Delirium &#8211; SIDE-LINE

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.

The Neuro Farm releases new single ‘Panic’ ahead of 2024 album

Bernard - Side-Line Staff — Tue, 10 Oct 2023 07:17:20 +0000

Washington DC-based darkwave gothic rock band The Neuro Farm has just dropped their latest single, “Panic”. The track delves into a childhood experience of fever-induced delirium and is set to be included in their forthcoming album, slated for a 2024 release.

The band brings a blend of vocal harmonies, sweeping violin tunes, pulsating rhythm guitars, and atmospheric soundscapes. Their sound however is influenced by a range of artists, including Joy Division, Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Sigur Ros, Chelsea Wolfe, Portishead, and Rammstein.

The single “Panic” features performances by Rebekah Feng on violin and vocals, Brian Wolff on vocals and guitar, Tim Phillips on synths and programming, and DreamrD on drums and percussion. The track was penned by Brian Wolff and Rebekah Feng, recorded at The Neuro Farm’s own studio, mixed by Brian Wolff, and mastered by Rob Early.

Check it below on Spotify or go to Bandcamp.

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.

Listen to the new Delerium single ‘Coast to Coast’ from forthcoming album ‘Signs’

Bernard - Side-Line Staff — Sat, 25 Feb 2023 15:55:44 +0000

(Photo by Bobby Talamine) Metropolis is set to release the new Delerium album entitled “Signs” on March 10th. According to Bill Leeb, one half of the duo behind Delerium (next to Rhys Fulber), “Signs” represents a full-circle arc of the group, from its experimental beginnings to where they are today. Over the course of their 35-year career, the project has explored various genres of electronic music, including dark ambient, techno, and world music.

The lead single from “Signs,” titled “Coast to Coast,” features female vocal contributions from Mimi Page, Phildel, Inna Walters, and Kanga, each adding their voice and style to the music.

In addition to the upcoming release of “Signs,” Metropolis Records recently re-released the project’s entire catalog from 1988 through 1994, allowing fans to rediscover the group’s early experimental sound. The new album will be available on very limited edition white vinyl and compact disc, as well as all digital and streaming platforms.

Delirium released its last album in 2015, “Mythologie”, which is the fourteenth studio album by Canadian band. It was their first album for Metropolis Records. The album was produced by Bill Leeb and Rhys Fulber with the help of Jared Slingerland and Craig Johnsen. Guestvocalists included Mimi Page, Phildel, Jaël, JES, Geri Soriano-Lightwood and Leah Randi.

Delerium returns with all new album in February 2023

Bernard - Side-Line Staff — Thu, 29 Dec 2022 17:40:09 +0000

A new Delerium album wil come out on February 3rd,2023 on Metropolis records. The release will be dedicated to the late Dave Heckman who passed away on Friday, July 29th this year, only 68 years old.

The album has been mastered already in September but you will have to wait a few months before its gets released. Rhys Fulber and Bill Leeb didn’t announce any guest vocalists yet but Los Angeles based singer Lillian Kanga Duchamp will be part of the line-up for sure.

No more details are known for the moment about the new Delerium album.

The Seven Whores Of The Apocalypse – Wicked Hands (EP – Scanner / Dark Dimensions)

Inferno Sound Diaries — Sat, 27 Aug 2022 07:00:00 +0000

Genre/Influences: Electro-Wave, EBM, Industrial.

Format: Digital.

Background/Info: “Wicked Hands” is the official debut EP from the American trio The Seven Whores Of The Apocalypse. They previously self-released a few productions and now signed to Scanner.

Content: It’s not an easy thing defining the sound of this band. The 4 songs are clearly mixing different influences like electro-Wave, Industrial and EBM. The result is a danceable production driven by carrying sequences and charismatic vocals on top.

+ + + : I’m always in for a band you don’t directly link with another formation. The influences are familiar, but the result is a personal sound approach revealing 2 promising songs. I refer to the great opener “Enter Delirium” and the darker “Feed Me To The Void”. I like the haunted atmosphere hanging over the songs.

– – – : The EP is maybe not featuring an absolute hit song although revealing a band with a true potential.

Conclusion: The Seven Whores Of The Apocalypse is a band dealing with an original sound mixing great atmospheres and danceable vibes.

Best songs: “Enter Delirium”, “Feed Me To The Void”.

Rate: 7½.

Artist: https://sevenwhoresoftheapocalypse.com

Label: www.darkdimensions.de / www.facebook.com/pages/Dark-Dimensions-Label-Group/486014725206

Diamanda Galás reveals new excerpts from forthcoming album, ‘Broken Gargoyles’ + video explaining the album’s genesis and story

Bernard - Side-Line Staff — Fri, 05 Aug 2022 08:33:12 +0000

Out 26 August on Intravenal Sound Operations is Diamanda Galás’ newest album, “Broken Gargoyles”. Today Galás shares new excerpts from the album as well as a video originally made for the Theatro Circo installation explaining the album’s genesis and story.

The album itself consists of two track, “Mutilatus” and “Abiectio”. The works feature verses by German poet Georg Heym, “Das Fieberspital” and “Die Dämonen der Stadt”. In “Das Fieberspital” Heym describes the horrific state of people suffering from yellow fever who live in paralysing fear of death and swirling delirium owing to their brutal treatment and isolation in medical wards in early 20th century Germany. “Die Dämonen der Stadt” also addresses such grim portents of World War I; in this poem, the god Baal observes (like a gargoyle) a town from a rooftop of a city block at night-time and lets a street burn down during dawn.

Here are some brand new excerpts.

“Broken Gargoyles” was composed in 2020 though the first incarnation of the work was played as a sound installation at the Kapellen Leprosarium (Leper’s Sanctuary) in Hanover, Germany (in keeping with the theme, the sanctuary was built around 1250 and served as a quarantine for those who suffered from the plague and leprosy in the Middle Ages). The work was finalised in collaboration with the artist and sound designer Daniel Neumann.

Talking of their work together he says, “It was a wild working method, all remotely, with all these different pre-existing and newly recorded fragments.” In May, Portugal’s Theatro Circo hosted the sound installation.

Here’s the video made for the Theatro Circo installation explaining the album’s genesis and story.

www.facebook.com/CryoChamber

Dead Melodies – Memento (Album – Cryo Chamber)

Inferno Sound Diaries — Thu, 21 Apr 2022 07:00:00 +0000

Genre/Influences: Cinematographic, Dark-Ambient.

Format: Digital, CD.

Background/Info: The prolific British artist Tom Moore is exploring the world of dreams in his newest work. This must be his eighth solo-work while he also released several collaborative pieces.

Content: “Memento” is moving from pure Dark-Cinematographic music to Dark-Ambient. The artist brings both universes together while accentuating some passages with evasive guitar playing. The tracks have been progressively built up until reaching an ominous sphere achieved with field recordings.

+ + + : Dead Melodies holds onto his familiar sound formula. It’s a typical Cryo Chamber release for its Cinematic format but also an interesting Dark-Ambient approach reaching a climax at “Eyes Of The Sun”.

– – – : Dead Melodies moves on composing a pleasant and even fascinating sound but the albums are progressively becoming more predictable. The effect of surprise is gone.

Conclusion: Dead Melodies has accomplished a new dark composition touched by grace and serenity.

Best songs: “Eyes Of The Sun”, “Welcome Delirium”, “Where Lonely Embers Grow”. .

Rate: 7.

Artist: www.facebook.com/thedeadmelodies

Label: www.cryochamberlabel.com /

www.facebook.com/jrstange

‘Det er ikke hos meg det brenner’: dystopian EP from Norwegian duo EL/NeUe

jrstange — Mon, 15 Nov 2021 15:34:00 +0000

(By our Norwegian correspondent Jan Ronald Stange / EL/NeUe press release)

The Norwegian duo EL/NeUe just released a new EP, and the title track ‘Det er ikke hos meg det brenner (It’s not my place that’s on fire)’ might be the darkest moment from EL/NeUe so far. The text is based on a poem by Simon Stranger, describing our indifference and ineptitude when the refugee camp in Moria were burning. The dystopian music is bass and noise oriented, while an old Roland SH2000 plays in the background.

The EP also contains four different remixes of the song ‘Ich bin Krank’ from the album ‘KRANK’, released June 2021.

First remix is Technomancer’s version, which in contrast to ‘Det er ikke hos meg det brenner’ is probably EL/NeUe’s most danceable and accessible piece of music so far.

Leo Avanti! has taken ‘Ich bin Krank’ apart and rebuilt it into an exciting and airy version called ‘Willkommen, Herr Doktor’.

Next is the synth-free version with lots of guitars and fuzz – the ‘Fuzzmix’.

There’s also the appropriately named ‘Covid 19 Delirium remix’ – mixed by EL/NeUe’s Askild Hagen just days before he was admitted to hospital and ended up in a respirator with a severe case of corona.

The last track of the EP is the ‘Mingomix’ version of ‘Det er ikke hos meg det brenner’ with less noise and bass and more tonal synths.

Check it out on Spotify:

jrstange

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… 😉

1st single from Conjure One’s first studio album in six years out now: ‘Animals’ – stream the first single

Bernard - Side-Line Staff — Fri, 21 May 2021 17:04:59 +0000

The first single from Conjure One’s first studio album in six years is out now. “Animals” is taken from the new Conjure One album which is coming soon on Black Hole Recordings. Conjure One is the project from producer Rhys Fulber (Frontline Assembly / Delirium). The release, the project’s 5th so far, comes 6 years after the “Holoscenic” LP.

For the single Fulber has collaborated with fellow Canadian Jaren Cerf on vocals. Note also that the single is released as Conjure One + Jaren.

The single holds two versions of the title track, and extended and an original mix. You can stream “Animals” below.

Black Hole Recordings is a trance and progressive music label based in The Netherlands, it was founded in 1997 and is the label from artists such as Tiësto, Deadmau5, Paul Oakenfold, M.I.K.E. Push, BT, and so on. The promo regarding this new release also reached us via a PR company working in the dance scene.

www.strezov.net www.strezov-sampling.com

’30 Years Of Journalism – Celebration Interview’ with Ben Watkins aka Juno Reactor

Inferno Sound Diaries — Sun, 16 May 2021 17:00:00 +0000

Back in 1991 I started writing my first reviews for Side-Line magazine. I would have never thought to go on writing reviews and making interviews non-stop for 30 years. So 2021 is a special year to me, a kind of ‘celebration year’. I got the idea to celebrate this special event by interviewing people from the scene who all have a special meaning to me. ‘Journalists’ have to remain neutral, but it doesn’t take a way we all have our own favorite artists. Juno Reactor is one of my all-time favorites. Instigator Ben Watkins is an artist who each time again takes me by surprise. His work is mixing influences like Psy-Trance, Tribal and Cinematographic music. The Juno Reactor sound has something special featuring elements you directly recognize; a true sound-DNA. I already got the opportunity to interview Ben Watkins before, but I’ve been deeply touched he accepted to answer questions for this special interview. Great artists aren’t only composing great music; they’re still accessible and humble persons. I’d an endless number of questions to ask. Ben took his time to answer and it finally resulted in one of the most informative and complete Juno Reactor interviews ever. Thanks Ben and respect!

(Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)

‘I Was Smitten By Girls And Rock’

Q: What have been your first experiments as a musician? What have been the triggers and, which were your favorite bands as a teenager?

Ben: I was born into a family of five kids, I was the second, my parents had both been actor’s. When I was between 5 and 6 years old I would wait for my brother in my classroom to finish his school -I would have about an hour, so about 10 of us kids and a teacher would do drawing, games etc. One day I suggested we do a “Top Of The Pops” (a popular TV show); I formed a band with air-minus-everything, sat my mate Jason down on drums as he had the biggest nose like Ringo Star, can’t remember the others; we would make what surely was a cacophony of made-up words and stamping to the beat. “She Loves You Yeah Yeah Yeah” must have rung out beyond the classroom as the headmaster, a demonstrative man, with a liking for beating kids with his sports shoe would appear at the window looking very irritated. As it was not the first time I had had the unwarranted shoe across my backside, a shiver would go down my back as his eyes and Hitler moustache bobbed above the door partition.

These pleasant heady afternoons were soon banned due to the repetition of “She Loves You Yeah Yeah Yeah”. I noticed the rather large female teacher was pretty good at the piano, So I asked if I could have lessons, even her non-stop smoking didn’t not put me off.

The headmaster had too much of a liking for giving me a sore ass, so I asked my parents if I could move school. I had joined the parish choir, the choirmaster was a man named Roy Massey. Roy Massey was cool and pushed me as he liked my voice. He suggested I go to a Cathedral Choir school and apply for a scholarship.

First I went to audition at St Pauls Cathedral in London. It was a bleak audition, I didn’t prepare enough, and glad I escaped what reminded me of a Charles Dickens movie. Next was Chichester. I could breathe in this atmosphere, I passed the audition of 200 kids for one place and felt very puffed up with myself, knowing my parents didn’t have to pay for my education.

Picture by Sanja Karin Music

Violin followed, along with daily practise -7 am wake up, 30 minutes piano or violin practise. 8 am breakfast, 8:30 practise piano violin, 9 am going to the classroom, 12:00 choir practise, lunch then school, sports, choir practise, choir service, dinner, do homework, play free games, practise then bed. This went on for 4 years along with a new disciplinary teacher who equally enjoyed punishment -this time a cane, up the wide massive stairs of the bishops palace, down a long dark corridor, knock, explain my crime, ‘Ben-d over Watkins’, a leather chair which when bent over lifted my behind into the perfect position. 6 whacks later, my hands firmly on my butt, dark bruises would appear later in the night. I had been born again to the boy I should have been in the first place.

Music school and punishment always seemed interlinked. Even now it annoys me that the first headmaster refused to put my name on the scholarship board, what a cunt. His name was Mr. Sandford.

I survived Chichester, I became the head of House, by this time I was no longer beaten, and had a champion in Mr. Ross, the disciplinary teacher, sports freak alto in the choir with a certain eye for pubescent males. I was good at winning in Rugby, as we had the biggest 13-year-old god or whoever made him, like a superhero he would destroy other schools and me riding on his coattails basked in his glory. Mr. Ross showed me how to take down a man, so we did with as much aggression as possible when he joined in.

I left Chichester, a remnant from the stone age of how not to teach a dyslexic kid like me through corporal punishment on how to learn -I didn’t. My choirmaster at Chichester I must say was equally odd, looking like Eric Malcombe (a British comedian). He again had a draconian delight in making sure the boys of the choir feared him, his eyes would hover over you like the follow spots of a prison camp from high above us in the organ loft. He had two mirrors focused on us, and if you looked up, the Vampire of Bela Lugosi would be there. I can’t say I cried when he died a few years ago, as I still hold a dagger that was thrown too many times my way.

So Wells Cathedral school was next, my introduction to the female sex… well, bye bye learning, OK practise the violin, do all the rest, then focus on bands, Led Zep, David Bowie, Marc Bolan, Alice Cooper, Queen, glam rock. I was smitten by girls and rock. My mate Simon Baggs was older and had a car, we would venture out of the school across to Glastonbury plateaus, a labyrinthian set of roads through old mash lands, country pubs to drink cider, smoke John Players Special fags, and listen to his 8 tracks (?) as the beams of his car entered the mists of the backcountry lanes. Alice Cooper’s “Love It To Death” album never sounded so sweet. I continued exploring musical possibilities by experimenting with my first band Spiritual Sky, influenced by David Bowie, whose concerts was the first I went to, the Aladdin Sane tour at the Earls Court Stadium.

‘I Was Listening To D.A.F. And I Realised This Is The Future’

Q: Hailing from London (UK) I can imagine the late 70s and 80s have been fascinating years when it comes to music and the (r)evolution of Electronic music. What did these years mean to you and do you still feel an impact today?

Ben: I left school when I was 16/17 with the intent of going to a music college. At that time I played classical guitar, and would practise 8 hours a day, and got quite OK on it. I flunked the first audition as I didn’t present a second instrument. This depressing point changed the course of my life, I was so annoyed by myself, I stopped playing classical guitar and got more into songs of Dylan and people like John Martin. Smoked a ton of dope, started busking, went off to Paris with a semi pyscho guy called Lynn, a man with an addiction to Valium and a crushing right hand as a rhythm guitarist, and spent the summer playing on the streets of Saint Michelle and the Champs Elysée. After months of being arrested (and sometimes put into prison -the police were quite nice and would give me beers to play) I had had enough. I wanted to form a band! Due to my parents lengthily separation and all the conflicts attached to it, starting since I was 9, and final divorce shortly after my return home from Paris, life diverted and I ended up establishing a rehearsal room in the now deserted parental house, where I and my older brother would continue living alone, experiencing the newly found peace and evolving musical projects while rehearsing with my first band Panther. I started gigging, Punk-Rock was kicking off! I was playing, now with my band Rainstorm, the same pubs as the Sex Pistols, Japan, The Stranglers amongst others, we did a tour withThe Frankie Miller Band. A Glasgow singer that should have been born in Memphis -a great singer, wild and very much a Glaswegian. Back then I was booking shows from a red phone box -coins every 30 seconds. Rainstorm turning into I.O.U., we played pretty much every music pub in the country. I really wish I’d kept my bass player from I.O.U. for my next musical project, a guy named Ian Taylor, who I had a natural affinity with.

I was bored of being skint and driving up and down the country for 2 years in our Box Transit with 6 aircraft seats, a PA we had on HP (higher purchase/credit) and going nowhere, fun but nowhere. One time we had to be rescued by the police near Shropshire in Winter, heavy snow blocked the roads at midnight, and the Transit was stranded and being snowed in, the guitarist, also called Ben, had icicles forming on his moustache. I remember crossing fields alone to find a house, first one wouldn’t help us, onto another who did ring the rescue, six of us stuff into a police car -never felt so good.

I partnered up with some musicians an A&R man from CBS suggested. The A&R man was a guy called Chas de Whalley, the brother of a friend of mine from back in the days of the headmaster with a penchant for corporal punishment. We, The Hitmen, went on to be signed to CBS after a year of rehearsals and songs that sounded like a primitive AI had made for a pop audience. Much to the chagrin of CBS, the management and the band, we were incredibly unsuccessful despite all the money and machinery CBS provide. I hated it, the mentality of playing the same notes, in-jokes and seriously underwhelming emotions. I had to leave as I couldn’t stomach The Hitmen any more, the characters in the band were the antithesis of my mental state or desire. Luckily the second album decided to shoot itself in the head, due to too much fighting, no focus and CBS’s realisation The Hitmen were doomed.

Phil Manzanero’s studio (the guitarist of Roxy Music) was a white circular house -I had never seen anything like it! The engineer was a guy called Ian Little. We had made the last Hitmen record there, and I got on with him well. We talked nearly the same language, as opposed to the disconnect with the band. He wanted to make an avant-garde album, free of doctrine -just do what you want. So for a few tracks I threw away all concern and I was to be David Bowie, imagining myself on an alternative “Lodger”-album. Nothing was written, all just improvised. The band was called New Asia… This set my brain off into new ways of writing, like Brian Eno, as studios were expensive and this gave me a chance to experiment.

Picture by Sanja Karin Music

So in the ’70s and ’80s it felt like I was always playing catch up with what other people were doing. I had had the band signed to CBS – it sounded like another band (Elvis Costello mix), or my previous bands -we didn’t sound particularly individual. It was only when I was sick enough of all the ego’s, bullshit or the hatred that you got from possibly jealous band members, that when I got introduced to a drum machine and a sequencer I realised I could get rid of half the band. I was listening to D.A.F. -it was a two-piece and I realised this is the future.

I met Youth (the bass player of Killing Joke) in ’82, around the time when he had just left Killing Joke and was looking to start a new band, which became Brilliant. I was the only guy he knew with a sequencer so for a short time I joined. Toured UK and Spain. We went on to record under the Name The Youth & Ben Watkins on the “The Empty Quarter”-album and “The Empty Quarter” on the “Delirium” album. Both albums were extremely quick in making; first album -the official soundtrack to Jonathan Moore’s stage play “Street Captives” -2 days. Written, recorded and mixed with predominantly pulsating bass lines, drums, early Greengate samplers and synthesizers. Second album -5 days. We recorded “Delirium”, focusing more on rhythms and Electronic elements with still some instrumental aspect, ranging from Tribal to Industrial to Gothic-Funk. So many funny stories with Youth -the time in Spain on the evacuation of the tour, as it all fell apart after Barcelona; we took all our equipment back on the train, decided to eat all of our dope before the French border. By the time we arrived at midnight, the French border police wanted to play games with this group of English stoners. ‘Who is this woman’ they said, referring to a passport. We all looked and couldn’t identify her? ‘Go find her…’ so we all went looking on the train platform, bewildered and laughing, about an hour later we returned to their pigeon hole and asked to look again, as no way was she still on the platform. Upon second look we realised it was me they were referring to… Ha. Ha.

I heard DAF and Suicide around this time, I was saved! This music spoke to me. My grandmother died and left me 200£ which I immediately spent on a Roland MC 202, a sequencer with one monophonic synth. On HP I bought a cheap drum machine and a Moog Rogue. I formed The Flowerpot Men with Adam Peters, a classical cellist, who later became Echo And The Bunnymen’s orchestrator.

Our first single sold well for an underground track. We toured with Dead Or Alive and Siouxsie And The Banshees. Steven Severin of the Banshee’s produced the first “Single Joe’s So Mean to Josephine”, a dark murderous story I had read in the papers. The police knew who had killed the woman in bed, but couldn’t work out how Joe had managed to tie himself up. For the track I expanded on the story a bit. The 202 was driving this with the added influences of T.Rex, sort of a suicide inspired track. It charted in the indie charts and you could hear it being played by John Peel on BBC Radio 1 and loads of underground Gothic Dj’s. “Jo’s So Mean (to Josephine)” was also on our own independent record label, Compost Records.

In 1985 we recorded a cover of Dr Johns “Walk On Gilded Splinters” with Dr John on guest vocals, at Run DMC’s Studio In Nostrand Ave, Brooklyn NY. The B side featured a track called “Melting Down On Motor Angel” which was an elongation of the new drug MDMA, which we sampled on a roof garden on 8th Street watching a shoot-out down below. “Melting Down On Motor Angel” was also the album title to Sunsonic’s only album.

Around this time also, Sigue Sigue Sputnik started turning up to our gigs in full dress, noting down all we were doing, later to make their own version of our madness. A single a year, then along came Ferris Bueller’s Day Off in 1986 completely out of the blue.

Another EP “Alligator Bait”, four songs inspired again by the time in New York… what wasn’t great about New York at that time? So much vibe, parties, gigs, the Danceteria, hanging out with artists, musicians, actors, painters, just walking down the street was like being in a Kojak episode, I loved it!

We were building a nice audience when Adam decided to go produce a Punk band in Denmark instead of headlining the Temple of Gothic achievement -the Camden Palace. The Flowerpot Men were no more.

Yello had come into my life with the “80 – 85”-remix album, it never left the record player, Sonic Youth, Front 242, most of the Mute Records catalogue, Beggars Banquet label, ZTT were making records I could only dream of creating…

So rethink time, 9 months of thinking, writing; rave music came in 86/87, early parties hanging out with KLF in their squat. Sometimes engineering their remixes, or going on the highland adventures with the KLF, making a copy of “The Wicker Man” for all KLF’s licencees, flown onto a small island on the Western Isles (the same place they burnt a million pounds in the name of art and cocaine), so like a twat, as again I was skint I did the opposite of good, and tried and succeed in going and signing with another major label, this time Polydor Records and with my Flowerpot partner, I started Sunsonic. Part of the deal was they build us a studio to save on costs, so what seemed a cool idea -and was in some ways -was us investing into learning how (and not) to become an engineer, an album that should have taken a few months turned into two years and sounded like it: over thought under inspired.

I worked with Alex Paterson (The Orb) again and formed a short-lived band called Peace In The Middle East, same name as the track we created, a sort of goodwill floppy dance sounding workout, nothing special.

When there was so much great quick music being made we were in creative limbo. So the impact changed. Find a new way to present a band, no longer did I want the ego of one partner, I wanted a collective or collaborators and keep the vibe and atmosphere good and exciting.

Adam left for the USA, I stayed and started Juno Reactor.

‘Juno Reactor Was Set Up As An Art Collective’

Q: I think Juno Reactor was originally set up as an art collective/gallery, right? Who was involved? What was it all about and how did it finally become a music collective centred around you?

Ben: Juno Reactor was set up as an art collective, with writers, installation artists, filmmakers, etc. Norma Fetcher, my girlfriend, took a surface to air missile and we drove it around London down past Parliament Square, Big Ben, Whitehall on a flatbed truck, with armoured personal carriers front and back whilst dressed as Arabs -an anti Gulf War protest, and installed it into an art Gallery, the Diorama, that was owned by the Queen and had a perfect silo shape in the middle where the rocket was newly erected. For this, I wrote “Luciana” -really Juno Reactor’s first album, which was also a suggestion of Jimmy Cauty (KLF) that I should do an hour mix as he had just done, as an experiment. The trouble with art was funding and much easier for me to get musical backing so it folded as soon as it began. Although R&S Records did sponsor that show as I had released a track called “I Love You” under the name of Electrotete with future JR musician Stephan Holweck (who later became Total Eclipse), a crazy French guy and brilliant bass player who also lived in the Benio squat with Jimmy.

The main people in the first two Juno Reactor albums were: Mike Maquire, a great guy I met at the distribution company Greyhound, when releasing a self-released title “Pycho SlapHead”, a brutal rave track with a sense of murderous humour. Mike was great, he had been in India many times and loved the early scene where DJ’s were already playing my tracks. I had to find out more, so we went into my studio in Bowl Court and Mike turned me on to the current sound of India. As it was so close to my Electronic sound it was an easy hop onto a train – Sci-Fi Landscapes, my 202 still purring like a train, we made the track “High Energy Protons”. Mike took it to India and immediately it became a big track there and abroad: Japan, Greece, France, Germany and UK. Tracks kept on hoping out in two or three days, with Stephan Holweck and Mike and soon we had about nine or ten tracks, so I took them up to Mute Records, intending to only perhaps sell one track. They loved it and wanted the album!

No one knew what this music was, so they called it intelligent Techno, albums were selling, gigs were happening, I was feeling more comfortable about the debts of Sunsonic being paid off.

‘For Me It Was A Sci-Fi Scene For Acid Party People’

Q: The singles “Laughing Gas” and “High Energy Protons” plus the debut album “Transmissions” (1993) were into Goa-Trance. Back in time this genre was something totally new and often introduced as ‘Electronics for hippies’. What did you keep in mind from this album and how did you see the Goa-Trance movement evolving?

Ben: Well, I never saw it as music for hippies -for me it was a Sci-fi scene for acid party people, hippies were still listening to Dylan in my mind. I had come from the Industrial-Rock routes, with heavy sense or brutal Electronica, which was also being played out in India, so for me, it was not much of a diversion, more like an extension of what I had already been doing. So I hooked up with Mike and Johann Bley, a great writer and drummer, who lived in Goa for 6 months of the year whilst I stayed in the UK and carried on writing tracks. Youth by this time was also indulging in holidays out there. It was a great way to write with no commercial interest, and just get what was great feedback from India and the parties. Essentially it was a very positive way of producing after what was a rather grim time whilst with Sunsonic.

“Transmissions” was the first real beginning of something special, Mike Maguire – Stephan Holweck – Johann Bley even Turnip the Swede Jens Walderbeck, had an important part to play in the new playground. Mike and Johann would go to Goa and live there for 6 months of the year, send feedback on tracks, that even in these days of fire hilltop communication, managed to pass on the vibe of the parties, as I worked on new tracks to send out, or wait for their return. I had no idea of the lazy days on the beaches, rented houses year round, with cleaners and cooks, small or large jungle parties where monkeys would be interactive with the monkeys our tracks (“Jungle High”) -I have sampled a lot of monkey sounds.

These new Cyber-Punks would network in the blessed out Goa sun, to return to their homelands, far away from paradise and the free love of this un-celebrated underground unknown music, their generation accepting of all ages, colours race. Would telegraph their passion, create parties in on hidden mountains in Japan, sex clubs in L.A, warehouse London, gymnasiums in Paris, disused airports in Germany, Outback volcanos in Australia. We were invisible to the industry of wannabe stars and bankrupt music.

This kinetic energy of knowing you were onto something new was the drug, like a secret society that anyone could join, if you had digested the shared psychedelic values.

Our new world was fresh, driven, invited around the world, “Transmissions” was transmitting on a global level, that music magazines and house DJs couldn’t fathom.

The studio building was from the time of Jack the Ripper, a 3 story warehouse used for god knows what, the atmosphere had not left it, along with some of the rather back street people you might expect in that area of London. Prostitutes would use the car park at the back, working their trade. Sometime city guys in suits would be aggressive and attack the women, so we kept a baseball bat by the door and if we heard their screams we would run out in the name of protection.

Q: Your next album “Luciana” (1994) was something totally different and not exactly the most familiar album from your discography. But I think there’re a few interesting things to say about this work; it revealed your interest in Soundtracks while it got released on Alex Paterson’s (The Orb) own label Inter-Modo. What brought you to write this album and how did you get in touch with Alex Paterson?

Ben: This goes back to the Missile Project and the involvement in installation art. Alex (THE ORB) heard the album and loved it, he said ‘Can I release it?’, why not I thought, so I spent an afternoon with Alex in the studio, he added some elements over the stereo track and that became the album. I met Alex in 1986, as he is Youth oldest and best friend, an ex roadie of Killing Joke with an amazing record collection, a massive ability to smoke more than London can produce and speak in a way you need a hearing aid to listen.

Q: I’ve always linked Juno Reactor with solid bass lines and transcendental drums. “Beyond The Infinite” (1995) perfectly symbolizes these elements, but also your interest to explore new ideas like Tribal drums. What did this work say about your perception of ‘sound’ and eventually your passion for drums?

Picture by Sanja Karin Music

Ben: “Beyond The Infinite”, by this time Mute and cool London were not fans of Goa or Trance anymore, and decided to call it ‘Tarquin Techno’ in the media, because of the image that rich kids were behind the scene, which -looking at myself, was obviously bollocks, but in Goa there certainly were a few, and maybe the other scenes sensing danger, ridiculed it. They were about to steal the name of trance. Paul Oakenfold(like ‘Sique Sique Sputnick’) was hanging out at parties, listening, collecting ideas and tracks, the house was moving to Trance. Clever, to take this and add all the crap vocals and sell it off to the sheep… Their power and media savvy then became ‘Trance’. Not sure what our scene was, Psychedelic-Trance? Along come all these pigeon holes. Name it, sell it. We didn’t give a shit and stayed as far away from the cliché as possible. Mike was so great at this time, he had the best tunes of anyone, and was in great demand as an international DJ, from the USA to Japan and sometimes we would join him as a live three-piece. Brilliant days, we were a family.

Q: I think you’re an artist with a very unique sound DNA! What I’m trying to say is that I instantly can recognize your work by the bass lines, the orchestral arrangements, the hypnotic drum sections… What makes this DNA and where does it come from?

Ben: I have no idea. Like all musicians, I have collected and been inspired by what I needed and wanted. I love all types of music, still do, these DNA strands are unique, the hard part is how to lay them out for others to share and enjoy. I wanted to be a photographer when very young, my dad said it was too expensive, so film, TV, pictures, music all collided and formed whatever I am in my tastes for music.

‘I Decided To Become More Grounded In Earthly Sounds From The Percussion’

Q: It’s impossible not evoking “Bible Of Dreams” (1997), which revealed new ideas and collaborations. I consider this work as your magnum opus, which even today hasn’t lost its original magic. How do you look back at this work 24 years later and are there some aspects of the production you would do differently?

Ben: So the time of “Bible Of Dreams” came along. Robert Trunz, CEO of MELT2000 -the umbrella company which ran Blue Room, and Simon Ghahary, the managing director of Blue Room -a sub-label based in the UK specialising in Electronic music, had signed Juno Reactor to Blue Room/Melt 2000 for “Beyond The Infinite”, as Mute didn’t want it. Robert was a jazz freak, and he got me involved in his great love for African music. Robert and Simon were different, business was easy, as Robert was pretty loaded and loved to invest in his artists. He took over my shabby warehouse studio, put in a massive Raindurk Symphony Desk, massive monitors that would be anyone’s wet dream, 9 bass drivers aside, they blew the roof off. He took over landlord costs, God I was free of all these costs, and could make music without the fear of losing it all.

I had been introduced to the African musicians on Melt 2000. All the scene was doing was still making chemical noises, and stick in an alien landscape for the acid heads. Although this is enjoyable, it became very repetitive. So I decided to become more grounded in earthly sounds from the percussion. The only percussionists I had been introduced to before Amampondo were generally white guys, flipping away on drums in a sloppy-sloppy fashion, or German-style timpani military way which I had found pretty useless and saw no advantage in it on a track. So my mind was blown away by Mabi -power, rhythmic complexity, fun, tradition, amazing rhythms that propelled the track! My eyes were opened and I felt stupid I had not seen what so many others had -say for example my favourite drummer Ginger Baker -why hadn’t I noticed African drumming that years before? Anyway, I was now awake to its potential in my world of cross over, not interested in world music in its pure form and wanted to create a fusion with electronic music and see what comes out.

Working with Mabi was so instinctive, we both saw tracks in the same way as pictures and thoughts, I literally fell over him in a music studio corridor where he was asleep on the floor when I was producing a Zulu Band for Melt 2000 in South Africa. We got talking and I invited him and Amampondo to play all the percussion, so in a way, our future was laid out there.

I felt I knew what I was doing, none of my UK band wanted to tour the USA with Moby for just 30 minutes a night, so I called Mabi and Amampondo , did a few rehearsals and off on tour! This moment diverted the future of the project for the next 12 years where I would tour with Amampondo.

“God Is God” could finally be added to a Juno Reactor album, as now JUNO RREACTOR was more interested in the earth sounds, leaving sci-fi behind. “God Is God” was written around the end of “Transmissions”, needed a better mix, but was ready. The album fell into place so easily.

I wouldn’t touch “Bible Of Dreams” as it is a record of where I was musically at the time. I firmly believe people walk on our path for a reason, be it for a short or long period. How we interact with them is up to us. Some people unexpectedly turn out to be far more important than you could ever have imagined. Some you will love until you die, while other return to the mist of being.

Q: I read somewhere that after “Bible Of Dreams” you got the feeling to be done with Electronic music. What was it all about? Was it a kind of exhaustion or blank page syndrome?

Picture by Sanja Karin Music

Ben: It happens a lot to me, especially with Electronic music. Far too many people seem to be happy to create a platform. Be it Trance, Techno, Ambient, Drum’n’Bass, Bass music, whatever. It gets like an L.A motorway full of polluting gases all sounding the same. So I go left, maybe my mistake there, but as I am totally useless at being commercial, I prefer my way. And hope others enjoy it.

‘The Track Was Built Around My Love For Tarantino And Westerns, Clint Eastwood And “Once Upon A Time In The West”’

Q: The opening song “Pistolero” from the “Shango”-album (2000) probably became your biggest hit ever. It sounds differently because of this guitar play and yet it remains 100% Juno Reactor! I remember my reaction when I heard it for the very first time: ‘this guy is crazy’! Was this song a kind of antithesis to all what you’ve done before? And how did you imagine the future of the project right at the new millennium?

Ben: On tour I met up with Steve Stevens. After speaking with him on the phone about the recent Traci Lords album that I produced, I invited him to play on a show in L.A, a great venue, like an old-fashioned sports hall with a running track above. Now, I think how freaked out he must have been, as I patched him into my desk, he would play, and I would cut him off at random, he kept on looking over as if to say ‘WHAT THE FUCK?!’, he must have thought I was crazy, he didn’t complain but you don’t do this to a Rock Legend. Anyway, we got on, he asked me to produce a track for his album – yep, “Pistolero”.

Steve wasn’t used to my regime of endless hours in the studio and I think after six days his eyes were somewhere down near his guitar swaying hips, exhausted he returned to the USA. He wasn’t that impressed, so I agreed to pay his costs, and I would release it. I worked on it a ton more, and out popped the track we know.

The track was built around my love for Tarantino and Westerns, Clint Eastwood and “Once Upon A Time In The West”. When it was released I named it the “Tarantino Radio Edit”. Quentin loved it and Robert Rodriguez and Tarantino then wrote “Once Upon A Time In Mexico” after being inspired by my “Pistolero” track, which they credited in the CD booklet.

Currently, I’m working on the new album, Steve Stevens, Sugizo and Amir Haddad will hopefully all on the same track.

Working with Amampondo was a dream, we never argued, just laughed a lot, after having lived in each other’s pockets on tour we got on well. I learnt more from them than they did of me. Their sense of rhythm, spontaneity, improvisation, the humour of dance, the humour of anything. We would do shows, stop the machines and go into full-on Tribal rhythms, songs of the Pondo’s. Every night was different. Mandla and Simpewe would perform acrobatics when we played “Feel The Universe”, crowds loved this, even though injuries happened, the next night they would do it again. I carried on working with them for 12 years until it became impossible to bring them from South Africa due to rising costs and falling promoters budgets.

I should add that Traci Lords was also very cool to work with, and had several enjoyable sessions with her, which led to a top 5 USA billboard track titled “Control” and a number of movie syncs from these sessions.

‘“Matrix” Was Like Being Shot And Landing In Heaven With A Ticket Back To Earth’

Q: Your songs got more and more featured in movies and you wrote different songs for Soundtracks. I can imagine the “Matrix”-experiences must have been a kind of ultimate dream and accomplishment? But what has been the impact of all these experiences –and more especially “The Matrix”, on your career?

Ben: I love films, first of all, so for it to combine with my music is a dream job no matter what the film is. I will score a bug on a wall, and still enjoy it. “Matrix” was like being shot and landing in heaven with a ticket back to earth. After the initial meeting with the Wachowski’s I had to smash nails into my boots to keep me from flying off to the stars. Reality hit in a good way and was the toughest discipline mixed with the excitement of being able to please the directors and myself. What do I take away from it? A sense of achievement that I did something very special. I still get composers coming up to me and saying it is a landmark film for integration of Electronics and orchestra which is what the Wachowski’s wanted. It helped me believe in my writing al lot more, although confidence is like the wind, some days you have it others not.

The daily routine of waking up in heaven is not always as easy as it sounds, as even in my camp I would experience jealousy, I had brought with me a programmer (Stephan Holweck) an engineer (Greg Hunter) Singer (Taz) Stephan more turned into a cook and this frustrated his, as he wanted to be more involved, but the way out worked out there was no real room for him. Greg brought in his friend, which added to the annoyance of Greg; Greg would come in and say as I was working on “The Burly Brawl”, ‘that is a load of crap’ in-front of his friend as a light heated joke, which they all found very funny, I took Greg outside and suggested he return back to London as he wasn’t on my team, either buck up or go home. I should have sacked Greg as he would do things like after a mix was finished, he wanted to polish it more, so first time I agreed and I went back to the Paramore to sleep. I got a call from the dub stage early in the morning saying ‘what is this mix, it is horrible!!!’ I asked what time it was made they said 8 am, I replied please listen to mix from 1:00 am . They did and said thank you this is great.

Greg Hunter had in the hours between, added noises, effects I knew would be unwanted, and a rebalance uncalled for. He had become a liability to me, as now Warner were clocking his over times. I could not get rid of him as I didn’t know another great engineer in L.A. I would never use him again. These unexpected invasions add a colour I would have preferred had not happened, as these were not the only times he tried to unravel the job.

Zig Gron (my Music Editor) on the other hand, a man I did not know previously was my guardian angel. He walked me through all of the landmines, I asked him to teach me all he could, and I was in a 100 milesper hour world on information upload. Zig was funny, informative and such a bloody relief to have near me. God save Zig Gron and all who sail around him.

Q: The Soundtrack you composed for the “Brave Story”-animation film (2006) must have been something really special. For the very first time you composed the entire Soundtrack and here again I discovered some new aspects like the song “Juno Waltz”. How did you prepare and finally composed this work?

Ben: This was composed under my name Ben Watkins rather than Juno Reactor. I had done another one, like “Beowulf”. I asked them why they wanted me to write for mainly orchestra, and they said we would like to hear how it sounds. So I sort of did my impression of ‘a man who knew what he was doing and what they were talking about’. There were a few production problems re-budget, as it wasn’t cheap for an Anime film. Once that was over, it was surprisingly easy, maybe a lot easier than writing for pure Electronics as the orchestra tone is defined by what you want, and once set, you have your pallet of sounds more or less. “Juno Waltz”, funny you mention that one, as it was the one I most feared to write, as again it has been so defined by other writers. I wrote it last, and it just popped out, it was also the one I felt the orchestra liked the most as they would tap their music stands like clapping.

Picture by Sanja Karin Music

We recorded the Orchestra and choir in Bratislava, The Bratislavian Symphony Orchestra and a Vienna choir. I remember on the way to the massive radio sound stage all the older ladies at the bus stops had bright blue/purple hair. A hangover from communist times maybe, thought it looked great and definitely a way I wouldn’t mind my hair, like Quintan Crisp on acid.

Q: You also composed music for animation games. Does it need a different approach than for soundtracks? Any preference and/or favorite?

Ben: “The Mark Of Kri” was a sort of nightmare, in as far as I had to create on each level two hours of non repeating music, on 0.5 MB, which now sounds insane huh. So you have an excitement engine, 0 – 100, fight mode is 50 plus. I had to build the macros to enable this. So deep learning curve, endless nights on the phone to Scott in San Francisco. This is a bit like the early beginning maybe of programs like WWise.com -which is a sampler on Crack, and hold so many possibilities for AI and VR, which makes me really excited for the future of music and sonic displacement for composers. My preference for games is really to write and hand over in stereo or 5.1.

“PS4 Gran Turismo” -I made special mixes of tracks from the not so soon to be released album “The Mutant Theatre”, I didn’t have much involvement on this as they loved the tracks I presented and it was done.

Thanks of the Galaxy was a scored mobile game. Despite it being for mobile-only, I really enjoyed working with the team in Finland, in which I presented a Sci-fi industrial orchestral score made from orchestra libraries by George Strezov well worth checking out.

‘“Navras” Is The Biggest Track I Have Written’

Q: “Labyrinth” (2004), “Gods & Monsters” (2008), “Inside The Reactor” (2011), “The Golden Sun Of The Great East” (2013) and “The Mutant Theatre” (2018) are the studio-albums released after 2000. How would you analyze the evolution of these productions considering items like influences, technology vs. production and new collaborations?

Ben: “Labyrinth” is “The Matrix”-album, and after the experience of the last track for “The Matrix Revolutions”, “Navras”, I couldn’t write a thing. “Navras” is the biggest track I have written, or been involved in with 120-piece orchestra, 80-piece choir, soloists, percussionists… So for three months after that I was bashing my head against a wall back in the UK. I think mainly as I was still missing the vibe of L.A, the people always around, the buzz. Until “Conquistador” Parts 1 & 2 came to save me along with guitarist Eduardo Niebla. I was mainly working very analogue, real drums, humans playing, and I still do, but now I am 75% out of the box and 25% in the box. Loads of new software have enabled me to make it more expansive.

“Gods & Monsters”-I wanted it less epic than “Labyrinth”, write some songs that spoke to me at the time, and try a sort of Jazzy feel to some of it. Not very popular with the Juno Reactor dance crowd at the time, I still love certain tracks. A lot of artists musicians feel constrained by the genre they are in, main thing to me is to stand by what you write, and try it, it ain’t going to kill you.

One track for example, “Tanta Pena” from “Gods & Monsters” -I was driving to the studio at Ridge Farm when a voice came on the BBC world music show, I had to stop and listen. A cross between a butterfly and a thunderstorm, it took the wind out of my lungs. As soon as the song was over I rang the station and asked who it was. Yasmin Levy! I contacted her husband who was also her agent/manager and asked if she would be interested in recording with me.

Yasmin and the manager arrived on a beautiful Summer’s day. Ridge Farm is in the Surrey countryside, an Elizabethan Estate with grounds, a swimming pool, beautifully landscaped gardens, all made possible by Frank Andrews never-ending building work on his estate.

I had moved into Ridge Farm after “The Matrix” films when I heard the studio on the estate was laying bare. I was able to bring my equipment and use one of Englands classic studio’s. Muse, Queen, Ozzie Osbourne and so many more had recorded here…

Yasmin was shy, and maybe only 20yrs old when she visited the farm. I played her my idea’s, talked a little, not much really and went into record! With one take it was done on both tracks, no need to do any more, she had nailed it! It is quite amazing when this happens, like Lakshmi Shankar on “Navras”.

I carried on working the track to bring it to her level, with an amazing Zook player from Arminia, Tigran Aleksanyan with the merciless drumming of Greg Ellis, who, when I started working with him in the studio, sounded a bit like a session player. His appearance was that of a typical tattoed L.A drummer, calm, spiritually balanced in appearance -and a very amiable personality.

I asked Greg to let his rage out for this track, really hit those fuckers! I unleashed a beast, a monster, his whole countenance changed, Fire and brimstone drumming, an apocalypse of anger and frustration came out! Drum skins didn’t last long, an inverted blister would appear on the snare within one take! Greg loved this approach, which you can also hear on “The Immaculate Crucifixion”. After this, “Tanta Pena” was complete.

The original song dates back to the time when the Spanish ejected the Jewish population or made them convert to Christianity around 1492. It is sung in Ladino by Yasmin Levy whose father was a famous archivist of Ladino music, “No More Blood” –“Tanta Pena”.

“Golden Sun Of The Great East” -I went to India to record a lot of the soloists, and this opened up my world to new horizons, as I found Bombay very “Blade Runner”-ish, ancient and modern all running parallel, crazy, mad, tragic and beautiful.

Magical things happen, even when you are not looking, I was on a day trip around the studio’s of Mumbai with a potential agent for me in India. We entered a black and gold studio, very camp, I would expect Freddie Mercury of Queen to pop out and say ‘Hello darlings, welcome to my fuck fest!’ instead it was a wonderful Panjabi singer being recorded for a film. Our next appointment was with the Mozart of Indian film music, A R Rahmen. Excited I jumped in the taxi, horns blaring, rain falling, a bright night journey. Next to me in the taxi was the Panjabi singer, ‘Hey can you sing me a song into my zoom recorder, as we wait for my agent to say his goodbyes’. 4 minutes later, a song that never varied off its pitch, was in my data control. Leaving out the A R Rahmen meeting as it was nice, but nothing special, I returned to the hotel where eagles would fly high above in the morning light, I listened back, to the Mumbai traffic and the voice of a celestial being. I started writing “Invisible”, the second track on the album.

“The Mutant Theatre” was written for the show -a Sci-Fi extravaganza where choreographed performance really took over the direction.

For me, the last two albums speak to me how I want to hear them, and possibly my favourite albums.

“The Mutant Theatre” was designed as a show album. In 2015 I was asked by the Ozora Festival to come back the next year with a new show, I had thought of a show to be called “The Mutant Theatre” 5 years before when in Russia and working with two amazing Performance groups, Agnivo, from Moscow, and Stigma Show from St.Petersburg. I presented this idea in pictures to Ozora, which they loved. It was expensive as it involved around 18 people.

Eyal Yankovich had been my agent for 5 years or so, also the head of Hommega Records. He was an OK agent, getting me the occasional gig or tour, what he was really good at was igniting my imagination with tunes, and suggest I listen to many great tracks, ‘How about a new “Pistolero” Ben?’

Eyal Hung himself before he could listen to the final “Return Of The Pistolero”-version or the album, which still a saddens me.

Sanja Music, our tour manager, started to really help me, not only from a business perspective, but also from a listening view point. Despite being unable to discuss in a musical language, she would always hit it on the head, find a way to describe the best versions, enthusiasm, insights, referenced insights how fans can view it, how it might work on stage. Spend hours discussing and evolving ideas. I met Sanja many years before in Slovenia when we were playing with Laibach. A tall shiny girl in Japanese fashion appeared solo waiting for the doors to open, a Sugizo fan I believed. We stayed in contact through Myspace and later meeting up in Japan when I was having tours there. She came to the 2015 Ozora Festival and I’ve asked her to photograph Juno Reactor. After we went to Budapest to sight see the city, when I realised what a great addition she would me to Juno Reactor, little did I know how central to my thinking and the project she would become.

‘I Want To Give Something To The Audience That They Might Not Have Seen Before’

Q: You’ve always worked and composed your albums with guest musicians and –singers while going on tour with dance companies, drummers ao. It all feels a bit like the initial goal of creating a ‘collective’ has never changed. What did you learn from all these meetings, collaborations and exchanges?

Ben: I want to give something to the audience that they might not have seen before. Maybe this goes back to my days of loving David Bowie, and his great performances, always looking for a new way. I feel a sense of family when we are on the road, not always possible with some people, but when it is good it is great. I am still learning how best to be, and how to navigate the waters of human interaction. I feel most comfortable in my studio along with all the other me’s talking.

Picture by Sanja Karin Music

Q: Your brother Simon Watkins has been often involved in the artwork of Juno Reactor. It all looks like arts is a family thing. Where does it come from and is there a next Watkins generation to hold on this artistic fire?

Ben: Simon, my brother, helped me focus on art and how to look at it. He always had an unusual taste, a black comedy in his work that I loved. My parents were actors, and despite we were a family of 5 kids, and totally squint, I have no clue why our blood directs us to the arts, as it would be much simpler if we had just wanted a normal life. My parents gave up on their careers too early I always felt, and so I have to live with the musical sword in my hand.

Django, my younger son, is at film university learning the art of script writing and direction, Tim, my older son, is a great musician and records tracks I love. Scarlet and her friend wrote a track for a Japanese singer that was pretty successful. Scarlet at one time wanted to take over Juno Reactor, maybe she still does who knows, but she has chose marine photography for now.

‘AI, VR & AR Have So Much Potential For Young Musicians To Escape The Old Models Of Creation And Start A New Chapter In Music’

Q: A lot of things have changed/evolved since the early Juno Reactor years; think about technology, new equipment & music programs, streaming, social media etc… What have been the pros and cons?

Ben: I started out on an MC 202 and now I have a museum, a laboratory, loads of instruments that I play. I miss the hangouts in the studio, as everyone has a studio, so we became moles. I love the independence of starting a Juno Reactor label, which I and Sanja Karin Music, who is my manager and for a number of years has also collaborated on artwork, future NFTs on knownorigin.io and other platforms, and a variety of creative projects and activities, which we will be rolling out in the coming year.

The new possibilities of NFT’s and blockchain, which might well help the independent musician into a new economic model. AI, VR & AR have so much potential for young musicians to escape the old models of creation and start a new chapter in music, independent from middlemen and greedy manipulators from the dark alleys of the old music industry. A new world awaits in the decade to come, and I am excited by it, and what it will become. This doesn’t in any way exclude the old ways, or purity of the orchestra, classical musicians, just a new voice in the galaxy.

Q: Covid-19 has seriously affected artistic activities all over the world. How did you keep yourself busy and what are you actually working on?

Ben: I am learning the Viola, this has kept me in focus at times, writing new tracks with this has been very enjoyable, as well as testing, as I am still learning, and it will take me a long time to play the way I would like. I swim in the sea, this I love when I can afford the time -a sea swim now takes me about 2:30 hours compared to the pool of 1 hour. It blows all the cobwebs and bad thoughts away -of which there have been many through the past year, no question. I think a lot of artists had a very hard time, a lot of artists might have been forced to stop doing what they love, which is very sad. Like many others as well, I have been forced to look into the paperwork side of the project and face all the different misdemeanours and manipulations from a number of people I preferred not to face while gigs were still bringing in enough money to keep going.

‘Sooner Or Later An Autobiography Could Certainly Happen’

Q: I read in a post you got the idea to write an autobiography, which I think is a real interesting idea. Is it something concrete and are there some next ‘big’ dreams you want to accomplish?

Ben: Well, it is odd, as I have lived long enough to tell stories other people find interesting, or so they say. Sometimes I get caught up in them, and it reminds me of talking to family members before they died. As you can ask them a historic question of how life was, and you can see their eyes glaze over as they reminisce as if they are walking the streets and cafes they used to. It is beautiful to see and hear. I don’t want to become a broken record and recite story after story, so maybe one time if I can write it OK, it might be interesting. My manager Sanja has been pushing me to write down or talk about times in my life and slowly collect all these to be turned into an entity at some point, so sooner or later an autobiography could certainly happen. It might have been silly of me to suggest I’m writing it on a simple social media travel picture that looked to me like a book cover, but perhaps having the public know and expect it will give me an extra boost to keep working on it, with my managers help, as an dyslexic person I was surprised to find that I’m really enjoying this process.

‘The Older I Get The More I Want To Do Music, Scuba, Swim, And Exploring New Horizons’

Q: An interesting item for the autobiography could be to know what you would have done in life without music? And do you have specific hobbies/passions next to music?

Ben: I remember one day my father said ‘If you pass this exam, I will buy you a pony’. I tried my best, but still failed, and thus had to grow up pony-less. I wonder what would have happened had I passed the exam. Would I really have gotten a pony? Would I perhaps be in a completely different profession today? I should ring up my dad and ask if he actually planned to get that pony …

Picture by Sanja Karin Music

A lot of people through-out my life have mistook my dreamy exterior to think I am lazy, when in fact my brain has never stopped talking, the conversations I have in my mind seem to me to be more interesting than the ones outside, so I can be non responsive, come over as aloof. The reality is I have drifted off into my own world again. Where I might think I have answered a question asked by someone, just to realise it was only answered in my head. Dyslexia has strange traits, and for me it is this, I am word blinded sometimes that also raises my pulse to a train, panic. I envy people who can be logical, and competent in social exchanges. Stage is my way out, a sort of nether world between reality and dreams where I feel confident of its power.

Without music, I would be a shadow, maybe worked in a stable or farm all my life, something that didn’t need a searching brain. The older I get the more I want to do music, scuba, swim, and exploring new horizons.

Q: “Pistolero” is the Juno Reactor-song I make people listen to, who aren’t familiar with your work. Which one would you choose?

Ben: At the moment, Ummm my latest one: “Coyote You Me And The Stars”. As it was written for a very special moment and one I will forever remember. I bought an amazing keyboard at the beginning of the crisis, which has been my main frame and primary sound source, the Quantum keyboard by Waldorf, it is such an unusual instrument. It is possible to create sonic textures I haven’t heard before, a 3D motion I have been looking for, this along with the viola.

I am more interested in how I can hold the sound in the stereo field to give depth and spatial pleasures. Political events don’t usually invade my thoughts yet this has been unavoidable.

Witten by: Ben Watkins

Co-editor: Sanja Karin Music (management & shrink services)

Vukovar – The Colossalist (Album – Other Voices Records)

Inferno Sound Diaries — Thu, 29 Apr 2021 19:00:00 +0000

Genre/Influences: Gothic, Experimental, Abstract.

Format: Digital, CD.

Background/Info: UK formation Vukovar is now active for a couple of years and released late 2020 their eighth album to date. “The Colossalist” is meant as the first chapter of the “Eternity Ends”-trilogy. The work deals with personal dramas and failures.

Content: “The Colossalist” invites the listener to join in for a voyage of 11 tracks. After a rather chaotic debut song the work is progressively evolving into multiple directions. From pure Gothic-driven cuts towards a more Experimental approach (like shown at “The Higher Low), the songs are mixing guitar and electronics. I noticed a few more minimal-driven cuts wherein the atmosphere recovering the composition became more prominent.

+ + + : Vukovar is once more awakening some 80s ghosts, but this work moves further, like exploring different horizons and exorcising new ideas. The atmospheric side of the album is overwhelming, sometimes intimate and even reminiscent of a kind of Cabaret-style. The work stands for diversity, sometimes evoking early rehearsals in a cellar or garage and next being more accomplished with a mature production. One thing is for sure, Vukovar is doing their own thing.

– – – : Some songs are suffering from a lack of production and especially some of the debut songs are a disappointing. You can hear a poorly inspired production of the vocals on “Here Are Lions”.

Conclusion: If this album is meant as the first one of a trilogy, I can only hope the best is yet to come.

Best songs: “A Danse Macabre”, “End Of A Life Delirium”.

Rate: (6).

Artist: www.facebook.com/VukovarUK

Label: www.othervoicesrecords.com / www.facebook.com/pages/Other-Voices-Records/196767663702999

Chthonic Force – Delirium Tremens: The Best Of Chthonic Force (Album – Discriminate Audio)

Inferno Sound Diaries — Thu, 21 Jan 2021 19:30:00 +0000

Genre/Influences: Industrial, Experimental, Dark-Ambient, Noise.

Format: Digital, CD.

Background/Info: Vadge Moore (previously involved with Dwarves) and Wendy Van Dusen (Neither World) were active as Chthonic Force releasing a few productions during the late 90s and early 00’ years. This ‘best of’ was originally released as CDR format in 2007 and reissued in 2020 as CD.

Content: Chthonic Force is a project reminding me of the early years of Industrial/Experimental music. So it’s not a coincidence you’ll find interesting guests like Boyd Rice, Monte Cazazza, Peter Sotos (Whitehouse) and Thomas Thorn (Electric Hellfire club) featured on a few songs. The songs are characterized by dark atmospheres mixing Industrial-, Ambient- and Experimental music together with on top narrative vocals. The lyrics have something controversial, somewhat shocking and yet also philosophical.

+ + + : I think Discriminate Audio had a real good idea bringing this album alive on CD format while the digipak looks pretty cool. The front cover perfectly illustrates the dark and controversial atmosphere hanging over the music. Together with the music it all reminds me of the early 80s and some of the pioneers in this music genre. To see Boyd Rice and Monte Cazazza being featured only reinforces the early 80s spirit of the work. The tracks have something disturbing, but still revealing a critical perception about different topics. Sound-wise there’s a great fusion between different noises sources and electronic manipulations.

– – – : The album is maybe missing an absolute highlight, but on the other side I prefer an album catching your attention for the entire run instead of a few great tracks. No doubt about it the front cover will be censored on some social media because of its explicit content and that’s too bad!

Conclusion: This work brings us back to the roots of Experimental/Industrial/Ambient music and yet it was composed years after this magic decade.

Best songs: “Agathodaemon”, “Assume The Position feat. Boyd Rice”, “White Logic”, “Mouth Pigs feat. Peter Sotos”.

Rate: (7½).

Artist: www.vadgemoore.com / www.facebook.com/chthonicforce

Label: www.discriminateaudio.com / www.facebook.com/discriminate.audio

Interview with Clan Of Xymox: ‘For Me A Lot Of These Memories Are Finished Stories Without A Soundtrack’

Inferno Sound Diaries — Thu, 17 Sep 2020 17:00:29 +0000

Set up in 1983 Clan Of Xymox aren’t just pioneers from the dark/cold-wave scene, but also a band that never stopped composing new music. Clan Of Xymox never stopped releasing great music even after more than thirty years of involvement. Ronny Moorings already took my by surprise releasing the dark and catchy “Days Of Black” in 2017 and he this year strikes back releasing “Spider On The Wall”. The singles taken from this album became instant hits, revealing a new catchy approach mixed with darkness and melancholia. The album has been released on Trisol (Germany/Europe) and Metropolis (USA). I talked about this newest opus with front man Ronny Moorings.

(Picture credits by Edmund Messerschmidt / Interview courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)

Q: Your new album “Spider On The Wall” has been released 35 years after your self-titled debut full length “Clan Of Xymox”! What do you still recognize from this early production in the new album?

Ronny: Wow, that sounds like a long time ago when you read it in years, but it feels somehow much closer. The instrumentation choices haven’t changed that much regarding the use of synths, keyboards, drum programming and including more live instruments like guitar and bass. These are the main ingredients making and shaping the sound of Clan Of Xymox together with vocals of course. The production is for the last 30 years solely in my hands. I had a great learning school working with producers like John Fryer and Pete / Greg Walsh. Since the days of big studios is over (at least in our scene) it is easier to produce yourself because there are no time restrictions in your own studio. That way I like it the best because you can get back to a song any given time of day or night.

Q: I experienced “Spider On The Wall” as a logical successor to the previous album “Days Of Black”; typically Clan Of Xymox-like, but with this extra, catchy touch on top. Tell us a bit more about the songs and the writing globally speaking?

Ronny: I feel what you are saying. Yes, I also have a feeling there are a lot of ‘hits’ on this album as already proven with the three singles we released, two of which already made it to number one on the DAC charts ( “She” / “Lovers” ) and are still on the DAC charts now in 4, but reached 2 already “All I Ever Know”.

The songs and lyrics just came out of me really fast. Apparently there was a lot boiled up in me and it felt the words wanted to get out of me. I have no idea why that is, but that is what happened. I find it easy to delve into my memories and get inspired by certain moments or feelings I had at the time. Writing a musical score for those thoughts really is what I do 🙂 I started to write in August 2019 and finished writing in November. After that I was mixing the album and working on the singles for release. In the meantime we were still touring everywhere so I tried to slot the writing in the times I was at home.

Q: The title of the album is pretty intriguing; it makes me think to arachnophobia or delirium, but it also is a song from the band Ghost. What is it really all about and what did you try to express by this title?

Ronny: Haha, yes, it would be an obvious thought when you see the album sleeve although it is more innocent than you maybe think. I have a line singing ‘If the spider on the wall could only tell my woes’ was for me a stronger lyrical image than the proverbial fly on the wall. So that became the album title. I often choose an album title relating to some lyrics I have. A spider is a strong symbol, it It symbolizes the shadow of yourself, or the dark aspect of your personality…

Q: I noticed an interesting quote about the album claiming that it’s ‘a manifesto of melancholy’. I’ve always linked Clan Of Xymox to melancholy, but what do you like -or fascinate, you in this state of mind and what does it say about the person hiding behind the musician?

Ronny: I always love what record company sees or hears in my music. I can of course agree that most of the songs are very melancholic. I can express myself better through music instead of laying my heart bare eye to eye. I am not like that. There has to be some duality in an artist and with me this side of me comes out. In daily life I am much different I think, but I am sure some close to me would or could disagree 😉

Q: I think there’s a beautiful word (‘saudade’) in Portuguese to express melancholy, which is all about a sad look back at the past. That’s rather interesting as I think to remember you’re more looking towards the future. What does it evoke to you?

Ronny: The past has already been processed. So it is easier to delve in those emotions and know what the outcome was. For me a lot of these memories are finished stories without a soundtrack. Writing about this and putting it to music the emotions become even more real or close than it ever was. That is the beauty of music. I don’t think I have any songs about the future so far simply because I still need to experience it 😉

Q: In which way is the video of “All I Ever Know” also a melancholic wink? I especially refer to the black & white format? And what did you really try to express by the video?

Ronny: I think not so much a winky, but more an ode to my relationship with Mojca and reflecting this with making the video myself so I could have the right feelings displayed in the video. The song is about the question what would have happened if I didn’t meet her there and then. The black and white footage makes it more realistic from a memory point of view .

Q: The album has been released during the Covid-19 pandemic. Did you or the label(s) ever considered to postpone the album because of the pandemic? Do you feel an impact on your artistic activities and especially the live tour, which is planned? How do you manage this situation?

Ronny: The first single “She” was already released in February , pre-Covid. The album was also announced. Most people thought it would be over in a month or two. Now there is no certainty at all about anything anymore so a release this year is as good as next year or the year after. In any case it is fresh now and relevant now. Also people need to hear music, especially in difficult times.

We March 2020 were in the middle of a sold out USA tour when we had to return home. Trump banned all flights from Europe when we were in Texas and it seemed the best course to fly from Houston back home. It was already eerie on the airport. The whole international airport was dead. No one was working there apart from one small airliner who took luckily care of our re ticketing. The next day we could leave the USA. At home we got a few days later under a lock down. No airplanes were allowed in. We were very lucky under the circumstances. Since there were no more shows to do I concentrated on the new EP “All I Ever Know“ I made a video for it. Wrote some extra B-sides for the E.Ps. Further I did a remix for Lesson Seven released in July. Spent quality time at home. Tried to catch up with a lot of things waiting to be done, but never had the time for it. We just have been on holiday , pretending things are ‘normal’ again until you check in with a facial mask into a hotel. In Europe we try to get back into a normal live, but all seems to be hard work with lots of insecurities. End of the month, 29 August, we will play our first show since the lockdown in Prague. Hopefully from that period onward all will be better again. I keep my fingers crossed. Most of the planned shows are however pushed forward due to uncertain situations in cities. It is all very daunting. I keep on updating our tour page on www.clanofxymox.com

Q: I think we don’t always realize a tour needs a lot of preparation and a perfect physical condition. Can you tell us a bit more about how it all happens?

Ronny: We toured constantly, so the preparations are not like a classic tour of a band with a release and a standard tour after the release. We never stop. Now we are forced to, but start the moment we are allowed again. I take care of my health. I don’t smoke, eat healthy food, do sports and keep fit with walking as much as possible. That also strengthens your immune system.

Because we traveled so much I already was used to washing hands a lot and try not to touch surfaces people generally touch without thinking. Airports and airplanes I always considered as cesspools for germs ;).

I don’t think we fly this year anymore, but drive when we can. This is a better way of transport and more flexible when there is another lock down of some kind. These are dire and trying times for all of us and I certainly hope something good will come out of all this. So far I haven’t seen any proof of that.

Chorea Minor – Black White Moon (Album – Echozone)

Inferno Sound Diaries — Thu, 11 Jun 2020 19:30:15 +0000

Genre/Influences: Electro-ambient, ambient-pop, cinematographic.

Format: Digital, DCD.

Background/Info: Chorea Minor is a German project driven by Mario Braun. He got involved with different projects and is already active since the 90s. Back in the 90s Chorea Minor released two albums together with Hekate. “Black White Moon” in a way is a kind of comeback featuring two albums with six songs on each disc.

Content: Let’s start with “Black” featuring six songs and revealing a truly original sound. The songs are the apotheosis between elements of pop and ambient music driven by electronics. The vocals are half spoken-like. The songs have something danceable, melodic and refined. You’ll also notice some ethereal-like female chant fragments reinforcing the feeling of reverie. The album is called “Black” because it explores the darker sides of the human soul. This album has been produced by Krischan J.E. Wesenberg.

The other album entitled “White” features six more songs produced by Patrick Damiani (ex-Rome). We here get a different approach and very different influences. The music in a way remains driven by ambient elements, but it all moves towards an explicit cinematographic approach. That’s why the songs are mainly instrumentals except some passages with chants. “Another Kind” therefore reminds me a bit of Delirium. These tracks are also more orchestral-like.

+ + + : “Black” features 6 exceptional cuts. Chorea Minor reveals a great and creative sound, mixing different elements together, which are mainly centered on ambient, pop and electro. I also like the way the vocals have been produced. It all sounds atypical and miles away from the familiar electro-pop standards. I’ve been also impressed by the kind of heavenly strings while the female chants inject an elevating touch to the work. The “White”-disc is totally different and less my cup of tea. But I’ve to admit “Another Kind” is a cool song as well. Last, but not least I also have to say a word about the sober, but artistic digipak format of this album.

– – – : I’m less convinced by the “White”-CD, which sounds like having been written by another artist.

Conclusion: “Black White Moon” is a double album revealing two different faces from one artist. The “Black”-record took me by surprise from start till finish; it’s such a creative piece of modern electronic music I can only, but highly recommend.

Best songs: “Fireroller”, “Sleepless”, “Living Only Twice”, “Trickle Of Life” + “Another Kind”.

Rate: (8).

Artist: www.choreaminor.com / www.facebook.com/choreaminormusic

Label: www.echozone.de / www.facebook.com/EchozoneMusic

Italy’s dark electro duo Synapsyche lands brand new download EP: ‘Viva Insanity’ – watch the video for the title track !

Bernard - Side-Line Staff — Tue, 28 Jan 2020 19:22:45 +0000

Out now (via Bandcamp for now) is the new extended “Viva Insanity” EP by the Italian dark electro duo Synapsyche. The EP is the last chapter in their conceptual trilogy around madness and psychiatry after the “Mirror Terror” EP (you can download it here) and their last album “In Praise Of Folly” (available as a 2CD set right here).

New video

At the same time the band also releases a brand new videoclip for the EP’s title track “Viva Insanity”. You can view the video below. The video clip was shot in a sanitarium showcasing – and we quote the band – “a locked-up psychiatric patient struggling with his delirium where deviant reality and hysteric imagination blur and intertwine in our human sick minds.”

Besides the title-track and 8 bonus remixes by artists as diverse as Aiboforcen, Technoid, Circumpolar, Antibiosis, Statik Sekt, Schwarzstern, Exemia or yet T-error Machinez, this new EP also offers us some 3 exclusive bonus brand new tracks. Included is a cover of 30 Seconds To Mars’ 2005 song “Attack” giving it a EDM/synth pop twist.

Download EP available via Bandcamp

You can check and download the complete EP below. Recommended for those looking for quality dark electro!

Viva Insanity EP by SYNAPSYCHE

PIG vocalist Raymond Watts featured on new single Black Needle Noise – listen here

Bernard - Side-Line Staff — Mon, 22 Jul 2019 08:07:28 +0000

Black Needle Noise, featuring legendary producer John Fryer (Cocteau Twins, Depeche Mode, This Mortal Coil), has teamed up with PIG for the download track “Seed Of Evil”. “Seed of Evil” features PIG vocalist Raymond Watts.

Watts explains how the collaboration started: “When John Fryer called, it was like cream was fed to my poison crop. I was thrilled to lend Satan’s little helping hand to Black Needle Noise,” says Watts of the devilish collaboration. “The result from this marriage made in hell was appropriately called ‘Seed of Evil’ … it pours out of me into the night, where the devil ties it nice and tight.”

Fryer meanwhile states: “After many a moon passing we finally get to work together again. I had to find the right song for Raymond but I think we have a great noise-pop hit on our hands. It’s been a real pleasure working with Raymond on this and I can’t wait to hear it in the clubs.”

Black Needle Noise has previously released music featururing a diverse who’s who of alternative vocalists such as Mimi Page (Delirium), Jennie Vee (bassist, Hole), Ana Breton (Dead Leaf Echo), Omniflux (Puscifer), Kendra Frost (Kite Base), Andrea Kerr (Colt), Sivert Hoyem, Antic Clay, and ZiaLand, among others.

“Seed Of Evil” is now available on Bandcamp, and you can check it out below.

Seed Of Evil by Black Needle Noise with

Black Needle Noise – Lost In Reflections (Digital Album – Black Needle Noise)

Inferno Sound Diaries — Sat, 12 May 2018 19:30:15 +0000

Genre/Influences: Electro-pop, experimental.

Background/Info: Black Needle Noise has been introduced as ‘music for the movies you haven’t dream of yet…’ It first of all is the music project set up by John Fryer who gained an international reputation as producer for legendary artists such as Fad Gadget, Depeche Mode, Clan Of Xymox, NIN, Cocteau Twins, This Mortal Coil ao. From time to time John Fryer also like to compose his own songs under the Black Needle Noise moniker.

Content: For “Lost In reflections” the legendary British producer invited some great artists to sing on his compositions. Bill Leeb (FLA, Delirium), Mimi Page (Delirium), Jennie Vee (Hole), Ana Breton (Dead Leaf Echo), Omniflux (Puscifer), Kendra Frost (Kite Base), Andrea Kerr (Colt), Sivert Hoyem, ZiaLand and Dr. Strangefryer joined hands with John Fryer.

The sonic universe of Fryer is clearly reflecting his passion for electronic sound creation. It sounds pretty pop-minded with a sensual touch on top because of the great singers. But the artists also like to create- and manipulate sounds and noises. It injects an experimental element to the songs, but also sounds minimal-like.
+ + + : What you expect from a sound producer is that he deals with a very own vision in sound and that’s precisely what comes through when discovering this album. John Fryer deals with pop, but composes his songs with industrial-like sounds. It creates a delicious contrast with the mainly female and sensual vocals. But the song featuring Bill Leeb (still released as EP title track) is also worthy of examination as it’s pretty hard to recognize Leeb singing in a different and still a bit sensual way as well. The singers have been chosen for their exceptional skills. Singers and music together create a styled sonic osmosis resulting in a few outstanding pieces such as “Teeth To Grey” featuring Omniflux, “Warning Sign” featuring Kendra Frost, “She Stands On A Storm” featuring Andrea Kerr and “Breathless Speechless” featuring Sivert Hoyem (reminding me of Nick Cave).

– – – : It’s not that easy to define the music of John Fryer. Even if I think that’s rather positive it’s not the most accessible pop releases and not the kind of songs you’ll directly keep in mind and sing along.

Conclusion: John Fryer accomplished an album filled with reverie, which also is an intimate composition featuring talented vocalists. But it mainly reveals a creative electro-pop process from one of the cult producers from the 4AD label roster.

Best songs: “Teeth To Grey”, “Warning Sign”, “She Stands On A Storm”, “Breathless Speechless”, “A Shiver Of Want”.

Rate: (8).

Artist: www .facebook .com /BlackNeedleNoise

Miss FD reveals album cover (and teaser) for upcoming studio album ‘Transcendence’

Bernard - Side-Line Staff — Mon, 19 Feb 2018 14:00:46 +0000

Out March 27th, 2018 is the brand new album by Miss FD. Her 4th studio album “Transcendence” is scheduled for release through Quantum Release Records. The album will be packaged as a 4-page digipack with a 12-page booklet and can be ordered already via PledgeMusic.

By pre-ordering you can help Miss FD to complete the post-production for “Transcendence”, including studio mixing, and professional album mastering. Added to this it will also fund the creation of new imagery and artwork for the new release and lots more. Every purchase from the PledgeMusic page will include the full album download when the album is released.

The artwork for “Transcendence”, featuring photography by Chad Michael Ward and graphic design by Joshua Smith, has been revealed now (see the picture above) together with the album’s tracklist consiting of seven new compositions:

Despair
Vagaries
Delirium (feat. Vulture Culture)
Little Galaxy
Transcendence Intermezzo (feat. Robert Dante)
All the Pieces
Icarus

A first video will be released on March 9, more precisely for the track “Despair”. The video was directed by Chad Michael Ward and a 30 second video teaser can be viewed below.

Miss FD is a dark electronic music artist, songwriter, singer, producer, and performer. The project began in 2009 and since then she has released her debut album “Monsters in the Industry” in 2010, followed by the albums “Love Never Dies” in 2011, and “Comfort for the Desolate” in 2013. She has also collaborated with other artists in the world of electro-industrial/EBM, including Ghost & Writer, Psy’Aviah, and most recently Vulture Culture, whose production is featured on the track “Delirium” from the new album “Transcendence”.

Miss FD and Vulture Culture’s collaboration work was most recently featured in Alfa-Matrix’s “Electronic Body Matrix, Vol 2”, with the track “New Era”.

Spherical Disrupted – Periapsis (CD Album – Audiophob)

Inferno Sound Diaries — Wed, 01 Mar 2017 19:30:15 +0000

Genre/Influences: Rhythmic electro-ambient, IDM.

Background/Info: Audiophob co-owner Mirko Hentrich is involved in numerous music projects, but Spherical Disrupted definitely remains the most famous and recognized one. Nearly seven years have passed since the previous full length so no doubt about “Periapsis” will ravish all fans of this German electro project.

The new work is inspired by the twin star system Eta Carinae. The title of the album refers to the concept used to calculate its orbit.

Content: The concept sounds complex, but fascinating and that’s rather symbolic for the sound of Spherical Disrupted. Hentrich uses different influences, which are mainly electro-ambient and IDM-inspired. It ends in a dark reverie sound driven by a slow cadence and, which might remind you of early Delirium.

You clearly notice the fascination of the musician to create and transform sounds while most of the songs are characterized by wafting synth parts. Some menacing bass lines are a bit EBM-orientated, but in the end it all remains rather IDM and ambient-like.

The last song is an interesting and somewhat different cut, which is a remix by Mortaja.

+ + + : I’ve always liked Spherical Disrupted for composing a very own sound approach, which is hard to classify. All influences together create an interesting range of sounds. The main influences remain ambient-like, but I especially like the intelligent approach driven by slow cadences and a terrific sound management. The remix of “Orbital Eccentricity” is a real great apotheosis to this work.

– – – : I can say that I’ve already heard better work from Spherical Disrupted. A few songs indeed can’t totally convince me, but globally speaking this band remains worthy of examination.

Conclusion: Time goes by, but the talent of some artists simply remains! Spherical Disrupted is totally back on track and all fans will be pleased to discover this new and intelligent opus.

Best songs: “Observatory (4)”, “Observatory (1)”, “X-Ray Flare”, “Orbital Eccentricity – Mortaja Remix”.

Rate: (8).

Band: www .disrupted .de / www .facebook .com /sphericaldisrupted

Label: www .audiophob .de / www .facebook .com /audiophob

Toxic Visions, an art project studio based in Italy – an interview

Bernard - Side-Line Staff — Mon, 30 Jan 2017 19:30:04 +0000

Over the past few months we have noticed quite a lot of releases that featured artwork by the Italian artist Noemi Aurora under the Toxic Visions umbrella, who many will also know as frontwoman of the electro goth metal act Helalyn Flowers. The Psychic Force, Elyose, The Wet, BlackCore, Sin.Sin, these are just a few bands who have teamed up with this young graphic artist (check her official website).

We hailed Italy for an interview.

SL: When did you decide to found your factory Toxic Visions? What did push you to express a part of yourself into art?

N: The art project Toxic Visions borns from the need to express dissociative moods, emotions and feelings by combining different forms of visual arts and photography. I’ve always been into creative arts since my childhood. I started as a dancer, when I was about 6 years old, and I used to design a lot.;I first approached design through analogue means like black and white drawing, acrylic painting and mixed media.

Originally, it was more a therapy, a way to self-expression rather than commercial purpose or for publicity. As time passed by, I felt I had to unite my passion for both music and art, so I embarked on my career of band designer and visual merchandiser, with a special focus on band photography. What led me to focus on my work as a band designer is the conceptual relationship of the visual arts with the music. I conceive Toxic Visions as a double-sided project. You can figure it as a moon of arts, where one side is completely obscured and unknown to the world. It’s made of artworks, pics and paintings I create only for myself, driven by a very intimate mental situation. These works are kept apart, hidden, and I never use to watch them. Then there’s the public side, which includes my commissioned works, fine art, artworks for sale, photography and all the works you can see published.

SL: What’s ‘toxic’ in your visions? Do you see yourself like a visionary?

N: The name Toxic Visions was born back in 1999, during my years at the high school of arts and is inspired by my own way to conceive my subjects. May it be painting, digital artwork or photography, they are visions inspired by the intoxicating life, fragments of experiences and emotions that appear before my eyes like flashes. I even define my inner self ‘toxic’, as the contamination between the abstract idea and the physical realisation of my visions.

SL: What about Noemi – the persona?

N: I’ve always been a silent girl, thoughtful and a careful observer of the surrounding world, though my personality is chaotic, reluctant to the superficiality of the contemporary world but extremely bond to the mystery of industrial and metropolitan realities.

SL: You’re also a contributing photographer of Getty Images Germany next to working with other companies. Some of your photographic opus is also vailable on EyeEm, your gallery is quite an impressive one. Do you consider yourself more of a photographer than an artist, or vice versa?

N: I don’t use to define myself a photographer but a visual artist because I use photography as a means of expression and I adapt it to my own creative needs. I reserve the technical approach to commercial and editorial photography, its purpose is to faithfully reproduce reality.

SL: Your works are often perceivable like fragments of a big visual story with lots of cinematic influences. Is film direction a field that you wish to explore one day as well?

N: My way of conceiving an artwork is definitely cinematic indeed. I idealise my subjects like paused frames in a scene of a movie, arranging elements like on a stage. My artworks are born from the union of a photographic realism, for which I use subjects photographed by me during my daily life, and pictorial irrealism, that may be digital or analogue. During the process of an organic painting, I use mixed media, favouring acrylic, oil, watercolour, inks, lipstick and even my own blood. I’d love to explore the field of short films, getting inspiration from Italian horror movies. Some kind of dark psychological steamy tales, dealing with surreal scenarios, blood and lust. It’s been fascinating me for years, but I never had the chance to approach it so far.

SL: What about upcoming projects? Maybe a book? Could be great!

N: Yes, I’d love to release a concept book collecting my main artworks and photography. Actually, the project that I have in mind would be to collect boards and audio tracks inspired by different abstract locations. I’ve also started to work on a series of dark t-shirts and accessories inspired by the esoteric and modern design. I expect to realise it somewhere in 2017.

SL: In today’s world of social networks where everything gets old so fast, how do you try to stand out? What’s the actual compromise between strategy and true artistic needs?

N: I prefer to stay in the background and move only when it’s worth it because I want to respect and honour my work and myself. So, I don’t think that being present at any cost is necessary for me, in my art as in my music. It would be a violence to yourself and to what you do to spread your art in uncomfortable and reduced situations that are only blocking your ideas and your self-expression.

SL: Is there a work of yours that you’re particularly fond of?

N: One of the works that signed my artistic experience is definitely my painting ‘Pan’. This canvas is a mixed media painting representing the god of the wild and of the nature. The colours are warm and meticulously mixed. I used oil on dried brushes, inks and my blood and I created the frame using raw wood and nails. My aim was to arouse some kind of panic with the viewer. The subject is claustrophobic, chaotic and magnetic. This work was selected and exposed at the Contemporary Art Gallery of Savona, for the Espoarte exhibition back in 2003.

SL: You have worked with bands like The Psychic Force, Elyose, The Wet, BlackCore, Sin. Sin, Delirium Age, have taken care of the whole artwork of the Alfa Matrix tribute to The Cure as well as always managed visual for your main band – Helalyn Flowers. How should a band approach you for your art contribution?

N: Every band can ask for my collaboration, no matter how famous they are or what genre they’re playing. What I ask them is dialogue and an open mind. I’m not a technician but an artist. They will find in me a personality able to suggest, interpretate and revolutionise basic ideas. I’m not interested in simply executing other’s requests. I do need to do my own. Those who ask me must have the heart to rely on me. Usually, I ask for some previews of the band’s music, especially some from the new album which artwork I’m taking care of. This allows me to enter their own world, taking a byte of it and recreating the most appropriate mood.

SL: What can you tell us about your official site? We noticed that there is an ‘audio section’ in your factory!

N: Yes, everyone can contact us for both visual arts and music production (mixing, mastering, restoration and so on). You know, I’ve always had a complementary conception of music and visual art. In fact my Toxic Visions factory covers both the audio production of the albums, with the collaboration of Max from the AzTech Room audio division, and the realisation of the entire visual aspect.

Toxic-Visions.com is essentially a point of reference for those who are showing some interest in my factory, although it shows only a highly concentrated selection of my works. Most of them are exclusively addressed to art exhibitions and/or printed media. Also, it includes selected news and interesting backstage reports. I love to reserve a little exclusive world to those who run into my exhibitions and publications.

SL: Thanks for the chat, keep up with the good work!

Paul Handley – What Goes Around (Digital Album – Paul Handley)

Inferno Sound Diaries — Thu, 05 Jan 2017 21:00:27 +0000

Genre/Influences: Rhythmic-ambient, IDM, cinematographic.

Background/Info: After the recently released EP-teaser “For The Love Of Something” Paul Handley unleashes a full length album featuring 10 songs. This Australian artist was previously involved in The What 4 and more recently in Electron. “What Goes Around” is an instrumental work.

Content: Paul Handley deals with a kind of electronic-ambient music carried with rhythms. It’s a sophisticated composition, which sometimes comes pretty close to cinematographic standards while other parts remind me a bit of Delirium without the ethereal voices.

It took 18 months for Paul Handley to compose and achieve this work and that’s quite understandable when you hear the elaboration of the work. The EP-title song “For The Love Of Something” featuring a subtle ‘dance’ touch remains one of the highlights.

+ + + : “What Goes Around” is a fully entertaining opus, which now will make you dream away and then make you dance. “Cyclic” and “What Goes Around” both remind me of the atmospheres characteristic of Delerium songs and are well-crafted pieces of ambient electronics. The main influence is somewhat cinematographic while mixed with rhythms, which makes it all more accessible.

– – – : Paul Handley deliberately chose for an instrumental release and that’s fine, but I imagine this opus with a few heavenly vocal parts (or chants), which would inject an extra dimension to the work.

Conclusion: “What Goes Around” is an entertaining and diversified ambient release. It’s an evasive album revealing a few danceable passages.

Best songs: “For The Love Of Something”, “What Goes Around”, “Cyclic”, “Fresh Off The Boat”.

Rate: (7½).

Band: www.facebook.com/paulhandleymusician

Label: www .facebook .com /paulhandleymusician

Basilisk – Traumland (CD Album – Echozone)

Inferno Sound Diaries — Thu, 30 Jul 2015 10:36:14 +0000

Genre/Influences: Dark-metal, goth-metal, rock-metal.

Content: The German formation Basilisk has been active since the late 90s and has released several albums and other productions. Despite of their long-time involvement Basilisk is not exactly the most common name active in the wider fields of metal music.

They joined Echozone to release their new opus inviting the listener to enter an imaginary world in between dreams and reality. This universe has been transposed into a metal-minded sound, which takes off with heavy guitar riffs and accomplished by electronic arrangements. The vocal parts are mainly clear-like although rougher backing vocals add a naughty touch to the production. The majority of the songs have been sung in English, but despite of the band’s efforts to catch a wider audience it all remains a bit too predictable and without real highlights.

The songs are easily listening metal music, but I’m missing a real spirit. Basilisk explores the wider fields of metal music while crossing the path of rock- and gothic music. Even a cover version of German living legend Falco can’t really awake my interest. “Out Of The Dark” is a cool cover version, but once again without climax.

The final song “Der Pakt” sounds a bit quieter and even moving on the edge of folk elements. It’s not bad although nothing really ground breaking.

One of the few real interesting songs is “Verstanden”. This cut is carried by a solid chorus, which is an essential element of a successful song. That’s precisely what most of the songs are missing. I have to admit that the electronic parts inject some extra doom-like atmosphere, but that’s definitely not enough to be satisfying.

Conclusion: I think we might expect a bit more from a band that has been active for years now. “Traumland” will probably please to some nice-minded metal freaks, but globally speaking this album is undermined by a serious lack of genius.

Best songs: “Verstanden”, “Schattenreich”, Delirium”.

Rate: (Elise Din:5)Elise Din.

Band: www.basilisk.de / www.facebook.comOfficialBasilisk

Label: www.echozone.de / www.facebook.com/EchozoneMusic