doesn’t wear a headscarf for example, but did stop eating pork. Annie and Seban were together for just ten years. Though the briefness of this period had nothing to do with their love for each other. This love is still present, despite the fact that Seban passed away years ago. In the living room she has a black-and-white picture showing him sitting next to their German Shepard Camar, on the footballfield down from the apartment. Both of them look proud. Every day Annie looks at it, at the happiest time of her life. “If it were possible, I would take them back immediately.

About You is a set of hazy-haloed pop songs crackling with the flutters of fresh love amidst a mind full of memory flashes. Written in the whirlwind of a hopeful affair, instantly transformed into long distance romance, it’s a head rush of affection with the universe bending blurrily around it — an archive of yearning from a year that rifted warm bodies adrift; an outline of the in-betweens, the familiar and foreign, hopeful promise and heartbreak.

Suzanne Kraft has shaved silver linings from cloud formations and ignited them into crackling flames. It’s a full circle journey that floats on shimmering guitar tones, fluid vocals, and gently persuasive drum tracks chugging towards their destiny while revelling in the unknown. About You is a folding of time and space in album form and stands aloft as Suzanne Kraft’s next big step in fully becoming himself.

Experimental noise album by Variát & Merzbow.
Music by Dmytro Fedorenko & Masami Akita.
Mixed by Masami Akita, Mastering by C-drik.
Artwork by Dmytro Fedorenko, Design by Zavoloka.

J A surfaces on RUBBER with six disorienting wave tracks, reigniting the catalogue after a short hiatus. Crafted by Andrea Noce (Eva Geist, As Longitude) and Jonida Prifti (Acchiappashpirt, Opa Opa), these productions find elegance in their noir aesthetic and sketch-like composition, breathing filmic atmospheres of its creative process and the hedonist self alike. Straying away from the societal drift for efficiency and make belief, this record was produced over a timespan of five years, while shifting between Berlin and Rome. Dancing and loafing, mirrors were splintered and scattered shards reflected a new light. Here, Noce her serpentine sense of melody guides uncharted signatures of reverberating syncopated drums, while soundscapes move in and out as apparitions fogging the mind. The poetic spoken-singing of Prifti subdues the tracks, through a linguistic form where Albanian and Italian intertwine, channeling her scientific field into art. Cleverly processed, the vocals take on many shapes, blurring lines between instrumentation and recognition, creating meaning where language ends.

Irgendwo zwischen Planet Punk, Milchstraße Retro-Pop, Mikrokosmos New Wave und Hinterwelt Thüringen befindet sich das Universum MAMORÉ. Es sendet schrille Signale aus, wird Tag und Nacht von einer rosaroten Sonne beleuchtet. MAMORÉ ist ein Ort, an dem alles erlaubt ist: Zu feierlichen Synth-Melodien und schroffen Rockgitarren wird simultan ruppiger Pogo, romantischer Paartanz und Bowie-esker Hüftschwung praktiziert. Drama und Behaglichkeit, Anachronismus und Innovation, Herzschmerz und Augenzwinkern aggregieren hier zu einem blumigen Gefühlsgewirr. Im Zentrum des Treibens: Fünf in extravagante Outfits aus der Vintage-Kleiderkiste gewandete junge Männer, die hin und wieder selbst nicht so ganz fassen können, was um sie passiert.

Jetzt, im Dezember 2023, legen MAMORÉ endlich ihren langersehnten ersten, nach dem Bandnamen betitelten Langspieler vor. »MAMORÉ« ist eine wilde Experience, ein heißkaltes Wechselbad — hier tippelnd-euphorisch, konsonant und tanzbar, da abgründig-absurd, schnell und kalt. Was alle zehn Anspielstationen eint, ist ihre nonchalante Eingängigkeit: MAMORÉ haben Hits gemacht, die eigentlich gar keine sein wollen, sich keineswegs anbiedern und trotzdem im Ohr bleiben. In manchen Momenten erinnert ihr Album an die ersten Veröffentlichungen der Band Abwärts, hin und wieder scheinen die frühen Die Ärzte durchzuschimmern — und doch ist »MAMORÉ« in seiner Attitüde stets eigenwillig, modern und neu. Der in neuer Bandbesetzung re- ecordete, von hysterischen Klangmustern gespickte Opener »Voll im Visier« signalisiert direkt, wo die Reise hingeht: »MAMORÉ« piepst, knallt und explodiert fortwährend, klingt dabei voll und gravitätisch.

Im bittersüß-verträumten »Du fehlst« crashen harte Brüche in sanfte Schlager-Ästhetik, in »Ich Sehe Dich« treffen raue Gitarrenriffs auf NDW-typisches Synthie-Spiel. Die Neuauflagen der 2021 veröffentlichten Stücke »Meine Liebe Nicht« und »S.O.S« gehen der von seichtem Piano-Spiel eingeläuteten Dark-Wave-Schnulze »Pfeil Ins Herz« voraus. Die bereits erschienene Single »Wolke 7« baut in den Parts kitzelnde Spannung auf, um in Richtung Hook wie ein Vulkan auszubrechen — und auch die darauffolgende Punk-Hymne »Melancholie«, ein Feature mit NNDW-Sternchen Gwen Dolyn, schraubt sich in ihrer Dynamik von Sekunde zu Sekunde weiter hoch. Im Zuge vom hallig-darken, Gitarren-getragenen »Die Hatz« erreicht das Rabbit Hole »MAMORÉ« seinen tiefsten Winkel, bevor das abschließende »Keine Bewegung« dort anknüpft, wo die LP begonnen hat: Auf der klammen Tanzfläche einer Diskothek. »MAMORÉ« kreist inhaltlich stetig um das Thema Zweisamkeit — inmitten von Liebeskummer und Euphorie, gebrochenen Herzen und kochendem Blut, »Rennen gegen Einsamkeit«, Nervendoktor und Oktobertristesse liefert das Album ein geballtes ABC der Gefühlsausbrüche.

Artificial Dance is very happy to announce the full archival compilation of work by Richard Zeilstra A.K.A. Genetic Factor. Recorded in different parts of the world, at different times - we hope this will give the world a glimmer of the mind of Genetic Factor. A mind that has been behind a variety of very influential operations during the years; including a string of radio programmes (Radionome & Spleen a.o.), working at Boudisque and running Barcelona’s first compact disc store!

A double disc affair housed in a deluxe gatefold sleeve that is only bleak in comparison with the musics featured on the discs. With songs taken from a wealth of recordings (and we’re only touching the surface!) that were safely locked in the Lab’s vaults.

The songs featured are not an attempt of making a coherent ‘album’ but much more trials of interpretation of his world into ‘music’. His strong believe in non-musicianship makes it more thrilling than conventional musics, yet these recordings are not result of amateurism - they form a consistent reality of what excites him. Take a dive in the realm of the Genetic Factor…

Bristol’s four-piece outfit Quade's debut album.

The first single ‘Of The Source’ will be released 4th October, alongside the album announce.
‘Of The Source’ opens in familiar territory for Quade, with distant drones and searching violin, before breaking down into perhaps the album’s most experimental track.

‘Nacre’ is the culmination of three years of work from the band, the blueprints of their songwriting and sound firmly established in the sprawling, haunting and yet hopeful record. Traipsing between gothic expansiveness and cosmic psychedelia, the record cannot be pinned down into one recognisable place. By the album’s close, the listener may be left wondering whether it was all a memory or a dream.

The recording and production of the record was collaborative, with the band drawing upon the services of Jack Ogbourne and Larry ‘Bruce’ McCarthy - two divergent pillars of Bristol’s music community - for engineering and mixing respectively.

This new 2LP version of the album has been newly remastered in 2023 by Barry Grint and comes supplemented with the single A and B sides from the 1981 / 1982 era, including ‘Memorabilia’, ‘A Man Can Get Lost’, ’Torch’ and ‘What!’. Deluxe gatefold version of the album includes full song lyrics plus essay by Adrian Thrills based on new interviews with Marc Almond and Dave Ball.

Ltd Edition! Das Darkwave Elektronik-Duo BOY HARSHER aus Northampton, Massachusetts veröffentlichen nochmals ihre Katalog-Klassiker in verschiedenen Farben!

Due to the great demand we release another „The Dark Side Of Italo Disco“ vinyl. This Italo Disco vinyl series is synonymous with deep, mystical, melancholic songs. Harder and darker beats make these songs selected by Flemming Dalum very special titles of the Italo Disco scene.

10TH ANNIVERSARY LIMITED EDITION CLEAR VINYL

Legendary Dublin punk band formed in November 1978 by Maurice Foley (guitar/vocals), which had a number of iterations before disbanding in 1981. The Threat built up a following in Dublin and maintained a heavy reputation through the 1979 and 1980. Playing the legendary Dandelion on a couple of occasions towards the end of 1979 and became friendly with members of the Virgin Prunes and U2. Stano, another friend of the band, bought a synthesizer, purely as a sound generator, and joined them. As a nonmusician, his synth added noise and texture to the band's sound and brought out their experimental side.

This "Lullaby in C" / "High Cost of Living" - their sole single - recorded in 1980 with Irish traditional musician Donal Lunny producing, providing his services for free. Lunny went on tour with Planxty before the recordings were completed. Impatient to get the single out, the band completed the work themselves with cover art from Dave Clifford of Vox fanzine. Self-financed, self-released and distributed by the band around Dublin with a few making it over the sea to Rough Trade. A second single was recorded in 1981 with the Virgin Prunes Danny Figgis producing but the mastertapes are lost to the midst of time. We've added a demo from Stano recorded in 1979.

In 2022, Osàre! Editions founder Elena Colombi approached artists and musicians with a prompt: Every body, everyone needs love to flourish. In her book The Will to Change, the eminent author and social activist, Bell Hooks, invites men to excavate their innermost selves, challenging the way that patriarchal society limits their capacity for intimacy, tenderness, care and emotion. As hooks lays out, feminist thought and work requires the collective participation of all genders in order to realise a liberated world. How can we imagine cross-gender solidarity through music and art? And how can we tell sonic stories that facilitate our full potential as desiring beings? These are the questions that The Male Body Will Be Next starts out from.

The title of the record draws connections between hooks' writing, a film by Rebecca Salvadori and Peter de Potter's stunning photo series of the same name. In de Potter and Salvadori's depictions, men's bodies appear as vulnerable, naked and exposed.

Divided into two parts, the first instalment of The Male Body Will Be Next hinges on colliding energies – the melding of club dance floors and haunting ambient textures, agile techno and noisy experimentation.

'The sun on my skin… it’s so warm and gentle,’ speak-sings Olivia Salvadori on ‘Su Di Te M’Infrango’, visualising utopias. Laurel Halo crafts a dreamscape spun from golden threads of synth and strings. Pensive and reflective, Ben Bertrand’s bass clarinet roams searchingly, its piercing tonality full of longing. Yet, in between these lucid, cinematic passages and spoken word, The Male Body Will Be Next finds space to dance together. Moving in fervent, rhythmic patterns, Sepehr’s ‘Divooneh’ pivots between tension and release. Filmmaker unleashes a wave of energy and The Spy delivers a potent take on vintage electro, the track title hinting at the double-bind of gendered expectations. Propelled between these eclectic styles, the record encapsulates the full spectrum of sonic expression.

Welcome to the magenta world of Emil Valev. During the late 1980s and 90s, at the helm of Violetov General, he pioneered a darkly melancholic, avant-garde formulation of the new wave sound. The band enjoyed international acclaim, spending time in the underground scenes of Bulgaria, Berlin and Slovakia. Since then, Valev has gone on to refine his hypnotically idiosyncratic style with a number of solo releases and appearances at electronic music festivals. Now, Osàre! is honoured to present Gentle Reactor. Collecting together twenty-five years of remastered and more recent material, the album is powered by the sensual fission of harsh textures, metronomic beats and playful excess.

Label boss Elena Colombi initially received over eighty songs from Valev, two of which appeared on the compilations Il Monte Analogo (2021) and Il Lupo Della Steppa (2020) respectively. But it was clear that a full album dedicated to Violetov General needed to be in the works. The pair spent two years combing through recordings, selecting the tracks that would eventually form the double-sided LP. From the locked-groove beat of ‘Valahoveine’ to 'Poliani’s sizzling industrial refrain and the slap-bass finale of 'Black Cat', Gentle Reactor is a wild ride.

The record takes the darkwave genre on a cosmic journey across the realms of prog rock, noise, Eastern European folk-tinged melodies, ritualistic percussion and a patchwork of vocal breakdowns. Driven by an intuitive compositional process and slick production, the retrospective is a fascinating slice of experimental music history that's anything but backwards facing.

DEVO’s Hardcore documents the group’s beginning as pre-punk outcasts in the fertile Akron, Ohio, underground rock scene. Spawned at the nearby college of Kent State, site of the infamous May 4 Massacre, DEVO formed as a conceptual art project armed with the radical philosophy of de-evolution. Brothers Mothersbaugh (Mark, Bob and Jim) and Brothers Casale (Jerry and Bob) along with drummer Alan Myers soon whipped up an otherworldly brand of “devolved blues” that could hold its own alongside the beatnik groove of 15-60-75 (a.k.a. The Numbers Band) or the primal rock poetry of The Bizarros. Recorded on various four-track machines and in tiny studios, basements and garages between 1974-1977, Hardcore reveals their strikingly clear vision: rock ’n’ roll stripped bare of its collective cool and jerked back into propaganda fit for post-modern man. It’s no surprise that these transmissions would soon catch the eye and ear of Brian Eno, who later produced their landmark 1978 debut album. Noisy synth, strangled guitar chops and a primitive rhythmic thud power the early DEVO sound. Threaded beneath it all are lyrical themes of post-McCarthy paranoia, middle-class ephemera and DEVO’s long-running topic of choice: sex, or lack thereof. Few moments in pop music history can match the grinding, pent-up energy of “Mongoloid” and the spastic bounce and sputter of “Jocko Homo” (two anthems presented in their earlier and superior versions here). Cult favorites like “Mechanical Man” and “Auto-Modown” make Volume 1 essential listening. Superior Viaduct and Booji Boy Records are proud to present DEVO’s Hardcore to a new generation of spuds, lovingly packaged with Moshe Brakha’s stunning cover photography. As David Bowie said in 1977, DEVO is indeed “the band of the future.”

Re-issue for the iconic post-punk band coming all the way from Watford. The album showcases a collection of unreleased recordings – mostly conceived between 1981 and 1983 – and it is a right companion to their two studio masterpiece: "Epic Garden Music" and "Feeding The Flames".

“Nobody Move!”, so says Philippe Doray and his Asociaux Associés (the Antisocial Associates)! Having dynamited the end of the 70s with two radical albums – Ramasse-Miettes Nucléaires in 1976 & Nouveaux Modes Industriels in 1978, both reissued by Souffle Continu – Doray still hadn’t finished singing. Throughout the next decade he began his Composant compositeur which would document the “second period”, as he calls it, of his Asociaux Associés.

The record includes new schizo-electro songs which make the most of his association with Laurence Garcette, who also plays all sorts of keyboards. A prolongation of the first period of the Asociaux Associés, the duo updates Doray’s poetry: in reaction to the current overcast atmosphere, here are some hallucinatory fantasies to the rhythm of an infernal circle dance (« Le petit géant ») or an ecstatic waltz (“Bombés fluo”) or even coded messages stuffed into bottles and thrown into space (“Secoue le flipeur”, “Choc d’amour”).

On the bonus CD there are further iconoclastic examples: rare recordings (unpublished or even “inaudible”) of the Asociaux Associés but also by Crash, a duo that Doray formed with Thierry Müller (Ilitch, Ruth). At the controls of their experiment- bending machine the musicians multiply the possibilities: peripheral rock, arias in orbit, broken swing, industrial mantras and other joyful falsities. Enough to make you lose your mind? No... as Philippe Doray promised: it is the “jackpot qui frissonne” (the shivering jackpot) which is there to excite

Cititrax present two new releases by Cosmetics, a Vancouver-based synth wave duo formed by Nic Emm and Aja Emma in 2008. Cosmetics reappeared in 2022 after having been relatively quiet since its very memorable releases on Captured Tracks in 2010. In 2023, the band returns with a phenomenal full-length LP entitled ‘Baby’ and a 7” single entitled Pillow Talk / Tell Me (Alternate Versions). Their music is sultry, minimalist, and atmospheric, backed by lush analog synths and sparse drum machines. Aja’s seductive vocals cut through the perfectly crafted dark synthpop forming a filmlike narrative that draws us in. The ‘Baby’ LP will have you listening on repeat and the single featuring alternate versions of two songs from the album will bring you from your bedroom listening to the dance floor. Cosmetics continue the lineage of Minimal Wave into the present day.

The Pillow Talk / Tell Me 7” is pressed on black vinyl and presented in a 6-panel fold-over sleeve.

Originally released in 2014, now on the band's own Guruguru Brain imprint for the first time.

"Kikagaku Moyo here sound anything but lost, their child-like wonder manifested in a confident, courageous exploration of sound. Labels – psychedelic, folk, prog-rock, psychedelic-folk-mixed-with-prog-rock – do little to accurately reflect the spectrum of influences on display, let alone the more impactful realization of completeness in Kikagaku Moyo’s songs."

Big Daddy are Simon Crab and Fritz Catlin - Two luminaries who left deep marks in the universe of Offen with their bands (Bourbonese Qualk, 23 Skidoo) and musicianship in Current 93 and Laibach to name a few.
Their debut “Bomb Culture” couldn’t have arrived at the better moment. Full of knowledge, wit, deepness and skills, it’s an album that will be what you want it to be. Enjoy!

Simon Crab: rhythms, electronics, synthesisers, programming.
Friz Catlin: drums, percussion, bass, guitar, melodica.

All music written, recorded and produced by Simon Crab and Fritz Catlin at Shoretone Studios, Hastings, England 2021–2. ℗&© Big Daddy 2022.

Abstracke presents Cristov's debut LP. The Hamburg-based artist and designer Christoph Lohse delivers an amazing record inspired by technology and dystopia. German futuristic electronics, mechanical synths, primal rhythms ... a cold, sometimes industrial sound, balanced with the jazzy acoustic drums and percussions performed by Manuel Chittka.

Influenced by Ike yard, Craig Leon, Monoton, and the German kraut maestros renewed by people like Kreidler, Die Wilde Jagd, Tolouse Low trax...

Colombian producer Faunes Efe known under his moniker Filmmaker, is one of the most productive and vital producers in the EBM, Industrial, Synth-wave and Electro community. He has quickly built a cult following amongst those with an affinity for dystopian electronics drenched in seductive darkness.

After more than 20 records within a 5 year span, Filmmaker keeps running engines with “Machinations”, a mini-album containing 7 cuts that blast a mechanical blend of Electroclash and Minimal Synth. This ride of prominent square waves, robotic beats and detuned atmospheres is born from mainly two instruments: a Syntakt & a processed guitar.

‘Permanent Rain’ is introspective listening. Lean back and let your ears catch a source that moves, breaths, resonates and rises, until a quiet truth swells upon us.
XII captures truth in all its honesty. Sometimes it feels so physical, it’s as if time and elements of nature are peeled of layer after layer.

This record combines songwriting with sonic hypnosis. A rhythmic, esoteric oasis, containing currents of mysticism, yet accompanied by contemporary electronics. Its elements translate to a brew of mutant raga, neofolk and tripped out celtic fantasies.

With part of Dragibus F. de Quengo (Also creator of the Sonic Prpotest Festival), and two of the Ulan Bator musicians you will here get here a Rock'n'rool high time of a kind !

Record comes with a serygraphied sleeve and inserts and dowload codes !

Reissue of this italo disco / darkwave rarity from 1983. Comes with Flemming Dalum remix and Vanzetti & Sacco edit.

Satoshi Suzuki (鈴木慧) described his musical practice perfectly on the OBI strip of his 1987 privately pressed LP - Tokyo Contemporary! consisting of 40% Jazz, 30% Soul, 20% Brazil, and 10% Kayokyoku - a musical mixture not too far off from what is now referred to as City Pop.

However, this archival compilation of Satoshi Suzuki's works presents a perspective of the City Pop sound not from affluent 1980s Japanese bubble economy-era studios and highly paid studio musicians, but from a one-person band making the most of the instruments in their home studio, inspired by musical traditions from around the world.

With notes of city pop, AOR, jazz, soul, bossa, and kayōkyoku - Satoshi Suzuki's intimately recorded pop songs are charming and full of wit, with a seasonal and poetic approach to these musical forms using only a drum machine and an array of digital synthesizers. Sounding a little like Pacific Breeze played on a Casio keyboard and drum machine, Uku Kuut soundtracking a SEGA video game, or the wonderful lo-fi works of Suzuki’s lo-fi homemade pop & jazz contemporaries Ronald Langestraat, Lewis, and Joe Tossini — though most of all, SUZUKI's works show a new and singular perspective of the bubble-era city pop of the Showa period.

Distant Travel Companion (​遠​い​旅​の​同​行​者​) introduces Suzuki's musical works to a wide audience for the first time, featuring remastered songs originally released over three privately pressed LPs from the 1980s, as well as a previously unheard CD from 1993. The original works were released in an impossibly limited edition of 100 copies each - printed and assembled on printing equipment at Suzuki’s company office and scarcely distributed, recording these songs at his home studio in his free time. The compilation's design and accompanying OBI and liner notes are a direct homage to the original releases.

Satoshi SUZUKI is a Japanese keyboardist, singer, songwriter, and music arranger. He is also an author of literature and winner of the "Shin-nihon-bungaku" (New Japanese Literature) Award. He was born in 1958 in Tokyo, Japan.

Top level synth-darkwave band from Germany. For the lovers of Lebanon Hanover, Selofan, Linea Aspera.

Ltd Edition!

Crash und Automation demonstrieren Mullers Beherrschung strenger, industrieller Klangwelten. Muller geht jedoch noch einen Schritt weiter, indem er Club-Elemente wie Nu-Disco-Tendenzen und Vocal-Samples einführt. Auf diese Weise greift er das Thema Körper und Maschine auf, das auch in den visuellen Inhalten der Filme behandelt wird. Crash ist eine Hommage an David Cronenbergs gleichnamigen Film von 1996. Sowohl Ashley als auch Cronenberg erforschen die Erotik von Autounfällen, ein Fetisch, der sowohl mechanisch als auch blutig wirkt. Diese gewalttätige Gegenüberstellung ist die eigentliche Inspiration für Muller. Body and Machine" aus Crash ist eine pulsierende Synthie-Hymne, die sowohl synthetische Echos als auch verspielte Highlights enthält. "Perverse Technology" ist eine groovige und disharmonische Nummer, während "Sharing a Smoke" eine düstere Strenge hat, man kann fast sehen, wie die Hände über Ledersitze gleiten, Glasscherben auf verschwitzte Körper prallen und Küsse mit offenem Mund im Scheinwerferlicht.