Review: Hailing from Yorkshire, Geoff Bastow made music that took people pretty far away from the White Rose county, out to the cosmic discos of Italy and then onwards towards the stratosphere itself. Half a galaxy away from a part of England known for keeping two feet firmly rooted to the ground, calling spades spades and taking no nonsense from nobody. Often producing under the moniker K.I.D. during the 1980s, and making most of his sounds after relocating to Munich, Germany, Bastow's attention to detail, sense of space and spatiality, gauge of groove and understanding of what makes a dancefloor move cannot be understated. Save your words, though, and skip straight to this EP to explain all that to people - six takes on a stone cold classic.
Review: Berlin's renowned Iptamenos Discos its back with more great musical enchant in the form of this new white vinyl 12" in hand-numbered hand-stamped sleeve from Boys' Shorts. This dynamic queer duo comes from Greece and is made up of Vangelis (formerly of LAGASTA) and London-based Tareq. Their Something To Forget EP is a dazzling mix of disco with a whole world of subtle influences from other genres. Two originals come accompanied by innovative remixes from Gabe Gurnsey and Whitesquare to make this an effective outing that will likely win Boys' Shorts many new followers.
Fmsquared (Epiloggy) (Beauvine bonus Perc version) (3:17)
Lansqape4 (Short_onetake) (5:57)
Review: Royal Wavetable Mellodies & Old TDKs by Mexico baed artist Brainwaltzera is a perfect coming totters of the symphonic, the synthetic, the organic and the electronic. It's a record that could be a lost 70s classic as much as a new school homage to minimalism, experimental ambient and vintage synths. In fact, this is a selection of archive recordings in the artist's characteristically idiosyncratic style that we cannot get enough of. The collection of tracks are gorgeously native and innocent, with wispy melodies and retro keys all smeared and smudged into moving pieces of ambient that are beatless but dynamic.
Review: Larry Pignagnoli, Alessandro Zanni and Stefano Cundari created Brando, the quintessential short-lived Italo project. The first two singles from the group landed in 1983, one of which is now lovingly repressed by the original label, ZYX Music. As well as the vintage versions, we get treated to a couple of versions from the go-to remixer for tracks from this period, Flemming Dalum. It's released as a 40th anniversary piece commemorating this classic slice of sentimental, full-fat Italo, but with these new remixes there's plenty to appeal to die-hards and casual observers alike.
Review: Baby Buddha was Charles Hornday, David Javelosa, Meg Brazill and Todd Rosa, a band that released just one album in 1981 then a second in 1987. Their debut is a cult classic that brought new ideas to the world of no wave and synth, electro and rock. With its chilly minimal computer beats and post-punk vocal deliveries, it makes for a still future-sounding world of sound that is danceable and atmospheric as it covers classics like 'Stand By Your Man' and 'All Shook Up' in a hugely idiosyncratic fashion. This is weirdly wonderful, playfully scary and artfully DIY music that manages plenty of reference points and ends up sounding like nothing else.
Review: Music For Dreams label head Kenneth Badger was so inspired by the Tangerine Dream soundtrack to the classic Michael Mann film The Thief that he and Tolga Bo0.95yu0.95k from the Turkish band islandman decided to write their own soundtrack to an imaginary movie. They managed to write 10 tracks within 24 hours while imagining a film that told a story about two people stuck on the arctic ice cap where one tries to fool the other. Influences from Vangelis, John Carpenter, and Tangerine Dream all feature in what is a superb and escapist listen.
Review: CyberindustrialEBMwavepost-punkIDMmutantelectro. No commas, no punctuation, just one throbbing, convulsing, dystopian mass informed by the bleakest visions of a sci-fi future we deserve but definitely don't want. Originally hailing from Australia, but long-since relocating to Berlin's eastern ends, Kristian Bahoudian, AKA Kris Baha, has clearly absorbed his surrounds, grown through them, and learnt how to channel that brutalism into something truly potent. It's also narratively driven, with the titular spirits in the system a reference to humans in the age of advanced artificial intelligence - beholden to dictatorial codes that rob us of our essence, vitality and individuality. An awakening among a select few means a small number of people become self-aware, again, and can begin pushing back. And this point of tension, between human and machine, plays out sonically. Talk about painting a vivid picture.
Review: Lewis' gentle and bewitching L'Amour, which came complete with a bizarre backstory involving the disappearance of the blonde-haired would-be-matinee-idol on its sleeve, was one of the surprise delights of the year. Yet the release of the hitherto unsuspected follow-up Romantic Times, which was originally recorded in 1985, only adds to the mystique surrounding this off-kilter auteur. The abstract croon and expressionistic mood may remain, yet the pastel shades and beachside calm of his earlier effort are gone, replaced by brooding atmosphere and vocals that betray a troubled soul beneath the luxurious veneer. Residing somewhere between lounge lizard thrills and outsider art chills, Romantic Times is a portrait of a true one-off.
Review: Italian composer and modular synth wizard Caterina Barbieri makes a debut on the Light-Years label here with a profound work of ambient beauty. Known for her musical vortexes, she warps space and time with her compositions and has done ever since breaking through with 2017's double-album Patterns Of Consciousness. Spirit Exit again finds her start up her modal rug and get to work in her home studio amidst Milan's two-month pandemic lockdown in 2020. It's a personal work that "takes inspiration from female philosophers, mystics and poets spread across time." The transportational sounds are as complex as they are emotive from front to back.
Review: Musician, writer and sometime member of Kraftwerk Karl Bartos wrote The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari as a tribute to the iconic 1920 silent horror film whose original music score had long been lost. Through electronic compositions, Bartos skilfully captures the eerie atmosphere and psychological depth of the movie, enhancing its haunting narrative with his sonic reinterpretation. The album immerses listeners in a world of suspense and mystery, blending ominous synth melodies with pulsating rhythms and cinematic soundscapes. Bartos' masterful fusion of retro-futuristic aesthetics and contemporary electronic music was made after he dug deep into his own archives to recreate epics he wrote as a young classical musician and offers an all-new perspective on the original soundtrack.
Review: A narrative. An odyssey. The journey of a lifetime. As the world locked itself away and the Covid-19 pandemic took hold, Battaglia stepped into the record studio and evidently fired up the ignition rockets. Travel in the literal sense may have been off the cards, but Season One certainly transports the listener through a deep and complex sonic tapestry, telling a tale of struggle from fear into hope and onto something altogether unique and new and enlightened. Plenty here has been inspired by the aural work of John Carpenter and Tangerine Dream, to name but two influences, but ultimately where Battaglia is taking us feels resolutely new. More so, tangibly unchartered. Out to the farthest reaches of the known galaxy and back again in a stunning collection of strange and beguiling electronic business.
Review: Belong's latest offering, Realistic IX, presents a mesmerizing journey through acid-washed landscapes of sound. Michael Jones and Turk Dietrich craft an heavily processed sonic experience, where bleached guitars, hypnotic drums, and buried vocals coalesce to create shifting gradients of haze and hypnosis. Melodies ebb and flow, sometimes surfacing before submerging into feedback-laden currents. Despite a 13-year hiatus since their last Kranky release, Common Era, Belong's synergy remains undiminished. Their commitment to motorik drone and liminal emotion evolves on Realistic IX, offering a tactile and unreal exploration of sound. Tracks like 'Souvenir' showcase distant vocals shrouded in dissonance, while 'Image of Love' introduces drum machine work and reverberated melodic changes. Overall, Realistic IX is a shimmering comeback for Belong, capturing the band's enigmatic allure and pushing their sonic boundaries with finesse.
Review: Ben Edwards, better known by his pseudonym Benge, is famed for his grasp of authentic vintage synth technology, called in to produce John Grant aming many others as well as Wrangler and Creep Show. He's been exploring the sonic possibilities of electronic instruments since he was a young boy, in the 1970s, and The View From Vega, his debut solo album on the DiN imprint, is primarily an ambient suite of tracks inspired by the space-music typically produced in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It uses a selection of vintage synthesisers, sequencers and FX units to provide a fertile sonic landscape to explore. The idea was to use simple sequences (using both analogue and digital units), sustained synthesiser pads and electronic piano improvisations, alongside various ancient delay, flange and reverb units. The beautiful, warm quality of the tones that exude from such instruments are very evident on the six tracks that slowly unfold their oscillations in organic, melodic soundscapes.
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: Not to be confused with the sweet dessert made from milk, cream and sugar, thickened via rice flour, gelatine, or Irish moss. To us, Blancmange refers to the English synth pop outfit formed in London circa 1979. Over seven years, Neil Arthur and Stephen Luscombe gave us a lot of incredible music, before calling time in 1986, only to return in the late-2000s eventually putting out a fourth album, Blanc Burn, in 2011. For the most part, Everything Is Connected celebrates their most fertile period through ten quality tracks (more are included on CD and DL versions), although technically what's here does span a 45 year period. Curated by Arthur, UK top ten singles 'Living On The Ceiling', 'Blind Vision' and 'Don't Tell Me' are here, but so too are some of their more overlooked gems.
Review: Blaqk Audio aka AFI members Davey Havok and Jade Puget dropped their second album Bright Black Heaven back in 2012. It now gets reissued via Music On Vinyl and has been cut on 45rpm for extra low-end punchy and louder volume. It comes on individually hand-numbered clear vinyl and is housed in a gatefold sleeve so is a special collector's piece indeed. Upon release, the album topped the US charts in the Billboard Dance and Electronic categories and has a moody synth vibe, darl pop sounds and plenty of 80s flourishes all bottled up with some gothic overtones.
Review: Denver, Colorado based progressive death metal auteurs Blood Incantation have become renowned for their overarching science fiction themes and cosmic reimagining of genre motifs, with 2019's sophomore triumph Hidden History Of The Human Race garnering immense acclaim and exposure. Unexpectedly, their 2022 follow up would rip a page right from the book of Tangerine Dream with Timewave Zero being made up entirely of ambient synth-laden pieces designed to serve as a soundtrack to passing through the stars. With this unpredictable penchant and clear lack of genre boundaries illuminated, anticipation was rife to see if the band would have the balls and brains to marry both opposing sonic guises and that's precisely what Absolute Elsewhere delivers. Named after the mid-70s prog collective (who once featured King Crimson drummer Bill Bruford), and even featuring Tangerine Dream's Thorsten Quaesching, the album is made up of two tracks, both broken into three segments each, that weave hallucinogenic death metal with synthwave prog, Krautrock, and euphoric alien ambience to conjure a uniquely transcendental listening experience. This ain't your granddaddy's prog rock, nor is it your daddy's death metal, but in a sense, it's kind of both.
Review: When Magda and Jay Ahearn first unveiled the Blotter Trax project - rather mysteriously, it should be noted - the showcased cuts tended towards the more psychedelic end of the techno and electro spectrum. They've flipped the script on debut album Superconductor, a genuinely brilliant collection of funkier, far-sighted workouts that draws more on their joint love of Arthur Russell, early 80s NYC downtown disco, leftfield new-wave pop and flash-fried punk-funk. The addition of bass and guitar (from new third member Hannes Strobl and guest axe-slinger Shigeru Tanabu) adds an organic element, with lead vocals (courtesy of principal songwriter and singer Nina Hynes) humanising their sound further. A triumphant, if surprising, full-length debut that could turn out to be one of the electronic LPs of 2023.
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