Dais US Schallplatten & CDs

Review: The gloaming allure of Coil's Musick To Play In The Dark albums hasn't dulled one jot in the 20+ years which have passed since their release. Dais recently reissued the first volume in the midst of a steady stream of Coil works - classics like Love's Secret Domain sitting alongside niche artefacts from the cutting room floor. There's something sparkling and bright about the sound Sleazy and Balance sculpted at this point, despite the creeping unease which lingers in the distance wherever you are in the Coil back catalogue. On Vol 2 the subtly twisted balladry and spectral sound design gives rise to yet more spine-tingling musical experiences - 'Ether' and 'Where Are You?' especially wriggle under the skin with that uncanny sensation only Coil can conjure.

Review: While so many bands start losing steam after 15 years and nine albums, Coil arguably were in the opposite frame of mind as the millennium approached. Musick To Play In The Dark not only lives up to its name, it marked a transition both sonically and, err, astrologically for the band, as they declared a new era as a lunar rather than solar group. God bless the 1990s, eh?

Digressions aside, what's here is weird and wonderful in equal measure, like walking around a darkened stately home on a still night, silver streaks of light illuminating various rooms, all of which are thick with atmosphere. Whether it's spooky distorted sounds on 'Strange Birds', 'Red Queen''s strange droning late-night piano soul, or the yearning ambient pop on 'The Dreamer Is Still Asleep', it's a subtly bold record packed with exceptional ideas built to last another two decades at least.

Review: Described by their label, Dais, as "a stirring new chapter" in their musical story, 'An object of Motion' has its roots in a coastal break main man Deb Demure made back in 2021. It was material recorded there, largely using a vintage, bowl-shaped 12-string guitar, that formed the basis of the four-track mini-album. These recordings were then expanded on with help from collaborators Rachel Goswell (Slowdive), Justin Meldal-Johnsen and Ben Greenberg. It's a decidedly psychedelic set all told, with Demure and company blurring the boundaries between neo-folk, psychedelia, the Cure, shoegaze and the sort of saucer-eyed, turn-of-the-90s bagginess associated with the Stone Roses. Most impressive of all, though, is 'Yield To Force', an undeniably cosmic, layered and effects-laden instrumental that ebbs and flows over 15 magical minutes.

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.

Review: In honour of the 25th birthday of painter-turned-DIY musician Tor Lundvall's hard-to-find debut album, 'Passing Through Alone', Dais has joined forces with the New York-based creative polymath to produce a career-spanning, five-disc box set. Naturally, it begins with that 1997 debut - on which he laid down his now familiar "signature palette of synth, sequencers, guitar, drum machines, and hushed spectral voice" (as the label puts it) - before delivering an expanded edition of his 2010 odds-and-ends collection 'Ghost Years'. What follows is inaugural CD editions of three of Lundvall's most recent albums: 'A Strangeness In Motion' (a collection of lo-fi pop tracks recorded across the 90s), 'A Dark Place' and 'Beautiful Illusions'. A fitting celebration of a genuinely unique artist.

Review: When it comes to crafting high-quality, hard-to-pigeonhole electronic music with an immersive ambient twist, there are few better than Manchester duo Space Afrika. Honest Labour, an album crafted during the various pandemic lockdowns of the last few years, remains rooted in their trademark sound - think opaque ambient electronics, blazed beats, crackling field recordings, snatches of spoken word and snippets of sampled vocals - while also subtly expanding their musical repertoire to include stoned lo-fi soul, Cocteau Twins style guitars, occasional guest raps, pitched-down neo-soul and cascading string arrangements. Taken as a whole, it's a magnificent and enveloping musical journey that could end up being one of the strongest albums of 2022.