Sydney Valette – Other Side (Album – Icy Cold Records)
Genre/Influences: Dark-Wave, Cold-Wave, Post-Punk.
Format: Digital, Vinyl.
Background/Info: Sydney Valette is a Parisian artist who already released multiple productions on different labels. This work was originally released in 2016 on Yuk-Fü Records and now re-released as vinyl format.It was the artist’s second album.
Content: Sydney Valette is mixing 80s influences together. From Dark-Wave-Pop to harder Electro-Post-Punk the work sounds as an energetic mix between Kas Product, Suicide and a touch of early Indochine.
+ + + : The album sounds diversified. The multiple influences create a powerful and homogenous sound. I prefer the ‘harder’ cuts which you’ll find at the end of the album. “Prêt-A-Mourir” and especially “Life” both are amazing cuts driven by speed rhythms. The more catchy “Someone In My Room” is another attention grabber. I think it’s a damned good thing this album got a re-release.
– – – : The debut part sounds softer and more hesitating but let’s see it as a warm-up.
Conclusion: Sydney Valette is an artist I highly recommend to all lovers of dark 80s music.
Best songs: “Life”, “Prêt-A-Mourir”, “Someone In My Room”, “What You Gonna Do”.
Rate: 8.
Artist: www.facebook.com/Sydney2Valette
Label: www.facebook.com/icycoldrecords
Listen to “Other Side”:
About Sydney Valette
Sydney Valette is a Paris-based dark-wave and post-punk act that began in 2005. “Other Side”, the project’s second album, was originally released April 27, 2016 on Yuk-Fu Records and written, composed, mixed and produced by Sydney Valette, with mastering by Mike Theis. It was reissued on vinyl via Icy Cold Records in 2022. The same label released the sixth album, “Home Alone”, in September 2022, a return to the project’s 2005 roots blending dark wave, EBM, post-punk, rave, Italo disco and ambient influences, including a cover of the Death In June track “Fall Apart”.
Support Side-Line
More people read Side-Line than ever, and there is still no paywall and no advertising. Readers pay for it instead - from $5 a month.
Why we ask
Advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. Unlike many news organisations we have not put up a paywall, and we refuse to add annoying advertising, so we need to ask for your help. Side-Line’s independent journalism takes time, money and hard work to produce, and we do it to push the artists we like, who are equally fighting to survive.
Handled by PayPal.
I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.
