The dark electronic act Virgin Vampires have released their next single and video “The Silent Witness” following the release of their self-titled debut album on 16th September. You can order debut self-titled album right now via The Circle Music and Marian Whores or stream the album via digital platforms such as Bandcamp.

Virgin Vampires previously released videos to the tracks “Virgin Vampires”, “Butterfly on The Moon”, “Electric Pulse” and “The Strange House”.

Watch the video for “The Silent Witness” below.

The band says this about their self-titled debut album: “We’ve poured our hearts and souls into this album and we’re excited to be sharing the first single with you all. As you’ll hear, we wanted to push the boundaries of gothic and EBM genres and explore new sonic territories. For us, this isn’t just another album; it’s a testament to respecting tradition while pushing the boundaries of modern music. This is just the beginning of our journey, and we’re excited to see where it takes us.”

About Virgin Vampires

Born in 2023 from the minds behind Pink Panther Project, Virgin Vampires is the first music collaboration between Ether, Alex and Uela. While initial collaborations between the trio yielded promising results, Uela’s true vocal range performed better in a darker, more electronic direction – a stark departure from the band’s initial vision. With renewed focus on Pink Panther Project, Virgin Vampires returned to its roots, crafting powerful demos centered on male vocals.

This creative detour led to a prolific year and a half, with both bands recording a staggering 32 songs across two albums, out now.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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

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Berlin’s avant-garde industrial band Lolita Terrorist Sounds has unveiled a new collaborative art-video with Berlin Wall artist Kiddy Citny. The collaboration, an art-video for the track “Living-in-glory”, merges Citny’s live painting performance with the experimental sound of the band.

Kiddy Citny, whose 3.6-meter-high painted heads on the Berlin Wall became iconic in 1985, joined forces with the band after a chance meeting in a Berlin train station last year. “This video is the visual translation of our most experimental track,” said band leader Maurizio Vitale. “It was captured in Kiddy’s Berlin atelier.”

“Living-in-glory” is the closing track from the debut album “St. Lola”. It combines meditative drone music, ASMR, and industrial sounds, recorded in an unconventional studio on Dresdener Strasse, once part of the Berlin Wall strip. Field recordings from the former East German secret service building also feature prominently in the piece.

Kiddy Citny expressed his admiration for the collaboration: “Creating this piece with Lolita Terrorist Sounds was an inspiring process. The sound and historical context gave my painting an exceptional energy.”

You can view the art-video below.

Lolita Terrorist Sounds / Kiddy Citny European Tour

Following this collaboration, Lolita Terrorist Sounds will embark on a European tour, performing in Berlin, Poznań, Warsaw, and Prague this October. Joining the line-up is drummer Kian Kiesling.

• Berlin: 22.10 – Hinterraum
• Poznań: 23.10 – CK Nowe Amore
• Warsaw: 24.10 – Chmury
• Prague: 29.10 – Café V lese

About Lolita Terrorist Sounds and Kiddy Citny

Founded by Maurizio Vitale, Lolita Terrorist Sounds has collaborated with members of bands like Einstürzende Neubauten, Iggy Pop, and PJ Harvey. The band’s provocative name stems from a fusion of Nabokov’s Lolita and the use of cut-up techniques inspired by William Burroughs. A debut album “St. Lola” was released in 2023.

Kiddy Citny is a German artist best known for his iconic paintings on the Berlin Wall in 1985. His work, characterized by his 3.6-meter-high heads, became world-famous through tourist photos and postcards. Citny’s art is part of collections at institutions like MoMA in New York.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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

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In the often unpredictable world of music, collaborations can either blend seamlessly or clash in a dissonant display.

With this album, we witness a masterful synergy that captures the essence of summer’s fleeting beauty and endless allure. The album is a journey through soundscapes that feel both familiar and novel, inviting listeners to immerse themselves in an experience that is as evocative as it is technically impressive.

A Fusion of Styles

There have been many amazing musical collaborations over the years, and this is definitely one to note. 

Fanum, known for his meticulous production and genre-bending approach, brings a wealth of experience to the album. His previous works have often danced between the boundaries of electronic, ambient, and experimental music, creating intricate tapestries of sound. In contrast, Ierophania’s contributions are marked by an ethereal quality, often infused with elements of neo-classical and dream pop. The marriage of these distinct styles results in an album that feels expansive yet intimate, a delicate balance that is difficult to achieve but executed flawlessly here.

The opening track, Solstice Reverie, sets the tone for the album with its lush layers of synths and soft, reverberating vocals. It’s a track that feels like the first light of dawn, gentle and full of promise. Fanum’s production is immediately evident, with every sound meticulously placed to create a sense of space and warmth. Ierophania’s voice floats effortlessly above the instrumentation, adding a haunting yet comforting dimension to the track.

Themes of Transience and Nostalgia

As the album progresses, it becomes clear that Escort of Endless Summer is not just a collection of songs but a thematic exploration of time, memory, and the ephemeral nature of summer. Tracks like Ephemeral Rays and Twilight Mirage delve into these ideas with a melancholic undertone. The use of field recordings, such as the distant sound of waves and birdsong, further enhances the album’s connection to nature and the passing of time.

One of the standout tracks, Azure Horizon, perfectly encapsulates the album’s central theme. The song builds gradually, starting with a simple piano motif before expanding into a full-bodied composition that feels both nostalgic and forward-looking. The interplay between Fanum’s rich, textured production and Ierophania’s vocal melodies creates a sense of longing as if reaching for something just out of grasp—a feeling that anyone who has watched the sun set on a summer’s day can relate to.

A Sonic Landscape

The album’s production is nothing short of stunning. Fanum’s attention to detail ensures that each track feels like a carefully constructed world, with layers of sound that reveal themselves upon repeated listens. Ierophania’s contributions, whether through her vocals or her instrumentation, add a human touch to these sonic landscapes, grounding them in emotion.

The closing track, Endless Night, is a fitting conclusion to the album. It feels like the final moments of a long summer day, where the warmth of the sun lingers even as the night begins to take hold. The track is both a farewell and a promise—a reminder that while summer may end, its memories will linger long after.

A Triumphant Collaboration

Escort of Endless Summer is a triumph of collaboration, a testament to what can be achieved when two artists with distinct visions come together. Fanum and Ierophania have created an album that not only captures the essence of summer but also explores deeper themes of time, memory, and the fleeting nature of beauty. It’s an album that demands to be listened to in its entirety, a sonic journey that will resonate with listeners long after the final note fades away.

About Ierophania and Fanum

Ierophania is a Russian industrial and dark-ambient project. Side-Line reviewed the four-part “Book Of Memories” anthology in March 2022, covering material dating from 2005 to 2010 and released through Castle Of Dreams. The final chapter of that anthology, “Jordan,” was introduced as part of the same lineage as the collaborative album with fellow Russian project Fanum, “Escort of Endless Summer.”

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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

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Out via VUZ Records is “Words Sword Words”, a book about the Belgian electro band Parade Ground. The English written book counts 336 pages filled with more than 300 rare and unseen pictures, concerts posters, memorabilia, complete lyrics, biographical text and liner notes.

It comes printed on heavy, glossy, 135g artpaper, full color, hardcover with soft touch finish, thread stitching and bookmark. Measuring 17 cm x 24 cm in size, it weighs a little more than 1 kilogram. The book comes with a free CD (“Orange Et Labora”) with unreleased rehearsal tracks from the Rosary era.

Published by VUZ Records, the book was written by the band themselves.

Parade Ground says this about this publication: “And now the book , an autobiography. 1981, the hidden life of the band Parade Ground. The cursed brothers of the scene. 42 years, more than 2000 concerts. Pierre and Jean-Marc Pauly speak to you: overwhelming. A dive into an era, a thousand encounters, never had a band witnessed so closely, so intimately, the process of creation and the rise of another band: Front 242. A style like scalpel blows. One doesn’t ask a corpse what it is doing in its coffin. End so on. You will never be able to forget them again.”

You can order your copy now via VUZ Records.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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

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The Chicago-based industrial metal band Derision Cult has released their new single and video, “Warning Signs”. The video premiered at Glitch Mode Recordings’ immersive cyberpunk showcase, Tech Noir, on July 20, 2024.

“Warning Signs” is a fast-paced industrial metal track featuring heavy, spoken-word vocals, thrash metal guitars, cyber beats, and guitar by former David Bowie guitarist, Reeves Gabrels.

Lyrically, “Warning Signs” explores the current turbulent cultural climate, highlighting the warnings that surround us. The chorus, “Is it getting real enough yet?” draws from a true story shared by frontman Dave McAnally’s brother, a Naval EOD officer. During a raid, a Hollywood director, witnessing the aftermath of a firefight, was shaken. As a Navy SEAL carried the body of a Taliban member past the director, he chillingly remarked, “Oh, is it getting real enough yet?”

The single features contributions from Glitch Mode stalwarts, including Jim Marcus, David Kultgen, Justin Broadrick, Chris Harris, and Pete Berwick. The video was created by Vancouver-based Empire Animae. Empire Animae previously collaborated with Derision Cult on their “Deaf Blood” video.

“We had so much fun with the ‘Deaf Blood’ video we couldn’t wait to work with Empire Animae again,” says Derision Cult founder, Dave McAnally. “This time around, we wanted to do a whole different setting and just go crazy with influences from ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,’ Martini Ranch and do things with animation that wouldn’t be possible in a live-action video.”

About Tech Noir

Tech Noir is Glitch Mode Media’s Cyberpunk Showcase, held in Chicago on July 20th. The event featured the premiere of the “Warning Signs” video and live performance, celebrating 40 years of cyberpunk culture. Tech Noir included performances from nine bands, cyberpunk films, and fashion, all housed in a building that once served as Al Capone’s private club. Tech Noir aims to redefine live music experiences by combining film and music in innovative ways.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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

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Fresh news from In The Nursery as they have delivered a score for Basil Copper’s 1950s film adaptation of “The Fall of the House of Usher” (from the story by Edgar Allan Poe).

Basil Copper was a prolific writer, best known for his horror and detective fiction. His film adaptation of “The Fall of the House of Usher” was created in the 1950s and was a passion project. But it remained a personal project, unseen by the public until its discovery in a film can in Basil’s study following his death in 2013.

This version has now been professionally transferred to digital format and features a music score by In the Nursery (ITN), as originally intended by Copper. The edited version on this DVD runs for around twenty-six minutes.

ITN adapted their score for Copper’s alternative film version of the classic story noting the similarities in pace and style between Copper’s film and Jean Epstein’s 1928 adaptation, attributing this to the influence of Edgar Allan Poe’s storytelling.

The DVD, featuring ITN’s adapted score, will be included in a slipcased hardcover collection limited to 100 numbered and signed copies. ITN will also have a limited number of DVDs for sale upon release in August.

As for the hardcover book itself, after Basil Copper’s death in 2013, additional papers and manuscripts were discovered. This newly found material has been incorporated into the revised edition. The book now includes the most comprehensive working bibliography of Copper’s work, rare articles on subjects ranging from Arkham House creator August Derleth to a brief history of Count Dracula, numerous short story fragments and ideas, and a complete television script based on M.R. James’ classic horror story “Count Magnus”.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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

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In 2017, the electronic duo from Sheffield, UK, known as In The Nursery, unveiled an album titled “1961”. This number isn’t only unique because it’s strobogrammatic (the next one will be 6009), but it also signifies the year of birth of the twin brothers behind the band, Nigel and Klive Humberstone.

Conceptually the album “1961” draws from historical, literary, and personal aspects associated with this year, hence also the Ford Consul on the cover artwork.

Today, they’ve launched an instrumental version of “1961” as “1961 (instrumentals +)”, featuring a never-before-released track, “Sieben”. Also part of the album are initial mix versions and an early rehearsal recording titled “Retrofire (inception)”. The artwork has also been changed accordingly leaving the twin brothers out of the picture, it’s an instrumental album after all (nice detail we must say).

For those interested in purchasing this album, use the discount code ‘August20’ at checkout for a 20% off. As it’s Bandcamp Friday today the band returns the waved fee (and more) to the fans.

This is the original release so you can compare the recordings.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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

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Genre/Influences: Cinematic, Experimental.

Format: Digital, CD, Vinyl.

Background/Info: This yearTwin brothers Klive and Nigel celebrate the fortieth anniversary of their music project In The Nursery. Better than releasing a ‘best of’ they accomplished a very special conceptual work which comes as a homage to their family.

Content: Humberstone family is a true fascinating family featuring a great uncle who was active during WWI, their late father who was a well-known animator who worked on some famous films or ancestors who went to New Zealand etc. In The Nursery transposed all these stories into a Cinematic composition featuring heavy orchestral arrangements and dreamy passages accentuated by subtle piano play but still heavier, bombastic, parts with guitar playing or Trip-Hop rhythms carrying another dreamy cut. A few guests contributed by cello-, trumpet- and drums.

+ + + : I’m into conceptual releases and this one is not only original and intimate but also fascinating. It also reveals a fascinating family story. A film could have been made but the twins adapted  it into a great and entertaining Cinematic experience. There’re a few great songs featured but “Cookham Stone – The Painter” is a true sonic pearl. This album is filled with emotions characterized now by bombast and then by melancholia. Sometimes sad and sometimes a dark and menacing mood (like featured by the cool “Sulous – The Ploughmen”.

– – – : The very last part of the album sounds as a little antithesis to the great main part of the work.

Conclusion: It’s hard to say if In The Nursery has released after forty years their best album ever but it’s definitely one which will enter into history.

Best songs: “Cookham Stone – The Painter”, “Sulous – The Ploughmen”, “Emigre – The Dressmaker”.

Rate: 8.

Artist & Label: www.inthenursery.com / www.facebook.com/INTHENURSERY Read the news on ‘Humberstone’.

About In The Nursery

Formed in Sheffield, England in 1981 by twin brothers Klive Humberstone and Nigel Humberstone together with guitarist Anthony Bennett, In The Nursery emerged from the UK industrial scene with an early sound influenced by post-punk and experimental electronics. Their first mini-album “When Cherished Dreams Come True” appeared in 1983 on Paragon Records, followed by the single “Witness (To a Scream)” and the “Sonority” EP.

After moving to Sweatbox, the band issued the “Temper” EP in 1985, then recorded the full-length “Twins” without Bennett. Vocalist Dolores Marguerite C and percussionist Q joined during this period, contributing to the EP “Trinity” and to “Stormhorse”, their second album and first fully cinematic work described as a “soundtrack to an imaginary film”.

The 1988 album “Köda” completed their transition towards a classical-instrumental style, introducing computer sequencing and leading to licensing in the United States through Wax Trax!. During the early 1990s the group worked with Third Mind Records on albums such as “L’esprit” and “Sense”, followed by “Duality” and the film score “An Ambush of Ghosts”.

Subsequent releases such as “Anatomy of a Poet”, the silent-film rescoring projects “The Cabinet of Dr Caligari”, “Asphalt” and “Man with a Movie Camera”, and later albums on their own ITN Corporation imprint, reinforced their reputation for orchestrated, concept-driven records. The 2017 album “1961” revisited a pivotal year through a mix of historical and personal references, and in 2023 the duo issued an instrumental version with an additional track.

“Humberstone” arrived in 2022 on ITN Corporation as the family-focused album reviewed here, built around archive material and personal history. The brothers discussed those recordings in the In the Nursery interview published on Side-Line in April 2022.

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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Currently celebrating their 40th anniversary year, Sheffield-based cult act In The Nursery will release a brand new studio album in late February 2022. Entitled “Humberstone”, it refers to the family surname of the identical twins Klive and Nigel who are the core of this – exquisite – project.

But first there’s “Ektachrome (The Animator)”, the first single from the new album.

You can download the single right below.

Looking back in time

The record is a deeply personal record that sees them in reflective mood as a year in which they also turned 60 (yes time flies!) comes to a close.

“We have always needed a reason to make music, a rationale for its creation and existence,” they state. “As composers, the two of us are conscious of the connection between music and memory. The loss of family is a strong emotion, one that we’ve harnessed to revisit our past. Our antecedents have been a catalyst and a stimulus for this new album and it has been good to reconnect and remember.”

Recorded at the group’s own Beehive Works studio in Sheffield, each track on “Humberstone” is prefixed with an ‘H’ number to indicate the order in which ideas came to the twins when writing the album.

You can pre-order the new album right here.

About In The Nursery

In The Nursery formed in 1981. Their cinematic music blends electronica, classical arrangements, orchestral percussion and soundscapes.

Since 1981 ITN have released over 25 albums and their music has been used on numerous film soundtracks and trailers that include “Game of Thrones”, “Gran Torino”, “Beowulf”, “The Aviator”, “Interview With A Vampire”, “Along Came A Spider”, “The Rainmaker”, plus the TV series “La Femme Nikita”.

In parallel to their studio albums, ITN have also developed their Optical Music Series, recording new scores for classic silent films such as “The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari”, “Asphalt”, “Man With A Movie Camera”, “Hindle Wakes”, “A Page Of Madness”, “Electric Edwardians”, “The Passion Of Joan Of Arc”, “The Fall Of The House Of Usher” and “The Seashell And The Clergyman”.

Their last studio album, “1961”, took its title from the year in which the twins were born and drew inspiration from historic, literary and personal connections to that year. It was released in 2017.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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

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Side-Line darlings In The Nursery have announced the release of their latest silent film score “The Fall Of The House Of Usher” for Jean Epstein and Luis Bunuel’s 1928 interpretation of Edgar Allan Poe’s classic tale of paranoia and suspense.

In The Nursery’s new score is the 8th in their ‘Optical Music Series’, a repertoire of work dating from 1996 and including titles such as “The Cabinet of Dr Caligari”, “Man with a Movie Camera” and “The Passion of Joan of Arc”. In The Nursery’s new score incorporates traditional instrumentation and spacial sound design to encompass the Gothic nature of Epstein and Bunuel’s avante-garde vision.

Check the below video to have an idea what to expect. The CD is available now for ordering!

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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

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