Laibach have announced details of “Strange Fruit”, a three-track single release that follows their recent single “The Future” (originally by Leonard Cohen). This interpretation of the Billie Holiday protest song has featured in their ongoing Opus Dei tour (which continues into 2025), and precedes the band’s “Opus Dei Revisited” double album (out 13 December on Mute).

“Strange Fruit” tracklisting

1. Strange Fruit (03:06)
2. Strange Fruit (Alternate version) (03:00)
3. Strange Fruit (Live from Lublin, May 28th 2024) (03:19)

Watch the video for Laibach’s “Strange Fruit” below.

Billie Holiday originally recorded her version of “Strange Fruit” on 20 April 1939. The track, originally written by a Jewish school teacher Abel Meeropol (using the pseudonym Lewis Allen), was in response to lynching in US southern states. A year later, Meeropol, a socialist, was called to testify before a committee investigating communism and asked whether the US Communist Party had paid him to write “Strange Fruit”. Later, in 1999, it was named the song of the century by Time magazine.

Laibach go on to explain: “There’s something that’s still very radioactive about the song; it’s still relevant because race is still relevant. The impulses that Meeropol was talking about are very much still with us, on the front pages of our newspapers and across our social media every day. For us, ‘Strange Fruit’ evokes racial injustice, representing not just lynchings, but racism generally.” They expand, “Racism is a virus that mutates, taking on different forms as it adapts to a changing environment. Its mutation is made harder to observe by it being deeply embedded, not only in our traditions and institutions, but also in our unconscious lives.”

“Strange Fruit” follows May’s remastered edition of Laibach’s “Opus Dei”. Their 12-month salute to their 1987 album continues in December with the release of “Opus Dei Revisited”, which features two new interpretations of the album – one by Laibach, and the other by original producer Rico Conning.

Laibach “Opus Dei Revisited” Tour – 2025

• 7 Feb – Ljubljana, Kino Šiška, SI
• 16 Feb – Krakow Kwadrat, PL
• 18 Feb- Ostrava, Barrak, CZ
• 19 Feb – Vienna, Arena, AT
• 20 Feb – Jena, F-Haus, DE
• 21 Feb – Sittard, Poppodium Volt, NL
• 22 Feb – London, Islington Assembly Hall, UK
• 23 Feb – Manchester, Ritz, UK
• 24 Feb – Southampton, The 1865, UK
• 25 Feb – Bristol, Trinity Centre, UK
• 27 Feb – Lausanne, Les Docks, CH
• 28 Feb – Bologna, Link, IT
• 1 March – Nova Gorica, SNG Nova Gorica, SI
• 4 March – Skopje, Macedonian Philharmonic MK
• 5 March – Athens, Gazarte, GR
• 6 March – Sofia, Pirotska 5, BG
• 7 March – Bucharest, Quantic Club, RO
• 8 March – Beograd, Dom Omladine, RS
• 21 March – Maribor, Narodni dom, SI

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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hackedepicciotto (Alexander Hacke & Danielle de Picciotto) have released their new album, “The Best of hackedepicciotto (Live in Napoli)“, on double vinyl – limited to 500 copies with exclusive signed print – and digitally today, 1 November 2024, via Mute. The duo also embark on a European tour today in Palma (Italy) that continues through to a Berlin album release party on 18 December at Berghain.

The Best of hackedepicciotto collates over 20 years of collaboration, experimentation and genre defying work over two live performances recorded at Auditorium Novecento, one of the oldest recording studios in Europe.

“The Best of hackedepicciotto (Live in Napoli)” showcases live interpretations of music from across their career. The album includes reinterpretations of tracks from all of their studio albums: “Keepsakes” (2023), “The Silver Threshold” (2021), “Perseverantia” (2016), “Menetekel” (2017) and “The Current” (2020).

hackedepicciotto live dates

• 1 Nov – Parma (IT), Borgo Santa Brigida
• 2 Nov – Pordenone (IT), Astro Club
• 3 Nov – Milan (IT), Arci Bellezza
• 5 Nov – Turin (IT), Blah Blah
• 7 Nov – Pescara (IT), Scumm
• 8 Nov – Campobasso (IT), Circolo Beatnik
• 9 Nov – Pesaro (IT), Teatro dei Bottoni
• 12 Nov – Lyon (FR), Sonic Lyon
• 23 Nov – Tokyo (JP), Harajuku, Harakado
• 29 Nov – Malmö (SW), Inkonst
• 30 Nov – Odense (DK), Klub Golem
• 6 Dec – Athens (GR), Temple
• 7 Dec – Thessaloniki (GR), Eightball
• 12 Dec – Bratislava (SK), Pink Whale
• 13 Dec – Augsburg (DE), Provino Club
• 15 Dec – Bielefeld (DE), Movie Bielefeld
• 18 Dec – Berlin (DE), Berghain Kantine – Album Release Party

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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Sunroof (Daniel Miller and Gareth Jones) have shared a new track, “Brotherly”, from their forthcoming album, “Electronic Music Improvisations Volume 3”, set for release on vinyl, CD and digitally via the Parallel Series of Mute on 29 November 2024.

“Electronic Music Improvisations Volume 3” is a collection of nine improvised tracks, recorded using the duo’s Eurorack modular systems, and builds upon the self-imposed parameters laid out on their 2021 debut. With nothing pre-planned or rehearsed, each of the nine tracks were recorded using four channels (two each) with no overdubs. Explaining that “Our practice is more abstract than thematic. Every time we meet, we attempt a fresh start” the Miller and Jones arrived to each recording session with the spirit, energy and discipline of improvisation and recorded the tracks as live performances, with very little post-production work done once the tracks are recorded.

One exception is on “Ensnare”. The original, where glassy percussion works alongside submerged rhythmic beats, has been given two separate remixes by Daniel Miller and Gareth Jones.

About Sunroof

Daniel Miller and Gareth Jones have been collaborating for four decades. Daniel Miller and Gareth Jones’ collaboration began in 1982 when Miller asked Jones to work with him on what became Depeche Mode’s “Construction Time Again”. After Depeche Mode had gone home for the day, the two would stay on to work on their own sessions. By the mid-nineties Sunroof had become a remix project, reworking the likes of Can, MGMT, To Rococo Rot, Kreidler and Goldfrapp, amongst others.

In 2019, Miller and Jones were heading to a György Ligeti concert at the Barbican and beforehand the pair spent a couple of hours improvising with modular systems. Unusually, this time they decided to record the session and over a pre-concert meal, Gareth asked, “Are we actually going to make a record together before we die?”

The resulting album, “Electronic Music Improvisations Volume 1” (2021) was followed by “Electronic Music Improvisations Volume 2” (2023), and since 2021, Sunroof have been performing select live shows allowing their live performance to feed back into their recordings. Some of these recordings were released last year as a Bandcamp exclusive, “Electronic Music Improvisations Live in London and Frankfurt“.

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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Today Throbbing Gristle have announced “TG Berlin”, a box set chronicling their previously unreleased work in Berlin around a special series of live events at the Volksbühne in 2005/2006, set for release on December 6, 2024. This is the latest release in an ongoing collaboration with Mute.

The event, curated by Throbbing Gristle, saw the band perform a live set on New Year’s Eve and an improvised live soundtrack to a new 16mm print of Derek Jarman’s “In The Shadow of the Sun” (1981) on New Year’s Day. While the band were in Berlin, they also recorded two final songs alongside a 48-minute piece of new music.

The box set, which is comprised of 4 CDs, a Blu Ray, a 10” vinyl and a booklet featuring unseen photographs from the time by Paul Heartfield as well as new sleeve notes by Scottish visual artist Lucy McKenzie, collates both of these performances, alongside the “TG Berlin Studio Session”, which includes the final Throbbing Gristle single (two unreleased tracks, “Scabs & Saws” and “Wotwududo”) and an unreleased 48-minute piece titled “TG Berlin Studio Session 2005 – 2006”, recorded at Planet Roc studios during the time they were in the city.

Listen to the previously unreleased track “Scabs & Saws” below.

“TG Berlin” will also include the ‘rehearsal’ for “In The Shadow of the Sun”, recorded on New Year’s Day at the Volksbühne (“people’s theatre”). The performance of “In The Shadow of the Sun” was improvised, so the two documents offer a different perspective on the soundtrack to Jarman’s work.

The New Year’s Eve show previewed five songs from the band’s first album in 27 years, “Part Two: The Endless Not”, several years before its release, on a set list that included “Convincing People”, “Slug Bait”, and “Hamburger Lady” (their first encore in 25/26 years), plus the released track, “Splitting Sky” and more. The performance is also included as a Blu-ray.

About Throbbing Gristle

Throbbing Gristle formed in 1975 and for the next six years they fully delivered on punk’s failed promise to explore extreme culture as a way of sabotaging systems of control. During that time, they released records such as “The Second Annual Report Of Throbbing Gristle” (1977), “D.O.A The Third And Final Report Of Throbbing Gristle” (1978), and “20 Jazz Funk Greats” (1979) and were also named “wreckers of civilisation” by the Conservative MP Nicholas Fairbairn in 1976.

In 2004, Throbbing Gristle, Chris Carter, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge (1950-2020) and Peter ‘Sleazy’ Christopherson (1955-2010), regrouped and the following six years became a period of renewed creativity for the band which returned back in the studio after 20 years.

They also embarked on a series of live performances that included the Coachella and Primavera festivals, Tate Modern, and Heaven, and produced several albums, including “TG Now” (2004), and “Part Two: The Endless Not” (2007), as well as a 3-day “studio installation” at the ICA before disbanding in 2010.

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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(Photo by Emilie Elizabeth) Italian musician Alessandro Cortini has released his latest work, “Nati Infiniti”. This 40-minute piece, divided into five movements, is based on an immersive audio installation that took place across four floors of the Museu de Lisboa’s Fábrica da Moagem, a disused flour mill.

Commissioned by Sónar Lisboa 2022, “Nati Infiniti” captures the ambiance of the original installation. Each floor of the mill evoked different states through Cortini’s sound design, creating a different experience as listeners moved through the building. The album tries to reflects this movement.

Using the Strega instrument, co-designed by Cortini with Make Noise, the piece evolves across 40 minutes. Marta Salogni, known for her work with Björk and Depeche Mode, mixed and mastered the album into five movements. “Nati Infiniti” is available now, in various formats including vinyl, CD, and digital.

Cortini debuted the live audio-visual performance of “Nati Infiniti” at Berlin’s Atonal Festival. After a series of sold-out shows, he will tour North America and Europe throughout 2024 and 2025, with additional dates to be announced.

Cortini, a longstanding member of Nine Inch Nails, has released a steady stream of his own music on labels such as Mute, Hospital, and Important Records. His collaborations include work with Lawrence English, Daniel Avery, and Merzbow. He is also the only Italian musician inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. His creations, like the Strega and the forthcoming Bruxa module, kinda show his innovative approach to music. He has composed for fashion shows by Alexander McQueen, Dior, and Fendi, and soundtracked Disney/Hulu’s hit show “The Bear”. His remixes include tracks for Depeche Mode, Mogwai, Death Cab for Cutie, Yann Tiersen, and Vatican Shadow.

Here’s a live impression of Cortini.

Alessandro Cortini tour dates

• 10/11/2024 – Seattle, WA, Age Of Reflections at Seattle First Baptist, US
• 10/12/2024 – Portland, OR, Age Of Reflections at Trinity Cathedral, US
• 10/13/2024 – Los Angeles, CA, Teragram Ballroom, US
• 11/20/2024 – Brussels, Bozar, BE
• 12/6/2024 – Berlin, Silent Green, DE
• 1/17/2025 – Paris, Trabendo, FR

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 on Mute / NovaMute on 6 December is a reissue of Richie Hawtin’s second album as Plastikman, “Musik”, in a remastered version from the original tapes.

The album, originally released via NovaMute / Plus 8, followed 1993’s “Sheet One” and pushed Hawtin into international success. Before the full album hit the shelves, “Plastique” was released offering a teaser of the more dance floor friendly album.

You can listen to listen to an excerpt of “Plastique” below.

The vinyl release, just like “Sheet One”, will be out on bio-vinyl.

About Richie Hawtin aka Plastikman

Born in Oxfordshire, Hawtin moved to Canada at age nine. Growing up, he was heavily influenced by his father’s diverse record collection and developed a deep curiosity for electronics. As a child, he watched his father dismantle, rebuild, and modify various devices, which sparked his interest in technology.

His love for music, technology, and computers naturally came together. Upon hearing early Detroit Techno and Chicago Acid House on Jeff Mills’ late ’80s Detroit radio show, Hawtin found his path. Traveling between his hometown of Windsor, Ontario, and Detroit, he (as Plastikman) became a key figure in some of the most intense underground electronic music parties.

Last year marked the 30th anniversary of his debut Plastikman album, “Sheet One”, and “Dimension Intrusion” under his F.U.S.E. alias for WARP’s Artificial Intelligence series. He also co-heads the Plus 8 label with John Acquaviva, runs the M_nus label, and co-founded the PLAYdifferently mixer/technology company. Alongside his music career, he’s expanding into the sake industry with his ENTER.Sake brand and the Sake 36 emporium in Berlin.

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 British synthpop duo, Erasure, consisting of vocalist Andy Bell and Vince Clarke, have announced the vinyl reissues of three albums: “Tomorrow’s World” (2011), “Snow Globe” (2013), and “The Violet Flame” (2014). These limited edition vinyl reissues, set for release on December 13, will be available via Mute Records.

Tomorrow’s World (2011) – Limited Edition Clear Vinyl

“Tomorrow’s World” marks Erasure’s return after a four-year hiatus. Released in 2011, the album showcased a duo deeply rooted in the synthpop scene yet embracing a more modern sound. Produced by Frankmusik (who has worked with artists such as Lady Gaga and Pet Shop Boys), the album was recorded across multiple locations, including Maine, London, and Los Angeles. It includes the singles “When I Start To (Break It All Down)”, “Be With You”, “A Whole Lotta Love Run Riot”, and “Fill Us With Fire”.

The album was well received. It followed a period where Andy Bell released his solo album “Don’t Stop”, and Vince Clarke briefly reunited with Alison Moyet for a Yazoo tour.

Snow Globe (2013) – Limited Edition Pink Vinyl

“Snow Globe” took Erasure in a stripped-back, often melancholic take on the festive genre. Departing from the more traditional, glitzy sounds of Christmas music, the album features eerie, minimalist arrangements.

Produced by Erasure, alongside Gareth Jones and Richard X, the album includes a modern rendition of the traditional Latin carol “Gaudete” and new versions of classics like “White Christmas” and “Silent Night”. The album’s lead single was “Make It Wonderful”.

The Violet Flame (2014) – Limited Edition White Vinyl

“The Violet Flame” came out in 2014, following the festive experiment of “Snow Globe”, and saw Erasure return to their electronic roots. The album was produced by Richard X (known for his work with Goldfrapp, SOPHIE, and Róisin Murphy).

Unlike their previous work, where songs traditionally began on guitar or piano, the tracks on “The Violet Flame” emerged directly from electronic dance grooves. This change in process resulted in standout singles such as “Elevation”, “Reason”, and the Halloween-themed “Dead of Night”.

With over 25 million albums sold worldwide and an impressive 18 studio albums under their belt, Erasure has cemented their place as one of the UK’s most successful synth-pop duos. Formed in 1985, they have consistently evolved while maintaining their signature synthpop sound. Their most recent releases include “The Neon” (2020) and its experimental follow-up “Day-Glo (Based on a True Story)” (2022), which reimagined the songs from “The Neon” with new arrangements and vocals.

The vinyl reissues will be available on December 13, 2024, via Mute Records, and pre-orders are currently open.

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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Slovenian avant-garde collective Laibach has just shared the “Opus Dei Revisited 2024” version of their iconic track “Leben heißt Leben”, an reinterpretation of Opus’ 1985 hit “Live is Life”. This new release is part of the band’s “Opus Dei Revisited” project, a year-long tribute to their groundbreaking 1987 album “Opus Dei”. Laibach is currently on tour across Europe, revisiting the themes and tracks of this influential work.

“Opus Dei Revisited”, set for release on December 13, 2024, will be available as a double LP, double CD, and digitally via Mute Records. The album features two distinct reimaginings of “Opus Dei”, offering a radical interrogation of the original material. The first disc presents a modernized reworking of the tracks by Laibach themselves, which has evolved throughout their ongoing Opus Dei Revisited Tour. The band was so impressed with the live versions that they immediately entered the studio to record the fresh takes.

The second disc sees the original album’s producer, Rico Conning (known for his work with Wire, Pere Ubu, and Swans), invited back to re-explore the 1987 master tapes.

Formed in the industrial town of Trbovlje, Slovenia (then Yugoslavia), Laibach has long been one of the most influential bands from the former Eastern Bloc.

In addition to their upcoming Opus Dei Revisited release, Laibach has also been working on a potential performance of their original symphonic work Alamut in Tehran, in collaboration with Iranian composers. This year also saw performances of their score for Saint Joan of the Stockyards in Italy and an academic course at the University of Salerno delving into Laibach’s cultural significance.

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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(Photo by Marta Ruly) Sunroof (Daniel Miller and Gareth Jones) have announced details of a new album, “Electronic Music Improvisations Volume 3”, set for release on vinyl, CD and digitally via the Parallel Series of Mute on 29 November 2024.

“Electronic Music Improvisations Volume 3” holds nine improvised tracks, recorded using the duo’s Eurorack modular systems, and builds upon the self-imposed parameters laid out on their 2021 debut. With nothing pre-planned or rehearsed, each of the nine tracks were recorded using four channels (two each) with no overdubs.

Note that “Splendid” was recorded using the original 4-track TEAC that Miller picked up second hand in the late 70s and used to record The Normal’s “Warm Leatherette” 7”.

Out now are two remixes of the track “Ensnare” by Daniel Miller and Gareth Jones. You can check out the original and the two remixes below.

This is the original version of “Ensnare”.

This is the Daniel Miller remix of “Ensnare”.

And here is the ElectroGenetic remix by Gareth Jones of “Ensnare”.

Daniel Miller and Gareth Jones have been collaborating for four decades. Their collaboration began in 1982 when Miller asked Jones to work with him on what became Depeche Mode’s “Construction Time Again”. After Depeche Mode had gone home for the day, the two would stay on to work on their own sessions, a practise that continues to this day. By the mid-nineties Sunroof had become a remix project, reworking the likes of Can, MGMT, To Rococo Rot, Kreidler and Goldfrapp, amongst others, and their first recordings appeared on a compilation paying tribute to Neu!

Sunroof album discography

• Electronic Music Improvisations Volume 1 (2021)
• Electronic Music Improvisations Volume 2 (2023)
• Electronic Music Improvisations Live in London and Frankfurt (2023)
• Electronic Music Improvisations Volume 3 (2024)

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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(Photo by Mara von Kummer) hackedepicciotto (Alexander Hacke & Danielle de Picciotto) have shared details of a new album, “The Best of hackedepicciotto (Live in Napoli)”, that collates over 20 years of collaboration over two live performances recorded at the Auditorium Novecento, one of the oldest recording studios in Europe.

The album will be released on double vinyl, limited to 500 copies with exclusive signed print, and digitally on 1 November 2024, via Mute.

For over 20 years Alexander Hacke (Einstürzende Neubauten) and artist, musician and filmmaker Danielle de Picciotto (co-founder of Love Parade) have been working together. The album includes reinterpretations of tracks from all of their studio albums: “Keepsakes” (2023), “The Silver Threshold” (2021), “Perseverantia” (2016), “Menetekel” (2017), and “The Current” (2020).

This new collection is a mixture of industrial beats, electronic sounds with classical harmonies and melodies, with some throat singing, Hurdy-gurdy and spoken word. Daniel Miller of Mute goes on to say that “their music is a genre of its own, something new and very intriguing.”

Listen to “The Silver Threshold (Live in Napoli)”, the title track from their 2021 album.

hackedepicciotto Live Dates

• 1 Nov – Parma (IT), Borgo Santa Brigida
• 2 Nov – Pordenone (IT), Astro Club
• 3 Nov – Milan (IT), Arci Bellezza
• 5 Nov – Turin (IT), Blah Blah
• 7 Nov – Pescara (IT), Scumm
• 8 Nov – Campobasso (IT), Circolo Beatnik
• 12 Nov – Lyon (FR), Sonic Lyon
• 29 Nov – Malmö (SW), Inkonst
• 30 Nov – Odense (DK), Klub Golem
• 6 Dec – Athens (GR), Temple
• 7 Dec – Thessaloniki (GR), Eightball
• 12 Dec – Bratislava (SK), Pink Whale
• 13 Dec – Augsburg (DE), Provino Club
• 15 Dec – Bielefeld (DE), Movie Bielefeld
• 18 Dec – Berlin (DE), Berghain Kantine – Album Release Party

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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(Photo courtesy of Laibach) Laibach are further celebrating their classic 1987 album “Opus Dei” with “Opus Dei Revisited” which holds new versions of the source material. “Opus Dei Revisited” is set for release on Mute on December 13, 2024 on double vinyl and double CD.

“Opus Dei” was the band’s first album for Mute for the Slovenian collective. The first disc of the Double LP / CD is a reworking by Laibach themselves which was initially crafted, and then refined, for their current Opus Dei Revisited Tour. They for instance reimagined Opus’ “Live Is Life” (as “Opus Dei”) and Queen’s “One Vision” ( as “Geburt einer Nation”).

For the second disc they invited Rico Conning (Wire, Pere Ubu, Swans, Front 242, William Orbit), who produced and mixed the 1987 version, to also revisit the material. Conning was given an open brief to explore new territories with what was on the original master tapes. To coincide with the announcement of Opus Dei Revisited they have shared a taster track from the album, “Geburt einer Nation” (Rico Conning’s Inner Ear RMX 2024).

Tracklist “Opus Dei Revisited“

Opus Dei Revisited (Disc 1)

• A1. Leben heißt Leben RE 
• A2. Geburt einer Nation RE 
• A3. Leben-Tod RE 
• A4. F.I.A.T. RE 
• B1. Transnational RE 
• B2. How the West Was Won RE 
• B3. The Great Seal RE 
• B4. Opus Dei RE 

Rico Conning’s Inner Ear RMX 2024 (Disc 2)

• C1. Leben heißt Leben RMX 
• C2. Geburt einer Nation RMX 
• C3. Leben-Tod RMX 
• C4. F.I.A.T. RMX 
• D1. Opus Dei RMX 
• D2. Transnational RMX 
• D3. How the West Was Won RMX 
• D4. The Great Seal RMX 

Laibach Opus Dei Tour

2024:

• 9/14/2024 – Portorož, Avditorij, SI
• 10/4/2024 – Split, Club Porat, HR
• 10/5/2024 – Zagreb, Boogaloo, HR
• 10/10/2024 – Mežica, ND Mežica, Big Hall, SI
• 10/11/2024- Budapest, Dürer Kert, HU
• 10/12/2024 – Leipzig, Felsenkeller, DE
• 10/13/2024 – Prague, Roxy, CZ
• 10/15/2024 – Dordrecht, Bibelot, NL
• 10/16/2024 – Arnhem, Luxor, NL
• 10/17/2024 – Vauréal, Le Forum 2, FR
• 10/18/2024 – Toulouse, Le Metronum, FR
• 10/19/2024 – Wavre, La Sucrerie, BE
• 10/20/2024 – Bochum, Christuskirche, DE
• 10/22/2024 – Hannover, Music Pavillion, DE

2025:

• 2/16/2025 – Krakow, Kwadrat, PL
• 2/18/2025- Ostrava, Barrak, CZ
• 2/19/2025 – Vienna, Arena, AT
• 2/20/2025 – Jena, F-Haus, DE
• 2/21/2025 – Sittard, Poppodium Volt, NL
• 2/22/2025 – London, Islington Assembly Hall, UK
• 2/23/2025 – Manchester, Ritz, UK
• 2/24/2025 – Southampton, The 1865, UK
• 2/25/2025 – Bristol, Trinity Centre, UK
• 2/27/2025 – Lausanne, Les Docks, CH
• 2/28/2025 – Bologna, Link, IT
• 3/4/2025 – Skopje, Macedonian Philharmonic, MK
• 3/5/2025 – Athens, Gazarte, GR
• 3/6/2025 – Sofia, Pirotska 5, BG
• 3/7/2025 – Bucharest, Quantic Club, RO
• 3/8/2025 – Beograd, Dom Omladine, RS

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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(Photo by Bobby Talamine) Bill Leeb’s first solo album, “Model Kollapse”, drops tomorrow. Leeb, a Vancouver-based musician, is best known as the mastermind behind electro-industrial giants Front Line Assembly and ambient-pop duo Delerium. He’s also played a pivotal role in projects like Noise Unit, Intermix, and Cyberaktif.

This marks Leeb’s first solo effort since the early days of Front Line Assembly in the mid-80s, when he began recording in his bedroom and released his work on limited edition cassettes. Nearly four decades later, “Model Kollapse” was crafted between Vancouver, Toronto, and Los Angeles, with production support from Dream Bullet, long-time collaborator Rhys Fulber, and mixing engineer Greg Reely.

You can now stream the full album exclusively on Side-Line, including standout tracks like “Demons” and “Terror Forms”.

Today we can also present you this brand new video for “Muted Obsession”.

Musically, “Model Kollapse” taps into the legacy of post-punk electronic pioneers like DAF, Front 242, and Skinny Puppy (Leeb himself being an original member), while also drawing from more contemporary influences like Gesaffelstein and ADULT.

The album’s title refers to a phenomenon in artificial intelligence where trained models, particularly those dependent on synthetic or AI-generated data, degrade over time. Leeb elaborates, “As we push forward with unprecedented technological advances, I wonder how much longer we can truly stay in control. Automation has already consumed entire industries. With tech ruling much of the world, are we headed for a ‘Model Kollapse’? Chaos would surely follow.”

Released by Metropolis Records, Leeb notes the label’s crucial role in alternative music, saying, “This album was possible thanks to my long-standing friendship with the late Dave Heckman, who gave me complete artistic freedom.” Heckman, Metropolis’ founder, passed away in the summer of 2022.

Videos from “Model Kollapse”

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!

side-line.com

(Photo by Emilie Elizabeth) Out 4 October on Mute, followed by UK, European and American tour dates, is the brand new album from Nine Inch Nails member Alessandro Cortini, “Nati Infiniti”. Today the Italian musician releases a first track, “IV”.

Watch the video for “‘”IV” with imagery by Marco Ciceri.

The 40-minutes album “Nati Infiniti” is composed of five movements and debuted as an audio installation commissioned by Sónar Lisboa 2022 that ran across four floors of the Museu de Lisboa’s Fábrica da Moagem, a disused flour mill.

The work – which utilises the Strega instrument that Cortini co-designed with Make Noise – was mixed and mastered by Marta Salogni (Björk, Depeche Mode, Lucrecia Dalt). The album will be out on vinyl (featuring an embossed silver mirror board sleeve), CD (with a clear varnished gatefold mirror board sleeve), and digitally.

About Alessandro Cortini

Alessandro Cortini is best known as a longstanding member of Nine Inch Nails (from 2005 to the present day), He has been releasing a steady stream of his own music on labels including Mute, Hospital, and Important Records for the past decade.

Throughout his career he has collaborated with the likes of Lawrence English, Daniel Avery, and Merzbow and found time to create the Strega (used on his previous album, “Scuro Chiaro”) and the forthcoming module, Bruxa, with Make Noise.

Additionally, he has remixed tracks for Depeche Mode, Mogwai, Death Cab For Cutie, Yann Tiersen, and Vatican Shadow.

Alessandro Cortini on tour

Cortini will embark on a tour of North America and Europe throughout ’24 and into ‘25 – with more dates to be added.

• 5 Sept 2024 – Reykjavik, Extreme Chill IS
• 19 Sept 2024 – Glasgow, Sonica Festival UK
• 3 Oct 2024 – Albany, NY, Empire State Plaza Performing Arts Center, “The Egg” US
• 4 Oct 2024 – Queens, NY, Knockdown Center US
• 6 Oct 2024 – Boston, MA, Sonia US
• 7 Oct 2024 – Minneapolis, MN, The Cedar US
• 9 Oct 2024 – Chicago, IL, Empty Bottle US
• 10 Oct 2024 – Austin, TX, Central Presbyterian Church US
• 11 Oct 2024 – Seattle, WA, Age of Reflections at Seattle First Baptist US
• 12 Oct 2024 – Portland, OR, Age of Reflections at Trinity Cathedral US
• 13 Oct 2024 – Los Angeles, CA, Teragram Ballroom US
• 20 Nov 2024 – Brussels, Bozar BE
• 6 Dec 2024 – Berlin, Silent Green DE
• 17 Jan 2025 – Paris, Trabendo FR

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!

side-line.com

genCAB, the industrial-electro act led by David Dutton, has just released a new EP titled “Let It Rip”. “Let It Rip” serves as a precursor to their upcoming album “III I II (Third Eye Gemini)”, set for release on September 20, 2024, through Metropolis Records. The EP features three tracks: “Six Hits”, “Down Where We Belong”, and “Cancer Causes Life (Recycled)”.

For their new album the band has revisited and reworked some of the material from their 2008 debut album “II transMuter”. The EP is a teaser for the upcoming album, which will feature both these reworked classics and entirely new songs inspired by the re-recording process.

About genCAB

Founded in 2006 by David Dutton, genCAB (Generation Cable) gained attention with its debut album, “II transMuter” (2008), which blended elements of electronic body music, synth-pop, and aggressive rock.

Despite the early success, genCAB was put on hiatus after the release of their debut album. During this time, Dutton and drummer Tim Van Horn kept busy, performing live with industrial act Aesthetic Perfection. After a long break, genCAB re-emerged in 2022 with the album “Thoughts Beyond Words”, followed by the EP “Everything You See Is Mine”. The band supported these releases with a US tour alongside Aesthetic Perfection.

In 2023, genCAB signed with Metropolis Records and released “Signature Flaws”, an album that delved into themes of mortality and self-reflection, and and album that introduced elements of shoegaze and post-hardcore.

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!

side-line.com

(Photo by Paul Heartfield) Goldfrapp co-creator Will Gregory has shared another track, “Parabolic Sleuth”, from the upcoming deluxe edition of the Will Gregory Moog Ensemble album “Heat Ray: The Archimedes Project” inspired by Archimedes’ work. “Heat Ray: The Archimedes Project” has been completely performed on analogue synths, with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.

“Heat Ray: The Archimedes Project” is set for release on Mute on 27 September. The deluxe edition features insights from the recreational mathematician, comedian and author Matt Parker, best known for his YouTube series, “Standup Maths”. The nine pieces written and presented by Parker each introduce a track from the album.

The album has been augmented with two bonus tracks, “Heavy Logic” and the track we present today, “Parabolic Sleuth“.

A series of live dates will coincide with the release – starting with Hidden Notes festival in Stroud before three performances with the Britten Sinfonia at the Barbican, London Basingstoke and in Saffron Walden and a further date in Southampton for the ensemble.

The Will Gregory Moog Ensemble members include Portishead’s Adrian Utley, a longtime collaborator of Will’s, who co-produced and plays on the album. Mute’s Daniel Miller is its “kind of executive producer”, and he even played on one of the tracks. “Given he’s been into synths right from his early days, and is a genius with them, that was a good moment”, alongside John Baggott, Graham Fitkin, Simon Haram, Vyvyan Hope-Scott, Ross Hughes, Hazel Mills, Daniel Moore, Hinako Omori, Eddie Parker, Harriet Riley and Ruth Wall. Their instruments include Minimoog, Moog Voyager, Korg 700s, Prophet 6 and Roland JX3P.

Will Gregory Moog Ensemble dates

• 21-22 Sep – Hidden Notes Festival, Stroud
• 8 Oct – Barbican, London – with the Britten Sinfonia
• 9 Oct – Basingstoke, The Anvil – with the Britten Sinfonia
• 10 Oct – Southampton, Turner Sims
• 11 Oct – Saffron Hall, Saffron Walden – with the Britten Sinfonia

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!

side-line.com

(Photo by Paul Heartfield, 2007) The Throbbing Gristle reissue series is set to relaunch on August 23, 2024, with the release of “TGCD1” and “The Third Mind Movements”, available on both CD and vinyl.

You can already listen to “The Third Mind: First Movement”, an eight-minute piece recorded during the ICA Desertshore sessions. Previously, this track was available only on a CD sold during TG’s final US tour in 2009.

“TGCD1” will be available on vinyl for the first time. It’s also the first CD release since 1986 under The Grey Area of Mute. Included are 42 minutes of studio recordings from March 18, 1979, at TG’s Martello Street studio using a TEAC 8-Track recorder. The set comes with a booklet with original 1986 sleeve notes by the band.

For “The Third Mind Movements” it will. Be a first-time ever vinyl release and the first commercial CD release as it was originally an exclusive CD for the band’s final US tour in 2009. It features recordings from the Desertshore sessions at the ICA, London and consists of six live recordings marked by manipulated samples, rhythmical breakbeats, and electronic oscillations.

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!

side-line.com

(Interview by Janos Janurik) Ever since I got into online music journalism, I’ve always been interested in the background characters around my favourite musicians’ releases that add something important to the product we, the fans end up with.

With this in mind, over the years I have interviewed personalities such as Anton Corbijn (photographer of Depeche Mode and many other music greats), Gareth Jones and Mark Saunders (producers and mixmasters of Depeche Mode and Erasure amongst others).

About eight years ago I had the honour of helping to promote Vince Clarke’s then newly founded mini-record label (VeryRecords) and his releases. In addition to the artists whose albums have been released there in recent years, I also got in contact with Mat Smith, who, like me, is a freelancer – readers of Electronic Sound and Clash know him well – and works as a publicist for VeryRecords as well as being commissioned by Erasure and Mute for a number of press pieces. He also wrote the sleevenotes in the booklet of the new “Cowboy” Deluxe-Edition.

In addition to his journalistic work, he also has his own project “Mortality Tables”, which has just released a new mini-album on cassette and as a digital download. Last November, at the premiere of Vince Clarke’s solo album in London, I had the pleasure of meeting Mat in person and we had a lively chat about our shared passion for music. Knowing how important this project is to him, I approached him and asked him a few questions about it. 

But then life, or rather death, intervened. I didn’t mean this as a cheap shot, but it was indeed a sad event that forced me to make changes to the interview I had with my friend and colleague almost three weeks ago. Now that the aforementioned label is going on holiday, and before I do the same, I would like to bring this exciting musical venture (“The Engineer”) to your attention – and this interview with the man behind it.

SL: Tell us briefly about how you became interested in music. Have you had any musical training, have you learnt to play any instruments? Do you remember the first record you bought?

I grew up in a house where music seemed to always be playing, either on the radio or on my parent’s stereo. My mother listened to a lot of ABBA. Nothing about that was exceptional, particularly. When I used to go to friends’ houses, they always seemed to have the TV switched on, which felt strange to me. My family chose music, and I’ve surrounded myself with it ever since. 

I tried to play the recorder, which was the instrument that most of us learned as kids. My parents gave me a blue one for Christmas one year. I couldn’t play a single note. I briefly learned the basics of notation at school but very quickly forgot all of it. In early high school music classes I was more interested in recording real-life sounds into the Casio keyboard and using those to make compositions. Not long after that, I started making sample-based electronic music on my Amiga 500.

The first album I owned was Nik Kershaw’s ‘Human Racing’. I was given for my birthday the year it was released, along with a Sanyo portable cassette player. I played that album constantly. I wore out the cassette player after two weeks but I still have the ‘Human Racing’ tape and it still sounds incredible to me. 

SL: When did you discover electronic music? And who was the first electronic artist who introduced you to the world of electronic music?

My father is responsible for switching me on to electronic music. There were three pivotal events, and they all relate to times I was with my father.

The first was one evening when my mother was at her restaurant job, and my father was looking after me. I was playing with Lego in the lounge and Gary Numan was performing ‘Cars’ on TV. That performance completely captivated me.

The next was driving around in my father’s car while he did his second job as a debt collector. A friend at work had recorded two tracks from OMD’s ‘Architecture & Morality’ album onto a cassette for him. The songs were ‘Joan Of Arc’ and ‘Maid Of Orleans’, and we’d listen to them over and over.

The third was Soft Cell’s ‘Non-Stop Erotic Videotape’, which he brought home from work one day. That was pretty mind-blowing for a five-year old, and I can only imagine he didn’t realise what it was. It was definitely not suitable for a kid of my age, but, looking back, I don’t remember the imagery – I only recall the music. 

So I owe my father a huge debt for how he shaped my music tastes at a very early age. He was also the one who brought home a cassette copy of ‘The Innocents’ by Erasure and gave it to me. He had no idea quite what he started that day. 

SL: When did you start writing journalistic texts for Mute Records and its artists? What was your first article for Mute and about which artist, which release?

I began a blog called Documentary Evidence in 2003, which was focused on my personal Mute Records collection. I’d just write about the releases from a mostly non-musical perspective, explaining how they made me feel. I still write reviews like that today for Electronic Sound. I also got really interested in telling the stories of specific releases or artists, and that led me to interview people who released music through Mute, or were somehow connected to the label. I have a natural curiosity and inquisitiveness, and that seems to mean people like talking to me and opening up. 

From there I started writing for Clash, and then Electronic Sound and some other places. In 2017 I got asked to chair a panel discussion with Anton Corbijn, Daniel Miller, Paul A. Taylor and Steve Claydon (Add N To (X)) at Rough Trade East in London, about the visual identity of Mute. The first written Mute commission I got was to write a press biography for Chris Carter’s ‘Chemistry Lessons Vol. 1’. I couldn’t believe they asked me to do that, and I couldn’t believe I was being paid to write for the label I loved so much. The team at Mute liked what I did and I’ve been given a few more things to do since then, as well as with the team at BMG who look after the Erasure reissue programme, and Erasure themselves. 

SL: Did Vince Clarke’s VeryRecords label and the associated promotion give you any impetus for your own project, which you called “Mortality Tables”?

Indirectly, yes, but perhaps not in the way you might expect.

My task with VeryRecords was to assemble the press releases. It was the first time I’d worked behind the scenes of a release, where I’d often get involved before the album was even mastered, or before the artwork had even been considered. So I’d be talking to the artists – Reed & Caroline, Alka and Brook – at a very early stage, generally when Vince felt that the album was finished enough for me to listen and for me to start engaging the artists.

It took a while for me to realise this, but the process of working with the artists to write a press release became a collaboration – between all of us, and between my words and their music. I wasn’t just a writer but part of the collective effort to put this music out into the world. I did the same with Nick Hook’s Calm + Collect label, working on releases by Gareth Jones, Spiritual Friendship and others.

In 2019, when I began forming Mortality Tables, I envisaged it as a creative community of collaborators. You can definitely draw a line between that and the ideas that began to form as I worked with VeryRecords and its artists. I also took a lot of inspiration from Vince, who didn’t feel that he needed to only focus on the music that people would expect him to release. That sense of freedom, which Daniel Miller also brought to Mute, directly fed into what Mortality Tables has become. I wanted something where I could work with people making sound art as well as people making images. It had to have artistic breadth. 

I wanted Mortality Tables to be like a gallery, with a portfolio of artists in vastly different disciplines. That’s why Neil Coe deigned the first sleeve image to look like the description of an artwork on the wall of a gallery.

SL: The name of the project refers to the work of actuaries who measure the statistical probability of life insurance payouts. You do something like this in your everyday working life, don’t you?

That’s right. I work with insurance companies all around the world, and have done for over twenty years. I find lots of parallels between the worlds of insurance and electronic music, and the kinds of people I engage with in both of my jobs.

The story goes that I was meeting a friend in a café in Bloomsbury in London one morning. He runs a record label, which is another big inspiration for Mortality Tables. He wishes to remain anonymous, but he is actively involved, in the sense that he must approve anything we decide to do. I call him the Creative Consultant.

So I was meeting him and he had an LP of one of his releases to give me. He asked me if I had a bag to put it in, and I reached into rucksack and retrieved a tote bag. It was from the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries and had been given to me by an actuary a few years before. The Creative Consultant saw the bag with its logo and Latin inscription (‘e peritia ratio’ – ‘reason from experience’) and asked what it meant. I replied, “It’s all mortality tables and shit like that.” The name stuck.

We created our first Mortality Tables Product that morning. It’s called FORKTALK and is a conversation between two friends. We do not publish the details of our conversations. Its entry in the Mortality Tables Catalogue is MTP0.

SL: Dave Clarkson, who is mostly active in electronic and experimental music and Wonderful Beasts, a sound art/electronic music duo consisting of the anonymous Xqui and Carl Knott (boycalledcrow, Spacelab) were your first artists, right? How did you get in touch with them?

The release that moved Mortality Tables from something conceptual to something ‘real’ was ‘Two Meditations For Freya’ by Goodparley (whose name has now changed to Please Close Your Eyes). That was in 2022. It signalled what I wanted Mortality Tables to be: I would come up with ideas and hand them to someone to ‘respond’ to.

That concept has stayed consistent through the first two years of Mortality Tables. I’ll come up with an idea and pick someone to get involved. At the last count, there are at least fifty people who are collaborators. And it isn’t just sound projects – Mortality Tables encompasses sound, art, and words. And insurance. 

However, all rules in creativity are there to be broken, and I broke my own rules in 2023 with the release of Dave Clarkson’s ‘Ghosts Of Christmas Past (Music From Vintage Toys)’. I had nothing to do with the concept of that album, so I guess that’s a bit like Mortality Tables acting like a traditional record label, which is a description I never want to use. The same is true of Andrew Brenza and Alka’s ‘pod’ and boycalledcrow’s ‘Kullu’. However, all these releases only existed because of an earlier collaboration, and that’s how I got myself comfortable with releasing these projects. You’ll see a few more of those types of projects from Mortality Tables over the next few years. 

In answer to your question about how I find artist, it’s actually really straightforward. Anyone involved with Mortality Tables is someone whose music I’ve written about. As for how I choose an artist for a particular project, that’s mostly a case of matching a collaborator to an idea that feels aligned to what they would usually do. However, some of the most enjoyable projects are where the artist is working a long way outside of what they might normally do.

SL: After artists like Andrew Spackman, Rupert Lally, Simon Fisher Turner and Veryan, two years ago you released a strange and experimental piece called “On Mortality, Immortality & Charles Ives”. The piece is a spoken word piece in which you read out the Mortality Tables’ manifesto: “In life, our one true certainty is death.” This narration, recorded by Gareth Jones, was then sent to Vince Clarke who recorded a musical response to the text, which forms the soundtrack to the release. How did you come up with this, somewhat absurd, idea?

I had bought a copy of a book by Alex Danchev called ‘100 Artists’ Manifestos – From The Futurists To The Stuckists’ at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in 2021. I read each of the manifestos from groups like the Surrealists, Dadaists and Situationists as if they were short stories, and it became a really profound experience. On the back of ‘Two Meditations For Freya’, people had started to ask me what Mortality Tables was all about, so it seemed completely natural (and not absurd at all) to write a manifesto.

Mostly it was designed to help me understand why I was doing this, and then I decided to explain it to everyone else. That’s when I asked Gareth to record my narration. At the same time I approached Vince and an anonymous sound artist called venoztks to create sound pieces to accompany it.

The listener can judge whether it successfully explains what this is all about, or not. It does explain why the composer and actuary Charles Ives is so critical to the evolution of Mortality Tables. In fact, the second Mortality Tables Product to be made available was a postcard containing an illustration of Ives in front of a mortality table from 1874, the year of Ives’s birth. That piece was a collaboration with Savage Pencil who had illustrated a lot of the Blast First sleeves.

SL: Released on June 16th, the 40-copy limited edition cassette “The Engineer” is a charity project for Alzheimer’s disease featuring Vince Clarke, Penelope Trappes, Chris Illingworth, Barney Ashton-Bullock, Lara Jones, Simon Fisher Turner, Hattie Cooke, Gareth Jones, Veryan and others. The title character is your father, isn’t he? Is that why you chose Father’s Day as the release date? Tell us a bit about this project!

The title character, the engineer, is based on my father. This project dates back ten years, probably longer, a long time before Mortality Tables was an idea.

I wrote a short story that tried to deal with my feelings about my father as he approached retirement. He lived for work, had no hobbies or friends, and I envisaged him struggling to cope with the concept of stopping work. I was angry when I wrote it, but I was also scared for him. It’s fiction, but it’s rooted in his reality. His actual retirement was very different to what happens in the story. He was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2018, and that’s why we’ll donate all profits from ‘The Engineer’ to the Alzheimer’s Society. Sadly he passed away shortly after ‘The Engineer’ was released. 

When I published the story on my blog, an electronic musician called Laica (Dave Fleet) offered to create some music inspired by the story. He composed a beautiful piece but the project never got completed. A few years later, I came up with a different idea, which involved someone narrating the story with a piece of music behind it. That version also never got off the ground at all, but I liked the idea of asking someone to narrate the story. That’s when I asked Barney Ashton-Bullock if he would do it. He has a brilliant speaking voice, and it was perfect for this story.

It was Gareth Jones who suggested the idea of having different artists respond to different sections of narration. He said it was a bit like the Surrealist game ‘Exquisite Corpse’. I think of Gareth as my spiritual guru. He has a way of unlocking ideas, and freeing you from obstacles that are only there because you’ve put them there. ‘The Engineer’ wouldn’t exist in this form if it wasn’t for Gareth. 

From there, it was a case of picking the collaborators and asking them to respond to a specific 30-second section of narration. No one heard the full story, and no one asked to hear the whole thing. The order the artists agreed to say yes determined which section they got. The only rule I gave them was that their sound response needed to last exactly thirty seconds. 

There are two editions of ‘The Engineer’. One is a digital file that combines the narration and sound responses. The other is a cassette that splits the narration and responses apart. That means the only place you can hear Vince Clarke’s sound response without Barney’s narration is on the cassette, which has now sold out. 

SL: Barney Ashton-Bullock (the creator of Andy Bell’s “Torsten” projects), Vince Clarke, as well as Reed Hays, Alka and Gareth Jones will be familiar to most of our readers, but who are the other contributors? 

Again, everyone involved is someone I’ve written about. When I came up with my collaborator list for this, it was important to me to achieve some sort of diversity. So a lot of the artists here are electronic, but you have artists covering everything from pop to sound art. That was deliberate.

I also wanted diversity of textures. That’s why I included Charlotte Keeffe, Chris Illingworth from GoGo Penguin and Luce Mawdsley. When you put all 29 sound responses together as a single piece, it sounds like a right fucking mess. As the responses were coming in over a 30-month period, I realised that the sprawling, messy quality was a lot like my father’s Alzheimer’s – ideas form, are quickly forgotten before they develop, and are then replaced by something else. That wasn’t planned, at all, but now I can see it was a subconscious idea that must have been there from the moment that Gareth suggested involving lots of artists. 

SL: What plans and ideas are currently circulating in your head? Will it be something journalistic or another Mortality Tables release?

I’m always writing, and I’ve got a few big things underway right now, including something for a label I’ve done a few pieces for before.

In terms of Mortality Tables, now that ‘The Engineer’ has been released, all activities will he paused until later in the summer. We’ve released a huge number of Products in just over two years and I need a break. We’ll return later in the summer with Season 03 of LIFEFILES, which is an ongoing project where artists respond to my really basic field recordings.

We’ll also release a single from Please Close Your Eyes, an album from Andrew Spackman and the full version of Andrew Brenza and Alka’s ‘pod’ collaboration. I’ve been working on one of several projects inspired by Charles Ives, ‘Central Park: A Picture-In-Sounds’, which will be issued as a ‘score’ in October, along with some additional performances of the piece. We’ll begin work on another large-scale collaboration called ‘The Impermanence Project’.

Other things will happen. Other things will not.

More information on Mortality Tables releases.

Use code janos for a 10% discount off anything in the Mortality Tables Catalogue. 

I would like to end this article with a personal message from Mat Smith, who asks the readers and the music listeners to support, if they can, the Alzheimer’s Society, which has received the proceeds of the tape release mentioned in the interview. If you feel able to, please donate to alzheimers.org.uk directly.

János Janurik

I began my career in online music journalism in 2001, writing about artists I had followed since the late ’80s and early ’90s, including Depeche Mode, Erasure and The Cure. I later edited the Hungarian Mute microsite for EMI Music Hungary. This led to interviews with Erasure, Nitzer Ebb and Alan Wilder, and some of those collaborations developed into lasting friendships. Since 2014, I have been part of the editorial team of depechemode.de. I also contribute interviews to Reflections of Darkness, Peek-A-Boo Magazine and Kaput Mag. I maintain a close connection to Mute Records artists and have also supported releases on Very Records. I am proud to collaborate with Side-Line Magazine, where I regularly publish interviews and features.

“Rhetoric & Terror” is the all new album from Nonpareils aka Aaron Hemphill (Liars co-founder) which is out 20 September via Mute. Available now is the new track “Predictable Pan (Theme From A Book Of Perfectly Drawn Lines)” taken from this album.

“Rhetoric & Terror” is Berlin-based Hemphill’s second album since leaving Liars back in 2016. The album has his wife Angelika Kaswalder on vocals throughout the album and multi-instrumentalist Morgan Henderson – a longtime friend of Hemphill’s since Henderson’s time in the post-hardcore band The Blood Brothers – adding woodwind.

Aaron Hemphill explains the album like this: “With ‘Rhetoric & Terror’, I wanted to start with emotions and feeling. I was playing with my kids, listening to Cocteau Twins, I have a wonderful partner, and it seemed very contrary to any sort of growth to sequester myself from this life in order to get into character as a musician. Instead, I tried to remove the boundaries between my creative life and my responsibilities and have it all be one fluid thing. All things at all times, and trust that this will guide my music rather than more intellectual concepts or limitations.”

“Rhetoric & Terror” will be out on Mute on vinyl, CD and digitally on 20 September 2024.

Here’s the previous released track, “Opening Chord”.

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 on September 13th via Metropolis Records is the first all solo album from Bill Leeb, titled “Model Kollapse”. The 11-track album “Model Kollapse” comes in two versions, a CD in digipak and a thick 16 pages booklet, and as a limited bleach effect double vinyl. The vinyl is limited to 500 copies and comes in extra heavy gatefold sleeve with seperate printed inner sleeves.

The first single “Terror Forms” features Shannon Hemmett of Actors and Leathers and will be out on July 9.

The album was recorded and produced in Vancouver, Toronto and Los Angeles with assistance provided by production duo Dream Bullet and long-term Front Line Assembly / Delerium cohort Rhys Fulber, plus regular mixing engineer Greg Reely.

Two tracks on the album feature Shannon and Jason from Canadian Electropop act Actors and one track has American singer-songwriter Mimi Page, who already collaborated with Bill on his Delerium project.

Tracks:

1. Demons
2. Exotic Matter
3. Neuromotive
4. Folded Hands
5. Pinned Down
6. Terror Forms (feat. Actors)
7. Muted Obsession (feat. Actors)
8. Simulation
9. Infernum
10. Fusion
11. Erosion through Time (feat. Mimi Page)

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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(Photo by Marta Ruly) Today Simon Fisher Turner has shared a new track from his forthcoming album, “Instability of The Signal”, which is set for release on August 2, 2024 via Mute. The track comes accompanied by a video directed by Sebastian Sharples.

“Turning Slowly” is an ambient piece featuring strings by the Elysian Collective, with an accompanying video by the filmmaker (and album cover model) Isao Yamada. Detail, it actually shows Isao Yamada listening to the album for the first time.

The track follows the previously-shared “Bless Your Hands (Part 1 and 2)” and “Barefeet”.

The composer has worked and performed in underground music, film and art scenes since the ‘70s. The new 13-track album, produced by producer Francine Perry, features Fisher Turner singing for the first time in many years, accompanying compositions built from tiny snippets of sound along with piano, classical strings, a detuned Fender Telecaster and field recordings. “I’m now a 69-year-old man and by hook or by crook, and some good luck, this album has turned into something which really sounds like me,” he reflects. “I’m singing how I feel I truly sound; this time, I’m not hiding anything.”

His lyrics hold Burroughs cut-ups sourced from two of Harold Pinter’s poems, words from a book on the video work of Czech filmmakers Breda Beban and Hrvoje Horvatic, flashes of memories of riding buses in London and cycling topless in jeans around the city.

About Simon Fisher Turner

Simon Fisher Turner is an English musician, composer, and actor. He began his career as a child actor in the 1960s, appearing in films such as “The Adventures of Robin Hood” (1967) and “Tom Brown’s Schooldays” (1971).

Transitioning to music, he released albums under his own name and various pseudonyms, including “The King of Luxembourg” and “Deux Filles”. Turner is known for his work as a film composer, particularly for his collaborations with director Derek Jarman, scoring films such as “Caravaggio” (1986) and “The Last of England” (1987). He has also worked extensively in sound design and experimental music.

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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(Photo by Paul Heartfield) Out on August 23rd on Mute are two new releases in the Throbbing Gristle reissues series: “TGCD1” and “The Third Mind Movements”. Both reissues will be out on CD and vinyl.

Throbbing Gristle’s “TGCD1” will be available on vinyl for the first time and on CD for the first time since The Grey Area of Mute’s release in 1986. “TGCD1” comprises 42 minutes of studio recordings, recorded at Throbbing Gristle’s infamous Martello Street studio on a TEAC 8-Track recorder on 18 March 1979.The release comes with a booklet featuring the original 1986 sleeve notes by the band.

“The Third Mind Movements” is equally available for the first time on vinyl and commercially for the first time on CD. It was initially an exclusive CD release for the band’s final US tour in 2009. The tour, which saw them perform in the US for the first time in 28 years, included their first shows in NY and an appearance at Coachella festival. “The Third Mind Movements” album was recorded during the “Desertshore” sessions at the ICA, London several years earlier.

Listen to “The Man From Nowhere” below.

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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(Photo by Marco Krueger) Berlin based modular synthesist and DJ JakoJako, aka Sibel Koçer, has shared the first track, “Modus”, from her new four-track “Segmente” EP, set for release via NovaMute on 26 July 2024. All four tracks on this new upcoming EP originated in her live shows.

The new EP follows the “Verve” EP, her debut for Mute, a full length album, “Metamorphos” (2022, Bigamo) and her collaboration with Rødhåd, “In Vere” (2022, WSNWG), both of which came hot on the heels of two remixes for Mute – New Order’s “Be A Rebel” and Martin Gore’s “Vervet”.

Here’s “Modus”.

Koçer started her career working with modular systems and patch cables. Her studies soon progressed into performing regular live sets in Berlin, a Berghain Residency and a position at Berlin electronic music institution, SchneidersLaden.

In recent years she has been involved in several motion sensor dance projects with dancers at Superbooth and Kraftwerk Berlin, and has performed at the Royal Albert Hall with Bonobo, and at the Barbican in London with an improvised ‘Circle Of Live’ performance that featured dance and a specially commissioned art installation.

Jakojako live dates

• 26 May –Berghain (DE)
• 8 June – Wurzelfestival DE)
• 15 June – Danza Futura Festival (PT)
• 20 June – La Nature Festival (Ambient live set) (BE)
• 21 June – La Nature Festival (DJ set) (BE)
• 22 June – Dancity (IT)
• 14 July – Berghain (DE)
• 19 July – Detect Classic Festival (Live performance with the Detect Ensemble) (DE)
• 19 July – Detect Classic Festival (DJ set) (DE)
• 20 July – Harbour Summer
• 26 July – 2Nature (IT)
• 27 July – Junction 2 Festival (UK)
• 28 July – Äiniwalli (FI)
• 2 Aug – Whole Festival (DE)
• 11 Aug – Paradigm Festival (NL)
• 17 Aug – Ratherlost at Lofi (NL)
• 18 Aug – TR3 Festival (DE)
• 30 Aug – Station Nuage (FR)
• 31 Aug – Doel Festival (BE)
• 7 Sep – Draaimolen Festival (NL)
• 14 Sep – Smut Athens (GR)
• 20 Sep – Klub K4 (SI)
• 27 Sep – Berlin, Berghain (DE)

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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Laibach has released the two-track single, “Opus Dei Live 1987 – 1989 pt.1”, featuring two unreleased live recordings: “Leben heisst Leben (Opus Dei)” live from London, Queen Elizabeth Hall, 1987 and “F.I.A.T. (Let It Be)” live from Paris, Espace Ornano, 1992.

Both tracks are taken from the expanded edition of their 1987 album, “Opus Dei”, which is set to be released digitally on Mute on May 10, 2024 and on vinyl and as a 2CD box set on May 24, 2024. Additionally, the CD features 16 unreleased live tracks from 1987-1989 and 3 bonus tracks (which includes two that were previously unreleased).

The two-track single is accompanied by the below video of “Opus Dei (Life is Life)”, cut from live footage of Goran Gajić’s 1988 film “Pobeda pod suncem”, filmed in Belgrade, Münich, and Ljubljana.

“Opus Dei” was the band’s first album for Mute, and was mixed by Rico Conning (Wire, Pere Ubu, Swans, William Orbit) and opened up opportunities for the Slovenian collective to launch a first world tour. The re-release comes with a redesigned cover plus an extensive booklet with photographs, artwork inspired by the German anti-fascist visual artist John Heartfield, and new sleeve notes by the cultural theorist and author Alexei Monroe.

Laibach’s “Opus Dei (Remastered)” is out on Mute on vinyl (with 16-page booklet), 2CD box set (with 28-page booklet) on May 24, 2024 and digitally on May 10, 2024.

Bonus tracks on CD1

1. Geburt einer Nation (Eine Richtung und ein Volk Version)
2. Leben heisst Leben (Marche Funèbre Version)
3. Geburt einer Nation (3. Oktober – Kraftbach – Version)

CD2

1. Leben heisst Leben (London, Queen Elizabeth Hall, 1987)
2. Geburt einer Nation (Somewhere in Europe/US, 1987-1989)
3. Leben-Tod (Somewhere in Europe/US, 1987-1989)
4. F.I.A.T. (Paris, Espace Ornano, 1992)
5. Transnational (Somewhere in Europe/US, 1987-1989)
6. How the West Was Won (Somewhere in Europe/US, 1987-1989)
7. Opus Dei (Somewhere in Europe/US, 1987-1989)
8. Leben heisst Leben (Berlin, Quartier Latin, 1987)
9. Geburt einer Nation (Berlin, Quartier Latin, 1987)
10. Leben – Tod (Berlin, Quartier Latin, 1987)
11. How the West Was Won (Berlin, Quartier Latin, 1987)
12. Geburt einer Nation (Vienna, Messepalast, Kaiser Franz Josef Reitschule, 1988)
13. Leben – Tod (San Francisco, The I Beam, 1989)
14. Transnational (San Francisco, The I Beam, 1989)
15. How the West Was Won (San Francisco, The I Beam, 1989)
16. Opus Dei (San Francisco, The I Beam, 1989)

Laibach – Opus Dei Tour

• 5/14/2024 – Winterthur, Gaswerk Kulturzentrum, CH
• 5/15/2024 – Frankfurt, Batschkapp, DE
• 5/16/2024 – Berlin, Huxleys Neue Welt, DE
• 5/17/2024 – Copenhagen, Pumpehuset, DK
• 5/18/2024 – Gothenburg, Pustervik, SE
• 5/19/2024 – Stockholm, Nya Cirkus, SE
• 5/21/2024 – Helsinki, Savoy Theatre, FI
• 5/23/2024 – Oslo, Vulkan, NO
• 5/25/2024 – Cologne, Essigfabrik, DE
• 5/26/2024 – Dresden, Kultur Zentrum Strasse E, DE
• 5/27/2024 – Torun, CKK Jordanki, PL
• 5/28/2024 – Lublin, Radio Lublin, PL
• 5/29/2024 – Graz, Orpheum Big Hall, AT
• 7/3/2024 – Munich, Muffathalle, DE
• 7/4/2024 – Schorndorf, Manufaktur, DE
• 7/6/2024 – Halle, East Side Festival, DE
• 8/9/2024 – Jaromer, Brutal Assault Festival, CZ
• 10/5/2024 – Zagreb, Boogaloo, HR
• 10/11/2024- Budapest, Dürer Kert, HU
• 10/12/2024 – Leipzig, Felsenkeller, DE
• 10/13/2024 – Prague, Roxy, CZ
• 10/15/2024 – Dordrecht, Bibelot, NL
• 10/16/2024 – Arnhem, Luxor, NL
• 10/17/2024 – Vauréal, Le Forum 2, FR
• 10/18/2024 – Toulouse, Le Rex, FR
• 10/19/2024 – Wavre, La Sucrerie, BE
• 10/20/2024 – Bochum, Christuskirche, DE
• 10/22/2024 – Hannover, Music Pavillion, DE

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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Survivorship bias. Most have never heard of this term, but it really does impact the music industry where a striking 90% of artists, even the talented ones, fail to achieve major success. Over the years, many have questioned me why certain bands with strong music and substantial label support do not become significant acts.

Time and again, I have pointed to survivorship bias, or survival bias, as a key explanation. Yesterday the question also came up in a conversation with my colleague Nele Bonte with whom I run the social media consultancy FOX DS.

Survivorship bias is the logical error of focusing only on the entities that have passed a selection process while ignoring those that did not. This can lead to incorrect conclusions due to incomplete data. In the music industry, this manifests when people only consider the artists who have achieved fame and visibility, neglecting the vast majority who have not. This bias can result in overly optimistic beliefs by overlooking multiple failures, such as excluding bands that left the roster of labels, or simply stopped playing music altogether. It may also foster the false belief that the successful few in the industry possess some unique qualities, rather than acknowledging the role of chance or misinterpreting correlation as causation.

It’s a logic you do not need to explain to most label owners. They know very well that successful bands are not born using just a magic formula, it’s a mix of things, and luck is often one of them. It also explains why many indie labels usually have only one or two well performing bands, while other bands on the same label – who get the same support – do not perform as well. If you look at Mute for instance, in their most successful years there were only a few bands keeping the label afloat: Depeche Mode, Erasure and Nick Cave. And that’s fine.

An Example of Survivorship Bias from the Military

A easy understandable example of survivorship bias can be found in military history. During World War II, statistician Abraham Wald incorporated survivorship bias into his calculations when determining how to minimize bomber losses to enemy fire. Working with the Statistical Research Group at Columbia University, Wald examined the damage on aircraft that had returned from missions and recommended adding armor to the areas that showed the least damage.

The rationale was that the bullet holes in the returning aircraft represented areas where a bomber could take damage and still fly well enough to return safely to base. If the aircraft was reinforced in the indicated areas, it was a result of survivorship bias because crucial data from fatally damaged planes was missing; those hit in other places did not survive.

Survivorship Bias in the Music Industry

To reiterate, 90% of all artists fail to make it big, a fact underpinned by the reality that 45.6 million tracks on Spotify had zero streams in 2023, and 158.6 million tracks received less than 1,000 plays.

The music industry is highly competitive, with countless individuals aspiring to become successful artists. However, only a small fraction achieve noticeable success or become household names.

We often also forget that there’s a vast middle ground of musicians who manage to make a living from their art but aren’t widely known or considered “successful” by mainstream standards.

Survivorship bias often leads to the overlook of these careers, even though they might offer valuable insights into sustainable practices within the music industry. The stories we often see and hear tend to homogenize the narratives about success, emphasizing certain themes like overnight success or the importance of never giving up, over more nuanced or less glamorous but equally valid experiences.

Here’s a video which was posted by Haulix a few years ago. Although it only garnered 470 views in 4 years, it’s worth it to check it out.

And then There is Failure Bias and the Underdog Effect

On the flip side, the opposite of survivorship bias is often referred to as failure bias or the underdog effect. While survivorship bias focuses only on the successes, thereby overlooking failures or those who did not make it, failure bias emphasizes the failures or the unsuccessful attempts, possibly at the expense of understanding the full range of successful outcomes.

This could demotivate musicians by presenting an overly pessimistic view of success rates. However, focusing on failures provides an opportunity to learn from mistakes. Understanding why things didn’t work out for some can provide valuable lessons that can be applied to avoid similar pitfalls. However, without a balanced view that also considers success stories, the lessons might be incomplete or misdirected.

Balance and Perspective

The most effective approach to understanding success and failure, whether in the music industry or any other field, is to maintain a balanced perspective that considers both survivorship and failure biases.

Recognizing the successes and understanding the failures, while also taking into account the various factors that contribute to these outcomes, offers a more nuanced and realistic view of what it takes to succeed or fail in a given endeavor.

This balanced perspective is crucial for setting realistic expectations, making informed decisions, and fostering a healthy and realistic ambition. But never forget, the core of your carreer should always be that you love creating music. If your music gets traction, the better, if it doesn’t you at least can blame it on… survivorship bias.

PS: The eighties really weren’t better, you just remember the best songs and bands, whereas you have forgotten the vast amount of very bad synthpop that got released back then.

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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(Photo by Christiania Krueger) Crime & The City Solution continue their reissues series on Mute with their 1985 mini-LP, “Just South of Heaven”, and their debut full-length album, “Room of Lights” (1986). Both reissues will be out on June 7. The band recently released their sixth studio album, “The killer”.

The band will perform two very special shows next week in Berlin with the three-piece acoustic line up of Bronwyn Adams (violin and vocals), Simon Bonney (vocals) and Joshua Murphy (acoustic guitar and vocals). Crime & The City Solution will perform acoustic shows at Eschschloraque Rümschrümp in Berlin on the 17 & 18 April before a tour across the island of Ireland in May.

“Just South of Heaven” (available in limited edition blue vinyl) features Crime’s London line up of Simon Bonney, Mick Harvey, Rowland S. Howard, Harry Howard and Epic Soundtracks. The material was recorded between the legendary Hansa Tonstudios in Berlin and London’s Strongrooms with producer Flood (Frank Tovey, Depeche Mode, Erasure).

1986’s full length debut album, “Room of Lights” (available in limited edition yellow vinyl), would be the final recording by the London line up. The album includes one of their most beloved songs, “Six Bells Chime”, and this lineup reached its zenith with a historic swansong performance of the track in Wim Wenders’ 1987 cinematic masterpiece “Wings of Desire”.

Formed in Sydney by Simon Bonney at the age of 16, Crime & the City Solution’s early performances from 1977-1979 had a big impact on key figures of the early Melbourne art-punk/post punk scene. In 1984, Bad Seed Mick Harvey shipped Bonney to England to form the London based Crime & The City Solution with their friend Rowland S Howard, with his brother Harry Howard on bass and Epic Soundtracks on drums. The London incarnation – encapsulated by these two reissues – disbanded soon after their performance in “Wings of Desire”.

The first Berlin incarnation which followed is represented by three albums recently reissued on Mute – “Shine” (1988), “The Bride Ship” (1989) and “Paradise Discotheque” (1990), and the live album, “The Adversary”. Another 20 years would pass before the band, then based in Detroit, would return with their fifth studio album, “American Twilight”.

Watch the band perform a brand new, exclusive session version of “Witness” from the album for Le Cargo.

Crime & The City Solution (Acoustic)

• 17 April – Berlin, Eschschloraque Rümschrümp
• 18 April – Berlin, Eschschloraque Rümschrümp
• 10 May – Inis Oírr, Áras Éanna Arts Centre
• 11 May – West Cork, Levis Corner House
• 14 May – Belfast, Accidental Theatre
• 15 May – Doolin, The Attic
• 16 May – Borrisokane, The Barn
• 17 May – Galway, Taibdhearc

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 10 May on Mute is “Five Ways to Say Goodbye“, the first solo album from Mick Harvey in over 10 years. Today Mute has launched the video for “We Had an Island”. The new track is Harvey’s interpretation of Bruno Adams (Fatal Shores)’s “We Had an Island”.

The track follows the original composition “When We Were Beautiful & Young”, plus “Setting You Free” by the late David McComb (The Triffids / Blackeyed Susans), and “A Suitcase in Berlin”, a translation and reworking of Marlene Dietrich’s 1950s ode to Berlin, “Ich Hab’ Noch Einen Koffer in Berlin” which all feature on the new album

Mick Harvey’s Five Ways to Say Goodbye is out on vinyl, CD and digitally on 10 May 2024.

Mick Harvey (born 29 August 1958) is an Australian musician, singer-songwriter, composer, arranger and record producer. A multi-instrumentalist, he is best known for his long-term collaborations with Nick Cave, with whom he formed The Boys Next Door, The Birthday Party and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.

Mich Harvey Tourdates

• 14 May – Antwerp (BE), Legendarische Dinsdag Club – short cabaret set
• 16 May – Valencia (ES), 16 Toneladas
• 17 May – Barcelona (ES), Sidecar
• 18 May – Madrid (ES), Sala el Sol
• 19 May – Zaragoza (ES), Bombo Y Platillo
• 23 May – Stockholm (SE), Bar Brooklyn
• 24 May – Copenhagen (DK), Loppen
• 25 May – Paris (FR), Petit Bains
• 26 May – London (UK), Omeara
• 29 May – Coimbra (PT), Nereida Fest (free concert)
• 31 May – Leiria (PT), Teatro José Lúcio Da Silva
• 1 June – Espinho (PT), Auditório de Espinho – SOLD OUT
• 2 June – Espinho (PT), Auditório de Espinho
• 7 June – Milan (IT), Arci Bellezza
• 8 June – Brno (CZ), Mersey Gathering
• 11 June – Florence (IT), Scandicci Nazionale Park
• 12 June – Fano (IT), Bagni Elsa
• 13 June – Bologna (IT), Frida Parco
• 14 June – Pula (HR), Rojc Community Centre

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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(Photo by Mike Formanski) Moby announces his return to live performances after a hiatus of over 10 years. He will embark on a short European tour in September 2024 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of his album “Play” and perform his greatest hits. Moby has committed 100% of his tour profits to benefit European animal rights organizations.

The tour will include performances in major European cities such as London, Berlin, and Paris. General ticket sales for the tour will start on March 22 at 10 AM GMT.

Alongside the tour announcement, Moby has shared a new single and official video titled “Dark Days”, featuring American jazz singer-songwriter Lady Blackbird, which is available now.

The new single announces a new album titled “Always Centered at Night”, scheduled for release on June 14 via Mute. The album features collaborations with 13 different artists across 13 tracks, including contributions from the late Benjamin Zephaniah, serpentwithfeet, Gaidaa, and Lady Blackbird.

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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(Photo by Andy Catlin – Ljubljana) Laibach has announced a remastered and redesigned edition of their 1987 album, “Opus Dei”, scheduled for release on Mute on May 10, 2024. This edition will be available on vinyl and as a 2CD box set. It includes 16 previously unreleased live tracks from 1987-1989 and three bonus tracks.

A new video has been released, featuring edits from “Victory Under the Sun” (Pobeda pod suncem), directed by Goran Gajić in 1988, for the remastered version of “The Great Seal”. Watch it below.

“Opus Dei”, Laibach’s debut album with Mute, was originally mixed by Rico Conning, known for his work with Wire, Pere Ubu, Swans, and William Orbit. The album includes Laibach’s interpretations of Opus’ “Live Is Life” (rendered in English as “Opus Dei” and in German as “Leben heisst Leben”) and Queen’s “One Vision” (reimagined as “Geburt Einer Nation”), propelling the band into the limelight with support from MTV and ITV’s The Chart Show. The mainstream exposure and memorable music press features led to their first world tour, with performances from London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, San Francisco, Berlin, Paris, and various locations across Europe included on the second CD of this expanded edition.

The remastered edition boasts a redesigned cover that enhances the original artwork, an extensive booklet filled with photographs and artwork inspired by German anti-fascist artist John Heartfield, and new sleeve notes by cultural theorist Alexei Monroe.

Formed in the year of Yugoslavian founding father Tito’s death, the band faced censorship and bans in Yugoslavia before releasing “Opus Dei”. They embarked on the Occupied Europe Tour, appeared in Kubrick’s “Full Metal Jacket”, recorded a Peel Session for the BBC, and performed in Michael Clark’s dance production “No Fire Escape from Hell”.

The band have also recently announced ongoing diplomatic negotiations for a performance in Tehran of “Alamut”, a collaborative symphonic work with Iranian composers and performers. A very weird choice given the geopolitical tensions, just like their concert in North Korea.

In April 2024, Laibach will perform their score for a new theatrical production of Bertolt Brecht’s “Saint Joan of the Stockyards” by ErosAntEros, with performances in Bologna and Ravenna.

“Opus Dei (Remastered)” by Laibach will be available on Mute in various formats, including vinyl with a 16-page booklet, a 2CD box set with a 28-page booklet, and digitally, on May 10, 2024.

Tracklist of the CD:

CD1

1. Leben heisst Leben (Opus Dei)
2. Geburt einer Nation (One Vision)
3. Leben – Tod
4. F.I.A.T. (Let It Be)
5. Transnational
6. How the West Was Won
7. Opus Dei (Life is Life)
8. The Great Seal

Bonus tracks:

1. Geburt einer Nation (Eine Richtung und ein Volk Version)
2. Leben heisst Leben (Marche Funèbre Version)
3. Geburt einer Nation (3. Oktober – Kraftbach – Version)

CD2

1. Leben heisst Leben (London, Queen Elizabeth Hall, 1987)
2. Geburt einer Nation (Somewhere in Europe/US, 1987-1989)
3. Leben-Tod (Somewhere in Europe/US, 1987-1989)
4. F.I.A.T. (Paris, Espace Ornano, 1992)
5. Transnational (Somewhere in Europe/US, 1987-1989)
6. How the West Was Won (Somewhere in Europe/US, 1987-1989)
7. Opus Dei (Somewhere in Europe/US, 1987-1989)
8. Leben heisst Leben (Berlin, Quartier Latin, 1987)
9. Geburt einer Nation (Berlin, Quartier Latin, 1987)
10. Leben – Tod (Berlin, Quartier Latin, 1987)
11. How the West Was Won (Berlin, Quartier Latin, 1987)
12. Geburt einer Nation (Vienna, Messepalast, Kaiser Franz Josef Reitschule, 1988)
13. Leben – Tod (San Francisco, The I Beam, 1989)
14. Transnational (San Francisco, The I Beam, 1989)
15. How the West Was Won (San Francisco, The I Beam, 1989)
16. Opus Dei (San Francisco, The I Beam, 1989)

Laibach ‘Opus Dei’ Tour

• 14 May – Winterthur, Gaswerk Kulturzentrum, CH
• 15 May – Frankfurt, Batschkapp, DE
• 16 May – Berlin, Huxleys Neue Welt, DE
• 17 May – Copenhagen, Pumpehuset, DK
• 18 May – Gothenburg, Pustervik, SE
• 19 May – Stockholm, Nya Cirkus, SE
• 21 May – Helsinki, Savoy Theatre, FI
• 23 May – Oslo, Vulkan, NO
• 25 May – Cologne, Essigfabrik, DE
• 26 May – Dresden, Kultur Zentrum Strasse E, DE
• 27 May – Torun, CKK Jordanki, PL
• 28 May – Lublin, Radio Lublin, PL
• 29 May – Graz, Orpheum Big Hall, AT
• 03 July – Munich, Muffathalle, DE
• 04 July – Schorndorf, Manufaktur, DE
• 06 July – Halle, East Side Festival, DE
• 09 Aug – Jaromer, Brutal Assault Festival, CZ
• 05 Oct – Zagreb, Boogaloo, HR
• 11 Oct – Budapest, Dürer Kert, HU
• 12 Oct – Leipzig, Felsenkeller, DE
• 13 Oct – Prague, Roxy, CZ
• 15 Oct – Dordrecht, Bibelot, NL
• 16 Oct – Arnhem, Luxor, NL
• 17 Oct – Vauréal, Le Forum 2, FR
• 18 Oct – Toulouse, Le Rex, FR
• 19 Oct – Wavre, La Sucrerie, BE
• 20 Oct – Bochum, Christuskirche, DE
• 22 Oct – Hannover, Music Pavillion, DE

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 Absurd Silence Of A Mute World” is a collaborative album by multi-instrumentalists Samuel Vaney and Loïc Grobety under the OLOMUHD moniker. The project was initiated in early 2022 and combines their interests in abrasive textures and deconstructed rhythms.

You might know Samuel Vaney from his work with Eeli Helin as part of the Swiss/Finnish drone-rock duo known as Fargue. This group, founded late in 2019, is notable for its multi-instrumental prowess, focusing on ambient, drone, and post-rock genres.

The album is out via the French label Cyclic Law. It holds just one track that explores ‘both contemplative and intense soundscapes’.

Drummer Michael Anklin contributed to the album as well next to vocalists Hemlock Smith and Mütterlein. Samuel Vaney handled the mixing and mastering in Switzerland. The album’s artwork was created by Stefan Thanneur.

It will be released on March 29th in a limited edition of 300 CD copies, each presented in a 6-panel digisleeve with matt lamination with a running time of 43 minutes and 31 seconds. You can order it here on Bandcamp.

You can check a few fragments below.

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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(Photo by Matthew Ellery) Mick Harvey has announced details of his first solo album in over 10 years, “Five Ways to Say Goodbye”. The album will be the final release in a series of releases that feature a blend of originals and interpretations of pre-existing songs. The new 12-track collection, out on Mute on 10 May 2024, will include original compositions alongside tracks written by such artists as Ed Kuepper (co-founder of The Saints), Fatal Shore (Phil Shoenfelt and Bruno Adams), David McComb (The Triffids / Blackeyed Susans), Lo Carmen and Lee Hazelwood.

Check the video for the new track “When We Were Beautiful & Young”.

The album also features “A Suitcase in Berlin” – originally released in early 2023 – which is a reworking of Marlene Dietrich’s 1950s ode to Berlin, “Ich Hab’ Noch Einen Koffer in Berlin”.

“(The album) is kind of about farewells or saying goodbye,” explains Harvey, “There’s a lot around that subject so it’s got a kind of melancholy and sentimentality around it.” You could also just click here for a more entertaining moment.

The new album follows Harvey’s recent collaboration with Mexican artist Amanda Acevedo, who features on “Five Ways to Say Goodbye”, and will be accompanied by a UK and European tour dates in May and June.

Mick Harvey tour

• 16 May – Valencia (ES), 16 Toneladas
• 17 May – Barcelona (ES), Sidecar
• 18 May – Madrid (ES), Sala el Sol
• 26 May – London (UK), Omeara
• 29 May – Coimbra (PT), Nereida in Jardim de Sereia (free concert)
• 30 May – Leiria (PT), Teatro José Lúcio Da Silva
• 1 June – Espinho (PT), Auditório de Espinho
• 7 June – Milan (IT), Arci Bellezza
• 8 June – Brno (CZ), Mersey Gathering

More dates to be added.

Michael John Harvey is an Australian musician, singer-songwriter, composer, arranger and record producer. A multi-instrumentalist, he is best known for his long-term collaborations with Nick Cave, with whom he formed The Boys Next Door, The Birthday Party and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.

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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(Photo by York Koepfer) These Immortal Souls were an Australian post-punk band formed in London in 1987 by Harry Howard on bass guitar, his older brother Rowland S. Howard on guitar and vocals, Epic Soundtracks (a.k.a. Kevin Godfrey) on drums (all three ex-Crime & the City Solution) and Genevieve McGuckin on keyboards (Rowland’s long time girlfriend).

Out 12 April 2024 on Mute are remastered reissues of These Immortal Souls’ two studio albums, “Get Lost (Don’t Lie!)” (1987) and “I’m Never Gonna Die Again” (1992). These two post-punk releases were remastered from the original tapes at Birdland Studio by Lindsay Gravina, with Harry Howard and Genevieve McGuckin.

‘Extra’ These Immortal Souls rarities collection as well

And that’s not all, these reissues will be released alongside a brand new 10-track collection of newly unearthed live recordings and rarities, “Extra”.

Harry Howard and Genevieve McGuckin comment this on the “Extra” album they assembled: “This took some detective work! We are excited not only for us but for Rowland S Howard and Epic Soundtracks. There are really nice new things here, different mixes and live recordings from L.A. and everything sounds stronger, lusher and more mysterious. We’re struck by what a strange band we were. There was no one like These Immortal Souls. Thank you Mute, for then and now (not forgetting the future).”

Listen to a previously unreleased cover of Alice Cooper’s “Luney Tune” right below. “Extra” furthermore features covers of The Stooges’ “Open Up and Bleed”, Nancy & Lee’s “Some Velvet Morning” and Alex Chilton’s “Hey! Little Child” next to personal and revealing sleeve notes by Harry Howard.

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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(Photo by Spoon Records) The second phase of the Can live series, “Can Live in Paris 1973”, is set for release on vinyl, CD and digitally on 23 February 2024 via Mute and Future Days (the new EU label created by Spoon Records).

“Live in Paris 1973” finds Can for a performance recorded at L’Olympia in Paris on 12 May 1973, marking the first of the live series to feature Damo Suzuki on vocals. From 1970-73 the core line up of Irmin Schmidt, Jaki Liebezeit, Michael Karoli, and Holger Czukay were joined by Japanese improviser and vocalist Suzuki. They met after a chance encounter while Suzuki was busking in Munich.

Here is an excerpt of “Can Live In Paris 1973”.

This new album shows the band at a particularly important stage of their career, with two of their most important albums – “Tago Mago” and “Ege Bamyasi” – recently released. The recording itself was uncovered and pieced together from recordings within the Spoon Records vaults and those sent in by helpful fans, and brought into the 21st century by founding member Irmin Schmidt and producer / engineer René Tinner who have compiled and edited all the albums in this series.

The new release follows “Can Live in Brighton 1975”, “Can Live in Stuttgart 1975” and “Can Live in Cuxhaven 1976“.

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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Here’s an exclusive event we co-present with Cold War Night Life in London. Robert Görl (DAF) and Hanna Rollmann will read from their book, “The Voice That Dwells Within”, on Saturday, January 27, 2024, at The Strongroom in London (tickets available here). The duo will also sign copies of their book during this intimate event.

Robert Görl co-founded DAF (Deutsch-Amerikanische Freundschaft) in 1978 — 45 years ago — with vocalist Gabi Delgado. The band started as a punk/experimental outfit, using a combination of conventional instruments and electronics, before relocating from Dusseldorf to London. After meeting Mute Records’ Daniel Miller, they released “Die Kleinen und die Bösen,” featuring production by Conny Plank. The group consolidated as the duo of Görl and Delgado, made the jump to Virgin Records, and released three albums that changed the face of German (electronic body) music. They formed the template for a line of bands, including Front 242 and Nitzer Ebb. They were working towards a new album at the time of Delgado’s sudden death in 2020, which Goerl completed alone as “Nur Noch Einer.”

In the spaces between DAF releases, Görl and Delgado each released separate material. Görl’s 1984 solo album, “Night Full of Tension,” featured an appearance by Annie Lennox of Eurythmics — returning the favor after Görl played drums on that band’s Conny Plank-produced debut, “In the Garden.”

“The Voice That Dwells Within” uses Görl’s memories to reconstruct stories from all these events. The book is centered around the 1989 car crash that almost killed Görl and led him to Buddhism.

The event will take place at The Strongroom, Curtain Road, London EC2A 3SQ, on Saturday, January 27, 2024. The starting time is 7 pm. Tickets are £15 in advance / £20 on the door.

Here’s a video trailer.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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

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(By our UK correspondent Simon Helm of Cold War Nightlife) A few days ago we posted a review of the first solo concert of Vince Clarke at the LSESU in London, with Sunroof (comprising Daniel Miller and Gareth Jones), and today we present you a review of the additional Q&A session featuring Daniel Miller which took place at Rough Trade East on Sunday, November 19th.

Vince Clarke needs no introduction, so Daniel Miller didn’t give him one. The mastermind behind Depeche Mode, Yazoo, The Assembly, and Erasure, Clarke was in London to perform his solo album, Songs of Silence. A Q&A session at Rough Trade East allowed the Mute label boss to put some questions to Clarke and talk about their shared history.

Update: Mute in the meantime posted a video of the Q&A.

When Vince Clarke met Daniel Miller

The first time Clarke and Miller met was a bit of a disaster. Dressed up in futurist clothes, Clarke had travelled from Basildon with Dave Gahan to pitch Depeche Mode’s demo tape to London-based labels. When they tried Rough Trade, the counter staff pointed them at Miller, who was in the back preparing the artwork for a Fad Gadget record. When the Mute man emerged, he took one look at the Mode boys and kept walking. 

Miller chuckles at the lost opportunity, which he recovered from when Depeche Mode supported Fad Gadget at the Bridgehouse in Canning Town. He notes a controversy that has arisen because Stevo, the notorious Soft Cell manager and Some Bizarre label boss, has claimed that he “let” Miller “have” Depeche Mode for Mute. Rubbish. Depeche Mode did what they wanted – and, as Clarke confirms, that was to work with the genius behind The Normal, Silicon Teens, and the sound of Fad Gadget.

The lockdown stopped Erasure from working together

On to the new album. Clarke explains that lockdown stopped Erasure from working together. Inspired by repeated viewings of Bladerunner 2049, he decided to make the soundtrack for a sequel in his basement studio using modular kit. Drones provided the fluidity, while additional elements were layered on top. “It was never intended as a record,” Clarke said. “It  was really just for me to learn to use the synthesizer.”

When Miller asked Clarke what he was up to, some tracks were passed across, and Miller suggested they become an album. “I was in total shock, because it wasn’t what I intended,” Clarke told the audience.

The only track with lyrics used a recording of a traditional miner’s union song, which Clarke had struggled to set to music previously. Miller explained that it proved impossible to track down the rights holder for the vocals – drawing a laugh when he explained that Mute would “Take care of them.”

New Erasure album in the making

Clarke revealed that there is a new Erasure album planned for release next year, but he has not played the music to Andy Bell, yet. “We never write remotely. It just doesn’t work for us. We have to be in the same room, at the same time, to make a complete song.”

Miller let on that there is more coming from the Erasure camp. “Andy [Bell] is also working on a solo album at the moment.” No word whether it will also feature Eurorack modules or found sound, but it will undoubtedly come with its own stories.

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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(Interview by János Janurik) Vince Clarke just released his first solo album “Songs Of Silence” in late autumn 2023. The fact that he has now recorded his first solo album after more than forty years in the pop business was long overdue. Our editor Janos Janurik contacted Vince Clarke and his partner in crime, Reed Hays, regarding this solo debut that opens up new listening perspectives into Vince Clarke’s previously unknown parallel universe, and a special concert in London.

Although the ingenious composer and sound wizard had several side projects alongside his main band Erasure – just think of the countless remixes, the collaborations with Martyn Ware, Paul Hartnoll and Martin Gore, and his label boss activities at Very Records, or the almost unknown album of instrumental compositions called “Deeptronica” – this is still the first time that he has released an LP under his own name. And on the parent label Mute Records. A feast for fans of electronic music!

Even the first appetiser was a shock for some fans: Vince ventured to the dark side, his solo track “The Lamentations of Jeremiah” sounding darker and sadder than ever before. The accompanying music video, shot in black and white, only reinforced the gloomy mood of the first pre-release track. This was anything but the dynamic electro-pop that Vince Clarke is known for.

The second pre-release single “White Rabbit” is already more similar to the typical musical style of the Erasure mastermind. Intelligent pop at its best, where hypnotising, shimmering electronic beats keep up the tempo with electric guitar sounds and thundering drums at the end. The visual backdrop this time is an animated film, with educational content about how we are “modern humans”. After the break since “The Neon” sound cosmos, fans of Vince Clarke’s music are eagerly awaiting their musical hero’s first solo LP.

„The joy for me has been the process of making the music… Everything else is a bonus.”

SL. When I heard and saw the track “The Lamentations of Jeremiah” for the first time, I was deeply touched by the experience. Although you mentioned to me in an earlier interview (around the time of the release of “2Square”) that you “still like to write “nobody understands me” songs”, you’ve waited so long to show this side of yourself. If there’s no pressure from the label, these songs might stay in the drawer. Is that really true? Did Daniel Miller persuade you to release these compositions as your first solo album on Mute?

Vince: The tracks I recorded during lockdown were never meant as an album. I was spending time in the studio just experimenting with sound and mood. I sent some of these ‘experiments’ to Daniel Miller, owner of Mute records and he suggested that perhaps this collection of soundscapes could be released as an album. Up to that point I was purely making the music for myself.

SL. As for the album title (“Songs Of Silence”), it wasn’t too hard to work out that it was some kind of homage to the legendary film score by Simon & Garfunkel. They were a big inspiration for you to compose music yourself, weren’t they? And what inspirations did you take this time? Or did everything follow your inner voice?

Vince: Yes, the title is a tiny homage to “The Sounds of Silence” and I’m a huge fan of Paul Simon. At the same time “Songs Of Silence” describe exactly what the album is about.

SL. The music of Vince Clarke lives without bombastic sound or glittery synth pop effects too, that was my first thought after listening to this album. What equipment did you use in your home studio this time?

Vince: For all the tracks I just used my Eurorack Modules. It was an opportunity to learn about the technology and really focus on the precise sounds I needed without being distracted by all the other sound sources in my studio.

SL. The opening track (“Cathedral”) already takes the listener out of the real world and frees them from the matrix. The whole thing has something religious and spiritual about it, in which the wholeness of the world is connected with one’s own existence. Such a process is necessary for mental health and for dealing with negative feelings. Was it the same for you?

Vince: I’m not religious but the word Cathedral suggested to me something huge and wondrous. I found the process of recording all these tracks to be cathartic and helpful to cope with the stresses I was experiencing at the time.

SL. One of my favourites is the track “Red Planet”. Relaxing ambient music with ethereal voices. I think a lot of fans – especially Depeche Mode fans – will say it’s their favourite track. Do you have your own favourite track from the album?

Vince: “Cathedral” is my favourite track and I’m also very fond of “Passage” which is all about a difficult/impossible journey.

SL. Not only “The Lamentations of Jeremiah”, but also “Scarper” has an acoustic touch – flamenco-like guitar. Once again a highlight of the album for me. Did you use samples here or did someone play the guitar live?

Vince: Reed Hays played cello on “The Lamentations of Jeremiah” and the guitar parts were played by my friend Steve Walsh.

SL. “Blackleg” is inspired by the traditional folk song “Blackleg Miner”. Your label mate, Frank Tovey, who died too soon, dedicated an entire album to workers’ songs in 1989 (“Tyranny And The Hired Hand”). Music and resistance was the main theme of this album. And what about you? What did you find inspiring about this folk song?

Vince: The song has a real raw edge to it. The lyrics are quite violent and paint a stark picture of the misery of the mining community during and after the Industrial Revolution. It was interesting to mix a very synthetic soundscape with something so organic.

SL. “Last Transmission” could also be related to the Erasure song “Turns The Love To Anger”, especially with the instrumental intro of its live version. It’s like a radio signal into space, with the hope that it will find a recipient with empathy. Do you still believe in the good in these difficult times?

Vince: No. I find it difficult to feel optimistic.

SL. You have always been known to be rather reluctant to appear in video clips. But for the first promo video, you had to stand alone in front of the camera. Where and how did the filming of “The Lamentations of Jeremiah” take place?

Vince: I wanted the video to convey a certain gravitas that reflected the sadness of “The Lamentations of Jeremiah”. It was shot in Brooklyn New York in a day.

SL. An animated video was made for “White Rabbit” – another favourite track of mine. You recently uploaded funny cartoons (“Günter Finn” and “Bacon And Eggs”) to the internet yourself. How did you find the cartoonist Daniele Arcuri for the second clip?

Vince: I saw his show reel on Fiverr and was instantly attracted to his irreverent and bonkers style of animation.

SL. At the special album release event in London the support band was the duo of Gareth Jones and Daniel Miller (called Sunroof), who play electro-improvisation music. Both of them have played a big role in your career. Was it natural for you to invite them to support you?

Vince: I was delighted that they agreed to do the show with us. I think the combination made for a really interesting evening.

SL. A month has passed since that concert in London. Your first solo album has received very good reviews, it’s also at the top of the album charts. Looking back on the whole process, what are your feelings now? Did you expect such positive feedback?

Vince: To be honest, I didn’t expect any feedback. The joy for me has been the process of making the music… Everything else is a bonus.

Reed Hays, the synthesiser specialist and master of the Buchla synthesiser, and long-time friend of Vince Clarke, also joins the conversation.

SL. Reed, you and Caroline were the first to sign a label contract with Vince’s Very Records. So far you’ve released two albums on his label and you then supported Erasure on their 2018 tour. Now you’ve played cello as a guest musician for Vince’s solo album. How did this invitation come about?

Reed: During the Reed & Caroline years Vince had me put together a couple instrumental tracks to promote Veryrecords on Soundcloud. One was called “Buchla and Cello” and the other was called “Cello and No Buchla”, so he was already familiar with my playing. While working on “Songs of Silence” he asked in his usual polite English manner, “Would you mind terribly if I sent you something, and maybe consider if it needs some sort of cello on it?” I purposely overplayed the part, thinking he would edit most of it out, but to my surprise he kept the whole thing!

SL. Were you there – as an expert advisor – for the entire creative period, or did you only hear the final result?

Reed: He played me some of the tracks while he was working on them, but I’m afraid I had no “expert advice” to give, because they already sounded amazing. I remember thinking only Vince Clarke could call something a “drone piece” but you’d still walk away from it with a catchy part in your head!

SL. Do you have your own favourite tracks from Vince’s solo album? If so, what are they and why?

Reed: Vince’s friend Steve does some great acoustic guitar work on “Scarper”. There’s a little blippy part on “Cathedral” that sounds Buchla-inspired, so of course it makes me smile every time I hear it. I love the sequencer in “White Rabbit” and of course his treatment of the “Blackleg Miner” song is wonderfully haunting.         

SL. On release day you shared the stage with Vince in London. What was your role at that concert?

Reed: In a very un-Vince reversal, nothing was rigidly synchronized. We were playing drones and triggering elements from the album by hand. The timing was totally based on the feel of the evening and the impressions of the visuals. And, of course, I had my cello with me. J

SL. For a while you had a joint radio show on a New York alternative radio station called “The Synthesizer Show”, which was very popular among fans of synthesiser music. Do you miss these radio shows? Do you talk to each other privately about what’s new in the genre?

Reed: It’s funny to think that for close to a decade “The Synthesizer Show” was an important anchor for both of us. It was a great way to break up the grinding tour schedule with Erasure, and during Covid it was the only activity either one of us had apart from family lockdown life. I’m sure we haven’t seen the end of “The Synthesizer Show” yet, but right now we have a couple ambient concerts to deal with!

SL. Do you currently have something in progress? Will there be another Reed & Caroline album?

Reed: I’ve been spending a lot of time with the Buchla 100, the earliest Buchla instrument. It’s also the rawest and most visceral of Mr. Buchla’s creations. I like to think of Reed & Caroline as a magical pre-Covid time capsule, but in a couple years her girls and my son will be out of high school, so never say never!

János Janurik

I began my career in online music journalism in 2001, writing about artists I had followed since the late ’80s and early ’90s, including Depeche Mode, Erasure and The Cure. I later edited the Hungarian Mute microsite for EMI Music Hungary. This led to interviews with Erasure, Nitzer Ebb and Alan Wilder, and some of those collaborations developed into lasting friendships. Since 2014, I have been part of the editorial team of depechemode.de. I also contribute interviews to Reflections of Darkness, Peek-A-Boo Magazine and Kaput Mag. I maintain a close connection to Mute Records artists and have also supported releases on Very Records. I am proud to collaborate with Side-Line Magazine, where I regularly publish interviews and features.

Richie Hawtin and Mute have announced the 30th anniversary edition of the Plastikman debut album, “Sheet One”, set for release on BioVinyl, remastered from the original masters and available via sublabel NovaMute on double vinyl on 1 December 2023 with a December 15th release in the US and Canada. The release has also been remastered for digital re-release, courtesy of Manmade Mastering from Berlin.

And BioVinyl? Well those are vinyl records made from bio-based PVC.

Plastikman is one of Richie Hawtin’s alter egos, and “Sheet One” was the first in a series of releases. The album was the beginning of a long creative relationship between Richie Hawtin and Mute resulting in six albums offering contemporary electronic music. The series of Plastikman vinyl reissues will continue in 2024.

Richie Hawtin comments like this: “After a few years of experimenting with equipment and techniques, I slowly started to find my own unique direction and sound by digging deep into the possibilities of the Roland TB303. The first crucial steps were the F.U.S.E. tracks ‘F.U.’ and ‘Substance Abuse,’ both throbbing dancefloor inspired physical work-outs. That led to my idea of taking the sound of my style of Acid deeper into a more cerebral long-form experiment that became the foundation of ‘Sheet One.’ Recorded mostly over an intense 48 hour period, the album came alive as I paired the Roland TR606 drum machine to the TB303 for my first time, which opened the doorway into this unique Hawtin trip! ”

Daniel Miller from Mute is clear about his appreciation of Hawtin: “(A) pure electronic music innovator!”

2023 is also the anniversary of “Dimension Intrusion” by his other alter ego F.U.S.E. for the Artificial Intelligence series on WARP (which gets a reissue on 10 November).

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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(Photos by Martyn Goodacre and Steve Gullick) Following the release of their first LP in 10 years on Mute, the Berlin-based collective Crime & the City Solution gets on the road UK/EU tour. The new “The Killer” album is out on CD, vinyl and as digital download or streaming.

The new Crime & the City Solution album began life as a PhD application that came to life when the band’s core members’ nomadic lifestyle put on pause by the pandemic. Simon Bonney and Bronwyn Adams found themselves stuck in their native Australia, under one of the world’s strictest lockdowns. “Naturally”, says Simon, “I sat and I pieced together a PhD application about decision making in Afghanistan in the late 80s. But as it turned out, it was actually more of a record than it was a PhD.”

The PhD and, by turn, the album found inspiration from Bonney’s work delivering aid programs across the Indo-Pacific region. Through that work, he visited places with high levels of violence and the album, in part, acted as a way in which to process the effect that turmoil has had on his psyche, of the “dead bodies in my dreams,” that he sings about in the title track. He explains, “There’s no mention of American decision making in Afghanistan on the album, but in terms of subject matter there’s a lot that’s pretty similar; a lot of the record is about loss of faith. There’s a veneer of normalcy and civilization that people hold onto until they just can’t hold on anymore, I’m interested in normalcy that exists within what we would consider to be extraordinary situations.”

While the idea came from Simon Bonney and Bronwyn Adams, the musical aspect was created by the combination of artists that became the second Berlin-lineup of Crime & the City Solution. Core members Simon Bonney and Bronwyn Adams were joined by Frederic Lyenn (piano, bass, synth), Donald Baldie (guitar), Georgio Valentino (synth, guitar), Chris Hughes (drums, percussion) and Joshua Murphy (piano, guitar), and for the first time they worked with a producer, Martin J. Fiedler, who also added synth and mellotron to the album.

Tour dates Crime & the City Solution

*All dates – supported by Joshua Murphy.

• 23/11/2023: Haacht, BE – Can’t Live In a Living-Room
• 24/11/2023: London, UK – The Moth Club
• 25/11/2023: Bristol, UK – The Cube Cinema
• 26/11/2023: Colchester, UK – Colchester Arts Centre
• 29/11/2023: Paris, FR – La Boule Noire
• 30/11/2023: Geneva, CH – L’Usine
• 1/12/2023: Karlsruhe, DE – P8
• 2/12/2023: Ebensee, AT – Kino Ebensee
• 3/12/2023: Zagreb, HR – Vintage Industrial
• 4/12/2023: Milano, IT – Arci Bellezza
• 5/12/2023: Munich, DE – Muffatwerk
• 6/12/2023: Prague, CZ – Fuchs2
• 7/12/2023: Budapest, HU – Instant
• 8/12/2023: Linz, AT – Stadtwerkstatt
• 9/12/2023: Poznan, PL – 2Progi
• 10/12/2023: Warsaw, PL – Niebo
• 12/12/2023: Dresden, DE – Chemiefabrik
• 13/12/2023: Hamburg, DE – Hafenklang
• 14/12/2023: Copenhagen, DK – BETA
• 15/12/2023: Oslo, NO – Salt
• 16/12/2023: Stockholm, SE – HUS7
• 17/12/2023: Gothenburg, SE – Musikens Hus
• 19/12/2023: Berlin, DE – Urban Spree

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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

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(By our UK correspondent Simon Helm of Cold War Nightlife) This is a review of yesterday’s event at the London School of Economics where Vince Clarke did a debut solo show supported by Sunroof (comprising Daniel Miller and Gareth Jones).

Vince Clarke admits that he is a little nervous. The confession comes as he adjusts his set-up between songs. Normally, Andy Bell would step into these gaps, but this is not an Erasure show. It is a performance of “Songs of Silence”, Clarke’s album of songs based on drones. There is no need for concern: the sold-out crowd in a basement venue at the LSE is a friendly one (look – there is Neil Arthur from Blancmange!); and the spaces between tracks are exactly what the album’s title promises.

The event is billed as Vince Clarke’s first ever solo performance – but, of course, it is not. Clarke is a serial collaborator, who has spent his career working with other talents. Depeche Mode, Yazoo, The Assembly, Erasure, The Illustrious Company, VCMG – even when the prime mover, Clarke has sought out others to share the experience and the credits. Tonight, the limelight is shared with his friend, Reed Hays, and a cameo from the indomitable Sarah-Jane Dale, while Richard Evans from the Erasure Information Service tweaks the lighting. Clarke is more exposed than usual, but he is not alone.

The title of the new album is a reminder that Clarke is a life-long Simon & Garfunkel fan. It might also be a reference to the recent losses of his friends, Robert Marlowe and Andy Fletcher. The cover photo shows Clarke in stark relief, and the cruelty of time is written into the songs. Performed live, they lose none of their emotive content, and Hays’ cello underlines the sadness of “The Lamentations of Jermiah.” Even “Blackleg,” a version of the traditional miners’ song made popular in a more combative form by Steeleye Span and the PCA Band, is ominous and melancholy. Grainy footage of miners walking from a pit invokes something lost – like Test Dept without their fine-tuned debris.

The appearance of Sarah-Jane Dale for “Passage” adds a touch of glamour to the otherwise spectral drones and haunting rhythms. Clarke seems relieved to have the focus on another part of the stage, but he warms to the experience as the show continues. By the time of “Last Transmission,” he can’t hold back a full-on smile. The audience – most of whom have followed Clarke’s career for more than four decades – never doubted that it would be a special night. Clarke, it seems, has to pass through it to agree.

Support came from the Sunroof project of Gareth Jones and Daniel Miller. Facing each other across blinking panels of Eurorack modules, the two great producers embarked on a journey into improvised electronics that led down unpredictable tributaries of blips and webs of bloops. Sunroof’s shows are as unique as snowflakes and even cooler, as they harness the flow of electricity to weave magical textures. On a stage filled with Mute’s main superconductors, they played their roles as human Tesla coils with inspiration.

Pictures of Vince Clarke and Sunroof live sets

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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(Photo by Eugene Richards) Vince Clarke unveils his first solo album today, titled “Songs of Silence”. This ambient album, spanning 10 tracks, is now available in vinyl, CD, and digital formats through Mute. Clarke celebrates this release with his debut solo show tonight at the LSESU in London, with Sunroof (comprising Daniel Miller and Gareth Jones) as the opening act. Additionally, a Q&A session featuring Daniel Miller is scheduled at Rough Trade East on Sunday, November 19th.

After writing numerous hits for prominent bands like Erasure, Yazoo, and Depeche Mode, Clarke has finally ventured into a solo project. The album, recorded in his New York home studio, showcases photography and artwork by renowned Magnum photojournalist Eugene Richards. Originating as a lockdown diversion, Clarke delved into the possibilities of Eurorack, a modular synthesizer known for its expansive and engaging configurations. “The process was incredibly enjoyable, and it was solely for my own pleasure initially. I never contemplated others hearing it. The learning and creative journey in my studio was the highlight,” Vince reflects. “It was a surprise when Mute decided to release it.”

As previously mentioned, Clarke adhered to two self-imposed guidelines for this album: exclusively using Eurorack for sound production and constructing each track around a single note, maintaining a consistent key. Vince humorously notes, “No one in my family, not even the cat, showed much interest in my studio work, especially after hours of drone sounds.”

Vince Clarke video singles

Here are the two previously released videos from the album.

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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(Photo by Eugene Richards) Vince Clarke (Erasure, Yazoo, Depeche Mode) has shared “White Rabbit”, the latest track to be released from his forthcoming debut solo album, “Songs of Silence”. “Songs of Silence” is a 10-track ambient album which will be available on vinyl, CD and digitally via Mute on 17 November 2023.

In addition, Vince Clarke’s debut solo performance has been confirmed for the LSE, London on Friday 17 November, with a Rough Trade East Q&A confirmed for Sunday 19 November.

“White Rabbit” comes accompanied by an animation by Daniele Arcuri looking at the darkness surrounding our relationship with technology. Daniele Arcuri explains, “I wanted to openly address the themes of hyper-connectivity, anxiety, apathy, and voyeurism towards others’ suffering. This video is a bold and thought-provoking reflection on how technology is eerily shaping our existence, and challenges viewers to contemplate the human cost of an ever-connected world.”

Watch the video below.

Recorded in his home studio in New York, and featuring photography and artwork by Eugene Richards, work on the album began as a distraction during lockdown, a chance to finally get his head around the possibilities of Eurorack, a modular synthesiser format famed for its addictive and limitless configurations. Alone in the studio, Clarke set himself two rules: first, that the sounds he generated for the album would come solely from Eurorack, and second, that each track would be based around one note, maintaining a single key throughout.

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!

side-line.com

(Photo by Eugene Richards) Vince Clarke, known for his contributions to bands like Erasure, Yazoo, and Depeche Mode, has unveiled his first-ever solo album titled “Songs of Silence”. Set to launch on 17 November 2023, this ambient music album, devoid of lyrics across its 10 tracks, will be available on vinyl, CD, and digital platforms through Mute.

For enthusiasts eager for a glimpse, the track “The Lamentations of Jeremiah” is now available. The accompanying video was directed by Ebru Yildiz, whose previous collaborations include artists like Laurie Anderson, Mitski, and A Place to Bury Strangers. Ebru Yildiz comments, “When I first heard the song, I felt like it encapsulated an entire lifetime. It’s an amalgamation of drama, peace, anxiety, serenity, tension, hope, and more. My aim was to make the visuals echo these myriad emotions.”

Crafted in Clarke’s home studio in New York, “Songs Of Silence” also showcases the artistic prowess of Magnum photojournalist Eugene Richards through its photography and artwork. Interestingly, the album’s inception was a product of the lockdown period, born out of Clarke’s exploration of the Eurorack – a modular synthesiser known for its boundless configurations. “The whole process was incredibly immersive. It felt like I was on this continuous journey without an endpoint in sight,” Vince shares. “The surprise came when Mute expressed their desire to release it.”

During the album’s creation, Clarke adhered to a couple of self-imposed guidelines: one, the soundscapes should exclusively originate from Eurorack, and two, each composition should resonate around a singular note, ensuring a consistent key throughout. With a touch of humour, Vince adds, “My household isn’t particularly drawn to my studio sessions. In fact, even our cat would often retreat after an hour or so of listening to the continuous drones.”

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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(Photos from the personal archives of Jean-Marc Lederman) This article draws from various updates posted by Jean-Marc Lederman (The Weathermen, Kid Montana, Jules et Jim, Ghost & Writer, Lederman / De Meyer, Rohn-Lederman…) on his Facebook profile, which we’ve consolidated into a comprehensive piece. This compilation offers a profound understanding of the workings of the indie music industry during its ‘golden era’. Additionally, it provides specific insights into Mute Records, the label of Daniel Miller, as numerous individuals, including Fad Gadget, mentioned in this article have significant associations with the iconic UK label.

Digital Dance (1978-1979) / Daniel Miller

The year was 1979 and I had just quit, well I was sacked tbh, from Digital Dance , the first band I was in.

We were doing post punk/cold wave/new wave stuff and it was really exciting. I started doing bass with them on a..ARP 2600 whci I had bought working on building sites, yeah, far too much of an overkill I agree. We were rehearsing here and there but did a time at the famous Plan K where we supported Joy Division. Actually, that day I went to pick up Ian and Bernard Summers at the very seedy hotel they were in and I drove them to the gig.

They were laughing like kids, you know, young musicians being happy to play abroad. It was such a cold day, everyone was freezing and Ian even came close to Stefan Barbery (Digital Dance guitar player) who was close to an electric heater to tell him “Well, I guess this is why they call it Cold Wave…”

We also opened to Magazine and Fisher-Z and it was becoming too much of a routine for me: the Brussels band that does all the new wave support slots but hasn’t even got a decent recording contract…

Oh, we had one, and they made us record our very fast cover version of Kraftwerk’s “RadioActivity”. At the end of the session, they made me do some terrible sound effects, hoping to catch on the fad of the moment, and it just ruined the whole song. Tells you that if a thing sounds bad and contrived and cheesy on monday, still sounds the same the day after and 40 years later. Sorry Stefan, my fault.

Then Phil Wauquaire (whom I had met from Streets, the punk band he was in and I actually played with them live on a couple of songs with a…AKS, another overkill) joined us and I played synth with a Korg MS20 then with a Yamaha CS50M who weighted like half an olifant after a drinking binge.

Anyway, after a couple of gigs with Digital Dance at the Gibus in Paris, i was let go (which was fine, really). Two days later, I call Daniel Miller whom I had met in London a few months ago. Digital Dance had been foolish and crazy enough to believe that if you go to London you can pretty much be sure you’ll find a gig. All we did was rehearsing (below Beggar’s Banquet where I met Peter Kent from the future 4AD label) and waiting in our hotel off Kings Road. Anyway, we were trying to get Geoff Travis from Rough Trade to listen to our demo and he stopped it 20 seconds in and tell us: if you go to “Better Badges” now, you’ll see a man called Daniel Miller (from label MUTE RECORDS) and maybe he’ll like your stuff….

So, off we went to Better Badges and there we met Daniel, with a green basket full of The Normal badges.

Daniel and I hit directly like if it was an “International Conference Of Synths Fanatics”. I mean: synths weren’t as known or popular then as they were then. It was still a relatively rare sight on stage or in gigs or in bands that weren’t poppy or progrock. No, we’re talking new industrial scene in the UK: noisy and determined, not minimoogs played by long haired musos…

So, Daniel and I exchanged phone numbers and we traded letters and phone calls here and there. So, remember, I’m sacked from Digital Dance and I then realize that if I wanted to really go anywhere in music, Brussels isn’t the place to be and I must move to where things are happening. At that time, London was THE center of music in Europe and I decide that I want to try my luck and the two major chords I know there. I pick up the phone and call Daniel, asking him if he knew any musician that would be interested in moi ?

Yeah, I know someone, he’s on my label now, he’s looking for musicians, call him… His name is Frank Tovey….

Frank Tovey / Fad Gadget #1 (part 1)

The audition was simple: we didn’t even play a note or try to do a song, we just sat and drank coffee and laughed a lot. But there was no try-out, no keyboard or synths tickering… And that’s how Philippe Wauquaire and I became members of Fad Gadget #1 for a few months in 1980: a simple coffee cup meeting and an unmistakable good chemical feeling between us. Frank had played a few gigs on his own but wanted musicians around him so he could concentrate a bit more on being a little bit less concentrated if you know what I mean.

There was Frank: clever, astute, open, funny, with a lot of wit doubled with a good dose of sarcasm: totally my alley. But he knew what he wanted musically, there was no doubt about what he wanted to sound like. The plan was: rehearse at my place in Brussels, a first gig here, then play a few gigs as support for Deutsche Amerikanische Freundschaft in Germany and going to tour the UK as support for The Monochrome Set.

So, we start rehearsing in my attic: Frank on vocals, Pearl Syncussion and distorted electric piano, Phil on Fender bass and Korg MS 20 and myself on handling the cassette player (each song had its drums/rhythmic parts on a single cassette and I would feed the machine with a new cassette every song) and my 4 notes polyphonic, Yamaha CS 50M. Again, an overkill.

After a few hours of rehearsals, we have our first gig: support-act for Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark. We are all extremely nervous but the gig goes well: Frank doesn’t go into the mad behaviours he’s known for yet but you can see he’s holding up something big inside, something is boiling there. After the gig, we proceed to the German border and sleep in a motel there. In the morning, I’m being handed an envelope with my per diem (every day allowance a musician gets when on tour): it is the first time someone hands me money for doing something I love doing: playing music. I couldn’t believe it and I took a second piece of bacon and refilled my coffee cup. We are about to go to Dusseldorf to play The Ratinger Off as support for Deutsche Amerikanische Freundschaft.

Something started to happen at the Ratinger Hof: maybe it was the roughness of the place, the German lager (naaaaah) or the history of the place but this thing Frank had inside him but it slightly came out at that gig. See, there was an animal inside Frank, and that animal was as extrovert as Frank was introvert: Frank was then frontal and loud and, yes, obnoxious but in a gentle and friendly way but he wasn’t the shy Frank. In response to Frank’s changing live attitudes, Phil and I started to play loser and noisier and wilder (and there were far more bump notes on my part) but the band started to make sense.

The crowd wasn’t there for us, they were there for what would later become DAF, but the reaction was good and people liked us. I recall Frank and I going out in front of the place and that guy comes out dressed as a mod, full parka mode with a patch “Remember Brighton” which made Frank laughed a lot, people were out there with their beer and… Omg what am I saying: IT JUST FELT GREAT.

Deutsche Amerikanische Freundschaft at the time was a five piece band and they were fun and chaotic. You couldn’t miss Chris Haas, the synth guy, who was classy and special. He had a very specific body language when playing live: he would stand back, have a smile and just come here and there to play a few notes…He is the real grandfather of EBM as he introduced the famous 1/16th bass line (Korg MS 20 and SQ 10 sequencer) that will be the bone of so many records later on.

The morning after, we went out to the next gig. Daniel, Phil, Chris and myself embarked in my mum’s yellow Civic and we went down the motorway, singing loudly “Fahn Fahn Fahn Auf Der Autobahn” laughing and laughing… I guess Chris must have done that thousand of times before but, for Daniel, Phil and I it meant something different: we were doing it. We were travelling in Kraftwerk’s motherland and going to play electronic music there: it was immense.

We only played one more gig in Germany and then the whole tour was somehow cancelled… Roland Beelen: I saw the animal in Frank I guess a few months later at the Paasfestival in Koninfshooikt (organized by my friend Guy Vanwoensel) I was a stagehand there. Frank smashed a crucifix that was hanging above stage in the hall (parochiezaal)with his magic stick. The whole village was in shock when the news spread the next morning. The vicar organized a special service the next day to please the smashed fallen Christ ! they say he resurrected a few weeks later! All end, good end !

Frank Tovey / Fad Gadget 1980 (part 2)

Something had clicked in Frank after a few gigs: it’s like he had been showed by practice that it could work, that the songs were good, the voice was good but even more than that his FG personnae and ideas had an impact on the crowd. He would go out, do his thing, see people respond to his songs, lyrics and theatrics and then he would retrieve after the gig in the gentle and shy Frank Tovey. Phil and I were providing a background that wasn’t perfect but for Frank it was a great practice for FG future.

When we toured as support for The Monochrome Set, we were sometimes in fire and I could really feel people’s amazement at that born-to-be showman. He would play with the crowd and slowly take them into the show. Our sound might not have been very sophisticated but with Frank’s distorted piano, the CS50 brutal in and out sounds, Phil’s impeccable swirling bass, we were like The Stooges with synths and Frank was a perfect bionic Iggy Pop….I began to be very proud of us, we were quite something indeed and I was going on stage with a mission: to show people the songs and to let them fall in Frank’s performance.

I also remember that after the last show of the tour, possibly at the YMCA gig, one of the roadie came at the CS 50 and started to play some Bach’s prelude. I was stunned and shameful of the snobiness i may have shown the roadies on that tour, or before tbh. I learned a lesson that night and never again would I be feeling above anyone on a stage, or in studio, be them multiple charts success artists or simple roadie.

Something wild happened after our gig at the 100 club. Jock Mac Donalds (from the future Bollock Brothers) was very drunk and he started to look for a fight with us and being extremely aggressive, a bottle in his hand, waving it at us. Phil, FG’s bass player, was a karate black belt and he was looking very calm, coming closer to Jock inch by inch. Suddenly he jumped at Jock, put two fingers on his Adam’s apple and said with a slow voice: “OK, let’s kill”, his eyes deep into Mac Donald’s eyes.

The bottle instantly fell on the ground and the guy just ran out the club swearing loud and clear… Phil and I were sleeping at Daniel’s mom place for a few days and we were making music late at night. One of these nights, Daniel was on Phil’s MS 20, I was trying Daniel’s infamous Korg 700S (the one that was on TVOD and Warm Leatherette) and Phil was on the CS 50M but it was visibly too loud and too late as Daniel’s mum came down and asked us to PLEASE STOP !

Next gig to come was going to be the Clarendon, but we were told this would be our last gig with Frank as he wanted a full band behind him to totally free him from any other duties but vocals. I was devastated…

Frank Tovey / Fad Gadget #1 (part 3)

So, we were invited to headline Stevo’s kinda festival at the Clarendon, on June 27 1980. Stevo was a very colourful character who will make himself known later when managing bands like Soft Cell and The The. The bill was very symptomatic of the time: DAF, Naked Lunch, B.Movie, Vice Versa, Clock DVA,…

So, Fad Gadget #1 had started touring as a relative unknown a few months ago and we were by now talk of the town and headline this festival. It felt good and it felt also important and I was nervous. Everybody was. Frank had a song by Georges Folmby playing before we would go on. Folmby was a Lancarshire working class comedian and he was famous for playing double entendre ukulélé songs. It was a known and safe thing for British people and Frank used it as contrast as chaos would start when we would cut Folmby and go straight into “State Of The Nation” and follow that with most of what is on the album Fireside Favourites.

• State Of The Nation
• Back To Nature
• The Box
• Fireside Favourite
• Newsreel
• Pedestrian
• Coitus Interruptus
• Ricky’s Hand
• Back To Nature

Yes, Frank wanted shock and chaos, and he got that except that at the Clarendon it went a bit further than expected. During one of the early songs, Fad had already taken over Frank, he smashed up his face with one of the two Syncussion drums and it started pouring blood. Phil and I looked at him and he made us understand it was fine and let’s continue…So we continued until someone took Frank off stage as it was just like a fountain of blood by now. The gig was stopped.

We went backstage and Frank was adamant he was fine but Babra (his wife) disinfected the wound and placed a cloth on it. We went back on stage.

The crowd went MAD. Frank was standing there, his white clothes with red blood all over it, singing to the public that was all won. It was an incredible sight, and being on stage, playing the songs with a singer that went beyond the call of duty was something unexplainable. After the gig, we had to take the 5 am ferry. I was sitting on the stairs of the Clarendon and, yes, I was crying, letting all the tension, the fears of the gig off my system but also the sadness I felt after having lived some incredible times with
Frank, as synth player in Fad Gadget. I saw Frank playing with Fad Gadget #2 a few months later and he invited me to play in the encore: we were cool.

Still, I wasn’t done with London and would come back later…

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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(Photo by Niko Studio) Here’s an interesting new release now available on Mute, which will surely appeal to readers who are admirers of Diamanda Galás and similar artists. Today, Louis Carnell introduces “111”, a series of continuous collaborations. This endeavour has the musician, artist, and curator showcasing a fresh piece every three weeks.

The series kicks off with “One”, his collaboration with composer and musician Keeley Forsyth. Keeley Forsyth is a composer, singer, and actor hailing from Oldham in North West England. You can expect 15 collaborations in total to be released in the near future, each one being released as individual singles and created with a varied array of artists from around the world. Coming up next are releases from Lee Ranaldo and Ben Vince in the ensuing months, with an additional 12 releases extending into 2024.

Expect a new track to debut every third Tuesday. Check out the video for “One” below.

The first single is also available for download on Bandcamp.

For more insights into Louis Carnell’s work, have a look at the videos below. Louis Carnell is by no means a novice in the industry. He previously worked under the moniker ‘Visionist’, releasing albums on labels such as PAN (“Safe”, 2015), Big Dada (“Value”, 2017), and Mute (“A Call To Arms”, 2021). His portfolio also includes collaborations with Peter De Potter, Daniel Sannwald, and Frederik Heyman. In September 2021, Louis Carnell chose to step away from his Visionist pseudonym and continue under his own name.

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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(Photo by Paul Husband) A Certain Ratio, commonly abbreviated as ACR, is an influential English post-punk band that originated in Flixton, Greater Manchester, in 1977. The initial formation featured Peter Terrell (guitar, electronics) and Simon Topping (vocals, trumpet), with Jez Kerr (bass guitar, vocals), Martin Moscrop (trumpet, guitar), Donald Johnson (drums), and Martha Tilson (vocals) joining shortly thereafter. In 1979, the band had the distinction of being among the first acts to debut on Tony Wilson’s iconic Factory Records, with their single “All Night Party” produced by Martin Hannett. During their early years with Factory, ACR achieved impressive success, securing seven Top Ten UK independent releases—most notably “Flight” and “Waterline”—and they initiated their album collection with “The Graveyard and the Ballroom” (1980).

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the band transitioned through phases with major label A&M and Rob Gretton’s independent label Robs Records. During these periods, ACR’s activity varied. They made a notable return with their ninth studio album, “Mind Made Up” (2008), and have remained active in performance since, with their extensive back catalogue being reissued through a partnership with Mute Records. In September 2020, they released “ACR Loco”, their first new studio album in twelve years, followed by three EPs titled “A”, “C”, and “R” in 2021. In 2023, they released their eleventh studio album, aptly named “1982”.

Today, A Certain Ratio has unveiled a new remix by Emperor Machine—a moniker for close friend and collaborator Andy Meecham—of their track “Constant Curve”. This track will be part of their forthcoming 4-track EP, set to be released both on limited edition 12” vinyl and digitally on 22 September 2023 via Mute.

This remix sees Meecham revisiting “Constant Curve”, a song from the 1982 album that he originally co-wrote and contributed keyboards and electronic percussion to.

Explaining the process, Meecham says: “After the success of our previous collaboration, Martin [Moscrop] asked if I would record some synths for a new track. I loved it on first listen, so obviously I said yes. While working and writing some synths, I thought this is a great track, but it’s too short—it needs a Pettibone-style extended Dub mix, a proper extended 12” version with Donald [Johnson]’s drums more upfront in the mix, dubbed out guitars, and new vocal edit sections. I suggested this idea to the band, and thankfully they gave me free rein.”

The track can be found below.

The EP follows their latest album “1982” (released in spring this year), and includes three newly commissioned remixes of tracks from the album – Emperor Machine’s reworking, Werkha mix of SAMO, and Manchester producer Jade Parker’s remix of “Waiting on a Train” (feat. Ellen Beth Abdi & Chunky), alongside a brand-new track “Day by Day”, written and recorded with Ellen Beth Abdi.

A Certain Ratio recently announced a tour that celebrates 45 years of the band’s career. The dates will see A Certain Ratio perform two separate sets each night: the first set will represent the early years of their career from their Factory releases and A&M. The band will then reconvene for a set representing ACR from the early to mid-‘90s to 2024 including unreleased forthcoming material.

• 10 November – London, Moth Club – SOLD OUT
• 11 November – Preston, The Ferret
• 12 November – Glasgow, Stereo
• 15 November – Gateshead, The Sage
• 16 November – Reading, Face Bar
• 18 November – York, The Crescent
• 25 November – Brugge (BE), Cactus
• 2 December – Liverpool, 24 Kitchen Street
• 10 December – Manchester, Band on the Wall

A Certain Ratio will also be appearing at the following festivals:

• 19 August – Luna Festival, Coimbra, Portugal
• 26 August – Shambala Festival, Northamptonshire
• 27 August – Wrexfest, Wrexham
• 19 November – Shiiine On Weekender, Minehead
• 24 November – BBMix, Paris (FR)

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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Next month, Swans will be embarking on their first North American tour dates since 2017 (having cancelled a 2020 tour due to lockdown). They sold out all the dates on a European tour this Spring.

The band recently released their sixteenth studio album, “The Beggar”, on Mute / Young God Records (North America) on double vinyl in a brown chipboard sleeve (with a download card for accessing an additional 44 minutes of music, also included on the album’s CD version), as a double CD in a brown chipboard digi-pack, and digitally.

Michael Gira gave some extra details: “After numerous pandemic-induced cancellations of tours for the previous Swans album leaving meaning, and an apparent bottomless pit of waiting, waiting, waiting, and the strange disorientation that came with this sudden but interminable forced isolation I decided it was time to write songs for a new Swans album and forget about everything else. They came relatively easily, always informed by the suspicion that these could be my last. When I finally was able to travel, songs in hand, to Berlin to work with my friends recording this record, the feeling was akin to the moment in The Wizard of Oz when the film changes from Black and White to Color. Now I’m feeling quite optimistic. My favourite color is pink. I hope you enjoy the album.”

“The Beggar” was recorded and mixed at Candy Bomber Studio, Berlin, engineered by Ingo Krauss and mastered by Doug Henderson at Micro-Moose, Berlin. The album was written and produced by Michael Gira and features contributions from recent and former Swans, members of Angels of Light, as well as Guest Swan Ben Frost.

You can check out the album below.

Swans North American live dates

• 2 Sep – Dallas TX, Granada Theater
• 3 Sep – Austin TX, Paramount Theatre
• 7 Sep – Phoenix AZ, Crescent Ballroom
• 8 Sep – Los Angeles CA, Lodge Room – SOLD OUT
• 9 Sep – Los Angeles CA, Lodge Room – SOLD OUT
• 12 Sep – San Francisco CA, Great American Music Hall
• 13 Sep – San Francisco CA, Great American Music Hall
• 15 Sep – Portland OR, Revolution Hall
• 16 Sep – Seattle WA, The Crocodile Showroom
• 19 Sep – Omaha NE, Waiting Room Showroom
• 20 Sep – Minneapolis MN, Fine Line Music Cafe
• 21 Sep – Chicago IL, Cabaret Metro
• 23 Sep – Detroit MI, Magic Bag
• 24 Sep – Cleveland OH, Beachland Ballroom
• 26 Sep – Toronto ON, Phoenix Concert Theater
• 27 Sep – Montreal QC, Theatre National
• 29 Sep – Brooklyn NY, Music Hall of Williamsburg – SOLD OUT
• 30 Sep – Brooklyn NY, Music Hall of Williamsburg – SOLD OUT
• 1 Oct – Brooklyn NY, Music Hall of Williamsburg – NEW DATE

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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Releasing on the 8th of September via Mute is John Came’s “Rhythmicon” album. The album, conceptually designed, sees Came utilising computer software and synthesisers, shrouded in enigma since its original pre-web launch in July 1995.

The comprehensive – obviously fake – biography of John Came portrayed him as an artist born in London, who emigrated to Australia seeking improved life conditions, then returned to the UK, and ultimately found inspiration in the northern Scottish isles, cycling from Skye to London.

The Rhythmicon, also termed the Polyrhythmophone, was an electro-mechanical musical device, conceptualised and crafted by Leon Theremin for composer Henry Cowell. The instrument was designed to expose the relations between rhythms, pitches and the harmonic series. It employed a series of perforated rotating disks, akin to a Nipkow disk, to disrupt the light flow between bulbs and photoreceptors in alignment with the disk perforations. The resulting interrupted signals created oscillations that were interpreted as rhythms or tones, contingent on the speed of the disks. Though capable of generating both pitches and rhythms, it is often labelled the world’s inaugural drum machine.

Nick Cope, member of the electronic band Pnin, introduced Came to the instrument. Nick, possessing the Rhythmicon, decided to reverse the logic and deduce harmonic and melodic data from rhythmic information, and conversely.

By employing sound and theory, John Came articulated ideas through a sequence of illustrative films that showcased Came executing his compositions (in an arhythmic fashion) into a Rhythmicon simulacrum, hence producing the rhythmic data for the pieces.

From this point, the rhythmic data of the pieces was translated into notes; subsequently, the two distinct threads of altered data were overlaid and fed into a computer capable of music notation/playing.

Who was John Came?

The identity of John Came was speculated upon, it was even suggested this could be a side-project for Alan Wilder, Vince Clarke or Daniel Miller.

There was an immediate conjecture that John Came was a pseudonym and his rhythmicon a product of the fertile creativity of an artist well-versed in electronic experimentation. Indeed, John Came was an alias, with the brains behind the concept being Simon Leonard and David Baker (known also as Komputer / Fortran 5 / I Start Counting), though the precise details concerning the instrumentation and the unusual album’s conception remain subject to speculation.

The album from John Came surfaced at a juncture when Leonard and Baker were transitioning from Fortran 5 to Komputer. In the current context, David Baker is diligently working on his solo endeavour, lonelyklown.

Here is the video for “Ink Tank”.

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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(Photo by Elvira Akzigitova) Crime & the City Solution have announced details of a new album, “The Killer”. It’s their sixth studio album, and their first in over a decade and is set for release via Mute on vinyl, CD and download on 20 October 2023.

You can already listen to a first track shared from the album, “Peace in my Time”. Simon Bonney explains the song is “about acceptance, more than just ‘peace’; I don’t think there’ll ever be ‘peace’ – nothing surprises me any more about what people to do to each other; but the song is about the acceptance of uncertainty, and also an acceptance of who you are.”

The video was made by Berlin based artist Elvira Akzigitova.

Working briefly in post-invasion Ukraine following the album’s completion, Simon Bonney saw that uncertainty again: “There was a building that was absolutely destroyed by a missile that was half a mile off the actual target. The buildings on either side were perfectly intact, but in the middle was a crater. Yet, in the face of such uncertainty, there was this incredible resilience that seemed to be born of accepting life as it was at that moment, no matter how challenging and uncertain.”

“The Killer” was recorded in Berlin by the second incarnation of the band to be based in the German capital. Core members Simon Bonney and Bronwyn Adams were joined by Frederic Lyenn (Piano, Bass, Synth), Donald Baldie (Guitar), Georgio Valentino (Synth, Guitar), Chris Hughes (Drums, Percussion) and Joshua Murphy (Piano, Guitar), and for the first time they worked with a producer, Martin J. Fiedler, who also added synth and mellotron to the album.

The band will also depart on a EU tour later this Fall:

• 23 Nov – Haacht (BE), Can’t Live In a Living-Room
• 24 Nov – London (UK), The Moth Club
• 25 Nov – Bristol (UK), The Cube Cinema
• 26 Nov – Colchester (UK), Colchester Arts Centre
• 29 Nov – Paris (FR), La Boule Noire
• 30 Nov – Geneva (CH), L’Usine
• 1 Dec – Karlsruhe (DE), P8
• 2 Dec – Ebensee (AT), Kino Ebensee
• 3 Dec – Zagreb (HR), Vintage Industrial Bar
• 4 Dec – Milano (IT), Arci Bellezza
• 5 Dec – Munich (DE), Muffatwerk
• 6 Dec – Prague (CZ), Fuchs2
• 7 Dec – Hungary (HU), Turbina
• 8 Dec – Linz (AT), Stadtwerkstatt
• 9 Dec – Poznań (PL), 2Progi
• 10 Dec – Warsaw (PL), Niebo
• 12 Dec – Dresden (DE), Chemiefabrik
• 13 Dec – Hamburg (DE), Hafenklang
• 14 Dec – Copenhagen (DK), BETA
• 15 Dec – Oslo (NO), Salt
• 16 Dec – Stockholm (SE), HUS7
• 17 Dec – Gothenburg (SE), Musikens Hus
• 19 Dec – Berlin (DE), Urban Spree

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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Jules Maxwell has a new single out via Archangelo Recordings, “A Rose On The Road (At The Traffic Lights)”, featuring Polly Scattergood. Next to the title track it also holds a remix from Glowlines.

“A Rose On The Road” first appeared as an instrumental on Jules Maxwell’s 2022 album “Cycles”. The title however had originated from a suggestion made by Polly Scattergood and, after the “Cycles” release, she and Jules continued to develop this vocal version.

Jules Maxwell is a multi-instrumentalist composer and songwriter. He plays keyboards for Australian band Dead Can Dance and in May 2021 released an album with Lisa Gerrard, entitled “Burn”. In 2021 he also released “Nocturnes” on Archangelo Recordings, a collection of instrumental pieces, much of it written in collaboration with the UK dance company Vincent Dance Theatre. This was followed in 2022 by a second volume of instrumentals entitled “Cycles”.

Polly Scattergood is a British-based indie electronic artist and was signed with Daniel Miller’s Mute label. She has released four studio albums, three under her own name and one as a side project called onDeadWaves with Mercury-nominated MAPS. She set up her own label and studio, Future Paradise, based on the Kent Coast and released her last album and EP through FP. Polly’s latest full-length album was “In This Moment”. She is currently in the process of writing her fifth studio album.

Here’s the video for the track.

And this is the single itself.

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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(Photo by Douglas Brothers) Out on Mute / Bmg on 18 August 2023 is an updated release of “Always (The Very Best of Erasure)”, out on vinyl for the very first time as a double disc heavyweight viny edition.

Originally released in 2015 to celebrate the band’s 30th anniversary, “Always (The Very Best of Erasure)” offers a journey through nearly four decades of hit singles. Also included are post 2015 tracks such as “Love You To The Sky” (from 2017’s “World Be Gone”) and “Hey Now (Think I Got A Feeling)” from 2020’s album, “The Neon”. Those two tracks replace the “Be with You” and “Sometimes 2015” which were on the original release.

When it was released in 2015, “Always (The Very Best of Erasure)” was the fourth compilation album released by the British synthpop band Erasure. The deluxe edition contained two additional CDs with corresponding remixes, including some of their singles that did not make the compilation. The compilation followed the release of the first and only single from the album, entitled “Sometimes 2015”, a re-vamped version of the original single mixed by David Wrench. The single was released on 23 October 2015, and contained a mixture of previously released remixes of “Sometimes” as well as a new remix by Love To Infinity.

Erasure recently released “Day-Glo (Based on a True Story)” and their eighteenth studio album, “The Neon”.

Erasure are an English synth-pop duo formed in London in 1985, consisting of lead vocalist and songwriter Andy Bell with songwriter, producer and keyboardist Vince Clarke, previously known as co-founder of the band Depeche Mode and a member of synth-pop duo Yazoo.

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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(Photo by Richard Drumas) Out September 15, 2023 via mute is Yann Tiersen’s “Kerber Complete” boxset with newly recorded solo piano version of his 2021 album “Kerber”. In total the box set collates four very different versions of “Kerber”.

You’ll get Yann Tiersen’s 2021 album built on modular synthesis and sampling, “11 5 18 2 5 18”, the modular recomposition of Kerber, a brand new solo piano recording of Kerber and an album of remixes and reworkings from the likes of Terence Fixmer, Beatrice Dillon and Laurel Halo, as well as remixes by Tiersen of NEU!, Keeley Forsyth, Michael Price and Simon Fisher Turner & Edmund de Waal.

The news comes alongside the first details of a Summer tour that Tiersen is embarking on with Quinquis, aka Emilie Tiersen who recently released “SEIM”, an electronic album. The two artists will depart from their home on the Ushant, an island off the Breton coast, to set sail for a tour of Celtic lands and the Faroe Islands.

And you can take that ‘set sail’ literally as the duo will be traveling on their sailboat, Ninnog, named after a medieval mother superior who traveled from Wales to Brittany, becoming a protector of women and a champion of sustainability and forestry, to a series of performances in Ireland, Wales, Scotland, England and the Faroe Islands.

Here’s the Ninnog summer tour short film.

Also available now is Yann Tiersen’s “Live in Passengers”, an ARTE Concert recorded live at Berlin’s former Tempelhof airport, now a public park.

Tourdates

• 6/16/2023 Cork, Connolly’s of Leap (Yann Tiersen)
• 6/18/2023 – Cork, Live at St Luke’s (Yann Tiersen)
• 6/24/2023 – Dublin, Whelans (Yann Tiersen)
• 6/29/2023 – Belfast, Empire (Yann Tiersen)
• 7/15/2023 – Faroe Islands, G Fest (Yann Tiersen & QUINQUIS)
• 8/8/2023 – Edinburgh, Liquid Room (Yann Tiersen)
• 8/22/2023 – Liverpool, 24 Kitchen St (Yann Tiersen)
• 8/25/2023 – Wales, Ara Deg (Yann Tiersen)
• 8/26/2023 – Wales, Ara Deg (QUINQUIS)

More dates to be added.

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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