Back catalogue: Coldwave/Synth

Review: Marie Davidson's latest single 'Y.A.A.M.' is a poignant critique of power dynamics in the music industry - favouring authenticity and passion in a world that thrives on branding and transactional relationships - out of which the Canadian artist finds fuel to fan the driving flames of existential industrial electro-techno. The track opens with a juddering, in-between-4x4-and-2-step electro beat, which lasts for over a minute before Davidson takes up the mic: "do you follow me?". What ensues is an imperfect list of music industry quibbles, which flow over the monstrously huge backing - "entrepreneurs, influencers, producers, managers / nothing for you and me" - in stark but gallows-comedic contrast to the plea to relocate our arses to the dancefloor. In Davidson's own words, the track was inspired by a haughty, lecturing email from a music industry insider: "I took the opportunity to write down how I felt about the words," she recalls, "and the overall tone of arrogance of what I had just been sent quickly, I found myself having a bit too much fun."

Review: Talk about things that make you go "oooh." The moment we heard that Daniel Avery, Working Men's Club and Ghost Culture were working together on a "new musical project" we had a lot riding on the results being particularly potent. Quite what they might sound like was anyone's guess mind, and there was an underlying worry that we might be left with another supergroup disappointment - where the parts are strong but don't necessarily understand how to gel. Demise of Love prove that doesn't have to be the case every time. It sounds like all of the above and yet none of them, it's ripe with emotion, fraught with punk ferocity and outwardly romantic in an electronic sense. Rave-y, weird, melancholic, angry, sleazy and infinitely re-playable, believe the hype.

Review: When Marie Davidson announced last year that she would be, "retiring from club music", many wondered what she'd do next. Renegade Breakdown, her first album recorded with a full band (L'Oeil Nu), answers that question. It sees the Canadian artist and her new collaborators deliver suitably arresting, personal and ear-catching songs built on mixing and matching a surprisingly wide variety of musical inspirations, from Blondie, classic disco and mutilated heavy metal guitars, to Kraftwerk, Billie Holiday, Fleetwood Mac and Daft Punk. It's a big shift for the previously highly experimental artist, but thanks to her skill as both a a producer and performer, one that works magnificently well.

Review: After doing the rounds for years as a bootleg CD, Depeche Mode's Live in Basel 1984 is finally getting a release on vinyl. For fans of the legendary Essex band, or merely those with an in interest in early new-wave synth-pop, the album should be an essential purchase. The quality of the recording itself is rather good (something of a surprise given its age and the fact that it would have most likely been recorded to tape), while the band's performance is superb. It's basically a celebration of the Mode at their early synth-sporting best, teasing and titillating an enthusiastic Swiss crowd. Musically, we get a mix of cult favourites, early album tracks and now iconic singles such as 'New Life' and 'Just Can't Get Enough'. Ace.

Review: It's 1990 and Depeche Mode couldn't really be riding much higher in the global music stakes. Having just released Violator, the band had finally debuted an album inside the Billboard Top 10 for the first time in their almost-decade-long history, and pretty much anyone who came into contact with the record was very quickly captivated by its sound. While definitely not a curveball, it marked an expansion of the group's existing style. Some have described it as synth-pop, others alternative rock. In many ways, it's a dance floor album, one that embraces goth and coldwave at its very core. Captured during their tour at that time, Set In Stone features landmark singles from the LP - 'Personal Jesus', of course, and 'World In My Eyes' - it also proves beyond any doubt that a Depeche Mode show is about more than simply playing the hits.