I stumbled into a handful of incredible industrial bands at the beginning of the 90s thanks to Cleopatra Records and two of their compilations, collections of cover songs, I guess it was an AC/DC tribute and another one with The Cure songs. Later I had listen also some nice Smashing Pumpkins, Siouxsie and the Banshees, New Order, The Sisters of Mercy, Pink Floyd, Guns N’ Roses, Dead Can Dance and Skinny Puppy tribute/cover albums. Well, through that records I discovered bands such 16Volt, Razed in Black, Spahn Ranch, Sheep on Drugs, Electric Hellfire Club and so on.
16Volt reminded me of Ministry and it’s the project created by Eric Powell and Mike Peoples in 1988 and “Beating Dead Horses” is the eight studio album of the band. There is still few reminiscences of the Ministry sound like EBM/industrial sound, but 16Volt developed their own sound and unique approach. “Beating Dead Horses” is actually an absolutely beautiful album. Read more 16Volt – Beating Dead Horses (2011)
electro
Atlantis – Mistress of Ghosts (2011)
I still don’t get it, how it comes that some guys seems to be pretty creatives, but when it comes to choose a band name, something I believe it’s pretty important by the way, they just fuck it up or simply shitting on their self? “Atlantis” is a name used by probably half of the planet for different products, including band names. And it was already a rock band in the 70s using this name in Germany. Gilson Heitinga started writing songs under the name “Atlantis” in the winter of 2005/2006. While choosing a name he wasn’t really inspired, the songs he wrote are pretty interesting. Otherwise the name actually fits the music. Releasing the debut “Carpe Omnium” in 2007 and on the good tradition of Trent Reznor, formed a live band including Sander Bolk, Carlo Leijtens, Gido Leijtens and Marijn Slot. Singed for the Nottingham based label, Field Records and “Mistress of Ghosts” is Gilson’s second full-length album.
This is a gloomy, contorted incursion in a world made of enigmatic noises, glowing textures, delicate sounds and expressive shades. Read more Atlantis – Mistress of Ghosts (2011)
Lamb – 5 (2011)
Lou Rhodes and Andy Barlow parted their ways in 2004 to go on divergent solo projects after four beautiful electronic albums. Six years later, talking on the phone and catching up, their considered the time it’s right to make another Lamb album. And this is it. “5” will be released on May 5 and the pre-ordered special limited-edition version consist in 15 tracks. The flawless blend of baffled beats, intriguing textured ambience and lush, the soulful melodies and color of exciting noises are merged into this highly pulsing new material, Lamb sounds fresh, distinguished, alive and kicking, the best possible mixture of experimental trip hop and pumping drum and bass. Aside from trip hop and drum and bass, their musical style is included a mixture of jazz and dub. Read more Lamb – 5 (2011)
Mr. Pan[k]sament – Electro-Acoustic Two Notes Techno (Unstable Mix)
It’s been a while since I write/record something new. So this is the fresh s*it. I had some fun writing a classic Techno tune but kicking it off from some nice and gentle acoustic instruments, actually some strings and a “dummy” piano theme which have only the role to replace the drums. I had in mind to write something quite simple: no more than two, eventually three notes and hell yeah, I think this is a great song after all. Once again I will say what Henry Rollins said: music shouldn’t be brain surgery. Well, this album (The Ghost of the Absent Father) it’s pretty off from my usual path of musical searches, but I hate to repeat myself and well, I love to deviate into different stuffs from time to time. 🙂 Read more Mr. Pan[k]sament – Electro-Acoustic Two Notes Techno (Unstable Mix)
Rhian Sheehan – Seven Tales of The North Wind (2011)
Rhian Sheehan predominantly writes music for film and Television, his music has also appeared regularly on BBC television programming, including Top Gear, and has been used for a variety of TV commercials and movie trailers and short films worldwide.He composed the soundtrack to the UK’s National Space Centre’s We Are Astronomers, a 360° Full Dome Film narrated by Doctor Who’s David Tennant which is currently screening in digital planetariums around the world, as also composed the score to the 13 part prime-time TV Drama series “The Cult”,and the Emmy Award winning series “Reservoir Hill”. Read more Rhian Sheehan – Seven Tales of The North Wind (2011)
Gavin Friday – Catholic (2011)
Gavin Friday spans around for more than four decades, not only as musician, but as painter as well or writing and MCing his own weekly cabaret “The Blue Jaysus”. He wrote the soundtrack to Jim Sheridan’s “In the Name of the Father”, which including Sinéad O’Connor’s hit, “You Made Me the Thief of Your Heart” and subsequent film scores have included the song “Angel” to the “Romeo + Juliet” soundtrack, the score for the Australian film “Angel Baby”, “The Boxer”, “Disco Pigs” and “In America”. He collaborate with artists such as The Fall, Coil, Dave Ball, U2, Jah Wobble’s Invaders of the Heart, The Heads, Howie B. and Preacher’s Son. Gavin’s first solo album was released in 1989, “Each Man Kills The Thing He Loves” followed by “Adam ‘n’ Eve” in ’92 and “Shag Tobacco” in ’95. Gavin have a long collaboration with pianist Maurice Seezer. “Catholic” was released on April 22 and we’ve got 11 brand new tracks. Read more Gavin Friday – Catholic (2011)
Moon Duo – Mazes (2011)
Scheduled to be release on March 28 in Europe, respectively on March 29 in USA, “Mazes” is the second full-length album by Moon Duo. Inspired initially by the legendary duo of John Coltrane and Rashied Ali, Moon Duo was formed by Ripley Johnson of Wooden Shjips and Sanae Yamada in San Francisco in 2009. Utilizing primarily guitar, keyboards, and vocals, the Duo play a mixture of Psychedelic and Trance/Chillout, counts such variant groups as Silver Apples, Royal Trux, Moolah, Suicide, and Cluster as touchstones. They music is spacy and airy, minimalist, but kind of warm, pulsing, sometimes it give me the feeling that Iggy Pop jamming with the French duo Air. Read more Moon Duo – Mazes (2011)
Asking Alexandria – Stepped Up And Scratched – Remix Album (2011)
After the April’s release of their second full-length album “Reckless And Relentless” , “Stepped Up And Scratched” is the remix version of their debut album from 2009, “Stand Up and Scream”. It’s pretty strange, or at least unexpected, while on their second album they turned to a much heavier side of their music, this remix album step back to the much electronic, “dubstep feel” content. So, they still trying to “Ride Two Horses at Once”, and definitively they will piss off one or other of their fans because metal fans will not digest this dance-club oriented mixes easily as the club music consumers are not huge fans of noisy guitars and deadly growls. If sexually it may be acceptable or at least tolerated to be bisexual, in the music business it’s pretty hard to take it both way simultaneously and keep on smiling just like nothing happened. The facts are facts: metal-heads always been extremely conservatives. Read more Asking Alexandria – Stepped Up And Scratched – Remix Album (2011)
Gang Gang Dance – Eye Contact (2011)
This is the fifth album by Gang Gang Dance and their continue the trip into the experimental electronic and worldbeat area of the music. They gained a kind of cult status in the New York underground and which finally push them into the mainstream attention. They blending electronic and post rock, psychedelic music into something strange and mysterious music with exotic perfume. Last year the band received publishing royalties from British group Florence and the Machine. Members of Gang Gang Dance noticed that part of “Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)” was lifted from their song “House Jam” from they 2008 album “Saint Dymphna” and approached Florence and the Machine’s label who acknowledged that “infringement had occurred”.
After releasing all their earlier records with Brooklyn label The Social Registry, in 2010 Gang Gang Dance signed with UK label 4AD and “Eye Contact” is the group’s second album after stepping out from the underground. Read more Gang Gang Dance – Eye Contact (2011)
Amon Tobin – Isam (2011)
Crazy, spooky thing. Experimental electronic. Noisy but still soft and abstract. He is best known for his use of sampling, where a small section of a previous recording is manipulated to produce a new sound. It’s a mixture of sounds, noises he’s blending different styles from IDM to drum and bass and from breakbeat to trip hop.
Amon Tobin – Amon Adonai Santos de Araújo Tobin – is a Brazilian musician, DJ, and producer of electronic music. In 2005, he created the musical score to Ubisoft’s critically acclaimed and successful video game “Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory” as well as Sucker Punch’s game “Infamous”. His music has been used in numerous major motion pictures including “The Italian Job” and “21”. Tobin has created songs for several independent films, including the 2006 Hungarian film “Taxidermia”. He is also noted for his entirely field-recorded album “Foley Room” released in 2007 and he has released seven major studio albums since 1996 under the London-based Ninja Tune record label. Read more Amon Tobin – Isam (2011)
