“Cooperation” is the second EP in a four-part series (“Industry” being the first) from the Belgian electronic act Metroland. The new EP emphasizes the key theme of the 2023 World Economic Forum: ‘Cooperation in a fragmented world’.

The purpose there is to encourage world leaders to join forces in tackling the complex challenges of energy, climate, and nature, in addition to investment, trade, infrastructure, emerging technologies, industrial resilience, job creation, skills development, social mobility, health, and geopolitical collaboration in a multipolar environment.

“Cooperation in a Fragmented World” as featured on the album “Forum”, has undergone significant alterations even after the initial mastering process. Metroland therefor opted not to assign specific remix names to each track. Instead, every version was designated with a distinctive and original title. Rather than the anticipated labels such as ‘radio version’ or ‘edit,’ the title was creatively transformed to “Cooperation in a shortened world”.

Also included is a 9-minute extended version, “Cooperation in a Lengthened World”. A gimmic that Metroland wanted to enhance can be heard in “Cooperation in a surrounding world”. This version is made up of a series of sounds that were featured in previous iterations before the original version was recorded.

The first part in the series was the “Industry EP.

The tracks are featured in their original version on “Forum”.

About Metroland

Metroland is a Belgian electronic band formed in 2012 by the duo Passenger A and Passenger S. Drawing heavy inspiration from the electronic pioneers Kraftwerk, their music combines elements of synthpop, minimal wave, and electronic body music (EBM). Metroland is known for their thematic albums, often focused on urbanization, technology, and transportation, particularly the metro systems that gave the band its name.

Their debut album, “Mind the Gap” (2012), explored themes related to subway systems and transportation, establishing their unique conceptual style. They continued this approach with subsequent albums such as “Triadic Ballet” (2015), inspired by the Bauhaus art movement, and “Men in a Frame” (2018), which centered around photography and the concept of framing.

Metroland’s sound is characterized by repetitive beats, analog synthesizers, and vocoder-treated vocals, staying true to a retro-futuristic aesthetic. They have released multiple albums and singles via the Belgian label Alfa Matrix.

Side-Line also covered Metroland’s ‘Activity’.

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) 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!

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Three years after his promising debut album “The Cubic Alphabet”, Franky Deblomme returns with a compelling follow-up album, “Back To Basic”. Preceded by two well-received releases (an EP and a single), this album solidifies the Belgian artist’s status within the growing Kraftwerk-inspired Synth-Pop movement. Alongside label mates like Metroland, 808 Dot Pop, and Elektroklänge, Deblomme emerges as a strong ambassador of this retro-futuristic sound. Back to Basic pays homage to vintage synthesizers and early computer music, weaving together an array of bleeps, cold retro sequences, and solid basslines. The melodies are simple yet effective, enhanced by the occasional robot vocals that add a splash of color to the mix. Cubic expertly blends Synth-Pop and EBM, delivering a mature and efficient production. However, the album’s only drawback is that the tracks can start to feel repetitive over time. (Rate:8½).

Listen to “Off Line (Basic Edit)”:

Read the news on ‘Back To Basic’.

About Cubic

Cubic is the Belgian electronic project of Franky Deblomme, who previously worked in the Belgian EBM project Darkmen. Deblomme began working with Alfa Matrix in 2021, starting with the EP “Alphabet Hymn” in March 2021. His debut album “The Cubic Alphabet” followed in June 2021 via Alfa Matrix, continuing with the EP “Phonic Lessons Part 3” in December 2021. In 2022, Deblomme expanded into a location-themed EP series with “Exit: Frankfurt”, “Exit: Ghent”, and “Exit: Manchester”.

The project returned with the EP “c64” in September 2023 and “c128” later that year, as teasers toward a full-length album. That album, “Back To Basic”, arrived in May 2024 via Alfa Matrix in digital and CD editions. In 2025, Cubic handed the “Back To Basic” source material to 808 Dot Pop’s Passenger S for a full rework, released as the album “Back To 808”.

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

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The Belgian Metroland has been highly active in recent years. Their latest album -“Forum,” directly inspired by the economic forum in Davos, delivers a fresh dose of Robotic/Kraftwerkian-Electro. This album was preceded by the “Industry” EP, a song which offers different versions depending on the format (digital or CD). The other tracks remain the same, showcasing a rich and sometimes complex sound. Ranging from Experimental to Kraftwerk-Pop, this new work has much to offer, including a few standout tracks towards the end of the album. Metroland stays true to its signature sound and influences while embracing unexpected concepts. The Belgian duo continues to be a leading force in Electro-Pop, though they no longer surprise me as much as they did in their early years. (Rate:8).

Listen to “World Economic forum”:

Read the news on ‘Forum’.

About Metroland

Metroland is a Belgian electro-pop duo on Alfa Matrix, working in a Kraftwerk-influenced robotic electro style. The duo released the album “Forum,” inspired by the Davos economic forum, in 2024, and discussed their approach in a Side-Line interview that July, where they described every new release as “a fresh new audio canvas.” Metroland followed “Forum” with the second EP in a four-part series, “Cooperation,” in September 2024, the single “Activity” in February 2025, and the digital EP “Reset” in June 2025, which concluded the “Forum” cycle.

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

www.side-line.com

The Belgian electro-pop duo Metroland released “Forum” a few months ago, an electrifying conceptual hymn to the industrial revolution of the 21st century, a sonic journey exploring the crossroads of innovation and nostalgia. Fresh and experimental vintage electronic prowess for fans of the melodic Düsseldorf synth style. We talked with Passenger A and Passenger S about this new album, while new singles from this album are in the pipeline. 

The album is available on Bandcamp and on CD via the Alfa Matrix webstore.

SL. “Forum” is described as a continuation and evolution of your previous work “0”. Can you explain the conceptual link between these two albums and how the EP “Industry” serves as a bridge between them?

Passenger A&S: When “0” was not yet released and seriously delayed by many different factors, we were toying with the idea to extend the ‘World Economic Forum’ concept around the industrial revolutions. We planned 5 EP’s, each with a variance of the song “Industry 4.0” alongside new tracks. However, once “0” was out, we no longer had the urge to release these foreseen EP’s. We both felt it was simply not enough and, to be honest, it was close to being even pointless. After some creative discussions and a Belgian beer or 2 (make that 4) an album felt better, more significant and certainly in the afterglow of “0”, unfinished business.

The album indeed draws inspiration from the World Economic Forum in Davos. How did this influence shape the themes and musical direction of “Forum”?

Passenger A&S: It is in fact almost never the theme itself that shapes the songs or the direction. We mostly start from a sample, a sound, or a title. While building the song we come across other sounds and samples and even then what we had in mind to start with could turn out totally different from that. “Forum” is an album which is not as dark as its predecessor, but you can surely put it alongside the atmosphere and direction of it.

Tracks like “Happy Nothing”, “The Great Reset”, and “Infotainment” showcase your melodic side. Can you discuss the inspiration and creative process behind these particular songs?

Passenger A&S: These 3 songs all started from a totally different base. “Happy Nothing” came from a textual idea, whereas “The Great Reset” was built on a sampled baseline and “Infotainment” started from a melody. While melodies are a continuum of Metroland’s way of working, we don’t really have 1 way to go about a song, nor do we start together in the studio every time. It is quite possible that a Passenger comes up with a demo or a loop of a few seconds.

“Forum” includes experimental song structures and fresh sounds. What new techniques or approaches did you explore in this album that differ from your previous work?

Passenger A&S: Every album is an occasion to broaden our sound palette and discover new electronics. However, we never set out from the start with a clear goal; it mainly comes along during the creative process; our more ‘experimental’ side you could say. Sometimes, we even delete parts of a song or a sound, and yes, even sometimes a complete song is being omitted. We have around 5 to 6 songs that never make it on a release, and we never re-use any of these either. We do have our special things and tricks that we tend to do with shifting notes, trying different layers or strange effects. But we never look back, never try to copy something from our past, or use any of the sounds we used before. Every new release is a fresh new audio canvas where we use different approaches in sound scaping.

The EP “Industry” features different versions of the industrial revolutions, culminating in a 10-minute epic experience on the CD edition. How did you conceptualize and create this multi-part industrial journey?  And why these different versions always between CD, digital, vinyls… it’s quite conceptual for METROLAND isn’t it?

Passenger A&S: Apart from the music, there is art, there is concept, there is hard work. So, if you “only” want digital, you might get less. We strongly believe in the item as an entity to complete our message. It is only by holding, reading the booklet and seeing the full package that you understand what that message ought to be. Digital platforms should be an argument to buy a physical version on an album and not “the end”. We want to deliver value to those who appreciate it. That requires much more input from our end, more songs, more art, but in the end, it brings much more value. And yes, this is a harsh view, we confirm. But since we entered the music business in 2012 with “Mind The Gap” we get the appraisal for that from our loyal fan base.

Your music often reflects a blend of innovation and nostalgia. How do you balance these elements to create a sound that feels both fresh and rooted in the vintage electronic tradition?

Passenger A&S: It is the blend of our very rich background and music collectors from 80s to modern, from dark wave to electronics and everything in-between that results in the typical Metroland sound. Where Passenger S is inspired by dark music but loves the high-pitched sequences, Passenger A loves club stuff but prefers not to make things too jolly. We push each other in both directions and extremes, but we meet each other in the middle. It is that synergy that keeps us going, that delivers that Metroland attitude.

The tracks “Activity as a Timetrigger,” “Baukultur,” and “Quantum” continue the trajectory set by “Industry.” Can you delve into the themes and messages you wanted to convey through these electro-infused pieces?

Passenger A&S: We never thought of it that way. We never make a song, deliberately thinking of a message or a link with another album track. We do read and discuss often about the concept and about what would/could be the right direction to take, both music and art wise. Things just happen, albeit everything is linked to the theme. The current concept we are creating songs for is basically an easy one, opens a lot of opportunities, but is the hardest one for us to give it the right approach in art, when looking at all our endeavours.

As a duo, how do Passenger A and Passenger S collaborate in the studio? Can you share some insights into your creative dynamic and how it influenced the making of “Forum”?  And how different is it for both of you compared to your respective solo-projects?

Passenger A&S: Usually, we meet up weekly in the Underground Studio and work on no matter what upcoming release. There is never any pressure, but once someone holds the final result, he or she can be sure that everything is meticulously planned to the hilt, from every little stroke of art to the very last second of every song. But we never follow the same pattern or path; nor for music nor for art, and the further we can step outside of the box the more we like it!  The solo-projects are clearly without the influences of the other Passenger and music wise, although both electronic, it is very different for 90% (some things are in our DNA and we cannot ignore it. But that feels natural after working together for more than 30 years). The biggest difference is that the synthpop from 808 DOT POP (Passenger S) is built around concepts and more sequence based, whereas LECTREAU (Passenger A) works in singles only and aims for the club floors. The mutual aspect is electronics; that will remain a fact, no matter what.

Side-Line also covered Metroland’s ‘Cooperation’.

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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Ten years after the release of “Black Out the Sun” (Metropolis Records, 2014) the San Francisco, California-based act Everything Goes Cold returns with a brand new single, “Nadir”.

“Nadir” was released today on all digital and streaming platforms through Pittsburgh’s own Distortion Productions. Everything Goes Cold worked with Inhalt’s Matia Simovich to produce the
single. A remix by Susan Subtract of Physical Wash is also included next to an instrumental version.

A new music video to complement the single is out as well and was directed by Gabriel Roland, longtime live visualist for Everything Goes Cold.

You can download the 3-track single right below from Bandcamp.

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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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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The legendary Belgian label Antler returns. Pioneering in the 80s and 90s and an absolute vanguard in the world of post-punk, cold- and new wave, EBM, electro… a series of albums and compilations from the extensive Antler archives are now being re-released. Following the earlier released remastered version of the double album of the Limburg Cold Wavers Siglo XX, a first compilation of tracks from the early period of the label: “Antler Records – Early Years Vol. 1” is now following.

Roland Beelen: “For almost half a century, Antler has been my life, my love, and my soul. I founded Antler Records more than 40 years ago. In the early days, I was not only chasing my own dreams, but those of many new and groundbreaking bands in Belgium in an exciting new world of music and an emerging music scene. After the collaboration with Maurice Engelen, there was no turning back. Our label has broken barriers in many different genres with our joint forces, from dark electro, EBM, pop, dance and techno, singer-songwriter to even reggae. It’s now 2023 and I’m proud to put parts of this legacy back in the spotlight with a series of releases and reissues. After more than 40 years, Antler will come back to life and bring joy to all fans who have cherished the label over the years.”

The history of Antler

Neue Sachlichkeit and their single “Ice/Painless Rage” was the last release on Roland Beelen’s Kleo Label and came out in 1981. It also became the first release on the Antler label founded after a meeting in café De Knoet in Aarschot with Maurice Engelen. Kleo Records became Antler Records and both gentlemen entered into a collaboration that would last until 2005. Beelen had a serious accident and withdrew from the music biz in 2005, Engelen continued with Praga Khan and Lords of Acid.

In 1995, Antler (by then transformed into Antler-Subway Records) entered into a collaboration with EMI Records. The legendary Belgian alternative-new wave catalog was supplemented with a series of striking and still current and unforgettable Belpop hits in 2023. From 1995 onwards, even more Belgian and international hits were scored and millions of records and CDs were sold, including Black Uhuru, 2 Fabiola, Kate Ryan, Milk Inc, Lasgo, Ian van Dahl, but also Praga Khan, Lords of Acid and in Belgium Leopold 3)

With the disappearance of EMI Records and EMI Music, the label was swept under the rug, archives were lost and Antler eventually ended up at Warner Music via Universal after wanderings.

Starman Records acquired the right from Warner Music in 2022 to use the name Antler and Antler-Subway again to breathe new life into the more than 40-year-old label. Two compilations (vinyl only) with the rarest and long-lost tracks from the early Antler period were compiled by Lieven De Ridder (Walhalla Records) with the greatest care and remastered by Pieter De Wagter. The first of these: “Antler Records – Early Years Vol. 1” will be released on January 5, 2024.

The logo has now a very sustainable green colour.

Siglo XX returns as well, more or less

Also to be re-released on Antler will be the Siglo XX “Double album” which is the last album of the Limburg coldwave band that appeared on the Antler label. The release is the result of the last artistic collaboration between Roland Beelen and Siglo XX in the mid-1980s. The record is considered a masterpiece and numerous renowned artists from the then Belgo-Manchester Scene collaborated on it.

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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German musician Mike Erkau started making music forty years ago now! He got involved with multiple projects like Trackologists, Cosmic Noise Crew, Stimulus Response and his own sonic alter-ego The_Empath. Earlier this year Mike Erkau stroke back with the first new studio-album in eight years. “Black Holes” also is the first album released by Audiophob. This opus is a genius composition which is mixing good-old Ambient-Electro together with a more contemporary IDM touch; a kind of retro-futuristic voyage which might appeal for fans of Tangerine Dream and clock dva. I talked with Mike about this The_Empath masterpiece which took some time to get accomplished. This is without a shadow of a doubt one of the best albums from the year.

(Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)

Q: I noticed you started dealing with Electronic music in 1993. What did you keep in mind from your early experiments and compositions and what remains today from the musician you were at that time?

Mike: It is a great challenge to consistently follow your path, to find your own style and to remain true to yourself. Not to lose sight of the big picture. To keep your heart and your antennae open for new things. Curiosity.

To think outside the box. To be inspired across all genre boundaries. It’s like picking flowers away from the mainstream. Searching for sounds and musical structures that touch something somewhere deep inside yourself. Playing around, recreating, adapting, taking apart, picking apart, recombining to find out what it does to you, and what it might do to others. To share with soulmates and walk a path together. Taking perspectives, approaches into your own toolbox. Learning and getting better. That’s exciting.

I see music as the perfect catalyst for any emotion, both positive and negative. In doing so, the balance should always point in the positive direction, because that generates the necessary energy for my musical journey. It’s an ongoing process.

Q: I read your newest The_Empath album “Black Hole” took you a while to achieve. Can you give us more details about the concept and composition of the album? What did you try to express?

Mike: The original idea for “Black Hole” came up back in 2016. At various festivals I heard some musicians whose music appealed to me a lot, and I felt like trying out collaborations with them.

Originally, it was supposed to be 6 sound structures of 12 minutes each, the theme was already called “Black Hole”, in the astronomical sense. The desire was to find out how something like that could sound. So I had 12-minute sound collages sent to me, which I wanted to use as a basis for adapting, refining and expanding them. A perfect playground, so far, so good.

A couple of massive impacts in the private sphere and the events that overruled everything valid until then  in the years 2020 to 2022 threw me completely off track and pulled me emotionally into a deep black hole.

The rat race was stopped, no one could tell where it was going, unforeseeable consequences. Omnipresent powerlessness and ambivalence. Social, ethical and moral upheavals and everywhere only masked insecure, dissatisfied, annoyed and angry people.

The mourning for the many dead, while others stuffed their pockets. The emotional hell for empathic people. “Lost Your Cygnal”, “Ergosphere” and “Supermassiph” are the most impressive sound documents for it. Luckily I always had the Cosmic Noise Crew around me at that time, and we used the lockdowns to revise the concept for the album in the studio, to explore sounds and to bring everything down to a good denominator.
That helped me a lot to get out of that black hole and not lose sight of the stars. To think positively. Examples of this are “Utopia”, “Star Cradle”, “Hypernova” and “Southern Hemisphere”.

Q: The concept of black holes seems to be a perfect source of inspiration for Ambient music but how did you proceed to transpose the concept into sounds, noises and finally songs? And can you tell us a bit more about the equipment you used?

Mike: I experimented with my hardware synths for a while in the beginning, but somehow it all sounded too ‘earthly’, too limited. In 2016, I only had a very small home studio due to lack of space. So I started chopping up the source collages, looking for loops and micro events on a granular level and creating iterations of them with effects. At the time I was collecting freeware VST’s – and experimenting my way through over 1000 plugins. Along the way I browsed the internet for sound samples -there are quite a few sound documents that have been made available to the public by NASA. Among them are recordings of the Cassini probes and radio wave emissions from supermassive black holes, e.g. TON 618, a distant, bright quasar in the constellation of the hunting dogs, or the black hole in the Perseus galaxy cluster. These cosmic sound machines can be experienced by human hearing through translation.

In 2019 I had begun to build a sound spaceship into my apartment, just as I had always wanted since 1993. Stuffed with hardware sound generators covering a spectrum of synthesis types as wide as possible. Just like in a spaceship cockpit.

In recent years, a lot of good hardware has come on the market, which is above all also affordable, as well as tons of ingenious VST plugins. I use these depending on my mood, controlled by a Novation KS5 as a master keyboard. As a mixer I use a Behringer X32Rack + S16, for the USB stuff a Swissonic 1916 with Sub Hub’s. It really wasn’t until 2020 that I had all the technical requirements in place to be able to use all these options at will. And that without hitting technical limits during every studio session.

The following hardware sound generators were used on the album, among others: Access Virus Indigo, Clavia Nordlead 2, Korg MS20 mini, Novation KS5, Arturia Microbrute + Microfreak, Waldorf Blofeld + Streichfett, Doepfer MS404, Roland GAIA, Behringer Neutron + Pro-1. VST plugins: Sonic Charge, GForce, NI Absynth(!) + Reaktor, Spire, Sylenth, Valhalla, Arturia V-Collection etc.

When I look back to 1993 – oh man. With my beloved Amiga500 with 1MB RAM and Clarity Sampler, Doepfer MS404, Novation Bass-Station Rack and Korg DW8000 with the most rickety keyboard I’ve ever experienced -without the possibilities of any audio warping and DAW controllers, let alone boundlessly huge sample libraries and tons of VST’s. You had to be inventive and willing to experiment and have fun doing it. At that time, you couldn’t buy creativity, and you still can’t.

Q: You invited a few guest artists to collaborate on three tracks from the album. I’m especially wondered how the track together with Heimstatt Yipotash happened as both of you are still involved in Trackologists? What made this collaboration different? And do you still have further plans with Trackologists?

Mike: At that time I was already on the road for a while as a VJ with the guys from Heimstatt Yipotash and we hatched the idea for a joint music project on a trip to a gig. When I started with “Black Hole”, the first Trackologists album  (cf. “No Surrender, No Retreat”) was just finished, and while rummaging through the huge collection of material, I stumbled across leftovers, field recordings and experiments, a few tracks played several times slower and so on. I then processed them further, added more layers to them and expanded them. I simply wanted to have these sounds on “Black Hole”. The special thing about our collaboration was and is that we first and foremost understand and complement each other super humanly and musically and always have a good time together.

YES, there are further plans with Trackologists. After the whole difficult time, which has more or less burdened everyone in all areas, we have resumed the common track. At the moment we are working on a come-back EP and structuring sketches and ideas for a second album, whose theme and name is already fixed. It will follow the first album musically and in terms of content, with more lyrics and a musically more homogeneous concept. This will hopefully be followed, desirably, by a series of gigs where we can really let off steam for ourselves and the audience.

Q: Next to music you also have a true passion and fascination for visual creation. You already did numerous live shows for other artists. Tell us a bit more about this other aspect of your art and do you’ve plans about any kind of imagery for the The_Empath album “Black Hole” (think about live shows, clips…)?

Mike: My fascination for visual design has resulted from the desire to see another media layer at live gigs, complementing and enriching the music, performance and light show. Not necessarily just a flickering background wallpaper, but matching the music, reacting to the music. So to speak an amplifier for the message and thus for the transported emotion.

I started doing that during my studies, for my own tracks and every now and then at parties as a VJ. From 2005 to 2015 I was often on the road with XABEC and learned and got to know immensely. The absolute highlight from this time is still for me the gig at the Maschinenfest 2008 in Krefeld, from which a DVD was created afterwards. I am very grateful for this time. It resulted in many contacts, and when I was up for a festival, I asked friends: ‘hey, can I make a video for you’ and was in the middle of it instead of just being there. Give and take. There were also facade projections for multimedia festivals and a trailer for Tzolk’in.

Working with these techniques is no less complex than creative work with audio, unfortunately at least as time-consuming and was/is often put on the back of the line for cost reasons. I still enjoy producing videos because I like the aesthetics and the interplay. At the moment, however, I’m concentrating more on my own projects.

For “Black Hole” there are no promising ideas for live shows and clips yet due to time constraints.
A dream would be to play the album in planetariums on 3D audio systems. If it comes so far I am then quite fast with the thing.

Q: You already mentioned Cosmic Noise Crew which is another project you’re involved with. I think it sounds  even more Ambient-driven than The_Empath but what makes the difference to you between all of your projects? And do you’ve specific references and/of ‘masters’ when it comes to this kind of music?

Mike: The difference between the projects is primarily the subject matter and secondarily the intensity of the emotions that are processed with it. For a long time I resisted opening up different pigeonholes and sorting my emotions into them. However, it became increasingly difficult for me to bring all this into one mould, and for the listeners it was certainly not easy to classify it. Mixing my musical preferences for aesthetic soothing sounds alternately with brute beats and noises, I was fortunately able to get away from this by splitting up into different projects. Cosmic Noise Crew clearly has Ambient, healing musical structures and sounds as its goal, where inspiration and the musical socialization of several players come into play and complement each other. With Trackologists it’s more forward, also sometimes straight in your face -full speed ahead. Here we act out, with a view to content and sound aesthetics, but without destroying. We put in the texts many clues between the lines for the people who are looking for it. To hold up the mirror, but not only to others, but starting with ourselves.

The_Empath I need as an island for myself, but on which everyone is welcome at any time, who is able to enrich this project with positive energy.

References and masters, a tricky question to finish. I can only answer for myself. I would say to be a reference deserves everything that combines the attributes honest, technically brilliant, creative, surprising, expanding the horizon, rousing and emotional. The list is endless, and it never stops growing. My master is the universe.

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

www.side-line.com

(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…

Side-Line also covered Jean-Marc Lederman’s ‘Sci-Fi Revisited’.

About Fad Gadget

Frank Tovey (8 September 1956 – 3 April 2002), an English electronic musician and performance artist, recorded as Fad Gadget, becoming the first artist signed to Daniel Miller’s Mute Records after the two met at the Rough Trade shop in London. His recorded work combined synthesizers with found-object sounds and dark, comic lyrics. Studio albums as Fad Gadget include “Fireside Favourites” (1980), “Incontinent” (1981), “Under the Flag” (1982) and “Gag” (1984), after which he continued recording under his own name, releasing six further albums on Mute between 1985 and 1992. He died of a heart attack at his London home in 2002.

Belgian musician Jean-Marc Lederman played with Fad Gadget in the band’s touring lineup during the early-to-mid 1980s and has recounted memories of touring with Tovey, Daniel Miller and DAF’s Chrislo Haas in interviews, describing Tovey as bringing something unheard in electronic music at the time. Lederman has credited Daniel Miller and Fad Gadget’s early-1980s touring band, including Chrislo Haas of DAF, as formative to his own career.

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

When Brexit struck in 2020 it meant a lot of problems for UK labels to keep their activity up and running from an export point of view. Brexit was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) on 31 January 2020 which resulted in a stream of customs declarations, mandatory safety and security certificates, etc.. One of the victims of these changes was Resurrection Records which had to put a halt on its EU distribution activities via the scene’s main distributor in the EU, Audioglobe.

After 2 years, the UK label has now solved all issues and will again be distributed via Audioglobe, and that already includes two Inkubus Sukkubus albums, the all new album “She of a Thousand Names” (their 27th album) and the 2021 production “The Way of the Witch” (their 26th album).

The British gothic rock/pagan rock band was founded in 1989 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire by Candia Ridley, Tony McKormack, and Adam Henderson. The group currently consists of guitarist Tony McKormack (ex-Screaming Dead), vocalist Candia McKormack and bassist Roland Link. The band uses a drum machine and sequencer to provide percussion and orchestral backing. They also perform as a fully acoustic act with Abigail Blackman on cello, Nick Gibbs on violin, and Marcus Gilvear on drums.

This is the teaser for their newest 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!

side-line.com

Roland Orzabal (60) and Curt Smith (60), also known as Tears for Fears, have announced a North American tour set to take place this summer.

A continuation of last year’s trek, “The Tipping Point Tour Part II” will visit 22 cities, starting on June 22nd. The tour’s itinerary includes notable shows at venues such as Madison Square Garden in New York City, Bethel Woods Center for the Arts in Bethel, NY, Moody Center in Austin, TX, and the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. Cold War Kids will provide support for the entirety of the tour.

Tickets can be bought right here.

Last year, Tears for Fears released “The Tipping Point”, their first studio album in 17 years. The duo decided around 2016 that it was time for new music, but their management pushed them to make an album full of hit attempts. That album was never released, although it was completed. The ‘lost’ album led to the contact between the two fading again until Orzabal’s new partner pushed for action in early 2020, just before the pandemic. Orzabal went to Smith with an acoustic guitar on his back, and the duo recorded all sessions on an iPhone.

Tears For Fears 2023 Tour Dates

• 06/23 – Atlantic City, NJ – Hard Rock Live at Etess Arena
• 06/24 – Uncasville, CT – Mohegan Sun Arena
• 06/26 – New York, NY – Madison Square Garden
• 06/29 – Toronto, ON – Budweiser Stage
• 06/30 – Montreal, QC – Place Bell
• 07/02 – Saratoga Springs, NY – Saratoga Performing Arts Center
• 07/05 – Bethel, NY – Bethel Woods Center for the Arts
• 07/07 – Virginia Beach, VA – Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheatre
• 07/08 – Raleigh, NC – Coastal Credit Union Music Park at Walnut Creek
• 07/11 – Franklin, TN – FirstBank Amphitheater
• 07/13 – St. Louis, MO – Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre STL
• 07/14 – Kansas City, MO – Starlight Theatre
• 07/16 – Houston, TX – Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
• 07/17 – Austin, TX – Moody Center
• 07/20 – Denver, CO – Ball Arena
• 07/22 – Portland, OR – RV Inn Style Resorts Amphitheater
• 07/24 – Vancouver, BC – Pepsi Live at Rogers Arena
• 07/26 – Bend, OR – Hayden Homes Amphitheater
• 07/27 – Seattle, WA – Climate Pledge Arena
• 07/29 – Sacramento, CA – Toyota Amphitheater
• 08/01 – Palm Springs, CA – Acrisure Arena
• 08/02 – Los Angeles, CA – Hollywood Bowl

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

Genre/Influences: Electro, Ambient, Pop.

Format: Digital.

Background/Info: Set up in 2017 by Chris Shortt (Verin) and Roland Zwaga (Acidrodent, Construct) Krate has already released a few productions. For their new work they got joined by contributors Anatoly Grinberg (Dead Voices On Air), drummer Dan Milligan (The Joy Thieves) plus members of Bow Ever Down, Slighter, Liquid Black Goo and Numbered Men.

Content: The work is diversified and hard to label. Every single song sounds a bit like a new sonic exploration; the common threat might be the atmospheric dimension of the songs which is now carried by D’n’B patterns, then by a kind of Ambient-Pop approach and next a very evasive sensation.

+ + + : What I mostly like is the poignant dark sphere supporting the songs. It sounds a bit like announcing a nearby disaster which is mainly emerging at “Horizon Sinking” and “The Needle”. I also want to mention the passages featuring ghost-like vocals which are accentuating the obscure touch of the work.

– – – : Despite of their efforts and multiple contributors the work is however missing a true climax.

Conclusion: I think there’s more potential hidden in this band than what came out here.

Best songs: at “Horizon Sinking”, “The Needle”.

Rate: 6.

Artist: www.facebook.com/KrateBand Read the news on ‘It’s The Hope That Kills You’.

About Krate

Krate is a Dutch electro-industrial project formed in 2017 by Chris Shortt (Verin) and Roland Zwaga (Acidrodent, Construct). The pair originally set out to build a dark ambient project, then added a rhythmic element that pushed the sound toward dark electro and industrial beats. “It’s The Hope That Kills You”, released in 2022, is the project’s fourth release, a five-track EP featuring Anatoly Grinberg (Dead Voices On Air) and drummer Dan Milligan (The Joy Thieves) on the title track, with other tracks featuring members of Bow Ever Down, Slighter, Liquid Black Goo and Numbered Men.

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

www.side-line.com

Akustikkoppler  is the sonic symbiosis between two, legendary, German, Electronic, artists. Matthias Schuster (Das Institut, Bal Paré, Geisterfahrer, Im Namen Des Volkes ao) and Malte Steiner (Notstandskomitee, Das Kombinat ao) once met in Hamburg. Their common passion for electronic gear brought them to set up Akustikkoppler. They this year released the project’s fourth full length album “Alles Muβ Raus” which can be defined as styled, minimal, electronic music. The work has been released by Malte’s own label Block 4. I asked a few questions to both artists.

(Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)

Q: You guys have been involved with numerous projects so what incited you working together and set up Akustikkoppler? 

Malte: We met when I was living in Hamburg, I think it was in the Hörbar, a place for experimental music which I founded with some others in the early 90s and that still exists. Our common love for synthesizers and experience of studio production alone can result in long conversations but also our shared preference of weird music and art. And then of course the whole history of Matthias and his role in German New-Wave / Post-Punk…

Matthias: Yes we met at Hamburg Hörbar and later on I have heard about Maltes projects and art installations and was amazed about the videos and music from Das Kombinat, Notstandskomitee etc etc

Q: What makes the chemistry and complementarity between the both of you? What did you learn from each other and how do you work together?

Matthias: At that time I was a pure hardware freak, I had so much vintage synthesizers like Moog, ARP, PPG, KORG, ROLAND etc so I was absolute excited about Maltes software instruments like PureData etc. He even programmed his own software synth, and the sound was amazing!

Malte: When I am in Hamburg we meet in Matthias’ Geisterfahrer Studio, switch on everything and start to improvise. There are no rules or conversations about what we want to achieve. It is just experimenting and then hitting the record button at the right moment, usually one of us yells ‘hit record, it can’t get better’. All is recorded mixed on stereo without any overdub, and I take the files with me into the achieve, and compile albums out of the best tracks and remaster them.

Matthias: I always was interested in making ‘realtime’ music I practiced in the past with Jürgen Weiss, my Geisterfahrer drummer so it was obvious to do that together and let surprise by ourselves and the machines who played us and we played them too.

Q: I noticed your new album “Alles Muβ Raus” features songs that were originally written between 2008 and 2012. That was right at the beginning of the project so why didn’t you release the songs earlier and how was it to work on ‘older’ stuff?

Matthias: Yes, there is no hurry. Malte moved to Denmark, so we only meet sometimes in a year to do one or more sessions and our music is timeless and follows no trends etc…

Malte: Since we both are busy with gazillion other projects, it can takes a while to compile and agree upon an album, years sometimes, and I think we’re living the “Theory Of Obscurity” by The Residents, we often forget the tracks and rediscover them. That and the fact that the vinyl required a year in the pressing plant lead to the perceived delays, but we are not in a hurry anyway. Everyone including the big guys are pressing records, in several editions at once, therefore the smaller labels are put on hold when a Major drops an order for 100.000 records. Anyway, “Alles Muß Raus” is our fourth album, plus there was a 7”.

Q: Tell us a bit more about “Alles Muβ Raus”? What is the work all about and what did you try to express & achieve sound-wise?

Matthias: There’s no concept, but it’s like a concept album I think… a concept album by random.

Malte: I still believe in the album as a concept and art piece and when I suggest a selection of tracks to Matthias, they have to form a journey, a development from start to end. I have access in our archives to material from many years, back to around 2004 when we started to work together so the meaning and overall vibe comes late in the process and not when we record the tracks. For instance the tape “Inspektor” which we released on the French label Serendip Lab I discovered that some tracks formed a Soundtrack to a crime movie in my mind, a very cheesy one, probably from 60s Germany.

Q: Akustikkoppler has this typical vintage sound DNA, which brings us back to the magic of analogue equipment. What’s your perception about the evolution of electronic equipment and the way of composing; from analogue to digital to the cheap software synths and -programs of today?

Matthias: When I started in the early 70s there was no Midi etc only CV/gate which I hated because of the different systems like 1V octave, or Hertz volt etc. Bands like Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, etc… ruled over Electronic music and of course Stockhausen, Pierre Henry, etc

After years of struggling with equipment it was so great to have the first digital machines like PPG Wave, DX7, Atari Computers… Today is best with the mix with software, computers (Apple now) and vintage analogue.

Malte: One reason might be that we both are vintage. It’s decades of music experience which comes together here, we each started long before Techno and even before Hip-Hop became something. I love the development of equipment, it’s amazing what is possible today, especially for a low price. Personally I don’t have any preference. I equally use analogue and digital synthesizers and all kind of computer software, partly stuff I develop on my own. I usually bring some device or software on my laptop to the sessions which Matthias don’t have -which is difficult- just to add another color.

It’s good to have again available all kinds of analogue, digital and modular synthesizers. One major development for me, apart from ‘Machine Learning’ which I use with projects like Notstandskomitee or Elektronengehirn since years, is the rise of resolution in the control-data and therefore improved expressivity.

Q: How do you see yourself as musicians/producers when it comes to self-criticism, perfectionism and eventually criteria and/or references you’re using? And what are the further plans?

Matthias: Of course we will stay in composing/recording process! But we are our own listeners, so the process of criteria is in our own hands, means we decide what will comes out and what not!

Malte: A speciality of Akustikkoppler is that we don’t allow ourselves to edit the tracks except a bit in the mastering process way later, which is complete decoupled from the composing process. Everything is recorded in one go played manually, only with the help of step sequencers and drum computers here and there. That saves us from the perfectionist loop which can destroy creativity, see for instance the latest remarks of Karl Bartos about the arrival of the computer at Kraftwerk’s studio. A story I heard often since the dawn of Midi composition, it is both a blessing and a curse. Something I struggle a bit with at Notstandskomitee, everything can be edited, rerecorded and processed endlessly, it’s difficult to decide to finish a track and let loose. With Akustikkoppler we don’t have that problem.

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

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The Dutch electro-industrial band Krate (Chris Shortt from VERIN and Roland Zwaga from Acidrodent and Construct) is back with their fourth release, the 5-track release “It’s The Hope That Kills You”.

On the title track we find Anatoly Grinberg (Dead Voices On Air) and drummer Dan Milligan (The Joy Thieves). Other tracks feature members of Bow Ever Down, Slighter, Liquid Black Goo and Numbered Men.

The initial concept of the band was to compose a dark ambient project. They both quickly agreed that a rhythmic element would be required to augment the sounds thus far created, leading to the abandonment of the original ambient goal and the introduction of dark electro/industrial beats.

Here’s the video for “And All The Prayers Lost” featuring Anatoly ‘Tokee’ Grinberg and Dan Milligan. Read the review of ‘It’s The Hope That Kills You’.

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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Skren is a German duo driven by ‘Bias’ and ‘Poisa’. Hailing from Düsseldorf they this year self-released their second album “Chaos”. This work comes one year after the debut-full length “Grell” while they also released multiple singles. I discovered an Electronic duo driven by multiple influences like Industrial, Techno and EBM. The fusion between all these elements creates a dark and powerful sound. The production sounds raw and unpolished, but still visionary. This might be the sound for further generations of Electronic artists. Skren definitely deserves a wider attention and recognition so I hope this interview will incite people to discover the ‘analog chaos and digital dust’ made by Skren.

(Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)

Skren: Skren is analog chaos and digital dust. Skren is part of our Industrial Riot-label that includes productions of Electronic music, art and all types of collaborations.

Bias: As a kid I was always listening to music-cassettes that my sisters recorded with 90s stuff like Clawfinger, Type O Negative, NIn, Faith No More. I wrote lyrics taught myself to play the guitar and the drums. I programmed my first midi sequences on and old Roland Groove-box and learned working with a DAW. It was a very creative time with lots of artistic experiments. All my friends also did something with music and we pushed each other to get ahead. After I’ve been involved in various sound-projects Poisa and I started making music together. We got our first synth the Waldorf Blofeld which is still a part of our studio today. We continued making music during my studies at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf and Skren was initiated shortly after the graduation.

Poisa: In my family music and art were always around. I play the piano since the age of 5 and my two older brothers really were into having a band and playing their music in our basement. As a teenager I had to follow my personal taste in music to differentiate myself from the traditional styles of music that surrounded me. Instead of studying music I decided to study fine arts, focusing on sculpture and painting during these years. In my art studies I learned to be able to express myself in any medium. It enabled the liberation of my music from the academic approach and I now make music my art.

Q: I noticed you guys are hailing from Düsseldorf. I instantly think about Kraftwerk, DAF, Die Krupps… but what’s the impact of those artists on younger generations of musicians like Skren?

Poisa: We always get confronted with these artists and the time frame they came up in. The history of these bands is connected to the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf and they leave a strong legacy. We have great respect for these artists and their work. But we don’t continue this tradition, because we’re following a very different expression… more dark, more heavy, more aggressive. We don’t care much about making music in Düsseldorf of all places. Skren’s sound can happen everywhere. Contemporary music is much more interesting for us.

Bias: Only a handful of artists here in the city do Noise, EBM, Hard-Techno and Industrial stuff. The vital places where music developed back in the days aren’t there anymore. Without being disrespectful to the artists you mentioned, but they are already part of the music history with an exhibition in the local museum. For me personally, I respect the pioneering spirit but the influence is very harmless, I need a completely different musical energy.

Q: You already released a few productions so how do you look back at the evolution from the early songs till the “Chaos”-album?

Poisa: Our first attempt producing songs for an album ended up after nearly one year, because we were not satisfied with the sound and the feel of the material. So we had to reset the whole setup and workflow to start with a new mindset. We refreshed our gear and ended up in changing the vocals from English to German which helped us a lot to become more direct and authentic and in this state the “Grell”-album happened almost naturally. It was the first collection of songs that made up sense as an album to us and defined a direction we could imagine to continue and build up on.

Bias: The “Chaos”-album developed more under an over-all vision we had. Sound-wise, lyrically and visually we both had some plans where we wanted to go. But the production was a little difficult for both of us and we struggled a lot to finalize the different production steps. But in the end we are very proud of the result with all the different musical directions it opens up for us, and how it comes together with the video visuals and the artwork. With every single production we got more into synth- and production-techniques.

Q: I think you perfectly exposed the theme of “Chaos” by the artwork of the album… which is pure chaos! What did you try to express by the title and the artwork and how do you transform the theme of chaos into music?

Bias: For me the title “Chaos” is a term to set the outline for the scenario that opens up within the album. I felt like existing in a world where it is hard to find reliable and consistent points to orientate oneself. The constant uncertainty about the future and the feeling of powerlessness in the face of events has helped me to shape the vision for the album. The songs reflect different situations to face this chaos.

Poisa: The title song “Chaos” is about this totally functional system that is so controlled and efficient. It is always pushing forward up to the limit, highly technical and everything gets swept away in a current. But a small change can bring this whole system into trouble, into a total loss of control. I like the idea of destruction and the search for a fresh start. When you have to rethink your routine and discover new perspectives. It is a struggle which is always present in life especially as a visual artist who in this world first fulfills no purpose at all except to ask questions. For me our music and the artwork represent this struggle. The structured elements get counteracted by parts which happened by accident. The confrontation of opposing parts and the intentional loss of control is our way to integrate chaos into the music.

Q: Your sound is featuring multiple influences, but how do you perceive this work? What’s the input of each member and what have been the main difficulties when writing and producing this album?

Bias: The multiple influences that can be heard in our music certainly result from the different music styles we listen to and from the interest in playing various instruments. When we produce music we try to follow the requirements of the song. It’s not about adapting our music to a certain genre. Therefore Skren’s sound is open to various influences. And of course this is audible in the music. That is how we define Industrial for us. It is a form of mixing different elements together to achieve contrast and friction. My musical approach is basically to transport feelings and moods and to give them expression. I do the vocals, write the lyrics, and come up with guitar ideas and drum-sounds. And I do additional synth programming, sample work and most of the technical side of mixing and mastering. When it comes to arrangement and mixing and mastering we sit down together and listen to what we prefer the most.

The main difficulties in writing the “Chaos”-album were to bring all the different parts together to achieve our sound and distill the essence from all the ideas.

Poisa: I do most of the synth stuff like programming sounds and sequencing basslines or lead patterns. And I also play the bass in some songs. I do the counterpart during arranging, mixing and mastering and listen from a more distant perspective. I often take on the subtractive part in the band. When we have collected a lot of material for a song, it is often my job to shorten and reduce in order to come to a straighter musical line.

Q: Skren seems to be a pure DIY (do it yourself) formation, but how important is it to you to stay ‘independent’ and would you consider singing to a label? What brings the future by the way?

Bias: Doing everything on our own is the most direct way to immediately express everything we want to as an artist. The independency we have is good for us and we really can work on stuff in our tempo without thinking about deadlines and fitting into defined categories. But working independently is very time-consuming. The whole organization to exploit all possibilities for people to get to know our music requires a lot of energy that we would rather spend in the studio. For this it would be advantageous to have a professional partner who takes over these tasks.

Poisa: For the future we are open for any kind of collaboration if it pushes Skren to new and exciting directions. Currently we are working on new material for future releases and we are preparing a set for a live scenario. So we hope to hit some stages soon. 

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

www.side-line.com

Out on October 7th is “Psychopuppets”, the new album by the legendary Leuven based post-punk band Soviet War.

The release comes out on Track & Traces, a sister label of Starman Records founded by veteran Roland Beelen (Antler). Via Tracks & Traces Beelen releases material from artists who at the same time have strong roots in the past and enough creativity to produce new material in the present. Previous albums have been released by, among others, TB Frank & Baustein, TV Smith, Honeymoon Cowboys (Siglo XX) and Suns of Arqa.

Included on the release is archive and live material from the early 80’s, plus new material. The band is also touring again and recently played support for The Stranglers in Het Depot , Leuven.

Formed as The Soviets the primitive punk of the early years evolved into post-punk, as a result the band changed their name to Soviet War. The band recorded a cassette ‘Bootleg’ and sold hundreds of copies at concerts, but when the Anything But label put one of their songs, “The Nuthouse”, on its compilation “No Big Business 2” the band also recorded “Just a Story” during the same sessions. The track would end up on the “Koude Golven” compilation. In 1982 a second recording session resulted in the single “It became a problem/Guns for fun” on the same Anything But label and two other unreleased tracks, which you can finally find on this LP.

In early 1983, guitarist Leon left and the band split up. 36 years later, in 2019, Soviet War reformed with the three remaining original members, Bergy, Tirre and Zip joined by new guitarist Koen. Corona prevented their comeback concert from taking place, Instead they started work on new songs. As soon as the live circuit regained some breathing space in the autumn of 2021, concerts finally followed.

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 via Sequential) This news got in our spam folder unfortunately, but the synthesizer company Sequential has informed that Dave Smith, its founder, has died at the age of 72 on May 31st. The news was announced on June 2nd. The Sequential website posted this: “We’re heartbroken, but take some small solace in knowing he was on the road doing what he loved best in the company of family, friends, and artists.”

Until his death he was collaborating with fellow engineer Tom Oberheim on a brand-new synth, the Oberheim OB-X8. The collaboration was to be the second between the two synthesis pioneers, after 2016’s OB-6.

Smith, who had degrees in both Computer Science and Electronic Engineering from UC Berkeley, founded Sequential Circuits in 1974. In 1977 he designed the Prophet 5, the world’s first microprocessor-based musical instrument and also the first programmable polyphonic synth. Sequential went on to become one of the most successful music synthesizer manufacturers of the time.

The father of MIDI

In 1981 Smith set out to create a standard protocol for communication between electronic musical instruments from different manufacturers worldwide. He presented a paper outlining the idea of a Universal Synthesizer Interface (USI) to the Audio Engineering Society (AES) in 1981 after meetings with Tom Oberheim and Roland founder Ikutaro Kakehashi. The new standard was introduced as “Musical Instrument Digital Interface” (MIDI) at the Winter NAMM Show in 1983, when a Sequential Circuits Prophet-600 was successfully connected to a Roland Jupiter-6.

After Sequential, Smith was President of DSD, Inc, a Research and Development Division of Yamaha, where he worked on physical modeling synthesis and software synthesizer concepts. In May 1989 he started the Korg R&D group in California, which went on to produce the Wavestation synthesizer and other technology.

Smith went on to serve as president at Seer Systems and developed the world’s first software based synthesizer running on a PC. This synth, commissioned by Intel, was demonstrated by Andy Grove in a Comdex keynote speech in 1994. The second generation of this software synthesizer sold over 10 million copies, as a result of being licensed to Creative Labs in 1996.

In 2002, Smith launched Dave Smith Instruments, a manufacturer of electronic musical instruments.

Here’s an interview with Smith on MIDI.

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 Nicklas Lundqvist) Out via Silent Future Recordings, but already exclusively streaming on Side-Line is the newest release by the Swedish gothic-rock band, De Arma: their new “Nightcall” EP.

The EP comes fresh off the heels of their second album, “Strayed in Shadows”, and offers three songs featuring Andreas Pettersson and Maria Oja on vocals. You get a mix of elements from metal music infused with layers of cold, 80s synth melodies also introducing darkwave elements.

Andreas Pettersson, the vocalist and co-founder of De Arma, explains: “While such tracks as “After Dark, You’re There” capture the heavy presentation we used to explore in the past, others, like “Shame Drifter” sounds completely different. Instead of an acoustic drum kit, we’ve been experimenting with some old-school drum samples courtesy of Roland and Korg.”

The “Nightcall” EP is available on limited digipak-CD and coloured vinyl with artwork by Boris Groh.

Check out the release right below.

About De Arma

De Arma was founded in 2009 by guitarist, vocalist, and bass player Andreas Pettersson. After enlisting drummer Johan Marklund, the duo recorded three tracks for “Towards the Shores of the End” (Nordvis), a 2011 split with British band Fen. In the very earliest incarnation of De Arma, the founder’s black metal roots
shine through quite a bit. But there were also plenty of musical elements present which remain a fixture in the band’s sound today.

Later that year, encouraged by the positive response to the split release, De Arma wrote a full-length record drifted further away from black metal and into the realms of gothic rock. “Lost, Alien & Forlorn” (Trollmusic) was released in February 2013.

A follow-up album was composed in its entirety over the months following the debut. Unfortunately, ulterior obligations delayed its completion until 2021, when De Arma unveiled “Strayed in Shadows” (Trollmusic). The second chapter saw the band explore a wide spectrum of music – from gothic metal to synthwave, even pop music.

To round off an already eventful year, De Arma entered a multi-album collaboration with Swedish label Silent Future Recordings.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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

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Eighteen years after their last release, “Everybody Loves A Happy Ending”, Tears For Fears – the duo consisting of Roland Orzabal (60) en Curt Smith (60) – are back with an all new album, “The Tipping Point”. But it took a lot of hurdles as quarrels and personal misery had to be braved before the band could finally release a new album.

Quarrels and personal misery

Orzabal’s wife for instance passed away in 2017 after developing alcohol-related dementia. Orzabal also strugled with alcohol and had to entered rehab. Keeping writing songs kept him going. But that was not the only thing that kep the band from reforming.

After a time full of hits, the group collapsed in 1990 after thirty million records sold. The two lost contact for 9 long years. It was only when the two got back in touch because of “a shared business interest” that the ice broke. After a few years of tinkering with new music, a comeback album, “Everybody Loves A Happy Ending”, was released in 2004, but sales were disappointing.

Shelved hit album

However, with the arrival of streaming platforms such as Spotify, the popularity of Tears For Fears suddenly increased. Tears For Fears songs started popping up as samples in songs. Rappers like Kanye West, Drake and Nas, bands like Weezer and singers like Lorde got away with it. The duo decided around 2016 that it was time for new music but their management pushed them to make an album full of hit attempts. That album was never released although it was completed.

The ‘lost’ album made that the contact between the two faded again until Orzabal’s new partner pushed for action in early 2020, just before the pandemic. Orzabal went to Smith with an acoustic guitar on his back and the duo recorded all sessions on an iPhone.

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

Set up in 1991 by Torsten Schröder (vocals, drums) and Erick Miotke (keyboards), Trial gained instant success in the early 90s with their EP “Blut Und Eisen” and the debut album “Zero Feeling”. The icy EBM/Dark-Electro sound of the German formation became part of the collective EBM memory. A few more albums saw the daylight, but never reached a similar success. The band however remained a true reference even thirty years later. Electro Aggression Records recently released a massive box featuring three CD’s and one DVD as a celebration to Trial’s thirtieth anniversary. “Für Zwei” is a way to rediscover this unique formation, which also had a great live reputation. I got in touch with Erick Miotke and asked him several questions about the great TRIAL adventure, but also about the future…

(Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)

Q: You this year celebrate your thirtieth anniversary by the massive release “Für Zwei” featuring 3 CD’s and 1 DVD. This production doesn’t only feel as an anniversary tribute, but still a consecration! What does it mean to you and how did this production saw the daylight?

Erick: Wow, ‘consecration’ is a great word! Thank you very much. For me it is the last chapter of the Trial project. There were too much loose ends I didn’t want to leave behind like they weren’t worth to be tied up.

The first of the three CDs: “Für Zwei” connects the work of the last phase of the band and a solid conclusion to the project. In 2009 we finished the EP “Für Zwei” with four mixes of the title track and a bonus track for a release that unfortunately didn‘t take place anymore.

For the 20th anniversary in 2011 I wanted to release the best-of “Classic Anthology”, which was specially remastered in 2009 at Timetools mastering as a double CD with a collection of all unreleased tracks as well as various contributions to samplers. But like the planned appearance at the Amphi-Festival in 2011, this was rejected by Torsten. Under these circumstances, of course, it made no sense for me to show any further commitment to the project.

With Jens Müller, the follow-up project TRILOGY started in 2012, which can be seen as a direct continuation, both musically and lyrically, I am the author of the very most Trial back-catalogue that has been published up to then.

I looked through all the data from Trial in my archive in 2018 and stumbled upon the preselection of “Für Zwei”. Since over the years I was asked again and again about possible new material or even live shows, I made an overview of all available material for quite some time and derived an extract from it. When the tracks were fixed, I tweaked the ones that had already been completed. The actually time-consuming work then consisted of working out the selected basic demos or improvisations into finished tracks or remixes. These were at least 10 in number, so an album in itself in terms of effort.

The process took months and was associated with many mixed feelings; ups and downs. I couldn‘t always go straight to the tracks. And I was always impressed by the potential of this band -and of course frustrated by the sudden end. Since I don‘t like to give up, of course I went through with it. Because it‘s important to me that Trial ends with a straight standing and doesn‘t just sneak out the back door. A little later, if you like, as you can see now.

Under the given circumstances, I am very satisfied with the result: “Für Zwei” is not just ‘rests’ and offers those interested a full new Trial experience. At this point, it is very important for me to mention our mastering studio Timetools from Hanover with ‘our’ engineer Mo Heidrich, because only there the final full sound is created, which only professionals of this league can forge from the existing material.

I see mastering as an elementary component such as sound design, composition or vocals. So I am very happy with the result and can finally finish with TRIAL in its old form. A lot of shadows and a lot of pain fell from me when I was able to celebrate the final master loudly. Very good. We never give up.

Q: Let’s get back to the origins of the band. How do you look back at the first steps of Trial and how important has been the meeting with Kai Lotze?

Erick: Characterized by Skinny Puppy, Front Line Assembly and Front 242 ‘sang’, or rather Torsten roared a few improvised lines after a rehearsal of our than actual band The Crybabies with Gunnar Duvenhorst, completely free on my first demo-track. inspired by the vocals of Skinny Puppy and Panthera. Gunnar heard this and said ironically before leaving the practice room after the rehearsal: ‘hard as kruppstahl, or what!?’ For me it was about the fight of the machines against humans; fiction, as thematically edited in some of the films that were current at the time and are to this day.

Torsten and I recorded this track in the session room of the Garbsen music school with my Philips d8134 ghettoblaster. This device recorded an astonishingly good sound. At the time my equipment consisted of an Ensoniq Esq1 and a Roland Boss dr-22a drum computer. Torsten used an Alesis effect rack for the reverb on the voice. So we started absolutely free and as young fans of Dark-Electronic music.

We had our first gig only 6 weeks after starting off.  Immediately after the first gig in the Ujz Langenhagen, Hanover, we were approached by Kai Lotze, who at the time was freshly active as a manager building up Project Pitchfork and its first album. After a short talk and mutual sympathy, we sealed a collaboration for TRIAL that lasted until 2011 with a handshake.

Q: Trial became an instant success; you got directly signed to Hypnobeat; the EP “Blut Und Eisen” and the album “Zero Feeling” became successful productions. What made the success formula of TRIAL and did you handle specific criteria and references in the writing/production of your music?

Erick:I don’t think there was a formula for the success, more a true compassion to what we did. We were young and had a pure and basic feeling to what we did. Probably naive, if I think of what my father always said to our efforts. In his eyes I was crazy. Wasting my time in some music project. Studying was the only ‘religion’ he believed in. He was probably right, of course, but I could solve this problem by finishing my diploma in graphic-design with an outstanding degree.

I believe in true compassion. I like to quote my first band of fandom: Kiss: ‘we are nothing without our fans’. We had the luck to be worshipped by loads of people from the beginning. So as I said, as naive youngsters you believe in your own impact. And you work on.

We were some kind of crazy and ‘tough’ guys, always on the edge, but straight in delivering what was necessary in production and live performance. It was no debt, it was an attitude to us. And we lived it. In full broadness.

Torsten is besides the music the only unique ‘formula’ of Trial’s impact. A simply devastating ego in vocal and on-stage performance. Dark, tough and flawless, even in vomiting on stage and still going on. He is a phenomena. Even Klaus Kinski is a novice in comparison to him in my eyes as a live performer. His and my compassion was always a mix of brotherhood not often to be found. He is the only true ‘Blutsbruder’ I will probably have in my live, cutting our veins, and drinking our blood with southern comfort on ice in 1992 vice versa. Some hit not every band would take. The chemistry was basic and true. No one will be left behind. We lived and delivered this status until early 2011.

The writing and production of all tracks went hand to hand with this attitude. We were brothers, supported us, or kicked us up if necessary. Torsten called me his ‘backbone’, his brother in arms. He always knew, when anybody came to close to him, I would interfere. And I felt the same way. This was a band; a pure team and all people we met could feel it.

Q: How did you manage the early success of the band and how did you see the band evolving from “Zero Feeling” towards “Secret Pain” released in 1994 on Electric Blue?

Erick:I don`t think we ‘managed’ the success. Probably we didn’t even felt it. We had too much to do with our personal lives, not moving into professional music business, but going on in studying in my behalf or getting into working as a barber in Torsten’s life.

The first peak to us was the opportunity in supporting Front Line Assembly in their 1993 German tour. Sadly the tour was shortly cancelled, but left a feeling of thankfulness in us. This was repeated by the possibility to support Front 242 on a short tour in the end of 2010, which couldn`t be affirmed by Torsten. So in my eyes we almost reached our personal peak in credibility as a ‘small’ band. Almost. Anyway, we were at hand.

The evolution was tough for us, keeping up with the ideas we had and true reality. Loads of hard work. But to what price? Believing in what we did was what we did. In some opinion wasting our time, in our view doing what we had to do. Now, almost 20 years later I know what we did: we lived a dream and fulfilled it. This interview shows what I am saying: Some things die, others live on. To a certain extend.

The main difference between “Zero Feeling” and “Secret Pain” is that I used more self-made sounds, besides the great Ensoniq sound library I basically used on the first album.

Q: After “Secret Pain” we’d to wait till 2008 and the self-released album “No Fate”, which didn’t gain that much recognition although revealing an evolution in sound and production. How did it happen you self-released this album and what was your perception/vision upon the scene and music industry at that moment?

Erick:We produced the “No Fate- EP in 1999 with Jan-Heie Erchinger; 9 mixes of the track. In almost all directions possible for the Trial sound in album length. Our music company told us it wouldn´t be commercial enough, and too sophisticated. We should switch our sound to more standard disco-like style. But this was not our opinion of making music. We swallowed this pill and went on.

Supported by a lot of great live-show possibilities we could gain our presence, and worked on the upcoming album against all odds. The concept sadly didn`t work out. What can I say?

We offered a broad and special range of a Trial-credible sound world. In our eyes tight until today. I presume the audience expected the typical sound of the first two albums. We delivered this attitude in 24 tracks with reworks and new material. I didn’t want to push us into the regions oF front 242, but they experienced the same problems with their album in 2003. The audience didn’t want something ‘new’, but asked for pure trademark style. That is why Front 242 and Kraftwerk are touring with their classic hits, masterfully optimized of course. So there is not much space to work on. Trial is in a different league of course, please don`t get me wrong or high-minded. Anyway, we always remained true to our roots, as to be seen in the “Für Zwei” 4-CD box.

Q: The fans never forgot Trial and you were still invited to play live and even at famous festivals. What made you going on without releasing new material and what keep you in mind from the past years?

Erick:As I said, we always went on. There is a strict continuity in the way of Trial. But without bowing to influences in the scene. This is, was and always will be unique. In our eyes it’s the only way to survive in long terms in the music scene. We always were thankful to be booked, and delivered what was expected from us. Our thankfulness to all those who appreciated us is never forgotten. We always delivered new material. Sadly there was no label who wanted our work in the way we thought was fair. It surely can`t be the failure of our management Protain by Kai Lotze, who supported us all the way round. Anyway. No one wanted us, so we had to release “No Fate” on our own behalf. As we can see, they were right. Only a small and committed fan-base wanted the product. That is as it is. But we made it.

Q: I can imagine a lot of things have changed/evolved in music industry since the set up of the band; think about technology & equipment, social media, streaming platforms etc. What are the pros and cons of this evolution and what did you hold on from the early Trial in your music today?

Erick:Well, there are loads of possibilities to bring ‘your’ sound to the people via the new platforms. Right. But, there’re too much mediocre acts, or to be honest, loads of crap are floating all channels. 30 years ago you had to overcome obstacles that are no problem anymore in these days. At first, almost everyone can blast out his stuff all the way. But is it worth it? I don`t think so, but it’s ok to me. On the other hand I see the great acts from about the end of the 80´s and the beginning 90’s, which are still dominating the scene. You ask me why? Because they learned it the hard way, had hostile machines to conquer, and had to bleed for their live performance. It is my personal opinion, but I would stand any discussion on this behalf. For sure.

It’s a new world, and is the way it is. This doesn’t has to be wrong. Quality will stand the measure of time. I am quite pleased, that Trial survived until today, just like all the other memorable acts. Credibility can’t be faked in long time measures, as I suppose. Time moves on, and we will see, when Trial might dissolve into meaningless standards. Time will tell.

Besides this I love the possibilities of making music, videos and spreading the results to loads of people. The feeling of exclusiveness in comparison to past days is a lack, of course. Today you have almost anything at hand with sounds, but the true spirit is a feeling and the true reproduction of it. We have too much messy stuff floating the music scene by the simple possibility of just clipping loops without charisma in it. This doesn’t make it easier for guys like me. So I remain in the ‘independent’ poor area of the music scene.

Q: So the sad news is that Torsten Schröder left Trial while the good news is that you’ve found a new singer (Jens Müller) to move on as Trilogy, right? How did Trilogy saw the daylight?  

Erick: Sadly Trial might be out with this release. Torsten shows no interest in this release and all of my personal uploads before the finalization of this box to him. He said he is finished with this chapter of his life. So let’s be thankful for what he delivered in some pure and unique style and walk on. His ‘secret pain’ with Trial came to an end. So does mine, as disappointing as it may be.

Trilogy picks up where Trial ended. In marketing ways it was a mistake to re-name the project, but I think it is the only fair way to cope with this situation.

Jens delivers the same credible energy as Torsten, but with a more pure and energetic way. Torsten’s demon-style is changed into a kind of athletic-energetic performance. Still dark, but not as self-destructing as before. Toughness may be relative, but it is a tight approach to the project and delivers live what the Trial legacy needs to live on in my eyes. It’s no substitute to Torsten, it’s an evolution. Torsten’s performance remains, also for Jens, who admires his unique style as a fan for more than two decades. As can be seen on the live DVD of the “Für Zwei” live DVD in the “Blut Und Eisen”-track.

Q: Trilogy is active for a few years now and has already released multiple EP’s and even a live album. I get the feeling the band didn’t get that much attention so far so tell us a bit more about the ‘young’ career of the band? What are the main differences in sound and approach with Trial?

Erick:Yes, that’s correct, Trilogy doesn’t catch up with the status of TRIAL until now. We acknowledge this, but won’t back down until we deliver the album “Forced Perspective”. But we may not forget that Trial is and remains as a special band in the shadows of independent music. So is Trilogy. We can only deliver highly inspired tracks. No more. No less. As I ever did.

The quality of production is higher than ever before. The spirit remains all the way. It might be the same phenomena as in times when “Secret Pain” was released. At the time of the release it wasn’t worshipped as it may be today. Time will tell and we’ll see, how the Trilogy debut album will be accepted. Too good, that Jens and I do it for the album in itself and don’t have to make a living from it. We try harder, anyway … 

Q: What brings the future?

Erick: As I said before, “Forced Perspective” will be released in 2022 via Nader`s Electro Aggresion Records as a double CD with 17 tracks and 17 remixes on disc two by great bands around the scene. This will show where we stand. And not fall. For sure.

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

www.side-line.com

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Check it out on Spotify:

Jan Ronald Stange

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

www.facebook.com/jrstange

Reality’s Despair is a Belgian solo-project, which was set up more than 20 years ago now. The project self-released numerous productions, went through a hiatus of several years and got reactivated again. For the new album “Perfidious Depopulation”, Reality’s Despair got signed to the Russian label Insane Records. The work is characterized by strong retro-elements of EBM and Dark-Electro. I’d a chat with Tom.

(Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)

Q: Let’s get back to the origins of Reality’s Despair. Who’s hiding behind this project and what did you’ve in mind when setting up the band? What have been your main sources of inspiration?

Tom: Reality’s Despair is a one man’s project, with headquarters just below Antwerp (Belgium), producing music in the genre of EBM and Dark-Electro, with a strong 90’s influence and with heavily processed vocals. The main sources of inspiration I find in the supernatural, the off worldly and the destructive nature of humankind, the misery of being, melancholia etc.

Q: The name of band sounds dark and totally fitting with the reality and the world of today! What did you really try to express and how did you experience the entire pandemic thing thus far? Has it been inspiring for you as musician?

Tom: Reality’s Despair is a reference to the desperation in everyone’s life, the falling and getting up, the reaching for the unattainable, chasing the dream that always will stay just a dream, the pain and loss we meet in our lives, the little to no impact we have on existence…

As for the pandemic, it’s more like a ‘plandemic’ if you ask me. Humanity on this planet is controlled by a small fraction of very wealthy and obsessed people, who advocate a reduction in human population, just to stay in control of things, and to keep possession of earth’s declining resources.

Check the data and think for yourself… sadly some people died, but how deadly is this ‘pandemic’ really? Do we really need those jabs and boosters? Are those so safe? How long will our freedom be limited? Do other opinions regarding this pandemic really need to be censored that hard? Is this proposed great reset really beneficial for us? ‘You will own nothing but you will be happy’?

There are some topics around this issue that I will address further in the coming album, so yes it’s an inspiration I guess 😉

Q: Reality’s Despair is active since the late 90s. You self-released an impressive number of productions while your new album “Perfidious Depopulation” has been signed by Insane Records. How comes it took that long to get a label deal and what does this signing mean to you? What have been your experiences as DIY artist?

Tom: The intent from the start was to completely stay independent with this project, to be able to keep doing my own thing and to evolve on my own pace. Sites like Bandcamp are an ideal place to start for a new DIY band. Bandcamp offers some fine tools to attract a decent fanbase for instance, and offers streaming as well. But after some time DIY artists hit an exposure plateau.

With some releases on the counter, I felt the time was right to scale the project up a little, to gain some more following, attract some more attention in the world of music. So, let’s say it was ‘good timing’ by Insane Records to contract me.

They made it very clear from the first conversation they truly wanted me on board, and offered me the necessary freedom I want and need for this project, so I jumped on board.

This doesn’t mean I will never be DIY again in the future, but for now I’m very happy with the label. The brain behind Insane Records actually is a very nice, respectable and reliable person, so that’s a big surplus and a good base for a stable cooperation.

Q: Let’s talk about “Perfidious Depopulation”. How did the writing and production of the album happened? Did you handle specific criteria and references in the writing/recording/production/mastering process?

Tom: It was entirely written, recorded, mixed and mastered by myself. In the past I mainly used some analog gear, like a Roland synth, sampler and drum computer, but since the restart a few years ago I mainly use the Cubase daw, and some fantastic software instruments and effects. It all happens in the box these days. It’s impressive what current software emulations can do with sound.

As for criteria and references, I just let my emotions flow and try to keep external musical influences out of my head as much as possible. I always say: music is an art, created by your brain and shaped by your heart!

Q: You already evoked your music is featuring elements of EBM and Dark-Electro while there’s a strong and explicit 90s touch running through the work, reminding me artists like Calva Y Nada, DAF, Orange Sector… Do you consider yourself as an ‘old-school’ artist and what’s your perception about ‘contemporary’ Electronics?

Tom: Thank you for the comparison, I totally love the bands you mention. Although I would have liked the name of Cygnosic in that list 🙂 I consider myself an old-school artist for sure.

Nowadays I don’t listen to current Electro often, although there are some great bands around. But I often feel there’s too little emotion put in present day music, not enough drama…

Q: After more than twenty years of involvement, how do you expect the project evolving? Are there specific items you want to improve/change? And what about live shows?

Tom: There are no plans for doing live gigs in the future, cause I don’t like to be placed in the spotlight, but never say never, right?

I always want to keep improving my writing and production skills, and I intent to keep REALITY’S DESPAIR active for some years to come, since I really enjoy the creative process. I am not going to make the mistake of quitting twice!

I feel the best song still needs to be written and there are still many topics Reality’s Despair needs to evoke. There’s still a lot of ‘butt-kicking’ to be done 😉

I am perfectly happy with my small fanbase who support me, who really love the music, and who dig the messages behind the curtains. I don’t feel the need to have thousands of fans. The more fans with certain expectations you got, the less creative freedom you have, you understand? It are the loyal fans who keep this project alive after all.

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

www.side-line.com

Out via Timeroom Editions later next month is a live album by Steve Roach: “Live at SoundQuest Fest 2021”. The CD comes in a 4-panel digipak and is limited to 500 copies. Performed from Steve’s Timeroom studio the set captured much of how Steve works in the studio: a starting map is composed, and from that point the trajectory constantly evolves as the moment calls out.

SoundQuest Fest was first experienced and produced by Steve in 2010 as a live festival in Tucson, Arizona. Picking up from there, the 2021 version united a worldwide gathering of artists and audience members for an online streaming event. The event was a three-day flow of streaming performances from international artists, audio-video wonder worlds, ambient VJ sets, interviews, music videos and deep immersion zones.

Performed live by Steve Roach at SoundQuest Fest March 28th, 2021 in the company of the following instruments: Oberheim Xpander, Nordlead 2x, 3 and 4, Moog One, Eurorack Modular, Emu E4XT, Sequential Pro 3, Doepfer Maq 16, Korg Wavestation Parker Fly guitar, Korg Electribe, Roland TR8S, TTSH Arp 2600 clone with sequencer, large Moog format – SynthDotComMoon modular.

Here’s an idea what to expect:

About Steve Roach

Steve Roach is an American composer and performer of ambient and electronic music. Originally a Motocross racer, at the age of 20 Roach taught himself to play the synthesizer after being inspired by such influential synthesizer artists and groups as Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, and Vangelis.

His debut album “Now” appeared in 1982, followed by “Structures from Silence” in 1984. In 1986 he released his “Quiet Music” series. In 1988, he released the double-album “Dreamtime Return”.

Roach is married to author and equine teacher Linda Kohanov (who provided vocals on some of his albums). They live in Tucson, Arizona.

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

Trance Wax is an alias of Belfast-born producer Garry McCartney, also known as Ejeca. His Trance Wax project began as an anonymous series of vinyl-only bootlegs back in 2015 on which he reworked classics from Yves Deyurter, BT, and Mauro Picotto. Two Trance Wax edits of Above & Beyond’s OceanLab project were released on Anjunabeats in 2019, with the debut Trance Wax album following in November 2020.

Remixers of the album have included the likes of Dusky, Kevin De Vries, Shanti Celeste, and now 808 State. In a reaction v says that “Eve was pretty Balearic in its original form, but we’ve given it a spray tan using some vintage analog synths and guitars. One for the sunset crew!”

Trance Wax’ “Eve (808 State Remix)” is out July 16 on Anjunabeats.

About 808 State

808 State are an English electronic music group which formed in 1987 in Manchester, taking their name from the Roland TR-808 drum machine. They were formed by Graham Massey, Martin Price and Gerald Simpson, and they released their debut album, “Newbuild”, in September 1988. The band secured commercial success in 1989, when their song “Pacific State” was picked up by BBC Radio 1 DJ Gary Davies.

Simpson left the group in 1989 to form his own solo project, A Guy Called Gerald. At this point, the remaining personnel enlisted DJs Andrew Barker and Darren Partington, known as the Spinmasters, and recorded the EP, “Quadrastate” in July 1989. “Ninety” was released in December 1989.

MC Tunes worked with the band on the 1990 album, “The North at Its Heights”, which became a moderate success. MC Tunes returned in 1996 to work on a new track, “Pump”, taken from 808 State’s album “Thermo Kings”. 808 State’s next album was released in 1991, “Ex:el”, which featured the vocals of Bernard Sumner and Björk.

In October 1991, it was Price’s turn to leave the group to perform solo production work, eventually forming his own label, Sun Text. The remaining members released a fourth album called “Gorgeous”, and after that, did some remix work for David Bowie, Soundgarden, and other performers, before returning with the album entitled “Don Solaris” in 1996. They released a greatest hits compilation album, “808:88:98” in 1998. In 2000, “Newbuild” was re-released.

The albums “Ex:el” and “Gorgeous” show the band’s new wave influences by sampling or featuring new wave icons such as Bernard Sumner on the song “Spanish Heart” and Ian McCulloch on “Moses”. The song “Contrique” samples the bassline to Joy Division’s “She’s Lost Control” and “10 X 10” is a gospel-house track built on the foundation of The Jam’s “Start!”.

In 2003, they released “Outpost Transmission” which featured guest collaborations from the Alabama 3 and Guy Garvey from Elbow. In May 2008, the re-issue of the album “Quadrastate” completed a trilogy of pre-ZTT releases on CD for the first time.

Partington left the band after being jailed for 18 months in January 2015 for dealing heroin and crack cocaine. He continues to DJ regularly and is lead singer with new Manchester band Big Unit, a rock band with acid house underpinnings.

In April 2018 the remaining members announced a brand new live show for a 30th Anniversary Tour to take place in November/December. The show will feature new versions of tracks from their 30-year history and totally new material from their forthcoming sixth studio album.

The band’s last studio album was 2019’s “Transmission Suite”.

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

(By our Norwegian correspondent Jan Ronald Stange / Kampenkontor press release) EL/NeUe from Norway released their album ‘KRANK’ June 1^st on CD and digital platforms – their first physical release in 34 years! 11 songs in various styles, yet all still typically EL/NeUe: A powerful sound of picturesque, magical guitars (often performed with bow), swirling synths, deep, laid-back vocals and an old, battered Roland SH 2000, and a very liberal use of upper- and lowercase letters in their song titles.

EL/NeUe are Askild Hagen (vocals, synth, bass) og Håkon Johnson (guitars, bass, synth), with invaluable help from ELLADY (Liv Anna Hagen), contributing vocals on two songs – the dreamy ‘Prosopagnosia’ and the darkly beautiful ‘Når er det på tide’. The guys also both work as writers for the Norwegian comedy show ‘Nytt På Nytt’ (Norwegian version of ‘Have I got news for you’), and have created many musical comedy projects, notably the legendary Oslo International Playback Free Jazz Festival.

‘KRANK’, the CD, is the first physical release by EL/NeUe in 34 years, but they have contributed on several releases through the years. It all started with the classic ‘Et hvilested’ 7″ EP in 1987 (while the band were just called EL …). EL contributed to several cassette compilations in the Eighties, and performed a few, memorable concerts before disbanding in 1988.

2009 saw the release of the compilation CD ‘MASKINDANS’, with Norwegian electronic music of the 80’s, where EL’s ‘Visshet’ was included. Five years later, in 2014 Spain’s Domestica Records put out their «Domestic Landscape» compilation, featuring a track from EL’s ‘Demo 85’ cassette; the darkly poetic ‘Og Tilslutt’.
In 2020, EL returned as EL/NeUe, releasing the EP ‘LYKKeØNSKNINGeR 2020’ and several singles via streaming services (see their Spotify artist page).

‘KRANK’ contains 11 songs, somewhere between 80’s new wave/cold wave and modern electronic alternative music. At times, it may sound like Rammstein meets Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft, elsewhere it may envoke the feeling of Ulver growing up in 1987.

Listen to the album at Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes, deezer or Tidal! Read the review of ‘Krank’.

Jan Ronald Stange

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

www.facebook.com/jrstange

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

(Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)

‘I Was Smitten By Girls And Rock’

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

‘Juno Reactor Was Set Up As An Art Collective’

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

‘Sooner Or Later An Autobiography Could Certainly Happen’

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Witten by: Ben Watkins

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

Side-Line also covered Juno Reactor’s ‘Let The Flowers Grow’.

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

www.side-line.com

Paradox Obscur is a Greek duo driven by ‘Toxic Razor’ and ‘Kriistal Ann’. They’re composing a kind of Electro/Wave-Pop characterized by the use of only hardware equipment. After four noticeable albums they signed to Metropolis unleashing the album “Singles & Rarities’. The work sounds as a new exploration of Minimal-Electronics and will appeal for all lovers of vintage electro.

(Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)

Q: How did you guys meet and what incited you to set up Paradox Obscur?

Paradox Obscur: We first met quite a few years ago at a student event. It was the period when we were looking to expand our horizons through concerts and contacts with like-minded people. Somewhere there, situations connected us and we discovered many commonalities in matters of interest in art. A few years later, life brought it like this, in a second meeting of ours, being now settled in our directions in life, we decided to follow a common project for our own personal pleasure and experimentation. Then things developed without any backward disposition on our part. It was what we call the right place, at the right time.

Q: You clearly have a very personal and retro-like approach in the composition and recording of your music; only hardware equipment while the songs are recorded in real time with a good-old multi-track recorder. Tell us a bit more about this way of working and in, which way do we have to see it as an antithesis to ‘modern technology’?

Toxic Razor: We are really into recording in real time, it enables us to give a live feeling to the compositions. We never use software synths, somemething that sounds too sterile and clinic.

Kriistal Ann: I do not believe that technology can work wonders on its own if I do not have the flame that feeds inspiration as well the perseverance to work on my idea. Okay, in many cases it loosens your hands, but what is the point if I do not identify, I do not become familiar with the theme I am composing. To play my theme so many times until I perfect it, to search for appropriate sounds, this time consuming process that merges me with my idea and makes me genuinely creative.

Q: Can you tell us a bit more about the equipment you’re using and in, which way does a lack of equipment affect your creative process (pros and cons)?

Paradox Obscur: Depending on the occasion it’s something that changes from time to time, but gear like the Virus TI Polar, the Korg MS2000 or the Roland JD-Xi are great to work with.

Q: You recently signed to Metropolis Records, which I can imagine must be a kind of consecration. How did you get in touch and what do you expect from a ‘bigger’ label?

Toxic Razor: Of course, our connection to Metropolis was something that brought us great joy and satisfaction. It’s the moment when more opportunities come your way; larger audiences can listen to your music and there is more interest from media.

Kriistal Ann: Our first contacts started with Metropolis was somewhere in 2018 where I was asked to participate with my personal project Kriistal Ann on a compilation called “Why Kill Time (When You Can Cover Cabaret Voltaire)” which was original idea by Mr. Chris Halstead, with the help of Mr. Athan Maroulis, who recommended me to Chris to participate in this.

A second contact was made in 2019 when Paradox Obscur was proposed to participate in an equally wonderful Metropolis compilation called “Dark Nouveau,” which was also compiled by Athan Maroulis.

All of these small steps contributed to the big leap. It is this well-known pattern of life that demands from us stoicism and patience, work and passion to eventually lead us further.

Q: Your new album is entitled “Singles & Rarities” so what are the singles and rarities all about? How did you achieve this work?

Paradox Obscur: Just to clarify that “Singles & Rarities” is not a best of compilation. “Singles & Rarities” is a collection of individual songs that we had written throughout the journey, with the aim to support some small exclusive compilations that had been released by independent blogs, labels and online magazines, with the exception of song “Tranquil” which is an unreleased track. There were fans that were asking where they can find these songs so it was about time to have them all gathered in one release. All of this was synchronized with the moment of the proposal from Metropolis and we decided to make this our initial release until we complete our next album.

Q: You’ve been involved together with Resistance Of Independent Music and are still active with other projects as well. What makes the difference with Paradox Obscur? And what are the further plans?

Toxic Razor: Side-projects are always a nice escape where I can try other things. For example, Deathfiend Baphomet is a project where I work in more blackened Industrial soundscapes under Metal influences that are both brooding and menacing.

Kriistal Ann: I believe that through our solo projects we have a greater freedom to express ourselves depending on the moment and the mood. I do not expect to get it somewhere or follow a line. I place all my influences; I experiment with sounds or instruments. My own work as Kriistal Ann is based on a variety of forms, filtered through my personal prism and a more internal vision.

Paradox Obscur: As for Paradox Obscur, we are already working on the next studio album and looking forward to doing some live shows once the Covid restrictions end.

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

www.side-line.com

Back in 1991 I started writing my first reviews for Side-Line magazine. I would have never thought to go on writing reviews and making interviews non-stop for 30 years. So 2021 is a special year to me, a kind of ‘celebration year’. I got the idea to celebrate this special event by interviewing people from the scene who all have a special meaning to me. I met Johan Van Roy even before I wrote my first review. He was busy composing music under the SUICIDE COMMANDO moniker. I liked the dark and tormented atmosphere of his early demos, which were reminding me of THE KLINIK. I got the chance singing on one of his early songs and we even set up together a music project. SUICIDE COMMANDO became one of the absolute leading formations from the Dark-Electro scene, playing as headliner at big festivals, selling thousands of albums and having an impressive word-wide fan base. Beyond the successful career hides an humble person. No star attitude, but an accessible and kind man who simply remains himself.

(Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)

Q: Thirty five years ago now you started experimenting with Electronic music while setting up SUICIDE COMMANDO. What incited you back in 1986 to experiment with electro sounds and noises? How did that happened and what equipment did you use?

Johan: I grew up in the early 80s with the in that time booming New-Wave scene, listening to bands like THE CURE, SISTERS OF MERCY, but also more Electronic sounding bands like DEPECHE MODE or FAD GADGET … It was because of these bands that my love for Electronic music started. Not much later I discovered bands like THE NEON JUDGEMENT, FRONT 242 and THE KLINIK (in those days these bands even got airplay on national radio stations like BRT…).

These bands had such a big impact on me that I also wanted to start making Electronic music. And so I bought my first keyboard back in summer 1986, the now legendary Roland SH101, not much later added with 2 drum machines, the Boss DR110 Dr. Rhythm and the Boss DR220E.

Very limited gear, but in those days very expensive equipment, so it wasn’t that obvious to buy more equipment. For example samplers were extremely expensive and even with a sampler you only could record a few seconds of sound…

Q: People maybe don’t realize it took you years and a lot of patience plus perseverance to get some recognition. I get the impression you couldn’t maybe directly break through because of a lack of equipment. As you said, electronic equipment was very expensive and there weren’t the same facilities as today. How do you look back at this period regarding equipment, the multiple cassettes you released, the first compilation features etc?

Johan: It obviously were totally different times, not just only because of the cost and the lack of equipment, as I already mentioned before. But there also wasn’t any social media, so that means it took way longer to get your music spread around. Everything still had to be done by post, so things took much longer then nowadays.
Today’s possibilities are unlimited, but nonetheless I don’t regret I had to start this way. It gave you much more freedom and time to work on music. You also had to be way more innovative and inventive to create and write music. Today almost everything is already canned, get yourself a PC and some music software and in one day you can write yourself a complete album …

Many bands had to start like I did, writing music with very limited gear and releasing it on tape… bands like FRONT LINE ASSEMBLY, NITZER EBB… all started this way.
It also gave me time to improve and create my own style, something I do lack in today’s music scene.
So I definitely look back at it with pleasure.

Q: You became involved with LESCURE 13, which in a way -and right in the beginning became more recognized than SUICIDE COMMANDO. I was even sure LESCURE 13 would even become the Belgian ‘next big thing’, but it finally didn’t happen that way. How comes and what do you keep in mind from the LESCURE 13 experience?

Johan:I don’t think that SUICIDE COMMANDO was less recognized, but it was much harder to get the same recognition if you don’t do live shows, and I think that was the main reason why LESCURE 13 got picked up faster. Initially I never really planned on doing live shows with SUICIDE COMMANDO, but as our first live show with LESCURE 13 at the legendary Side-Line festival at ‘VK’ in Brussels became such a success, it convinced me to start doing live shows with SUICIDE COMMANDO as well. So in a way Side-Line is to blame for that 🙂

It was fun doing LESCURE 13 with Stefan Bens (STIN SCATZOR), but since SUICIDE COMMANDO got more and more successful in the years after, I got less and less time to focus on LESCURE 13, so on the long run the combination became too difficult and stressful for me. I’ll never forget our very first live show with LESCURE 13 in Brussels.

Q: I got the privilege to start another project with you, which was TOXIC SHOCK SYNDROME. How do you look back at this experience and a few other side-projects like DB.F and KOMBAT UNIT?

Johan:I enjoyed doing them all, but just like with LESCURE 13, time became the biggest problem. The combination of doing music with SUICIDE COMMANDO + work + family just became too time consuming and stressful.

But like I said, I enjoyed doing all these side projects. As SUICIDE COMMANDO was my solo-project I enjoyed working together with others from time to time, even though it requires a different approach.

With LESCURE 13 we still do some live shows now and then, and also KOMBAT UNIT with Jan (NOISUF-X, X-FUSION) never really stopped, but it’s all just a matter of time.

Doing TOXIC SHOCK SYNDROME was fun too, but in the end you have to make choices and set priorities, but I look back at it with lots of pleasure.

Q: The split-album/compilation “Induktion, Varianz Und Deren Folgen” released by Stefan Herwig on his early label Kugelblitz in 1993 made things change! Suddenly more people were discovering SUICIDE COMMANDO! How important was this compilation in the career and development of SUICIDE COMMANDO? And how important was Stefan Herwig who finally brought you to join his Off Beat label?

Johan: Oh, for sure this was a career changer and I’m sure that without Stefan Herwig, SUICIDE COMMANDO never would have become as big as today. I already knew Stefan Herwig for a few years after he discovered SUICIDE COMMANDO through my tapes released on the German ZNS tapes label, so when Stefan started his own label with Kugelblitz Records he soon invited me to join on his “Induktion, Varianz Und Deren Folgen” split-CD.

Not much later Stefan started working for the rising Off Beat label and so he was able to get me in there as well… and the rest is history I guess.

I’m aware I was pretty lucky, being at the right place at the right time I guess… so yes, without Stefan my career would have looked totally different I guess.

Q: SUICIDE COMMANDO was often compared to THE KLINIK, which has been one of your main sources of inspiration. What has been the real impact of THE KLINIK and eventually other bands –and maybe music genres, in the development and evolution of SUICIDE COMMANDO till today?

Johan:Well, no need to deny that bands like KLINIK or yet FRONT 242 (and others like THE NEON JUDGEMENT, FAD GADGET, SKINNY PUPPY, NITZER EBB…) had a major impact on me and my music throughout the years. They not only were a major source of inspiration, these bands also were THE main reason why I started doing ‘Electronic’ music in the first place. My older brother was playing guitar so my first steps into the music scene were as a bass player, but when I discovered bands like KLINIK, FRONT 242… a whole new world opened before my eyes (and ears).
Still in 2021 a band like KLINIK remains probably my biggest influence.

Q: You last year celebrated the twentieth anniversary of the “Mindstrip”-album. This production probably became the most successful one in the band’s history, but how do you look back at this album and did it make specific things/aspects changing?

Johan: Not sure if it was my most successful album, but it sure had the biggest impact on my career. We already gained some recognition with the huge success of “See You In Hell” and to a lesser extent “Desire” and “Better Off Dead”, but the release of the “Mindstrip”-album and the “Hellraiser”-single taken from this album certainly brought us to the top of the scene. Again I think Stefan Herwig had a big part in this success as he just started his own division with Dependent Records, gathering bands like COVENANT or VNV NATION… I think SUICIDE COMMANDO certainly benefitted from their success as well.

On top of that I think “Mindstrip” filled a gap between the at that time trending Future- and Synth-Pop acts and the more harder side of the Electro scene which was at a decline at that moment, and therefore “Mindstrip” marked an important milestone in the entire scene. All of a sudden bands started to copy SUICIDE COMMANDO and harsh electro was born. In the next years many bands would jump onto the harsh ‘Electro/Endzeit’ train.

So it not only marked the start of a new subgenre in the Electro scene, it also changed the expectations of the media and the crowd.

My follow up album “Axis Of Evil” was 8 weeks at the top of the at that time highly acclaimed German Alternative Charts (DAC).

Q: You’re organizing an interesting annual ‘SUICIDE COMMANDO poll’ where the fans can choose their favorite songs. In which way is it representative for your personal favorites and what are your favorite songs? And do you’ve some songs, which remained underrated?

Johan: It’s a good representation of what the fans consider the best SUICIDE COMMANDO songs, but that’s about all. It surely doesn’t reflect my personal favorites, even though a few of my personal faves are also in the top 10 of this list.

I’ve always enjoyed doing the more slower and atmospheric songs. A few of them like “God Is In The Rain” or “The Devil” also gained club success, but personal favorites like “Euthanasia” (1998), “Body Count proceed” (2000), “Until We Die” (2010), “Severed Head” (2010), “Repent Or Perish” (2013)… remained under the radar.

Q: SUICIDE COMMANDO became the absolute leading formation from the Dark-Electro scene! I can imagine it’s a deserved recognition for hard work, but what does this ‘status’ really mean to you? What has been the impact of this success on the person hiding behind the artist? In which way did it change your life?

Johan: I don’t think it had that much impact on me personally. I always remained (probably too) humble and down to earth. Of course I’m flattered by this recognition, but compared to some others in this scene, I always kept both feet on the ground. And let’s face it, compared with the mainstream Beyoncé’s and Madonna’s of this world we’re just tiny little dwarfs…lol

Q: Do you know how much SUICIDE COMMANDO-albums have been sold today? What have been the best-sellers?

Johan: With the rise of digital downloads and sales I have no idea anymore of actual physical sales. The market completely changed in the last 2 decades. Physical sales of CD’s completely collapsed and the digital market is so diverse that it’s hard to give any concrete numbers.

On platforms like Spotify… people don’t listen to complete albums anymore, they just pick their favorite songs. Not even sure if complete albums still will be released in 10 years from now…

So it’s hard to compare, I know an album like “Mindstrip” sold over 25.000 physical copies, but it never even reached the official album charts, while my latest 2 albums even made it to a position in the top 20 of the official German album charts, even though their physical sales are way less than the original “Mindstrip”-album for example, simply because digital sales totally took over the market.

Q: Is it possible for an underground artist to earn a living with music? How important is money when you’re a renowned artist?

Johan: Yes, (in non-Covid times!) I think it’s possible for the bigger acts in the underground scene, if you do it properly, which means doing regular live touring + releasing music on a regular base.

But it takes a lot of work, time and devotion. I’m still one of the lucky few who can live from music, but since I have a responsibility towards my wife and kid, I deliberately choose to keep doing a half time job to remain financially safe.

Q: SUICIDE COMMANDO is also a live band with a solid reputation. How important is it for you to play live shows and feel the interaction with the fans?

Johan: I find it very important and I realize it even more at times like these today with the pandemic. I do miss this interaction with the fans and the crowd. It gives so much satisfaction and energy to be on stage and interact with your fans.

Q: Torben Schmidt and Mario Vaerewijck are your long-time live mates. How does it happen when you guys are on tour and what makes the chemistry between you all (and the entire crew)?

Johan: I think we all enjoy it very much to be on the road, in a way it’s also our escape from boring daily work ‘eat-sleep’ routine. A big advantage also is that we’re not a conventional band, I mean, basically SUICIDE COMMANDO is just me doing all the music, so Torben and Mario only join in on stage, so we don’t have to sleep with each other (which does happen sometimes being on tour haha…).

Usually it’s all very easy going when we’re on the road and that keeps things pleasant.

Q: You played at numerous festivals and in very different countries all over the world. Do you see noticeable differences between countries and continents and are there some specific places/venues you would ever like to play?

Johan: There certainly are differences. Not specifically because of the crowd, although we do notice a difference between playing in countries where people hardly ever get to see live bands from other continents (like Mexico or Brazil…) or countries where you can watch the same band every 2 weeks (like Germany …).

The gratitude is  bigger in countries where you don’t get to play every month or year. I do notice more differences on the technical level. Clubs and venues usually are much better equipped in Europe then across the ocean. It’s a much bigger challenge to do shows in the US for example, but what counts in the end is the response from the crowd. I can be more satisfied playing in front of 100 people in a dirty basement with a crappy sound system then playing in front of 5000 people, as long as the people had fun I’m happy.

Q: What has been your biggest satisfaction and deception so far?

Johan: I’m overall happy that I could make my biggest passion a big part of my job and life. Music has always been my passion, so I feel privileged that I could make my music my (part time) job and life. I feel privileged that I can share my music and my passion with my fans, that’s probably my biggest satisfaction.

My biggest deception? Hard to say, maybe the fact that it also takes a lot of sacrifices to combine all these things (my daily part time job + music + family + …), it already got me into a severe burn-out few years ago, my knee is fucked up after the accident on stage in the US, my ears are fucked up because of the often too loud music on stages …

Q: A lot of things have changed/evolved since you set up SUICIDE COMMANDO in 1985! What’s your perception about it all and how did you see the scene and entire music business evolving throughout the years?

Johan: Oh for sure many things have changed throughout the years, it’s really been a technological revolution… The technological possibilities became endless, maybe not all for the best though.

We’re living in an ever faster society and that’s even reflected in our music. In 1985 a song had to be 120 bpm maximum, today we’re living at a speed of 135 bpm or more… lol

The rise of the digital media totally killed the CD and vinyl market, but also brought new possibilities, so I also try to see the positive effects of it.
Social media became the new normal and brought music & bands closer to their fans, but also gave us a shallow and resentful society.

So it all has it’s pro and cons… and there’s no way back.

Q: Do you sometimes imagine the end of SUICIDE COMMANDO and are there other things in life you would like to accomplish?

Johan: I don’t think SUICIDE COMMANDO will ever stop. I tried to split several times, but it’s so hard being a one man project…lol. No seriously, I can’t imagine my life without music, so I probably will continue writing music till I drop dead. 

Q: What might we expect from SUICIDE COMMANDO for the next few months?

Johan: I’m currently working on a new album, but I don’t want to rush things, so no idea when it will be finished.

I certainly do hope we can start doing live shows again sometime this Summer, so I’m really looking forward to that.
And there might be some more surprises coming up, but wait and see…

Side-Line also covered Suicide Commando’s ‘Trick or treat’.

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

www.side-line.com

LIVINGTOTEM is a Hungarian solo-project driven by András Gulyás. He released his first official album “40K” in 2014 on Advoxya Records. The next album “Raw Effort” got released in 2017 on Ant-Zen and revealed a strong fusion between different music styles like Industrial, Trance, Techno, IDM and Tribal. The newest opus “Surreal Existence” got released by the end of 2020 and clearly sounds as a new masterpiece, but also revealing an artist with a very own sound approach. If you don’t know yet LIVINGTOTEM I can only, but encourage you to discover the great work of András Gulyás.

(Picture credit by infinitbeat.hu / Interview courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)

Q: How did you get in touch with Electro/Industrial music and what incited you to set up LIVINGTOTEM?

András: I grew up in the vicinity of a brick factory, so I experienced industrial noises and visual impacts at a young age. However, sometime in the late 80s, getting to know FRONT 242, DAF, TEST DEPT and SKINNY PUPPY gave me the real push towards that direction. At that time it was not easy to get this music here in Hungary, the ‘iron curtain’ was still closed and we were living in the era of cassette copies… but there were also Hungarian bands at that time. These concerts also left a mark on me. We even shot a documentary about it a few years ago, but have not managed to finish it yet due to the lack of time and financial means, so the material is resting on a multi-terabyte external drive at the moment, unfortunately…

In 1992 I started DJ-ing once a month at the legendary Depeche Mode Fan Club events at the PECSA Klub in Budapest, along with DJ Fatman. After a while I was more and more drawn to music that mixed my favorite styles, but there were very few bands that actually did that / Tribal-Industrial-Acid-EBM-Techno. So I started thinking about making my own music. For the sake of this, I was trying to find a compact piece of hardware -but not a laptop, that I could take on stage as a one-man act. This came true in 2006 when I bought my first Electribe groove box. This cost about 730EUR, at a time when my monthly salary in Hungary was around 290EUR!

Q: You’ve been involved with different bands; from QUANTUM COWBOYS to PANORAMIC BARRIER to LIVINGTOTEM and you’re still active as DJ! What means music to you and tell us a bit more about these different projects?

András: For me, music always gets absolute priority. This, of course, poses challenges both in my professional- (I work in the construction industry 8-10 hours a day on weekdays) and in my private life as well. LIVINGTOTEM is my main project. As I have mentioned, this mixing of styles is like a Ritual Cyber-Punk dystopia in Industrial technology.

My other project is PANORAMIC BARRIER, it’s a completely analog stuff fusing EBM, Techno and Experimental. The ‘gear’ is completely CV-controlled just like in the 70s; no MIDI, no USB; including semi-modular synths, drums and effects. This is practically a live-only project. All of these performances are unique and unrepeatable.

The band QUANTUM COWBOYS will never be as it used to be again because BradyO, one of our lead singers, passed away in 2013. I have even recorded a song or two with her as a duo, one of which appeared on a compilation of 4mg Records titled “Little Green Bag”. Of course, I hope to be able to get on with this style as well, but who knows what the future holds.

As a DJ, I usually play within the New-Wave, EBM, Industrial, Rhythm & Noise, Ambient and Psychedelic-Trance styles, not only at party events but also in my bi-weekly radio broadcast on Tilos Radio / FM90.3 Budapest, tilos.hu.

Q: You already mentioned the mix of styles, which is characterizing LIVINGTOTEM. What can you say about your influences and your way of composing/producing music? How does your studio looks like?

András: I pay attention to music of every genre in general. I went to a lot of events, exhibitions for as long as I could and these all served as an inspiration. Work, movies, exhausted moments after parties or when I’m intoxicated by love, all these challenges that swirl in my head help me to find inspiration, culminating in the music I make.

At home I use the same hardware machines as during the performances, Korg Electribe, Korg mixer with a built-in chaos bench, Roland SP-555 sampler, Waldorf Micro Q, Zoom effect and self-made sound generating devices… I make a lot of demo recordings at home, of which about a quarter gets ever released. One day I hope to share these on some platform. I create 90% of the music on these instruments, recorded on multiple tracks before we start mixing. In this process, we can add or even subtract much more effects and sound designs. That’s why the music will surely sound different in a live performance than on a record! It really matters to me that my audience gets more from a live gig than just an exact reproduction of what the release contains! Going to the studio, make recordings and mixing requires a lot of time that I’m usually lack of. So it takes several years for an album to be completed. Usually I just find a couple of hours on the weekends with my friend Péter Buza, with whom I create the final sound of the album at the Astral Escape Studio. He was also actively involved in an album for NOUVELLE PHENOMENE.

I need a studio because of idea ‘more ears, hear more’. I always welcome comments and suggestions from others. These are added values, which I think can add color to existing music. I asked Eric Van Wonterghem for mastering again; I respect him very much and I appreciate his work. Many people insist on doing everything themselves; music, mixing, mastering, cover design… which is why they come up with very similar things after two or three records. I want to blend a bit of the Industrial-EBM world of the ’80s with today’s modern, dark club sound and also draw from the world of early Acid, which can of course get ‘distorted’ in many ways flowing into a tribal sound out of this world. I don’t often make remixes, but I was very happy when TEST DEPT asked me to do a remix for them which I gladly accepted of course. They came out with a very good new album in 2019 and I was able to perform as their support act at their concert here in Budapest which was also a great honor for me.

Q: You’re taking time to work on new material. How do you prepare a new album and how did you achieve “Surreal Existence”?

András: Due to my job the final process of making music, i.e. studio work, is a bit difficult for me. The other thing is that I’m having a hard time picking the tracks that end up on the release from the countless demo recordings. There are still several tracks that I could not include, but they will certainly appear on the next album or in some other form. The equipment of the studio also evolved and changed in the meantime. Therefore, three of the tracks had to be recorded again, but in my opinion and also according to the feedback, it was really worth it. The physical release also encountered some obstacles which we eventually managed to solve. Attila Csihar who is a good old friend of mine also contributed to this record. This acquaintance dates back to 1992 when he played in a band called PLASMAPOOL. We had been planning to make music together for a couple of years, we had a lot of jam sessions, but due to a lack of time we never found time for more. We have now finally managed to collaborate on one single track.

Last but not least I was very happy to be able to release this album at the Ant-Zen records label, just as my previous one. The title of the album refers to all the surreal things that occurred in my home country and in my life.

Q: 2020 has been a dramatic year because of Covid-19! How did it feel at your side and especially as a musician who could no longer play live to present his new work? What do you expect for the further months?

András: The situation is really dramatic, and the whole world has become strange, as if we were part of a huge experiment like in World War III. I have the feeling, unfortunately, that life as we knew it before the end of 2019 will never return. However, I can call myself lucky because I was able to play at the Fekete Zaj Festival with my projects PANORAMIC BARRIER and LIVINGTOTEM featuring my friend Mr. TibaLt KusH known from ROSINFLUX. We called our performance a ‘bound improvisational fusion’. With PANORAMIC BARRIER I had another live gig at “Alkotótábor” which is an artistic camp. These open-air gigs were an amazing boost of energy. At the end of the year I had an online live-gig with LIVINGTOTEM (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkZkYX6A4Is) which was originally planned as an album release party (Industrial Fusion) that had to be cancelled when all clubs were closed in November. Just before that, clubs in Budapest could still operate with a curfew at 11pm. I also played a few DJ-sets, like the International EBM-Day in February and an extended chill-set before and after Carbon Based Lifeform. Even in Autumn I was able to play at some EBM and New-Wave parties. I do hope that 2021 will bring at least some domestic events. Who knows, maybe even a movie will come out with a soundtrack from me…

Q: Tell us a bit more about your live performances? What are you exactly doing on stage and how do transpose the studio tracks into a live performance?

 András: For me, the process is exactly the other way around, I test my new compositions live on stage first, sometimes I even play demo versions in DJ-sets at Industrial-Techno parties. I pay attention to the reaction of the audience that helps me with deciding which tracks to include on the record. But there are always 1 or 2 tracks that I have never played live which can only be heard on the album because they do not fit into the live concept. As a result, so to sum it up, I play a lot of new music at live gigs where I’m already testing the material for the upcoming albums. I never play two identical concerts because I always play 2-3 brand new compositions. I keep fine-tuning them at every single performance. In this scene, there is unfortunately practically zero revenue from social media and other online platforms or physical releases. The only way to make money out of music is to play live.

Originally, I have started LIVINGTOTEM as a live act to show how music is created by rolling and turning all those little knobs, instead of looking at a person standing in ‘blue light’ behind a monitor pushing some buttons you can’t even see. I like to put great emphasis on the stage set as well and I don’t only mean the background projection, but a whole design concept that I have in mind.

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

www.side-line.com

“Cathédrale” was the very first studio album of Opéra Multi Steel, originally released in 1985. Based on sounds of nowadays mythical analog synths and rhythm boxes (Elex E, Roland TR606, Yamaha MR 10, Casio VL 1 among others…) the band mixed these electronic ingredients with acoustic instruments such as guitars or flutes and powerful melodic vocals. The mix has sometimes been qualified as Medieval Minimal Wave and is audible throughout the band’s catalogue.

This album includes several classics of the band, “Cathédrale” of course but also “Un Froid seul”, “Frantz est mort” or “Du Son des Cloches”.

This reissue is the opportunity to rediscover those songs in their original versions on the medium that saw them born, packed in a sleeve designed in order to respect the atmosphere developed at the time of original release. The special 35th anniversary edition, was mastered by Marcelo Gallo (Pitch Yarn of Matter) and comes in 2 different versions on vinyl, ultra clear with black splatters and ultra clear with black marbles.

All of the version come in limited quantities of 100 copies each.

Check out these very old official music vdeos.

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

TINEIDAE is a project I discovered back in 2012 by the “Lights”-album released on the now defunct Tympanik Audio. The next album “Shadows” released in 2014 featured a similar taste for IDM and Electro-Ambient Electronics. But after that second album and the end of Tympanik Audio it became quite silent in the TINEIDAE circle. A lot of things happened and one of the main changes was Pavlo Storonsky left his homeland, Ukraine, to relocate in Warsaw (Poland). He started to compose new music and this year signed to Cryo Chamber to unleash the Cinematographic work “Exo”. The opus reveals an important evolution in sound, but a similar passionate and overwhelming sound experience.

(Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)

Q: After the “Shadows”-album released in 2014 it took you several years to release a new full length. You last year released “Slowly Drown In Static”, which already was like a real album and this year you released “Exo”. Why did it take that long to release a new full length and what kind of work did you want to accomplish with “Exo”?

Pavlo: A lot of things have changed since the last full-length album released on Tympanik Audio; from moving to other countries and a job change to having a family life and becoming a dad. So quite naturally it wasn’t an easy thing to come back to music the way I did it before. There was a lot of getting used to, a lot of changes in habits and especially, time management (which I’m still pretty bad at, I have to admit). Music-wise there were small bits and pieces that I’ve started every now and then, but a lot of bigger ideas had to be postponed. Some are still a work in progress since early 2015 to this day and some were finished.

When it comes to “Exo”, initially it was an experiment with a limited amount of tools to be used. You know with a lot of possibilities come an everlasting problem of choice, while limiting yourself you both eliminate that problem, as well as getting deeper understanding of the tools. Well, first iterations of it were just that –seeing what can be accomplished with the bare minimum. Later on it started to grow into something more personal, more meaningful.. There is the narrative, ‘lore’ of sorts, which describes the imaginary story behind the album, but also it is a tribute to my father.

Q: I already mentioned “Slowly Drown In Static” released in 2019, which revealed a different sound approach than what you released in the past. Tell us a bit more about this work and the move towards a more Cinematographic/Soundtrack driven work?

Pavlo: “Slowly Drown In Static” was a change indeed. It is mostly the way it is due to all of the above, like when things change in life drastically, it has an impact on creative output for sure. And this EP/album, I don’t know how to call it myself, is a catharsis of all those happenings. It’s rather short, but I would say it’s condensed, a brief summary of metamorphosis if you can call it that way. We tend to perceive life as a journey from A to B, or at least I was like that, but then you suddenly realize that in the wait of that B point you actually miss your life passing by each second, and this exact moment is the meaning, all that you feel and all who you are in this moment, and not the imaginary point B.

As for the Cinematographic/Soundtrack driven work, it really is something that shapes to be a thing on its own, meaning I don’t really aim to make that, it just becomes what it is naturally. I think it’s fair to say that I’m into more melodic stuff rather than technical and I love telling stories with melodies, so if you take away all the fanciness (which was there at times) of the older works, it will likely result in, maybe less refined, but still quite Cinematic sound.

Q: Your early albums were released by the defunct Tympanik Audio while you now signed to Cryo Chamber. How did you feel about the end of Tympanik Audio, which was like a kind of ‘family label’ and how do you see Cryo Chamber, which is another ‘family label’?

Pavlo: Tympanik Audio is being missed by many for sure (as well as some other labels close in the genre at that time, which do not function anymore). It was an era in Electronic music for me at least which kind of ended at that time, the very mixture of Glitch, IDM and Ambient with a more Industrial sound was introduced and carried over the years by those labels. Some artists still continued making music and experimenting with sound; many stopped and those who continued were harder to find and follow.

It was pretty big at least in my eyes, that too, at least partially, caused a halt in my musical endeavors. The decisions were made, there were personal reasons behind those, so I can understand why it was that way. No hard feelings, only hopes for good future of the people behind Tympanik Audio, including artists. It did feel like a family after all.
Cryo Chamber is another tight-knit bunch of friendly people. We share the same goal –retelling stories with our music. The label is known for a less flashy/synthy music compared to what I usually do, but it turned out my stuff fits in 🙂

Q: “Exo” is for sure your most ‘cinematic/soundtrack’-driven album. What have been your main influences to compose this work and how do you see your evolution as musician/artist from previous releases towards “Exo”?

Pavlo: From Original Soundtracks my main influences were mostly sci-fi/cyberpunk films, games and animation (suffice to say I’m quite a bit into cyberpunk and sci-fi genre in books and films), namely “Ghost In The Shellt, both Bladerunners, Tarkovsky’s “Stalker”, Deus Ex: “Human Revolution”, Nier: “Automata” and some others. When it comes to musicians it’s mainly Access T Arasaka, Lorn, Bad Sector and older works of Atrium Carceri. In general –a pretty mixed bag, but all these are melody-centric and very immersive if you consider the storytelling aspect, and I enjoy it a lot.

Q: Tell us a bit more about the writing- and production process of “Exo”? What have been the different stages to release this album and tell us a bit more about your way of composing (equipment, noise sources etc)?

Pavlo: Starting off as an experiment “Exo” (it didn’t have a name at the time) quickly formed into a rather long monolithic track, which I later on separated. At that point I realized that it sounds good enough to make something bigger so some parts were dropped (those that clearly were out of the realm of sci-fi) and new parts/movements were created. You know swhen you make something without a bigger idea initially, not all of it fits, and you don’t often know what sounds good and what is just some, what I call, artistic bullshit. So you then work in iterations, creating more stuff and then filtering out and changing and separating what doesn’t fit. Some of the tracks that are now part of “Exo” were the filtered out older stuff which didn’t quite fit the more dynamic earlier sound, so I resampled/re-recorded a bit and it started fitting the mood/narrative after some adjustments.

I feel like I’m in a forge talking about how I hammer some metal parts and what not, but essentially it’s almost like that. Like whenever you create a sound, or work on some recordings/samples and tie them together you act more on what ‘sounds good’ in the moment and only later on you piece the whole picture together, if that makes sense.

Equipment is scarce –most of the stuff is in the box, I only have my Roland JD-XI and some guitar pedals (old Boss distortion and chorus). For the noise sources I try to have my Zoom h2n at hand, good enough field-recording device for most of my needs. I also enjoy lurking on websdr’s and recording some radio static, occasionally some weird modulated voices.

Q: Artistic life has been badly impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. How do you look back at this experience and how do you expect things evolving? What are the further plans for TINEIDAE?

Pavlo: I am thankful for what I have: family, music, work. The lockdowns and all the things happening around helped me to re-evaluate what’s worth in life. As a pretty closed/introverted person, I can’t say that the lockdown impacted me a lot psychologically. I’m still member of online communities I was in previously, I still try to stay in contact with people close to me and also my wife and kids are a tremendous support and help as well as I try to be for them. Hard to say how things will pan out, I’m not sure everything will return back to how they were pre-Covid, or at least not suddenly. Or maybe they won’t at all. I’m trying to keep on creating regardless, monthly singles that are way further from what one could expect genre-wise from me, remixes, collaborations, but also bigger works too, likely back with Cryo Chamber if I don’t go too far off with my artistic bullshit 😀

Thanks for taking your time and asking me some questions. Stay safe!

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

www.side-line.com

Circumpolar is a Swedish duo driven by Jonas Mattson and Patrik Wallin. They last year self-released their debut-EP “Until The End Of Time” and next got signed on Alfa Matrix, which re-released this work. The second EP “We Will Remain” was released nearly at the same time and revealed a more sophisticated sound approach. The intelligent sound treatments remind me a bit of bands such as Clock DVA, Haujobb and related formations. Circumpolar might be the next new sensation for all of those who like intelligent electronics!

(Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)

Q: Circumpolar is a rather unknown name at the wider fields of electro-underground music so can you briefly introduce the band, the way you get contaminated by the ‘electronic virus’ and what were the original purposes when setting up Circumpolar?

Circumpolar: Circumpolar is a new Swedish dark-electro/wave act that consists of Jonas Mattsson and Patrik Wallin. We are old friends since way back in time. We started to make music together when we were about 18 years old, and then played in different bands for some years in the Northern part of Sweden. However, we never released any of that material on record. For years now we have been talking about getting back together again, and about two years ago we decided trying to make electronic music together again.

The purpose behind Circumpolar is to create interesting electronic music within our own conceptual format and sound, which hopefully will be enjoyed by people all over the world.

Q: The name of your band refers to astrology, but can you tell us a bit more about this name and the possible links with lyrical content and music style?

Patrik: The stars that circle around the celestial pole and never set below the horizon are called ‘circumpolarstars’. In ancient Egypt, the circumpolar stars in the Northern sky were called ‘jhmw-sk’, ‘the ones not knowing destruction’. The astronomical characteristics of these specific stars were used in numerous religious texts to express immortality and eternity, for example:

‘O uplifted one (i.e. the Pharaoh), being great among the circumpolar stars. You have not perished, you star of eternity’ (a citation from the so-called Pyramid Texts, 2300 BC)

I studied a lot of ancient history at university, and I have a PhD degree in Egyptology. Sometimes I use the imagery and concepts of life/death and space/time from ancient Egyptian religion in my lyrics.   

Q: Referring to the music style and/or the ‘sound’ properly speaking, I experienced your work as a fusion between different genres and influences; EBM, IDM, ambient, dark-electro… How do you perceive your own sound? Can you tell us a bit more about potential sources of inspiration? References? And how did the song writing happened?

Circumpolar: Bands like Skinny Puppy, Front 242, The Klinik, Twice A Man, Kraftwerk, The Neon Judgement and Portion Control have always been sources of inspiration to us. Further, The Fields Of The Nephilim, The Sisters Of Mercy, Swans, The Cure, Joy Division, Rome and Dead Can Dance are bands that we both like a lot.

Both of us are still buying lots of records and we constantly discover new electronic and dark-electro artists. There is so much great new music within our genre yet to discover.

We like to think that we somehow have created mix between EBM, dark-electro and dark wave/goth. However, this was not the intention when we started the band, it just happened.

The process of creating new songs usually starts with an instrumental loop or just single sample, which we successively develop into a song.

Q: You last year self-released the debut EP “Until The End Of Times” -which got next re-released on Alfa Matrix, plus another EP “We Will Remain”. Can you briefly analyze both EP’s? Was there a particular focus in writing and production? And how did you get the deal with Alfa Matrix?

Circumpolar: The first song we recorded as Circumpolar was “The Rain Will Burn” from the first EP, and then we realized that we had created a musical concept and sound that we really liked. After that moment, it was very easy to continuing writing new songs. 

On the “Until The End Of Time”-EP the foundation of our sound was built, whereas on the “We Will Remain”-EP the sound and concept evolved into something that will be even more present on our future releases.

We sent the songs from our first EP along with the songs to the “We Will Remain”-EP to about 15 different record labels. We got some offers, but when we got a positive response from Alfa Matrix we were overwhelmed.  

Q: I think there’s an interesting evolution in writing and production between both EP’s; “We Will Remain” being definitely more elaborated and subtle, reminding me to bands such as Haujobb, Mentallo & The Fixer and Clock DVA. What does it say about your approach, studio equipment and your own evolution as musicians?

Circumpolar: On the second EP we have worked more with the vocals, and experimented a bit more with reverb, delay and other effects, trying to create a more dynamic and atmospheric experience. The structures of the songs are also a bit different compared to the first EP. Further, we spent much more time on mixing and mastering.

We have bought a lot of new gear since we recorded the first EP, for example a Korg Minilouge XD, the fantastic Strymon Big Sky Reverb, and some Roland drum machines.

Q: I think you’re back again in studio, so I can imagine there’s an album in the pipeline? What brings the future and what might we expect regarding topics such as image, social media activity and live performances?

Circumpolar: For the moment, we are recording new songs for a forthcoming album release. We are constantly producing loads of loops and outtakes, but now we have selected about nine songs out of that material to be finalized for an album.  

It is quite possible that there will be some social media activities prior to our next releases, perhaps some live performances from the studio…

Yes, we will definitely play live in the future.  

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

www.side-line.com

Genre/Influences: Electro-pop.

Format: Digital.

Background/Info: The name of this project clearly refers to the legendary rhythm box TR 808 from Roland. This project set up by Metroland’s ‘Passenger S (aka Sven Lauwers) assisted on the title track by Helalyn Flowers’ singer Noemi Aurora, resulted from the artist’s passion for electronic-pop music. “Blackbodies” is the first take from the announced debut album “The Colour Temperature”. It has been released in two different versions, the “Pulsation”-edit is more a single revealing two songs.  

Content: The title track has this typical ‘Kraftwerk-ian’ touch, but the song also comes close to Metroland, but with an extra poppy touch on top and featuring the vocals of Noemi. She sings a less powerful way than what we’re used to hearing from Helalyn Flowers.

The B-side cut sounds a bit harder, but still into the retro electro-pop vein. This song is an instrumental edit.

+ + + : “Blackbodies” is a cool song and the right title-track for an EP or single. I like the vintage format of the song, which will clearly appeal to lovers of80s electro-pop. “Cie 1960 (Color Space)” is much more than simply a B-side track; it’s an efficient piece confirming there’s a real potential hiding behind 808 Dot Pop.

– – – : Even if it’s retro-like and for this reason totally matching with the approach of this project, I don’t like fade outs! 808 Dot Pop sounds a bit different from Metroland, but there are much more links than only the presence of ‘Passenger S’. I personally prefer the B-side song instead of the title track.

Conclusion: This is an honest debut for a new project, which doesn’t sound that new at all…

Best songs: “Cie 1960 – Color Space”, “Blackbodies – Pulsation”.

Rate: (7).

Artist: www.facebook.com/808dotpop

Label: www.alfa–matrix.com / www.facebook.com/Alfa.Matrix

About 808 Dot Pop

808 Dot Pop is the solo project of Sven Lauwers, known as ‘Passenger S’ from Metroland and formerly of Ionic Vision, released via Alfa Matrix.

Noemi Aurora, who sings on the title track, is otherwise known for her work in Helalyn Flowers.

808 Dot Pop’s discography began with “Jingle Pop” in 2019, followed by the “Blackbodies” EP editions, the debut album “The Colour Temperature” and “Kelvin (4200)” in 2020, “Ultraviolet (Pentatonic)” and “The Cubic Temperature” in 2021, “Suncatcher” in 2022, an eight-part “AM”/“FM”/“MW” single series in 2023, and the twin albums “Minimalism” and “Maximalism,” announced for 2026.

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

www.side-line.com

On February 14th 2020 BMG will release the latest in their series of remastered and expanded Erasure CD reissues with a 3-CD edition of “Chorus”. It features a remastered version of the original album on one disc; a selection of new and classic remixes, b-sides and bonus tracks on disc two; and a live version of the entire “Chorus” album, recorded on Erasure’s Phantasmagorical Entertainment Tour, on the final disc.

This track is a brand new remix of “Am I Right?” taken from the forthcoming remastered and expanded 3CD set.

“Chorus” was Erasure’s 5th proper studio album and was released on 14 October 1991 by Mute Records in Germany and the UK and 15 October 1991 by Sire/Reprise Records in the USA. The remastered and expanded edition of ‘Chorus’ comes in deluxe hardback book packaging with brand new sleeve notes by Mat Smith.

MIDI slop killed the chorded voices

For the geeks, prior to the album’s production, programmer Vince Clarke had noticed technical limitations of the by-then-predominant MIDI sequencing standard, notably that the protocol’s low signal rate resulted in timing errors (known as “MIDI slop”) when multiple notes were triggered simultaneously. In an effort to eliminate this and give the album a “tighter” feel, he avoided the use of MIDI completely, using primarily analog synthesizers and the Roland MC-4 CV/gate sequencer. The avoidance of MIDI had other side effects on the sound of the album, such as the lack of chorded voices (the MC4 can only trigger one note at a time per instrument) and the absence of digital synthesizers and samplers, due to lack of CV/gate control on available models. Clarke would continue with this production technique for later recordings through the 90s.

Tracklisting.

CD1 – CHORUS REMASTERED
• Chorus
• Waiting For The Day
• Joan
• Breath Of Life
• Am I Right
• Love To Hate You
• Turns The Love To Anger
• Siren Song
• Perfect Stranger
• Home

CD2 – B-SIDES, REMIXES & RARITIES
• Over The Rainbow – Originally appears on the single ‘Chorus’
• Turns The Love To Anger (Vince Clarke Remix) – New Remix
• Perfect Stranger (KROQ Mellow Version) – Taken from ‘The KROQ Sessions’
• Waiting For Sex (Full Length) – Taken from the single ‘Am I Right?’
• Love To Hate You (Robbie Rivera’s Juicy Mix) – New Remix
• Twilight – Originally appears on the 2006 EIS release ‘Buried Treasure II’
• Let It Flow – Originally appears on the single ‘Am I Right?’
• Chorus (Fishes In The Sea) (Ben Grosse Remix) – U.S. Promo
• Siren Song (Alternative Lyrics) – Originally appeared on the 2006 EIS release ‘Buried Treasure II’
• Breath Of Life (Divine Inspiration Mix) – Remixed by Phil Kelsey. Originally appears on the single ‘Breathe Of Life’
• Love to Hate You (KROQ Blunder Version) – Taken from ‘The KROQ Sessions’
• La La La – Originally appears on the single ‘Love To Hate You’
• Mirror To Your Soul – Originally appears on the 2006 EIS release ‘Buried Treasure II’
• Waiting For The Day (Demo Version) – Originally appears on the box set ‘From Moscow To Mars’
• Perfect Stranger (Acoustic) – Originally appears on the single ‘Am I Right?’
• Am I Right? (Glen Nicholls Extended 12″ Mix) – New Remix
• Home (Minute Taker Remix) – New Remix

CD3 – CHORUS LIVE
• Chorus
• Waiting For The Day
• Joan
• Breath Of Life
• Am I Right
• Love To Hate You
• Turns The Love To Anger
• Siren Song
• Perfect Stranger
• Home

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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Peter Moorkens is a Belgian artist born in 1965. He started playing acoustic guitar and got later on interested by modular synthesizers. He became involved with different projects dealing with different kinds of music. Onsturicheit is a solo-project, which is mainly driven by the magic of modular synths. Wool-E Discs recently released five albums of Onsturicheit, which are available as a boxset and separately. The work will appeal lovers of ‘krautrock’ and the so-called ‘Berliner school’.

(Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)

Q: Peter, you seem to be involved with very different music projects for years now. Can you briefly give us a summary and how do you explain this eclecticism? 

Peter: I’ve been collecting music since I was 10 years old. Mostly Beatles, Pink Floyd and Hawkwind. Then Idiscovered Klaus Schulze and my dream was to do that sort of music. My mother had an organ and my sister played piano, so I exorcised my ideas on those tools, but nothing seriously. Then my mom bought a Roland JX-3P, but she couldn’t handle it so she gave it to me. I was moving into other areas at that time. I became a singer in a band called Smeurebreud (demo here: https://soundcloud.com/electric-loopstation/my-doggys-gone-111984) which was into folk stuff with English and Dutch lyrics. We had a lot of fun, did a lot of jamming and improvising.

Moving from Antwerp to Ghent changed a lot of thing. I joined hands together with Jeroen Saegeman to set The Moonfolks, which was a vehicle for experimental rock were you could play any instrument you wanted. I sang, learned to play guitar, tenor sax, synthesizer, harp, etc. At some point I bought a 4-track cassette recorder and set up Electric Loopstation. It was a solo-project with special guests, very cinematic music and definitely spacy (music here: https://archive.org/search.php?query=electric%20loopstation   Jeroen from The Moonfolks moved on with Groom (Dublin psychedelic band) and his own Walpurgis Family and I became the singer of Daisy And The Diving Duck; a psychedelic blues band who jammed like hell. I sang and played sax and occasionally some synths. The two splendid guitarists started their own projects, now leading Mother T And The Chicks and The Golden Showers.

Electric Loopstation still exists, but actually there’s nothing new in the pipeline. So to make it short, I jammed a lot with bands and I jammed on my own; it was all the same. You record a jam, you overdub a jam and in the end you got a track or a song. Sometimes everything was live, using loops etc.

Q: How did you finally come to set up Onsturicheit and what have been the initial purpose(s) to experiment with this solo-project?

Peter: At some point I wasn’t playing in any band, but I wanted to be able to play live on my own. I gathered so much gear that I used for Electric Loopstation and was progressively moving towards more and more electronic music with less guitar and no vocals. I slimmed things down and made a practical setup that I could take on the road to play live on my own. Onsturicheit was born.

Q: Tell us a bit more about your way of composing and the sound properly speaking, which is mainly driven by modular synthesizers?

Peter: Modular synthesizers perfectly fit to the name Onsturicheit because in medieval Dutch it means something that is untamable, something with a will of his own, something wild and that’s exactly what it is. For every gig I reconstruct my modular system. This way I have to rethink which voices I will be using, how to modulate them, etc. I make patches, see how the voices fit -or not fit together. Then a week or so before the gig I try out new melodies, record samples, etc. I write the ideas in a little book. Those ideas turn into scenes. A scene is mostly an introduction (soundscapes you make live or samples) followed by  2 or 3 sequences that will be the key melody. Then I program some Korg Volca’s. I use Kick and two Samples (you can have up to 8 different preprogrammed drumloops). I write down suggestions for building up the soundscapes using samples, the key it is in, the beats per minute, which programs on the Volca’s that fit in, some tricks, etc. At some point I play and recorded the live set at home. I listen to it the day after and change some bits here and there. Sometimes I decide the evening before the gig to bring in a guitar or something completely different (https://soundcloud.com/littlantenna/postx250519-onsturicheit) and hope that everything works out fine. It never is, but that’s modular and some experience to take different roads or just jam when you’ve ran out of scene’s you have prepared.

Q: You last year (re)-released five (!) albums on Wool-E Discs, which are available as limited box format! Can we speak about a conceptual work? Can you give us a bit more details about the concept, composition and recording of the works?

Peter: Dimitri from Wool-E-Discs is a sort of Maecenas for us creative people. When he hears something he likes, he will give it a physical release. In my case a cassette called “Waan”. It was a very limited edition, but enough to get some attention from the underground press. I was lucky to get a very good review from Gonzo Circus. So a second cassette was released and I again got good reviews. I also moved on recording every jam prior to gigs. So I had plenty of material. Dimitri came with the idea to release the two tapes plus 3 new discs in a CD box. The CD’s are also available without the box.

“Waan” was a jam of 53 minutes with 6 Korg Volca’s. I didn’t like it a lot, but something special was hidden. I left it alone for a year before I heard it again. I liked the vocal samples a lot. I used them in the Volca Sample, a drum sequencer. I reworked the original piece. Extra synthesizers, some guitar, more samples, etc were added. The result is still the best thing I ever did.

After that there was “Angstzweet”. The second album is always a difficult one. It can’t be the same and it must be better. Hence the title. It was more dark in a way, more unsure and the beginning of the my modular adventure. Angst is a bit a tribute to Suzanne Ciani. You can hear sounds that come close the Buchla Synth she uses. These tracks were all live jams. The track “Rilling” was recorded for my Youtube channel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qEJrkG9Yzo). “Zweet” is back to the Korg Volca’s and the microbrute. This track was a live preparation for a gig at the annual BBQ of The Blue Room (gathering of artists and record shop holders, etc.). In fact thanks to the platform the Blue Room gave me things started to happen outside the living room.

On Record Store Day 2017, Wool_E-Shop invited me to play a short live set. I recorded it and named it “Denkbeeldig Tentenkamp” because I played under something resembling a tent and in Brussels there were tents full of refugees. Also the words ‘denkbeeldig’, ‘illusie’ and ‘hondsdol’ were used in my Volca sampler.  The music I played was a mix of both cassette releases. I already had the melodies and improvised around them. The other tracks on the album are from Joost Carpentier, a Blue Room visitor and artist (see DREUN box https://belgianneumusik.be/album/wed022-bnm007-10111-ambient-darkambient-drone-soundscapes) who also did the mastering. I asked him to vivisect and reconstruct the live track and make them his own. Something different and beautiful came out. More from us will come in the future. Hence the title Impressions.

The fourth album ‘In De Nevelen’ was a result of a collaboration with Glenn Dick (Find Hope In Darkness). We recorded some jam sessions, sort of modular against guitar loops. At a certain point I took my baritone guitar and we played a track of 50 minutes with just guitars and some samples. Unfortunately the guitar parts of Glenn were not recorded. When I listened to the recording I found it very calm and spacy so I added some minimal drums and modular synths. I like the end result enough to present it at Dimitri. There are also some hints to the other albums in the samples I used.

The fifth album was a rehearsal for the “Splinter”-sessions at Villa Bota Bruges. I had to make a piece of one hour. I rehearsed it a few times and recorded the jams. The tracks on the album came from two of these sessions. When I played it live, time is relative in my head, so I moved quicker thru all the scene’s that I prepared and doing so reduced the piece to 30 minutes. Since I always make a film to accompany the live music I noticed the movie wasn’t finished so I had to improvise the rest of the set. Patrick Baele filmed the whole set (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyHybA7zYrU&t=1624s). The tracks on the album develop more slowly and give you time to absorb the music.

Q: The title of the box “Wanneer De Herder Doolt, Zo Dolen De Schapen”, but also the different album- and song titles are pretty intriguing. What’s the hidden meaning behind the titles and is there a link between the titles and music you composed for each of them?

Peter: Translated “When The Shepherd Wanders, So The Sheep Will Wander”. The shepherd is Dimitri from Wool-E-Shop and we are the sheeps and the album tells the story of the flock. Onsturicheit is Dutch, so are all the titles. Since they’re all instrumentals it’s the mood of the piece that influences the tittle. I’m also interested in the  history of mentalities and especially old pagan rituals from peasant in the medieval and modern times. Lot of these rituals deal with invisible forces and with the changes of the seasons. I’m very sensitive to those and it directly influences the mood of my live jams (which is the only way to record modular synthesizer music). Afterwards I look for a fitting title.

“Waan” was easy. I had the voice samples and I wrote a story to accompany the tracks. “Angstzweet” was conceived in Autumn, I tend to be more dark and melancholic and fear was/is ruling the world at that moment with all the terrorist assaults going on. There are also quotes from the apocalypse in the music.

“In De Nevelen” is a bit like the mists of Avalon. The music was hidden and almost forgotten so it was cloaked in mist. So every title has got ‘nevel’ in it and associations to other albums as well like “Angstzweet” that keeps on repeating in one of the tracks. So yes there is a link with the other albums. It’s all a state of mind.

The “Splinter”-album is off course named after the “Splintersessies”. But the word ‘splinter’ is a fantastic word (shard, fragment). I also use fragments of readings from old Dutch books. “Een Deur Op Een Kier Intrappen” comes from such a fragment. Or “Splinter In De Ziel” (translated “Splinter In The Soul”). Do we have a soul? I have an  agnostic approach to live  and believe that music is keeping it all together some way. Every molecule vibrates and vibration is sound and sound can be music.

As for musical moods, sometimes it is something I hear on the news like all the unnecessary chopping of trees in Belgium and the climate changes and all the hot summers and no trees to chill out under, we burn ourselves “Verbrande Dode Bomen” (translated “Burned Dead Trees”). It’s like a splinter in our soul cause what kind of future do we give to our children. “De Gespleten Hoef” refers to the Devil, in this case someone making a profit from those illegal cuttings. “Stapsvoets afdalende” (translated “Going Down Step By Step”) to the end of civilisation as it is. A happy tune, aren’t we all happy in this paradise called the Western World. But we still can’t kick open a closed door and were back with “Angstzweet” (cold sweat) when the end of the world is near, which brings back the apocalypse and the insanity.

Do not worry, I’m not depressed, although I know people who are. I also realise we are all living in a bubble. With all the technology of today, our health insurance, money for the unemployed,  TV, smartphones, cars, etc. We think it is our right to have all this. But never in history we had a society that was living on this high standard and if there was such a society, it didn’t survive (Romans, Aztecs, ….). Look 50 years back and it was a different planet.

Q: How do you transpose your studio work on stage and what kind of performances do you try to accomplish –where visual input must be important? 

Peter: Visuals are always important. I make all the artwork. In every cover there is an old building, even in my digital releases on Modular404. History and the past is important to me. We can still learn from our mistakes, or be happy with what we have achieved. Don’t take everything for granted. Things were harder back then.

For the live acts I always make a film to go along with the set. It’s a mix of different stuff, some of it with me in action. There’re always shadows in the movies. I’m fascinated by the shadows they make on walls. Also road movies filmed in a car or on a train, fauna moving with the wind, old black and white films or pictures of old buildings flashing rapidly on the screen. I also use short movies made by my son Milo which are very humoristic.

My live act or studio recordings are exactly the same. I make sketches of ideas that work. When I’m ready I hit the record button and of we go. In the studio I can do overdubs or cut things out or develop ideas into something new. Live it is more a struggle, a taming of the beast (the modular). It never goes like planned and you have to take alternate routes. Live experience is always something new for me and the public. I can’t repeat the same concert twice. The sounds will always be different. The melodies of the sequences will or could be the same if they work at that moment with the flow I’m in. Mostly I play for one hour, which is very long to keep it interesting. That is also why I use films and I also play with my instruments turned to the public so they rather can see what I’m doing instead of seeing my face and the back of the monstercase.

My last gig at Post X was a very intense. I did not even had the chance to look at the screen. Playing with the guitar thru the modular was a good decision and I use pickup microphones to pick up sounds of things that I can hit and process thru the modular system. At the end of this everyone was applauding and screaming YES. It was a victory for me and the audience. I hope It will be released on Wool-E-Discs.

The next concert will be at AntennA festival 22/02/2020 (https://www.facebook.com/AntennA-Festival-2020-2409448922451521/) but other concerts could cross my way. This time I won’t be making the visuals. I leave them to Patrick Baele, a visual artist from Ghent (Digitale Beeldende Kunst – Medialab – Academie voor Beeldende Kunst Gent). You can find him on the social media.

Also The Moonfolks are back together and we are planning a concert in January 2020. We will perform the soundtrack to a silent movie. Read the review of ‘Splinter’.

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

www.side-line.com

(Interview © Janos Janurik) 2019 is a year full of anniversaries and anniversary releases and tours, just think of bands and records or special concerts such as Alphaville (“Forever Young” (Super-Deluxe-Box)), the anniversary tour to A-ha`s debut album “Hunting High And Low”, special live performances of The Cure to their legendary “Disintegration” album – just to name a few…

This series is complemented by the re-release of Erasure’s “Wild!” LP. The album was originally released in October 1989 and put the duo of Vince Clarke and Andy Bell on the top of the charts. According to Erasure’s fan base this record is still one of their best and contains timeless classics like “Drama!”, “You Surround Me”, or “Blue Savannah”, which are still part of their concerts.

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of “Wild!”, our contributor, Janos Janurik, invited three people involved in that project for an interview: the unique and unrepeatable Vince Clarke and his right hands, who also have a good reputation among Depeche Mode fans: the two producers, Gareth Jones and Mark Saunders.

They were all ready for a discussion and answered the questions of our colleague as follows.

Vince Clarke

SL: In the series of the Mute album re-releases the last Erasure LP of the eighties, “Wild! ” will be published on the occasion of its thirtieth anniversary. Which (not only musical) memories of the autumn of 1989 are still awake in you?

VC: – I remember the music was recorded in my very first home studio in London. Mark Saunders worked with me whilst Andy recorded with Gareth Jones at the ‘Church’ studio.

SL: The producer of this album was Gareth Jones, a long-time studio employee of Mute Records artists like Depeche Mode, Wire, and Nick Cave. His partner in the production team was the legendary mix master Mark Saunders. You worked together with Gareth on other Erasure albums. Which cooperation do you remember best? Do you have a favourite remix of Mark’s Erasure catalogue?

VC: – Mark did a fantastic remix of ‘You Surround Me’. He was/is very easy going and we got on well. At that point I didn’t really know Gareth.

SL: The single releases “Drama!” and “Blue Savannah” are still fix parts of your live setlists. On the Violet Flame Tour you performed remixes of the rarely played “Wild! ” singles “Star” and “You Surround Me”. Except “2000 Miles” you actually played all album songs at your previous concerts. Are you still satisfied with this material? How do you rate this album after 30 years of time?

VC: – Not bad. 🙂

SL: The “Wild! Tour” has perhaps been the biggest of your tours so far. You toured the world with a gigantic stage set. For the first time you had dancers on stage besides the background singers and there were also several costume changes and two different setlists. During this tour you also played live behind the iron curtain in Prague and then in exotic places like South America, Japan and Australia for the first time. Not to mention the legendary finale at the Milton Keynes Bowl. Do you have any special souvenirs from this tour that will bring back good memories?

VC: – I don’t have any souvenirs, but I remember that the tour was very exciting, especially play to such big crowds.

SL: The second disc of the forthcoming re-release will feature 14 bonus B-sides, remixes, rarities and live recordings, five of which are previously unreleased, including a brand-new remix of “Drama!” by Richard Norris and a recently discovered unreleased mix of “How Many Times?”. This song is my favourite song from the album and which one is yours?

VC: – “Blue Savannah”.

SL: But Erasure is not a nostalgia band of the 80s, because in the meantime you have released more than a dozen albums that have all been received positively – by fans as well as critics. What does the band-future of Erasure look like? Are there any plans for new material yet?

VC: – We hope to be writing for a new album in 2019.

SL: What would your message be for your fan base?

VC: – THANK YOU!

Gareth Jones

SL: Gareth, you’re supposed to be the in-house producer for Mute Records. Before working with Erasure, you’ve worked with renowned Mute artists such as Depeche Mode, Wire and Nick Cave. How do you remember the first meeting with label boss Daniel Miller and the studio work in Berlin with Depeche Mode on their „Construction Time Again” album?

GJ: – I have told this story many times, so I will keep it brief.

I was introduced to Daniel Miller and Depeche Mode by my friend and mentor John Foxx. He owned a studio called “The Garden” in Shoreditch in East London, and Daniel and Depeche Mode were interested in recording there. I was working for John at the time and he sent me over to the MUTE Records office, which at that time was in Kensington Gardens Square in West London, to meet the whole team. I was a bit nervous, but they were all super nice and normal people, and agreeably weird. Luckily for me they felt good about me too, and offered me the job.

SL: How did the request to produce Erasure’s „Wild!” album come about? Have you had contact with Vince Clarke and Andy Bell before?

GJ: – Before we started working on the “Wild” album I didn’t know Vince or Andy very well at all. For this record they had decided to make sure that there was plenty of time for Andy to work on his vocals. They were looking for someone to engineer and produce the vocals.  I had already been working in Berlin with the incredibly talented Diamanda Galas.  She had met Andy a couple of times I believe (I don’t know where) and she was kind enough to recommend my vocal production skills to him. So that is how I join the team.

SL: How was it working with them compared to Depeche Mode?

GJ: – This was a very different process from working with Depeche Mode. Initially I was hired to record and produce Andy’s vocals. Vince was in another studio with the other co-producer of the record, Mark Saunders. We were in the church studio and I think Mark and Vince were in Swing Studios. 

The studios were both in North London so we were able to have meetings often, and we were continually exchanging musical and vocal ideas.

When it came to mixing it was decided that Mark and I would both mix the album. I was mixing in the Church and Mark was mixing in Konk.  We were all determined to get the best out of the songs, so we all pushed each other to do our best like a Sound System contest.

I remember the first single “Drama!” went back and forth between our two studios a few times! Eventually we were all happy.

SL: Are there any favourites from this album that you are still proud of today?

GJ: – The whole record was an amazing experience. Vince and Andy are such strong song writers, talented musicians and all around wonderful people that it was a real pleasure and privilege to be a part of this great record.

I loved the whole process and I have a special affection for “Drama!” and” Blue Savannah”.

SL: You were not only involved in the „Wild!” project as a producer, but also as a remixer, for example the „Syrinx Mix” from „You Surround Me”, which is one of my favourites. Do you have a favourite remix from Erasure`s discography that you particularly enjoyed working on?

GJ: – I did 2 remixes of “Blue Savannah” (“Der Deutsche Mix 1 & 2”) in Berlin with my friends Sun Electric – Stephan Fisher, Max Loderbauer and Tom Thiel. I really enjoyed this – they are all so musical, creative and professional. It was truly a fantastic experience.

SL: After the „Wild!” album you had numerous co-productions with Erasure – among them you worked on one of my favourite albums from them, on the self-titled „Erasure”. And how about you? Do you have a favourite album from Erasure?

GJ: – The first album, “Wild!”, is dear to my heart. I also love the “Erasure” album. It was such a pleasure to work with my friend Thomas Fehlmann as a co-producer on the album and he bought so much to the table. I was so happy that Diamanda agreed to do a guest vocal on the record. We also had the pleasure of an amazing LP mix by Francois Kevorkian.

– The „Wild!” album also included an extensive world tour. Did you see Erasure live back then? If so, where? What did you think of them as a live act?

GJ: – I saw the Wild tour in Hamburg I think. I invited my parents to come along. The show was incredible. I am always impressed by Erasure live shows. The love between the band and the audience is so tangible and touching. Andy is an outrageously talented frontperson, and Vince is always Mr Cool. What a great combination!

SL: What are you currently working on and what are your plans for the future?

GJ: – I am currently writing and recording a solo electronic music project and a new collaboration that I am very excited about.

This year I will also be writing and releasing a new LP for the “Spiritual Friendship” project – an ongoing collaboration with the amazing Nick Hook.

I am also producing an exciting and enjoyably weird electronic pop album with American and European musicians for a new project called “Of Love And Lust”.

I will be back in Yann Tiersen’s fantastic new studio on the island of Ushant (Ouessant) later in the year, helping out with a new recording.

Mark Saunders

SL: Among your early outstanding works is the engineering of some of David Bowie’s songs from 1985 and 1986, who was the idol of several generations of musicians, including Erasure’s Vince Clarke. How do you remember this studio work?

MS: – I feel incredibly lucky to have been in a studio to witness the true legend, David Bowie at work. It was just under a year from starting at West Side Studios in London when Bowie first came in to work on songs for the movie that he was also acting in – „Absolute Beginners”. Before that, I’d been making demos on a Tascam 8-Track tape machine in a dilapidated cow shed on my dad’s farm. Working with Bowie was an unfathomable step up! When the Bowie sessions started, I was transitioning from assistant engineer to house engineer. My bosses, producers Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley (Madness, China Crisis, Elvis Costello, Bush, Bowie & Jagger), were constantly throwing me in the deep end on sessions. There were quite a lot of jazz songs that we recorded for the Absolute Beginners soundtrack were and there would often be drums, bass, piano, guitar, and sometimes up to 9 brass players all playing together in the studio. It was intense as a newbie engineer to get thrown in on those sessions. I remember one session feeling somewhat overwhelmed and turning around to my boss Alan to get some confirmation that I was doing ok and he was asleep on the sofa behind me! For Bowie’s songs for the soundtrack, when the band were laying down the backing track for Bowie to sing on, Bowie would always sing along a ‘rough’ vocal to keep the band inspired. His vocals were always brilliant and as far as I was concerned, nearly every one could have been the master vocal take. But surprisingly, when Bowie was happy with the backing track, he would approach singing lead vocals in quite a clinical way. He would often sing one line, stop, and listen back to it before moving on to the next line. He would also quite regularly check his vocal on the demo version of the song to during this process. His vocals always sounded fantastic though. The pinnacle of those Bowie sessions was when on one day, we recorded the epic title track „Absolute Beginners” and then late in the afternoon, Mick Jagger came in to record „Dancing In The Street” for Live Aid! This was incredible for me – this was a year and one day from starting in a professional studio – and I was working with Bowie & Jagger! This being before cellphones and frustratingly, I had no way to text friends and say – „You’ll never guess who I’m working with today!”. „Dancing In The Street” was one of the first records I ever got an engineering credit on.

SL:Erasure are part of the success story of Mute Records. Your first commissions with the record company included remixes of Depeche Mode`s „Strangelove” and „Everything Counts”. These tracks are – after 30 years – still firm parts of the Depeche Mode club evenings. Did you like making them (with Tim Simenon)?

MS: – I think that these remixes occurred just after or around the time that I worked with Tim on Neneh Cherry’s brilliant debut album „Raw Like Sushi”. Tim was great to work with, he was young and came from the DJ-ing aspect of music rather than being a studio musician or an engineer and he had a naive (in a good way) approach to making records that kept things moving along and fresh sounding – particularly noticeable on „Buffalo Stance” by Neneh Cherry – her first hit. The „Everything Counts” Depeche remix was a pretty simple affair. I seemed to remember hiring in a Roland SH-01 for that session which was definitely used for the bass. Personally I would have preferred to have made the remix more musical – but Tim was happy to keep it more of a hardcore club track. Our Strangelove remix was much more complicated and fraught with technical difficulties.

In those days I was syncing my Atari 1040st computer, running Cubase, to a timecode track (SMPTE) which was recorded on one track of the multitrack tape that contained the song.

This quite often lead to difficulties because after hours or playing and rewinding the tape, the tape would start to wear out. Usually the code track was on the edge of the tape and the edges wore out faster.

So as it go late into the night, we had real problems syncing the computer to the tape machine. And the computer was running all the new parts and samples that Tim and I were adding for the remix. I think this one turned out pretty well though!

SL: Before the release of “Wild!” you also made remixes for Erasure songs like „A Little Respect”, „Stop!” and „Knocking On Your Door”. Did you follow the band`s history from the very beginning?

MS: – I’d been a fan of Vince since the early Depeche days and the Yazoo era but I missed the early Erasure days. My first Erasure work was a remix of „A Little Respect”. I’m sure this came about because of my work for Tim Simenon who was signed to Rhythm King records which was based out of Mute’s offices. I didn’t meet the band though until I mixed the „Crackers International EP” which included the songs „Stop!”, „Knocking On Your Door”, „God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman” and – my favourite – „The Hardest Part”. I mixed „The Hardest Part” first and that was the first time I met Vince – when he came in to check the mix. I was nervous and nobody had warned me about his very dry, deadpan sense of humour. For one thing, when he listened to the mix, he barely moved. He barely even seemed to blink! He didn’t tap his feet, smile or turn around to me to give me an assuring look – nothing! He sat like a robot with his head between the speakers. I took this as a sign that he must absolutely hate the mix – I was literally pacing back and forth behind him wondering how I’d got the mix so horribly wrong! Eventually the song finished, Vince stopped the tape and then paused for what felt like an eternity before turning around and saying „I love it!” And then with a dead straight face he said – „Just one thing… Did you not like like the kick drum?” My heart nearly stopped! Had I really missed out the entire kick drum track on an Erasure record! But before I had a chance to respond, he said „Just kidding… there’s no kick drum on this song!”

SL: In 1989, Erasure`s „Wild!” album was released that still belongs to the fans’ favourites and includes such classics as „Drama!” and „Blue Savannah”. What memories can you recall of these studio works with Erasure?

MS: – As Erasure had time constraints for the making of „Wild!”, I was hired to co-produce the tracks with Vince Clark and Gareth Jones (Depeche Mode, Wire, Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds, Interpol) was hired to work on vocals with Andy. When Vince and I finished a track in his basement studio in his house in Notting Hill, London, the multitrack would be whisked off to The Church studios in Crouch End in the north end of London for Andy to sing on. On the first day of the recording, Vince sat me down and said – in his deadpan way, „Do you want to know how much money you’re going to make from this album?” Before I could utter much more than „Oh… well… err”, he’d tapped away on a calculator for a few seconds and was holding up the resulting calculation to show me and said „How’s that?” To which I gulped and said „Err… that looks just fine… thanks.” Vince’s basement studio contained nearly every great synth known to man and it was beautifully laid out, with a mixing board against one wall facing the window, and the other three walls had floor to ceiling racks laden with all the synths. One thing completely stunned me on day one though. We decided on what song to start with and Vince then proceeded to expertly get a kick drum sound from one of his synths – an ARP 2500 I think. When he was happy with it, he said, „OK let’s print that to tape (an Otari 24 track 2in Tape machine)”. I said „Are you sure you want to record it now?” He frowned and said „Why not?”.

I said, „Well, wouldn’t you prefer to hear the kick drum in context with a bass and maybe a couple of synths before you commit it to tape?” He still looked completely baffled – like I was asking him to pilot a space craft to the moon or something else outside of his comfort zone.

He replied „But this is the way I’ve always done it.” – which is a fair response from someone whose already produced a shed load of mega hits! „OK”, I said, „but surely, you have more than enough excellent gear here to have all the parts running live from your sequencer and refine all the sounds in context with each other before we need to commit to tape – right?” Long pause and more deep frowning – followed by „I’ve never thought about doing it like that”. This blew me away! This was Vince Clarke, the guy that I watched on Tomorrow’s World many years before I got into the music biz explaining how the Fairlight could sample sounds and play them musically on a keyboard and then sequence them to create a song – all inside a massive computer. Ground breaking stuff! And yet here was the same guy who hadn’t thought of running multiple parts on his sequencer before! Anyway, luckily, rather than kick me out of his studio, Vince gave my suggestion a go and after a couple of hours he said „I like this way of doing it…” and so that’s how we worked from then on. Vince is a musical genius and I loved working with him. He was all about keeping stuff dead simple and keeping songs short… He would quite often say „That’ll do”, like a builder who’s just skimped on the bolts holding some majorly important steel beams together. An example of the Vince Clark genius was the rising and descending piano riffs in „Blue Savannah”. Vince, during the programming/recording said „This needs a piano riff”. Then he just seemed to sit there and stare into space. After a while, I said „Why don’t you just try and play something?” He said… „Sshh… I’m thinking!” After what seemed like an eternity, he started furiously typing numbers into his ancient BBC UMi computer. Minutes later, he sat back and said „Right, let’s have a listen then.”… and my jaw dropped when the brilliant piano riffs popped out of the speakers. He had worked it all out in his head and then had typed in – numerically – each note, the position of the note, the note length and the velocity. Bloody brilliant! At the beginning of the record, Daniel Miller, the Mute Records boss, said to me „I want you to try and get Vince to try some new sounds on this record – experiment a bit more. He’s been using the same sounds for years.” So I tried, but I didn’t push the idea with Vince because I loved all his tried and trust analog synth sounds. We did use some samples from my Akai S1000 sampler a few times, like the acoustic guitar sample on „Star” – although Vince had no interest in using a sampler, as far as I remember. When the recording was finished, both Gareth and I started mixing the songs. I can’t remember if we both mixed all of the songs or not – and I can’t remember exactly who’s mixes ended up on the record – but I think it was a fairly even split between Gareth’s and mine. I mixed in Konk Studios, just up the road from The Church where Gareth was mixing. Konk, owned by The Kinks, had a great big room with a full size snooker table in it which was fab. Vince drove up from Notting Hill one day during the mixing and said „Come on, take a break… Let’s have a game of snooker!” So that’s what we did – we played at least two games and then I said, „OK, let me play you some mixes then”, to which he replied ‘nah, I only came up here for a game of snooker’. I assumed he was joking because, for one thing, the drive from his house to Konk was a fairly arduous journey across a big chunk of London. He told me he was deadly serious though and it took a great deal of effort to persuade him to stay and listen to a mix. I decided to play him „Blue Savannah”. Now, if you’ve ever heard the acoustic slide guitar samples in my 12” remix of this song… well, I had originally put them in the album version. I found the samples in my library while I was working on the song and when I loaded them into the Akai S1000, I loved them! They fit the key of the song perfectly. But somehow I had a feeling that I might be on shaky ground when Vince heard them. My instinct was right. When I played him my album mix, he assumed his normal position… stone faced, and dead still in front of the speakers. But when the first slide guitar riff came in, he positively flinched… like someone had slapped him around the face! But amazingly he kept listening without moving again until the end of the song.

Then he turned to me and said „Yeah, it’s good… but… I would never, ever, have a slide guitar in any of my songs… ever!” So that was the end to the slide guitar in the album mix. And now I think about it… how did I ever get away with putting them in the 12” version?!

Vince had an unerring confidence in what he was doing. If Daniel Miller, the Mute Records boss, had any doubts about anything to do with the record, Vince would say „Don’t worry Daniel, it’s going to go to number 1” – which of course it did, in it’s first week of release!

SL: A remix of „You Surround Me” also bears your name. You made a danceable club hit out of that original ballad. Erasure even played this version live on their Violet Flame Tour 2014. Please tell us a little about it! Which song, by the way, is your favourite from the „Wild!” album?

MS: – I was in Mayfair studios in London for this remix. I remember getting depressed because for quite a long time I couldn’t get anything going that I liked – mainly because of the tempo of the track I think. Then I tried playing double tempo drums along with the song and all of a sudden I was up and running and excited about the mix! I’m pretty sure I was thinking Billy Idol when I did this version. I was pretty happy with the result and was very flattered to learn that the band played my version live. My favourite song from „Wild!” is definitely „Blue Savannah”. My next favourite song that I worked on with Erasure was „All This Time Still Falling Out Of Love” from the album „Nightbird”.

SL: Not only for Erasure, but also for Yazoo you made a remix for their hit „Situation”. Did you see the duo live during their reunion 10 years ago?

MS: – Working on the remix of „Situation” with Daniel Miller was a great honour. What an absolutely perfect pop song… and less than 2 minutes and 30 seconds long! On my website is an extended edit of the song that never got released… actually, I don’t think I ever played it to the band or Mute. I was lucky enough to see them in New York during their reunion tour. They sounded great. Alison Moyet is awesome… I got to work with her too a couple of times and she, like Vince, has a very dry sense of humour and is very down to earth.

SL: What future plans and current works in progress do you have?

MS: – I moved back from the States in 2017 which was a big deal after 21 years of living there. I feel much more inspired musically in the UK. I’m in love with the BBC 6 Music radio station… best radio station I’ve ever heard. They play the most eclectic range of music that you could possibly imagine but they somehow nearly always play stuff that appeals to me! I have two young boys and for a few years now life has been more about family life than pursuing my career but I feel that as they are getting older there is going to be room for both – hopefully soon!

P.S.: A short info for all those who have missed a conversation on the topic with Andy Bell, he is currently very busy with his new solo project “Torsten in Queereteria” (release date: 12 April 2019) and therefore unfortunately could not be at our disposal.

“Erasure – Wild! – 30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition”, is out Friday, 29th March 2019 via BMG / Mute Records.

CD1 Track Listing:

• Piano Song – Instrumental
• Blue Savannah
• Drama!
• How Many Times?
• Star
• La Gloria
• You Surround Me
• Brother and Sister
• 2000 Miles
• Crown Of Thorns
• Piano Song

CD2 Track Listing:

• Sweet, Sweet Baby – The Moo Moo Mix
• Drama! – Richard Norris Mix (unreleased)
• Blue Savannah – Mark Saunders 12″ Mix
• Piano Song – Live at the London Arena (unreleased)
• Runaround On The Underground – Remix
• How Many Times? – Alternative Mix (unreleased)
• Supernature – Daniel Miller & Phil Legg Remix
• Star – Soul Mix
• No GDM. – Unfinished Mix
• Drama! – Act 2
• Brother and Sister – Live at the London Arena (unreleased)
• Dreamlike State – 7″ A Cappella Mix (unreleased)
• You Surround Me – Gareth Jones Mix
• 91 Steps – 6 Pianos Mix

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.

I never heard of Markus Midnight before he joined hands together with the Brazilian label Wave Records. This Canadian artist previously released his songs on different online platforms till he got contacted by Wave Records. The 7” “Blutgeld / Your Devil” got released in 2017 and the debut album “Fifteen Midnight Rituals” was unleashed in 2018. This work is a kind of compilation featuring songs that were originally written in between 2009 and 2017. The work is clearly inspired by 80s electro-wave music and reveals a few cool songs. The interview is an introduction to the sound universe of Markus Midnight.

(Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)

Q: What incited you to start composing music and what have been your main sources of inspiration and references?

Markus: I’ve always been interested in making music. When I was young, I had cheap little keyboards and a drum machine that I found inspiring. I got my first real synthesizer when I was 18, a Roland JX-8P. I had very little idea of what I was doing with gear then, but I knew I wanted to create sounds similar to the artists I was listening to. I was fascinated by the soundtracks of John Carpenter and listened to lots of Skinny Puppy. I guess that was the starting point!

Markus Midnight began as a project in 2009. Prior to 2009, I worked on some really low-fi synth-pop that was poorly produced. I also played bass here and there, but I was mostly interested in electronic music.

Q: Wave Records last year released the album “Fifteen Midnight Rituals”, which also is your ‘official’ debut album featuring tracks written in between 2009 and 2017. It’s rather unusual to release a compilation as official debut full length so I can imagine it means a lot to you? Tell us a bit more about it?  

Markus: I used to release songs on Myspace and Soundcloud in the early days and moved on to Bandcamp a little later. Wave Records approached me to do a compilation of some of the older songs I released online, including some newer tracks. I was surprised by the offer as I was just making music as a creative outlet. It was also great to have physical media, particularly the 7″ of “Your Devil/Blutgeld”.

Q: How difficult –or easy, was it to make a selection of 15 songs and what have been your criteria to select the tracks?

Markus: Definitely a difficult process. I have a lot of older material which people still enjoy, but I’ve moved on from my early sound. Thankfully Wave Records made some song suggestions that helped me make a list. I think we got a good mix of old and new songs that shows a progression in my sound.

Q: “Fifteen Midnight Rituals” is mixing varied influences, but remains pretty 80s-like. What fascinates you in the music of 80s electro, how do you try to re-create this original spirit and what does it say about your perception of contemporary electronic music?

Markus: I have always been fascinated by dark synth sounds and drum machines, with my entry into 80s electro being artists such as Skinny Puppy, Cabaret Voltaire, and Psyche. I also find living in a cold, isolated Canadian city has steered my interest towards this type of music.

I used to write songs using exclusively vintage gear and old sequencers where I’d have to save a song to a floppy disk. But accidentally formatting a disk and losing all my songs made me update my ways. In the end, regardless of technique, my music will reflect the era that inspires me.

When it comes to contemporary electronic music, I really enjoy dark, 80s-inspired techno and electro, like DJ Overdose and Beta Evers. I think there’s lots of great artists working with 80s sounds, and using them in interesting ways.

Q: I noticed you released several clips. What do you try to express through the clips and what’s the impact of clips today –which in the 80s were really important?

Markus: Wave Records made most of the clips except for “Poison Flower” and “Blutgeld”. I enjoy horror, sci-fi, and b-movies from the 60s-80s, so I wanted to channel some of that texture by using grainy film loops and shaky camerawork in “Poison Flower”. My friend worked on the “Blutgeld” video and it turned out amazingly well; very dark and bleak just like the song. Wave Records also did a good job of staying true to this vision for the other videos.

When it comes to the videos that have had an impact on me, Depeche Mode’s “It’s No Good”, although not from the 80s, made a huge impression when I was younger. I used to be really obsessed with Severed Heads videos, too. Can I also talk about my love of Italo-disco clips? Something is so great about a singer lip syncing and gyrating on an empty stage.

Q: Do you still have new songs ready and do you notice a difference- and/or evolution in sound? What will be the next step regarding writing process, live performances, remixes, other projects?  

Markus: I’m currently working on some new songs and there is definitely a difference in sound. The beats are a little heavier and the synth parts are more atmospheric.

I don’t have any live performances or other projects lined up, but one day I’ll get to Europe and play some shows. Keep an eye out in the future for some new songs.

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

www.side-line.com

Here’s an item that will interest many Depeche Mode fans. Bonhams of London will be auctioning Alan Wilder’s original Roland JP-8 synthesiser. This Roland JP-8 is not being sold by Alan Wilder, but was originally owned by Depeche Mode and Alan Wilder and then given away many years ago. The sale has been endorsed with a Letter of Authentication by Alan Wilder nevertheless so you are sure to buy the genuine thing.

Alan Wilder: “This is indeed the very same JP-8 that I used for a number of years with Depeche Mode – its serial number, history and even the markings can be verified and I believe it still actually contains some the original sounds which I best demonstrated in the ‘Synths Revolution’ YouTube clip below.”

The keyboard was used both live and in the studio with Depeche Mode between 1982-1984. The instrument has been fully restored under care of “Synthdoctor” Andy Jury and is in complete working condition.

You may expect this rare gem to fetch between £8,000 – £12,000 (that’s roughly € 9,000 – 13,000) when it goes up for sale on 11th December 2018, 12:00 GMT at Bonhams, New Bond Street, London. Full details of the entire auction and how to bid can be found here.

Side-Line also covered Depeche Mode’s ‘STUMM433’.

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

(By our Norwegian correspondent Jan Ronald Stange. Photos by Einar Låker and Jan Ronald Stange)
The seasoned Norwegian entertainer, comedian, stage-, radio- and TV-personality Espen Beranek Holm has also had a music career spanning nearly four decades. Besides collaborating and participating in more than twenty releases with other projects and band, he also got a dozen releases with his solo project Beranek to his name. Many Norwegians still remember his booming debut single with the controversial, anti-drugs song “Dra te hælvete” (“Go to hell”), which got banned from radio after being played just once, thus becoming a chart hit for months and the top selling single in Norway in 1981.
Two weeks ago the ‘Laboratoriet’ stage at Kulturhuset in Oslo was the venue for Beranek playing his 1981 debut album ‘Sound of danger’ in full, analogue glory, joined by Johannes Winther Farstad.
Me and my friends managed to steal a few minutes after the concert to have him elaborate further about what just had taken place, leaving everyone in the audience with big smiles as they left the venue.

Side-Line: Was there a particular reason or occasion that led up to doing a concert now?
Beranek: It was the ‘Synth Geek Night’ event at Popsenteret last year where I was asked to join a panel and talk about synths. There’s nothing I like to more, so I gathered some synths and got very inspired as I was patching the old stuff, hearing the old sounds again and singing again with my synths.
(Me and lots of friends also attended this event, here’s a taster)
I realized this was actually feasible, and the reason I hadn’t done it before was because I’d mostly been involved in more standard rock’n’roll setups with drums, bass etc., not leaving much room or possibilities for this kind of synth setup.
This album were composed and recorded using machines, so it needed to be performed with machines too! What was important was to conceptually do it right; I could have had a laptop and lots of soft synths in Cubase or something, but it felt more true – and more fun – to the music by doing it as close to the original as possible!
We programmed bass and drummachines beforehand, the rest we played live, some almost like in the studio when recording the songs, moving presets, trigging pulses etc.
Old school, but it felt right.

S-L: Yes, we noticed what seemed like mix of old and new equipment on stage. Were some used in the 1981 recording sessions?
B: The instrument line up for the record included the Korg PE-1000, an Elka string ensemble, two Korg MS-20 and the Korg KR55 rhythm-box. For this concert I wanted to recreate the analog idea, while having more control and flexibillity over the live production.

I brought my old Korg PE-1000 (which is quite important in order to re-create the Sound Of Danger Album) and my good old Roland SVC350 vocoder, but all the other synths were «new». I was playing a Korg Prologue, a Korg Minilogue (driving the SVC350) and a DSI Tempest while Johannes Winther Farstad had his fingers running on two Moog Sub37s, a Mellotron M4000D, a DSI OB-6 and the Korg PE-1000. In addition to the DSI Tempest I had two Moog Mother 32, an Arturia Minibrute 2S, a Make Noise 0-Coast and a Roland TR-08.
So the only instrument playing on both the record and the concert is the Korg PE-1000. A truly unique instrument.

All instruments were running custom patches, except from the Mellotron of course. It’s presence represented the only digital sample playback instrument, but then I think that’s just a modern version of the original Mellotron idea. And I still love that sound!

The MS20 is great synthesizer, but I favoured the Moog Sub37 for the concert. It is a more flexible unit, and it sure has more to offer in both the low end department as well as in the modulation matrix. And it’s programmable… We needed a lot of patches tonight.

S-L: Will there be more concerts like this? And longer…?
B: I haven’t planned for anything more than this one, but with the whole album and the additional two songs (not as extras, but as warm up!), it felt right as is became approximately an hour. And I meant what I said near the end – I really wish that this had been a triple album when I released it – it was that fun to play like this again!

S-L: Must have been lot of preparing for a gig like this?
B: Yes! Lots of rehearsals, pre-production, patching and getting re-acquainted with the old gear, really something you can’t decide days before and wing it. It’s a year ago the idea surfaced, I pondered on it for a while, contacted Kulturhuset, and six months ago we announced it. It takes time on all levels.

S-L: The show was filmed by NRK (Norwegian public broadcasting) – will it appear on TV?
B: Yes, it was filmed, but no definitive plans at the moment – we’ll see what we can do with the recordings.

S-L: Is there another album in the making?
B: I’m always writing and composing in-between other jobs, but I would like to make a follow-up of “Sensitive Dependence” (the previous album). What I’m working on now is even more electronic, but still with beats. No definitive release plans or dates, but maybe next year…

The 1981 album is available in remastered version on vinyl at Juno Records (UK/Europe) and Dark Entries Records (US). Also on CD (and vinyl too?) in Norway from Retro Vinyl.
In the meantime stream it from Spotify and iTunes.

A small taster of the concert – hopefully it’ll end up at a TV screen soon!

https://www.facebook.com/Beranek.Holm/videos/324826668315448/ 

Jan Ronald Stange

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

www.facebook.com/jrstange

The ‘older’ electro fans familiar with EBM will probably remind Schicksal. This Belgian solo-project set up by Rudi Huybrechts released one single and noticeable 12” entitled “24 Hours”. This EP got released exactly 30 years ago now and got very enthusiastic reactions. Unfortunately no other official Schicksal release got ever released. This year the Belgian label Walhalla Records, which is devoted to good-old (Belgian) electronics recovered Schicksal from dust. The album “365 Days” got released on vinyl format and features next to the familiar songs from the “24 Hours”-maxi several previously unreleased songs. Schicksal is alive and answered a few questions about this noticeable ‘return’.

(Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)

Q: Schicksal is one of these ‘forgotten’ electronic projects from the early 80s, which this year released the album “365 Days”. Can you remind us the who’s hiding behind this project and the way you got in touch with electronic music?

Rudi: My real name is Rudi Huybrechts. I was born in 1967 in Hoboken, a town near Antwerp. Imagine Hoboken was at that time as an old industry township with industrial artefacts, such as an old petrochemical abandoned plant, bankrupt shipyard Cockerill and a polluting chemical plant.

As a young kid I was already interested in electronic music. I went to the library to lend LP’s which helped me discover all kinds of music. And that’s where I first heard “Autobahn”. From that point on, nothing was the same anymore. I started discovering bands like D.A.F., Human League, Heaven 17. The release of Front’s “Geography” in 1982 is for me a true landmark. This was the first time where synth music had this kind of aggression, passion and groove. Front 242 used synths in a way which was never done before. And then of course there was the radio show ‘Vrijaf’ by Gust Decoster, every Wednesday afternoon. It is on Vrijaf that I discovered a lot of fantastic ‘Belpop’ and recorded it on lots of C90 tapes.

Q: The 12” “24 Hours” released in 1988 on Antler’s subdivision Subway Records has been your single official release before the album. Back in time Subway Records was devoted to the new-beat scene so what does it evoke to you?

Rudi: For me, the New-Beat period started a lot earlier than many think. During the late 80’s, some DJ’s in Antwerp nightclubs such as ‘Prestige’, ‘Berchem Palace’ and ‘Rudy’s Avant Garde’ in St.Niklaas started pitching songs and playing downtempo dance music. It was a time of decadence, so-called ‘m’as tu vu’ and no rules.

It is a coincidence that “24 hours” was released on Subway. In fact, it was Marc Grouls (resident DJ at Prestige Club) who played “24 hours” for the first time, after some stalking from me! The dancefloor went wild so the day after Marc picked me up at home to sign a contract with Maurice Engelen on the Subway label. In short notice New-Beat became hot, so hot that it became mainstream and unfortunately evolved in the so called ‘Nouga Beat’.

Q: How did it finally happen that the album “365 Days” got released 30 years after “24 Hours”?

Rudi: It happened because of one man, Lieven De Ridder. There’s a Belgian underground community of people who are dedicated to the electronic scene. They are interested in minimal-synth, New-Beat and music which was played at ‘Liaisons Dangereuses’ (an historic radio show on free radio station SIS). Lieven De Ridder is one of the main influencers in that scene. His knowledge and passion for music, especially synth music, borders on the unbelievable. Lieven is the founder of Walhalla Records, a label that is specialised in releasing vinyl which has only been released on cassette before. Lieven and I got in touch, and started playing on his Radioshow ‘Wave Frequencies’ on Radio Centraal. The first Walhalla record was “Underground Belgian Wave Vol.l 1” featuring 2 Schicksal songs “Time“ and “Saturday”, previously released on the historic “Climax”-tape. Lieven had the idea to release a full album of Schicksal, with previously unreleased material. We got together again and chose representative tracks to cover 30 years.

Q: Back in time “24 Hours” got a very positive response, but how do you look back at the songs featured on it and what has been the impact of this release on your career as artist?

Rudi: The song “24 hours” itself was rather accidentally connected to the New-Beat sound; it was not my intension to create or compose New-Beat. I could have got probably more out of it, but in that time there was no internet. As an 21 year old modest student I was not really interested in the ‘music industry’ and let alone all the merchandising and commerce around it.

Q: So what can you tell us about the songs featured at “365 Days”? When did you compose these tracks and what can you say about the sound, influences, equipment?

Rudi: The A side of “365 Days”, together with “Saturday” on the B-side is from the early days and made with analogue gear. I bought my first synth (with money I earned working as a student) in 1983, at the age of 15. It was a Roland SH-101. It felt like the world got open in front of me… I started compiling the instruments you require as a solo synth-artist; new ones and most second hand instruments. My first drum computer was a Boss DR 55 for example. I am a fan of Roland, especially the TR series. But buying something new meant that other instruments had to be sold. Can you imagine I once sold a TR-909…if only I knew at that time… My favourite configuration was the Roland SH-101, the DR-110 drum computer,  the Korg Poly 800 and Boss DSD-2 sampler/delay. Picture yourself, a small bedroom (3 x 2,5m), the gear on the bed because I’d no space, a cassette deck with hifi deck, mixer, microphone and me trying to get control of it all (lol) That’s how many of the Schicksal songs were created.  The other songs on “365 days” are more recent. Today I create my songs on PC with Reason and a Nektar midi keyboard. But last year I got a Korg MS-20 (!) as a birthday gift from a good friend and recently I bought a Korg Volca Bass. So I’m back into the analogue gear! The first demos are a fact, but I’m still trying to sync them all together. The pitfall of creating music on computer is that you can lose yourself for hours in looking for that specific sound instead of being creative. For me ‘less is more’.

Q: A lot of things have changed since the late 80s; I’m referring to instruments, recording techniques, music styles, labels, promotion, distribution, media, social media, streaming… Do you feel you’re still living in the same world as 30 years ago and what’s your perception about all these evolutions/changes?

Rudi: Indeed, in 30 years of time, a lot changed! Every change has his advantages and disadvantages. In fact it is much cheaper today to make electronic music than it was in the 80’s. Also the possibilities/sounds/samples are endless. With Facebook and Youtube you have, as an artist, much more opportunities to share your music and find allies. If the internet wouldn’t exist, the “365 Days”-release wouldn’t have been released! On the other hand I today miss some artists who’re experimenting and thinking outside the box. The bulb was not invented by improving the candle if you know what I mean… All MTV and big radio stations play the same EDM-shit, over and over again. Youngsters, stop looking at your smartphone and create your own revolution!

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

www.side-line.com

A few days ago Jean-Marc Lederman – the man who worked with numerous bands including Fad Gadget, Gene Loves Jezebel, The Weathermen, Front 242, Julianne Regan, Jacques Duvall and Alain Bashung – posted the above picture about him playing with The The. We asked Jean-Marc how that happened.

SL: How did Jean-Marc Lederman end up with The The at The The Marquee gigs in 1982?

JM: The year was 1982 and I was living in London, tired of the belgian music scene. I had moved there shortly after my service in the Belgian Army, gee talk about a waste of time (do you see me as good proctection against the Russians ? Case closed).

Matt had heard my EP “Statistics Mean Nothing When On The Wrong Plane” and he reached out to me through a mutual friend. He told me about the residencey gigs The The had planned 4 thurdays in a row at the Marquee, the legendary London club.

So, I went to a rehearsal and it was real anarchy: everybody banging on petrol tanks à la Einsturzende Neubauten. Jim Thirlwell was there, Zeke Manyaka was playing the drums and Thomas Leer was playing some synths. We both had a Roland Jupiter 4 so we ended up using his. I remember telling them to stop banging the drums and start working the songs…

SL: And how did the gigs itself go?

The gigs were well announced and The The was quite the talk in London so the place was really packed. I was very nervous, I hate playing live as this is definitively not one of my strong points, and waiting backstage was tense. We had a set cut in several parts with some guests. I was starting the show, we all head to wear balaclavas and an early version of “Giant” was the first song, if I recall correctly . Marc Almond was a guest on the first concert, and so was Richard Kirk from Cabaret Voltaire (or was it Malinder ? It’s so long ago…).

We had more or less the same set for the 4 thursday residency shows and it was a bit strange to have to come back to the same place but it was quite common in the UK for bands to have a serie of shows week in week out at the time apparently.

SL: So all in all, how would you describe it?

JM: A great experience. Next week, I’ll tell you how and when Matt and Johnny Marr beat me at soccer-table but I won a Depeche Mode silver disc in the process (laughs).

Side-Line also covered Jean-Marc Lederman’s ‘13 Ghost 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!

side-line.com

(By our Norwegian correspondent Jan Ronald Stange / Karisma Records press release. Photos by Bjørn Opsahl and Tom Lund)

Ljungblut, the 3rd band of Kim Ljung (Zeromancer, Seigmen) are releasing their 6th album November 2., and a single from the album, “Hasselblad”, was released two weeks ago. An accompanying music video is now ready, and actually making its debut here today!

Kim about the video:
The video of Hasselblad is shot and directed and Hans Christian Moen and Freddy Samson Fagerheim.
Both friends of the band.
Their first collaboration was “Kast blomstene på” from the previous Ljungblut album, “Ikke alle netter er like sorte”.
Again they were given total artistic freedom. The concept being the moon, loneliness, camera and distance.

About the song itself Kim elaborates:
It was just one of those days. An early morning. I read about the twelve Hasselblad cameras left on the moon, somewhere. Made some fresh coffee and locked myself into the studio without any particular ideas in my head.
In a few hours it was all there. Lyrics and everything.

A real special feeling when it happens. The guys loved the demo. Some weeks later we rehearsed it as a band, keeping it real true to the original idea. Of course, Ted adding a great drum-pattern. It was only just over a 2 minute arrangement though. Right after I wrote it, I was visting Erik Ljunggren in his studio. Blown away by the collection of modular and vintage synthesizers, I asked him if he wanted to contribute for the end-part. The Arp 2600 and the Oberheim Matrix doing most of the magic. All analogue. It was perfect.

The drums, the bass, the guitar (with the Morley flanger pedal), the Omni and the Roland strings were all recorded live. I believe it was the third take.
Sincerely happy with this one.

We also asked Kim about the upcoming concerts, which many fans have been longing for since 2012.

S-L: In a hectic year with several Seigmen and Zeromancer shows, recording and releasing a new album with Ljungblut, still more Seigmen shows ahead – what made you and the band also find time for the shows in November?

Kim: Yes, it’s more than enough. I have been promising myself I wouldn’t mix the work between the three bands. However it’s not so easy. I thought it would eventually quiet down. Not a chance.
Band members don’t always have a great patience. Not managers. Not booking agent. Not record companies.
There are demands everywhere. Or not demands maybe. Hopes. Wishes.
Always for more.

The Ljungblut had to happen now. And no chance in hell we wouldn’t support the album by not playing any shows this time.
In 2016, when we released “Ikke alle netter er like sorte” and not doing any shows, it felt a bit hollow, especially since the album was recorded live and we were in the best shape ever as a band.
These days we are getting ready again for something really special. Those two shows at Total in 2011 was amazing for us.

S-L: And why these venues – how was the venues decided?

Kim: The 3 exclusive shows coming up will be one for the books. Ljungblut will never play a random venue. These were carefully selected for this purpose. Papirhuset is a intimate black box amphitheatre. I was just in there having an extra look the other day. Nice vintage red leather chairs, removed from the old movie theatre of Rjukan in 1939. Historic. And a supreme venue as a spectator. About time someone uses this as concert place.
The Oslo show is quite the opposite. A giant church from 1880 that closed down 105 years later. Then reopened up in 2000 as a magnificent cultural scene.
I can’t even imagine what it will be like playing a Ljungblut concert in that place.
Much like a revelation, I assume:-)

Check out the single and video for “Hasselblad” below:

Jan Ronald Stange

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

www.facebook.com/jrstange

(By our Norwegian correspondent Jan Ronald Stange)
Imagine David Lynch producing an offspring of The Jesus And Mary Chain and Radiohead with a touch of The Sisters Of Mercy – that’s the associations that dropped into my head when first listening to the new two track single ‘The Chaser’ from the Norwegian band The Ghostly Ravens. Jon Martens Holm (formely of Icon of Coil and The Pussyclub) was available for answering some questions on the release day:

Side-Line: How did this project start, and what have the band done so far?

Jon Martens Holm: The Ghostly Ravens started out in 2017 at Black Lodge studio in Fredrikstad, on a request to play the soundtrack to an art exhibition as a part of the installation at Rød Gård in Moss. Emil Nordbæk and me worked together on Emil’s psychedelia project, Marching Forest, and spent much time together in the studio making several instrumental sketches in a Lynch landscape.
Conrad Nilsen was brought into the project on bass, and The Ghostly Ravens was formed. I also play in the electro/post punk band The Sky´s Gone Out, and Emil is the front man in one of the finest psychedelia bands in Norway, Marching Forest.
We use a Roland D-5 as a drummer. Very easy to relate to 😉

A setlist of 12 songs was written in 2 weeks, for the exhibition and made the basis for the forthcoming album.

We started to record the album in December 2017, and have spent almost every day in the studio since then, playing around, trying to bring our influences together and form our own very unique sound. We narrowed the instruments down to an old Roland drum machine, modular synthesizers from my collection and mixed them with Emil’s guitars and vocals 60’s style and ended up somewhere between the 80’s and 90’s. Conrad has also major influences from the 80’s and 90’s.

S-L: Any plans ahead – releases or gigs?

JMH: Our plans for the future are as broad as our musical influences. Wanting to reach more than just the Norwegian underground, and looking towards Europe and the rest of the world. The music has a broad spectre of potential, taken the sound is both synth, 90’s brit pop, post punk, psychedelia and easy to like from a broad range of genres.
We are planning to pitch this to several booking agencies around the world and focus on a few selected major cities with potential crowds. The gigs we have done so far has been overwhelming in positive response, with a noticeable age variance in the audience, ranging from 16 to 70!
This is our first release from the forthcoming album due in September, and we’re very proud to present this quite extraordinary piece of work.

The Ghostly Ravens is part of the Velvet Electra Rec catalogue. A collective of cooperations between local artists, helping each other out in every aspect of production. MC Peko at Focus Studio is the the cover artist and photographer. He is not only featured here, but has made the music videos, done remixes and masters for Jon´s solo project The Sky´s Gone Out, both on the former release and his next.
Photographer and artist Vidar Kollstad also have an occasional role here.
– ‘The Chaser’ c/w ‘1995-1988’, release today
– The full album is due 15th of September

Listen and buy here:

http://listen.tidalhifi.com/album/91070070
https://itunes.apple.com/album/-/id1404413064

Jan Ronald Stange

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

www.facebook.com/jrstange

Behind Maschine Brennt is hiding Joacim Thenander. This Swedish musician has been involved with numerous bands and multiple music genres, but Cultivated Bimbo is without a shadow of a doubt the most famous name for all lovers of EBM and experimental electronics. Maschine Brennt has been set up around 1992 as a side-project to Cultivated Bimbo. And as Joacim explains ‘The main reason was to present music as if the machines had made it. In the beginning I used whole-tone scales and such, to remove the human feel and make it more mathematical. The rhythms were always hard-quantized and very seldom played on velocity sensitive keyboards or pads. The name Maschine Brennt is taken from a B-side of one of Falco’s singles’. Maschine Brennt released several singles during the past few years while the debut full length “The Hearing Aid” has been released during 2017. This is a great album appealing for all lovers of Kraftwerk-electronics’.

(Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)

Q: You’re kind of ‘electro-veteran’ who has been involved with multiple bands and projects since the late 80s. What have been your greatest satisfactions as an artist since then?

Joacim: Mainly I make music for my own pleasure. It has been loads of different styles and genres spinning from synth/electro to heavy metal. For a long time I did a lot of house/techno songs, and also drum’n bass. I do it for myself. But I also publish tracks on different sites and labels and love to get reactions. The greatest satisfaction is if I find out that my music actually appeals to people more than to myself. That is the main fuel for me making music.

Q: I noticed you are already composing music under the Maschine Brennt moniker since the 90s. What makes this project different from the other ones you’ve been involved with and why did it take that long to release your debut album?

Joacim:: I used the name Maschine Brennt during a few (three, I think) shows 1992-1994. I made music for the specific shows, and didn’t release anything at the time. After that I made other styles of music, mainly dance/club using different aliases. I released a few singles, but mostly digital on different community web sites and so on.

In 2014 I met Jonas Lund (Kretz) who asked me to join Plonk. I started using the old name again because the style Plonk aimed for, was very close to what I’ve made with Maschine Brennt. For instance, when I make drum’n bass I use the name Killa Dawgs and when I make house I use the name Joey Lucas. When it is ‘computer music’ I use the name Maschine Brennt.

The reason I made an album was simply because a friend of mine asked me when the full-length will be released. If it wasn’t for him I still would be doing singles only.

Q: “The Hearing Aid” has been released in 2017. Tell us a bit more about the writing, recording, influences and sound plus how do you look back at the work right now?

Joacim: “The Hearing Aid” is a collection of old tracks (mostly), but reprogrammed and remixed. To make a full-length album from scratch is a massive load of work, and I didn’t have the time or patience to do it all from start. I am proud of the album and I like it a lot. Maybe I would have done a couple of things differently today, but I see the project as a timestamp, and like to focus on NOW.
Because the album was a Plonk release from the beginning, I wasn’t too afraid to show the Kraftwerk influences, and actually did so frequently throughout the album.

Q: The sound of Maschine Brennt indeed clearly reminds to Kraftwerk. What does Kraftwerk means to you in terms of sound creation, impact on your own work and artwork?

Joacim: Kraftwerk is very important for Maschine Brennt. But they have a soul, and I want my music to sound less soulful. Remember -music by machines. I absolutely love some songs by Kraftwerk! Sometimes only fragments. But there are also songs I really don’t like.

My strongest influences are by artists that have been influenced by Kraftwerk; 2nd generation, so to speak. Afrika Bambaataa, Arthur Baker, John Robie, Man Parrish, Atom™ (especially Lassigue Bendthaus), Anthony Rother and more. If I was to create a list of the best synthetic computer tracks ever made, I’m not so sure Kraftwerk would be on that list. But if it wasn’t for Kraftwerk that list wouldn’t exist. I hope that makes sense.

Regarding the artwork, it felt natural to dress up like the Germans to reflect the sound of the album.

Q: Can you tell us a bit more about your way of composing, eventually personal references and criteria you’re using when writing songs, favorite equipment and what do you consider as the main strengths of the album?

Joacim: I am very satisfied with how I tied the tracks together on “The Hearing Aid”. It should be listened to in one take -as all albums. That is the main strength, I think.

My biggest disadvantage is that I don’t know how to write lyrics. I absolutely love computerized voices and would love to do standard pop songs with verse, bridge, chorus and so on, but I really can’t write lyrics. “Backspace” in fact reflects on that.

My music is very rhythm-oriented. It is hard to do melodies without sounding cheesy, so I usually don’t. Drums, bass and more percussion. Hopefully a voice saying something smart (but usually stupid), and the inevitable breakdown (with Kraftwerk’s “Home Computer” as the template). I like my music to be danceable. At least you should be nodding your head. I always start with the drums. The rhythm is very often programmed like “Numbers” (or Afrika Bambaataa’s “Planet Rock” if you wish). I use a lot of samples -sometimes from my own machines – and Ableton Live is my DAW. For some edits I use Propellerhead Reason which I absolutely love.
But I also use some hardware. Mainly Roland Boutiques and a few KORG synths. I like to have control with other than the computer mouse, so I use Novation controllers and Native Instruments Maschine (mkII and Jam) and Komplete Kontrol.

Some of my favourite pieces when making Maschine Brennt songs are Ableton Live and Novation LaunchControl, Roland TR08, Native Instruments Maschine mkII, Sonic Charge BitSpeek, Waves Pumper, iZotope Ozone. I also use Ableton’s Reverb, Ping Pong Delay, Utility, Limiter and Compressor on each and every track I make.

Q: Your album has been released on Razgrom Music while you were (or still are) part of the so-called ‘Plonk Community’. What is it all about? Why is it that much more than simply a label releasing ‘computer/robotic’ music?    

Joacim: I was contacted by Alexey Ignatov of Razgrom Music. He wanted to release a full-length CD with a collection of my tracks. Maybe a single collection. I had just finalized the album for Plonk and was about to release it digitally. I suggested that we could release the very same album on Razgrom Music. To make it a little more special I added four more unreleased tracks, and the cover was made in color on the Razgrom Release. We postponed the digital release to be two weeks after the physical release.

So in short, the physical release is Razgrom Music. It contains four more (previously unreleased) tracks, and the cover is in color. The digital release is Plonk and the cover is made in black and white.

Plonk is a community with around ten members/artists. Every artist takes care of their own release. Plonk doesn’t have a leader or chairman. We have web meetings every now and then, to enlighten each and everyone what’s up and on. The aim for Plonk is to present music with a strong ‘Düsseldorf sound’ from one single place -Plonk. We support and help each other as much as needed. Every year we release a compilation with tracks from the current Plonk artists. We believe we are stronger as a whole and that if we help each other we can bring ‘Machine-Pop’ to the world!

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

www.side-line.com

Genre/Influences: Experimental, cinematographic, dream-pop.

Background/Info: The name Stef Animal doesn’t maybe say something. She’s a member of The Golden Awesome (which I honestly never heard of before) and now released her debut solo-work as a conceptual album dedicated to vintage electronic gear.

Content: The album rapidly makes me think to a kind of demo where each song have been composed with legendary keyboards and computers such as Casio CA-100, Casio Casiotone MT-800, Roland U-220, Yamaha VS-200, Commodore Amiga 500, Roland MT-32, Atari 2600, Roland U-110 ao.

Most of the songs sound like snippets to illustrate the sound and/or abilities of the used instrument. Most of the cuts remain instrumentals although I noticed a few passages with vocals.

+ + + : The concept is interesting and quite original. It sometimes creates a cool cinematographic effect while I especially like the ethereal-pop sounding “In The Pines” for the addition of dreamy (female) vocals. The songs were written and recorded in one sitting, which is another appreciable aspect of this work.

– – – : As I already mentioned it all sound pure demo-like. Some tracks are like snippets of a few seconds so the concept remains great, but the way it has been worked out rather insufficient. I think it would have been more interesting to get real elaborated songs instead of short tracks/snippets.

Conclusion: I once again have to repeat I like the concept of this record, but I can’t be enthusiast when it comes to the tracks. I’m not sure many music lovers gone buy this record, but I hope for Stef Animal to be wrong.

Best songs: “In The Pines”, “Owl”.

Rate: (4).

Artist: www.facebook.com/Stef–Animal-633226776700327

Labels: www.fishriderrecords.com / www.facebook.com/fishriderrecords / www.occultation.co.uk / www.facebook.com/OccultationRecordings

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

www.side-line.com

Belgian formation Pro Patria has been set up by Peter Vercauteren (PVC). The band was mainly active during the 80s and rapidly became one of the most promising EBM formations from that time. As Peter explains, ‘the name Pro Patria was simply a coincidence of things; perhaps we were unconsciously influenced by the SA42-song at the time, but personally I was also obsessed with Latin, which also showed in many of the early songs’. Unfortunately things went the other way round, Pro Patria never broke through and finally stopped all activities. More than 15 years later Pro Patria was asked to play live again and Peter Vercauteren finally decided to reactivate the project. The self-released album “Back To Basics” reveal a passionate and retro-like EBM, which brought me to get in touch with Peter.

(Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries / pics with kind permission of Jirka Blumenthal and Uwe Rudolph)

Q: Can you first of all remind us how Pro Patria saw the daylight and how did you get ‘contaminated’ by the EBM-virus?

Peter: Pro Patria saw the daylight halfway the eighties because of a friend who wanted to create a band and needed someone who could play keys. After a bumpy start, I gradually took control of the project and steered away from the original, funky-commercial intention. I had always been attracted by synths and electronic music and had become a great fan of Front 242, Skinny Puppy and other bands that had laid the foundations of EBM. When Nitzer Ebb opened the Depeche Mode tour, back in 1988, the whole audience was speechless… it was something that I’d never witnessed before because usually the support act gets booed at or people chuck pints of beer at them. Here they were all in shock, too overwhelmed to even speak a word! It brought a smile on my face and right there and then I knew in which direction I wanted to take my band. It would still take some time to get there, though.

 Q: Pro Patria was without a shadow of a doubt one of the most promising Belgian EBM formations from the 90s. The consecration was the record deal with Celtic Circle Productions, but the label got bankrupt, the album got never released and Pro Patria finally stopped all activities. How do you look back at this period and what was the impact of it all on you as artist and on the man hiding behind the artist?

 Peter: I think that the problem with Pro Patria, and other emerging EBM bands of the period, was that they had arrived just one step too late. EBM was mighty popular in the eighties, but suddenly, in the early nineties, this all changed. One day to the next, EBM was dead and it had all become either techno/house or grunge. Therefore I look back upon it with great frustration because nobody seemed to be interested in us, or EBM as a whole. Heck, even the gods of the eighties like Front 242, Nitzer, FLA and even Depeche Mode had turned their backs on their origins and had changed into either techno or grunge. So it was extremely hard for young, motivated EBM bands to raise an interest.

When we eventually found a label that still believed in EBM and us, CCP, we were overjoyed and worked extremely hard on our first real album, “Quod Erat Demonstrandum”, for 9 months. It was all wonderful and the music went to the factory for the CDs to be printed and… right on that very moment… CCP went bankrupt. So we were back at square one, albeit we then had a completely finished product to offer. Again I went door to door to all possible record labels but in vain. Typical was the reply we got from Belgium’s biggest independent label at the time: ‘It’s great what you’re doing, but we’d prefer if you could make it sound a bit more techno, that you’d become the ‘Belgian Prodigy’.

Perhaps I was too stubborn or simply stupid, but I was never going to make any concessions as far as the music was concerned and I kindly refused. Then Bert, my companion at the time, and I split up because he did want to embrace a more techno-oriented sound whereas I wouldn’t have it. I still did a number of great gigs with David Vallée (Lith – Eks.Center) but then my personal situation suddenly changed much for the worse and Pro Patria was forced into the background, where I believed it would slowly die. So all in all, it was not a happy period, even though the gigs themselves made me exhilarate.

Q: But years later it was because of the EBM community you finally reactivated Pro Patria, right? How did it really happen and how did you finally come to compose new songs?

Peter: As I said, I was convinced that Pro Patria was long dead. Then, David Vallée, who’s still a close friend, contacted me a couple of years ago and said: ‘Peter, do you realize that Pro Patria is actually popular?’ I didn’t want to believe him at first because it seemed impossible… I hadn’t done anything with the band in 15 years, the CDs had never made it to the market and of our old cassette demos I’d maybe sold 200 or 250 copies, if it really were that many. But then David sent me a link to Discogs.com and to my astonishment I saw that our old cassettes were being auctioned there for more than €100 each! And I felt incredibly stupid because I had thrown all of my remaining tapes into the bin years earlier.

Coincidentally, around the same time, I was also contacted by the people of Electric Tremor, who asked me if I wanted to be on stage again, during the “Familientreffen”-festival near Leipzig. In the meantime my personal situation had again changed, much for the better this time. I’m again surrounded by people who believe in me and who really want me to continue with Pro Patria. In the first place, I’d like to thank my wife for that. So I said: ‘Why not? Let’s give it a try and see how it goes.’ In the end, I think that the concert was a bit of a success and so I thought that maybe I should start creating something new. I was a bit anxious about it at first, because I had been out of it for so long and the “Familientreffen” also made me realize that EBM had become so big and professional… all of these other bands sounded so great… But to my surprise, once I had again pushed that ‘compose’ button in my head, the inspiration flowed out quickly.

Q: “Back To Basics” might indicate what the music is all about, a kind of retro-EBM inspired sound, but what means this album to you and what kind of opus (sound- & lyrical wise) did you want to accomplish?

Peter: First of all, I wanted to return with a bang. “Quod Erat Demonstrandum” had received great reviews twenty years ago and I could hardly come up with something less if I was going to be serious about reviving Pro Patria. I still had two or three songs on the shelf which I had already started composing during the “Quod Erat Demonstrandum“-production, but obviously that wasn’t enough. As I said, the EBM standard had been raised considerably over the last 20 years and I wondered if I was going to be able to match up. Then again, inspiration turned out to be a tidal wave, thundering down on me from the very dark 15 years I had endured. So it had to sound harsh, raw, you had to feel the pain, much unlike “Quod Erat Demonstrandum” which sounded so clean and perhaps too ‘finished’. For me it was an important part of the healing process.

Q: “Back To Basics” sounds darker and harder than early Pro Patria stuff. What does it reveal about your sources of inspiration, your perception of contemporary electronic music and the equipment that has been used to compose this work?

Peter: With Pro Patria been and gone, all of the music that used to motivate and inspire me died inside of me as well. Surprisingly, the only music that still meant anything to me was Bach and I often hid behind my piano in an impossible attempt to forget reality. Imagine the shock when I found out how magnificent contemporary EBM had become! Yet I deliberately refused to listen to other music during production because I didn’t want to be influenced. It had to be pure Pro Patria, nothing else. The only thing I occasionally listened to was “Quod Erat Demonstrandum”. I went back to my roots (‘back to basics’) and wondered how Pro Patria would have evolved if it had continued to exist all of this time. Hence darker and harder. “Quod Erat Demonstrandum” was also a useful guide in order to help me with production, which was by far the greatest obstacle.

I’m not a techie who’s picky about the instruments one has to use. It’s not which equipment you use but how you use it. On “Quod Erat Demonstrandum” for example, we mainly used Roland D20 and D70 keyboards. Rather the sort of instruments one associates with commercial happy-flappy music. On “Back to Basics” I drove the D20 through an old guitar rack to get some amazing sounds. Unfortunately this procedure took away some of the depth in the music. It’s always a compromise and you have to find that perfect balance between what you want to convey and still keep the music pleasurable to listen to, especially in this particular case with music filled with rage.

Q: This album clearly belongs to the so-called ‘DIY’ (do it yourself) culture so how did you manage all different aspects of the job (recording, mixing, production, promotion, distribution, social media…) and what do you think about the evolution compared to the 90s?

Peter: Eh… I don’t know whether I managed well altogether. “Quod Erat Demonstrandum” was mixed and produced by Marc Schellekens, a highly skilled studio engineer. I, on the other hand, consider myself to be a musician, certainly not a producer. Therefore the hardest aspect was not composing (all 8 new songs on “Back To Basics” were composed and worked out in six weeks’ time), but trying to make it sound decent enough. I’m still not very happy about the result, but it’s a steep learning curve and I’m sure that I’ll do better next time.

Another aspect of not being 20 anymore, is that you have more responsibilities in life. As a youngster, you can easily spend all of your savings on equipment and studio and you can’t care less about the cost. When you’re approaching 50, you tend to get a bit more careful and you also wonder if a certain investment is going to be worthwhile. I could have spent a thousand Euros to have the CD mastered by a professional, but if you’re hoping to sell only 200 to 300 CDs, it’s going to be difficult to get some return on investment.

Moreover, I have moved to Italy 8 years ago, a country where EBM simply doesn’t exist, so it was impossible to find help nearby. As regards to promotion etcetera… I may be a beginner as far as mixing and mastering is concerned, but I’m an absolute zero with promotion and social media. It’s part of an unpleasant discovery I made about myself i.e. that I’m seriously autistic (“Living In A Cage”). A positive thing for me about the music world now, compared to 20 years ago, is that it has become much more on-line and far less personal. It allows me to hide behind my computer screen and it has also become a lot easier to spread your music all across the globe. Fortunately there are a number of people out there who haven’t hesitated to lend me a hand, and in the first place I’d like to thank Sébastien Bourlier (Blondwülf) for everything he’s done to bring Pro Patria back into the spotlights.

Most of all, I’m overjoyed that EBM’s back, stronger and more alive than ever and I feel extremely honored that Pro Patria received a warm welcome back from the EBM community.

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

www.side-line.com

(Photo by Diane Zillmer) Out next month is the debut album by Lederman / De Meyer. On that album (titled “Eleven grinding songs” – available here) but also on the band’s first release, the download EP “A tribe of my own” (available here), the band covered Fad Gadget’s “Back To Nature”.

Since Jean-Marc Lederman has been working with Fad Gadget in the past we decided to hail London and have a small chat with Daniel Miller, the Mute Record label boss himself, about Fad Gadget and Jean-Marc.

SL: How did you me​e​t Jean-Marc Lederman, Daniel?
​
DM: ​We met at Better Badges (a mall at Nothing Hill Gate which is a badges manufacture), where Geoff Travies from Rough Trade sent Jean-Marc as he thought we should meet: synths fans were few at the time. Jean-Marc gave me a Digital Dance 7″ and we have been in contact ever since.

SL: You worked with Frank Tovey as part of Fad Gadget early 1980. Was Frank an easy guy in the studio and on stage ?

DM: ​In studio, Frank had very clear ideas on what he wanted or didn’t want and my task was to help him achieve that. It wasn’t easy because we were both untrained musicians and we were learning as it went. On stage, Frank was a very different person: he was then completely transformed in the Fad Gadget character. He was a performance artist from his days at Art School.
​
SL: And how was Jean-Marc, Daniel?

DM: Jean-Marc was very easy to work with and a good add to the early days of the Fad Gadget band.

SL: “Back To Nature” is the trademark song of Fad Gadget. How do you look back on it ?

DM: ​It was my very first time in a studio so I was very inexperienced. Plus it was also my first time as a producer. The same for Frank: it was his first time in a studio. It took us a day to record and mix, it was in a small 8 tracks studio (RMS Studios) near Crystal Palace, a studio doing lots of punk bands.

The equipment used was very basic, electronics were rough at that time. We had a minipops rhythm machine, the Korg 700s I used on “Warm leatherette/TV OD”, a Roland SH1 and Frank’s piano and distortion fx pedal. Plus the ARP 2600 I just bought from Elton John’s live rig, I think it was the first time I was using it. I’m very proud of what we achieved. The B-side, “the box”, was actually recorded with Frank inside a box in the studio…

SL: What’s your take on Lederman De Meyer’s version of “Back To Nature” ?

DM: It’s very hard to do a cover version but the Lederman / De Meyer version is very good!

SL: You are also familiar with Front 242 since they toured with Depeche Mode. Never thought about getting them on the Mute roster back in the days ?

DM: ​I thought F242 was very interesting, but they were already on PIAS and I didn’t want to interfere with that. Plus we already had Nitzer Ebb on Mute.

SL: Jean-Marc is now also part of Mute Songs’ roster. What does this mean for an artist ?

DM: Mute Songs is a publisher company. they have Mute Records artists but not only. They are very pro-active, and have a creative and personal relationship with their artists.​

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

Sleepwalk celebrates their 25^th anniversary by the release of the new album “Tempus Vincit Omnia”. Core member Bruno Ruch, Andreas Lehman and new member Charly (tEaR!dOwN) accomplished a double disc released on Electro Aggression Records. It’s without a shadow of a doubt the most accomplished and sophisticated work to date. The album is a sonic bridge between EBM and dark-electronics. I asked a few questions to Andreas Lehman.

(Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)

Q: The new album “Tempus Vincit Omnia” became a quite special opus for celebrating the 25^th anniversary of Sleepwalk, but still the first full length in 5 years, the second album without former singer Oliver Spring and also the first album on a new label (Electro Aggression Records)! What can you tell us about all these facts and changes?

Andreas: Oliver left the band in 2005. We are close friends. At this time I was at the same label (Scanner) with my project Framework. I wrote some lyrics and we had done some remixes for Sleepwalk already and I sang on the track “Shattered Soul” featured on “Rapid Eye Movement”, the last album Oliver was involved. So it was like a natural process that I became the new singer of Sleepwalk.

We released the EP “Revenge Of The Lost” and the conceptual album “Nibiru” at Scanner. The work on “Nibiru” was really exhausting. We felt like we need a restart. So we made that big cut and began to work without the feeling that there has to be a finished product in a certain time. Charly of “tEaR!doWn”, who is also a good friend, joined in to inject some fresh ideas. Nader of Electro Aggression Records was interested for years to work with us. It felt right and we are happy Nader supports our ideas.

Q: “Tempus Vincit Omnia” can be translated into English as “Time Conquers All” so what’s the deeper significance behind this title and what’s the possible link with all what happened inside the band and the lyrical themes of the songs?

Andreas: The lyrics reflect my thoughts on the current world situation. Much is changing. And as much as we destroy this planet and ourselves, time moves on. We are transient. Time is the only constant.

Q: I experienced this new opus as the most accomplished Sleepwalk album to date; there’s a perfect twist between dark-electronics and EBM, but it still is a sophisticated and intelligent opus. Tell us a bit more about the writing and production of the album and what have been the main changes with the past releases?

Andreas: Thank you! We are three people living in three different locations. So most of the work is sharing files, work on them and send them back to each other. The main change was working with three people instead of two. In the end we had nearly 30 demos we could choose from. That was really comfortable. It was good to work without any pressure and we even didn’t pressured ourselves. We spent a lot of time experimenting with effects, samples and new synths. It was worth it.

As I said earlier, “Nibiru” was a conceptual album. The topics of the lyrics were limited. That is sometimes really demanding and frustrating. This time I could write really free. An important change that brought a lot of creativity back. We decided early to go back to our roots with the sound and bring it to a new level. The reactions to the album reflect this. We are glad it worked that well.

Q: A singer always is the front man of a band so how did it felt to replace Oliver Spring?

Andreas: To be honest, I really didn’t thought about how it feels. Oliver and I are close friends for many years. We respect what we do and did with our projects. Sometimes we are working together on lyrics or songs. He also wrote the lyrics and did the vocals on “Downfall” featured on the new album. He is a part of 25 years Sleepwalk history and we wanted to appreciate this.

Q: The second disc features multiple remixes, but still a few new cuts. Tell us a bit more about the ‘new’ songs and what do you like in getting remixed by other bands dealing with a similar music style?

Andreas: There are 4 new tracks on the second disc. We had to make a choice which tracks should be on the main disc, but the remaining tracks were too good to leave them unheard. I don’t want talking too much about every track, but one is really special. Bruno and his brother Roland lost their mother. They’ve written “Embrace” specially for her. Even if it doesn’t sound typically Sleepwalk-like, it was very important for both of them to have it on the album. I think it helps both to overcome this stroke of fate and to give their mother a worthy memory.

The remix part is always exciting. Sometimes you get a totally different view at your songs. And even if most remixers are dealing with a similar music style, the results are amazing. You hear if someone has fun with your material. It also brings some new ideas for forthcoming tracks.

Q: All Sleepwalk members are still involved with other projects so what means Sleepwalk to each of you, which you maybe don’t find in these other projects?

Andreas: It’s hard to describe, but I will try. Sleepwalk is like a trademark that stands for a typical sound. Everyone, we included, are expecting this. But we are not only creating music, we are also consuming it. Many influences wouldn’t fit in the concept of Sleepwalk. Therefore we are all involved in other projects to create some more music beside Sleepwalk. I wouldn’t say that Sleepwalk brings something which we don’t find in other projects. It is more that we are all music addicts. And every project fulfills a preference. Sleepwalk is maybe the evil twin of all. Something that splits conventions. A place to canalize the darker emotions.

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

www.side-line.com

Out on November 10th is “Rule The World”, a collection of the biggest hits from Tears For Fears including two brand new songs. The first new track is “I Love You But I’m Lost” which is out now as a standalone single.

It’s not particularly a terribly good track to be honest. Check for yourself.

The track has long been rumoured as being the first track to be released from a brand new album which the duo has been working on since 2013. Their seventh album is being recorded together with songwriter/producer Sacha Skarbek and is tentatively entitled “The Tipping Point”. The ‘best of’ possible needs to pave the way for this new album.

Tears for Fears formed in Bath in 1981 when Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith joined up after the dissolution of their first band, the mod-influenced Graduate. They were initially associated with the new wave synthesiser bands of the early 1980s but later branched out into mainstream rock and pop.

Smith and Orzabal parted company in 1991, after the release of their third album “The Seeds of Love” (1989), though Orzabal retained the Tears for Fears name throughout the remainder of the 1990s. The duo re-formed in 2000 and released an album of new material, “Everybody Loves a Happy Ending”, in 2004.

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