Back catalogue: Coldwave/Synth

Review: A new collaboration of Philoxenia Records founders Luigi Di Venere and Neu Verboten, Affekt Unit is informed by an aim to "spark new feelings on the dancefloor". The three track Discorgy EP celebrates their musical obsessions - Italo house, Frankfurt EBM-house and trance - with the result proving an electrifying crossover of these classic genres together with surprising new sounds. 'Oct-Opus' boasts a serious electro component, fused with progressive trance, UK bass, techno, transcendental rave and even a climactic outbreak of rave-era breaks. The title track 'Discorgy' draws from Euro dance and EBM, experimenting with a polyrhythmic bass line and bringing the kind of 'stadium house' that The KLF were always aiming for. Closing track 'Dreams Of Wrestlers' is cosmic house at its sweetest and beefiest, spruced here and there with Italo stabs and pianos, drum machine fills and some lovely subtle filtering. Not so much a case of something for everyone than everything from everyone, you might even say.

Review: Earlier this year Minimal Wave offshoot provided one of this year's most visceral dancefloor weapons in Kino-I, the debut from Doug Lee's new An-I project. Taking inspiration from techno, jack, industrial and punk, An-I successfully drew a line under some of the Berlin-based artist's previous disco-flavoured endeavours. And then some! If you like the Kino-I 12" you will love the new triplet of An-I productions housed on this appropriately titled Gutz 12". The title track alone should come with a health warning; such is the furious onslaught of machine funk it contains, whilst the unnerving "Rut" is the most schizophrenic production you will hear this year. Best of all id closing track "Save Us" sounds like a cross between in Aeternam Vale and Silent Servant. Pressed on a rather thick and dashing slab of magenta orange vinyl!

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: A fascinating new slice of neue Deutsche welle from the artist Eine Welt. The track romanticizes the traditional Middle Eastern dish, Knafeh, through the lens of post-punkish electronics, German rawism, and myriad layering and production. The fact that an artist would go to such great pains to record, master, press and distribute a song with such a niche subject matter truly shows the power of Turkish cuisine. Clearly, even in back the '80s, there was mutual cultural appreciation between the Germans and the Turkish.

Review: San Francisco's Dark Entries label does a good line in reissuing obscure, long-forgotten, left-of-centre gems (their excellent collection of Patrick Cowley's little-known soundtrack work for gay porn films, School Daze, was arguably one of the compilations of 2013). Here, they've unearthed another overlooked gem - Art Fine's previously rare-as-hen's-teeth dark Italo-disco gem 'Dark Silence'. It's pretty much a straight copy of the New Wave-inclined original, with the sparser, looser 'Long Version' joining the dense 'Art Fine Version'.

Review: A Certain Ratio's core trio of drummer Donald Johnson, bassist/vocalist Jez Kerr, and multi-instrumentalist Martin Moscrop make ACR Loco a perfectly fluid and funk album. In fact, on this, their first album in more than ten years, the Manchester post-punk outfit are as funky as they have ever been. Their tried and tested sound gets nicely updated with modern beat driven sounds and plenty of redefines to today's political strife in the lyrics. There are plenty of smooth and cool synth led grooves like 'Get A Grip' and messages of unity on 'Family' that we can all relate to.

Review: Not content with merely being one of the biggest selling indie bands of right now, Yard Act are busy carving themselves a tasty side hustle as A&R men, with their Zen FC label scooping up some of the most exciting other music around as well as their own. This album from Sheffield's long serving synth maverick Adrian Flanagan (Kings Have Long Arms, Eccentronic Research Council, International Teachers Of Pop) is not an obvious choice for the guitar slingers, being closer to electro pop than indie, but it's a compulsive and ingenious listen all the same. Written during lockdown, it follows the rise and fall of an imaginary superstar DJ, each song pushing the narrative along and featuring a plethora of guests, including Richard Hawley and Maxine Peake, both of whom feature at the album's 'comedown' conclusion.

Review: The Advisory Circle (Cate Brooks) is a central cog in the machine that is Ghost Box, one of the most compelling labels to operate in the genre of hauntology in modern times. Brooks' too-perfect muzik is uncanny, reflecting on the grey memories of attempted architectural utopias and 80s library music for TV. These are slow instrumental electro ballads that inspire something of a failed sense of wonder in the listener, and they form a perfect addition to Brooks' extensive catalogue.

Review: Who, or perhaps what, was Tomo Akikawabaya? In truth, nobody really seems to sure on the answer, other than the fact this mysterious Japanese artists decided to release a serious of incredible synth-driven singles during the 1980s, before vanishing back into the dry ice of whatever smoke machine they escaped from. A musical genie, here only to bestow a limited number of gems on us, and then disappear forever. Swerving interviews and photos doesn't help the search, but The Castle II at least allows us to explore his work in depth, across several tracks. These range from the twisted cabaret weirds of 'Objet D'Amour', to the driving electro-punk of 'Le Voleur', grand and decidedly 1980s-sounding synth rock on 'The April', and New Romantic-esque pop on The Castle (II). Essential stuff.

Review: Canadian singer, songwriter and visual artists Allie X - real name Alexandra Ashley Hughes - is a great representative for the resurgent live electro-synth scene. Emerging from the Toronto indie circuit in the mid-2000s, it was a relocation to Los Angeles, a heartland for neon sounds, and early work with producers Circuit and Billboard that first saw an identity begin to form, which is as retro as it is futuristic, picking up scores of fans along the way, including Katie Perry no less. Girl With No Face is her latest long form, and sees the artist again stick her flag confidently in the ground. Tunes bounce, track, soar, step, pump and - at times - fall apart, emotionally speaking, with clear references to the likes of Ladyhawke, Madonna, Kraftwerk, Cocteau Twins and a-Ha, among others. Definitely one to watch, if you're not already.

Review: German trio Alphaville saw huge success with their 1984 debut album Forever Young. Two years later they set out to repeat the trick with Afternoons in Utopia. They somewhat succeed, too, as the long player reached the Top 20 in five different countries around Europe and spend the big hits 'Dance With Me,' 'Universal Daddy' and 'Jerusalem'. Now, for the first time ever, the record is repressed under the supervision of founding members Marian Gold and Bernhard Lloyd. The deluxe edition includes new photographs and sleeve notes as well as all the big musical moments.

Review: Experimental jazz meets electronic on this hybrid chimera of an album, wherein Gozen Atila aka. Anadol saw to a troupe of Istanbul jazz musicians recording over her pre-made synth jazz compositions. The sonic result is a strange recollection of Byzantine backstreets, noir sonic judders and hauntologic Persian dirges. It's enthralling because it's hard to break down where electronics end and live elements begin; 'Eciflere Gel' is a toe-tapping, hi-hat shuffling backlit crime-drama jazz bit, while 'Ablamin Gozleri' is completely different: a hauntingly electronic folk song. 'Istasyon Plajinda...', meanwhile, is a time-stopping and doomy ambient soundscape cut. Via everything from organ automation to subversion of tradition, Anadol has created a masterpiece.

Review: Instrumental synth pop producer Gozen Atila, AKA Anadol - named after an old Turkish car company - has been building a stellar reputation for herself as a purveyor of 1970s and 1980s influenced electronic soundscapes since her first full length, curuyen Yillar (Rotting Years), turned heads among press and public alike in 2012. Plenty has come between then and now, but finally we're given Hatiralar, a record that was made around the same time as her debut but has never before seen the light of day. Informed by the experimental European and Eurasian movie scores of decades past, fans of Bruce Haack and The Space Lady will find much to fall head over heels for here, touching on naive keyboard chart hits from outside the Western music industry, kosmische, science fiction sounds and obscure electro forms, it's a strange but enticing trip into another world.

Review: This new record from Automatic Tasty finds him move away from his usual pastoral acid sound and into a more DIY, bedroom pop realm with him on the microphone. It's a melancholic work that draws obvious parallels to Hot Chip, but with an extra air of curiosity and naivety. There is a dreamy vibe to the opener then a gentle party feel to 'A Happy Town,' lovely laziness to the bendy synths of 'Wake Up Dead' and more urgent feel to 'These Days'. This is utterly charming music that could have been released 30 years ago, today, or 20 years hence and still sound fresh.