Juggling between new wave minimalism and retro tastes of the 80’s and post-punk and rock sounds and structures, X-Wife, from Porto, Portugal, since 2002 delivered constantly quality electro music. “Infectious Affectional” is their fourth full-length album.
João Vieira – vocals and guitar, Fernando Sousa – bass and Rui Maia – synth and keyboards bring to the surface the same pulsing and pounding, minimalist and grungy post-punk/dark electro themes, it’s quite retro, but still not dusty, dark and electrifying music.
Read more X-Wife – Infectious Affectional (2011)
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Psychobuildings – Self-titled EP (2011)
From Brooklyn, New York, Psychobuildings brings alive some twisted, but danceable beats to build up some psychedelic construction with roots back to the 80’s new wave experiments, but stepping right into the sound of the future.
After releasing two killer singles last year NYC’s Psychobuildings unveil their first 12″ record in EP format, the band is currently in the studio working on their first full length with producer Peter Wade (MNDR, Jennifer Lopez).
This 20 minutes (6 tracks) of Psychobuildings are the best opportunity to discover what they are up to. Read more Psychobuildings – Self-titled EP (2011)
DJ Mitsu the Beats – Midnight Roses (2011)
Sleazy, easy and smooth, this might be the perfect background music / soundtrack for some nighttime action, or as the Juno Records PRs put it in different words “the best pulling pants and head off” (music).
DJ Mitsu The Beats is widely regarded as one of Japan’s finest mixing wizards, he’s still largely unheralded in Europe outside the nu-jazz and downtempo hip-hop scenes. Mainly instrumental, but also incorporated pieces cuts from Ceefax, Tony Hart’s Gallery and Barry White, this is a nice, soft and quite refreshing melt-down into the smooth universe of slow-dance, soft-focus jazz-funk, nu-jazz and downtempo, still very classy and subtle, “Midnight Roses” is a joyful trip – preferable for two. 😀 Read more DJ Mitsu the Beats – Midnight Roses (2011)
Juno Reactor – Inside The Reactor (2011)
“Imagination. Use it as a weapon.” Or… “No fixtures, all you need is a good vibe, oh and a passport from another planet.” Simple like that.
Formed as an art project in 1990 by Ben Watkins to collaborate with other artists and to create experimental music and non-musical soundtracks that would work with installations, art pieces, and film projects, Juno Reactor becomes a constantly changing ensemble of musicians from across the world delivering a large variety of music genres and styles from trance to industrial and from trip hop to goa and world music. Read more Juno Reactor – Inside The Reactor (2011)
Mindplotter – Coma (2011)
Mindplotter is a one-man project from Ukraine and “Come” is the second album after the 2010’s “La Beauté De La Solitude” exploring an electro-industrial, experimental area with noise and breakbeat textures, but also including colourful influences also from The Chemical Brothers, God Is Astronaut, DJ Shadow, Unkle and Massive Attack.
“Coma” sounds like a battle-ground for post-rock and ambiental music, it’s a collision between genres, matchcore and cinematic, smooth soundscapes are merged into one, glowing and colourful music.
Organic and mechanic, rock and electronic music blended together and the result is quite dynamic and exciting. Read more Mindplotter – Coma (2011)
Sankt Otten – Gottes Synthesizer (2011)
In the manner of Klaus Schulze/Tangerine Dream and in the best tradition of Neu! with dark electro textures and Krautrock resonances, Sankt Otten, the duo from Osnabrück, Germany formed by Stephan Otten (drums, keys, programming) and Oliver Klemm (guitar, keys), in 1998, delivered a new trip into the warm analogue sounds, sequencer lines and electric drums of the 70s and 80s, but still breathing alive, looking into the future.
Especially the title track, “Gottes Synthesizer”, over 13 minutes, is a brilliant piece with tunes that re-call Robert Fripp. Read more Sankt Otten – Gottes Synthesizer (2011)
Army of the Universe – Mother Ignorance (2011)
Juggling between the 80s glam and dark electro/dark wave sounds and the 90s minimalist industrial demolitions with influences from acts such Nine Inch Nails, KMFDM, 16 Volt, Filter, Front Line Assembly, etc, Army of the Universe arise from Milan, Italy delivered a quite refreshing blending of electronica and trance elements with anthematic rock.
On this mission Lord K (Vocals) and Trebla (production) benefits from the mixing and production assistance by the Grammy-award winning drummer for Nine Inch Nails, keyboardist for Marilyn Manson, and multi-gold record producer/engineer for Rasmus, Megadeth, Slipknot and Metallica, and founder of Tweaker, Chris Vrenna. Read more Army of the Universe – Mother Ignorance (2011)
Wugazi – 13 Chambers (2011)
It’s not so hard to figure out: Wu-Tang Clan vs. Fugazi = Wugazi and the result is this “13 Chambers”, obviously 13 tracks available for free download at the official site . Actually, Wugazi is a labor of love by Cecil Otter & Swiss Andy. A year’s worth of cutting up every imaginable Fugazi record and trying out every Wu-Tang acapella they could get their hands on, resulted in this record. Now I had my own little problem with it: I saw a few years back Wu-Tang Clan at a festival, it wasn’t my choice to listen them, I was interested in Marilyn Manson who performed after them, but honestly, don’t matter how open-minded I might be, it was the worst live shit I ever had the bad luck to bear. Too many black guys with too many microphones rapping over a boring loop of four beats for one too long hour about how bad is to be black and how hard is their life in America. I really don’t give a shit about it and well, if life sucks in America, Africa is still on large, isn’t it? (Just like lefties can emigrate to Cuba anytime…)
On the other hand, Fugazi, formed in Washington, D.C. in 1987 and being on hiatus since 2003, is one of the leading bands of the post-hardcore movement, band formed by Ian MacKaye after legendary Minor Threat was dissolved in 1983.
So, kind of bitter-sweet, bad-good mixture of “stuffs” – exclusively from my point of view. Read more Wugazi – 13 Chambers (2011)
Thot – Obscured by the Wind (2011)
Thoth was considered one of the most important deities of the Egyptian pantheon. Thoth was often considered to be the heart which, according to the ancient Egyptians, is the seat of intelligence or the mind and tongue of the sun god Ra, as well as the means by which Ra’s will was translated into speech. He played many vital and prominent roles in Egyptian mythology, such as maintaining the universe, and being one of the two deities who stood on either side of Ra’s boat, the other being Ma’at, who was also his wife. In the later history of ancient Egypt, Thoth became heavily associated with the arbitration of godly disputes, the arts of magic, the system of writing, the development of science, and the judgment of the dead.
In the early 90s I’ve get interested in Tarot and by that I have been reading a lot about Egyptian mythology and several other books linked to this subjects, one of them being “The Book of Thoth : A Short Essay on the Tarot of the Egyptians”. That book describes the philosophy and the use of Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Tarot, a deck of Tarot cards designed by Crowley and co-designed and painted by Lady Frieda Harris. On the other hand, the “original” “Book of Thoth” is a book containing powerful magical spells that appears in an ancient Egyptian story from the Ptolemaic period which reflects the Egyptian belief that the gods’ knowledge is not meant for humans to know.
But for sure you must know about Thot – the band – is another nice discovery bring to my attention by Aurelien Dubois-Pham of Domino Media Agency. Gregoire Fray from Brussels, Belgium, guilty of unleashing this beast, created a quite exciting and unique mixture of electro-rock merging industrial, darkwave and indie/alternative rock elements. Read more Thot – Obscured by the Wind (2011)
I, The Phoenix – Self Titled (2010)
Belgium gave to the world a few quite exciting artists. Well, my first “acquaintance” at age of 6 was René Magritte. Few years later I was crushed by Front 242, after a while, a Dutch friend of mine introduced me TC Matic (the former band of Arno Hintjens), dEUS are still on the top of my favorites list, and there are a few others as well. Kingdom of Belgium might be a small country – 11,787 square miles (30,528 km2) – , but it’s only prove that “size don’t matter” in some particular cases. Still, Belgium is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU’s headquarters, as well as those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.
In addition, I had in my mind “In Bruges”, the black comedy directed by Martin McDonagh in 2008. And somehow, in my subjective perception, the Belgian art scene delivering mainly pretty gloomy stuffs. Some like it hot, while others chosen the darker path. ITP makes no exception.
I, The Pheonix is a project born in Brussels, the brainchild of Jean-Paul Frenay and Vincent De Puydt, as they call it: “an organic platform”. ITP – far as I heard – is quite an unique something. Label it industrial seems unfair. Rather is a disturbing mixture of dark-wave, garage and gothic rock, a twist of psychedelic and progressive rock, some tasty spices of noise and industrial and lot of creativity. Read more I, The Phoenix – Self Titled (2010)
