Back catalogue: Coldwave/Synth

Review: 7FO's Ryu no Nukegara (meaning "dragon's husk") is a warm, inviting trip through ambient, dub and chill-out soundscapes. The Osaka-based producer blends sparse electronic percussion with dub-style synth bass and pentatonic melodies, while also using steel pan tones that bring an Okinawan or Southeast Asian touch. Fans of Haruomi Hosono and Equiknoxx will find much to love in this record's trans-oceanic textures with sparkling dub processing and thoughtful mixing throughout. A magical record that embodies strength, fluidity and meditative depth.

Review: Cititrax proudly presents the debut LP from Another Body Found here, which is the latest moniker of A// who is well known for his pioneering work as Le Syndicat Electronique. Emerging from the French underground with a dark electro, industrial, minimal synth and wave style, he has a stark and visceral take on raw energy and haunting atmospheres. There are plenty of mechanical, hypnotic beats here with heft bass and hints of dystopian fears. The title track reimagines Bronski Beat's 'Smalltown Boy' and strips it to its emotional core, 'Lost In The Northern Lights' has a cold, urgent sound and 'Murderous Earth' is brilliantly unsettling and melancholic.

Review: James Bernard's 1994 ambient masterpiece Atmospherics is now 30 years old. To mark its anniversary the landmark record has been meticulously remastered and paired with a brand-new, track-by-track reinterpretation by Bernard's longtime friend and collaborator, bvdub. Together, these works span four slabs of wax and offer a profound exploration of ambient soundscapes that honour the original while also presenting some fresh, emotive perspectives. A must-have work for your ambient section.

Review: The Birthday Massacre, hailing from Canada, command a bracing gothic blend of 80s electronica and aggressive guitar work. Formed in 2000 as Imagica, the band is led by vocalist Chibi and guitarists Rainbow and Michael Falcore. They debuted in London, Ontario, before moving to Toronto and rebranding, with the 2002 self-released Nothing and Nowhere inducting us into their horror-comedic sonic aesthetic, drawing on macabre cabaret and Grande-Guignol rock. Though little light but fan speculation has been shed on their new album Pathways, this purple detour has sparked rumours of a fresh direction and stylistic tangent for the band, coming helmed up by the pre-released streamer single 'Sleep Tonight', lighting up oneiric stadia worldwide with their mega-metal shreds and huge electronica arrangements.

Review: This reissue of the 1981 self-titled album from the cult Japanese duo Colored Music is now made available on vinyl for the first time since its original release. This groundbreaking mix of cosmic new wave, avant-garde synth-pop, experimental funk and unconventional disco is wonderfully unique and is reminiscent of David Bowie's Berlin Trilogy with a psychedelic Haruomi Hosono touch. Featuring celebrated musicians like Mansaku Kimura and Shuichi "Ponta" Murakami, Colored Music delivers an unparalleled, otherworldly soundscape that belies it ages.

Review: Greatest Fits is a deep dive into the superb sounds of German avant-garde new wave pioneer Gina X on the cult Dark Entries label. This double LP compilation spans the whole of the bold, boundary-blurring career of Gina X Performance, which came together first in 1978 when singer Gina Kikoine and producer Zeus B set out to create "the absolute union of music, poetry and travesty". With selections take from four of thieves albums, you'll find their signature blend of icy electro, camp theatrics and subversive pop throughout, and it all ranges from the pulsing 'Nice Mover' to the decadent 'No G.D.M.' Greatest Fits is both a musical time capsule and a vital reminder of how far ahead Gina X always was while also serving as a celebration of queer culture and synth-driven hedonism.

Review: Paul Hardcastle's self-titled 1985 debut receives a special reissue for Record Store Day 2025 in celebration of its 40th anniversary. Remastered at AIR Mastering for the occasion, this synth-pop milestone showcases Hardcastle's innovative fusion of electro, jazz-funk and socially conscious themes. It is of course anchored by the chart-topping anti-war anthem '19' but also features standout tracks like 'Just For Money,' 'Rainforest' and 'Don't Waste My Time' featuring Carol Kenyon. The album comes from a key moment in '80s electronic music this reissue reaffirms Hardcastle's enduring influence on it.

Review: Harlem, the Stockholm-based duo, return with an eight-track exploration of dark, pulsating electronics. Drawing on influences ranging from King Tubby's dub to Robert Hood's minimal techno, they craft a sound that defies easy categorisation. Echoing the no wave dissonance of early ESG and the industrial edge of Cabaret Voltaire, they fuse these disparate elements into a potent sonic cocktail. 'Shut Your Body' opens with a muscular intensity reminiscent of Nitzer Ebb, its driving rhythms and gritty textures setting the stage. 'Fantasy Scan' picks up the pace, a dancefloor-ready jam that recalls Underground Resistance's hypnotic grooves. 'Blow By Blow' channels a nihilistic energy, its sparse arrangement and spoken-word vocals evoking the cold wave sounds of Kas Product. The B-side continues the sonic exploration with 'Dummy Up', a track that evokes the frenetic energy of a cult gathering, its electro and body influences recalling the darker side of the 80s underground. 'Sleuth' takes a more introspective turn, its repetitive grind suggesting a relentless search for the unknown. 'Contact High' brings back the seductive energy, its dancefloor-ready rhythms and infectious melodies reminiscent of early Detroit techno. The album closes with 'Wiggle Walker', a melancholic track that suggests a journey into the unknown. Harlem's music is a thrilling ride through a landscape of sonic extremes, a sonic experience that is both exhilarating and unsettling. Visceral but thought-provoking, this is a potent blend of genres and influences that defies expectations.

Review: WRWTFWW Records is back with a third collaboration with Japanese electronic, ambient and synth-pop group Interior. This time they reissue a forgotten 1989 solo gem by band member Daisuke Hinata that very much deserves more spotlight. Tarzanland captures the essence of late-'80s California with sun-soaked kanky? ongaku, minimalistic proto-chillwave and breezy synth melodies all washing over you in delightful fashion. Its lush soundscapes evoke the likes of Steve Winwood and Steely Dan as it is infused with nostalgia and serene electronic sounds. They make for a blissful journey through simple pleasures, where ocean waves and warm breezes empty your mind of all but the nicest of thoughts.

Review: Marking the 25th anniversary of The Magnificent Tree, Belgian trio Hooverphonic release a special limited edition of their third album, available on translucent blue vinyl. This edition comes strictly limited to 1,000 numbered copies, each with a commemorative insert; its four core singles 'Mad About You', 'Vinegar & Salt', 'Out of Sight' and 'Jackie Cane' became career milestones for the ethereal band, clinging to the Flemish Ultratop 50 for 107 weeks as they continued to hone and plane their established blue noir, post-trip-hop sonic vernacular. Also marking their 30th anniversary as a band, The Magnificent Tree is probably the best touchstone to describe their coming of age, ripping up the the comparatively innocent sonic formula of Blue Wonder Power Milk.

Review: Berlin-based producer JakoJako aka Sibel Kocer's debut album for Mute - after appearances on a stream of leading German labels including Tresor - is described as a distillation of ideas that she's been exploring for many years. In reality, that means working on a minimal set up, away from the computer while restricting herself to just a Eurorack and a Waldorf Iridium Core, in the search for spontaneity. She found it, for sure, as the results - recorded in Vietnam during the Tet Lunar New Year celebrations - are a feast of glistening arpeggios and lush modular textures, stripped back but full of expression and personality. 'Ghi-ta' will appeal to fans of vintage perky ambient productions the Pete Namlook/Mixmaster Morris collaboration Dreamfish, while 'Gio' has a touch of Tangerine Dream's classic widescreen sensibilities. Bold tones, bold debut.

Review: Allegedly one of the first ever records to make use of sampling, Jean-Michel Jarre's seventh album Zoolook brought with it a unique vibe, one well worth looking back on in light of its latest Sony reissue. In terms of notoriety, Zoolook pales in comparison to the electronic music crackerjack's 1976-8 heyday, which saw to both Oxygene and Equinoxe; but this is understandable, as Zoolook came much later, and sacrificed the grandiose mood of otherworldly space-awe for an eerier menage of playful factory hits and cacophonous dance hubbubery. Perhaps this sound - a jankier one that grew in popularity in the mid 80s - was driven by Jarre's use of the Fairlight CMI workstation and sampler, an example of a piece of gear that had the power to define an entire sound. We'd venture to say that the titular "Zoolook" is a kind of gaze that, by virtue of us living in a machine society, makes animals of us all.

Review: This release, which was recorded for Bremen Radio in 1971, features four extended tracks showcasing German pioneers Kraftwerk in a very different light from their later work. The short-lived lineup of Schneider, Rother and Dinger fused electric guitar with their then-signature electronic sounds and it gives rise to unusual, exciting and innovative music. Half of the tracks here, as hardcore fans will recognise, are drawn from their debut album, Kraftwerk 1, and the recording quality is excellent. This release also includes full recording details along with extensive sleeve notes that help offer a fascinating glimpse into Kraftwerk's early, experimental sound before their more iconic and pioneering electronic phase.

Review: Reissued over two decades since its original release, the second full-length from Liverpool's Ladytron still thrums with the same sharp-edged futurism that made it such a cult touchpoint. Tracks like 'Seventeen' and 'Evil' captured a tension between robotic detachment and raw emotional charge, anchored in the band's icy synth palette and minimal, deadpan vocals. While 'Blue Jeans' flirts with glammy melancholy, 'Turn It On' and 'Fire' dial up the menace, tapping into something more volatile. There's something surgical about the sequencing tooi'Cracked LCD', 'NuHorizons' and 'Cease2exist' stretch into more abstract terrain, before folding back into hook-laced electro-pop with the closing title track and 'The Reason'. With Daniel Hunt and Mickey Petralia co-producing, the album took shape in Los Angeles but never lost the European chill that defined their sound. It's a record that helped redraw the map for synth-pop in the early 2000sineither retro-futurist pastiche nor pure nostalgia, but something sleek, cinematic and entirely their own.

Review: In 1984, Gary Numan launched Numa Records and started a new phase in his career with the release of Berserker. This album introduced a harder-edged digital sound into his canon while maintaining the analogue textures of his earlier work. It's a testament to the fact that Numan's creative evolution never stopped and blends both personal and fictional narratives into haunting tracks like 'My Dying Machine,' 'This Is New Love' and 'Berserker.' The remastered double vinyl edition includes the original album with bonus tracks that add extra perspective to this pivotal period in his career.

Review: Legendary British outfit Saint Etienne returned with their 12th studio album late last year, and now it lands on vinyl via Heavenly Recordings. A much-awaited follow-up to 2021's I've Been Trying To Tell You, this ambient collection offers a gentle, immersive experience designed to ease the noise of daily life. It was produced with Augustin Bousfield and blends songs, spoken word and rain-soaked textures into a seamless dreamscape, all recorded between Saltaire in the north and Hove down on the south coast. It captures the fragile space between waking and sleep with highlights like 'Half Light' and 'Preflyte'. As such, The Night is best experienced on headphones and is ideal for late hours, reflection and introspection.

Review: Born from the success of Soft Cell's triumphant *Happiness Not Included record, the iconic and somewhat elusive - five studio LPs in 41 years - Soft Cell have decided to go all in with a package of alternative rides, previously unreleased mixes, and single-only B-sides. Nothing here featured on the original LP, and there are a few bonus workouts of stuff not from the source album, too. Cover versions of Fad Gadget's 'Back to Nature', X-Ray Spec's 'The Day The World Turned Day Glo', and a freshly minted take on the Cell's own landmark 'Last Chance' all elevate this, not that people were likely to have needed another reason to stick it in their basket. A great example of why less is more, but generosity is the secret to true satisfaction.

Review: Berlin-based synthwave and dark disco band Dina Summer return with a sanguine new seven-track record, continuing their reputation for making 80s nostalgist music fans ever more ravenous for their distinct take on EBM and its adjacent styles. Following 2022's acclaimed Rimini LP, this freak zone of a record brings gravely detuned, yet DJ-ready instrumental backings and stiffly but passionately delivered vocal recitations to a modern production palate. This approach reaches its ultimate conclusion on the natural midpoint 'Alien', a track perhaps best describable as a hi-NRG number made in a cryoponic chamber and lent an extraterrestrial theme.

Review: Notoriously elusive, sophisti-thereal pop/post-punk collective Vazz answer to almost no-one. Emerging from the same late 70s/early 80s mutant formaldehyde mists that spawned This Mortal Coil and Crepuscule, yet bringing the dream pop sound to Glasgow, Hugh Small and Anna Howson are still going strong as a boutique bringing-together of mindful, magnetic musicians, pedigreed for the seemly discotheque. First released on Cathexis Records, we are indeed much cathected to both EPs in this collection. In sloshing but somehow still self-contained fashion, 'Your Final Word' swims in reverb nearly to the point of drowning its own harmonies, yet breathability is somehow still retained. 'Bleached White Skin' is the perfect storm of wavy wash, operatic doublings and ditzy drum machine, and 'Breath' brings spring-verb coldwave stylings to a languorous, pitchy closer. Then 'Feverpitch' and 'For A Reason' hear the compilation sprawl further into arpeggiating tumult, as we move on to material from the 1987 'Feverpitch' EP. This 40th anniversary edition collates both EPs and adds a handful of unissued minimal wave pearls.

Review: Xmal Deutschland commemorate their influential 4AD years (1983-1984) with a brand new release, literally presenting us with Gift. The collection celebrates the band's profound impact on British audiences in the early 80s, marked by a unique and half-devised lyrical language, as well as a magnetic feminine mystique commandeered by the women in the group. Their breakthrough support slot with Cocteau Twins accompanied the first two albums to come out via 4AD, which grabbed audiences by the collective ear with a painter's stroke of hard-graded darkwave and goth. Gift brims with a penumbral presence, while the titular "gift" is intended as pharmakon, both a present and a poison; Xmal's music is appropriately contradictory and complex, skating thin ices of beauty and elusivity. This limited-edition 3xLP boxset includes Abbey Road remasters of their albums Fetisch and Tocsin, along with tracks from related releases like Incubus Succubus II and Qual, packaged with striking artwork and a photo booklet. The magic of Xmal Deutschland lingers like radiation and has an indelible half-life.

Review: Synth-pop duo Marina Zispin aka Bianca Scout and Martyn Reid lead you on a trip into nocturnal spaces with this new album Now You See Me (Now You Don't). It is a place where time and memory come together into shadowy worlds of mechanical groves, airy melodies and retro-future imagery. N 'Piece Of Mind' the ghost of bands like Jy Division lurk in the stark drums and melancholic guitar lines, while 'Penthouse Samba' taps into dark disco chug and 'Venus Opulence' is a more minimal, sky and experimental concoction that will freak you out if you listen to it one with the lights out.