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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Genre/Influences: New-wave, EBM, minimal-electro, dark-electro, gothic.

Background/Info: This compilation featuring 26 bands is a way to remember the great W-Fest (festival) that took in place this Summer in Belgium. The festival was spread over 4 days, 3 scenes and featured an impressive number of bands. The organization invited some legendary 80s artists next to contemporary groups.

Artists: Parade Ground, A Split Second, Simi Nah, Dive, Suicide Commando, TB Frank & Baustein, Vine La Fête, A Slice Of Life, Flesh & Fell, Doganov, Red Zebra, The Breath Of Life ao.

Content: The first CD is clearly devoted to different kinds of electronic underground music. Parade Ground and A Split second will Takes us back in time with some legendary 80s songs while the electro-pop & minimalism of other bands such as Simi Nah, Enzo Kreft, Vive La Fête reveal contemporary 80s inspired sounds. It also is a way to rediscover some living legends such as Dive and Suicide Commando plus smaller bands such as Mildreda, Pro Patria, Herrnia.

The second disc brings us a mix of ‘old’ and contemporary gothic/new-wave. Red Zebra is a band we all know in Belgium, and which remains one of our best 80s ambassadors. A Slice Of Life could be the next big thing from Belgium. Here again you’ll discover very diversified groups moving from Ground Nero to Flesh & Fell, from Doganoc to The Breath Of Life etc.

+ + + : This is a fully enjoyable compilation, bringing different genres and especially music decades together. It also is a way to realize Belgium has a real great underground scene.

– – – : I just regret there aren’t more ‘exclusive’ tracks featured on the album, but it remains first of all a way to promote a great festival, already announced for 2019!

Conclusion: After the terrible lost of the Eurorock festival, Belgium moves on with a new ‘big fest’: W-Fest.

Best bands: A Split second, Enzo Kreft, Herrnia, Vive La Fête, A Slice Of Life, Flesh & Fell, red Zebra, Doganov, The Breath Of Life.

Rate: (8).

Label: www.wool–e–shop.be / www.facebook.com/woolediscs

Inferno Sound Diaries

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

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Genre/Influences: Alternative-rock, electro & rock, dub, funky.

Background/Info: TB Frank known as one of the legendary Neon Judgement members and Baustein (Wouter Berghmans) are musicians from a different generation and yet connected by the fascination of sounds and simply writing songs. This debut album got introduced by the EP “Mother Of Earth” (cover from The Gun Club).

Content: “Tock” is a crazy work symbolized by the weird front cover. Both artists seem to have exorcised a lot of ideas, which are moving from funk to dub to minimal electronics to a great final technoid cut reminding to Praga Khan.

+ + + : “Tock” sounds like pure fun and I can imagine that’s what musicians like when working together. The album is bringing music genres closer to each other. There’s no real main style running through this work rather the love for music. I especially like the final track, which is a great electro/technoid song that might appeal for Praga Khan lovers. I also like the more minimal-like “I Didn’t” while the electro-wave driven “Margarita” is another noticeable piece. Sound-wise there’s a great twist between the easy recognizable guitar playing of TB Frank and the electronic parts.

– – – : The main strength of an album can be also its main point of discussion. There’s less cohesion between the songs so in the end it’s pretty hard to label this project. No doubt about it the artists don’t really care about labels and music genres!

Conclusion: “Tock” sometimes sounds as a compilation instead of a real album, but in the end it’s a pleasant release.

Best songs: “Do I Do It”, “I Didn’t”, “Margarita”, “Hotel Called Hell”.

Rate: (7).

Artist: www.tbfrankbaustein.com / www.facebook.com/tbfrankbaustein

Label: www.trackandtraces.se / www.facebook.com/tracksandtraces

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 17 is the single “Mother of Earth” by the duo TB Frank (The Neon Judgement and also bass player from Praga Khan, Jade4U and Lords of Acid) and Baustein. The single is taken from the upcoming album “Tock !” which will be released on 26th January, 2018. The album will be released under the bandname “TB Frank & Baustein”, the album will be followed by a series of live concerts.

Born and raised in Germany, Baustein moved to Hollywood Los Angeles where he graduated at Musicians Institute of Technology in performing, songwriting & music business by Kenny Kerner (producer KISS). He later on hooked up with Christopher Franke (Tangerine Dream, Babylon 5) at Sonic Images Records located in his Hollywood studios.

Since 2000 Baustein is running his own recording and production studio “Baustein Guitar Studio”, offering contemporary music training, teaching guitar, drums, songwriting, production and bandcoaching.

The track “Mother of Earth” is a cover from a The Gun Club original. Here’ the video for “Mother of Earth”.

The original by The Gun Club sounds like this.

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