Review: Eagles & Butterflies has had plenty of notable tunes over the years. No doubt that is why he gets the nod from Gerd Jansen's legendary Running back label to offer up Retropolis Vol 01. It is a four-track EP that shows off the producer's well-realised sounds. The title track is the real standout - 'Retropolis' brings electro-styled synth work with brilliantly future retro euro-disco energy. It's packed with hints of Italo and is sure to light up any club scene. Says the producer of the EP, "Retropolis is the past meets the future. I love influences and technology from the past and making music that sounds like it could be from a time yet to arrive." Mission accomplished.
Review: To accompany their re-release of East Wall's superb 1991 debut album, Silence, Dark Entries has decided to put out the Italian band's forgotten debut release, 1985 single "Eye of Glass". Tending towards the darker end of the Italo-disco spectrum, but blessed with typically cheery synthesizer melodies and skewed female vocals, it's a record that seems far more inspired by the earlier British new wave synth-pop movement than pleasing the clubs of Rome or Rimini. The vocal version is accompanied by a subtly different instrumental, which includes waves of warm synths and offers more prominence to the band's bubbly electronics, throbbing arpeggio bassline, and delay-laden drum machine hits.
Review: We are living in the post-Innervisions dance world, long after the dust has settled on the hype and hysteria drummed up both by the label itself, and tastemaking publications on its behalf at the turn of the last decade. But that doesn't mean for a second the imprint's quality control, and ear for exceptional deep, synthy dancefloor stuff has waned - it's just a case of trends moving on.
And when trends move on it usually improves what's left behind, en vogue often leading to an endless stream of great pretenders and tired replicas. Night Versions, the latest EP from Thessaloniki-based Greek producer Echonomist is a great case in point. Packing two tracks of coldwave-infused house, from the broken, trapped energy vibes of 'Our Last Night', to the dark twisted vocals of 'Different Versions of Your Love', it's all fresh enough to make you forget just how much we've heard from this camp before.
Review: Gerd Jansen's Running Back is brilliantly and effortlessly eclectic. It's a label that does easy to love house anthems as well as more experimental fair and plenty in between. And that's where Ede & Deckert sit - in a world to the left of centre with catchy synth tunes feat. Sargland. 'Immer' is their latest and pairs doleful guitar riffs a la Joy Division with soul vocals and slick drums that will work in the right dance floor setting. It's a great sound and one that has the potential to become something of an unlikely underground dance hit. The B-side has an instrumental that allows the synth work to shine more.
Review: Since reforming in 2011, seminal Rochester coldwave collective Eleven Pond have been selective with their outings. With a 25 year gap in their releases, there seemed no point in rushing. Rather, they've honed their sound and recontextualised it within modern references. The crisp production and heavy use of acid on "Just Be Happy" taps into a venn overlap between New Order and Underworld, while "Sitting On Chairs" takes on a much more subdued poetic approach that really relishes in the band's roots. For added future resonance there's also a mean dark room tech by Dmitry Distant. Yet another reason to be happy.
Review: Berlin scene stalwart Ellen Allien has gone back to her early rave and harder techno roots in recent years. The label head, DJ and producer was there at the start of such scenes back in the early 90s and now there is a revival for that stuff she is best placed to do it with real authority. For this one she joins forces with Italian synth wave band Ash Code to cook up three tracks where Napoli meet Berlin, cold wave collides with techno and fresh new dancefloor magic happens. It's a dynamic sound world with jacked up drums, moody synths and icy vocals all arresting your every sense.
Review: It would be fair to say that Montreal duo Essaie Pas don't have a particularly positive view of our planet. "Earth, what a shithole," they moodily grumble on the title track from their latest EP on DFA, their first since the release of last year's "New Path" LP. The cut itself is perhaps not quite as dark as you'd expect, with its throbbing, dark Italo-style arpeggio bass and crunchy drum hits being peppered with sharp, trance style synthesizer motifs, bubbly electronic riffs and female vocals that add an extra frisson of positivity. Italian scene stalwart Marco Passarani delivers a flipside interpretation that brilliantly re-casts the cut as a Bobby Orlando style mid-1980s Hi-NRG club cut, while bonus track "Corps Etranger" is a pleasingly sparse, bubbly and alien-sounding chunk of intergalactic electro.
Review: When it comes to creating chilly coldwave and new wave influenced dark electro, few producers can boast as impressive a discography as Brigitte Enzler AKA Beta Evers. She returned to action earlier this year following a six-year absence via a track on a split EP on Peripheral Minimal, and here delivers her first solo 12" since 2008. She begins with the sharp, horror-influenced synth motifs and bustling drum machine beats of "Don't Be Afraid", before exploring more aggressive and mind-altering territory on the sleazy "Move In My Body Rhythm". Flip for the creepy, triple time hustle of "Eruption" and the moody but clattering throb of "Destination".
Beta Evers - "Only For My Satisfaction" (Bodyvolt remix) (4:52)
Alienata - "Memory" (9:06)
Review: Beta Evers, the German darkwave electro queen, teams up with Berlin's reigning techno heroine Alienata for the latter's Discos Atonicos. Launched in 2017 with a simple leitmotif: passion for music. From esoteric experiments to the electro space dimension, the label's third edition keeps on with the quality efforts thus far by BS-1 and Artificiero. On the A side, the Kommando 6 boss delivers the sexy noir antics of "Predictions" said to be an unreleased track from her archives dating back to 2007/2008 and the Bodyvolt remix of "Only For My Satisfaction". The flip belongs to the Killekill affiliated Alienata, where she gets into some jacking and emotive house that takes it cues from Chicago's first wave on "Memory".
Review: Laurene Exposito is back on Amsterdam's Knekelhuis with a follow up to her well received debut album. This new record is said to be very personal - life changes and her love life are said to be central themes. All tracks have been recorded at Exposito's home in the Rennes, France using all analogue equipment. Starting out with the seductive coldwave tribute "Yellow Density" which features some inventive synth action that reaches near acid moments over her deadpan vocals. On the flip, title track "Cocktail Mexico" goes for some Dopplereffekt style electro shenanigans and "Go Forward" conjuring up comparisons to early Tropic Of Cancer on this hazy lo-fi goth journey.
In Aeternam Vale - "I Can't Stand It Anymore" (4:18)
Review: After a strong first release, Berlin-based minimal wave and general leftfield electronics label In The Dark Again delivers a very sizable salvo for a second release, not least down to the power of the two In Aeternam Vale tracks contained within. "Valium Water" finds the resurgent '80s outfit in a most captivating techno mode, keeping the fuzzy sonic qualities and ranging harmonious tones intact while maintaining a propulsive energy that would slot right in to a contemporary dancefloor setting. "I Can't Stand It Anymore" meanwhile harks back to a more song-writing mentality, complete with icy vocals and wondrously distorted guitar-esque synth. As if that wasn't enough, Ekoplekz also delivers another example of his more refined musicianship on "Jazz The 403", working his rough n' ready set up to a skipping and shuffling arrangement populated by expressive doodles of synth.
Count Van Delicious - "I Wonder How Flemming Dalum Is Doing?" (6:06)
Ste Spandex - "Edit 2" (2021 Re-Pop) (5:54)
Ernesto Harmon - "Search For" (6:31)
Review: Manchester's Red Laser Records returns with a four track various artists EP curated by label chief Il Bosco. 12 features Mark Wilkinson aka Kid Machine returns to the label with the neon-lit '80s mood of "Only Machines Allowed" going for that Axel Foley vibe, followed by Count Van Delicious doing his best impression of the Centre Neptune man on "I Wonder How Flemming Dalum Is Doing?". Over on the flip, things get pretty Balearic on Ste Spandex's "Edit 2" (2021 Re-Pop) and Ernesto Harmon gets stuck into some electro beat synthpop on the infectious "Search For".
Greg Wilson - "ICA Beats" (Gerd Janson edit - part 2) (5:27)
Greg Wilson - "ICA Beats" (Gerd Janson edit - part 1) (5:41)
Review: Some serious UK electro history here, as Running Back delivers a fresh pressing of Equip's rare 1984 gem 'XXXO', which was previously only available as a single-sided 12" back in the early 2000s. It's an undeniably far-sighted concoction which was produced by Greg Wilson, Martin Jackson and Andy Connell for - but sadly never included on - the pioneering Streesounds UK Electro album the trio created. Although technically electro, the track's 4/4 beats and proto-acid sounds make it a contender for the elusive title of 'first ever house record made in Britain'. To back it up, Gerd Janson has re-edited two previously unreleased electro beats recorded by the trio for a breakdance performance at the I.C.A, both of which sound like mutant, extra-percussive fusions of electro and post-punk.
Review: Last year, regular collaborators Ian Boddy (a Sunderland-based electronics wizard who founded the ambient-focused DiN imprint years ago) and Erik Wallo (a long-serving Norwegian guitarist primiarly known for his experimental and ambient releases) performed their first joint concert for a decade. It's that performance, where they jammed out extended and much-changed versions of tracks featured on some of their prior studio sets, which forms the basis of their latest full-length, Transmissions. As you'd expect, it's a wonderfully atmospheric and evocative affair that gets the most out of both artists, with highlights including the wonderfully creepy 'Uncharted', the krautrock-style hypnotism of 'Aboena', the icy and ethereal 'Ice Station' and the slow-burn bliss of 'Salvage'.
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