Back catalogue: Coldwave/Synth

Review: Nicolas Motte, Raphael Top Secret, and Antinote's head honcho Zaltan debut their 18 Rays project with this sublime little album and, although this might sound like we're heading into hyperboles, it is probably the best example of modern cold wave that we've heard over the last five years. "I Feel Rain" is a wonderful piece of music with a subtle hint of Joy Division's melancholic drone at the core of its vocals, while "The Empty Stairs" encapsulates everything that we love about downtempo. "Long Time Ago" meanders into open seas thanks to the outfit's solemn vocals and electric use of sparse and explorative guitars, which leaves the fluttering harmonics of "North West Plaza" to linger beautifully in their own ambient swing. Warmly recommended.

Review: ***B-STOCK: Creasing on outer sleeve but otherwise in excellent working condition***


A Split Second's cult coldwave EP Flesh was dropped back in 1986 on Antler Records. The band of Marc Heyndrickx, and Peter Bonne (aka Chrismar Chayell) only formed a year earlier but his debut single made a huge impact and has become a real classic of the EBM and wave world ever since. Numerous albums followed well into the 90s but rarely did the pair ever top this - the jerking rhythms, ravey electronics and retro-future chords all resonating as much with audiences now as they did back then.

Review: Clara and Armand are the two producers behind the new Agar Agar project, and the French duo clearly intend to take electropop back to its golden days... we have absolutely no problems with that. This is their first release, and it comes courtesy of the Cracki label, a Parisian collective formed in 2010 that has been putting out nothing but fire since its birth; moreover, the imprint has scouted a lot of new talent from the streets. We would dub this sort of music disco-not-disco, a slow and mellow blend of slo-mo dance moves that often verge towards the utterly abstract. Most importantly, these are tunes that will be enjoyed by indie fans, and they should certainly not be looked at as mere 'dance' tracks. There is plenty to explore in here, and Agar Agar will surely pop back up on our radars very soon. Recommended!

Review: Second time around for Al Onzo's "Tango Japan", a fiendishly hard-to-find fusion of synth-pop and early Belgian new beat that's long been popular with serious Euro-disco crate diggers. As on the original, you get both vocal and instrumental takes, with the former layering sleazy male spoken word vocals and cheeky, high register female chorus vocals over a bubbly, synthesizer-heavy backing track rich in chiming melodies and fuzzy synth-bass. This time round, reissuers Mothball Records have also included a previously unreleased cut "Camel Soup in China Town", a similarly exotic, tongue-in-cheek and thoroughly entertaining affair. Simply essential.

Review: ***B-STOCK: Slight surface marks on the record sleeve***


Dan Andrei is arguably one of the finest selectors of this generation and a master minimal producer who makes electronic music of the highest order. His latest outing sees him inaugurating his own brand-new label alongside Claudiu Stefan. Rainbow Hill is a platform for their more personal ideas and starts with four more of Andrei's brilliantly deft yet dramatic tracks. 'Numan's Touch' kicks off with rolling drums and bass and a fine eco-system of cosmic pads, twinkling keys and fizzing synths that are theatrical and involving. 'What Else?' then gets darker and more intense with heady loops and wispy pads, and again the ante is upped and the darkness pervades once more on the tense and taught dub-tech roller 'This Is What I See'. Last of all, 'Bluer Than Ever' floats above the floor with airy pads and radiant chords. A perfect 5am vibe.

Review: Dan Andrei is arguably one of the finest selectors of this generation and a master minimal producer who makes electronic music of the highest order. His latest outing sees him inaugurating his own brand-new label alongside Claudiu Stefan. Rainbow Hill is a platform for their more personal ideas and starts with four more of Andrei's brilliantly deft yet dramatic tracks. 'Numan's Touch' kicks off with rolling drums and bass and a fine eco-system of cosmic pads, twinkling keys and fizzing synths that are theatrical and involving. 'What Else?' then gets darker and more intense with heady loops and wispy pads, and again the ante is upped and the darkness pervades once more on the tense and taught dub-tech roller 'This Is What I See'. Last of all, 'Bluer Than Ever' floats above the floor with airy pads and radiant chords. A perfect 5am vibe.

Review: Angela was the studio project of husband/wife duo Angela and Ingo Werner formed in 1981 in Russelsheim, Germany. Ingo had classical training in bassoon and piano at the Akademie fur Tonkunst in Darmstadt from 1966-70. He joined Krautrock band My Solid Ground in 1971 before going on to form his own project Baba Yaga in 1974. In the late 70s he formed the ensemble AIR with Armin Stowe and Reinhard Karwatky. The project debuted with a a concert at ARS Electronica Competition in Linz, Austria 1980, which they won. Klaus Schulze was on the jury with Wendy Carlos and Robert Moog - but more importantly, Angela was in the audience. Two days later, Ingo told the band he needed a singer, so they asked Angela, and recorded two albums for RCA between 1981-82 before being dropped. Ingo wanted to work on a new project that involved dancers and live video. They recruited American performance artist Jyl Porch, who was living in Munich, to assist with choreography with her friend Kirsten McKenley. Jyl ended up recording her own album first, which gained interest from Klaus Schulze, who helped them secure a deal with EMI in 1983. Later that year, the trio recorded 4 songs that would be released on Angela 'Fantasy' single on 7" and 12" formats in 1984.
The music on 'Fantasy' was completely created with computer software of Ingo's own design. The concept of a polyrhythmic, polyphonic, and polydynamic sequencer was realized by Ingo after a visit to Wolfgang Palm in Hamburg. He paired his sequencer with Palm's legendary PPG Wave Computer System, allowing for more dynamic and nuanced programming. Angela programmed the music, sang, and wrote the lyrics to "Painted Love", while Ingo arranged and played all electronics and keyboards. Jyl wrote the lyrics for "Fantasy" and the slow and sleazy, electronic disco B-side "I Gotta Little Love", where she also sings background vocals and the "hot little flame" rap. The original B-side to the 7" version was a cover of the 1967 Hal Hackady and Lee Pockriss song "Kites", made famous by Simon Dupree and the Big Sound. All songs have been remastered by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. The EP features the original 1984 cover artwork with a striking photo of Angela styled by Jyl in severe Neue Deutsche Welle fashion, and includes an insert with lyrics and and photos designed by Maycec..

Review: For a four track electronic music EP, there's a lot here. Opening with 'Burning Fields' by Aphonia, the uninitiated might expect the whole package to nod to that classic electro sound, highly detailed but lo-fi, packed with dark atmosphere but all about dance floor energy. Skip to track two, though, and Angles of Pompeii present mutant indie-punk-dance in the vein of Detroit Grand Pubahs at their most guitar-y, and minimalistic.

Elsewhere, 'Retreat' is a slow mo maximalist triumph, acid lines flailing over the top of a muffled cacophony of noise that places the emphasis on a lunging, head-nodding bassline. Add 'Athma', Odopt's sinister low end and drum machine tune up that could almost be an accidental piece from the movie They Live and you've got not only a complex release, but one boasting replay value set to last for years after the investment.

Review: Swiss producer Mehmet Aslan has been enjoying his most prolific year to date, returning from a two-year absence with a gaggle of well-regarded records. His latest outing is less obviously dancefloor-focused than much of his work, but no less enjoyable for it. A-side "Efjun" is an off-kilter, slo-mo treat, with the Berlin-based producer peppering a skewed rhythm track with dreamy vocals, nagging electric piano hooks and intoxicated electronics. Arguably even better is wonky flipside "Ghost Station", a hypnotic affair where pulsing, kosmiche style motifs and lo-fi synthesizer riffs cluster around lo-fi machine drums and a mind-altering bassline. It's brilliantly out-there and ghostly, all told, and is one of the producer's most arresting tracks to date.

Review: Some of the best record labels out there act as a platform for hitherto unknown artists and music scenes to get wider exposure, and with this latest release Golf Channel certainly fall under that banner. Autarkic is a cold wave project from Tel Aviv musician Nadav Spiegel whose work is new to us at Juno HQ but most certainly a fine addition to the Golf Channel canon. The four-track Hello To Mrs Blank arrives with the assistance of fellow Tel Aviv outfit Red Axes, channelling both a sound and look that feels very much like a well-executed contemporary take on the cold wave and primitive electronics aesthetic.

Review: Axodry was a collective of artists in the eighties made up of different combinations of RaHen, Talla 2XLC, Alexander Maurus and Kurt Ader. They put out one album and only a handful of EPs on Westside Music but 'Loosing You' remains the most acclaimed. Here it gets a full remaster job by the DBH label out of Germany. The original is a future-retro slice of dreamy but driving synth pop with a forlorn vocal. There is a slightly more beefy radio version as well as an instrumental dance. Last of all, 'Mechanic' layers up angular 80s drums, early tinny synth sounds and a cosmic mood that takes you all the way back.

Review: ***B-STOCK: Creasing on outer sleeve, also the record has light surface marks/scratches, but otherwise in excellent working condition***


Axodry was a collective of artists in the eighties made up of different combinations of RaHen, Talla 2XLC, Alexander Maurus and Kurt Ader. They put out one album and only a handful of EPs on Westside Music but 'Loosing You' remains the most acclaimed. Here it gets a full remaster job by the DBH label out of Germany. The original is a future-retro slice of dreamy but driving synth pop with a forlorn vocal. There is a slightly more beefy radio version as well as an instrumental dance. Last of all, 'Mechanic' layers up angular 80s drums, early tinny synth sounds and a cosmic mood that takes you all the way back.

Review: One of Frankfurt's best answers to New Order, Axodry consisted of Talla 2XLC and Ra/Hen, two DJs, producers and synth maestros with an adept flair for gated reverb-ing, sampling and cheesy vocalising. 'You' is absolutely covered in processing and compression, characteristic of the duo's contemporaneous synthpop inspirations such as Depeche Mode and John Foxx. Giggles, strange impacts and extra dub FX adorn the new mixes of the single on this new 12" version from DBH; the 'Beasty Dub' mix is stellar as ever, while the new unreleased version sounds well asphyxiated, dry. 'Suspense', finally, explores a misty backroom of chopped tape culture EBM and horror movie samples.

Review: Kris Baha is fast becoming one of the most essential operators in the deviant disco underbelly of Berlin's scene, despite having landed in the city relatively recently. Baha's credentials with labels like Power Station and parties in Melbourne are all that you need to know, and now this release on the ever mighty Cocktail d'Amore seals the deal. Baha has never sounded more confident, pinging deviant synths around nasty drum bite and channeling the gods of industrial darkness to make some rugged body music for the darker kind of dancefloor. The experimental, non-party tracks are just as wild, dealing in all manner of uncompromising noise to further Baha's journey to the upper realms of sonic mud slingers.

Review: The latest release on ever-crucial French jazz outpost Heavenly Sweetness welcomes the work of Bardainne Jaumet, a collaboration between accomplished French saxophonist Laurent Bardainne and Versatile regular Etienne Jaumet for four musically rich excursions into cosmic disco, Library music and the golden age of European synthesiser exploration. This is perhaps not what you might expect from the pairing of these two artists, or indeed the label, but the sheer compositional power and production of these two is simply undeniable. Grandiose statement pieces from two incredibly talented minds meeting on the same astral plane with a well-appointed studio as a vessel.

Review: Under the Beard In Dust alias, Leonid Lipelis has produced some of the most inspired re-edits released over the last decade, often turning chunks of long-forgotten Eastern European disco, boogie, synth-pop and AOR into quirky dancefloor gems. He's at it again here, launching the Crudo Rircordi imprint via a trio of eccentric, mid-80s treats. With its driving, kick-drum driven beat, addictive bassline, foreboding synthesizer motifs and Mediterranean guitars, 'Senor Paraiso' is a Balearic proto-house gem, while 'Kirkovmoroder' is a cheery chunk of AOR synth-pop turned into a tongue-in-cheek dancefloor treat. 'Coconut Paradise', meanwhile, is an Italo-disco style slab of peak-time campness straight from the top shelf.

Review: REPRESS ALERT: Through his glittering catalogue for Public Possession, Bell Towers has proven himself to be a leading light in contemporary house that packs personality and class to match its club dynamics. His irreverent humour comes out in droves on "I'm Moving To Berlin", which thumps with the '80s-tinged energy he does so well. "Sexual Intruder Alert" actually sees the BT sound edge a little more towards techno, perhaps appropriate given the subject matter of the EP, and then "Approach & Identify" takes things in a tense, sleazy direction that jacks with a rawness you could imagine Ron Hardy going absolutely apeshit for.

Review: Belgian legend Benjamin Lew gets some light shone on him here by Stroom. They draw together highlights of his 1982 album "Douzieme Journee: Le Verbe, La Parure, L'Amour" which was produced with Tuxedomoon's Steven Brown and also include a rare compilation cut. Curious ambient with snaking leads and hymnal chords are evident on numbers such as "Il Les Quitta A L'aube", and more dark and rhythmic experimentation on the excellent "Dans Les Jardins." "A La Recherche De B" conveys a sense of creepiness and unease that you might associate with covert research projects and rounds out a fascinating work.

Review: So far, the Clan Destine imprint has been responsible for some of the most daring noise-techno infusions of the last three years, and their Clan Destine Traxx offshoot has brought up some straight up killers thanks to the like of Tuff Sherm, Torn Hawk et al. This latest remix package of the Bestial Mouths LP comes heavy with new faces - possible aliases of various established US artists - who waste no time in getting their point across: a cold, foreboding mixture of power electronics, EBM and techno. The A-side is all muddy, swamped distortion and grainy percussion, with our top pick being the Nightchilde remix of "Cloaked". As for the B-side, things take a turn for the dancefloor, and it's Funerals' re-wiring of "Faceless" which really shines through thanks to one hell of a bassline gargle, but Dalhous' version of "Movement" is a total breath-taker, where subtle swarms of feedback collide majestically with angelic pads and sunken choir vocals. Outsider house? More like demonic techno...