The 25th track on our free download compilation “Face The Beat: Session 4” (featuring 92 tracks) is by the Swedish minimalistic electro pop act Elektroklänge.

“Approach To Tokyo” was originally written to celebrate the Shinkansen’s 50th anniversary (Japan’s famous high-speed railway network).

Based in Stockholm, Elektroklänge’s signature sound combines repetitive rhythms with simple catchy melodies. The instrumentation is minimalistic and strictly electronic while all the lyrics are sung through vocoders and/or generated by speech synthesis. Yep, it’s Kraftwerk all the way!

After several highly praised compilation appearances, the band released its “Mechanische Tänze Nos. 1-4” EP on the Belgian Alfa Matrix label (available here) joining such similar sounding label bands as Metroland and Növö.

Listen to “Approach To Tokyo (Straight Connection Mix)” below and download it right here.

Check our “Face The Beat: Session 4” page on Bandcamp to discover the other 91 bands. All donations will go to charity.

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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Back in April we reported about the debut of the Swedish minimalistic electro pop act Elektroklänge on the Belgian electro label Alfa Matrix. The Stockholm based act offered the track “Approach To Tokyo” on “Sounds Of The Matrix 017” in the Straight Connection Mix version.

Out now, first via Bandcamp, is “Mechanische Tänze Nos. 1​-​4”, a 7-track release (available here). While remaining true to the so-called ‘Düsseldorf sound’, Elektroklänge still adds it’s own identity to the mix occasionally using the piano to bring a more emotionally-charged version of Kraftwerk. The “Mechanische Tänze Nos. 1-4” EP is the band’s first release on the Belgian Alfa Matrix label who already brought us bands active in a similar electronic register like Metroland, Növö or yet the very early Front 242 material.

The EP opens with a homage to the Hungarian painter/designer Vilmos Huszár (one of the founders of the art movement De Stijl) who directly influenced the cover-art of this release. What follows are 4 “Tanz” tracks which are sung in 4 different languages: German, English, French & Japanese. Next to that you get an extended Trudering Klang mix of “Mekanischer Tanz”, preceded by the Straight Connection mix of “Approach To Tokyo” which was originally written to celebrate the Shinkansen’s 50th anniversary (Japan’s famous high-speed railway network).

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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A few days ago we announced that Alfa Matrix had started to distribute its free “Sounds Of The Matrix 017” CD with all its online orders. One of the bands on there is actually a brand new signing: the Stockholm based Elektroklänge. With Elektroklänge Alfa Matrix adds a second band next to Metroland offering a Kraftwerk signature sound, and one which is also into trains so it seems.

The track offered on “Sounds Of The Matrix 017” is “Approach To Tokyo” in the Straight Connection Mix version. The song describes a journey by Shinkansen from Osaka to Tokyo. For those unfamiliar with Japanese technologie, the Shinkansen is a network of high-speed railway lines in Japan. You can check the track below, which is available now on Bandcamp.

Note that the Japanese version of “Approach to Tokyo” was first made public on social media back in October 2014, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Shinkansen. You can listen to the track below.

The band is currently working on its debut EP. More info when we get 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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