Back catalogue: Coldwave/Synth

Review: It's been a few years since the rebrand of Super Furry Animals was announced. Doyens of the 1990s indie rock circus renowned for their consistently alternative and innovative contributions to a scene that was at constant risk of running out of ideas, while die hard fans and anyone who was actually there at the time will expound for days on the timeless merits of fare like Fuzzy Logic, Radiator and Guerrilla, a few decades on re-emerging as Das Koolies and rebooting does make perfect sense. First unveiled in 2019, the project is now Huw 'Bunf' Bunford, Cian Ciaran, Dafydd Ieuan and Guto Pryce's baby, Gruff Rhys still left to his own groundbreaking devices. While that may imply a weakening of the team sheet, Das Koolies proves how much talent ran through the SFA lineup. This EP is a case in point, blending synth wave, post punk, and dark pop in the title track alone, it's a veritable box of delights to unpack.

Review: Enjoy The Silence, Depeche Mode's standout single from Violator, marked a significant moment in the band's career, becoming their most successful UK single since 'Master & Servant' in 1984. 'Enjoy The Silence' captured both critical and public acclaim, peaking at number six in the UK charts and achieving top spots in Denmark and Spain, as well as reaching number eight in the US. The 12" version is beloved by fans with the myriad of great remixes the song provided. This new yellow vinyl version helps meet the demand of an always desirable dance record. The single's success earned Depeche Mode their first Brit Award for Best Single of 1990. This newfound positivity extended to the subsequent reception of Violator, solidifying 'Enjoy The Silence' as an iconic track in Depeche Mode's discography. The song continues to be celebrated for its brooding, tender qualities, and its ability to resonate with audiences globally as well as the iconic video.

Review: Depeche Mode's 'Wagging Tongue' was first released in 2023 as the star number from the indelible synthpop band's comeback album and swansong, Memento Mori. Something of downtempo musical elegy, the original track is a crisp exercise in melancholy uplift, colliding the band's usual synthetic arpeggiations with grass-is-greener lyrical themes. Now, however, comes a new ten-track remix bundle, of which select remixes have been chosen for a set of limited releases on wax. Most of the artists enlisted for the job have done a stellar job, amping up the tempo to a neatly electrified 130-ish-bpm, while indulging the zeitgeist's penchant for well-rounded but beefy sonics. On this one, none other than Daniel Avery sticks out with a futureological cosmic electro take, while Hawtin Gaiser opts for knocking big-room techno, and Henning Baer cools things down with a cityscape-soaring 808 remix.

Review: First featured on Depeche Mode's critically acclaimed, James Ford-produced 2023 album Memento Mori, 'Ghosts Again' returns in remixed form. Liverpool-based melodic techno maestro Massano (real name Sam Rose) steps up first, delivering a raw, heavy and mind-mangling take that sits somewhere between darkened new wave, moody techno, and early noughties electroclash sounds. It's a fine remix all told that showcases the best of the Basildon band's original synths and vocals, while dragging the track kicking and screaming towards the dancefloor. Techno veterans Chris Liebing and Luke Slater take over on side two, predictably delivering a fearlessly fast, weight and intoxicating take that's as stomping as they come and twice as dirty.

Review: Much loved doom monger emo kids Depeche Mode have always been ripe for remixing by new generations of electronic music artists and so it is that there 'My Favourite Stranger' gets a series of re-rubs here on Columbia. Tech house mainstay Boris Brejcha remixes first and elongates the grooves with mournful pads up top. The Ela Minus remix of the same tune brings some extra textured and darker moods and the best is saved till the last if you ask us. The Lond Island Sound remix is high speed and tinged with electro synth work as the moody vocals echo about the mix to trippy effect.

Review: You might well have caught two thirds of Dina Summer lurking around modern minimal wave circles as Local Suicide, but now they're pressing on into further sinister synthscapes as Dina Summer. Following their standout debut LP Rimini in 2022, the trio are back with a seductive new EP that sees them strutting into 2024 with some of their best material to date. The synth hooks on 'Unter Strom' are towering triumphs of pop-minded sound design, with some discernible Italo throb happening in the low end. 'All Or Nothing' is a fierce and formidable peak time slammer, while 'Excess' is the kind of supersized electro-goth workout you'd equally expect from Miss Kittin & The Hacker.

Review: Drab Majesty's latest EP 'An Object In Motion' is a deep mix of blackgaze and goth psychedelia, consisting of just four tracks flirting with a mystical, guitar-driven spirit. Don't let the number of tracks deceive; the project clocks in at just under half an hour, in large part thanks to the long-form number 'Yield To Force', which pits strange distant alarm sounds against graveyard-shifting fingerstyle guitars, in what amounts to a night-drive around old town suited well to any atmospheric surrealist crime flick. Only your first and last tracks use vocals, and when they do, the combination of deeply high-and-low-end registers are great complements for the artists' lyrical musings on misery and wonderment.

Review: Contemporary LA cold-punks Drab Majesty bring together coldwave and and shoegaze for their latest EP, An Object In Motion. The four tracks therein are examples of those styles' most atmospheric and ethereal facets, showing off the distinctive vocals and guitarwork of the project's mastermind, Deb DeMure, the androgynous alter ego of one Andrew Clinco. A swirling, emotive fusion, something between Slowdive (enlisting the help of Rachel Goswell one track) and Romo, emerges.

Review: Drab Majesty was first set up by Andrew Clinco in the beating heart of the US music industry, Los Angeles. It's here, in a metropolis defined by both glitz, glamour and plastic, and wild experimentation and unconventional thinking, that the artist once best known as drummer in Marriages adopted a new androgynous persona, Deb Demure, and then drafted Mona D (Alex Nocolaou) as keyboardist and vocalist. That was 2016. Now here we are today, a few albums deep and faced with their latest offering. An Object in Motion takes bold strides in many directions, from the beautiful, natural ambient of 'Cape Perpetua' to goth-shoegaze worthy of Gary Numan himself, 'Vanity', the EP moves away from typical readings of genres like dark wave and takes us on a journey to a place defined by synthesised ethereality.