(By our Norwegian correspondent Jan Ronald Stange. Cover art by Halvor Bodin) With the release of ‘Black Pawn’ Apoptygma Berzerk adds the third album in a series of 4 releases with B-Sides & Rarities, following the ‘Faceless Fear‘ and ‘Disarm‘ releases which both came in 2020.

On ‘Black Pawn’ you get, among other things, served up the title track in its original version, as well as for the very first time, a studio version of ‘Enjoy The Silence’, something APOP fans have been clamoring for and wanting since 1998.

In addition to this, there will be, for the first time digitally, ‘Kathy’s Song (Mat Silver vs. Tony Burt Remix)’, a version only found on 12″ vinyl before. ‘Photoshop Sucks (Lo-Fi Version)’ is brand new and has never been released before.

With all these remixes, that have only been available on compilations or CD-Singles previously in combination with for example ‘Untitled 6’, we get an exciting and varied B-Sides & Rarities that most APOP fans will be able to appreciate and enjoy all digital platforms and streaming services.

This is in anticipation of new material and new releases from APOP, and gives the fans something to sink their teeth into while waiting!

Check it out on Bandcamp, Tidal or Spotify!

Jan Ronald Stange

Sometimes – when I’m not cooking, biking, listening to music or attending concerts, I write stuff for Side-Line.com. Mostly about Norwegian bands, but it’s been some Swedish, English, American, Danish, German and others too… 😉

www.facebook.com/jrstange

Out on July 9th via Tatra Records is the re-release of Apoptygma Berzerk’s 2006 album “You and Me against the World” in no less than 3 versions with extra tracks.

“You and Me Against the World” is the fifth studio album from the Norwegian electronic rock music act Apoptygma Berzerk and gave way to a very different sound in the band. Whereas previous records had a more traditional electric synthpop/EBM sound, “You and Me Against the World” features a more mainstream, rock-oriented sound. It’s the band’s most successful album to date.

Released on 3 continents, “You and Me against the World” had a tracklisting which varied on all original CD releases, from territory to territory and contained from 11 (Germany) to 15 (Australia) tracks. On the new 2021 CD edition, for the first time all the hits from this era have been included on one album, including the singles “Cambodia”, “Love to blame”, “Shine on” and “In this Together”. This new remastered CD version comes in all new artwork and contains a number of bonus-tracks, including rare and nowadays impossible to find remixes from long deleted singles.

Next to the CD version there will also be a limited edition of 700 copies on classic black vinyl (2xLP) containing the 15 ‘main’ tracks of the album, divided onto 4 sides. A limited red vinyl will also be available and is strictly limited to 400 copies.

CD Tracks:

1. Tuning in Again (Intro)
2. In this Together
3. Love to blame
4. Black Pawn
5. You keep Me from breaking apart
6. Cambodia
7. Back on Track
8. Tuning in to the Frequency of your Soul
9. Mercy Kill
10. Lost in Translation
11. Into the Unknown
12. Maze
13. Faceless Fear
14. Shine on
15. Is Electronic Love to blame?
16. Lost in Translation (Sweep Remix)
17. You keep Me from Breaking apart (…According to Phillip Remix)
18. Black Pawn (Elec This! Remix)
19. In this Together (Voltage Controlled Music Remix)

Check out “In this Together”.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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(By our Norwegian correspondent Jan Ronald Stange. Cover art by Halvor Bodin)
Barely a week before April 1^st Apoptygma Berzerk and Pitch Black Drive Productions  announced the digital release of ‘Faceless Fear – A collection of B-Sides & Rarities’, and today we can all get it on lots of platforms!

The name was indeed in touch with the current state of the world – coincidence or not?! I managed to get some background from the henchman of Stephan Groth, the x-member still pushing various buttons: Per Aksel Lundgreen.

Side-Line: This release, or rather the title, seems very current – something you decided recently due to the corona crisis, or had it been named earlier?

Per Aksel: It’s actually been planned for a long time. Before x-mas I put forward three suggestions for compilation albums to Stephan; the first called ‘Faceless Fear (B-Sides & Rarities)’. We also are more or less finished with the tracklisting for Vol 2: ‘Black Pawn (B-Sides & Rarities)’ and Vol 3: ‘Lidelsens Mening (B-Sides & Rarities)’

S-L: So the ‘Nein Danke EP’ has been postponed then?!

PA: Nope, we just squeezed ‘Faceless Fear’ in between other releases. We’re worked long and hard to FINALLY finish the ‘Nein Danke EP’, and also the remastering and cover for the ‘Rocket Science’ LP release. After that we considered the three compilations, and what better title to start off with than ‘Faceless Fear’ in these corona times when most of the world is in a quarantined standstill? At the same time it’s good to present something exciting for the Apop fans these days, trying to be a relief from news and social media packed with fear and sad stories about dead music colleagues.

Get the collection on Bandcamp, iTunes or Amazon, and it’s a also available on Spotify, TIDAL, Deezer, Simfy, Slacker, 7-Digital and other platforms.

Jan Ronald Stange

Sometimes – when I’m not cooking, biking, listening to music or attending concerts, I write stuff for Side-Line.com. Mostly about Norwegian bands, but it’s been some Swedish, English, American, Danish, German and others too… 😉

www.facebook.com/jrstange