(Photo by Marcus Witte) Out now is the debut album “Tango” by synth-wave artist Paura Diamante. The Berlin based artists is rooted in the dark-wave/gothic tape underground of the early 90s and after various band projects and more than twenty years of silence, is now back with a first official album released on Young and Cold Records.

You can expect a mix of synth wave, dark pop or new wave chanson on the album. Her musical partners are the French-born, Berlin based electro producer and musician Romain Frequency aka Electrosexual and saxophonist / singer Ruby Mai from the Berlin-based dark punk band Totenwald.

You can check the album below.

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

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Genre/Influences: Cinematographic, electronic-ambient.

Format: Digital.

Background/Info: French artist Romain Frequency gained some recognition with his techno-inspired project Electrosexual while he’s also involved in a few other projects such as Dear Strange. “Research On a Nameless Colour” is a solo-album released under his own name and inspired by Derek Jarman’s final collection of Essays entitled “Chroma” released in 1994, the year he passed away.

Content: This work has nothing in common with Electrosexual. The music goes back to early electro-ambient experiments, reminding me of the work of pioneers. It’s not what I would call an ode to J.M. Jarre, Vangelis and co, but an ambient electronic work following the steps of those famous names. Romain Frequency creates ambient spaces filled with analogue treatments and effects, which are creating an evasive sensation.

+ + + : The vintage/analogue touch of the work brings the magic of early electronics alive. Romain Frequency did an honest job and even took me by surprise at songs like “The Colour Of Space” and “Infra Mauve”, which both appear to be the most accomplished cuts. Globally speaking, this album is well crafted and elaborated.

– – – : The first part of the work is pretty exciting, but the magic got lost during the final cuts. I however miss a sort of climax listening to this work. The addition of a few vocals (even spoken) or passages with some chants would have been the little extra to the album.

Conclusion: This is the kind of album that will appeal to lovers of early electronic experiments.

Best songs: “The Colour Of Space”, “Infra Mauve”, “Perfect Blue”.

Rate: (7).

Artist: www.facebook.com/RomainFrequency

Label: www.facebook.com/rockmachinerecordspage

Inferno Sound Diaries

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.

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Genre/Influences: Minimal-electro, techno-body.

Background/Info: French producer François-Xavier Michel better known under the Millimetric moniker is back on track (after a rather long studio silence) releasing his new work at the new label Nu Body Records (set up by Ethan Fawkes and Fabrice Torricella).

Content: “Deflection” takes off with the title track, which sounds in the truest tradition of Millimetric: minimal electronics mixed with good-old EBM bass lines, dry snare drums and a techno boost.

We next get remixes by Romance Disaster, Ethan Fawkes and Electrosexual. All remixes are following the electro-minimalism of the original edit.

+ + + : Millimetric is a project I’ve always supported for its unique blend of EBM and techno. The cool sound treatments, solid bass lines and vintage influences still have a real hypnotic feeling. Among the remixes I especially like the dark-technoid approach by Ethan Fawkes.

– – – : Some passages (remixes) are a little bit too techno-orientated, but it for sure all depends if you prefer EBM instead of techno music. I can’t say “Deflection” is the best song I’ve heard from Millimetric so in the end I expected a bit more from this ‘comeback’.

Conclusion: I’ll still move on tipping Millimetric as a reference when it comes to this type of music, but there are more ‘inspired’ and efficient productions from this great sound-guru.

Best songs: “Deflection – Ethan Fawkes Remix”, “Deflection”.

Rate: (7).

Artist: www.millimetric.com

Label: www.facebook.com/NuBodyRecords

Inferno Sound Diaries

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.

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Genre/Influences: Minimal electro-pop, wave-pop.

Background/Info: Adán & Ilse is a prolific band, unleashing their 4th full length since 2013! The French formation now consist of Pedro Peñas Robles (Unknown Pleasures Records owner and formerly known under the HIV+ moniker) and Michel Lecamp (aka Usher, and involved in different projects like Norma Loy, black Egg ao). The main change consists of Peter Rainman who left the band.

Content: The new album features 7 tracks plus 7 remixes. The sound approach of the French formation has always been really ‘special’ and totally different from the familiar synth-pop standards. Adán & Ilse clearly have something against ‘pop-conformism’ and their minimal approach, which finds its sources of inspiration in the 80s is absolutely unique.

The songs are once again a mixture of 80s electro-pop and early EBM mixed with some raw and somewhat industrial elements, multiple sound effects and cold synthesizer lines. This is not the kind of ‘pop’ that will make you happy. “Chirurgie Plastique” is a title that symbolizes a sonic surgery of electro-pop to compose a new ‘pop-hybrid’, which might remind you of bands like Fad Gadget and Taxi Girl.

The sound intrigues while the French lyrics are cold and sterile, which is another affinity with 80s productions. A few tracks are sung in English.

The remixes were accomplished by interesting artists like Electrosexual, Neon Electronics, Theremynt, Haujobb ao. I especially recommend the remixes of Theremynt and Haujobb.

+ + + : You’ll either like it or not, but this album clearly reveals a creative approach in the writing of electro-pop music. I like its minimalism, which is more explicit than on any previous work while there some cool remixes as well.

– – – : Minimalism not always is the best way to become accessible to a wider audience, but I think those guys are simply doing what they like to do!

Conclusion: Adán & Ilse is a sonic enigma and an alien of contemporary electro-pop music. “Chirurgie Plastique” is the antidote for Depeche Mode clones and other cheap synth-pop productions.

Best songs: “Untouchable”, “Energy”, “Blind”, “Voice In Blue – Remix by Theremynt”.

Rate: (8).

Band: www.facebook.com/havoc2027

Label: www.unknown–pleasures–records.com /  www.facebook.com/Unknown–Pleasures–Records-566180440115465

Inferno Sound Diaries

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.

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Genre/Influences: Minimal-electro, technoid.

Background/Info: Romain Frequency aka ‘Electrosexual’ strikes back with a new EP featuring 13 remixes. The work is based on the debut album “Art Support Machine”, which was released during 2014 on Rock Machine Records. Notice by the way that Romain Frequency last year also released a debut-album for his new project Dear Strange, which remains to me one of the best surprises of the past year.

Content: Multiple songs from “Art Support Machine” have been remixed by a fine and qualitative selection of artists. If you’re a bit familiar with the most sophisticated techno fields you for sure will be excited to know that artists like David Carretta, Mondowski, People Theatre (Peter Rainman), Millimetric, Workerpoor ao contributed to this EP.

The different artists have tried to put their own stamp and influence to the original songs, which resulted in a varied, but mainly danceable and somewhat groovy production. The remixes move from minimal electro-techno music to nu-disco to great vintage electronics to techno-body to danceable grooves to pure minimalism.

+ + + : There’re multiple noticeable remixes featured on this EP and the diversity of the songs is absolutely great. The remixers have accomplished a great job, which consists of mainly high-danceable versions.

– – – : I hope that “Art Support Machine” will be the last ‘look-back’ at the “Art Support Machine”-album. It’s now time for a new chapter!

Conclusion: The remixes add a real bonus to the original songs and album. I guess it also confirms the talent of Romain Frequency who inspired great bands to accomplish cool remixes.

Best songs: “Automatic People feat. Hanin Elias – Millimetric Remix”, “The Soul Of The Machine – Worekerpoor Rmx”, “Lay My Eye – Machines In The UK remix”, “Telpelhof – David Carretta Remix”, “Automatic People feat. Hanin Elias – Machines In The UK Remix”.

Rate: (8).

Band: www.electrosexual–official.com / www.facebook.com/LCTRSXUAL

Label: www.facebook.com/rockmachinerecordspage

Inferno Sound Diaries

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.

www.side-line.com

Genre/Influences: Techno-pop.

Content: Last year Electrosexual released its official debut album “Art Support Machine”, which I think we might say was a kind of consecration in the already wide discography of this French project.
“Silver Soul” was not exactly the kind of song of the album I was expecting to hear as title song for an EP. The “Fetish”-EP was definitely a more judicious choice and also more representatives for the minimal- and analogue electro style of this band.

The “Single Mix”, which is quite close to the original version reveals a kind of hidden side of Electrosexual or just an experiment in a less minimal technoid way. The main characteristic of this track is that it really sounds faithful to what I would call a traditional song structure. It for sure sounds electronic and somewhat in between techno and pop music, but the vocals remain pretty surprising.

There’s a real elaborate text sung by Romain Frequency. I like most of the releases from this talented artist/producer, but “Silver Soul” left me rather skeptical.

Both remixes by Theatre Of Delays and MelanoBoy sound a bit more club-like, but I here again I wasn’t totally convinced. I however have a preference for the remix by Berliner based project Theatre Of Delays, which comes closer to the real electro-vintage spirit Electrosexual is part of. The Parisian project MelanoBoy injects a somewhat sensual touch to the song, which also appears to be more down-tempo as well.

Conclusion: “Silver Soul” reveals another side of Electrosexual and diversity of the project. I see it as an opportunity to get back to the album “Art Support Machine”, which reveals more convincing songs.

Best songs: “Silver Soul – Theatre Of Delays Mix”.

Rate: (DP:6)DP.

Band: www.electrosexual-official.com / www.facebook.com/LCTRSXUAL

Label: www.facebook.com/rockmachinerecordspage

Inferno Sound Diaries

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.

www.side-line.com