New releases last four weeks: Coldwave/Synth

Review: Barcelona's 22Recordings takes a break from the usual electro fare with an intriguing fusion of minimal tech and electro - dare we say, 'minimal mech' - from DJ and producer Anah, the '22247005' EP. Far from a Sophie Ellis-Bextor flip, opener 'Murder On The Dancefloor' narrativises the act of contriving a hitman for hire, with a sinister voice urging as to clarify whether they can indeed be of assistance to the listener. This character accompanies us throughout the four-track journey, which is otherwise constituted of parping yet dark electro-disco sonics and consistently techy 4x4 draws, among which 'Fatality' is the most enticing.

Review: British band Archive unveils their soundtrack for the new French film Voleuses (Thieves) on NetFlix under the English title of Wingwomen, in the UK. The soundtrack offers a unique blend of electronic, avant-garde, post-rock and progressive rock and draws from diverse musical influences throughout, with the the London-based ensemble delivering an immersive landscape that mirrors the story of Carole and Alex, two adept thieves battling for liberation in the film. This one comes on audiophile vinyl and is a great accompaniment to the move itself.

Review: Los Angeles-based ASHRR are back with a new cut which comes from their forthcoming Sunshine Low album which they have re-interpreted as their ASHRR Soundsystem alter ego, while System Olympia also steps up with a remix on this fine new package from 20/20 Vision. In the hands of the latter, 'What's Been Turning You' is a remix with plenty of hi-fidelity cosmic details over mid-tempo deep nu-disco drums. The version from ASHRR is a chugging and Italo-tinged classic with loose-limbed and jumbled drum funk and plenty of bright, shiny arps. A great collection then.

Review: Finally, the debut Bochum Welt album Module 2 has been reissued after an initial run on Rephlex. Bochum Welt (Gianluigi Di Costanzo) has just recently celebrated 30 years of releasing music. His brand of IDM, electro and techno has been often copied but never equaled. His futuristic music seems to always be forward thinking and ultimately, timeless sounding. This edition is on matching green vinyl and includes all the classic material of the first release. Fans of AFX, Squarepusher and Cylob are sure to be aware of Bochum Welt. But for those who aren't....

Review: The cult favourite Dark Entries hits 15 in style here and celebrates in the only way it knows how - with more great music. This time it is the legendary synth-punk yahoos Crash Course in Science aka Dale Feliciello, Mallory Yago, and Michael Zodorozny who are in the spotlight. The group formed back in 1979 and set out to make music using toy instruments and kitchen appliances. Their punk-y, aggressive, angular sound soon found a hardcore fan base and gave rise to big tunes like 'Cardboard Lamb' and 'Flying Turns.' In 1981 they recorded Near Marineland, a full-length that never actually saw the light of day but does now and shows the band moving into more diverse and polished territory.

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.

Review: Formed in the post-punk era of Manchester in 1978, The Durutti Column, led by guitarist Vini Reilly, has remained an enigmatic and influential force in the history of post-punk. Their 1989 release, aptly titled Vini Reilly, is a testament to Reilly's eclecticism and sonic experimentation. The album spans a vast musical landscape, encompassing elements of post-punk, rock, acoustic, avant-garde, jazz, classical, folk, pop, and electronica.The album's 35th anniversary reissue box set includes many great additions that allows listeners to appreciate the enduring impact of his artistry, as he continues to inspire and challenge music enthusiasts worldwide. Includes new essay by Durutti Column/Factory Records expert James Nice, liner notes by band member Bruce Mitchell, liner notes from Anthony Wilson, interview extracts with Vini Reilly and restored images and outtake images.

Review: Oakland, CA trio Houses Of Heaven draw on elements of industrial pop, post-punk, electro and experimental on their latest full-length Within/Without, their second LP for label Felte. Channelling the production prowess of Matia Simovich (INHALT) - and featuring top-of-their-game guest vocals from Douglas McCarthy (Nitzer Ebb) and Mariana SaldaNa (BOAN) - Within/Without marks a turn away from the dub-infused movements of their prior 2020 Silent Places, going full-on weighty and noir cyberpunk, but with an extra ear for texture that most other releases operating in said style cannot claim to match. Opener 'Strange Temptation' prefers its shutdown Reeses and crunching arp sequences, while mid-record peaktimer 'Deserve' proves itself unafraid of rapturous verbs and washes; the lust could go on, but all tracks here have a remarkable ability to both strike fear into the hearts of us puny humans and simultaneously make us prance.

Review: Cult English electronic duo I Monster aka Sheffield based record producers Dean Honer and Jarrod Gosling dropped Neveroddoreven, their second studio album, on 21 July 2003. A little later than first planned, it now gets a special 20th Anniversary re-issue on CD as well as this double gatefold. It incudes the original album plus three new singles and the much loved acoustic version of 'Daydream in Blue' which even if you don't think you know, you will, because ti has been rather ubiquitous in ad campaigns for brands including Ford and Magnum Ice Cream. Also helping to keep this band relevant after all these years was their single 'Who Is She' going viral on TikTok in 2023 and picking up 290M Spotify streams.

Review: The arrival of Il Quadro di Troisi could not have been more ironic. Anything but new faces on the music scene, the Italian electronic partnership of Eva Geist and Donato Dozzy debuted as the reality of living in a pandemic really began to hit home - November 2020. A month that usually calls for their brand of dark, Ital-disco-cold-synth stuff was void of the situations you'd want to hear it in. No parties, no clubs, no concerts - not even an opportunity to stick it on when getting ready to do something. Nevertheless, we've more than made up for it now, and having grown incredibly close betwixt that waking nightmare and today's chaos, the arrival of a new LP is an enticing prospect. As the notes explain, "everything changes, all things evolve, nothing stays the same... La Commedia marks the band's embrace of a more traditional song form, shaped by a very personal and distinctive musical style. The distinguishing elements of Il Quadro di Troisi's music meld into a unique mix that is both seductive and eerie, elegant and earthy, contemporary and timeless."

Review: The second solo releases from Edward Ka-Spel to appear on the Lumberton Trading Company label offers eight spectacularly original compositions from the outsider artist. These are tracks that bore their way into the heart and mind through startlingly personal moods and meanings. The atmosphere is often tense, and, when it's not, 'surreal' is the word that springs to mind - albeit more unusual hallucination than comical experiment. 'Platform 5' might be the best example of how unnerving things can get, the low, rumbling synth bassline underpinning spoken word, distant, almost inaudible harmonic refrain and eerie chorus. 'No Show Tomorrow' asks "what if they had a war and nobody showed up' to seemingly disconnected tones, notes and noises. 'They Seek Her Here' ups the tempo with a synth-wave-breaks trip through dystopian spaces.

Review: The KVB's forthcoming album Tremors, marks a significant return for the coldwave duo. Described as 'dystopian pop,' the album promises a fusion of industrial-tainted synths with post-punk percussive patterns, capturing the warped energy of their live performances. Lead single 'Labyrinths' offers a visceral experience, with sloping bass-lines and imposing production delivering unbridled aggression reminiscent of the band's early releases. The album represents a culmination of the duo's evolution, blending emotive impact and pop hooks within a uniquely shadowy atmosphere. As pioneers in atmosphere mastery. A cinematic journey through themes of loss, resistance and inevitable change, making it their most complete album to date.

Review: Le Couleur consistently sidesteps complacency with each new album presenting a fresh musical experiment without ever losing its familiar foundation. With Comme dans un penthouse, the band takes its biggest leap into musical exploration yet as they revisit elements of 'Voyage Love' while delving deeper into disco infused with new wave nuances. The result is a cooler, more distant vibe compared to their previous work. The album crafts a narrative universe around Barbara, introduced in 'POP,' as she seeks excess, pleasure, and happiness amidst frenetic rhythms. From the Krautrock-inspired 'Autobahn' to futuristic tracks reminiscent of Das Mortal, Le Couleur deftly balances innovation with familiarity here on another sublime-sounding album.

Review: After a long emergence in and adjacent to the South London underground music scene, producer, singer, performer and outlandish mask donner Lynks returns to the fore with the announcement of their debut album, Abomination. Moving between the well-paired, current twinnings of post punk, art pop, and rubbery electronica, Lynks lays down a whopping debut full-length here, commenting on casual hookup culture and queer psychic contemporaneity amid a brash and ironically relentless weirdo rave faux-schlock.

Review: Dublin-based electro-rock four-piece MELTS are back with a stunning follow up to their knockout 2022 debut Malestrom. This is a band who know exactly how to draw the best out of their psych-leaning rock and fuzzy analogue electronics for a maximum energy rush, as perfectly demonstrated on the album's fiery opener 'Figment'. Recorded and produced with Gilla Band's Daniel Fox, the album explores themes of human interaction on a micro and macro level, and with a sound fit for massive festival stage grandstanding they're poised to bring together vast swathes of people for all manner of massive shared experiences.

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Review: Earlier in the year, Miss You offered up a first ever 12-inch pressing of Patrizia Pellegrino obscurity 'Il Mondo Da Una Nuvola', an obscure Italo-disco B-side that they backed with their own tastefully executed extended mix. Here they repeat the trick with one of the Italian singer and actress's earlier B-sides, 1982 gem 'Musica Spaziale'. In its original form (track one), the song is a throbbing, heavily electronic chunk of infectious Italo-disco excellence topped off with a decidedly cosmic lead vocal from Pellegrino. It comes backed with a suitably moody, chugging and even more musically expansive 'Extended Mix', and a fine TB-303-laden Italo-meets-acid revision courtesy of the cheekily monikered 'DJ Asshole'. Space disco for the win!

Review: Pye Corner Audio is one of the fundamental projects on Ghost Box, as Martin Jenkins indulges his hauntological synth fantasies on an increasingly fertile seam of investigation where drone, wave and death disco can all intersect. Jenkins has never been trapped by retro-fetishism with his analogue sound, and on The Endless Echo he's all the more inspired as he meditates on themes of science fiction and the illusory nature of time. Throbbing, chugging beatdowns sit comfortably alongside spatial, beatless investigations, all sculpted with the masterful touch that comes from considerable experience and a generous assortment of vintage boxes.

Review: Analogue synth spooks rejoice, Pye Corner Audio is back with further explorations of the sweet spot between nostalgic fuzz and circuit-borne futurism. Ghost Box is a spiritual home for Martin Jenkins' flagship project, and he continues to edge out the scope of the Pye Corner sound without derailing the fundamental atmosphere. On The Endless Echo, warm, pulsing melodics set to eerie keys abound, and there's a fine balance between gorgeous ambient atmospheric pieces and sinewy, danceable rhythms, but Jenkins manages to sound fresh and inspired even while reliably holding true to the overall project aesthetic.

Review: Beautifully arranged, elegant and wistful, Dream Talks is a set of ten carefully crafted classic songs; From the autumnal opener 'Today is the Day' to the hot summer night finale of 'Turquoise Moon', Still Corners have created a sound that is focused, stylish and seductive. Written in various places - the south of France, East Sussex, UK and Woodstock, New York - the album is matchingly riven both in style and subject matter, with the former spanning ethereal electronica and crystal-clear dream pop, and the latter moving to themes of obsession to reality to "ships in the night".

Review: By the time 2024's Pendulum landed, Twin Tribes had been building up a vehemently passionate following among members of black-nailed, dark-hearted subcultures for nine years. Also known as Luis Navarro and Joel NiNo Jr., the pair clocked up underground wins with two preceding records, Ceremony and Shadows, garnering attention among fans of cold wave and post punk. Now they take the whole concept to even higher - icier - heights. One wrong step and you'll be cast down the mountainside, it's dizzying at times. Chunky basslines drive us into yearning, strangely subdued-yet-soaring melodies that seem to speak to despair and hope in equal measure. It's hugely evocative stuff that rarely lets up in terms of intensity, 'Caldron of Thorns' among the tracks at the lower end of tempo scales, and even then it's not really hanging about.