Back catalogue: Coldwave/Synth

Review: The story of this one revolves around San Diego native Anthony "Antone" Williams. He was one day alone in a studio, messing about with the gear and before he knew he it lay down the haunting rhythm that underpins the tune now presented here by the good folks at Athens of the North. It's a sinister, restless one that got released as a hugely limited 7" on Unity Records with otherworldly soul production and a pained vocal up top. Post punk soul, some call it, and that's a fitting descriptor. A remix appears on the flip but the allure of the original is hard to beat.

Review: Following on from their widely acclaimed album Afraid To Leave, Berlin's beautiful maudlin post-punk outfit Bleib Modern presents a compilation of remixes and reworks by esteemed artists from across darkwave, post-punk, and EBM. From IV Horsemen's club-worthy rendition of 'Bitter Smile' to M!R!M's dreamy synthpop take on 'Into The Night' via Dune Messiah's crooning 'Loony Voices, 2 Afraid 2 Leave: Remixed Reimaged Reloaded Part 2 offers truly diverse interpretations. With contributions from luminaries like The KVB and Blind Delon, it provides a fresh perspective on Bleib Modern's sound and serves as an exciting interlude that showcases the band's versatility and paves the way for future creations

Review: Aussie larrikin DJ WHPRSNPR is back on his very own Nerang Recordings with a motley crew of upstarts on this one. Fittingly titled Freaky Friends 2, it features DJ Swagger with some off-kilter UK bass on 'Hotice Water' and Low Tape with the NSFW booty bass of 'So Delicious' on the A side, followed over on the flip by Ole Mic Odd's sci-fi electro funk jam 'In The House' and Berlin's Nasty King Krule doing his best Dopplereffekt impression on 'Stop Talkin Boy' among others.

Review: Thanks to the eternally revered Minimal Wave imprint, out of NYC, Mark Phillips and Robert Lawrence's Five Times Of Dust project is going through a bit of a revival. The duo had first released some post-punk cassettes back in the 80s, and they clearly have not been forgotten. On this new remix EP, "Computer Bank" is given a makeover in the form of a The Floor remix, who proceeds to add all sorts of quirkiness over the tune's tough, heavy bass and driving rhythm; "Armoured Car" breaks the 4/4 in favour of something much closer to the band's original drum machine style. Once again, on the flip, we have a remix of "Like I Am, Comme Je Suis" by The Floor, who throws up a gnarly electro bass onto shady, neo-romantic vocals, and the whole things is finished off by "Imponative" from Unovodual and Tara Cross, who produce a slow, heady industrial groove for the dancefloor.

Review: In eleven years of deep digging, Dark Entries has uncovered many curiosities, lone exemplars of the scarsest breeds. They are lurking in Croatia, on the streets of New York, maybe in the back of your own dusty closet - these odd-ball Italo and synth-wave monsters are too rare to live, too divine to die. Once-lost creatures now have a home with Dark Entries' new Endangered Species series. The inaugural edition features five specimens previously deemed extinct, only mentioned passingly in lore and speculation, but now safely preserved on vinyl.

Review: It's been some six years since Caroline "Miss Kittin" Herve and Michel "The Hacker" Amato last delivered fresh material together. While we await further news of their long-mooted comeback, there's this tasty EP of previously unheard archive material to enjoy. Made up of tracks recorded between 1997 and '99 - when their production partnership was in its' infancy - The Lost Tracks Volume 1 contains a number of fuzzy, stylish, floor-friendly bangers, from the S&M-themed madness of opener "Leather Forever" and stripped-back electro gem "Nightlife" (a tribute to Berlin clubs of the period, apparently), to the high-tempo acid-loaded freakishness of "Loving The Alien". Top-notch sleaze.

Review: Towa Tei is best known for his membership of the influential house music troupe Deee-Lite, the legacy of which has helped sustain a prolific solo career. Now comes the two fresh bits 'Ear Candy' and 'Muse'. Channelling the aesthetic spirit of Tei's many collaborators and influenecs - that of singer and drummer Yukihiro Takahashi, once a member of the legendary techno-pop band Yellow Magic Orchestra, and the artist Yayoi Kusama - we get something between broken beat, electro-funk, and downtempo dadaist electronica as the result, as we are implored to "bring that funky music", an impulse almost certainly as addictive as the sugary highs elicited from actual candy.

Review: The Outer Edge reckons that this first release on their label is one of "the rarest and simultaneously best-recorded independently released German new wave singles in history." Bold words, but probably not far wrong. 80s outfit Total wrote it as the first and title single for an album deal they signed. It's a killer cut with hints of 'The Message''s hip-hop rhythm and alluring female vocals over a lush bassline from the Jupiter 8 keyboard and DMX drum machine funk driving it along at such an inviting mid-tempo. The withering cosmic keys add extra spacey goodness and here it comes with a couple of alternative mixes, though the OG is really the one.

Review: TVAM first crept onto the radar in 2018 with a self-released debut which split the difference between Suicide and Boards of Canada, but since then his sound has broadened to incorporate a shred of pop nous and anthemic grandeur best captured on new single 'Costasol'. If that track has a deceptively gentle, dreamy demeanour, there's plenty more space for murkiness and claustrophobia elsewhere on the EP, as the one-man-band indulges his industrial and lounge tendencies in strange, compelling new mutant forms. 'Ephemerol' in particular stands out as the perfect misfit foil to the lead track's poised bombast, fuelling the dualistic intrigue of an artist who never misses.

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: Nobody's Business re-release Kittin's first album, 'First Album', harkening to way back when the electroclash queen (Caroline Herve) formed one part of the duo Miss Kittin & The Hacker with Michael Amato. Perhaps it's time for an electroclash comeback, as we're no less keen on this album as we were back then. We're happily reminded of the hit popcorning single '1982', while between-the-beats coldness prevails on lesser-known cuts like 'Nurse' and 'L'Homme Dans L'Ombre', showing off the pair's near-sociopathically calculated sound. Also of note: this album's original release year, 2001, is to 2022 what 1982 was to it.

Review: Tangerine Dream's ironically timeless classic, Zeit ('Time'), has once more been reissued on vinyl by LMLR. The experimental electronic album, originally released in 1972, amounts to far more than the sum of its parts: the haunting soundscapes and trembly synths heard on it have been sampled time and time again, proving the album's re-interpretability through time and its intention to transcend any zeitgeist. For what could be more timeless than an abstract whirl of ambience, not least one bolstered by kosmischesque moods, such as that evoked by the solar eclipse on the front cover? Prepare to zone out, enter flow, and focus on the present 'Zeit'.

Review: Tangerine Dream were soundtrack masters who recorded a huge number of classics. Dead Solid Perfect was their 15th at the time and, rather astonishingly, their 41st album overall. It was recorded in 1989 but only dropped in 1991 as another immersive piece of prog and electronic rock featuring Edgar Froese and Jerome Froese on guitar and keyboards and Paul Haslinger also on keyboards. It is a soundtrack to Bobby Roth's film based on the novel by Dan Jenkins and features several similar pieces in which only the melodies are varied and - until now - has been a stinker to find.

Review: Tears For Fears' debut album was titled The Hurting and we now gather it has turned 40, spurring the release of this reissue. Despite its dark themes of childhood trauma, emotional repression and primal screaming theapy, the album peaked at number one, ascending to the status of a template-cutter for all the synth-pop and new wave to come thereafter - and proving that the dance music loving masses perhaps weren't so emotionally repressed ater all. The Hurting still features some of the band's most memorable tracks, such as 'Mad World', 'Pale Shelter' and 'Change'. This special edition has been remastered at half speed for optimal clarity; a treat for the audiophiles who've moved past the arena and into the living room.

Review: The combination of former Microdisney/Fatima Mansions singer Cathal Coughlan - one of the sharpest lyrical minds the alternative scene has ever produced - and fellow Irishman Jacknife Lee, former cult beat hero turned super producer and co-writer to the likes of Taylor Swift, U2 and Peter Buck, is an incendiary one. Given maximum space to resonate by the sparse but detailed electronic productions, Coughlan paints worlds of reality and fantasy mixed up, as memory so often is, so poignant as a result. Beats arrive courtesy of the unmissable 'Sex Bunting' and 'Mister Imperator', but whether the soundscapes are lively or luxuriating in the background, the concoction is heady and hard to resist.

Review: Known for their cover versions - having re-read Sly Stone, Plastic Bertrand, Les Chats Sauvages, and many more over the years - Telex managed to tread a fine line between comedy and innovation. Focusing heavily on a lo-fi synthesised sound, the Belgian alt-poppers would use plenty of humour in their work, but never allowed this to outshine or overshadow the musicality of it all. Released in 1980, Neurovision is a case in point. According to the band, this was their tongue-in-cheek entry to the Eurovision Song Contest, for which they were chosen as representatives for their home country in the same year. Deliberately banal lyrics, mostly referring to the competition itself, married to the glittering wonder of a proto-electronic soundtrack, mark it as a work of bold daring and a little genius. Sadly, it failed to secure them last place in the tournament, as they hoped, forcing them to settle for 17 out of 19.

Review: 'This Is Telex' marked the beginning of the label's massive reissue campaign earlier last year, a 14-track retrospective highlighting a number of the Belgian trio's best singles. Now comes 'Telex', a mammoth red 6xLP box set documenting yet more of the synthpop experimenters' best works - Wonderful World, Looney Tunes, Neurovision, etc. It also comes with a 16-page booklet, in case you weren't clued in enough. One can only hope you'll be titillated enough by the band's synthy charms, and deft combining of covers and originals.

Review: ***B-STOCK: Damaged to corner of outer box, otherwise in excellent condition***


'This Is Telex' marked the beginning of the label's massive reissue campaign earlier last year, a 14-track retrospective highlighting a number of the Belgian trio's best singles. Now comes 'Telex', a mammoth red 6xLP box set documenting yet more of the synthpop experimenters' best works - Wonderful World, Looney Tunes, Neurovision, etc. It also comes with a 16-page booklet, in case you weren't clued in enough. One can only hope you'll be titillated enough by the band's synthy charms, and deft combining of covers and originals.

Review: In some ways it's remarkable that Telex managed to achieve the level of global success they did. This isn't slight on the band or indeed their sound, but to simultaneously make groundbreaking noises and garner widespread mass appeal has never been that easy, save for a number of high profile names we often now consider doyens of the music world. Looney Tunes, the group's fifth album, arrived in 1988 and by this point they had already been inducted into the synth pop hall of fame. Output and activity slowing considerably as the decade progressed, just like their sixth and final outing How Do You Dance?, released in 2006, here was proof that their vitality and ability to make ground breaking things had not waned, while their understanding of hooks and immediate impact had only grown more polished and absolute.

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Review: Formed in 1978, Marc Moullin, Dan Lacksman, and Michael Moers broke the mould with Telex - one of the most influential Belgian synth-pop groups of all time. Calling on disco, punk, and the sound of formative era experimental electronic music that was beginning to take hold in Western Europe, they would simultaneously produce some of the most important tracks of the genre until their first disbandment in 2006, and bless us with hilarious pithiness in the shape of tunes like 'Euro-Vision', a bleep-driven 'critique' of the song contest. How Do You Dance? was the group's final studio album, rounding out a six-strong, decade-spanning LP back catalogue, and despite arriving almost three decades after their debut, Looking for Saint Tropez, turned heads for its originality, this beauty still proved they were more than capable of delivering innovative goods. One for fans of Metronomy, Todd Terje and more.

Review: Terr, the Berlin-based producer, makes electro very noticeably inspired by sci-fi and retrofuturism, with an added sprinkling of cosmic disco to keep things as optimistic (as the former two genres have a habit of being comparatively dystopian) as they need to be. Consciousness As A State Of Matter is a rollicking ride through Terr's manipulably god-playing vision in electro, exploring the concept of consciousness as a physical phenomenon that can be manipulated and transformed. Of course, we don't need this to be spelt out too hard, as Terr's ability to transmute his ideas from potentiated mind-form into real, DAWbound sound is certainly an example of this. Highlights like 'Warp Drive' and 'Final Dance', backed up by dreamy progressions and mysterious vocal contributions, makes this a welcome addition to Erol Alkan's Phantasy Sound label.

Review: Club scene doyen, dance music veteran, and rave culture hero Johannes Auvinen opts to depart from the dance floor, at least for the time being, and deliver Arles - an ode to the other side of the electronic-acid scene, those sounds that make most sense after the chaos and carnage of a party have subsided and you're safely home on the couch with you and yours and all dearest.
And it works as well as it should, with the experience both of living in that world and making anthems for it clearly evident in the overall production quality and ideas. Arles is a warm blanket, that friendly therapist, an album that understands where you've been because it was there too. Remarkably, despite what that may suggest, this is not ambient or particularly leftfield stuff. Instead, it's rhythmic, pop-infused electronica goodness, for want of a more succinct, less awkward turn of phrase.

Review: To truly understand what's happening here you first need to know the background. Snowflakes Are Dancing is the delightfully evocative and - let's face it - wonderfully endearing title of Isao Tomita's second studio album. But this isn't really the Japanese musician's own work. Instead, it takes the arrangements of Claude Debussy, particularly the French composer's so-called 'tone paintings', and splashes new colour across the palette by way of some modern toys.

So while the guy who wrote the notes did so in the midst of industrialisation in Europe, his interpreter from the Far East worked on those tunes at a point in time when modernism was in full swing, and marching forward so quickly the future was already in sight. Using a Moog synthesiser, still then very much an experimental toy, and Mellotron, the result is an electronic overture worthy of the best sci-fi scores.

Review: Dark Entries are back with more of that sweet, sweet goth sauce in the shape of Topographies. The San Francisco band have been building up a following for their faithful tribute to sad-eyed synth-pop and new wave from the early 80s, releasing an album in 2020 on Funeral Party as well as a single for Sonic Cathedral. It's not hard to pick out the influences, and it all makes sense when you learn Gray Tolhurst is the son of The Cure's Laurence Tolhurst. They're not simply aping another band's sound though and if you can't get enough of that quintessential goth rock sound, you're going to love this record.

Review: Berlin's Jennifer Touch is back with a second album of her synth, cold wave and electro collages and this one is inspired by reading 'Grapes of Wrath' by John Steinbeck. She was touched by the idea of the settler's movement and got into the mindset of a cowboy while writing these tunes. The resulting sounds are full of hope and mystery and were all written in an explosion of creativity and energy in just a couple of months. That plays out in the urgency of the grooves making for another great long player.

Review: As he's moved further towards a career in soundtrack composition, Trentemoller's music has become increasingly widescreen and atmospheric, with the Danish artist drawing inspiration from dream-pop, the Cocteau Twins and Durutti Column as much as the ambient, electronica and immersive techno he was once famous for. All of these strands combine beautifully on 'Memoria', a picturesque and enveloping affair whose multitude of highlights include the yearning, string-laden and bittersweet brilliance of 'No More Kissing The Rain', the wall-of-sound dream pop shimmer of 'In The Gloaming', the mid-80s indie-pop haziness of 'Dead or Alive' and the glassy-eyed and tactile 'All Too Soon'.

Review: Newcastle cold pop duo Troth have always been one to watch if you're on the pulse of the city's underground experimental scene, thanks to their dreamy sound, hypnotizing live sets and a propensity to induce zone-out states in whoever chooses to listen. Their latest LP 'Forget The Curse' carries the same lo-fi, folk and synthwave sensibilities as their rather obvious influence Hype Williams, building a clairvoyant dialogue between the vocals of Amelia Besseny and Cooper Bowman. Channelling the idea of dream logic into their music, we are further charmed into doing the duo's bidding, through such instruments as an affected sax and high-cut piano echoes ('Forget The Curse').

Review: It's been 40 years since Michal Turtle released his seminal, ground-breaking album Music From The Living Room into the world and promptly disappeared back into the aether. An extremely obscure cult classic known only to deep diggers and aficionados of the finest order, it wasn't until Music From Memory reissued some of the tracks from it via retrospective compilations of Turtle's unreleased music almost 30 years later that his name become more widely known and a new generation were able to discover the artist's unique and pioneering style of experimental electronic music production, the majority of it very much ahead of its time, and to this day still timeless. Invisible Inc. contacted Turtle in the summer of 2023 about releasing something else by him, and it was during this exchange of emails that ideas were expressed about releasing not simply a straightforward reissue of Music From The Living Room to mark its 40th anniversary (the album has never been reissued in full), but rather a re-imagined and re-constructed take on the album, bringing contemporary techniques, styles and newly recorded vocal and instrument parts into the mix and breathing new life into these wonderful compositions. Collaborators old and new were brought into the studio and the songs re-created from the ground up. Familiar songs like 'Are You Psychic?' and 'Village Voice' are overhauled and echo remnants of their original counterparts, but simultaneously sound like completely new tracks. The always mesmerising 'Phantoms Of Dreamland' is represented through a live recording at Cafe OTO, featuring original album vocalist Lucianne Lasalle and regular collaborator HOVE on electronics. The remaining tracks, however, will be completely new to the ears of most people, never having been reissued or heard in these new forms ever before.

Review: By the time 2024's Pendulum landed, Twin Tribes had been building up a vehemently passionate following among members of black-nailed, dark-hearted subcultures for nine years. Also known as Luis Navarro and Joel NiNo Jr., the pair clocked up underground wins with two preceding records, Ceremony and Shadows, garnering attention among fans of cold wave and post punk. Now they take the whole concept to even higher - icier - heights. One wrong step and you'll be cast down the mountainside, it's dizzying at times. Chunky basslines drive us into yearning, strangely subdued-yet-soaring melodies that seem to speak to despair and hope in equal measure. It's hugely evocative stuff that rarely lets up in terms of intensity, 'Caldron of Thorns' among the tracks at the lower end of tempo scales, and even then it's not really hanging about.