Review: Legendary British outfit Saint Etienne returned with their 12th studio album late last year, and now it lands on vinyl via Heavenly Recordings. A much-awaited follow-up to 2021's I've Been Trying To Tell You, this ambient collection offers a gentle, immersive experience designed to ease the noise of daily life. It was produced with Augustin Bousfield and blends songs, spoken word and rain-soaked textures into a seamless dreamscape, all recorded between Saltaire in the north and Hove down on the south coast. It captures the fragile space between waking and sleep with highlights like 'Half Light' and 'Preflyte'. As such, The Night is best experienced on headphones and is ideal for late hours, reflection and introspection.
Das Neue Japanische Elektronische Volkslied (7:57)
Plastic Bamboo (6:27)
Thousand Knives (8:50)
Tokyo Joe (4:38)
E-day Project (5:49)
Kylyn (2:32)
Zai Guang Dong Shoo Nian (7:08)
I'll Be There (6:39)
Bokunokakera (3:53)
Grasshoppers (5:16)
Mother Terra (3:24)
The End Of Asia (6:21)
Review: You had us at Sakamoto. Or rather you had us at "excerpts from Ryuichi Sakamoto's time working under Nippon Colombia's label, Better Days. First released in 1992, this 12-track compilation runs from tracks that appeared on the Japanese synth legend's debut album, Thousand Knives, first released in 1978, through to songs written with the iconic session group KYLYN, featuring celebrated guitar great Kazumi Watanabe. Ever the auteur, even if you didn't know this was Sakamoto in proper landmark mode, there's no chance the sounds here could really be confused for anyone or anything else. It's mature and intelligent, yet strangely - and typically - fun, childlike and a little cartoonish, sharing as much in common with experimental electronica that was emerging during the 1970s and 1980s as video game scores from the 1990s.
Gaz Nevada - "IC Love Affair" (original 12" mix) (6:30)
I Signori Della Galassia - "Archeopterix" (4:03)
Cerrone - "La Secte De Marrakech Suite" (4:37)
John Foxx - "Burning Car" (3:14)
Thomas Leer & Robert Rental - "Monochrome Days" (3:58)
Cabaret Voltaire - "Red Mask" (6:45)
Caution - "UFO" (original 12" mix) (5:30)
Martin Rev - "Nineteen 86" (4:29)
Pascal Comelade - "Sequence 1" (2:57)
Flying Lizards - "An Age" (2:30)
Throbbing Gristle - "Beachy Head" (3:35)
Terminal City - "Mugin For Unknown" (5:37)
Review: Whether or not you head the first one, Jon Savage's second exploration of the diverse sounds of the post-punk era is another eye (or ear?) opening listen that will teach you plenty and join many dots you might not have done otherwise. Spanning electronic music, disco, experimental, and proto-techno, Do You Have The Force Volume 2: Jon Savage's Alternative History Of Electronica 1978-82 is a masterfully curated compilation that showcases an eclectic range of genres and influences all handpicked and well sequenced by the renowned cultural commentator, writer, and filmmaker that is Savage. This is a double LP version which comes with a 12 page digisleeve booklet.
Review: Are there more consonants in this EP title than any other you will see this year? Probably. Does that make it even more essential? Definitely, because musically it is packed with goodness as Schlammpeitziger explores a world of loose but engaging rhythms. These subversive sounds play with exotic vocals, dubby hi-hats, new-age flutes, motorik grooves and spoken word samples. It's experimental but never forgets the magic of melody and rhythm to hypnotise, all with a twist of pop fun.
Die Rebellen Haben Sich In Den Bergen Versteckt (18:32)
Jupiter (18:57)
Review: 'Conny' Schnitzler's name needs to be remembered by more people. Born on the cusp of World War II, he would prove instrumental in the post-war surge of sonic experimentation that took Germany by storm from the 1960s onwards, playing an integral part in West Germany's krautrock movement having already been an early member of seminal band Tangerine Dream and founding father of Kluster. But it's his solo work that really needs more attention. A proponent of the Dusseldorf school - arguably Germany's most important city for popular music in the late-mid-20th Century - in 1974 he released Blau, a bold record comprising two extended tracks, 'Die Rebellion Haben Sich In Den Bergen Versteckt' and 'Jupiter'. One feels like the late night synth soundtrack to rain-soaked city streets. The other as though we've opened the hatch and stepped out into retro outer space. Take from that what you will.
Review: Renowned German electronic music pioneer Klaus Schulze enjoyed a lengthy touring spate after the release of his 1977 album opener 'Velvet Voyage'. Made up of synth chimes in sequence - icicling cycles - the Mirage frontispiece served to irreversibly weld the idea of the "voyage", and connotations of "journeying" to Schulze's music as popularly imagined. Later in 1981, Bon Voyage would take form: this was a closing tour performance at the Hamburg Audimax concert hall, concluding a two-week tour through Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland and France. One of many bonnie voyages undertaken by Schulze in his lifetime, it would nonetheless prove unforgettable and salient among them; from 'The Journey Begins' through to the templar titillations of the three-part 'Bon Temple' and the ex-sanguine 'Moulin Bleu', this is a live synthetic forget-me-not.
Review: Legendary Blackpool post-punk, later electronic band Section 25 - consisting of brothers Larry and Vin Cassidy - first formed in 1978. Initial associations with Factory Records and frequent touring partners Joy Division were more than enough to propel them into the limelight, and the ensuing glory translates well into the modern day - as evidenced by Retrofit, their seventh album. First released in 2010, the album features new versions of some of their classic songs, such as 'Looking From A Hilltop', 'Dirty Disco' and 'Girls Don't Count'. A nostalgic, dreamy, and honest Northern electro/synth sound predominates, harking back to an unmistakable golden age. Now reissued on Factory's Belgian counterpart Factory Benelux, we hear a fresh LP remaster and a new track, 'Uberhymn'.
Review: Factory Records has retained a cult following well into the 21st Century. The imprint lent at least part of its name to a L250million arts centre in its Manchester hometown, opened in 2023, and those famous yellow and black stripes from the Hacienda appear everywhere from property developers to cookie cutter bars in the city. Section 25 may not be the first band that springs to mind when thinking about that legacy, but in many ways represent just how deep the talent ran through the roster. Outliving Factory itself, the Preston, Lancashire group reformed after a 13-year-hiatus in 2001, partly driven by just how much interest there was in their back catalogue. In 2007, they releases Part-Primitiv, a spellbinding collection of weird electronica, spooky synthdom, Roland pop, and forward-punching post-punk. A vital reminder of the outfit's quality, the impact remains on this reissue.
Review: There's a real sense of urgency underpinning Animal Mentality. You can hear it the moment opener 'Sticky Fingers' kicks in, the inimitable 1980s dream team of dark synth refrain and propellant kick-snare percussion invoking the feeling of forward momentum, driving through the rain at night into a strange, unknown underworld. To say it sets pace for this album as a whole would be an understatement. As Selofan, Joanna Pavlidou and Dimitris Pavlidis have built an impressive fan base, their dark-coldwave, retro-hued sounds are at once niche but universally familiar, epic yet intimate, brooding and explosive. Now on album number seven, we could drop references like Lebanon Hanover, Nico and Xmal Deutschland, but that seems a little lazy considering the bold vision at work here. Simply put, then: buy this record.
Review: Dark Entries picks up Severed Heads yet again for Ear Bitten, a double LP reissue of some of the band's earliest material. Pegged as early pushers of the Australian underground industrial scene, Severed Heads emerged in the wake of a former project also shared between three members, Tom Ellard, Richard Fielding and Andrew Wright: Mr. And Mrs. No Smoking Sign. The edgier name Severed Heads was also, conveniently, snappier, and the sonic result of this resignal act would soon prove it a good decision. Though they say they aimed simply to take after forebears like Throbbing Gristle or Suicide, Ear Bitten proves much more than the simple fact of stylogeny. The 22-track record was born of an anarchic assemblage of found domestic and street-larked objects (as well as specialist musical instruments) blurring the lines between the two: using every sound-making tool from cassette deck, to rare Korg or Kawai synth, to proverbial pots and pans, to open-reel (and thus implicatively fuckable-with) dictaphones, Ear Bitten offers a diabolical vision of the sheer, wordless length of the post-punk deserts parched by their 70s, New York precursors.
Review: Founded in 1979, Severed Heads - originally Mr and Mrs No Smoking Sign - never liked to do things by numbers. Spanning industrial, synthwave, coldwave, post-punk, electronic dance, synth pop and more, while wildly varied they might also be considered auteurs. Simply put, you can usually guess, or know, that you're listening to Severed Heads long before you actually find out you're listening to Severed Heads. Noisy arrangements overflowing with ideas, while at times things may border on overwhelming, for the most part the genius comes in how finely balanced the tracks are. Bad Mood Guy, first released in 1987, was their seventh studio album, described by some at the time as "punishing pop with crunching rhythms", and reflects them at their finest. Moody, at times angry, alway forward thinking and hard to compare.
Review: Before becoming Belgian new beat and techno titans, Praga Khan and Chris Inger were collaborators in a new wave influenced band called Shakti. "Verboden Dromen" gathers together the best of the outfit's work recorded between 1987 and 1990, offering up tracks that join the dots between intoxicating synth-pop, moody new wave, hypnotic grooves and dark and sleazy dancefloor moments. All of the tracks have stood the test of time remarkably well, with highlights including the humid and exotic chug of "Kamasutra", the hallucination-inducing tropical fever of "Demonic Forces" and "Shanah", and the bustling, club-ready bounce of "The Awakening", which sounds like the Thompson Twins after one too many tabs of acid.
Why Did I Say Goodbye (feat Tommy '86 - bonus track) (6:09)
Holiday (bonus track) (5:05)
Fading Away (6:54)
Review: Sally Shapiro are actually a duo, and the name is actually a pseudonym. Besides, they are essentially in the business of blowing every other synthpop act out of the park by this point. Packed with emotion and swelling refrains, 'Sad Cities' is a universal lamentation for failed metropoli the world over. Opener 'Forget About You' sets the tone for the pair's home-recorded masterpiece, on which the lead singer's voice takes raspy centre stage. Regret seems to be the central theme, peronalising our collective suffering:
Witness The Change/I Don't Know What Love Is (dub) (8:22)
Review: A reissue of material that Pete Shelley originally released in 1981, not long after the Buzzcocks' first split. It may be his second solo album, but with his first album - Sky Yen - being an arty experimental record, it's this album that spawned his first ever solo single. Giving a glimpse into the ridiculous censorship at the time, the single, 'Homosapien', was banned by the BBC, who interpreted a line in the track to be a sexually explicit reference to gay sex. Sonically, the album marks a humungous shift from the punk sound that Shelley gatecrashed the mainstream with in the Buzzcocks in the mid-70s. This is a highly electro-pop record and had producer Martin Rushent, who was also working with The Human League on the epoch-defining Dare album at the time, help shape the forward-thinking sound it became.
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