Back catalogue: All genres

Review: Ahead of an oncoming Tbilisi party set to be thrown by the Sameheads crew, their latest 7" appears ahead of time as the latest offering by fellow friends, Andrea & Alexander. With just 300 copies available, this dreamy duo share a juxtaposed space with a more esoteric, gritty B-side, occupied by TINA's 'Vacation', which breaks from the usual Sameheads sound, almost entirely, to indulge a massively wonky inhumation. The A's own 'Olias', by contrast, is light and sixteen-thy, dotting along with detuned Italo saws and descending cadences of relief. Once performed live at the fabled Sameheads festival, City Of A Thousand Suns, the label here celebrate its recorded version for the world to hear on repeat.

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: 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: 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: Since making his debut in 2019 via 'Koi Jaye' - a stunning edit of a little-known Punjabi take on throbbing, Moroder inspired electronic disco - Tjade has delivered a handful of 'must-check' releases that showcase the growing quality of his throbbing, Italo and Hi-NRG-influenced original. The Voyager EP, his latest effort, may well be his strongest collection of cuts to date. For proof, check 'Voyager', a kaleidoscopic, synth-heavy stomper that channels the spirt of Hi-NRG and early trance and comes backed with a stomping techno-trance rework courtesy of Marlon Hoffstadt AKA DJ Trance. Elsewhere, 'Shut Out' sees him add 90s trance style melodies and synth sounds to a punchy breakbeat groove, while 'In Contact' is a throbbing Hi-NRG workout blessed with deliciously cheery electronic lead lines.

Review: Luke Wyatt's Torn Hawk project has always been hard to pigeonhole, with the American producer frequently combining admirable experimental instincts and a love for dusty, distorted sounds with a desire to foreground melody and associated musical niceness. Both sides of his musical personality combine on this six-track EP for Fixed Rhythms. The highlight - for us at least - is the surf guitar solo-laden moody epic 'Oh Yeah (Cop Collab)', where waves of gritty, psychedelic and weirdo noises rise above dense sonic textures and rolling beats. That said, there's plenty to set the pulse racing elsewhere across the EP, including the outstanding-fi workout 'Make Things So Complicated', the dubbed-out beat science of 'Dirty Black Satin' and the experimental breakbeat madness of 'Sulking In The Hallway Outside The Cafeteria'.

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: Yugoslavia went through unthinkable turmoil during the break up of the Soviet Union, which is why it is all the more astounding even all these years on that it had quite such a fertile and innovative music scene. In 1984, Zoran Jevtic and Zoran Vracevic were a key part of it and helped revolutionise the sound of the day by introducing synth-pop, breakbeat and hip-hop with their Data and The Master Scratch Band projects. Their releases paved the way for modern electronic sounds and this album dives deep into that era and compiles their earliest unreleased works from between 1981 and 1983. It's a daring exploration of genres including industrial, EBM, minimal synth and electro-funk. It adds up to a true digger's gem that will significantly elevate your vinyl-hunting credentials without having to do the hard work yourself.

Review: Dream Division present their latest album Rose In The Garden Of Winter, a contemporary gothic disco undertaking of polished and still genre-various proportions. Echoing the stylistic ambitions of Bauhaus, but perhaps describably updating their sound for the modern ear, Dream Division offer a metamorphic record, able to shapeshift into a range of chiropteran forms: cinematic punk, dub, goth-disco, lounge, even interluding raga. Impressively, the personnel list on this record make up an intricate human nonagram, through the central vector on this ritual star is Tom McDowell, who handles synths, vocoder, production and songwriting and commands a puppeteer's control over various synthesists, sitar caressers and theremin cooers. Delightfully devilish throughout, A Rose... reminds of something between a lycanthropic, late 70s Mancunian punk blowout and a fanged Italo-disco bashment in which the sprinklers sprinkle blood on sight of a daywalker.

Review: As one of the iconic partnerships from the electroclash era, Miss Kittin & The Hacker helped define seedy synth tackle at the turn of the century. Given the prevalence of minimal wave in this day and age, it feels like the perfect time for them to come back with a new album. Teetering between pop nous and the darkest of deviant nighttime dreams, this is everything you would want from a return of the Grenoble greats. Listening to 'Purist' and they could easily be taking on the charts, while a trip into 'La Cave' is like donning your finest leathers and sliding into the dungeon.

Review: Born and raised in Bern, Switzerland, Michael Antener spent most of the 1980s concerned with interpreting the subconsciously and overtly apocalyptic discourse of that time through the medium of industrial-edged, dark feeling music. "I found a niche where I could express myself, along with other people who were not afraid of dark themes," he's quoted as saying in retrospect, before going on to explain that singing about love would have been more difficult than using "cries of pain taken from horror movies". This triple vinyl collector's item celebrates that fertile, if angry and dystopian period in Antener's life. Bringing together work from two of his formative projects, The Stranger of the Swamp and Bande Berne Crematoire, what's here is captivating. Electroclash with groove, distressed collages of noise, a certain sense of sonic expressionism - all brooding shadows, menacing arrangements and deeply unsettling moods.

Review: Phaedra is the fifth studio album by German electronic group Tangerine Dream, recorded in November 1973 at The Manor in Shipton-on-Cherwell, England, and released in 1974 through Virgin. An icier, tempoless departure for a band otherwise better recognised for their sequencer-led, soundtrack-bred sound, this was a hidden moulin for frost-drone fanatics, and a deviant pupil of the otherwise strict Berlin School. Despite receiving little to no airplay, Phaedra gained significant traction through word of mouth when it was released by a rather more hippified Richard Branson's fledgling Virgin label, eventually reaching number 15 on the UK Albums Chart and remaining on the charts for 15 weeks. Its long-form pieces, such as 'Sequent C' and 'Mysterious Semblance At The Strand Of Nightmares', represent an indifference to constraints of timing, instead washing over the ears as diachronic, swirling, crisp ice ambient smirrs.

Review: This new reissue of The Angel From The West Window by Tangerine Dream's showed the returned back to their electronic music roots in 2011. Departing from the mellower tones that characterized some of their 90s output, the band's latest album at the time delved into more challenging and orchestral electronic landscapes. The Angel of the West Window, inspired by the works of German author Gustav Meyrink, showcases a revitalised sound: pulsating sequencers, expansive synthesized textures, and evocative electric guitar solos dominate the album. Collaborating with Thorsten Quaeschning, Froese infuses the tracks with dynamic rhythmic foundations and ethereal electronic layers, creating an edgy and immersive sonic experience. Electric violin accents add a haunting depth to the compositions, enhancing their atmospheric quality. Standout tracks like 'The Mysterious Gift to Mankind' and 'Living in Eternity' highlight Tangerine Dream's ability to blend synthetic and organic elements seamlessly. The album's thematic richness and sensitive melodies evoke a cinematic scope, making it ideal for both introspective listening and atmospheric settings. Long-time fans have welcomed this resurgence, celebrating Tangerine Dream's return to form and their enduring influence on electronic music. Tangerine Dream's musical legacy and innovative spirit is part of electronic music history. Fans of their Virgin records output should really enjoy this album.

Review: If you're trying to work out where in Tangerine Dream's back catalogue Finnegans Wake fits, then good luck. According to our sources, this is "roughly the group's 125th release". So it's remarkable just how fresh and forward thinking the record sounds, given most people start running out of original ideas once they reach adulthood, let alone make it past the first two LPs. First released in 2011, eight tracks launch us towards the stratosphere on a rocket of synths and electric guitars, chords soaring ever higher as the background symphony of glitter and chime invoke images of stardust falling over an ocean of zodiacal light below. If that's too conceptual, then let's just say this is progressive kosmische Kraut at its most epic and bold. Just like the rest of their output, then.

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: 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: 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: 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: TR/ST's Performance delves deeper into the dark synth-pop realm Robert Alfons has mastered over the past decade. Recorded in Los Angeles with producer Nightfeelings, the album presents a smoky fusion of eerie synths, deep bass and Alfons' haunting vocals. The title reflects a friend's remark about Alfons' performative essence, a theme echoed throughout the album's narrative. The opener, 'Soon,' starts with ethereal electronics before exploding into a danceable new wave anthem laced with biting lyrics. Tracks like 'All At Once,' 'The Shore,' and 'Boys of LA' showcase Alfons' ability to blend melancholic beauty with intense, almost cinematic production. His voice anchors the emotional turbulence of the album, navigating through themes of guilt, desire, and haunting memories. Performance is an immersive experience that straddles the line between mesmerizing and unsettling. Alfons' lyrical introspection and dynamic soundscapes make this record a standout in the synth-pop genre, cementing TR/ST's place as a rising force in electronic music.

Review: TR/ST's Performance emerges as a striking testament to the project's evolution, now presented on eye-catching yellow vinyl. The fourth studio album from Robert Alfons, formerly known as Trust, dives deep into a haunting synth-pop universe crafted with the help of Night Feelings. Recorded in Los Angeles, this collection is a masterclass in balancing eerie synths, foggy low end, and Alfons's raw, emotive crooning.
The album's title reflects a friend's casual observation of Alfons's intrinsic performative essence. Tracks like 'Soon' burst with anthemic new wave hooks and caustic lyrics, while others such as 'All At Once' and 'The Shore' showcase a dramatic interplay between beauty and bitterness. Alfons's voice, both a tempest and an anchor, delivers a stream-of-consciousness narrative that navigates through realms of dread, lust, and emotional upheaval. Performance offers a mesmerising blend of melancholic grandeur and intense production, transforming each song into an immersive, emotional journey. With its unique soundscape and compelling storytelling, this album promises to impress and unsettle in equal measure.

Review: Formed in 2005 between Keen K (Divider), Dirk-Torben Klein (Echo West, Silent Signals, Flashbacks) and Niclas Bruckner, Trans Active Nightzone are a fin de millenaire coldwave and synthpop act, whose interest in said sounds came at just the right time: not too early to be mere products of their time, and not too late to become glossy pastiches either. Influenced heavily by Joy Division, Killing Joke and They Might Be Giants, as well as early 80s minimal wave and adjacent synthpop offshoots, their self-titled record was an infectious indulgence of modern production techniques welded to an established style, suturing a crisp but no less bulbous sound. The surreality of their music is best heard on 'In Dreams', whose piquant twang-leads and demure choruses conjure first-person visions of reeling through an impossible dream-metropolis, and 'Logical & Interfered', where things grow much graver and obscener, as the vocalists work together as certain lyrical accomplices to indict the future system of heinous retroactive crimes against humanity.

Review: Brighton-based Australian vocalist, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Penelope Trappes shares her fifth album, requiescing ten captive ambient soundscapes, all of which share the aim of integrating dreamsand nightmares, grief and personal empowerment. Through the use of carnal, transcendent cello drones, Trappes explores historical and generational traumas in a chilling piece of gothic experimentalism. In a residential prelude, Trappes trapped herself in Scotland, eking remote studio solitude as a cranny in which to unleash personal demons, exploring and transmuting familial chaos and history. Raw and spiritually charged, the album offers a powerful meditation on loss; its threat, its meaning, and the process of coming to terms with it.

Review: The first new music from Trentemoller since 2022 proves to be his furthest foray into the area of dream pop and shoegaze-esque alternative sounds yet. Two bands are obvious reference points here, namely Cocteau Twins - see the dreamy, hazy 'Empty Beaches' and the vocals of Icelandic singer Disa, throughout - and The Cure, whose dark-edged instrumentation provides a grounding counterpoint to the more shimmering, ethereal sounds. That's far from the whole story though. There are other treats like 'I Give My Tears', with a searing Mary Chain vibe, and the beatless centrepiece 'Hollow', not to mention subtle electronic embellishments throughout, proving there are many musical facets to what's going on here. One for the dark nights ahead, for sure.

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: Studio album two from Danish electronic icon Trentemoller was a landmark for the producer and DJ. Already more than a decade into his career, and with a strong fanbase among techno, alternative electronica, and ambient listeners, this was the difficult second that cemented his status among the upper echelons of synth artistes. Destined to outlast the scenes and sounds from which they emerge. Producing a number of hit tracks - 'Sycamore Feeling' is still up there with Trentemoller's most recognised and beloved pieces - Into The Great Wide Yonder peaked at number two in the Danish Albums Chart, hit the Top 40 in the German album chart, and would receive double silver certification from the Independent Music Companies Association within a year - 40,000 copies sold (at time when sales were flatlining) - giving some idea as to how universally loved it is.

Review: Frankfurt's Gregor Tresher returns with his first album in eight years. The 16-track LP offers up his famously dynamic techno sound and rich synth designs with element of dance floor clout underpinning each tune. From his beginnings in Frankfurt's 90s techno scene to collaborations with icons like Depeche Mode, Moby and Extrawelt, Tresher's career has been marked by critically acclaimed releases and False Gods is one of his most ambitious projects yet. It's an accomplished and introspective journey through modern electronic music enriched by collaborations with some notable friends.

Review: Synth-pop, cold wave, dark wave, EBM, future pop. Whatever label you want to give Joyland, the second studio album from Canadian electronic music project TR/ST, one truth is undeniable - this is unashamedly overt and unapologetically futurist in sound, and the tracks big enough to fill a main stage and then some. Opening on 'Slightly Floating', a rare moment of calm before the storm, once second tune 'Geryon' drops it's game over in many ways. You're in, and there's no way out. That said, it's not all rave horn synths and bounding kicks drums. 'Are We Arc' is as weird, trippy and opiate as they come, like the twisted fever dream of a cabaret duet. Or something similar. 'Four Gut' is a wobbly tech-hued workout, and the title track probably owes as much to hardcore as anything else.

Review: There's something transportive about Odd Balade. The real question is, where does it take us to? Potentially very different places from the next listener, with much of what's here opaque enough to produce varying interpretations from a variety of ears. Even if we were all thinking and experience it in the same way, the sheer breadth of the tracks themselves would still invoke changeable responses. 1980s goth-wave, leftfield pop, haunting ethereality, medieval-hued folk tones, and that's really just off the top of our heads. Tiphaine Belin, AKA Trypheme, is certainly capable of conjuring a multitude of feelings, but Odd Balade makes more big statements than that - it reaffirms the artist as an esteemed producer and songwriter, not just an incredible vocalist. A record deserving of serious attention, to say the least.

Review: Back in 2009, Minimal Wave Records took a deep dive into the short-lived career of Jersey's finest 1980s new wave band, Turquoise Days, via a fine compilation entitled "Alternative Strategies". A decade on, they've decided to repeat the trick with "Further Strategies", a fine double-vinyl set that backs the tracks featured on that compilation with a wealth of previously unheard songs and demo versions. As you'd expect, it's really rather good, with the collected tracks delivering the kind of emotion-rich, melodic and occasionally dancefloor-friendly goodness more readily associated with early Depeche Mode.