This is but a small sample of a fledgling label. Bob Chance rings with intensity and grit, a precursor of a sound that would be taken up by EBM and New Beat. Suns of Arqa comes from a different tradition, that of disco, dub and spiraling sounds. Despite the grim economic forecasts there are some [...]
Articles By: Robbie Geoghegan
Chris Moss Acid :: Bay of Cadiz (030303)
It was never too clear what Bay of Cadiz was going to be about. There was a chance of 303 bedlam, a chance of house pastiche. Instead Moss Acid delivers a measured and modern sound using the vintage acid box. There’s a definite slice of AFX to the sound. It seems that wherever you turn [...]
Axxess :: Novels for the Moon (Medical)
The album is pure synthesizer, from beginning to end. Mimran takes Barhardt’s machine and test drives it to the limit. Melodies are poured from one speaker to another, counter rhythms rushing forth and accelerating past tapered beats. Axxess traverses a gamut of sounds, cornering ambience whilst pursuing a new electronic destination. [Buy at Amazon] You’ve [...]
Feedback :: Walk The Line (MRX)
Walk the Line sees Minimal Rome enter the club, chin up and shoulders back. The MRX label has sought out sounds for the 1210 zealots, and Feedback’s latest is just that. Clever and powerful, with some armchair appeal from Mr 66. The MRX wing of Minimal Rome has lay dormant since Solvent poured his squalid [...]
V/A :: Frogmania (Plastic Frog)
Frogmania sees heavy hitters of the minimal scene sit side by side with newcomers. Downtrodden wave pulls up a seat next to Amiga inspired electronics—a stunning cross section of a fixating sound. Reviewing records is a good gig—it keeps you up to date with music, and who doesn’t like getting packages in the post? Every [...]
Simoncino :: Werehouse EP (Echovolt)
There are some gentle techno thoughts coming through, but it is warm and layered house that is at the heart of the Italian’s sound. Simoncino has been building his credentials for several years now. Since 2008 the Italian has been serving up his take on the Chitown sound—having pushed the house envelope on labels like [...]
SIC & Buzz :: Double review (Dark Entries)
Dark Entries is one of the premier synth wave and post punk revivalist labels. A loaded statement, but a fair one. Boss Josh Cheon has the knack, the ability to source and resuscitate ambiguous analogue scores and gritty minimalism. Once more, the San Fran label is crossing the Atlantic to revive two Euro obscurities. I’ve [...]
Nachtliche :: Full Moon (Cytown)
Korgs, strings and drum machine. Nachtliche adhere to the tried and true formula of cold electronics. Angst ridden vocals, bald strings, pared synths and a wholly anti-disposition. [Buy at Juno] The only guarantee you’ve got from one day to the next is, time will pass. Fierce misanthropic stuff, ah not really. But the years do [...]
Shawn O Sullivan, Below Underground, Steve Moore :: 3View (L.I.E.S.)
Every time the label dives into the vast oceans of house, techno and electronics it resurfaces with another pearl from the depths. Function, form and flawless execution. Ron Morelli’s L.I.E.S. label has only been on the go for two years, but has been receiving serious acclaim from DJ’s and electronic zealots across the world. Do latest [...]
France :: Grand Tour (Astral Rectangle)
The synth pop resurrection has produced some excellent new labels and artists. Imprints like Aube, Das Drehmoment and La Forme Lente crossed the lines between minimal pop, synth wave and italo disco. Astral Rectangle have done the same with France. It’s an extraordinarily fine line between getting this mixture right and very wrong, but France [...]
Meschi & Echo 106 :: Double EP review (Lux Rec)
Take a breath. Check your change. Once more Lux is setting off on another journey into the shadows of 808 monuments and Chitown inspiration. Lux Rec is a label to follow. It started off on the right foot, some muscular acid from Detroit’s Jared Wilson, and since the Swiss imprint has dipped its pen into [...]
S. Crosbie :: Dark Arts 01 (Dark Arts)
Dark Arts is born from “the culmination of close to twenty years spent on dance-floors, in DJ booths and in record shops across Europe.” Dark Arts 01 sees S. Crosbie dish up four tracks based on this two decade history of electronic submersion. [Purchase] From Britain comes a new label espousing a blend of subdued [...]
Myk Derill :: Relocation (RE(FORM))
Myk Derill has done the Berlin techno scene proud on Relocation—the tracks adhere to the formula, but the tough slant gives them some extra girth. Electronic music has quite a rotary quality to it. Styles and genres come in swings and roundabouts. The past decade saw a resurgence in disco and italo. At the moment [...]
Lost Trax / The Connection Machine :: Lost Machine (Tabernacle)
The sound espoused in Lost Machine are echoes of the almost forgotten UK techno scene. Lost Trax mesh some modern moments with reflection. TCM serve up recollection. The evenings are getting longer. The temperature is tipping double digits. Spring appears to be in the air. Best get some techno on the turntable. Tabernacle Records return [...]
Subject / Human Dance :: The (Almost) Insanely Happy EP (EE Tapes)
EE Tapes peer down a number of avenues—looking at electronics, industrial, synth wave and more. For some twenty-five years the label has been releasing sounds on the peripheries and here’s hoping it continues this tradition of quality explorations. [Release page] The underworld of electronics is almost invisible in that it is predominately subterranean. Some labels [...]
Shemale :: Hell Transformation Screens (Last Known Trajectory)
Shemale explores the margins of electro, probing the floor and the backroom of the analogue world. Over seven tracks the Northerner paints in shades of black and grey, producing 808 infused beasts and ashen eyed ambience. Shemale is an artist who has been beavering away in the shadows of Newcastle’s empty factories since 2006. . [...]
Legowelt :: North Sea Spectrum EP (Signals)
For the 12” Legowelt has created some deep house sounds, jacking floor pelters and laid back electronics; an artist going strong, and getting stronger proving this one to be an excellent release. Europe may be in the grip of a cold snap, but there’s enough of a thaw in the UK to keep the vinyl [...]
Shawn O’Sullivan :: Free Flight (W.T.)
O’Sullivan has taken a number of styles and ran them together. It is not a coarse blend of techno with some house and electronic elements. Instead the Led Er Est member uses aspects of each, utilizing slow techno structures to sculpt electronic vistas with some Chicago influence. [Release page] It was roughly around this time [...]
UV PØP :: Anyone for Me / Bendy Baby Man (Genetic Music)
For electronic zealots Sheffield is the bastion of UK Techno, Warp Records and Bleep. But, before the town went purple and TDR there was a decent synth wave and punk scene. UV PØP are monuments of this tradition, somewhat lost artifacts. Rock and electronic sounds melt into a Northern Indie stew. Genetic sidestepping some of [...]
Valanx :: Xenolith (Diametric.)
Xenolith is a dark vision from the mind of Valanx. The bucolic tones of nature, the progression of modernity and the thrill of the metropolis are put under the Valanx lens, a lens which sees the charcoal silhouette of all. Just before the end of the year Arne Weinberg announced a change. In a press [...]
V/A :: Urbi et Orbi Vol III (Minimal Rome)
There’s a wonderful variety across the album, of established artists and new names, of musical styles and ideas. Turn a corner and you’re listening to Electro, next it’s mutating Acid, next its Industrial Ambience, next House. There is an unbelievable spread of sounds across Urbi Et Orbi III, but without the album becoming cluttered or [...]
Studyman :: Minimal Action (Decabaret)
Studyman is cutting his teeth on the French label with the Minimal Action EP. There have already been some web comparisons to Robert Hood and some bygone Detroit sounds, but does Studyman live up to these high claims? Decabaret Records returns with a new release and a new artist. Studyman is cutting his teeth on [...]
Neud Photo :: Simulations (Pylon)
Neud Photo makes Simulations seem effortless; the tracks ebb and flow masking the intricacies of Nightingale’s vintage synthesizer arsenal. Neud Photo, aka Nico Nightingale, is an artist who seems to be releasing back to front. The young New Yorker has been serving up his own brand of minimal synth infused electro on labels like Living [...]
Plastic Frog :: Review batch
Over of spread of EP’s and albums, Plastic Frog have explored—and released—some excellent synth, electro pop and EBM. It can be quite a mission to find labels promoting quality synth wave and minimal analogue; it’s tricky to find such quality. The world of electronic music has always been an underground affair. The scene thrives on [...]
Breathing life into minimal Europa (Anna Logue)
Anna Logue is a label with an undeniable ear for quality synth wave and minimal pop. The German imprint has illustrated this across a spread of LPs, EPs and 7″s. Anna Logue is continues to display this cultivated taste, this time with two new 7-inch release and a full twelve-inch slab of wax. [Releases page] [...]
Hadamard :: Jupiter Cycle 1 & 2 (Last Known Trajectory)
The Jupiter Cycles are the best work of Hadamard to date. Bartelink leads the listener through automated atmospherics, phantoms of electric pulses and inside his motorized structures. Since the summer of 2010 Last Known Trajectory has been releasing some top class Electro. The UK imprint has been exploring the work of artists like AS1 and [...]