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 [...]
Articles By: Robbie Geoghegan
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 [...]
Smartguy Records :: Review batch
Since 1997 Smartguy Records has been releasing a veritable banquet of styles and genres. U.S. labels seem more comfortable releasing a spectrum of sounds. Don’t get me wrong, this is not a pigeonholing of European imprints. It just seems that American labels are more willing to put out a buffet of genres. San Francisco’s Smartguy Records [...]
Dalek I :: Compass Kum’pas (Medical)
Compass Kum’pas was first released in 1980, getting a few re-issues in the latter years of the decade. Seattle’s Medical Records has come to blow the dust off this forgotten album, prime the needle and lead you into the world of Dalek I. It’s no news that Liverpool is a music town. But within Merseyside’s [...]
Publicist / Tussle :: Split Infinitive (Voltaire)
With electro disco having dried up over the last few years, Voltaire are, in a way, breaking with the norm. For those looking for an analogue fix with a decent floor slant, look no further. It’s full time work, well part time, staying up to date with the comings and goings of electronic music. But [...]
The Exaltics / Gosub :: The Exaltics Meets Gosub (Solar One Music)
The Exaltics serve up two warming Electro tracks, toeing the line between detached and inviting. Gosub tears down any welcoming aspects, instead establishing an uneasy twosome of Electro dappled with disaffection. [Release page] There are a handful of Electro labels and artists that are consistently releasing pure quality; Solar One Music and The Exaltics (Robert Witschakowski) are two [...]
Soma Sema :: Artificial Heart / Frenzy (No Emb Blanc)
Synth pop has a tendency to focus on the machine sounds, with the larynx being used as an accompaniment. Soma Sema turn this norm on its head. [Release page] 2011 was a great year for synth wave. Amongst the generous array of re-issues came some choice newcomers and numerous labels showcased this fledgling talent. Kernkrach [...]
Octavius :: Laws (Mannequin)
Laws is an almost lawless boarder crossing, skipping across state lines into a number of blurred genres. Synth wave, minimal pop and the darker side of the synthesizer has been the focus of Mannequin. Octavius aka William Marshall is no bright-eyed newcomer, an artist who’s been releasing since before the millennium. After nearly ten years of [...]
Joe Drive :: Exoplanets EP (Lux Rec)
Joe Drive and Exoplanets finishes off a quality year testing the limits of many genres—utilizing elements of House, Techno and Electro and incorporating these supposedly disparate sounds into three strong pieces. [Order page] Just before the New Year dawned Lux Rec managed one last piece of vinyl to end 2011. Joe Drive is an up [...]
Tevo Howard :: The Drapes in the Living Room EP (Thug)
Tevo Howard’s sound seems to be on a constant curve of transformation. The Chicago man’s sound is rooted in House, exploring the classic elements and venturing further into the depths as years have passed. Oceania has never really been a hotbed of electronics. Some bits and bobs have come from Australia and New Zealand, but [...]
Legowelt :: Poverties Paradise (Echovolt)
Poverties Paradise is a sublime piece of electronics, Legowelt draping the listener in warm analogue sounds alongside a steady machine beat. Despite the financial austerity coursing through Europe record labels are still managing to get vinyl on the table. From the sun drenched, and economically entrenched, shores of Greece comes Echovolt Records. Since 2009 this Athens [...]
Ian Martin & Yard :: Double review (Further)
A soulful audio tonic is required to escape the rains of the Pacific North West. Seattle based Further Records have been producing such remedies from their very beginning. For the latest output the soaked city offers up Celestial Acid by Yard and Mechanical Rain by Ian Martin. The title of Yard‘s latest might hint towards of an [...]
Momentform & Kartei :: Double review (W.T. Records)
W.T. Records closes a productive 2011 with two débutantes, First up are France’s Momentform with their self titled EP. Momentform is Fake breaks the silence with a slow piece of synth wave. Intelligent structures weave as strings add another dimension to the synths. “Selected Works” is an electro wave powerhouse from the get go. Vocals [...]
Anna Logue / Mannequin :: 2011, a year for some collaboration
Too often labels become ego centric and lone projects. Both imprints have realised a common love of synth wave and minimal pop, the pair working together to achieve similar aims and getting out some great obscurities in the process. As the last days of 2011 close it’s a nice time to reflect on the year [...]
D.Carred / Hysteric :: EP double review (Bordello A Parigi)
Winter may be here, but Italo sun is rising in the Netherlands. In 1985 D.Carred cut two pieces of golden ray Italo. In recent years these Italo Summer days have languished in dark clubs and darker collector closets. Now D.Carred’s lost works are getting the re-issue treatment. Italo is a pretty varied sound, some influenced [...]
Orpheus :: Path From Hades (Sequencias)
Of late electronic music has become much more retrospective. The past is building the present. Vintage machines are the tools of construction. The structures echo the blueprints of old. This attempt to recondition Chicago is producing a second age of house. Orpheus crafts his tracks within tight parameters. [Clone release page] “House, what is house?” [...]
Morphology :: Information Paradox EP (Cultivated Electronics)
With its new club night up and running down in London it’s time for Cultivated Electronics to serve up a new slice of electro. Quick trip to the grey skies of Finland is in order. [Clone release page] The Finnish dynamos of electro, Morphology, set out some clinical analogue moods with Information Paradox. With every release [...]
Fiese Art & Half A Twin :: Double review (Förderung Kosmischer Kunst – Musik)
The synth wave resurgence rolls on. Parallel to the revival is a wealth of new artists and groups taking up the synth mantle. Some have tried and failed, touting some angular hair form of electroclash. F.K.K. are right on the money, reinvigorating classic sounds whilst broaching into experimentation. The 7” has had a turbulent life. [...]
ATTRACTIVE! :: 3View 2011.12
Sometimes releases come out under the radar. The latest lot from Attractive! have fallen into this category. Over the year this minimal synth imprint has doubled its back catalogue, from three to six. For the latest lot a trio of groups find themselves on 7” vinyl. Treeline are the duo of label boss Steve Lippert [...]
Bakterielle Infektion & Television Set :: Double review (Genetic Music)
Semsroth has created turmoil filled synthscapes haunted by the vocals, and vocoders, of Uwe Marx. Under his Television Set moniker he has produced catchy melodies swaddled in melancholy. In from school. Great stuff, those records from Pelicanneck have arrived. Couple from Gescom, Plaid’s Booc and a split 12” on A.D.S.R.. First side Skanfrom, second Bakterielle Infektion. [...]