American artist Mark Pistel (Meat Beat Manifesto, Consolidated) has joined San Francisco post-punk outfit Octavian Winters for the double single “Nebula / Velveteen (Mark Pistel Remix)”. Now his “Velveteen” remix also gets the video treatment thanks to filmmaker David Kruschke.

Mark Pistel is best known as founder of Consolidated and as a member of Meat Beat Manifesto since 1997. He has also worked with such artists as The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy, Grace Jones, Therapy?, MC 900 Foot Jesus, Machines of Loving Grace, Hector Zazou, Mark Stewart, Lee Scratch Perry, Cabaret Voltaire’s Stephen Mallinder and Fishbone’s Angelo Moore.

Formed in 2022, Octavian Winters is guitarist Stephan Salit (Thrill of The Pull), drummer Randy Gzebb (Thrill of The Pull, Love Club), bassist Jay Denton and Ria (Amenti) Aursjoen on vocals and keyboards.

Pistel explains, “Randy Gzebb called me about remixing one of the tracks off ‘The Line or the Curve’ EP. I was excited to do so, as we’d recorded some of these vocals at my Room 5 Studio in San Francisco. I chose to do ‘Velveteen’ as I already loved the track with its fantastic vocal melody and Stephan’s unstoppable guitar hook! I took on the track with pulsing analog synths and a slamming dance floor beat for the clubs.”

The A-side to this 2-track release, called “Nebula” began as an experiment: “I kept envisioning a sort of “last day at the end of the world” — what would the sky look like? Would we know and understand what was happening? There is this broadly Gnostic idea of the universe as unfolding and unfolding through what are called Aeons, essentially levels of manifestation, until we get this world we live in here. I imagined this world reaching the fullness of its life, that whole cycle ending — and then everything reversing, refolding back to the start to make way for the next universe,” says Ria Aursjoen.

This is not the first time Octavian Winters has worked with Pistel. Their debut EP “The Line or Curve” (released in late 2023) was mostly recorded at his Room 5 Recording before being mixed and mastered it at 13 Studio in Chicago, and co-produced by the band and William Faith (The Bellwether Syndicate, Faith & the Muse, Christian Death). Octavian Winters’ members have a rich history of collaborating and touring with notable artists, including Nine Inch Nails, Killing Joke, Lords of the New Church, Savage Republic, Christian Death, The Frozen Autumn, Everything Goes Cold and Black Tape for a Blue Girl.

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.

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Genre/Influences: Dark-Wave, Dream-Pop, Wave-Pop, Cold-Wave, Electro.

Format: Digital, Vinyl. 

Background/Info: Brussels (Belgium) based Je M’En Fish strikes back with the fourth installment of their “Anthologies”-compilation series.

Artists: The Frozen Autumn, Noemi Aurora, Helalyn Flowers, The Dreamside, The Neon Judgement, Flesh & Fell, Imjudas, Am Tierpark, M73.

Content: The compilation features a few artists which are already familiar with Je M’En Fish, Alfa Matrix-artists (Italian formation Helalyn Flowers and the band members’ side-projects Noemi Aurora and Imjudas) plus a few other  names. The content is quite diversified and features songs from the 80s, 90s and 00”.

+ + + : Diversified compilation covering songs from very different and sometimes distant eras; from the very 80s Flesh & Fell Electro-Experiment (1985) to Ethereal-Pop of The Dreamside (1994) to the melancholic Dark/Cold-Wave of The Frozen Autumn (1996) to 80s inspired Electro-Pop from Danish Am Tierpark to contemporary Electro-Metal-Pop of Helalyn Flowers. There also is a live version from The Neon Judgement’s “Tomorrow In The Papers” from 1984 revealing the band during their early, glorious, days.

– – – : This compilation series sounds to me more as an item for collectors instead of DJ’s. No bad thing but maybe a reason why this compilation will remain under the radar.

Conclusion: Diversified Electro-underground music and related genres throughout the years.

Best bands: The Neon Judgement, Imjudas, Noemi Aurora, Am Tierpark, Flesh & Fell.

Rate: 7.

Label: www.facebook.com/JemenfishBE

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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“Pale Awakening” is the debut album by The Frozen Autumn, which originally saw the light in 1995 following the demotape “Oblivion” and various live gigs in Italy and abroad. These led to the CD release of this concept album inspired by the sound of 4AD and Projekt Records.

The original album held 10 tracks but now 27 years later after the first edition, Avantgarde Music re-releases “Pale Awakening” in two collectible formats: a 12 “colored double vinyl in a gatefold cover with lyrics, and a digipak CD with booklet containing pictures, verses and two bonus tracks: “This Time (Electro Mix)” and “Bio Vital”.

Here is the album on Spotify.

About The Frozen Autumn

The Frozen Autumn is an Italian darkwave band, formed in May 1993. The Frozen Autumn started as the solo project of Diego Merletto, founded after several years of involvement with various darkwave groups in Turin. The singer, keyboardist and synth programmer was joined by guitarist Claudio Brosio during early studio sessions and live performances.

In 1995 the first album, “Pale Awakening”, was released under the German Weisser Herbst Produktion label followed in 1997 by “Fragments of Memories”, this time released via the Milan-based label Eibon Records.

In 1998, Merletto co-founded a side-project called “Static Movement” with Arianna, who provided guest vocals on the title-track from “Fragments of Memories”. The duo composed together for six months and in March 1999 the album “Visionary Landscapes” was released. The partnership proved so fruitful that Arianna became a permanent member in The Frozen Autumn line-up, Static Movement remaining their ‘concept research project’.

The Frozen Autumn’s third album, “Emotional Screening Device”, was released in April 2002. They left Eibon Records in 2003. “Is Anybody There?” was released in September 2005 by the Argentinean label Twilight Records and the German label Pandaimonium through Xymox Control.

At the end of 2010, a new 10″ single, “Rallentears”, was released on their new label Calembour Records, as a forerunner of their next album, “Chirality”, which was released in November 2011. A new EP titled “Lie in Wait” was released in December 2014, again by Calembour Records and this was followed in 2015 by a “best of” compilation vinyl, “Time Is Just a Memory”, on Dark Entries Records. The band’s latest album “The Fellow Traveller” was released on November 3, 2017 by Echozone/Soulfood and Metropolis Records.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil.

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On Friday 26th and Saturday 27th August, the biggest gothic gathering in Central Europe will return to Prague. It will feature 11 bands (including scene mainstays Christian Death and The Frozen Autumn or contemporary cults Kælan Mikla or Minuit Machine), DJs and the traditional gothic picnic.

In a message to Side-Line the organisation says the following: “Who would have thought seventeen years ago that Prague Gothic Treffen would one day grow into the biggest event of its kind in Central Europe? That it would host the very bands we then used to play from Winamp for a few gothic enthusiasts with religious reverence. But it did. In fact, PGT started attracting so many people that after a few years it is moving from our beloved Futurum to a bigger club.“

In the two inter-connected venues, Fuchs 2 and Bike Jesus, you will be able to enjoy two concurrent stages covering everything from traditional goth to the hottest trends in the dark scene in terms of genre.

Tickets are available right here, you sign up to the Facebook event page right here.

The top 4 artists

The most recognizable name at this year’s PGT is Christian Death, the Apostles of deathrock defined the genre in the early 80s on the iconic albums “Only Theatre of Pain” and “Catastrophe Ballet”. The band continued on even after Rozz Williams left this world and Valor Kand took over the reins of the band. They will return to Prague six years after their excellent concert at Chmelnice.

The Italian The Frozen Autumn are the darkwave ambassadors. Originally a solo project of Diego Merletto the band was inspired by the European cold wave and bands of the iconic 4AD label. The duo perform very rarely, plus their concert at Prague Gothic Treffen will also be their Czech premiere.

The Icelandic women trio Kælan Mikla bring a unique and hard-to-define Nordic atmosphere  enhanced by abstract lyrics in Icelandic. Expect elements of post-punk, synthpunk, cold wave, ethereal to darkwave. The band recently released their fifth full-length album “Undir Köldum Norðurljósum”.

Rounding out the top four names on this year’s line-up is the French duo Minuit Machine who will bring their typical contemporary dark electronica.

And also…

The EBM side of things will be covered by the Swedish band Wulfband. The band will come to Prague for the first time. Another Czech premiere will be the performance of German goth rockers Wisborg and the Slovak deathrock act The Last Days Of Jesus. The Polish subculture will be represented by the dark electronic trio Her Own World and will present their current EP “This Fire”. From Ecuador comes Naturata Brutalismus mixing coldwave atmosphere with deathrock guitars and Spanish sung lyrics. More coldwave, postpunk and new wave will come from the Munich trio Paar. The Czech scene is also present thanks to the electronic act Isiolia.

DJ boots and more

After the live shows on both stages, the afterparties will commence with foreign and Czech DJs, spinning everything from classic goth/deathrock through dark/new wave and post-punk to various forms of dark electronica. The traditional Saturday afternoon gothic picnic is also an integral part of the PGT and a neat tradition – an ideal opportunity to meet and chat with other event visitors from all corners of Europe and tune in to the evening club scene. 

Here’s the video trailer for the event.

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.

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‘Froxeanne’ and Diego Merletto are involved with The Frozen Autumn since 1996 although the band was set up in 1993. They became one of the most famous and internationally recognized new-wave/gothic formation from Italy. They define their sound as ‘frozen wave’ and has recently unleashed their newest opus “The Fellow Traveller” on Echozone (for Europe) and Metropolis (for the US). The new work is a well-crafted composition carried by melancholic atmospheres and poppy melody lines. I’d a chat with the band.

(Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)

Q: The Frozen Autumn is not exactly releasing new albums on a regular basis so how do you feel about the new work “The Fellow Traveller” and what kind of album is it all about?

The Frozen Autumn: Well, it depends on what you mean by saying ‘at a regular basis’; if that means every year, well no, we don’t. We’ve never stopped making music with The Frozen Autumn since 1993, but we don’t feel the urge to follow a release-schedule shaped on a mainstream model for which musicians should issue something as frequently as possible just to please the market, even if, artistically speaking, they have nothing new to say, or they are not ready to say it.

Moreover, nowadays in our scene, new and old bands sometimes get glorified (rightly or wrongly) after having released just a couple of 45 inches vinyls altogether, so the concept of releasing albums on a regular basis, if not releasing albums tout-court, now has just a very relative meaning, especially when defining an alternative artist’s activity and value.

We absolutely love “The Fellow Traveller”, needless to say. What kind of album is it? The kind of album you spend years to work on, so that no detail gets neglected.

Q: Your music has been always characterized by melancholia although your sound remains hard to define. It all feels like the emotional content is much more important that the music style! How does it feel for you and what are the main themes running through “The Fellow Traveller”?

The Frozen Autumn: We’re original, that’s for sure. We’ve worked hard and we were able to develop our own style through the years, so that our sound is totally recognizable, though versatile so that’s why you cannot really label it. We love to call it ‘frozen wave’ btw, so feel free to use that term too. We don’t know whether the emotional content takes over the music, we just know that we do what we like to do, the way we know best, with honesty. The main theme is the ‘travel’: in space, in time, through non-lieux, through dimensions, through life, through galaxies, in dreams, a metaphysical travel too. And having worked and toured together for more than 2 decades now, we can well define ourselves ‘fellow travellers’.

Q: It took you a few years to write and accomplish this new album. What have been the main difficulties you encountered during the entire process?

The Frozen Autumn: Rome wasn’t built in a day. We released the EP “Lie In Wait” in December 2014 and we finished “The Fellow Traveller” at the end of 2016. Then we had to prepare the graphics and technical details and finally the release was delayed to November 2017 to be worldwide synchronized, since we licensed it to 2 labels, Echozone/Soulfood and Metropolis Records. We personally don’t think 2 years is a huge period to come up with a 60 min running time of good songs and sounds. There are both artistic and technical times, that can hardly be skipped if you want to do things properly.

Q: What happened with Calembour Records, which was your own label? What have been your experiences as ‘label’ and did it change your vision upon the music scene & business?

The Frozen Autumn: Calembour Records is in stand-by because of lack of time. The trademark still exists and so does the website etc. etc., however, so we can’t exclude to release something in the future. It surely helped us getting a better insight about what happens behind the scenes and it was a very enriching experience from the human point of view.

Q: You’re working together since 1993 so what makes the chemistry between both of you and do you notice some changes and/or evolution in the song writing and global production process?

The Frozen Autumn: The band exists since 1993, but we’ve been working together since 1996 ‘only’. The chemistry between us is due to a profound mutual knowledge and much in common as for the music taste. We’re tied by the great passion for experimenting with synthesizers and for new-wave music, among other topics. We’ve evolved together artistically and we are each others’ best friends… What else can we say? We’ve been lucky in this sense, and we feel grateful for that.

Q: What will be the next step and further plans for The Frozen Autumn and how do you see yourself evolving as musicians?

The Frozen Autumn: Good question. Keeping on experimenting on sounds and keeping on working together, depicting new acoustic landscapes. Maybe focusing more on the work in studio, rather than on the live activity. We’ve got many ideas on our minds, that are just waiting for us to give them the right music shape. And that’s what we’ll try to do.

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: Dark electro-wave, dark-pop.

Background/Info: The Frozen Autumn is one of the most famous and world-wide recognized Italian underground band dealing with dark electro-wave. Diego Merletto and Froxeanne are back on track releasing their first new opus since the “Chirality”-album (2011) while their last production was the “Lie In Wait”-EP (2014).

Content: Time doesn’t really affect the sound and influence of The Frozen Autumn. The band is active since the early 90s, but remains inspired by good-old 80s influences, which can be easily linked to some 4AD bands. The songs are supported with melancholia, but I also noticed a few more ‘poppy’ cuts. A few other cuts are more into reverie, getting closer to a cinematographic composition.

Diego and Froxeanne are alternating the songs on which they’re singing. They both have this typical ‘sterile’ timbre of voice, which is once more evoking good-old souvenirs from the new-wave decade.

+ + + : The Frozen Autumn hasn’t changed their successful sound formula and that’s just fine as they remain one of the few bands at the top of this dark and melancholic wave-pop music. The melancholic atmospheres have something evasive and perfectly matching with both protagonists timbre of voice. The song “Grey Metal Wings” is a very efficient track illustrating the writing skills of this band. But the opus also has a few nice surprises such as “Your Touch (Album Version)”, which is a poppy orientated cut carried by a great melody line reminding me of Alpha Ville.

– – – : “The Fellow Traveller” is a fully enjoyable album, but maybe missing one or two cuts, which would get the album immortal. Three from the four songs originally released at their last EP from 2014 have been released as ‘album versions’, which is not that strange, but maybe not the most original part of this work.

Conclusion: It took some time to The Frozen Autumn to achieve a new opus, but the least I can say is that they haven’t lost their initial magic to compose great songs.

Best songs: “Grey Metal Wings”, “Your Touch (Album Version)”, “Tomorrow’s Life”, “We’ll Fly Away (Album Version)”.

Rate: (7½).

Band: www.thefrozenautumn.com / www.facebook.com/TheFrozenAutumn

Label: www.echozone.de / www.facebook.com/EchozoneMusic

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: Cold-wave, new-wave, dark-rock, wave-pop.

Background/Info: Set up in the late 90s Berlin based Golden Apes progressively got some recognition on the international goth-rock scene. They played at some famous festivals and have now released considerable number of albums. “Malvs” is their newest opus, which was released during late 2016.

Content: First of all I have to confess I didn’t get that wild for the previous Golden Apes albums. It was not that bad and even easy to listen to, but I missed something. That’s maybe what “Malvs” makes me realize. This new work is more like going back to the roots and the 80s influences. It remains somewhere in between good-old new- and cold-wave music with elements reminding me (mainly) of The Cure, but still holds on the dark-rock style the band has established over the years.

“Malvs” is a dark and moody piece of music and a powerful production. Notice by the way this album also features a surprising female guest singer. Arianna (The Frozen Autumn) contributed to one of the songs.

+ + + : “Malvs” has reconciled me with Golden Apes. This work is much more into the good-old new/cold-wave spirit and that’s definitely a nice move. The songs are carried by great guitar playing and sometimes a bit refined by a wave-pop touch reminding me of The Cure. The deep throated vocals perfectly match with this moody style. “Ignorance”, “Grinding Mills” and “Shadowplay” are real attention grabbers.

– – – : Like most album there’re just a few songs leaving me a bit indifferent. I’m referring to the ‘softer’ cuts, which are not exactly missing power, but a kind of highlight.

Conclusion: Golden Apes is back with what could be their best work ever! They’ve constructed a great sonic bridge between new-wave and dark-rock music.

Best songs: “Ignorance”, “Grinding Mills”, “Shadowplay”, “Cedars Of Salt”.

Rate: (7½).

Band: www.goldenapes.com / www.facebook.com/GoldenApes

Label: www.af–music.de / www.facebook.com/afmusic.de

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