Tags: Synthwave

Review: Berlin-based synthwave and dark disco band Dina Summer return with a sanguine new seven-track record, continuing their reputation for making 80s nostalgist music fans ever more ravenous for their distinct take on EBM and its adjacent styles. Following 2022's acclaimed Rimini LP, this freak zone of a record brings gravely detuned, yet DJ-ready instrumental backings and stiffly but passionately delivered vocal recitations to a modern production palate. This approach reaches its ultimate conclusion on the natural midpoint 'Alien', a track perhaps best describable as a hi-NRG number made in a cryoponic chamber and lent an extraterrestrial theme.

Review: Berlin-based Dina Summer - a synth-loving trio fronted by the suitably sassy and no-holds barred singer Dina P - impressed with their Italo-disco and turn-of-the-millennium electroclash inspired debut album, Rimini. Three years in, they return with an arguably even stronger set - the notably darker, more stylish and more new wave-influenced Girl's Gang. Many of their trademark elements remain to the fore - Dina P's dead-eyed spoken word vocals, the use of vintage drum machine rhythms and sequenced basslines - but this time round come accompanied by black mascara-clad nods to post-punk, New Romantic, goth-rock and Depeche Mode style synth-pop sounds. As previously stated, it is genuinely stylish and impeccably observed stylistically, but what makes it stand out is the substance behind the sheen.