Back catalogue: Coldwave/Synth

Review: Following on from their widely acclaimed album Afraid To Leave, Berlin's beautiful maudlin post-punk outfit Bleib Modern presents a compilation of remixes and reworks by esteemed artists from across darkwave, post-punk, and EBM. From IV Horsemen's club-worthy rendition of 'Bitter Smile' to M!R!M's dreamy synthpop take on 'Into The Night' via Dune Messiah's crooning 'Loony Voices, 2 Afraid 2 Leave: Remixed Reimaged Reloaded Part 2 offers truly diverse interpretations. With contributions from luminaries like The KVB and Blind Delon, it provides a fresh perspective on Bleib Modern's sound and serves as an exciting interlude that showcases the band's versatility and paves the way for future creations

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: TVAM first crept onto the radar in 2018 with a self-released debut which split the difference between Suicide and Boards of Canada, but since then his sound has broadened to incorporate a shred of pop nous and anthemic grandeur best captured on new single 'Costasol'. If that track has a deceptively gentle, dreamy demeanour, there's plenty more space for murkiness and claustrophobia elsewhere on the EP, as the one-man-band indulges his industrial and lounge tendencies in strange, compelling new mutant forms. 'Ephemerol' in particular stands out as the perfect misfit foil to the lead track's poised bombast, fuelling the dualistic intrigue of an artist who never misses.

Review: Tangerine Dream were soundtrack masters who recorded a huge number of classics. Dead Solid Perfect was their 15th at the time and, rather astonishingly, their 41st album overall. It was recorded in 1989 but only dropped in 1991 as another immersive piece of prog and electronic rock featuring Edgar Froese and Jerome Froese on guitar and keyboards and Paul Haslinger also on keyboards. It is a soundtrack to Bobby Roth's film based on the novel by Dan Jenkins and features several similar pieces in which only the melodies are varied and - until now - has been a stinker to find.

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: 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: It's been 40 years since Michal Turtle released his seminal, ground-breaking album Music From The Living Room into the world and promptly disappeared back into the aether. An extremely obscure cult classic known only to deep diggers and aficionados of the finest order, it wasn't until Music From Memory reissued some of the tracks from it via retrospective compilations of Turtle's unreleased music almost 30 years later that his name become more widely known and a new generation were able to discover the artist's unique and pioneering style of experimental electronic music production, the majority of it very much ahead of its time, and to this day still timeless. Invisible Inc. contacted Turtle in the summer of 2023 about releasing something else by him, and it was during this exchange of emails that ideas were expressed about releasing not simply a straightforward reissue of Music From The Living Room to mark its 40th anniversary (the album has never been reissued in full), but rather a re-imagined and re-constructed take on the album, bringing contemporary techniques, styles and newly recorded vocal and instrument parts into the mix and breathing new life into these wonderful compositions. Collaborators old and new were brought into the studio and the songs re-created from the ground up. Familiar songs like 'Are You Psychic?' and 'Village Voice' are overhauled and echo remnants of their original counterparts, but simultaneously sound like completely new tracks. The always mesmerising 'Phantoms Of Dreamland' is represented through a live recording at Cafe OTO, featuring original album vocalist Lucianne Lasalle and regular collaborator HOVE on electronics. The remaining tracks, however, will be completely new to the ears of most people, never having been reissued or heard in these new forms ever before.

Review: By the time 2024's Pendulum landed, Twin Tribes had been building up a vehemently passionate following among members of black-nailed, dark-hearted subcultures for nine years. Also known as Luis Navarro and Joel NiNo Jr., the pair clocked up underground wins with two preceding records, Ceremony and Shadows, garnering attention among fans of cold wave and post punk. Now they take the whole concept to even higher - icier - heights. One wrong step and you'll be cast down the mountainside, it's dizzying at times. Chunky basslines drive us into yearning, strangely subdued-yet-soaring melodies that seem to speak to despair and hope in equal measure. It's hugely evocative stuff that rarely lets up in terms of intensity, 'Caldron of Thorns' among the tracks at the lower end of tempo scales, and even then it's not really hanging about.