Avant! Records
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Release Date: 12/07/2024Visit product page →
One mere year after their previous pitch-black sounding album Krypt, LA outfit Male Tears is back with a new full-length and – oh boy – everything is changed.
The used-to-be duo is now a four piece with James Edward as the sole founding member remaining and apparently this new line-up helped the original vocalist to shapeshift again.
Remember their very first debut album from 2021 and those dark synthpop sounds?
With their upcoming fourth album (in only three years), this American electronic-pop act from Southern California doubles the stakes once again and where Krypt was all about being goth and gloomy and disturbingly paroxysmal, Paradisco is somehow quite the opposite.
Eight new tracks of pure italo disco, hi-NRG and freestyle bliss that pick up where the band left off three years ago to pursue much darker realms. Now that the quest for darkness is done, it is time to polish our nails and dress up for the night-out cause there's more in life than feeling sorry for yourself. Yes you will need to cut out the deadwood but there is no change in stillness.
So join Male Tears and their new arsenal of bangers and floor fillers with assertive titles such as Out of my Life, Regret 4 Nothing and Leave it Alone.
Get yourself wrapped up in one warm cover of delicate nostalgia and reborn romanticism, driven by sounds that pay homage equally to Miko Mission and Ken Laszlo, Lisa Lisa and Exposé and, well yeah, even The Smiths because say what you wanna say but you simply cannot not love The Smiths.
Embrace the vintage vibes that organically propagate from this new record's grooves and get in the mood for this new course in full-on 1980's Pop.
Tracklisting:
1. Talk to Me
2. Leave it Alone (feat. Corlyx)
3. Sex on Drugs
4. Out of my Life
5. Where Is It?
6. He Wants Everything
7. Regret 4 Nothing
8. This Party Ends in Tears (feat. Digital Love) -
Four years and one pandemic after his latest Dreams Of A Dark Building EP, the herald of dungeon synth pop is finally back from his shallow grave. Life has not been gentle with Seattle-based solo producer Parker Lautenschlager over the past few years, imposing its unpredictability and forcing him to channel all the feelings that come with it into Profit Prison’s music.Visit product page →
It’s no surprise that his first full-length album Gilt marks one futher step towards the dark corners of italo / hi-nrg body music. Typical Profit Prison’s vocals and melodies, reminiscent of OG synth masters Kraftwerk, Giorgio Moroder and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, are still here, buried in the mix and waiting to haunt the listeners and drag them down in one sulfurous dancing spiral.
Lead single Sophia juxtaposes some weirdly camouflaged vocals with one heavenly chorus that seems willing to revive your fortunes while instead it literally sings "But I lost it all". A Matter Of Tact displays pop escapism over some throbbing minimal synth tension, Seven Words sounds like a throwback to 70's italo filtered through the eyes of a 21st century punk rocker.
Katalina has a rampant synth à la Carpenter climbing over a story of loss and Katalina, An Ascetic is a solo ramble reaching for the inner light on a carpet of cold keys. What's more, tracks got longer in Parker’s recent songwriting, with most of the songs being now five minute long and reaching peaks of seven minutes with the closing, almost progressive disco jam of A.R.P. (Amphetamine Research Project), nothing short of a lucid dream on the floor of Studio 54. Last but not least, the artwork by French artist Robin Roche delivers medieval-yet-punk graphic vibes to match just perfectly the sounds on this record.
Tracklisting:
Side A
1. Seven Words
2. A Matter Of Tact
3. An Ascetic
4. Avowal
Side B
5. Sophia
6. Katalina
7. Interment
8. A.R.P. (Amphetamine Research Project) -
Release Date: 19/04/2024Visit product page →
10 Years Anniversary compilation LP. Ten years ago, on 21 April 2014, Russian enclave of the Baltic Kaliningrad-based trio Blind Seagull started off its adventure in the soon to be known as Sovietwave aka Russian post-punk underground.
Ten years later they have accomplished to release nine full-length albums on all sorts of limited edition formats such as LPs, CDs, tapes with most of them being sold out for years. It was time to bring many of these tracks back to life, picking up the best among them and reissuing for the global post punk/darkwave niche.
Fifteen cuts previously released by labels like Detriti, Sierpien, Pine Hill through which the band led by Denis Zarubin has shaped its own brand of icy coldwave, one pretty classic and extremely fresh and contemporary at once.
On top of these we have one more track exclusive to this release which is a eurodance-oriented remix for their minor hit Animals Die in the Scaffolding. Think of a bunch of goth kids screwing around at the local carnival and you'll get the vibe!
Decade Of Effort is due on April 21, 2024 on white vinyl LP limited to 300 with fairy-tale artwork by the band enhanced by the magical lettering of young Spanish artist Sara Fornés.
Tracklisting:
Side A
1. Connections
2. Last who cares
3. Emotional
4. Winter
5. Filth
6. Animals Die in the Scaffolding
7. Save
8. Animals Die in the Scaffolding [Trouble Concept Remix]
Side B
9. Cold Hands
10. Train To Tallinn
11. Nails
12. Pressure
13. Ribs
14. Human Being
15. Memories
16. Le dernier rendez-vous -
Poison Point is the trancey body music solo project operated by Paris-based producer and live artist, Timothée Gainet. Started off in 2016, he shared the stage with bands such as Drab Majesty, Xeno & Oakland, Adult, Rendez-Vous and Silent Servant, shared remixes with Qual, Sydney Valette, Blind Delon, all this while running his other industrial techno outfit IV Horsemen.Visit product page →
You can tell Timothée is a busy guy and yet he managed to grow Poison Point since his debut album on Third Coming, getting releases out on Aufnahme + Wiedergabe and Young And Cold. Over the years, his sound gradually shifted from the motorik post-punk of the early recordings to one much more dancefloor-oriented dark electronics with some sort of nice military pop Je ne sais quoi.
If one could see this coming with 2022’s album Poisoned Gloves, his new full-length is a major step-up in Poison Point game. Skilfully produced by Gainet himself and mastered once again by Mr Baggio for the best groove, Wandering Echoes drops nine new floor fillers for the romantic and the nostalgic at heart.
Just click Play on the first track Blue Idol and you will be hurled into a crystal world of imaginary memories while floating on the scales drawn by the synth arpeggios. Rude awake to the lead single Mysteries In Fire and his intoxicating body music and start wandering the room around you. Keep up the pace with further bangers loaded with electricity, romance and angularity like Flowers & Surrender, Echoes Of Dreams, Slow Kill, Fast Love.
Get sweaty as you reach the end of this music journey: final track Les Meurtrières de LʼAube, properly sung in Timothée's native tongue French, will show you the way to the rest of the just. If your favourite vibes dwell somewhere between Phase Fatale and Lust For Youth, Wandering Echoes is the record for you.
Tracklisting:
1. Blue Idol
2. Mysteries In Fire
3. Flowers & Surrender
4. Echoes Of Dreams
5. Slow Kill, Fast Love
6. The Naked Sun
7. The Wanderer
8. A Thousands Birds
9. Les Meurtrières de LʼAube -
Portland based act Dancing Plague has been a steady presence in the dark/cold electronic music scene for quite a few years now. Since 2016 Conor Knowles’ solo project has been putting out one constant flow of independent releases on multiple formats such as vinyl LPs, EPs, tapes and CDs, creating one sonic palette rich with Ebm, goth, industrial and synth influences.Visit product page →
On their 5th studio album, Dancing Plague continues to flesh out and perfect their unique brand of crushing darkwave. Elogium explores themes of loss, regret, rebirth and growth coupled with throbbing basslines, rave synths, and pounding drums.
Knowles balances aggressive waves of electronics with enough pop sensibilities and catchy hooks to be inviting to those new to the genre. His skills can be clearly appreciated on tracks like the first single Fading Forms which explores the somber feeling of the years passing you by.
Knowles’ emotive baritone crooning paints a melancholic picture of the slow fading of time as you feel like you’re fading with it. The words fall like snow onto cold fields of pulsing 80s synths and pounding drum machine rhythms that bring forth nostalgic familiarity but feel fresh at the same time.
Fans of classic icons such as Depeche Mode, Ministry, Nine Inch Nails as well as contemporary torchbearers Cold Cave and Kontravoid do not sleep on this.
Plenty of disturbing beauty to be found in the depths of the underground.
Tracklisting:
1. Dreamless
2. Fading Forms
3. Shadow Self
4. Rot With Me
5. Elogium
6. Suffer the Senses
7. Cold Fire
8. Echoes of the Void -
Second press limited to 300 on clear vinyl.Visit product page →
Skemer is a collaboration between singer Kim Peers, who's also a model for Vogue, Steven Meisel, Prada and guitarist Mathieu Vandekerckhove of post-metal band Amenra and his personal project Syndrome.
Two very different worlds collide and lead to minimalist dark wave deconstructions that are equal parts brutal and erotic. This duality is reflected in the name Skemer, which next to its obvious English meaning of 'intriguer' also stands for ‘dusk’ in Mathieu’s native tongue West-Flemish, as well as in their debut album.
Recorded just a few months after meeting, a sense of urgency shines through in the tracks that build Benevolence. The winding sensuality of Sunseeker juxtaposed with the pounding harshness of Best, the faint twirl of Call Me versus the solemn gait of Heartbreak.
Just like with their effervescent live performances where Peers seductive vocals coalesce with Vandekerckhove's austere beats to meld into a transcendent fury. Everything has a double nature in the hands of Skemer.
Tracklisting:
Side A
1 Shout Or Cry
2. Sunseeker
3. Rhoeas
4. Best
Side B
5. Call Me
6. Heartbreak
7. Wait For Me -
Visit product page →House of Harm are proud to announce the forthcoming release of their new album Playground, out December 1st, 2023.
The new record builds and expands upon the three-piece’s enthralling shadow-pop sound, a mix of midnight atmospherics, 90s era jangle pop, and contagious synth drenched hooks that further elevate the transcendent vocals of lead singer Michael Rocheford.
Rounded out by Cooper Leardi (guitar / synths) and Tyler Kershaw (guitar / synth), House of Harm have amassed an impressive following as something of a best kept secret among their growing fanbase, leading to sold out shows on both coasts by the power of word of mouth alone.
The band members have been drawn to music for as long as any of them can remember, and the drive to be around like-minded artists and make their own noise drew them all to Boston after high school. There they all quickly enmeshed themselves, playing in other bands before meeting each other. Ever since, House of Harm have been quietly making a name for themselves among music fans with darker pop persuasions via a steady stream of releases in single, ep and album form.That attention to detail and workmanlike approach at the expense of chasing instant gratification seems to be paying dividends after years of steady effort.
The journey of their new album Playground saw House of Harm stay true to that ethos.
The band painstakingly narrowed the record down to an efficient 10 tracks that they felt made the most sense, both standing on their own as well as fitting into an LP that built a cohesive world for the listener to get lost in. The album’s name also reflects the experimentation and happy accidents that came about during the writing and recording process.
On “The Face of Grace” they set out to explore different dynamics by writing a song entirely without drums, but couldn't help themselves from putting emphasis on the song’s 6/8 waltz time signature. “Two Kinds” is another first for House Of Harm in that it’s predominantly driven by acoustic guitar.
That aforementioned vulnerability shows up in other areas of the songwriting process as well with “Two Kinds”, one of their most revealing songs to date from a lyrical standpoint, written from a place of reflection and weakness and tackling feelings uneasy to be put on display for public consumption.
Taken as a whole, the end result is an album representing a collection of the band’s most raw and expressive songs yet.
Tracklisting:
Side A
1. Before The Line
2. To Last
3. Roseglass
4. The Face Of Grace
5. Soaked In Pastel
Side B
6. Two Kinds
7. Endlessly
8. Ignore The Taste
9. Moving On
10. Place It Back -
New, second press on White Vinyl limited to 300. Comes with lyrics insert.Visit product page →
Deluxxe is a new post punk/new wave band from Buffalo, NY.
It was formed by Mason and Greg, and later completed with Nick, Bailey and Mackenzie, sharing members of Oi and hardcore bands such as Violent Way, Bad Blood and Exhibition.
Their punk background can be heard in the music, but it’s the love for new wave, post punk, darkwave, and goth that led to creation of their debut record "If You Were Me”.
Written in the cold winters of Buffalo, you can almost feel the harshness of the weather affecting the sounds that propagate from these grooves. Icy and frostbitten but somehow still relevantly civic and urban.
The Chameleons and The Sound are two main references here, but that whole cold dimension is rocked by a strong pop vein reminiscent of After The Snow-era Modern English and occasionally enhanced by an hoarseness typical of a young Paul Weller. Passionate lyricism proper of Echo And The Bunnymen and hopeless romanticism à la Sad Lovers And Giants get balanced by a sharp songwriting which keeps everything in perfect order, giving you exactly what you need, nothing more and nothing less.
You can tell some skinheads are involved here because the outcome is so tidy and neat, without losing one inch of atmosphere or enchantment.
If you are wondering how something that was invented forty years ago can still sound, literally, fresh and cool, look no further because what this band delivers lives just up to its name.
"If You Were Me” is out September 22 on black vinyl LP limited to 300.
Tracklisting:
Side A
1. Waiting For a Sign
2. Queen of Hearts
3. In Another Place
4. Moving On
Side B
5. Sweet With Sin
6. Phantom Figure
7. Common Ground
8. Lightning in a Bottle -
Visit product page →Available on smoked vinyl LP limited to 300.
Legendary 2010's indie band Crocodiles' guitarist Charles Rowell's new synthpop-meets-gothic rock project. Think Nick Cave crooning over Martin Rev's minimal electronics or The Lords of the New Church-era Stiv Bators jamming with Wayne Hussey and Tony Wakeford. After relocating from New York to France, Charles Rowell began stuffing his suitcase with various synths and samplers while taking cheap bus rides to bordering countries.
While living out of a hotel in north east Paris, he played his demos for Third Coming Records who quickly released the Bad Trip EP in 2020. Concerts became more frequent after the pandemic, with the release of Spellwound and a few have become infamous with guitars smashed to pieces, broken glasses, unruly audience front flipping onto the stage. With Paris providing the background and a scene of friends such as avant-garde drag artist Tuna Mess and industrial techno veteran Poison Point who pushed his creativity even further, Crush Of Souls constant spirit is that it remains unpredictable and thrives on collaboration.
This is even more true with his upcoming album (A)Void Love. Written over a period of intense insomnia that coincided with a run of shows playing guitar for Australian legend Harry Howard, Crush Of Soul’s main man Charles Rowell finally found rest after writing and recording the last song entitled World of Fear. Six months prior he had quit his job as a chef, traveled east to Prague for inspiration and returned ragged and sleepless. Rowell’s insistence on keeping the instrumentation simple and clean came from an arduous two years of literal blood, sweat and tears.
Every bit of drama, eastern excursion and sleep psychosis can be found within the walls of (A)Void Love. Acoustic guitars and dramatic synths provide a cold wilderness for the various rhythms to inhabit; touches of minimal electronics, cold wave and synth pop can be found while the song writing remains classic for lovers of Echo & the Bunnymen and Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds.There’s always been a thread of synth-punk, death rock and DIY noise running through all of Charles’ projects (Crocodiles, ISSUE, Flowers of Evil), however Crush Of Souls pushes harder and further into the darkness with the new album '(A)Void Love'.
Tracklisting:
Side A
1. Unloved
2. The Gift
3. World Of Fear
4. Lie(Be)
5. Youth In Smoke
Side B
6. Reaper John
7. Who Will Silence The Pigs
8. Zone
9. Statues Fall For Love
10. Servant -
New, second press on Pink Vinyl limited to 500. Comes in a printed inner sleeve with lyrics.Visit product page →
The duo formed by Andrea P. Latorre and Sergi Algiz is a specialist in shedding skin and gladly combines new heteronyms in Fake is Real, their sophomore album after their self titled debut in 2018 and subsequent EPs Against Strong Thinking and Maybe a Body, which have been full of reinterpretations and remixes.
Another sign is that they trust their modus operandi to mutation and the idea that nothing is ever quite said. It’s been three years of work, growth and numerous performances in venues and festivals throughout Europe.
In Fake is Real, SDH go out once again in search of nightclubs that are familiar, but never obvious.
The occasion is tremendous and the list of honorees is select: beginning with the producer Kris Baha, who has provided forcefulness to the rhythmic base and prominence to the voices.
The dress code transcends the categories of dark wave, to dress as mischievous EBM, with accessories from new dance, acid house and disrupted but melodic techno, with structured twists that come to caress the electronic psychedelia.
Ready to play? Let's play. Let's change our epidermis, let's confuse our coats in the dark.
Knowing that only in the dark is where everything unpronounceable can have a place, SDH go all-in. Their darkwave résumé allows the duo to blend diverse electronica and leftfield sounds such as big beat, eurodance, synthwave, hard trance and body music in a very personal and emotional way.
You may hear influences drawn from Da Blitz to the Prodigy, Yves Deruyter to Faithless, yet everything is so SDH you just can't mistake them with any other band out there.
Not unlike early 90's-era Coil, the music here is as important as the idea behind the band, a unit conceived to explore and operate on the margins of the music genres it supposedly belongs to, making it hard and therefore so damn interesting to define what's been done.
A work open to so many influences, that it gives a pleasant vertigo to be involved in it.
If you've ever been afraid of the night, Fake is Real offers you a reconciliation with all its rhythms that invites you to move together in the club.
Tracklisting:
1. Balance
2. Denial
3. Talk In Dreams
4. Hollowed Out
5. Cellular Sky
6. Do I Look Like I'm Laughing?
7. Our Fear
8. Greedy
9. Hectic -
Visit product page →Second edition of 300 on black vinyl. Comes in a printed inner sleeve with lyrics (instead of insert).
SDH returned with the Against Strong Thinking EP, which follows its 2018 self-titled album. Although six songs may be insufficient, their new tracks highlight the strengths of their debut. The beats are deeper, the atmospheres sadder. The band continues to explore the musical language as a poetic form and trying to discover new questions that allow the great categories of thinking to be undone.
Against Strong Thinking talks about the importance of facing all that categorical, dogmatic and conclusive thinking. There is a need for dialogue with everything that seems unquestionable. Again, the questions guide all the songs and, again, there is no single answer. Sometimes this doubt is fertile, sometimes it is painful and involves a total and profound loss.
The album begins with Suffer, a perfect song to cry in late night clubs, dancing with tears in your eyes. But SDH knows how to make a crowd dance too. No Miracles is an instant banger and Your Next Story sounds cruelly sexy.
Poem Against Strong Thinking and Four Arms have that melancholic trademark sound with interesting musical progressions that we discovered in their first album and there’s also a good surprise: the inclusion of a re-recorded version of You Pt. 12, the first song released by SDH in 2016, this time with a better production that makes it easily one of their best tracks.
The importance of the body, the senses, the dance and the dialectic is present in each theme as a form of struggle of a voice that dialogues with itself against the firmness of its own strong thoughts.
Tracklisting:
Side A
1. Suffer
2. No Miracles
3. Your Next Story
Side B
4. Four Arms
5. You Pt. 12
6. Poem Against Strong Thinking -
New edition! 2020 has been one rough ride for everyone, forcing us all to review what we thought was normal and maybe, one would argue, even our priorities.Visit product page →
Two years have passed since their previous Inflict LP and we don't really know how what recently happened impacted on the band's mastermind Michael but what’s sure is that Veil Of Light are now a fully grown-up band. Landslide is their fifth full-length (and their third on Avant!) and it’s definitely their most elaborated album.
Ten new songs, rather than the usual eight, with a perfect balance of Coldwave-inspired intimate atmosphere and synthpop catchy melodies. Musically speaking it's still clear where the Swiss duo draws their influences from, right in between New Order’s moodiness and The Klinik trying one softer, less brutal approach to their Electro. But a new sense of privacy is reflected all through these new tracks, enhanced by lyrics now more personal than ever.
The Prayer Wheel is a page torn out of a private diary, Love And Money is a mechanical mantra for a no-way-out situation; Suburban War is a confession of defeat whispered at night, No Return is the last dance before reaching the point of. This is the kind of record that takes its time, and takes its toll, we just need to sit down and listen because there's much to discover.
RIYL: Depeche Mode, New Order, Naked Eyes, Lust for Youth, Black Marble.
Tracklisting:
Side A
1. Why
2. The Prayer Wheel
3. Love And Money
4. Suburban War
5. Landslide
Side B
6. No Return
7. Fright
8. Passing By
9. Circling Thoughts
10. Nothing Was Wrong -
Slightly more than one year has passed since we debuted the Cardiff-based duo Plastic Estate’s first single This Place and we all know what happened meanwhile. But if you thought the global pandemic discouraged the Welsh boys from pursuing their research for an evolution of pop music from the past, think again.Visit product page →
Quite on the contrary, it seems that these past months of forced isolation and necessary restrictions only empowered the ability of the band led by Nicholas James and Stanley Fouracres to compose great songs perfectly in balance between dark, melancholia and happier, brighter feelings. Or maybe their love for the best UK new wave and pop artists such as Dave Gahan, Ian McCulloch, Bryan Ferry is just too tough to die.
However that may be, Plastic Estate have masterfully used this year to write their first full-length album and we at Avant! couldn't be happier to bring it to you on 4 February 2022.
Ten new songs that shine a light on the duo's impressive skills to juggle between the heritage of lost golden era and the pressing presence of the here and now, as well as electronic dance elements and acoustic instruments, ending up sounding classic and contemporary at once. Not an easy task, if you ask me. Check out Out of Reach and its crystal-clear synth-pop radiance, or one whirlwind dancefloor filler such as There Must Be More Than This, juxtaposed with the romantic intimacy of Berlin or Divinely Impaired’s elegant sombreness.
Dive into the imaginary mémoires of a Sophisti-pop era with Antique Days and then resurface nowadays with the hypnagogic club notes of The Difference. We can even feel some Stone Roses-like vibe in the album’s last track Change Your Mind but maybe it’s just us. What’s for sure is that if you liked their 7-inch single you will love their album. If you don't know this group yet but you righteously adore the artists above, do yourself a favour and take a good listen now and you will not be disappointed. Not in the least, as it is this rare to stand in the exact spot where you have a full view of the days behind you and the complete control of the moment you are in.
RIYL: New Order, Roxy Music, The Blue Nile, Future Islands, Lust For Youth
Tracklisting:
Side A
1. Open
2. Out of Reach
3. Divinely Impaired
4. Antique Days
5 When You're Gone
Side B
6. There Must Be More Than This
7. Sins
8. The Difference
9. Berlin
10. Change Your Mind -
Two years and one pandemic after his previous release, the Italian, London-based solo project M!R!M is back with a new full- length album. Inspired by the synth pop classics, as well as from cold and dark waves, multi-instrumentalist Jack Milwaukee has been releasing material on labels such as Fabrika and Manic Depression until his first record on Avant!Visit product page →
''The Visionary'' back in 2020. On April 22 his fourth LP ''Time Traitor'' will be released and we’re excited to say this is Milwaukee’s most personal job to date. If you are familiar with his work, you know the DIY/lo-fi approach of his first recordings was already gone with his previous LP but these new ten recordings dig even deeper, drawing the outlines of a fantasy world lost within the foggy memories of a collective childhood.
Possibly locked in his bedroom for the necessary time, Milwaukee has been able to recreate an imaginative realm of 80’s FM suggestions, scattering a number of acoustic clues from different parts of this parallel, yet so familiar dimension. It’s almost like M!R!M is sending us a message in a bottle with each of these new tracks and each message tells a different story.
Post Fight has a punchy pop-punk riff drove by solid synthwave beats, Faultless Pitch hosts a mellow, funky bass line over a solemn drum gate, Desert Love screams italo like nothing else and it was indeed composed four-handed with fellow artists Nuovo Testamento, Say Nothing features SDH singer Andrea Pérez’s backing vocals to invoke a dream-like scenario.
There is even a Turquoise Days' Grey Skies cover that is just one more perfect example of Milwaukee's ability to take a single item from the suitcase of the past and make it extremely current in a handful of minutes.
All this is adorned by semi-instrumental postcards with suggestive names such as Moody Moon, Peninsula and Goodnight Galaxie that will guide you through this journey across M!R!M sound-&-memory experience.
Black vinyl LP edition limited to 500. Comes in a printed inner sleeve with lyrics.
RIYL: Tears For Fears, Pet Shop Boys, Righeira, John Maus, Black Marble. -
Here comes something unapologetically goth. Male Tears is the dark electro group consisting of vocalist, James Edward and synthesist, Frank Shark. Hailing from Los Angeles, what began as a solo project re-established itself as a duo in 2021, simultaneously moving from the breezy sounds of the first self-titled album to darker realms with their sophomore Trauma Club.Visit product page →
Krypt is their third full-length recording and it shows a fully grown ensemble capable of pushing everything over the top; blending elements of darkwave, goth rock, EBM and futurepop into a sound they call Dark Rave.
Naturally drawing inspiration from the Californian goth tradition (45 Grave, Christian Death) and the Canadian post-industrial brood (Skinny Puppy, FLA), as well as the best UK synthpop (Depeche Mode, The Human League), Male Tears emphasizes the most glamourous, and at once, gruesome aspects of the whole gothic subculture, bringing everything to the next level, resulting in a contemporary and cutting edge album.
Eight new cuts that alternate rarefied synthwave (Krypt), dark eurodance (Slay) with goth techno-pop (Sleep 4Ever) and pounding electro-industrial (I Expire) to create something we may call New Romantic Body Music. It's no wonder we wanted the scene’s top studio, La Distilleria, run by Maurizio Baggio, to master this for the most bombastic outcome.
And yet Krypt is not just about the music, it’s about one up with the times attitude that can review aggressive EBM in the light of an extravagant pop sensibility and a theatrical grandeur worthy of the Blitz Kids from London circa 1979-80.
You may think it takes quite a bit of nonchalance to do so but the L.A. duo easily succeeds at this. Akin to their aesthetics, they may seem spooky from the outside but their approach is nothing stuffy. Quite the contrary, everything regarding Male Tears is a celebration of life’s most bizzare shades, driven by some of the best dark humor you’ll find around. So Dance with me, my dear, on a dancefloor of bones and skulls / The music is our master The devil controls our souls.
Tracklisting:
1. Krypt
2. Sleep 4ever
3. Domin8
4. I Expire
5. Deal3r
6. Never Again
7. Jaded
8. Slay -
Visit product page →Two years after their previous effort, regular as clockwork, Swiss throbbing synth pop duo Veil Of Light is back with a new album and what can we say? These guys keep on getting better and better.
If you have followed the Zurich-based outfit over the past few years, you must have noticed the constant moving towards 80’s FM new wave and synthpop tones – without losing their electro/body music outline - that have marked the band’s parable, especially since their latest Landslide LP.
Sundancing is their sixth full-length and it stays the course, bringing what we’ve just said to the next step. Nine new dancy and bright tunes with emotional depth that blend lush instrumentation and robust rhythms, guided by funky and rubbery basslines. Syncopated rhythm sections match suburban cool synths in the lead single Apricot Kiss and Hypersleep, while Raindancing and Tonight summon a sinuosity long gone since the mid Eighties. The musical backdrop here serves as the fundament for emotional vocals delivering lyrics dealing with the fragility of love, joy and loneliness.
There’s some subtle addictiveness to these songs, one that will gently grab you by the collar of your coat and stick the refrains from Sundancing inside your head for good.
Veil Of Light might make it look easy to keep it neat without being minimalist, intimate without being depressing, romantic in the most true sense of the word, but we know that's possibly the hardest thing to do.Sundancing is out on 24 February 2023 on black vinyl LP limited to 500 and digital.
RIYL: Pet Shop Boys, Tears For Fears, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Wild Nothing, Black Marble.Tracklisting:
Side A
1. Apricot Kiss
2. Head-On Collision
3. Hypersleep
4. Tonight
Side B
6. Raindancing
7. Remain The Same
8. Keen Blade
9. Heartland Road
10. Homesick -
Two years after their previous Against Strong Thinking mini album, Spanish techno-meets-new wave duo SDH returns with a new, killer EP. There is a duality rooted deeply in the very soul of this project that is reflected in the line-up as well as in the music the band creates.Visit product page →
While Sergi Algiz is behind the machines propagating a wide spectrum of electronic beats ranging from techno and body music to synthpop and electro, Andrea P. Latorre offsets the night club vibe of the pounding drums with her emotional, romantic vocals. This same dichotomy is perfectly represented here by their new 12-inch Maybe A Body, out April 29, 2022 on Avant!.
The title-track is a powerful song about body recognition, about having a voice and using it, sustained by some throbbing EBM with traces of 90’s trance/progressive, ending up in a perfect balance of rousing groove and hypnagogic feelings.
The B side is the hunting ground for more dream-like scenarios as it digs deep in the nostalgia realm with its retro mood filled with italo and synth-pop bliss. To power up both these aspects of SDH’s identity, we have called two of the best electronic producers out there to remix one track each.
Maybe A Body has been given to techno golden boy and Avant! alumni Phase Fatale who has managed to enhance even further the trance-like nature of the track, creating just the perfect dancefloor filler. All Of That has been instead reworked by the skillful hands of the rising star of the Eighties sound Pablo Bozzi who literally exploded the italo groove, occasionally smoothing things out with some breakbeats just where they’re most needed. Produced by Matia Simovich at Infinite Power Studios, LA. Mastered at Dadub Studio, Berlin.
Black 12" vinyl edition limited to 500.
Tracklisting:
Side A
1. Maybe A Body
2. Maybe A Body (Phase Fatale remix)
Side B
3. All Of That
4. All Of That (Pablo Bozzi remix) -
Over the past few years an increasing number of bands hailing from the former USSR have been appearing on the screens and the phones of the so-called Western world's underground music enthusiasts. With most of them being pretty obscure and only a very few ones having established a worldwide following (Motorama, Molčat Doma) the Sovietwave tag has worked usefully enough as a tool to identify a wide range of bands each one with a different sound and yet something in common.Visit product page →
Whether it be the harsh weather or just the distance creating an exotic effect, there is some icy-cold touch with these bands that immediately makes you know they're from Russia, regardless of the language they perform. This goes for Blind Seagull too.
The trio from Kaliningrad, a small russian enclave on the Baltic Sea between Poland and Lithuania, has been around since quite a few years now, releasing tapes and limited edition vinyls on labels like Detriti, Sierpen and Pine Hill.
Finally taking up the challenge of writing a longer full-length (previous albums were seven or eight track long at best), the trio led by Denis Zarubin has created twelve new songs that shine a light on the impressive skills of this young combo to deliver very classic and yet extremely fresh and modern cold post-punk gems.
Keeping it short and sweet, their twothree minutes long compositions cut right to the chase of the darkwave soul: stomping drum machines, frozen guitar arpeggios, tense bass riffs. The formula is occasionally rocked by the intervention of laser synths, noise raids and gothic chorale, while the industrial pièce of the title-track and the IDM-tinged collaboration with experimental giants Xiu Xiu 'Fear' will show how this band stands out and how their upcoming, new album is the best proof of this.
RIYL: Clan Of Xymox, Bauhaus, The Danse Society, She Past Away, Soviet Soviet.
Tracklisting:
Side A
1. In The Open Field
2. Carpenter
3. Passing By
4. Asphyxia
5. Nothing To Feel
6. How We Communicate
Side B
7. Body
8. Inanity
9. Stray
10. Fear (feat. Xiu Xiu)
11. Stars Tonight
12. Personal Decay (A A U U)
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