Fifty years to the day after Throbbing Gristle played the ICA as part of their “Prostitution” exhibition, the London gallery hosts TG50, a day of films, talks, music and merchandise on Sunday 18 October 2026. Throbbing Gristle – Cosey Fanni Tutti, Chris Carter, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge (1950-2020) and Peter “Sleazy” Christopherson (1955-2010) – date their start to 3 September 1976, and the announcement lands on that anniversary. The same day, Mute opens registration for “TG24+”, a limited-edition USB box set with 36 live performances newly mastered and restored by Chris Carter, due on 4 December 2026.

The event is free to attend and runs as a drop-in through the day, with separate paid tickets for the limited-capacity cinema screenings and talks. The screening programme has not been announced yet. One item is already on sale: Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti in conversation with Luke Turner, editor of The Quietus, at 6pm in Cinema 2.

The ICA says the two will “reflect on the early days of Throbbing Gristle, their experience of London at the time, and the ways in which they forged new forms of music and art amid the city’s cultural underground”. The day also launches a new range of TG merchandise, with some items sold only at the event. The ICA presents TG50 in partnership with Mute.

TG50 at the ICA on 18 October 2026

The date is not random. “Prostitution”, the October 1976 exhibition by the performance group COUM Transmissions at the ICA, doubled as the public debut of Throbbing Gristle, and the band’s performance there took place on 18 October 1976. The show drew the headlines “MP’s fury at porn palace” (Daily Mirror) and “Bust-up at Gallery of Porn” (Daily Express), and Conservative MP Nicholas Fairbairn called the group “wreckers of civilisation” in Parliament. That phrase later became the title of Simon Ford’s 1999 book on COUM and TG.

The ICA describes TG50 as a day that brings fans together “to share memories, stories and reflections on the band and what their work has meant to them”. The band returned to the same building in June 2007 for a three-day recording session, sold afterwards as the 12-CD “The Desertshore Installation”.

“TG24+” continues a series that began in 1980, when Industrial Records issued “TG24” as a box of 24 cassettes covering the band’s first 24 concerts. Mute reissued it as a CD box in December 2002, with 26 performances, and followed it with “TG+”, which added ten more. The new USB edition carries 36 shows, the combined total of those two sets, in Chris Carter’s new masters. Pricing and the exact contents have not been published; Mute is taking registrations of interest ahead of the 4 December release.

What is included in Throbbing Gristle’s “TG24+”?

“TG24+” brings together the complete live material previously released as TG24 and TG+. In total, the collection contains 36 Throbbing Gristle performances recorded between 1976 and 1981, newly restored and mastered by Chris Carter.

Rather than a conventional greatest-hits live compilation, TG24+ documents the development of Throbbing Gristle from their earliest performances through to the final concerts of their original run.

The 26 TG24 performances

1. Air Gallery, London — 6 July 1976
2. Winchester Hat Fair — 21 August 1976
3. ICA, London — 18 October 1976
4. Nags Head, High Wycombe — 11 February 1977
5. Brighton Polytechnic — 26 March 1977
6. Nuffield Theatre, Southampton — 7 May 1977
7. Rat Club / Pindar, London — 22 May 1977
8. Highbury Roundhouse, London — 29 September 1977
9. Winchester Art School — 11 November 1977
10. Rat Club / Valentino Rooms, London — 17 December 1977
11. Brighton Polytechnic — 25 February 1978
12. Architectural Association, London — 3 March 1978
13. Goldsmiths College, London — 18 May 1978
14. Industrial Training College, Wakefield — 1 July 1978
15. London Film-Makers’ Co-op — July 1978
16. Cryptic One Club, London — 1978
17. Centro Iberico, London — 21 January 1979
18. Ajanta Cinema, Derby — 12 April 1979
19. Sheffield University — 25 April 1979
20. The Factory, Manchester — 19 May 1979
21. Guild Hall, Northampton — May 1979
22. YMCA, London — 3 August 1979
23. Butlers Wharf, London — 23 December 1979
24. Fan Club, Leeds — 24 February 1980
25. Scala Cinema, London — 29 February 1980
26. Goldsmiths College, London — 13 March 1980

The 10 TG+ performances

27. Oundle Public School — 16 March 1980
28. Sheffield University — 10 June 1980
29. SO36, Berlin — 7 November 1980
30. SO36, Berlin — 8 November 1980
31. Kunsthofschule, Frankfurt — 10 November 1980
32. Rafters Club, Manchester — 4 December 1980
33. Heaven, London — 23 December 1980
34. Lyceum, London — 8 February 1981
35. Veterans Auditorium, Los Angeles — 22 May 1981
36. Kezar Pavilion, San Francisco — 29 May 1981

About Throbbing Gristle

Throbbing Gristle grew out of COUM Transmissions, the performance group Genesis P-Orridge and Cosey Fanni Tutti ran in Kingston upon Hull before moving to Hackney, London in 1973. There they met Chris Carter, then a television sound recordist, and Peter Christopherson, then a member of the design collective Hipgnosis, and built a studio they named “The Death Factory”. The four went public as Throbbing Gristle at the ICA in October 1976 and set up their own label, Industrial Records, which gave the genre its name.

“The Second Annual Report” (November 1977, first pressed in 786 copies) was followed by the single “United / Zyklon B Zombie”, “D.o.A: The Third and Final Report of Throbbing Gristle” (1978), “20 Jazz Funk Greats” (1979) and “Heathen Earth” (1980). In 1980 they also scored Neil Ruttenberg’s horror film “Mask of Sarnath”, a soundtrack that resurfaced last year on the “Mask of Sarnath” DVD. After a final show in San Francisco on 29 May 1981, the band mailed out postcards on 23 June 1981 declaring their mission terminated.

The members split into Psychic TV (P-Orridge and Christopherson), Chris & Cosey and later Coil (Christopherson with John Balance). The 2002 “TG24” reissue on Mute preceded a reunion in 2004, which produced “TG Now”, a first comeback show at the London Astoria on 16 May 2004 and a set at All Tomorrow’s Parties in Camber Sands on 3 December 2004. “Part Two: The Endless Not” followed on 2 April 2007, recorded in Berlin, with shows at the Donaufestival in Krems, Tate Modern and the ICA installation the same year.

A US tour in April 2009, including Coachella, coincided with “The Third Mind Movements”. P-Orridge left in October 2010, Christopherson died in November 2010, and Carter and Tutti finished the group’s work as X-TG with “Desertshore / The Final Report” (2012). P-Orridge died in March 2020.

Mute has kept the catalogue in circulation since: the reissue series was “relaunched with ‘TGCD1’ and ‘The Third Mind Movements'” in July 2024, the previously unreleased track “Scabs & Saws” surfaced in October 2024, a “Hamburger Lady” live video arrived in April 2025 and “Live at the Volksbühne Berlin, New Year’s Eve 2005” came out in May 2025. Carter and Tutti continue to record as Carter Tutti and Carter Tutti Void, and Tutti was named the Innovator Award recipient at the AIM Independent Music Awards 2025.

TG50 on 18 October 2026 returns the two surviving members to the room where the band first played, and “TG24+” on 4 December puts the live archive that started with the 1980 cassette box onto a single USB drive.

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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Austin-based Tow Truck Productions has issued a new DVD edition of the horror short “Mask of Sarnath”, pairing the original 1980 cut with a newly re-edited 2025 version and, for the first time, the complete unreleased soundtrack by Throbbing Gristle. The disc arrives 45 years after the score was recorded and follows the film’s original run as a finalist in the 1980 Student Academy Awards.

Producer and director Neil Ruttenberg says: “Tow Truck Productions is proud to announce the release of ‘Mask of Sarnath’ with the complete uncut unreleased soundtrack by Throbbing Gristle. Unreleased for 45 years, this soundtrack has never been issued until today.” Recorded in 1980 specifically for the film, the material has until now only been heard embedded in circulating prints of the short.

The DVD presents two versions of the film under the Tow Truck Productions / X-Film banner. The original (1980) runs 20 minutes in black and white, while The Nightmare Cut” (2025) is a newly recut and re-imagined colour version with a 32-minute running time. Both cuts use the Throbbing Gristle soundtrack, with the 1980 version also featuring music by Austin punk band The Huns.

About the film ‘Mask of Sarnath’

“Mask of Sarnath” was written and directed by Neil Ruttenberg and produced by Ruttenberg and Louis Black. The cast includes Nina Nichols, Larry Seaman and Raymond Lee, with Loren Bivens as executive producer. Vince Hollister handled cinematography and co-edited the film with Joel Richardson, while Ric Cruz created the black-and-white drawings and cover poster artwork featured on the new DVD sleeve.

For the 2025 “Nightmare Cut”, Neil Ruttenberg shares directing credits with Zane Ruttenberg, who also edited the new version using original 1980 footage. The DVD offers a stereo sound for both cuts.

The film itself is structured as a horror genre piece built around the theme “Evil Never Dies”, with Throbbing Gristle’s score described in archival synopses as eerie and purpose-written for the project. Below is a short preview.

About Throbbing Gristle

Throbbing Gristle formed in 1975 in the UK out of the performance art collective COUM Transmissions. The core line-up consisted of Chris Carter, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, Cosey Fanni Tutti and Peter “Sleazy” Christopherson. The group’s use of electronics, tape loops, noise and transgressive imagery helped define what later became known as industrial music, working initially through their own imprint Industrial Records.

Across late-1970s releases such as “The Second Annual Report” and “20 Jazz Funk Greats”, the band moved between improvised abrasion, proto-synthpop structures and collage-based sound experiments. The collective first disbanded in 1981, then regrouped in the 2000s for new studio work and live performances before ceasing activities again after the deaths of Christopherson in 2010 and Genesis Breyer P-Orridge in 2020.

Mute has since started a long-running reissue programme.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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

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Out now on vinyl, CD and digital on Mute is the Throbbing Gristle live album “Live at the Volksbühne Berlin, New Year’s Eve 2005”. The 11-track live album was originally available on the recent box set, “TG Berlin”, which chronicled unreleased work recorded around a series of live events curated by the band at the Berlin Volksbühne in 2005/2006.

Recorded 20 years ago at the New Year’s Eve show at the Volksbühne, the album previewed five songs from “Part Two: The Endless Not”, the band’s first album in 27 years, several years before its release. The set also included “Convincing People“, “Almost a Kiss“, “Slug Bait”, and “Hamburger Lady”.

“TG Berlin” and “Live at the Volksbühne Berlin, New Year’s Eve 2005”, are the latest releases in an ongoing collaboration with Mute.

About Throbbing Gristle

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

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

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

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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

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Ahead of the release of the Throbbing Gristle “Live at the Volksbühne Berlin, New Year’s Eve 2005” album as a stand-alone vinyl, CD and digital release on Mute on May 16, 2025, you can now watch the encore of that evening, “Hamburger Lady“. Recorded at the Volksbühne in Berlin as part of a series of live events curated by the band, this rendition of “Hamburger Lady” – originally recorded for their 1978 album “DOA: The Third & Final Report” – is accompanied by footage from the show.

The 11-track live album was originally available on the recently sold out box set, “TG Berlin” and featured five songs from “Part Two: The Endless Not”, the band’s first album in 27 years, several years before its release. In 2004, Throbbing Gristle, Chris Carter, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge (1950-2020) and Peter ‘Sleazy’ Christopherson (1955-2010), had regrouped and the following six years became a period of renewed creativity for the band.

“TG Berlin” and “Live at the Volksbühne Berlin, New Year’s Eve 2005” are the latest releases in an ongoing collaboration with Mute.

Throbbing Gristle officially disbanded in 2010.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

About Throbbing Gristle

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

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

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

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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

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“Cute” is the fourth album by British duo Kevin Tomkins and Paul Taylor, also known as Sutcliffe No More (formerly Sutcliffe Jugend). The album evokes the raw energy of early ’80s Industrial music, blending it with more abrasive Noise elements, often categorized as Power-Electronics. The sound feels Experimental, at times even improvised, but that uncompromising approach is what makes it so engaging. The standout tracks recall the early works of Throbbing Gristle, SPK, and their contemporaries. The vocals are delivered in a possessed, intense manner, adding to the album’s distinct, idiosyncratic style. “Cute” is strange, unsettling, and a must-listen for fans of Industrial music. (Rate:8).

Listen to “Unholy Poem”:

About Sutcliffe No More

Sutcliffe Jugend was formed in England in 1982 by Kevin Tomkins as a Power-Electronics act. The project’s first run lasted less than a year before Tomkins joined Whitehouse, and it was revived in 1994 with Paul Taylor, who had already played on some of the early material.

After Sutcliffe Jugend ended in 2019, Tomkins and Taylor released one album as Slaves No More and then continued as Sutcliffe No More. Under the new name the duo issued “Domestic” (2021, 4iB Records), “Consenting Adult” (2022, 4iB Records), “Normal” (2023, Klanggalerie) and “Campaign 2024” (2024, Old Europa Cafe).

“Cute”, released in 2024 on Zoharum, was followed by “Diving Board” (2025, Klanggalerie) and “For Those About To Die” (2026, Old Europa Cafe).

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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Out via Cold Spring is the album “Broken Allures” by Jac Berrocal (Nurse With Wound collaborator), David Fenech and Vincent Epplay. The album also features Cosey Fanni Tutti and Jah Wobble. You may expect a blend between industrial, experimental, avantgarde, ethno-ambient and dark jazz.

“Broken Allures” is the fifth LP from the trio where they continue their unique recording style with a musique concrète approach to mixing.

Cosey Fanni Tutti (Throbbing Gristle, Chris & Cosey) contributes vocals, cornet and electric guitar. She has also written lyrics for two tracks on the album and worked on the instrumental track “Viva la Hacienda”, which, in her own words, recalls her time recording with Throbbing Gristle.

Jah Wobble (founding member of Public Image Limited, and collaborator with Brian Eno, Björk, Bill Laswell, Primal Scream, Sinéad O’Connor and countless others) plays bass on one track.

Check out the video for “Outspoken Caress”.

The release is available in 3 formats: CD in a matt-laminate flood-printed digipak, a regular black vinyl edition in a matt-laminate sleeve with full-colour insert, and limited edition of 150 copies on transparent yellow vinyl.

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 Fabio Calabretta) On September 13th, the Barcelona-based, post-industrial duo Dame Area will release their fourth studio album, “Toda la verdad sobre Dame Area” (“The Whole Truth about Dame Area”), a collaboration with the labels Mannequin Records and Humo Internacional.

The album serves as a companion piece to 2022’s “Toda la mentira sobre Dame Area” (“All The Lies About Dame Area” – Màgia Roja and B.F.E Records), which had a stronger focus on melody, while this latest record is more aggressive and industrial-influenced, with a greater emphasis on percussion.

Here’s already a new track, “Si No Es Hoy Cuándo Es“.

Formed in 2017 within the underground scene of Barcelona’s Màgia Roja club, Dame Area comprises the Italian-Catalan duo Silvia Konstance and Viktor Lux Crux. They fuse industrial-tribal polyrhythms with minimalist synth basslines, drawing inspiration from avant-garde masters such as Esplendor Geometrico, Throbbing Gristle, Suicide, Einstürzende Neubauten, Can, Coil, Swans, Big Black, and Wolf Eyes. Dame Area released their debut album “Centro di Gravità” in 2018 on Màgia Roja and B.F.E Records. This was followed by “Ondas Tribales” in 2021, released on the Berlin-based label Mannequin Records.

Dame Area Tour Dates

• 09/08/2024 – WINCHESTER (GB) Three Wheel Drive Festival
• 10/08/2024 – CASTELBUONO (IT) Ypsigrock Festival
• 16/08/2024 – ALVESTA (SE) Kalabalik på Tyrolen Festival
• 17/08/2024 – SAINT-MALO (FR) La Route Du Rock
• 23/08/2024 – TORREMOLINOS Canela Fest.
• 24/08/2024 – LEIRIA (PT) Extramuralhas
• 30/08/2024 – BIRMINGHAM (GB) Supersonic Festival
• 14/09/2024 – LEFFINGE (BE) Leffingeleuren Festival
• 19/09/2024 – MEXICO (MX) 316
• 20/09/2024 – SAN JOSE (CR) Edificio Steinvorth
• 21/09/2024 – BOGOTA (CO) Asilo
• 27/09/2024 – SANTIAGO (CL) TBA
• 28/09/2024 – SAO PAULO (BR) Club Madame
• 03/10/2024 – MUNICH (DE) Rote Sonne
• 04/10/2024 – BERLIN (DE) Neue Zukunft
• 05/10/2024 – HAMBURG (DE) MS Stubnitz
• 11/10/2024 – PARIS (FR) Petit Bain (Gonzaï Night)
• 12/10/2024 – AURAY (FR) Les Nuits Soniques
• 18/10/2024 – MADRID (ES) TBA
• 19/10/2024 – VITORIA (ES) TBA
• 24/10/2024 – BRUXELLES (BE) Beursschouwburg
• 25/10/2024 – CHARLEROI (BE) Le Vecteur
• 26/10/2024 – INNSBRUCK (AT) Positive Futures Festival
• 31/10/2024 – LUZERN (CH) TBA
• 01/11/2024 – LAUSANNE (CH) Le Romandie : Le Bourg
• 02/11/2024 – LONDON (GB) The Lexington
• 05/11/2024 – BRIGHTON (GB) The Hope and Ruin
• 06/11/2024 – LEEDS (GB) Headrow House
• 08/11/2024 – BRISTOL (GB) Strange Brew
• 09/11/2024 – COURTRAI (BE) Sonic City Festival
• 10/11/2024 – POITIERS (FR) Salons de Blossac – Groweekend
• 15/11/2024 – ARLES (FR) Cargo de nuit
• 23/11/2024 – LEEUWARDEN (NL) Explore The North
• 29/11/2024 – LORIENT (FR) Hydrophone – Soirée LFSM
• 30/11/2024 – SAINT-BRIEUC (FR) Pavillons des expositions Temporaires
• 01/12/2024 – ANGERS (FR) Joker’s Pub
• 14/12/2024 – MILANO (IT) Arci Bellezza

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 avant-garde trio comprising Jac Berrocal (Nurse With Wound), David Fenech, and Vincent Epplay has unveiled their fifth LP, “Broken Allures” to be released on Cold Spring on the 30th of August. This latest release continues their approach to musique concrète, blending the sounds and techniques of each member.

The album is available in several formats via Cold Spring:

• CD in a matt-laminate flood-printed digipak.
• Limited edition of 150 copies on transparent yellow vinyl in a matt-laminate sleeve with a full-color insert.
• Black vinyl in a matt-laminate sleeve with a full-color insert.

French musician Jac Berrocal is renowned for his collaborations with Nurse With Wound, Vince Taylor, Jaki Liebezeit, Pascal Comelade, and Sunny Murray. For this project, the trio further enlisted the talents of two musicians: Cosey Fanni Tutti and Jah Wobble.

Cosey Fanni Tutti, known for her work with Throbbing Gristle, Chris & Cosey, and COUM Transmissions contributes vocals, cornet, and electric guitar, and has written lyrics for two tracks.

Jah Wobble, a founding member of Public Image Limited and a collaborator with a diverse array of artists including African Head Charge, Brian Eno, Björk, and Sinéad O’Connor, lends his industrial dub sound to the album.

“Broken Allures” includes the track “Outspoken Caress” featuring Cosey Fanni Tutti, with a video directed by Vincent Epplay.

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

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

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

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

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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

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Out of print for a decade, the fine British record label Cold Spring has now reissued the cult release “Recoiled” featuring Coil Remixes of Nine Inch Nails tracks. This much-demanded new vinyl edition of this legendary collaboration comes in black or coloured vinyl in full-colour sleeve with printed inner sleeve.

Note that the ‘Pallid Amber’ version which is limited to only 100 copies was only available via Cold Spring and this as a strictly one copy for customer only. If you attempt to buy more than one copy, your entire order will be cancelled. This way the label wants to avoid scalpers are getting their hands on this release.

Both the ‘Heavy Gold’ and ‘Solid Bone White’ come in a limited edition of 500 copies. Also available is a black vinyl (with T-shirt of wanted) and a CD in full colour digipak.

All orders direct from Cold Spring will receive a release promo card.

Genesis of Coil / Nine Inch Nails LP “Recoiled”

The Nine Inch Nails tracks on “Recoiled” were remixed by Danny Hyde (Coil, Electric Sewer Age) and Peter Christopherson (Coil, Throbbing Gristle) on the demand of long time Coil admirer Trent Reznor. Reznor sent over the original multi-tracks and DATs to Hyde and Christopherson, who independently mixed versions and then met to synch both creations.

It was first released in the 5-track format on February 24, 2014, via Cold Spring posthumously after the deaths of the two original Coil members, Peter Christopherson and John Balance. “Recoiled” is actually based on the fan-created digital EP, “Uncoiled”, initially released freely on The Pirate Bay as fully tagged MP3s and FLAC files of the remixes, including original photography and printable jewel case inserts.

The “Recoiled” EP contains remixes of four Nine Inch Nails songs, including “Gave Up”, from Broken (1992), and “Closer”, “The Downward Spiral” and “Eraser”, from The Downward Spiral (1994). The Cold Spring release of the album features additional mastering, and a remix of the song “Eraser” that was not on “Uncoiled”.

These 5 lengthy compositions (just under 40 minutes) are pre-Ableton / laptop generation type creations, with the use of baby alarms and numerous wires to create the effects.

Track listing:

A1. Gave Up (Open My Eyes) (5:28)
A2. Closer (Unrecalled) (7:41)
A3. The Downward Spiral (A Gilded Sickness) (7:59)
B1. Eraser (Reduction) 8:45
B2. Eraser (Baby Alarm Remix) (8:54)

Here’s an idea what to expect

Below is a 21 minute video posted by Danny Hyde in 2018 showing the making of the Nine inch Nails “Recoiled” record. Danny: “Maybe it will go in some way in Explaining the steps taken for the release. The end section of video has footage filmed at time of construction, with various solo samples.”

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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

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

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

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

Listen to “The Man From Nowhere” below.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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

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Riotmiloo is a sonic project driven by Emilie Verbieze. The French native artist lives in London (UK) and released by the end of 2023 her second full length album “Blackout” by Ant-Zen. This work stands for Minimal-Electronics mixed with Industrial- and Experimental influences. I had an interesting chat with an artist you’ve to discover. (Picture credits by Esmeralda Muñoz-Torrero – Interview courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)

Q: You’ve been involved with music for quite a time now so can you draw up the balance sheet from all of your projects, activities and more specifically from Riotmiloo?

Emilie: Hello, I relocated to London in 2002 to immerse myself in the arts and music scene of this vibrant city. I was fortunate to connect with amazing individuals across different musical genres. In my first band, 3 Ant Riot, we had the chance to play around and innovate with sound. With Venom Seeds, our focus was on expressing feminist rage and chaos within a Garage-Punk framework. Riotmiloo has continually evolved, gradually shifting towards a more Electronic and Industrial sound. I’ve been incredibly lucky to have built strong friendships with people who share my interests, and the audience support has been amazingly positive and encouraging.

Q: You first got involved with Punk bands so what do you still recognize from that time in Riotmiloo -and more specifically in the lyrical content?

Emilie: One of the things that I loved (and still love from the Punk scene) is the ‘Do It Yourself’-spirit. Team up with your friends and make it happen. We don’t need the mainstream to create our own scene and to operate efficiently in terms of releases and playing gigs.

For many years, feelings of anger, dissatisfaction, and rebellion have inspired my songwriting. Speaking frankly, there are many aspects of the world that deeply frustrate me. This state of shock enables me to sit down and write lyrics on my notepad. These lyrics are often drawn from the struggles and difficult true stories of people’s lives.

Q: Your debut-album “La Pierre Soudée” was released in 2015 and featured an impressive list of guests. How do you look back at this experience and how happened the switch towards your new work without guests?

Emilie: I hold dear memories of “La Pierre Soudée.” Before its release, I often collaborated as a guest vocalist with various artists. However, I once had the idea to turn the tables and invite others to contribute to my first album. The level of enthusiasm and support from the artists who agreed to collaborate with me was unexpected and heart-warming. They were all wonderful.

When it came time to work on my second album, “Blackout,” I aimed for a more intimate and suffocating sound. At that time, the music room was packed with analogue synthesizers. I believed that two people were more than enough, minimizing the need for extensive musical exchanges. Consequently, the project was brought to life by just two people, EVA|3 and myself, using our two brains and four hands.

Q: When did you start the writing of “Blackout” and what have been the main influences, triggers, and different stages you’d to go through to achieve this work?

Emilie: The first song was “Blackout” itself. I originally wrote it to start a whole new project with another artist. Then his sound began to change. Mine too. Someone else tried to have a go at it and it never quite worked out. Then Eva|3 tried to flesh something out of it with analogue sounds. It sounded so delicate yet strong and beautiful at the same time. We knew we had achieved something special and it gave me the idea to explore more analogue sounds and machines to fit the new concept.

My influences span a broad spectrum. I’ve always been captivated by the intense sound of Haus Arafna and the coldness of their side project, November Növelet. They skillfully evoke moods of atmosphere and despair. Portishead has also inspired me, with their exceptionally high-quality production and Beth Gibbons’ delicately stunning voice. More recently, Gazelle Twin has become a significant inspiration. I’m particularly drawn to the powerful, menacing aspect of her character.

Regarding what inspires me, suffering comes to mind -it’s a universal experience that we’ve all encountered at some point. With “Blackout,” my goal was to delve into the internal battles we face, while also breaking down the artificially constructed barriers that separate what’s considered normal from madness. The struggles we each endure -mine, yours, and theirs -are all legitimate. Ultimately, I aimed to challenge and dismantle the stigma surrounding mental health, in hopes of starting meaningful discussions on the topic.

Q: “Blackout” features multiple analogue sound treatment creating an explicit retro-touch and yet it still sounds refreshing and magic. That’s quite contradictory don’t you think? What makes your fascination for analogue gear and do you have favorites?

Emilie: I feel that “Blackout” is also magical because it is more than the sum of its parts. I wanted the sound to feel bleak and oppressive, the beats to be suffocating.  I wanted the voice and the lyrics to guide the listener into the dark corners of the human psyche. I feel it is a bit like alchemy, all the parts fit in together and make the whole listening experience unique.

Even though we never planned for a retro vibe, it’s a natural trait of analogue synthesizers. The goal was to allow these synthesizers to express feelings freely. This might have led to what some perceive as a ‘retro sound’. Nevertheless, we also appreciate the crispness and detailed impact found in modern production and mixing. The essence of this album also lies in its contrasts; we aimed to create a sound that feels both intimate and constricting yet simultaneously expansive and liberating.

In the recent decade, I’ve developed a fondness for the sounds produced by analogue equipment like the Korg MS20, the Moog D-FAM, the vintage Soviet LELL UDS drum synths, the Moog Werkstatt. More recently, I have been playing with the Soma Lyra 8 and the Pipe. The sounds they create are incredibly rich, warm, and somehow both menacing and comforting at the same time -I absolutely love them. Additionally, I have a special liking for the Gristleizer; it’s an amazing device that always meets my expectations.

Q: l’ve been always wondered why there’re less female artists -except female singers, actively involved with writing and production of Electronic/Industrial music. I think it’s an aspect you’ve been always concerned about but do you think there’s an explanation to the lack of female composers and how do you expect things evolving?

Emilie: In both the physical world and online, there are people who tend to be overly critical. This is truly unfortunate, as it discourages many artists from sharing their work. Some groups face even more criticism than others. In my opinion, it’s best to ignore such negativity and pursue what you’re passionate about. We might be too much or too little for some people’s liking, but does it really matter? Find your community. You don’t have to conform to any standard. Focus on being an artist, which is challenging enough.

In terms of evolution, I believe there’s still room for growth. I’m eager to hear from a wider range of artists. I hope to see more diverse line-ups at concerts and festivals. By ‘diverse,’ I mean truly inclusive of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer individuals, as well as people from various racial and cultural backgrounds. We can gain so much by learning from one another!

Q: You’re a French living in London, right? How do you perceive the music ‘culture’ between both countries and their fans -England and France being probably two of the most influential European countries when it comes to music?

Emilie: Yes, I was born in France and I have been living in London for more than twenty years now. I moved from France because I believed England offered more opportunities for artistic expression.

I feel deeply connected to French language and poetry. I also have a strong affinity for music from the French label Audiotrauma. I still enjoy listening to artists like Twinkle, Sonic Area, and Chrysalide, among others. Flint Glass and Cent Ans De Solitude are also on my recommendation list. Their music creates a rich, soul-stirring soundscape.

Living in London has enabled me to experiment and forge connections with people both from England and other countries. I’m significantly influenced by the pioneering sound of Throbbing Gristle and Bristol’s Trip-Hop scene, but I also find inspiration in German Electronics and Swedish Death-Industrial music.

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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Out next month on March 22 via the Infinite Fog label is a reissue of The Treshold Houseboys Choir release “Amulet”. The Treshold Houseboys Choir was the project of the late Peter “Sleazy” Christopherson of Coil.

Originally available in limited quantities at live shows and via direct mail-order in 2008 as a hand-assembled 4 mini-CDR set housed in a circular Thai Amulet case and never properly distributed, the material finally receives a wider re-release on vinyl and CD. This release was the second and final release for Christopherson’s post-Coil solo project.

As a bonus feature this reissue includes rare earlier compilation tracks and a few previously unreleased exclusive rough demos.

The Infinite Fog edition comes presented as a 3LP in a triple heavy gatefold sleeve and as a 2CD digipak, both including a poster of Peter Christopherson in his Cruella Deville coat. The whol was remastered by Jessica Thompson with artwork by Oleg Galay and with additional guidance from Peter Jenx.

Note that the following bonus tracks are only included on the 2CD edition:

1. Geff and Pete experiment with Voice FX
2. Moody Circles
3. PLICK PLICK
4. Plink Plonk
5. Screaming Itch

About Peter “Sleazy” Christopherson

Peter Martin Christopherson, known as Sleazy, (27 February 1955 – 25 November 2010) was a versatile English artist encompassing roles as a musician, video director, commercial artist, designer, and photographer. He was notably a part of the British design agency Hipgnosis.

He played a pivotal role in founding the band Throbbing Gristle under the Industrial Records label. Following Throbbing Gristle’s split, Christopherson, alongside Genesis P-Orridge and Geoff Rushton (later known as John Balance), initiated Psychic TV.

His journey with Psychic TV was brief, leading to the establishment of Coil with John Balance, a partnership that spanned nearly 23 years until Balance’s untimely death due to a fall. Christopherson’s career also included a phase where he contributed to Throbbing Gristle’s revival. After moving to Thailand in 2005, he produced 2 albums for his solo project, The Threshold HouseBoys Choir. Christopherson passed away in his sleep on 25 November 2010.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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

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Decommissioned Forests have released a new single and video (which we present you exclusively) for “Bread to the Ducks”. “Bread to the Ducks” is taken from their third album “Chemistry” (2023). This release also contains a live version of “Eel Tank” and the tracks “Insert Your Name” and “Smash”.

The single is the second in a series of pieces about a massive alien art gallery travelling through space. Filled with exhibits often featuring live captured specimens that attempt to capture something of the social aspects of the various civilisations and cultures that they have visited so far.

The single is also available via Bandcamp.

Talking about this alien art gallery, Rael explains, “I had this flash fiction piece called, Eel Tank about a man trapped in a tank full of eels, blindfolded, with breathing apparatus strapped to his face and no idea of how long he’d been there. And it kind of grew into it being an alien art exhibit featuring a captured and imprisoned human, trying to capture something of what it is to be a human on planet earth. After doing more spoken word lyrics and poems on our previous releases, Daniel suggested I try some prose, so we made Eel Tank, which is also on the album Chemistry (2023). It’s great to perform live because I get to shout and throw myself around the stage. Daniel and Howard thought it worked well and asked if I had any more, and I said, ‘Well I have got a whole series of these, the next one is Bread to the Ducks but it’s a bit out there…”

Below is the video for the new single.

The Howard Gardner video for Bread to the Ducks explores the narrative of the words. He explains, “Normally when I’m working on a music video concept, I try to avoid too much of a literal interpretation of the lyrics. In this instance though, Max had a very definite concept in mind and a literal interpretation seemed to be the only viable route. I love science fiction and the overall dark tone of the piece; it seemed like an opportunity to lean into the absurdist nature of the words and really have some fun with it. This has to be one of the oddest things I’ve animated. But it was a great experience! As a child I was always fascinated by crappy looking old museum dioramas. This seemed the natural aesthetic way to go with the story we we’re telling. Their revolutionary AI programming led them to discard bone and muscle and purely focus on offal. That is, the organs. They’d peck through to get to the sex organs, kidneys, liver, pancreas, brain and even lung.”

When pressed on what it’s about, Rael responded, “There’s definitely an influence from the book, ‘Under the Skin’ by Michael Faber… This track is about a lot of things: scarcity economics, capitalism, and animal factory farming. I’d like to point out that this alien art gallery is not set in some ficticious dystopian future. This is all happening right now.”

About Decommissioned Forests

The London based experimental electronic trio, consisting of multimedia artist Howard Gardner, instrumentalist and producer Daniel Vincent, and vocalist Max Rael, have been creating music together as Decommissioned Forests since 2017.

Taking a broad range of influences by outsider artists such as Coil, Current 93, Cluster, Nine Inch Nails, Nurse With Wound and Throbbing Gristle, the band creates sound worlds with an array of analog, digital, and virtual, synthesizers and sampled acoustic and classical instruments which serve as a backdrop to Rael’s lyrics.

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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Cologne’s Blue Shell hosts a brand new event series: The Neue Klangordnung (New Sound Order, NKO). The newly founded NKO collective brings the “Blue Shell” back to its roots: rough industrial underground sound, rooted in body music (EBM), post-techno and the new cold / dark wave.

The NKO sees itself as a space for dance and sound experiments, “in which people regain control of their smartphones and their heads are freed for the experience.”

Max Esser explains: “By mainstreaming underground music genres such as techno, the NKO wants to shape new, alternative music styles of tomorrow with its DIY approach. This is inspired by sound pioneers such as Cabaret Voltaire, DAF, Test Dept. and Esplendor Geómetrico, and the next chapter of Industrial is to be entered into at NKO under the term Post-Techno. This is implemented behind the mixing desks of DJ and darkwave performer BORGBORG, the industrial-purified mixing master Hugo Dirac, the Cologne selector Klaus F., and the sound researcher MX Probe.”

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Neue Klangordnung (@neueklangordnung) • Instagram photos and videos

For fans of: Einstürzende Neubauten, Esplendor Geométrico, NAKED, Spit Mask, Broken English Club, Parrish Smith, Bauhaus, Severed Heads, DJedjotronic, ADULT, Fixmer/McCarthy, Boy Harsher, Alessandro Adriani, Ancient Methods, Randolph & Mortimer, Unconscious, Sarin, Alen Skanner, Years of Denial, Whitehouse, Throbbing Gristle/Psychic TV, Qual.

This is what the NKO Spotify playlist sounds like.

What, where and how of The Neue Klangordnung

• When: 24. November 2023 – 22:00 o‘clock
• Where: Blue Shell, Luxemburger Str. 32, 50674 Cologne
• Cost: 8€ Box office, 6€ limited presale via Rausgegangen

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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Released today, 3 November 2023, is the new album “Chemistry” from Decommissioned Forests. The album is available now from Bandcamp, Spotify, and all major streaming platforms. This is the third full-length album for the London-based experimental electronic trio and follows their dank atmospheric debut, “Forestry” (2019), and the post-industrial modernist sophomore album, “Industry” (2022).

Musically the trio (Howard Gardner, Daniel Vincent, and Max Rael) have been taking a broad range of influences by outsider artists such as Coil, Current 93, Cluster, Nine Inch Nails, Nurse With Wound and Throbbing Gristle to merge it into their own sound.

As the “Chemistry” album’s 10 tracks took shape, it became clear that the collection of songs had started to take a conceptual form. Daniel explains: “We started to plot the curve of the album musically as we recorded Max’s vocals, so the album loosely follows a day in the life, as day dreams, existential angst, and some kind of trauma surface.”

Max expands: “In terms of lyrical themes for the album, we start with Goodbye to the Cloud People which for me, is at least in part, about coming off antidepressants, leaving a world where nothing feels quite real, a not unpleasant dreamlike numbness, so the narrator of the album is taking a look at the world around him and in many ways, seeing it for the first time. Medication then plays into the wider them of chemistry which is explored further in the title track, and All is Vanity. Eel Tank and Bread to the Ducks describe alien attempts to capture something of the human condition, but there’s always something inherently lost in translation. Eel Tank reflects the existential horror of being trapped in unfulfilling meaningless work, whereas Bread to the Ducks tries to capture something of scarcity economics, capitalism and the factory farming of animals. I’m the kind of person who has a drawer full of old notepads going back over the years so I tend to bring a mixture of fresh new ideas and improvisation, as well as old words and ideas that I still like and that still resonate with me now. Lyrically, Black River Falls is pretty untouched from 2002, and The Dust is a rewritten version of a song that goes right back to the very first band I was in as a teenager at school. I guess some of us never really fully grow out of that teenage angst. ‘We were always easy prey’. We were then, as we are now.”

The Howard Gardner video for the album’s lead-single ‘Black River Falls’, which premiered on Side-Line.com in September, continues the narrative from “A Comforting Uncertainty” video from the band’s previous album.

You can download the album below from Bandcamp or order a physical copy.

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: Experimental, Industrial, electro, Noise.

Format: Digital, CD.

Background/Info: German sound alchemist Philipp Münch strikes back with a new album under his own name. The work is inspired by the quest for new rituals in times where people are more and more turning their back to rites.

Content: This is probably one of the most diversified works I’ve heard by this artist. It feels a bit like he brought the wide sonic canvas from all his different projects together. From electro-Industrial music driven by a Technoid kick to Experimental and Cinematic music he also touches ground with EBM with haunting vocals on top while getting back to the early years of Experimental/Industrial music. The album comes to an end with Noise waves.

+ + + : You’ll for sure find one or more tracks to your taste; this album being very diversified and collecting an impressive number of influences. It clearly indicates Philipp Münch is and remains an open-minded musician who also feels comfortable dealing with different music genres. Whatever the music path he walks on he remains driven by the taste of creating great sound sculptures. “Still Angry” is one of my favorite cuts for reminding me of Throbbing Gristle elements which have been meticulously adapted into modernism featuring a Techno kick and Acid-like influences.

– – – : The main strength of this work also is its weakest point; a very versatile opus which sometimes sounds like a compilation instead of a compact album made by one and the same author.

Conclusion: Philipp Münch remains first of all a true sonic guru.

Best songs: “Still Angry”, “Violently Psychotic”, “Crystal In A Well”.

Rate: 7½.

Artist: www.facebook.com/philippmuench.de

Label: www.ant-zen.com / www.facebook.com/antzen.official

About Philipp Münch

Philipp Münch is a German musician active under his own name and through a long list of projects, including The Rorschach Garden, which he set up in 1988, as well as Synapscape, Ars Moriendi, Mandelbrot and Rasputin. The Rorschach Garden has been put on hold and reactivated several times over the decades, with Münch remaining its sole constant member; the project’s most recent album, “We Are Vanishing”, appeared on Ant-Zen. “New Ritual Music”, released under Münch’s own name on Ant-Zen, gathers the range of styles he has explored across his different projects, from electro-Industrial and EBM to Experimental, Cinematic and Noise material.

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 industrial music landscape is filled with influential figures, but few have left as indelible a mark as the late Peter ‘Sleazy’ Christopherson. Born in Leeds, Yorkshire, on February 27, 1955, Christopherson was an English musician, video director, commercial artist, designer, and photographer, whose contributions to the music industry spanned various genres, from industrial and experimental to electronic.

Re-released now via Soleilmoon is “Live at L’étrange Festival 2004” holding his live performance at L’étrange Festival in Paris on September 13 2004. Titled “The Art of Mirrors (Homage to Derek Jarman)”, the 74 minute long track takes listeners on a sonic journey that reflects Christopherson’s mastery of samples and his otherworldly aesthetics. As a tribute to Christopherson and Balance, “The Art of Mirrors” was initially released in 2015 by Black Mass Rising (France), followed by another release in 2017 by Infinite Fog (Russia).

Christopherson’s career was as eclectic as his musical style. His father was a professor of engineering who later became master of Magdalene College, Cambridge. Christopherson himself studied computer programming, theatre design, and video at the University at Buffalo in Buffalo, New York, where he nurtured his interest in performance art and avant-garde photography.

Co-founding the Industrial Records band Throbbing Gristle (TG), Christopherson helped pioneer the industrial music genre before moving on to form Psychic TV with Genesis P-Orridge and Geoff Rushton, who later changed his name to John Balance. Balance, a Throbbing Gristle fan who became Christopherson’s intimate partner, joined him in creating their own project, Coil.

In a career spanning over two decades, Coil released a myriad of recordings and contributed to the work of other artists. After Balance’s untimely death, Christopherson relocated to Bangkok, Thailand, in 2005, where he founded his solo project The Threshold HouseBoys Choir. While Christopherson’s death in 2010 marked the end of an era, his legacy continues to live on, influencing new generations of artists and reminding us of the transformative power of music.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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

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Genre/Influences: Dark-Wave, Post-Punk, Minimal-Wave.

Format: Digital, CD, Vinyl.

Background/Info: Legendary French 80s formation Norma Loy are back on track. Seven years have passed since the previous album “Baphomet” which already was a come-back album. Core members ‘Usher’ and ‘Chelsea’ joined hands together with a few guests to bring us twelve cover versions.

Content: You’ll discover cover versions of very famous artists like the unavoidable Suicide but also Minimal Compact, David Bowie, Leonard Cohen, Nico, The Velvet Underground, Tuxedomoon, Throbbing Gristle, Factrix, David Lynch, Coil and… Norma Loy. The songs have been meticulously transposed into the dark, haunting, and sometimes minimal style of Norma Loy. You easily recognize most of the songs and their original sound but they’ve been recovered with a darker touch mixing guitar and electronics.

+ + + : I mostly have reservations about cover albums but the way this opus has been accomplished is absolutely great and magical. You easily recognize songs from artists like Suicide, Throbbing Gristle and even Leonard Cohen but Norma Loy adapted the songs in their own, obscure, interpretation. From pure Post-Punk and Dark-Wave to Minimal-Wave the work is versatile and yet compact. Most of the songs are fully accomplished featuring porcelain sound treatments on top but I especially recommend listening to the subdued “Saeta” (Nico), the rough and minimal driven “Touch Me” (Suicide), the harder, Dark-Wave sounding “Romance” (which is a 2022 version from an older Norma Loy song), the good-old Dark/Cold-Wave like “A Night To Forget” (Factrix) and the somewhat Ritual-orientated “Ritual Of The Mind” (Coil).

– – – : The single cut which couldn’t convince me is the Bowie-cover “Some Are”.

Conclusion: Cover albums always are a bit of a challenge but “Ouroboros” sounds as a refreshing Dark-Wave / Post-Punk piece of music.

Best songs: “A Night To Forget”, “Touch Me”, “Ritual Of The Mind”, “Saeta”, “Romance”, “Venus In Furs”.

Rate: 8½.

Artist: www.facebook.com/NormaLoyOfficiel

Label: www.manicdepressionrecords.com / www.facebook.com/manicdepressionrecords

About Norma Loy

Norma Loy is a French formation led by Usher and vocalist Chelsea, among the most prominent French bands of the 1980s. The group stopped activity in the early 1990s, reunited for live shows in 2006 and returned to the studio with “Un/Real” (Infrastition, 2009) and “Baphomet” (Unknown Pleasures Records, 2016). “Ouroboros” follows seven years later on Manic Depression Records, an all-covers album reinterpreting Suicide, David Bowie, Leonard Cohen, Nico, The Velvet Underground, Tuxedomoon, Throbbing Gristle, Factrix, David Lynch, Coil and Norma Loy’s own back catalogue.

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

Yesterday was an unusual day as we experienced a sudden surge in donations from Bandcamp, more than the typical amount. Upon reviewing our page’s statistics to determine the source, it became apparent that something was happening on Twitter. A swift investigation revealed that Robert Smith from The Cure had tweeted a link to our 2022 charity compilation, “Electronic Resistance – A Darkwave / Post-Punk Compilation From The Ukrainian Underground“.

“Electronic Resistance” (and also the follow-up compilation “Electronic Resistance – Reconstruction”) is a 55-track strong compilation which features darkwave / post​-​punk acts from the Ukrainian underground scene only. Compiled in – extremely – difficult conditions it offers you an insight into the Ukrainian dark underground and also reflects what all of them are going through. It suffices to see some of the titles to understand what we mean.

The compilation features artists from allover Ukraine, from Odesa, Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Mariupol, etc.. Many of them are right now in the frontline, or help in all kind of services from the fire departement to field hospitals. Others are distributing food, others have been forced out of their destroyed homes.

Stan Przhegodsky (aka Owen Wowson on Twitter), whose band Black Light District is featured on the compilation replied the following to Robert Smith’s initial tweet: “I was 14 years old when I started listening to The Cure. Decades later, you post a compilation that I appeared on (track 17). As a Ukrainian, this is multiple levels of amazing. Thank you very much. Respect & admiration.”

I was 14 years old when I started listening to The Cure.
Decades later, you post a compilation that I appeared on (track 17).
As a Ukrainian, this is multiple levels of amazing.
Thank you very much.
Respect & admiration.

— 🇺🇦 Owen Wowson 🎷 (@technicolorfilm) April 23, 2023

Watching Ukrainian family have their lives destroyed before coming to the U.S. last year, fearful and with little, all things related have my instant support. Heartbreaking artists also lost work and gear. First, partial listen, particularly enjoying tracks 2, 17, 48 so far.

— Ilse (@Ilse_not_that_1) April 23, 2023

Robert Smith is the last in many artists who have been supporting our charity work, earlier on also the cult act Throbbing Gristle pushed decided to give us an online push a while ago.

Electronic Resistance – A Darkwave / Post – Punk Compilation From The Ukrainian Underground 🇺🇦https://t.co/ocpxxKgXfz pic.twitter.com/MvpNFqJS2m

— THROBBING GRISTLE (@ThrobbingGrstle) January 26, 2023

The tweet by The Cure’s frontman has now propelled the compilation back into the bestselling industrial music charts on Bandcamp on spot 3. As you can see it is being joined by Alfa Matrix’s The Cure tribute releases “A Strange Play – Tribute to The Cure“ and “A Strange Play (Vol. 2) – Tribute to The Cure“.

Below is said compilation and it’s follow-up, the recently released “Electronic Resistance – Reconstruction”.

Side-Line also covered The Cure’s ‘Curepedia: The A–Z of The Cure’.

Eldrina Mich

As Eldrina Mich I work as a go-between and a devil’s advocate when it comes to Side-Line. If our own staff needs to be interviewed then ask the questions no one else dares to ask.

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Genre/Influences: Experimental, Minimal-Electro.

Format: Digital, Vinyl.

Background/Info: This work by the Belgian solo-project The Orphanage Committee was released by the end of 2022. It features ten songs composed by Orphan S.C. Wallace.

Content: This work is mixing Experimental sound treatments with Minimal-Electro. Parts of the work remind me of the early 80s Electro-experiments of Throbbing Gristle and SPK. Sound collages, field recordings and spoken samplings are inviting the listener to visit the very own sound universe by this artist.

+ + + : This work is quite different to other albums I heard from the artist and which were all released in a short lapse of time. I like the Electro minimalism of this opus which reminds me of the ‘anti-music’ approach of the aforementioned Experimental pioneers. Especially the first side of the vinyl reveals a few outstanding cuts like “Factory Solicitant” and “Agnostic Ballad”. The second side takes off with another great piece of minimalism entitled “The Good Things We Do”.

– – – : The least I can say is that The Orphanage Committee is a little bit versatile; every single work sounds different and there’re even different influences featured at one album.

Conclusion: This is a cool album which I’m sure will appeal for addicts of the early 80s Electronics and -Experimental music.

Best songs: “The Good Things We Do”, “Factory Solicitant”, “Agnostic Ballad”.

Rate: 8.

Artist: www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100088677280058

Label: www.eetapes.be / www.facebook.com/eriek.vanhavere

About The Orphanage Committee

The Orphanage Committee is a Belgian solo project run by Orphan S.C. Wallace, based in Sint-Niklaas and released through the Belgian label EE Tapes. The project debuted in January 2022 with “Continuities Vol. I,” issued as a tribute marking the 35th anniversary of EE Tapes.

“A Significant Change,” reviewed here, followed in December 2022 as Wallace’s debut LP, mixing sequencers and drum machines with sampled voices and chants into dark, industrial-leaning beats. Two months later, in February 2023, the project released the album “The Seven Sacraments,” built around two extended tracks interpreting the seven Catholic sacraments through slow rhythms and psychedelic sound treatments.

Wallace closed out the year with “Sol in Solus” in October 2023, a ten-part concept album about nature and self-reflection, continuing the project’s pattern of releasing markedly different-sounding work in short succession.

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

For the past couple of months we have been testing ChatGPT at Side-Line to see if it could help us with our text writing. And we have been launching all kind of queries, sometimes with pleasant surprises. This is the first in a few articles where we let the AI powered chat software spin a few texts.

For those unaware, GPT (Generative Pre-training Transformer) is a machine learning model developed by OpenAI. GPT is a type of language model that is trained to predict the next word in a sequence of words, given the previous words in the sequence. ChatGPT is a variant of GPT that is specifically designed for conversation and it is trained on a large dataset of human conversation, and is able to generate human-like responses to a given input. It is able to understand the context and meaning of words, and can generate appropriate responses based on this understanding. ChatGPT is able to generate responses that are coherent and appropriate, and can engage in conversation on a wide range of topics.

In summary, ChatGPT is a machine learning model that is designed to generate human-like responses to input, allowing it to engage in conversation with users. It does this by predicting the next word in a sequence based on the previous words and context, using its understanding of language and meaning.

A few weeks ago we let it write a text on the future of industrial music, this is what it came up with.

What is the future of industrial music?

It is difficult to predict the future of any music genre with certainty, as it is influenced by a wide range of factors such as cultural trends, technological advances, and the evolution of musical tastes. However, it is possible to make some educated guesses about the future of industrial music based on its history and current state.

One potential future for industrial music is that it will continue to evolve and incorporate elements from other genres. Industrial music has always been a hybrid genre, incorporating elements from a wide range of styles such as punk, electronic, and metal. As such, it is likely that industrial music will continue to borrow from and be influenced by other genres in the future.

Another potential future for industrial music is that it will continue to be a niche genre, but with a dedicated and passionate fan base. Industrial music has always been a genre that appeals to a specific audience, and it is likely that this will continue to be the case in the future. While industrial music may not achieve mainstream success, it could continue to have a dedicated and influential fan base that keeps the genre alive and vibrant.

Technological advances may also play a role in the future of industrial music. The use of electronic instrumentation and production techniques has always been a key part of the industrial sound, and it is likely that technological advances will continue to shape the sound of industrial music in the future. For example, the use of virtual instruments and software synthesizers may become more prevalent in industrial music production, allowing artists to create new and innovative sounds.

Another potential future for industrial music is that it will continue to be a genre that reflects and addresses social and political issues. Many industrial bands have always used their music as a way to comment on and critique society and its problems, and it is likely that this will continue to be the case in the future. Industrial music has always been a genre that has addressed themes such as power, control, and oppression, and it is possible that these themes will continue to be relevant in the future.

Overall, the future of industrial music is uncertain, but it is likely that the genre will continue to evolve and adapt to changing cultural and technological trends. While industrial music may not achieve mainstream success, it could continue to have a dedicated and passionate fan base that keeps the genre alive and relevant.

What are the challenges for industrial music?

There are a number of challenges and issues that industrial music has faced and continues to face. Some of these challenges include:

• Lack of mainstream success: Industrial music has always been a niche genre, and it has struggled to achieve mainstream success. This can make it difficult for industrial bands to find a wide audience and to make a living from their music.
• Limited commercial appeal: Industrial music is often characterized by its experimental and unconventional sound, which can make it less appealing to a commercial market. This can make it difficult for industrial bands to gain the support of record labels and to find opportunities to perform and tour.
• Stereotyping and misunderstanding: Industrial music is often misunderstood and stereotyped by the mainstream media, who may portray the genre as being violent or dangerous. This can make it difficult for industrial bands to gain respect and recognition for their music.
• Competition with other genres: Industrial music has always been a hybrid genre, incorporating elements from a wide range of styles such as punk, electronic, and metal. This can make it difficult for industrial bands to stand out in a crowded music market, as they may be competing with other genres for attention.
• Limited resources: Industrial music is often produced on a small scale, with many bands operating on a DIY basis. This can make it difficult for industrial bands to access the resources and support they need to create and promote their music.

There are a number of ways that industrial music could potentially reinvent itself and adapt to changing cultural and technological trends. Some possible ways that industrial music could evolve include:

• Incorporating elements from other genres: Industrial music has always been a hybrid genre, incorporating elements from a wide range of styles such as punk, electronic, and metal. Industrial music could continue to evolve by borrowing from and being influenced by other genres, incorporating new sounds and ideas into its sound.
• Experimenting with new production techniques: Industrial music has always been characterized by its use of electronic instrumentation and production techniques. Industrial bands could continue to explore new and innovative ways of using technology in their music, such as using virtual instruments or software synthesizers.
• Collaborating with artists from other genres: Industrial music could potentially collaborate with artists from other genres, creating new and unique sounds and styles. This could help to bring industrial music to a wider audience and to reach new fans.
• Refocusing on political and social themes: Many industrial bands have always used their music as a way to comment on and critique society and its problems. Industrial music could potentially refocus on these themes, using its music to address contemporary social and political issues.
• Exploring new visual aesthetics: Industrial music has always had a distinctive visual aesthetic, with many fans sporting black clothing and leather or PVC gear. Industrial bands could potentially explore new visual styles and aesthetics, helping to keep the genre fresh and exciting.

Overall, there are many ways that industrial music could potentially reinvent itself and adapt to changing cultural and technological trends. It is likely that the genre will continue to evolve and adapt over time, and that new artists and bands will bring their own unique perspectives and influences to the table.

What were the most innovative industrial bands in the past?

There have been many innovative industrial bands throughout the history of the genre. Some of the most influential and innovative industrial bands include:

1. Kraftwerk: Kraftwerk is a German band that is often credited as the pioneers of electronic music. They were one of the first bands to use electronic instrumentation and production techniques in their music, and their experimental and innovative approach to sound helped to shape the industrial genre.
2. Throbbing Gristle: Throbbing Gristle was a British band that was active in the 1970s and early 1980s. They were known for their experimental and unconventional approach to music, and were one of the first bands to be associated with the industrial genre.
3. Einstürzende Neubauten: Einstürzende Neubauten is a German band that is known for their innovative and unconventional use of found objects and industrial materials in their music. They have been influential in the industrial genre, and have inspired many other artists to experiment with new and unusual sounds.
4. Skinny Puppy: Skinny Puppy is a Canadian band that is known for their innovative use of electronic instrumentation and production techniques in their music. They have been influential in the industrial genre, and have inspired many other artists to experiment with electronic sounds.
5. Nine Inch Nails: Nine Inch Nails is an American band that is known for their experimental and innovative approach to music. They have been influential in the industrial genre, and have incorporated elements from a wide range of styles into their sound.

What are the most innovative industrial bands today?

There are many contemporary industrial bands that are known for their experimental and innovative approach to music. Some examples of innovative industrial bands that are active today include:

1. Blanck Mass: Blanck Mass is a British electronic music project that is known for its experimental and unconventional sound. They incorporate elements from a wide range of genres into their music, and are known for their innovative use of electronic instrumentation and production techniques.
2. Youth Code: Youth Code is an American band that is known for their aggressive and experimental sound, which incorporates elements from industrial, punk, and electronic music. They are known for their innovative use of electronic instrumentation and production techniques, and for their unconventional approach to music.
3. Pharmakon: Pharmakon is an American noise musician who is known for her experimental and unconventional approach to music. She incorporates elements from industrial, noise, and electronic music into her sound, and is known for her innovative use of electronic instrumentation and production techniques.
4. Factory Floor: Factory Floor is a British band that is known for their experimental and innovative approach to music. They incorporate elements from a wide range of genres into their sound, and are known for their innovative use of electronic instrumentation and production techniques.
5. Zanias: Zanias is an Australian electronic musician who is known for her experimental and unconventional approach to music. She incorporates elements from industrial, techno, and ambient music into her sound, and is known for her innovative use of electronic instrumentation and production techniques.

These are just a few examples of the many innovative industrial bands that are active today.

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: Experimental, Minimal-Electro, Dark-Wave.

Format: Digital, 2CD.

Background/Info: Kevin Thorne continued on with We Be Echo after the band split. It brings us back to the early 80s and influential British artists like Throbbing Gristle. This album features the original songs from the debut album “Ceza Evi” (1983) plus bonus tracks and other cuts recorded during that period.

Content: There’s a lot to say about this album featuring a total amount of 32 songs. The common element between all cuts is the easy recognizable 80s spirit of early Electronic experiments and Cold-Wave music. Genesis P. Orridge contributed to one of the cuts, which also is one of the best exposures of this work. You’ll (re)discover numerous instrumental cuts, but also songs with vocals giving a more accessible touch to the work.

+ + + : I have to admit I can’t really remember to have ever heard We Be Echo, but this work is a cool discovery and especially for bringing good-old memories alive. I especially like the Electro-Wave approach with the magic of analogue gear, but still a few typical elements from that period reminding us that musicians were first of all experimenting with instruments and noises.

– – – : Some parts are a bit too Experimental, revealing a kind of free-style approach; no compromises and no rules, but pure sound-anarchy.

Conclusion: Cold Spring Records once more brings forgotten -or unknown, treasures to the surface. I enjoyed the ride.

Best songs: “Inside Life’s Wire”, “This Hour’s Mine”, “Dirty Harry”, “Manson”, “Got You”.

Rate: 7½.

Artist: http://webeecho.com / www.facebook.com/webeecho

Label: www.coldspring.co.uk / www.facebook.com/coldspringhq

About We Be Echo

We Be Echo is the project of English musician Kevin Thorne. The debut album “Ceza Evi” appeared in 1983 on Cause For Concern. Thorne followed it with the cassette album “Pressure Point” in 1985 and “Nothing Left” in 1986, both on Mystery Hearsay.

After a long break the name returned with “Beat Of The Drum” on Sleepers Records and “Darkness Is Home” on SoundOv, both in 2020. Archive sets followed with “1980-1986” on Contact Minimal Records in 2022 and the three-CD “Facets (Recordings 1981 – 1989 & 2020 – 2023)” on Ultra-Mail Prod. in 2023.

The “Ceza Evi / Compleat Edition” double CD reviewed here was issued by Cold Spring. A We Be Echo track was later included on the label compilation “Arise – A Cold Spring Sampler”, released on 8 September 2023.

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

KlangGalerie, the label from Vienna run by Walter Robotka, will release a new CD by the German industrial act Non Toxique Lost, named “VLUS” in August 2022. The 11-track album is right now available as a digital download pre-order on Bandcamp with a CD version also to be released via KlangGalerie later this year.

The band was featured on our most recent “Face The Beat: Session 7” with the track “Aschekreuz” taken from this brand new album.

Below are already a few tracks already to check out on Bandcamp.

About Non Toxique Lost

Non Toxique Lost was founded in the beginning of the 80s in Mainz, Germany. Although the band has often been labelled as part of the Neue deutsche Welle the band itself considers it part of the industrial movement significantly inspired by industrial pioneers like Throbbing Gristle, SPK and Whitehouse. Similarities could also be drawn with bands like Pacific 231 (from France) or Esplendor Geometrico (from Spain).

In 1982, the first recordings were published on the DIY cassettes only label CAN CAN followed by circa 30 further releases. The first vinyl release “Wanton”, a strictly limited edition, was released in 1986 and held a selection of material, which had been published earlier on compact-cassettes.

It was the beginning of a long list of releases on various labels.

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: Experimental, Cinematic.

Format: Digital, CD, Vinyl.

Background/info: “Imagining October” was originally written in 1984 but never released. Genesis P-Orridge (Throbbing Gristle, Psychic TV) and Dave Ball (Soft Cell, The Grid) released this work as a Soundtrack for the Derek Jarman film “Imagining October”.

Content: You immediately recognize the Soundtrack approach of the production, but still an explicit Experimental approach characterizing the sound of both protagonists. The tracks are diversified, featuring classically trained male vocals next to choir chants. The tracks are recovered by dark strings.

+ + + : This work was composed by 2 legendary artists from the UK underground scene. I like the album’s diversity, but especially the more accessible second- and third cuts. The work has a strong visual appeal mainly emerging at both cuts.

– – – : This album remains pretty abstract and without the movie you probably miss an important part of the global production.

Conclusion: This previously unreleased work clearly is a sensational collaboration between two legendary artists.

Best songs: “Imagining October II”, “Imagining October III”.

Rate: 6½.

Artist: www.facebook.com/electricboydb

Label: www.coldspring.co.uk / www.facebook.com/coldspringhq Read the news on ‘Imagining October’.

Cold Spring issued “Imagining October” digitally on 4 February 2022 and followed it with a single-sided, etched vinyl LP on 14 October 2022. The four tracks are “Imagining October I”, “Imagining October II”, “Imagining October III” and “Imagining October IV”. The music was recorded in 1984 at DJM Recording Studios in London, with liner notes by James Mackay, graphic design by Abby Helasdottir and mastering by Martin Bowes.

Listen to “Imagining October”:

About Genesis P-Orridge and Dave Ball

Genesis P-Orridge was an English musician and artist who co-founded Throbbing Gristle in 1975 and Psychic TV in 1981, and who died in March 2020. Dave Ball was an English musician who formed Soft Cell with Marc Almond in 1978 and The Grid with Richard Norris in 1988. Ball died in October 2025 at the age of 66.

The pair recorded the music for Derek Jarman’s 1984 short film “Imagining October” at DJM Recording Studios in London that same year. The recording stayed unreleased for close to four decades until Cold Spring issued it in 2022, remastered by Martin Bowes.

Cold Spring has continued to work with both catalogues. In December 2022 the label announced a re-release of the 1983 Psychic TV live recording “Those Who Do Not”, and Ball appeared again on its 2023 label sampler “Arise”.

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 later this year via Cold Spring is the vinyl release of the official soundtrack to Derek Jarman’s 1984 short film “Imagining October”, with music recorded by Derek’s friend and collaborator Genesis P-Orridge (Psychic TV, Throbbing Gristle) and Dave Ball (Soft Cell, The Grid).

The limited edition 12″ vinyl features an etched B-Side, plus liner notes by James Mackay (Jarman’s producer, collaborator and archivist).

Derek Jarman put together a program of films for the London Film Festival, reflecting the cutting edge of the London avant-garde of the time. Recorded at the same time as “The Angelic Conversation”, “Imagining October” was filmed in the Eisenstein Museum in Moscow, Vladimir Mayakovsky’s grave at Novodevichy Cemetery, the GUM department store facing red square, and the fire temples of Baku in Azerbaijan. The painting sequences with a group of soldiers (Angus Cook, Stephen Thrower, Peter Doig and Keir Wahid) was filmed in London.

Jarman considered it one of the best, if not the best, of his shorter works. It was intended as an agit-prop work and the combination of music and imagery remains powerful to this day.

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

Out on May 6th via Cold Spring is the Genesis P-Orridge & Dave Ball OST release “Imagining October”.

The official soundtrack to Derek Jarman’s 1984 short film “Imagining October”, with music recorded by Derek’s friend and collaborator Genesis P-Orridge (Psychic TV, Throbbing Gristle), and Dave Ball (Soft Cell, The Grid) will be released on limited edition 12″ vinyl. The material was recorded at the DJM recording studios in Theobalds Road, London.

The vinyl features an etched B-side and includes liner notes by James Mackay (Jarman’s producer, collaborator and archivist).

The track-listing is as follows:

1. Imagining October I
2. Imagining October II
3. Imagining October III
4. Imagining October IV

Derek Jarman put together a program of films for the London Film Festival, reflecting the cutting edge of the London avant-garde of the time. Recorded at the same time as “The Angelic Conversation”, “Imagining October” was filmed in the Eisenstein Museum in Moscow, Vladimir Mayakovsky’s grave at Novodevichy Cemetery, the GUM department store facing red square, and the fire temples of Baku in Azerbaijan. The painting sequences with a group of soldiers (Angus Cook, Stephen Thrower, Peter Doig and Keir Wahid) was filmed in London. Jarman considered it one of the best, if not the best, of his shorter works. It was intended as an agit-prop work.

About Derek Jarman

Michael Derek Elworthy Jarman (31 January 1942 – 19 February 1994) was an English film director, stage designer, author and gay rights activist. He was outspoken about his personal struggle with AIDS. On 22 December 1986, Jarman was diagnosed as HIV positive and discussed his condition in public. His illness prompted him to move to Prospect Cottage, Dungeness in Kent, near the nuclear power station. In 1994, he died of an AIDS-related illness in London, aged just 52.

Although he made a long list of feature films and short films, you will know him best for the the following videos he also directed: Read the review of ‘Imagining October’.

• The Sex Pistols – “The Sex Pistols Number One” (1976)
• Throbbing Gristle – “TG Psychic Rally in Heaven” (1981)
• Marc Almond – “Tenderness Is a Weakness” (1984)
• Bryan Ferry – “Windswept” (1985)
• The Smiths – “The Queen Is Dead”, a short film incorporating the Smiths songs “The Queen Is Dead”, “Panic” and “There Is a Light That Never Goes Out” (1986). The “Panic” sequence from The Queen Is Dead was edited to form the video for that single (1986).
• The Smiths – “Ask” (1986)
• Pet Shop Boys – “It’s a Sin” (1987)
• Pet Shop Boys – “Rent” (1987)
• Pet Shop Boys – several concert projections (released as “Projections” in 1993)
• Pet Shop Boys – “Violence” (1995)
• Suede: “The Next Life” (1993)

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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

side-line.com

(Photo by Chris Carter) Out on 28 January 2022 via The Grey Area (Mute) is the reissue of the 1979 album “The Bridge” by Thomas Leer And Robert Rental. This new reissue will be available on limited edition white vinyl and CD, both featuring new sleevenotes.

The reissue of Leer and Rental’s sole collaboration will coincide with “From The Port To The Bridge”, an exhibition detailing the duo’s work and legacy, due to run at The Horse Hospital in London from 21 January through to 10 February 2022.

Discovered by Throbbing Gristle

Thomas Leer and Robert Rental, both from Port Glasgow in Scotland, were at the vanguard of a DIY electronic scene that went on to influence and inform the 80s synth-pop movement. After self-releasing two solo 7” singles, they came to the attention of Throbbing Gristle and signed to their label, Industrial Records. Their one and only collaboration, “The Bridge”, was originally released in 1979, the first non-TG / associated release for the label.

Recorded at Rental’s home over two intense weeks using equipment provided by Throbbing Gristle (with only rudimentary explanation of how to use it), their album was cited by a number of electronic musicians at the time, including John Foxx, Matt Johnson (The The) and ABC.

Listen to “Monochrome Days”.

The late Robert Rental retired from the music industry

Robert Rental (who sadly died in 2000), went on to collaborate with The Normal – Daniel Miller and Rental’s live album, “Live at West Runton Pavilion, 6-3-79”, was released in 1980 by Rough Trade. Rental also released a single on Mute, “Double Heart” / “On Location” in 1980 and produced music for the Comic Strip’s “A Fistful of Traveller’s Cheques”, before retiring from the industry.

Thomas Leer continued to release music

Thomas Leer went on to release albums on Cherry Red and Arista, formed Act with Claudia Brücken (formerly of Propaganda) in the late 80s who released on Trevor Horn’s ZTT label. After a hiatus, he re-emerged with a series of releases from 2001, and currently lives in Greenock.

About The Grey Area

The Grey Area was founded in 1990 to restore and reissue albums by important and influential artists, initiated by catalogue deals between Mute and Throbbing Gristle, Can and Cabaret Voltaire.

The label went on to be the home for the catalogues of DAF, Virgin Prunes, SPK, Swell Maps, Dome, The Radiophonic Workshop and The Hafler Trio as well as key early works by Wire, Buzzcocks and Einstürzende Neubauten.

Dormant for a few years during the 2000s, The Grey Area emerged again quietly in 2013 with the re-release of Cabaret Voltaire’s Virgin period work, Richard H. Kirk’s solo work, the Sandoz catalogue and a new agreement with Throbbing Gristle.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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

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Out now is the brand new Soft Cell single “Bruises On My Illusions” which also announces the band’s first album in over 20 years for the duo consisting of Marc Almond and Dave Ball. The new album, “Happiness Not Included”, will be released on February 25, 2022.

The single “Bruises On My Illusions” is available in digital format, plus the CD along with the 12 inch vinyl singles.

Marc Almond explains: “‘Bruises On My Illusions’ is a Soft Cell film noir about a character disillusioned with everything and who still has hope for a better future, despite poor forecasts. A darker version of ‘Bedsitter’. Dave’s challenging and incisive backing vocals inspired this song.”

Dave Ball adds: “It’s one of our darkest cinematic moments with classic Marc Almond lyrics.”

Bonus tracks in the physical format of the single will include remixes of “Bruises On My Illusions” by Dave Ball’s other project, The Grid, as well as by Manhattan Clique. You furthermore get a remix of “Nighthawks” courtesy of Throbbing Gristle legends Chris & Cosey and extended versions of the albumtracks “Happiness Not Included’ and “Heart Like Chernobyl” in addition to the bonus track “Vapourise”.

Here’s the 2-track single for you to check out.

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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Ahead of the release of “Electronic Ambient Remixes One and Three” – available for the first time on vinyl and streaming platforms and previously unavailable on CD for 15 years – Chris Carter today shares “Convicting People”. “Convicting People” is Carter’s unique take on “Convincing People” from Throbbing Gristle’s “20 Jazz Funk Greats” (1979).

As a founding member of Throbbing Gristle alongside Cosey Fanni Tutti, Peter “Sleazy” Christopherson and Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, Chris Carter has had a significant role in the development of electronic music – a journey which has continued through his releases as one half of Chris & Cosey and Carter Tutti and a third of Carter Tutti Void – as well as with his own solo and collaborative releases. Carter released “Chris Carter’s Chemistry Lessons Vol 1”, his first solo album in over 17 years, in 2018.

He is also credited with the invention and production of groundbreaking electronics – from the legendary Gristleizer self-built effects unit through to the Dirty Carter Experimental Sound Generating Instrument, the sold-out TG One Eurorack module (designed with Tiptop Audio) and the updated Future Sound Systems Gristleizer modules. Carter’s use of these modules can be heard during his recent series of live solo shows, including this Rough Trade event last year. Through these, Carter has created the means to make sounds as well as making the sounds themselves.

The Electronic Ambient Remixes releases are the continuation of a reissue campaign with Mute that started with his solo box set, “Miscellany” (2018).

Here’s Chris Carter with “Convicting People”, an excellent cut, which kinda sits between early Recoil and Brian Eno if you ask us.

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: EBM.

Format: Digital, Vinyl, Cassette.

Background/Info: Tomas Zackarias Westberg is a Swedish artist who has been involved with numerous projects. During the past few years he mainly focused on his EBM project Syntet, releasing multiple singles. “Hjärtats Slag” was released by the end of 2020 and is the project’s debut album featuring ten songs.

Content: While the front cover of the album looks clearly inspired by a Throbbing Gristle album, the sound is into pure EBM. Syntet deals with a somewhat minimal-like EBM sound, which reminds me of DAF. The songs have been sung in Swedish and are featuring some backing guest vocalists; Leif Viklund isn’t exactly a familiar name, but one of the songs is featuring J3 from à Grumh… (and that’s maybe not totally surprising as one of Westberg projects, Queer, was influenced by à Grumh…).

+ + + : Syntet took me by surprise. This project deals with pretty cool retro/minimal-driven EBM. There’s something to say about nearly every single song although I have a preference for “Ungdomens Hus” and “Som Du”. All songs excel in great minimalism, like reminding us that a good song doesn’t need to be complex. It’s just the power and efficiency of the sound treatments and structures.

– – – : The songs are pretty short and that’s a pity; before you really realize it the album is already coming to its end. 

Conclusion: If you like retro-EBM and you don’t know Syntet yet, just buy this work without hesitation!

Best songs: “Ungdomens Hus”, “Som Du”, “Brinner Ut”, “Lova Mig Allt Blir Bra”, “Genom Natt Och Dag”.

Rate: 8.

Artist & Label: www.facebook.com/syntetmusik

About Syntet

Syntet is the old-school EBM project of Swedish musician Tomas Zackarias Westberg, founded in 2018 and released through his own TZW Produktion. The 12″ EP “Kroppsförnimmelser” came out on 14 April 2018, followed by the digital singles “Brinner ut” (2018), “När jag mår som bäst” and “Som du” (2019) and “Genom natt och dag” (2020). Westberg also runs the electro-wave project Svaj., whose EP Rewind was reviewed on Side-Line in May 2022.

“Hjärtats Slag” was released by TZW Produktion on 1 December 2020 on LP and as a download; a limited, numbered CDr edition appeared through the German label Minimalkombinat the same year and a cassette edition followed in 2021. According to the Bandcamp notes the album holds remixed versions of the eight songs issued as singles between 2018 and 2020 plus two exclusives, “Ungdomens hus” and “Enkla begär (Estás desnudo)”, the latter with backing vocals by à;GRUMH… singer JΔ3. The ten tracks are “Genom natt och dag”, “Lova mig allt blir bra”, “Ungdomens hus”, “Brinner ut”, “Om jag kan”, “Som du”, “Dummare och dummare”, “Enkla begär (Estás desnudo)”, “När jag mår som bäst” and “Monotoni”. Westberg wrote and performed all songs, Leif Viklund sang backing vocals and Daniel Kaufeldt mastered the album for vinyl.

Syntet also appears on the download compilation 2011-2021 Swedish Electro Scene the compilation, covered on Side-Line in March 2021. “Hjärtats Slag” is the project’s debut album.

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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Out in a little more than a week is the collaborative project between Nordic electropop diva Karin Park (Årabrot) and legendary electronic pioneer Lustmord. “Alter” is the pair’s first collaborative work and holds nine tracks.

You can already check out a first track “Hiraeth” right below. And for those unaware who these two excellent artists are, below we added some extra info.

About Karin Park

Karin Park made her debut in 2003 with the single “Superworldunknown”. After the release of her second album “Change Your Mind” (2006), the music developed in a new, darker and more synth-based direction. The third album, “Ashes To Gold” (2009), was produced by Fredrik Saroea, frontman of the Norwegian band Datarock.

Following this record, Karin has continued to develop a more experimental, beat-oriented sound. Karin Park is also a well known producer, who has done remixes for other bands and co-produced the latest Årabrot record “Who do you love” with her husband Kjetil Nernes, frontman in Årabrot.

Together with her brother David Park, Portsmouth based producer Barry Barnet and the Swedish producer Christoffer Berg (known for his work with The Knife, Fever Ray, Massive Attack and Little Dragon’s Yukimi Nagano), she made her fourth album, “Highwire Poetry” (2012). In 2015, she released her fifth studio album “Apocalypse Pop”.

Her new band project Pandora Drive is London based and released their first EP “Albino Heart” in 2018.

Aside from her musical career, Karin Park occasionally works as a model and an actress. She starred in the Norwegian horror film Hidden (2009) and her song “Out of the Cage” was the theme track to the film.

About Lustmord

Brian Williams is a Welsh industrial musician, sound designer and film score composer. He is often credited for creating the dark ambient genre with albums recorded under the name Lustmord.

Williams was raised in rural Wales, before relocating to London in his late teens where he befriended Throbbing Gristle members Cosey Fanni Tutti and Chris Carter, who urged him to make his own music. He started recording as Lustmord in 1980 before joining SPK in 1982.

Some of Lustmord’s most notable collaborations include Robert Rich on “Stalker”, Jarboe, John Balance of Coil, Monte Cazazza, Clock DVA, Chris & Cosey, Paul Haslinger, and Melvins on “Pigs of the Roman Empire”.

In short, an electronic music pioneer.

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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Camecrude is a French solo-project set up in 2017 by Valentin Laborde. One of the main particularities of this project is the use of a hurdy-gurdy together with other instruments. The second album “Enclave II-II” was released by the end of 2020 as a double disc on Cioran Records. The work is inspired by ‘pessimist writers’ and reveals an extremely dark and tormented sound, mixing different genres like Ritual-, Trance- and Dark-Ambient music. I got in touch with Valentin Laborde to get more info about his sonic brainchild.

(Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)

Q: What can you tell us about the origin of Camecrude. How did the project saw the daylight? What kind of music did you’d in mind and what is the band name all about.

Valentin: This project is the fruit of restless nights of radical insomnia. I was crushed by a personal ordeal, a total collapse. And there was this strange moment, at the beginning of this very dark time in my life, when I felt like I was burning and spiraling at the same time. I took my hurdy gurdy, I turned up the volume on my amp, I got so close to it that it caused distortion, and I just started playing without even thinking. What I was playing didn’t matter, I was just trying to create the sound equivalent of a high-pressure hosing down. I needed to be punched through and through by the shape of the sound. I don’t know what happened, but for a while, I was numb.

But evil crept in, restless nights too, and much like a self-inflicted exorcism, I started composing music for Camecrude (‘raw leg’ in Occitan, it refers to a legendary creature from the Pyrenees, a leg with an eye that creeps through the night and that eats anybody that crosses its path; I thought it was a great image for what I was living). When that happened, there was no single musical influence, but little by little I borrowed from Rosa Crux, Artus, Throbbing Gristle.

Q: You’re a hurdy-gurdy player so how did you come to use this traditional instrument for this darker Ambient/Ritual/Noise composition and what’s the way of working?

Valentin: The instrument is a tool to make music. I’ve been playing the hurdy gurdy for 15 years, it’s my tool. It’s as simple as that. My Camecrude albums aren’t about the hurdy gurdy, about showing off the instrument or anything like that. It’s music made with the hurdy gurdy, but also the Lyra-8 (a Russian analog synth that creates an infinity of noises and buzzing). It usually starts with improvisation on the lyra or the hurdy gurdy that I record. Then, I listen to it and it gives me ideas to add. It never really sounds like what I had in mind but each surge creates another surge, and I can’t really control it. It’s hard for me to explain my craft. It’s not a discipline, I don’t comply with musical theories, it’s only about the surge, about uncertainty as a necessity, to escape my mental labyrinth.

Q: Camecrude is much more than just music. It all looks like there’s a real concept behind featuring elements of philosophy, rites & symbols, cultural aspects… Can you give us more details about it?

Valentin: Rites and symbols that surround me create a framed space for me to evolve in. But that’s a vast subject, we all have our own rites, we all live surrounded by symbols, whether we are aware of it or not. I like to play with elders because they create a strong and thick atmosphere in which I feel like I’m possessed by them. When I’m playing I try to invoke a particular atmosphere, I use dangerous spells and in the end, my creation controls me like a puppet.

The cultural side of my work is also used as a material. I don’t need to use hobbits, Vikings, etc. I already have everything here, we all do. I feel connected to this environment, I don’t see a point in talking about the desert if I don’t know what it’s like to cross the desert for years. There are too many bands like Wardruna that create Disney-like music, smooth and clean, about a dream culture, it’s spiritual tourism. So the question of the cultural part of Camecrude is not really realistic, there isn’t any faithful representation or a twisted transformation of a culture, it’s simply a material, not a goal. For instance, using intonation with incantations, with repeated spells, are things that I like. Pronounced repetition create frenzy. We aren’t machines, thus every sentence that I repeat contains micro variations that are always different and create a strange feeling. I like that.

Q: Your work is inspired by so-called ‘pessimist literature’, which I think is reflected through the sound color of your music. How do you transpose these ideas and especially literature into sounds, songs and albums?

Valentin: I am not a philosopher and I’d rather not try to explain the world, our living conditions, life, etc. Camecrude isn’t preaching anything, but inevitably I’m hit by Émil Cioran’s, Albert Caraco’s or Ladislav Klima’s lucidity. That speak to me, I use them. In fact, it’s the other way around.

I don’t translate philosophy into sound. Sound is detached from words, it is linked to internal life. I don’t transpose anything there. I use what makes me, and that’s the result. And it leads to an obvious correlation with these literatures. On the first “Enclave”, I used words by Émil Cioran because he knew how to say things that resonated with me far better than I could.

Q: Tell us a bit more about the writing of your newest album “Enclave II-II”? How did the writing and recording process happened and what did you try to express and achieve?

Valentin: “Enclave I” is linked to the notion of collapse. The collapse of a before and the despair of a painful now that must be exorcised. “Enclave II-II” is as if after having collapsed there, we start getting comfortable and rearranging our environment. It’s not about exorcism anymore, but it’s a pact. It’s also a confession of a failure, the use of duplicity through witchcraft. Witchcraft as it is seen and practiced is a sort of differed suicide: using it is cheating, but also a self-sacrifice. And at that moment, I was there, so I went to talk to old healers nearby that work their craft the way their grandmothers taught them, from generation to generation. It’s about caring, knowing plants, constraining rituals, magnetism, etc. I went to see them, they gave me spells, they taught me things. I used these meetings.

For “Enclave II” I used three photographs. One of them (the evil) was a Russian photograph of a cannibalistic family going through starvation. The other picture (the spells) depicts an old woman on roller skates wearing ghosts’ veils. The last picture (death) is a photograph of a decaying corpse. I played my music staring at these pictures.

I recorded “Enclave III” before, but once finished, I hated it. I hadn’t gone through the right process, it wasn’t improvised as much, too disciplined. But afterwards, thanks to Cioran Records, we decided it could be added to II to make it a double album.

Q: The festival “L’Homme Sauvage” has been very important to you, right? It looks like live performances are an essential aspect of Camecrude. What is the live thing all about and what do you expect/plan once live concerts will be possible again?

Valentin: Yes, “L’Homme Sauvage“ was important to me. It’s exactly what I’m fighting for as an artist. Yan Arexis, Patrick Lafforgue from La Breiche, Stille Volk, etc. invited me for the first edition. At that time, Camecrude wasn’t really a thing. I improvised on the hurdy gurdy and with my voice on a popular gascon song I had modified and put together a few days before. It is at this occasion that I met Viqtor Turnngaq from Cioran Records and that night, Camecrude came to be.

On the third edition of the festival, we came back with a real performance. The two presences “the cursed anemia” we had tried on the Dark Ritual Nights performed their rites while I was playing, together with Lauren and Clément from Ginkgotuk, two drummers that play with me during concerts and on my last album. We get each other, what we create is strong and instinctive. Also, there was the National Orchestra of the Pays du Mat (a wizard state) that performed with us (drums and chaotic screams among the audience.

It’s hard for me to predict what is going to happen, I like the fact that each concert is unique. Things happen a few days before the event, depending on who’s available, what I want to do… We set everything up with Cioran Records so that something happens visually in addition to the simple concert.

There have been guests, like the great Berzerk from Sektarism Aux Feux De Bel. We exchanged ideas, told each other where we wanted to finish, he was free to do what he wanted, and we all adapted to what was going on in the moment. So it’s always done a few days in advance so that we don’t lose in spontaneity. Camecrude is my refuge where I can give up on interpretation and recitation, and I can be spontaneous. That’s what matters. Each time I must play as if it was something new that will never happen again. That’s what makes it more intense.

Our last gig was done on streamlive and is available here:

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

In 1982 the UK electronic outfit Attrition released “This Death House”, a dark ambient soundtrack, spread over two long tracks: “Crawling” (23:22) and “Dead Of Night” (22:49). This iconic album now gets a re-release on vinyl and download to celebrate it’s 40th anniversary year. Included with the vinyl is a free poster.

Released on the Russian label Other Voices “This Death House” will also be available on all streaming services from April 30th on.

The line-up for this released consisted of Martin Bowes (Electronic drums/Synthesizer & production), Ashley Niblock (Synthesizer and Keyboards) and Richard Woodfield (Synthesizers). The whole was remastered by Martin Bowes at the Cage, Coventry, England last year. The artwork for this re-issue was executed by Oleg Galay.

You can check out the album below.

Also out soon in May is a new single and video, “The Alibi” taken from the all new album for this year, “The Black Maria”. More on that when it happens.

About Attrition

In 1979, Martin Bowes started a xeroxed fanzine called Alternative Sounds to document the Coventry music scene (including such notables as The Specials and Furious Apples). The fanzine ran for 18 issues until 1981, and culminated in a vinyl compilation, “Sent from Coventry” (on Cherry Red) and a brief appearance on the BBC’s Something Else programme. During this time, Martin met Julia at a local gig and, with the addition of Martin’s brother Chris on guitar, Attrition was formed. In 1980 Chris was replaced by Julia’s brother Ashley Niblock on synthesizer, and a short time later they replaced their live drummer with a drum machine

Musically the band emerged from the experimental post-punk scene of the early 1980s and, along with other groups such as Throbbing Gristle, Coil, Einstürzende Neubauten, and In the Nursery, greatly contributed to the development of industrial music in the UK.

Drones and tape manipulations released under the title “Death House” prefigured dark ambient by almost 10 years, while the group’s first two proper albums, “The Attrition of Reason” and “Smiling at the Hypogonder Club” set the tone for the style now known as darkwave.

A band which has never ceased to produce new material and as such one of the few still active today along The Cure and related bands who all coloured the early days of the post-punk movement pitch black.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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

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(By our Norwegian correspondent Jan Ronald Stange) The crowd funding project ‘Norske albumklassikere på CD’ (‘Norwegian Album Classics on CD’) is a series of CDs whose purpose is reissuing music that either never has been released on CD or is hardly available on CD anymore. The project is enjoying a success beyond all expectations these days. The concept is this: always having 20 albums in the crowd funding pool, and when an album goal is reached it can be purchased at the main website norskealbumklassikere.no. The public Facebook group for the project, which recently passed 11.000 members, have a constant flow of suggestions and discussions among the members.

There’s also a similar project for LPs in the works, and 20 albums are at the present being decided and published daily until the launch May 9^th.

We got more background info from one of the main two founders, Christer Falck, who early on in last year’s mid-March corona lock-down quickly became restless and started the concert streams series ‘Koronerulling‘ the very next week. 83 artists/bands was able to stream their concerts the following year, ended up getting 4.5 mill NOK in well-deserved and much needed donations.

Side-Line: How and when did the idea for ‘Norwegian Album Classics’ surface?

Christer Falck: I was doing some promotional phone calls to the local press when I was releasing the 20 CD-box set by Jahn Teigen, and one of the most enthusiastic journalists in Norway, Erik Munsterhjelm at Tønsberg Blad, asked me if I could release a box set by one of his childhood heroes, The Kids, as well. Since they had only released two albums, I thought the idea of a box set was a bit too ambitious, but then the idea came to me. Releasing all the good records that had only been available on LP and MC – on CD. Not just one record, but a lot of them. I called my 5-6 most nerdy friends, and asked them to make a list of the 50 albums they miss in their CD-collections. My partner John Richard loved the idea, and the funny thing is that the lists that I received were almost identical. I thought “when 6 people, so different from each other manages to make almost equal lists, it has to be a market out there”.
This, combined with my fetish for crowdfunding, made me do a website with my crowdfunding-partners bidra.no, where 20 records should be on display. Each record should get 30 days to be financed, if 150 people pre-order it, I will produce the record. If we don’t reach goal, they will all get their money back.

One month after the idea came, we started. Now we have made 90 albums in 100 days.

S-L: How successful do you consider this to have been so far?

CF: It depends how you measure success. As a cultural experiment, I’d say it’s a huge success. A lot of records that aren’t available on streaming services are now available, remastered and with much better sound quality than ever. A lot of CD-enthusiasts can join our little group on Facebook and suggest their favourite records, and I think we have managed to create a cool platform, where everyone respects each other’s musical taste. If they don’t, we throw them out, so they don’t have a choice ?
Financially, I think I could have found a lot of different jobs that would pay much better off, but at least I have something to do, these Covid-19-times. The alternative was to not arrange festivals, that’s my real job.

S-L: What has surprised you the most so far? Any weird album suggestions, the involvement of members, the process itself, other things?

CF: I know some much more about Norwegian music now than three months ago. I have a short list with 1700 titles on Norwegian albums. From easy listening to hardcore and punk records I’d never heard of before. And everything in the middle. But what I like with the concept, is that since we just need to find 150 buyers, nothing is too weird and strange. A Christian choir-album from the South of Norway or a heavy metal album from Finnmark – 150 people will probably find their way. The job is to expand the target group, so that the next album in the same will have the same opportunity to be financed. And the good part with our group, some of the members are doing the job for us. Sometimes I wake up in the morning and I’ve had a lot questions in our forum, and then some of the members have explained and solved all the problems for us. It would be impossible to do all the things that we do now AND do a great customers service too. So far we haven’t got any too weird suggestions, but a guy started a homophobic thread where he “Loved our series, but hated the “pride”-logo on our CD’s”. This was the most read and commented post so far, and 100% of our members made this person probably never post something like that again. I love the self-justice that the group is creating. Usually, when 11-12.000 people are gathered together, at least 1-2 % is fucking up for many of the others. But here, fucking up is very uncool. That’s probably what I’m most happy with.

S-L: As I write this there’s just weeks or days until the 100^th album is financed. How do you see the future of this project – is there an end, or does it have the potential to continue indefinitely?

CF: Well, I have 1700 records on my list. And there are still a lot of records being added every day. I’m not going to stop, but this concept will die by itself. It’s impossible to keep up the speed that we’ve have had so far. Both for us, but also for the buyers. Just too expensive. So hopefully, we will end up producing 2.3 records a week. Then my wife and kids will be happy too, ‘cause this takes all of my time. But it’s all a huge labour of love, so I hope it will last many more months.

SL: How is the interest outside of Norway for this project – are there many foreigners among the customers?

CF: We see that some of the genres are more popular outside Norway than others. Jazz, prog and Norwegian west coast music, has a huge standing abroad. One of the most selling records so far is Moose Loose – a jazz/fusion/prog band who hardly sold records at their peak. My goal is to sell more of their records in 2021 than they did in the 70’s.

Another major contributor on this project is Arvid Skancke-Knutsen; music journalist, author, musician and quiz master, who have contributed with lot’s of input and suggestions, but also liner notes on the CD releases. I thought it would be interesting to get an historical view on projects like these, and who better than to get from than a Historical Consultant at Rockheim, Norway’s National Museum of Popular Music?

S-L: In all your years in the music industry and press, have you ever seen a project accomplishing so much in such a short time?

Arvid Skancke-Knutsen: No, this is pretty amazing, and I am very proud to be a part of it. We have now realized 90 albums in just 100 days – with very few signs of the project slowing down. What we have achieved is certainly a Norwegian and Scandinavian record. There might have been other projects similar to this, somewhere in the world, but I cannot think of any offhand. A commercial music series like Absolute Music ended up with a total of 64 record releases, but that took them 23 years. We have done this in mere three months – at a point in history where CD sales are plummeting. 

The success of our series is basically down to just a few factors, I think. Firstly, the genuine enthusiasm of Christer Falck and John Richard Stenberg, the two founders of the project. Their enthusiasm spilled over to Norwegian record companies and artists. And especially to our 11, 000 members on Facebook, who have been very supportive all the way. The rest is about hard work, and making sure that the quality is as good as it gets.

S-L: How will this and similar projects “born” in the year(s) of corona influence music industry in the future?

ASK: Good question! I think that online concerts might have a future, even beyond the pandemic. It’s all about good logistics and excellent production values. If those elements are present, fans of bands and music genres will be willing to pay for it.

The corona situation has been a terrible worldwide event, but we still might be able to take away some creative solutions from it. I wrote a book, dealing with the pandemic in Norway, and its impact on the Norwegian music scene. And what struck me more than anything else was the amount of creativity going on.

S-L: What your best moments/highlight of this project?

ASK: The sheer amount of records that we have brought into existence in a very short time, while maintaining high production values. And the fact that the series is not just limited to one musical style, or merely the most popular artists. It’s really a history ride through Norwegian music, covering all sort of styles, fashions and creativity over a span of sixty years. Another personal highlight is the fact that I pick a cult classic every month or so, showcasing some of the strangest music ever recorded in Scandinavia.

Check out Arvid’s book ‘Da musikken stilnet’ – loads of pictures from corona restricted concerts (by Per Ole Hagen), and essays from musicians and others in the music business influenced by the lock-downs.

We also reached out to one of the projects most eager members and an oracle of Norwegian synth/electronic music/post punk ++: Per Aksel Lundgreen (Apoptygma Berzerk, Cronos Titan, Angst Pop, Chinese Detectives, Technomancer, Rossetti’s Compass and Shatoo) for tips about what foreigners should look for in this crowd funding project.

S-L: As one of the most active members of the Facebook group for this project, you have both suggested a lot of candidates for the crowd funding, and also shared and posted about your favorites in various groups all over. Which albums do you think Side-Line readers should consider getting their hands on?

Per Aksel Lundgreen: Yes, I’m a CD-man myself, having collected CD’s since I got my first CD-player from my aunt at my birthday in 1986, so when Christer Falck mentioned starting this project, I immediately contacted him and said that I would do my best to help out with promotion and pushing this project. Since this project also was started in the middle of the corona pandemic, it meant that I, and everybody else, had a lot of extra time on their hands, and so the ‘Norske Albumklassikere På CD’ has become a very welcome “distraction” and something that’s brought a lot of joy in a time that has been difficult for a lot of people, especially in the music business.

Anyhow, here’s some suggestions from my side, all depending on what your musical preferences are, but there’s some really great post-punk/new-wave/experimental/electronic/alternative stuff that has made it through here and that is already financed. (links in the titles)

Munch – ‘Excessive Mobility’: An amazing Norwegian classic that really deserved a CD release. They’re kinda the “Norwegian Einstürzende Neubauten” if you will, and if you like stuff like Shock Therapy, Polyphonic Size and Ledernacken, this album is definitively something for you. Most albums in this series are printed in 500 copies, but Munch insisted on only doing 300 copies, so this will be a collectors item very quickly too! 🙂

Garden Of Delight – ‘Big Wheels In Emotion’: Norway’s first real goth album, self-released in 1987 on vinyl only. They also did two great 7″ singles back in 1984 that never made it to the album, but the album itself is well worth checking out. Goth with female vocals and a touch of tuba, you’ve never heard that before, but you’ll love it!

Babij Jar – ‘Stalingrad’ and ‘The Night Before’: Two of Norway’s best hidden gems in the new-wave/post-punk genre. Went completely under the radar for people outside Norway, but had they had decent promotion and distribution back then, they could’ve made it really big.

Helge Gaarder – ‘Eine Keine Angst Musik’: Something as rare as a Norwegian art-rock/experimental/electronic album. Impossible to describe, must be experienced. The original LP will set you back at least EUR 120 and you find none of the music on YouTube or digital distribution. Very happy that this finally gets a CD release and the credit it deserves. Too bad Helge Gaarder died 17 years ago, so he never got to see this album being included in this classics series. 

Plann – ‘Elektra Elektra’: One of very few minimal-wave albums from Norway, and a great one too! Quirky songs, haunting vocals, amazing synth sounds. Several songs can be found on YouTube if you want to check it out. Listen to “Cadillac”, “Sug”, “Ato Signal” and “Cherokee” which also was the single from the album. The original LP will set you back some EUR 140, so unless you’re a rich vinyl freak, I suggest you get the CD to enjoy this rarity.

Boastein – ‘Urgata Hurgata’: A Norwegian new-wave/kraut-rock inspired album, with repetitive drumming, charming synth sounds and a very nice all over feel to it. Check out the songs “Helium”, “Seismisk Kollaps”, and “Khomeini’s Visjon” on YouTube. 

Ole I’Dole – ‘Blond Og Billig’: This album has become kind of an underground hit outside of Norway in the minimal-wave community because of the track “Space, Action, Sex & Blod”, which is pure synth heaven. The rest of the album is a bit more pop oriented, but the tracks “Framtidsskrekk” and “S.O.S.” are also really great tracks. Recommended listening indeed! 

Creation – ‘The Real Thing’: two of the guys from Drama, making very soft synthpop in the style of Shatoo and a-ha, but with a couple of really nice tracks on there, and especially the track “Don’t Do It”. If you’re into Norwegian/Scandinavian (synth)pop this will hit home with you for sure. 

Blind Date – ‘Don’t Talk’: Probably the closest you get to a Norwegian version of Psychedelic Furs, and this is a beautiful new-wave album with some really strong material on it! Check out the title track, “Don’t Talk” on YouTube, and if that is to your taste, then don’t hesitate to invest in this album!

There’s more goodies here of course, but the 10 albums above are my priority suggestions right now.
Also, currently there’s some other really great stuff still being crowdfunded:

Famlende Forsøk – ‘En Overraskende Måte Hvorpå Man Kan Kaste En Person Over Ende’: Norway’s equivalent to Throbbing Gristle, and their quirky synths, great programming and musical skills, mixed with dada elements and dadaistic lyrics/vocals, makes this super interesting. The full album can be enjoyed on streaming services, but really deserves a CD release. One of Norways most original and groundbreaking bands through all times!

PVC – ‘Emile Berliner’: A superb post-punk band that released two albums in the early 80’s. Bitten Forsudd later went on to join/fund Garden Of Delight mentioned above, and Eivind Rølles went on to form one of Norways most known pop duos, The Monroes. If you’re into Joy Division and The Residents, then this is music for you! 

Chrissy – ‘Chrissy’: Her single “Mark My Words” sold over 500.000 copies in Scandinavia and Germany combined, and is one of the best selling singles in Norway in all times, way up there with a-ha and Röyksopp. The music is a fantastic new-wave/power-pop combo with snappy synth lines on there too! Find the track ‘Mark My Words’ on YouTube to get an idea. This is the album that I’m currently most excited about getting fully funded! 

S-L:  I guess you have a long wish list of albums not yet funded or suggested – wanna share? 😉

PAL: Yes, absolutely, and one of the first posts I made in the Facebook group, was an invitation to have everybody post their Top 5 Want List of albums they wanted on CD, and so far, I’ve gotten one of these 5 realized, and that was Munch – “Excessive Mobility”.

The rest of my Top 5 looks like this:
– Holy Toy – ‘Pakt Of Fact’ (Their best album in my opinion!)
– E-Man – ‘E-Man’ (Pre-Biosphere project from Geir Jenssen – great minimal-wave)
– Susanne Sundfør – ‘A Night At Salle Pleyel’ (Beautiful electronica!)
– Ultra Sheriff – ‘Galactic Frame’ (Norway’s first ever synthwave album, only released digitally!)

Other Norwegian albums that I feel definitively belong in this series and that I know is on the list is:
– Thorbjørn Grønning – ‘Galskapens Teater’ (Amazing minimal-wave self-released album)
– Göbbels A-Go-Go – ‘Våre Problemer Er Rent Musikalske’ (Superb electronic/new-wave)
– Ultra Sheriff – ‘Deception, Oil And Laser Beams’ (Another amazing synthwave album from them!)
– Det Elektriske Kjøkken – ‘Elefantene Er Kommet’ (Superb electronic/new-wave album)
– Bearburger – ‘The Bearburger’ (Great electronic/experimental album!)
– A Place To Pray – ‘Disciplina Arcana’ (Amazing goth/electronic album!)
– PLX 15 – ‘Kort Prosess’ and ‘PLX 15’ (Two great experimental electronic albums!)
– Axis – ‘Axis’ (Superb Norwegian new-wave mini album!)

… and finally, maybe one of the most important ones, because of the extremely high quality of the album, and this should absolutely be more known outside of Norway:
– Lily & The Gigolos – ‘Secrets’: An album that sounds like a Norwegian Siouxsie & The Banshees, with super strong song material, great production and great artwork. Check out the track “Listen To The Radio”, “Russia” or “I’m Just A Child” on YouTube, and you’ll know what I mean.

The project in itself has now released 88 albums in 99 days through crowdfunding, and is the most successful and longest spanning series in Norwegian record industry history, which in itself is a great feat! ALL countries should have a project like this! Just think about Sweden, a country which haven’t even released the albums like NASA – ‘Power Of The Century’, or most albums by Secret Service and Freestyle on CD at all! I really hope that this Norwegian project will inspire others to do the same in their countries, because there’s so much music history out there, and if we want to keep it for later generations, it has to be done NOW, or it will never be done. The younger generation consumes music digitally, so it is up to us to get these master tapes digitized and onto a physical medium like a CD, so that they also can be used as masters for digital distribution later on. That’s not the first priority, but what label wouldn’t jump at the chance of getting paid for a physical license and also get a remaster they can use for digital distribution/streaming? This also means that a lot of these artists WON’T be forgotten, and that their music will live on to be discovered by others.

Also, a lot of people in the Facebook group for ‘Norske Albumklassikere På CD’ constantly discover new “old” acts/releases, and this is half the fun of being part of this. I mean, I started working in a record shop in the summer of 1985, and I’ve worked in the music business in one way or the other since then, as a DJ, on radio stations, playing in bands, fixing record fairs, selling stuff via mail-order, working at record companies, writing for music magazines etc etc. so I try to contribute the best I can, but even I discover new and exciting things through this project.

Nobody knows everything, and that’s one of the great charms of music, that you can discover a band from the 80’s you’ve never heard of that you totally love!

Search and order already financed albums here: https://norskealbumklassikere.no/
See and order albums being crowfunded now: https://www.bidra.no/norskealbumklassikere

Join the Facebook group for CDs: https://www.facebook.com/groups/norskealbumklassikere and/or LPs: https://www.facebook.com/groups/norskealbumklassikerelp

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

(Photo by Paul Heartfield) Chris Carter has shared a new track from his forthcoming reissues of “Electronic Ambient Remixes One” and “Three”, due for release on vinyl and on streaming platforms for the first time, and on CD (previously unavailable for 15 years) on 30 July 2021. Included are radical ambient reworkings of Throbbing Gristle and Carter’s early solo work.

“Electronic Ambient Remixes One” was the first in a series of four Electronic Ambient Remix solo albums by Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti. Originally released in 2000 (CTI), the starting point for the tracks was Chris Carter’s “The Space Between” (1980, Industrial), an album collating Carter’s analogue sound experiments recorded in the 1970s and 1980s at Throbbing Gristle & Industrial Records’ London studio. “Electronic Ambient Remixes One” is a reworking of those early recordings and features heavily manipulated and transmogrified drifting ambient textures, whilst still retaining the core essence of the original tracks.

“Electronic Ambient Remixes Three” was Chris Carter’s second Electronic Ambient Remix solo album, originally released in 2002 (CTI), and at its nucleus are a dozen of his original Throbbing Gristle rhythms. These rhythms have been transmuted into three dimensional polyrhythmic loops, weird gothic textures and spooky ethereal ambiences.

The releases are the continuation of a reissue campaign with Mute that started with his solo box set, Miscellany (2018).

You can already check “Heathen Mirth”, his minimalist take on Throbbing Gristle’s “Heathen Earth” right below.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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

side-line.com

(Photo by Paul Heartfield) Chris Carter has announced the latest in a series of reissues on Mute. “Electronic Ambient Remixes One” and “Electronic Ambient Remixes Three” will be released July 30 on colored double vinyl, CD and digital platforms. Both albums will be available on vinyl for the first time while the CD editions have been out of print for over 15 years.

“Electronic Ambient Remixes One” was the first in a series of four ‘Electronic Ambient Remix’ solo albums by Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti. Originally released in 2000, the starting point for the tracks was Chris Carter’s “The Space Between” (1980, Industrial), an album collating Carter’s analog sound experiments recorded in the 1970s and 1980s at Throbbing Gristle & Industrial Records’ London studio. “Electronic Ambient Remixes One” is a radical ambient reworking of those early recordings and features heavily manipulated and transmogrified drifting ambient textures whilst still retaining the core essence of the original tracks.

“Electronic Ambient Remixes Three” was Chris Carter’s second ‘Electronic Ambient Remix’ solo album, originally released in 2002. At its nucleus are a dozen of his original Throbbing Gristle rhythms. These rhythms have been transmuted into three dimensional polyrhythmic loops, weird gothic textures and spooky ethereal ambiences.

The Electronic Ambient Remixes releases are the continuation of a reissue campaign with Mute that started with his solo box set, “Miscellany” (2018).

Listen to “Solidit,” taken from “Electronic Ambient Remixes One”.

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

Coitus Interruptus Productions and Crunch Pod are to release “Channeling The Solar Lodge”, a free Coil tribute compilation next month. The tribute will offer 20 different electronic and experimental projects covering their favourite Coil track.

Bands featured on this compilation will be the following ones (next to their names you’ll find teh respective tracks they will cover):

• AkA – Artillery Night Space
• Brien Hindman – Boken Fabiola
• Dead Receptors – Defrag
• Dreamscape Invocation – Empusae
• Fetal Distress – Flint Glass
• Fluxion A/D – God Module
• Grave of the Opal Golem
• Law-Rah Collective – Manufactura
• Morlox – Michael Idehall – NDSTRY
• The Present Moment – Pyroclastic
• Snowbeasts – Sylvgheist Maëlström
• Talvekoidik – Theodor Bastard – XISIX

About Coil

Coil were an experimental music group, founded in 1982 in London, England and concluded in 2005. Initially envisioned as a solo project by musician John Balance (of the band Psychic TV), Coil evolved into a full-time project with the addition of his partner Peter Christopherson (formerly of pioneering industrial music group Throbbing Gristle).

Balance and Christopherson were the only constant members; other contributors throughout the band’s career included Stephen Thrower, Danny Hyde, Drew McDowall, William Breeze, Thighpaulsandra, and Ossian Brown.

After the release of their 1984 debut EP “How to Destroy Angels”, Coil joined Some Bizzare Records, through which they released two full-length albums, “Scatology” (1984) and “Horse Rotorvator” (1986). After departing from Some Bizzare, Coil established their own record label, Threshold House, through which they produced and released “Love’s Secret Domain” (1991).

In 1985, the group began working on a series of soundtracks, among them the rejected score for the first “Hellraiser”.

Financial difficulties slowed the group’s work in the early 1990s before they returned to the project on releases such as “Astral Disaster” (1999), and the “Musick to Play in the Dark” series composed of “Vol. 1” (1999) and “Vol. 2” (2000), as well as releasing several projects under aliases such as Black Light District, ELpH, and Time Machines.

The group started several smaller independent record labels, including Eskaton and Chalice. The group’s first live performance in 16 years occurred in 1999, and began a series of mini-tours that would last until 2004.

Following the accidental death of John Balance on 13 November 2004, Christopherson announced via that Coil as an entity had ceased to exist, ending the Coil discography with “The Ape of Naples” (2005).

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

Adel Souto is a Cuban born artist living in the USA. He has been involved with multiple artistic projects, music being just one of the list. His project 156 refers to the Crowley word-view, 156 being ‘the number of Babalon, the ‘fiery bitch goddess’, which rocket scientist Jack Parsons used to worship’. She represented a lot of what Adel likes in a female, and decided to make his musical vehicle feminine, in response to the many patriarchal aspects of the music scene. He last year released the album “An Accidental Exorcism” on No Part Of It, which is a poignant production mixing elements of Industrial-, Dark-Ambient and Experimental music. The work is meant as homage to minimalist horror movie soundtracks, but it also reveals an exciting retro-Industrial sound.

(Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)

Q: You’ve been involved with multiple artistic projects all over the years; music, photography, videos, writing… Tell us a bit more about this involvement and passion? What do you consider as you most accomplished works so far?

Adel: I don’t really want to use the old cliché about art and music speaking through someone, though it does seem fitting. Basically, like everyone else, my ego tends to transmit itself through my mouth, but other facets of my personality like to express themselves through music, art, and such. I have a passion to create, and what I do are the manifestations of that drive. I’m not even sure why, but I’m glad I follow those spirits, as I think it helps keep me sane.

Q: Over now to 156, which is presented as a ‘collective musical project’ and inspired by some Industrial pioneers. Can you give us more details about the concept and the other artists you’re working with? What makes this project different from your other musical projects?

Adel: My older musical projects were based in Punk and Hardcore music, and were collaborative efforts with other band members, so 156 is my own vehicle that reveals more of my musical tastes outside of those spheres. In all honesty, I use the term ‘collective’ only because it’s a revolving door of musicians (and non-musicians) that contribute.

Q: Among the Industrial pioneers, you’re referring to bands such as EINSTÜRZENDE NEUBAUTEN, TEST DEPARTMENT, Z’EV.. Those artists definitely belong to another time, where Industrial music was totally different than today. What does the ‘early’ Industrial years and artists mean to you and how do you transpose their impact in your own composition?

Adel: The reason those artists are my biggest influences are because of their use of standard, as well as untraditional, instruments, and their output –though listed under the banner of ‘Industrial’ -actually flows through several genres. From harsh Noise, to Ambient, even to traditional Ethnic music of differing countries, etc.

The same goes for 156. One track may have flutes and guitars, manipulated to an extent where they lose all sense of their expected sound, to another track where I use homemade instruments, made up of whatever components may be on hand. One release may have a quiet, Eastern feel of a Tibetan ritual, while another is an unrelenting assault of psychological terrorism.

Early pioneering acts like THROBBING GRISTLE, EINSTÜRZENDE NEUBAUTEN, Z’EV, and the like (who are themselves influenced by many Experimental artists of the 50s and 60s), challenged a lot of music lovers to re-imagine what music could be. 

Q: The album “An Accidental Exorcism” is an intriguing and somewhat ritual-like title for a work where you got driven by your ‘love of minimalist horror movie soundtracks’. What is this minimalism all about and how did you try to transpose this ‘love’, but also the atmosphere into music?

Adel: There are a lot of newer horror films, such as “The VVitch”, “The Lighthouse”, or “Silent Hill”, who have stepped away from large orchestrations in their use of Soundtracks, and I wanted to tap into that. Much of what’s on “An Accidental Exorcism” used no more than four tracks per title. A number of times, I found I could get a desperately haunting feel using less sounds. I didn’t want it to be too busy, and thought to try to get what I wanted using less of what many feel might be needed.

Q: Can you tell us how the writing and recording of the album happened? What have been the different stages you’d to go through to achieve this work?

Adel: Much of 156 is actually improvised, at least when it comes to the percussive tracks. I get friends together, and ask them to beat on metal, concrete or glass, following my lead. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it falls apart, and I make it work anyhow. Other tracks are just me layering sounds, and elements I’ve gathered, and building on that in the moment. Very little of 156 of thought out much in advance. I’m afraid that shows at times, but it often works out in my favor.

Q: Artists from all over the world have been deeply affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. What has been the impact on your own activities and what are your further plans?

Adel: I hate to say this, because I don’t want to seem insensitive, but I’ve been lucky enough that it hasn’t affected me much –at least not artistically. In 2020, 156 released three music titles, and a video compilation DVDr. Same goes with my art, as I’ve released a book of photography, two photo fanzines, and a postcard set –all within the last 12 months.

Yet, on a personal note, it has had an effect, because without shows, I haven’t been able to see friends in such a long time, as I currently live a ways away from the city, so I don’t even go out much to meet up one-on-one. The only plans for the future are to play out more, as I’ve had a number of instruments built (such as an Apprehension Engine), and look forward to using them to terrorize people from the stage again. Otherwise, it’ll be my usual: create, create, create.

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: Industrial, Trance, EBM, Experimental, Minimal-Electro.

Format: Digital, Cassette.

Background/Info: Philipp Münch –known from so many bands and projects, moves on the recipe he already had been experimented with earlier this year released EP “Über Leben 3” on, which he reworked old songs from his old project Ars Moriendi. This album and its title speak for itself, the artist revisiting twelve songs from Ars Moriendi. The project was set up in the late 80s and mainly active during the 90s.

Content: Philipp Münch doesn’t simply recover the songs from dust by doing a new mastering; he simply reworked and revisited the old songs into a very own approach. This approach is a bit comparable to the influences revealed at the new Synapscape album. It’s a mix of Electronic influences; from Industrial to Trance to EBM to pure Electronic minimalism. Some songs are clearly evoking the early 80s and a band as Throbbing Gristle comes into mind when discovering “Stimulation”. Other cuts are more into heavy Industrial outbursts, sometimes becoming pretty Trance-driven. Both debut songs are there to illustrate this heavy sound. “Splatter Me!” and “Meiner Selbst” both will appeal to open-minded EBM lovers.

+ + + : I think it must be a true challenge revisiting old songs from a project you’re no longer involved with by transposing them into something different. Philipp Münch fully succeeded in his goal and just as on the new Synapscape-work I’m totally conquered by the artist’s way of working; mixing styles and just following his own intuition. But the songs also reveal impressive sound treatments. It’s an overwhelming production that mainly comes through at the beginning. “Bewegung” and “Deeper Trance” both are phenomenal pieces of modern Industrial music. “Stimulation” sounds like a wink to early 80s stuff, keeping the original spirit of the song alive. And even the EBM approach shown at “Splatter Me!” and “Meiner Selbst” stands for sound intelligence.

– – – : There’re a very few pieces that can’t fully convince me, but globally speaking it’s just a detail when listening to this great piece of music.

Conclusion: “Plays Ars Moriendi” is a great and creative ode to the memory of Ars Moriendi while confirming the genius of Philipp Münch. This album has something schizophrenic, but it sounds better than any kind of madness…

Best songs: “Stimulation”, “Bewegung”, “Deeper Trance”, “Splatter Me!”, “Meiner Selbst”, “Armageddon”.

Rate: (9).

Artist: www.facebook.com/philippmuench.de

Label: www.ant-zen.com / www.facebook.com/antzen.official

About Philipp Münch

Philipp Münch has been active across numerous projects including Synapscape, Ars Moriendi, Asche and Templegarden’s. Ars Moriendi began in the autumn of 1989 as a collective with Sven Pügge, Andrea Börner-Schramm and Andreas Schramm, releasing cassette albums on its own Fich-Art label through the early 1990s before later reunion shows at Maschinenfest in 2002 and 2008.

“Plays Ars Moriendi” re-records twelve original Ars Moriendi tracks with contemporary production, released in November 2020 on Ant-Zen and Raubbau (catalog ant-zen act388 / raubbau raub-079) as a cassette. Guest contributions come from former Ars Moriendi members and collaborators including Tim Kniep, Babsi Teichner and Asche.

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 23 via Cold Spring is a reissue of the Coil best of releases “A Guide For Beginners – The Voice Of Silver” and “A Guide For Finishers – A Hair Of Gold”, this time as a 2CD set. The two releases have been out of print on CD for almost two decades.

Officially licensed from FEELEE, this edition spans Coil’s entire career, featuring tracks from all their major albums. They were hand-picked by Coil to represent their best work and originally released to mark their first performance in Moscow in 2001. The vinyl-only edition by FEELEE was released as two separate luxurious 2xLP editions in 2018.

Here are two tracks from the set. The first being “At the heart of it all”.

“Ostia (the death of Pasolini)”

Coil, a project in itself

Coil was originally founded in 1982 as a solo vehicle for Geoff Rushton aka John Balance (he also joined Psychic TV at this time), before evolving into its permanent core duo with the addition of his partner and fellow PTV member Peter ‘Sleazy’ Christopherson. Christopherson had previously been an original member of industrial music legends Throbbing Gristle and a partner in leading design agency Hipgnosis, later becoming a go-to music video director.

Having left Psychic TV ahead of their 1984 debut EP, “How To Destroy Angels”, Coil signed to Some Bizarre Records for the release of the albums “Scatology” (1984) and “Horse Rotorvator” (1986). They then established their own label, Threshold House, to issue the landmark 1991 album “Love’s Secret Domain” plus a record of additional material from the LSD sessions entitled “Stolen & Contaminated Songs” the following year.

The remainder of that decade saw releases from pseudonymous projects such as ELpH vs. Coil, Black Light District and Time Machines, plus the soundtrack for Derek Jarman’s “The Angelic Conversation”, before a return to ‘regular’ studio output such as “Astral Disaster”, two volumes of “Musick To Play In The Dark” (1999 and 2000) and “Black Antlers” (2004). They also began performing live shows in 1999 and played a series of mini-tours over the next five years.

The final Coil album, “The Ape Of Naples”, was compiled by Christopherson following the accidental death of Balance in 2004 at the age of 42 and released at the end of the following year. Christopherson himself died in 2010 at just 55.

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)
Etch Wear, the small Oslo-based independent record label (among other things), are making very custom pressing of their music. When I saw that Solar Temple, an old favorite of mine, were releasing an 8” (!!!) single in an extremely limited edition of just 23 copies I had to find out more.
First out is the maker of these gems, Tom Helge Kleberg from Etch Ware.

Side-Line: How/why did you start making these special records?
Tom Helge: Etch Wear have always been about DIY, so it was a dream for many years to operate our own record industry, so that’s why Etch Wear have been experimenting with this “new” format since the end of 2016. But it is not a new format at all, it is the oldest format: going back to the roots of casting gramophones, only we try to combine the best of this old tradition with the best of today’s possibilities. The original idea came from the mask/special effects creator of ‘Død snø’, Steinar Kaarstein. We were working together on a project and he had a special mould that would copy details to such an extreme so I just immediately thought about trying to duplicate a record. And he was intrigued by the idea, so we worked out the starting process together. And now, three years and hours on hours of experimenting later the new Solar Temple single “(untitled) #44” is a good example of the best possibilities with this re-born art. But it was a steep hill to roll the discs: there is a mountain of ill-casted records in our trails with sound quality that makes some of the early Throbbing Gristle recordings sound hi-fi…

S-L: How do you make them? Why the extreme limited editions?
TH: Every release is limited due to the process of material decomposition. As a starter you need either a lacquer reference cut or a lathe-cut vinyl to make a mould. Not going into detail on the actual process as it is too many important details on how to conduct these. But shortly explained: when you have a high quality mould, you cast two component plastic resins in the mould, and these resins start to dematerialize the mould over time. Then you get everything from 10 to 30 copies with “good” sound. The mould however does not harm the original master, so it is possible to make moulds forever from the one original. However as Etch Wear is a small company that deliver experimental music we only do one or two moulds from each master we make, and therefore the editions limit themselves.

S-L: Any more releases planned?
TH: There are always several editions in the pipeline! Right now alongside Solar Temple we have released “duplicords” (our own name for this format) by legendary Norwegian synth-electro band The Oscillators for their single ‘Classic Quality‘, Russian industrial band Travm, and Europ Europ. Last year we released a limited 10″ with another legendary industrial band from Norway: Munch.

We also just recently finished a Solar Temple 7″, a limited run lathe-cut edition with ‘Machine heart’ on side A and ‘Why does it burn so fast” on side B. In 11 copies!
Ismael made the “yob” signature and the inner cover artwork, the rest of the cover design is made by me, and I sign all my works with O ~ E ~ P (not Tom Helge Kleberg).

I also met up with the man behind behind Solar Temple, Ismael Henriksen Åkredalen, for lunch and chatting about his projects.

S-L: Long time since your last releases – what have you been up to?
Ismael: Yeah, it’s been a while. I sort of got caught up in my own bubble for a while. It started with me wanting to put together a dark wave album, being true to my origin as a huge Joy Division fan, and in 2010 I was given the opportunity to play at Elektrostat (formerly Oslo Synth Festival) where I for the first time performed as Eternal Reward. The songs was compiled of old sketches that I made with a bass guitar, guitar, a drum machine and synthesizer.

I began recording and tracks started to pile up. I could never really finish one song as my restless mind constantly gave me new ideas and sleepless nights. Me being obsessed with putting only one dark wave album out there I fell into a creative black hole – it become a nightmare.
As time passed I finally saw an album slowly coming together. An EP containing songs from that endeavour is being released this year as Eternal Reward’s first ever release.

S-L: #44 – a bit mysterious title?
Ismael: Like an old habit I name my songs after date. ‘Nr 1’ would then be ‘Solar Temple 2010 January 5 No1’. Which brings me back to the first single released now, ‘No44’ – it was the 44th song recorded in 2010 as Solar Temple.

S-L: Tom Helge mentioned your work on the cover art?
IH: As before I’m doing most of my own artwork in collaboration with O ~ E ~ P. The artworks are a mix of old paintings and label designs, sharpened up and enhanced.

S-L: Future plans/releases?
Ismael: After putting Solar Temple on ice a few years back I started a brand new project which is releasing its first EP this year. It’s an EBM crossover project in cooperation with a friend who’s a master of the old arts. I consider him a synth badass by trade!

He is definitely on the spectrum when it comes to programming synthesizers and creating sounds like no one else I’ve ever met. We also share the same vision when it comes the aesthetics and visuals of live shows. This new project draws inspiration from genres that I love such as synth, wave, EBM, industrial and noise. There are also other projects currently brewing for the future.

S-L: Who is this badass? 
Ismael: That will remain a secret for the time being, as all members of the band will be masked!

More details about the 8” at Discogs, and also some Solar Temple tracks at SoundCloud.

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

Genre/Influences: Experimental, electro, industrial.

Format: Digital, CD.

Background/Info: This album is a re-release and for the very first time on CD format of a split album between Attrition (UK) and Alu (Germany). The work was originally released in 1983 on cassette format by IRRE Tapes. For both of the projects this split work was one of their first releases.

Content: This work features 6 songs by Attrition and 5 songs by Alu. It’s an opportunity to (re)discover the first steps and especially experiments of Martin Bowes, but still a somewhat forgotten –or rather unknown project like Alu. You’ve to imagine this work in the context of the early 80s when artists such as Throbbing Gristle, SPK, Monte Cazzazza, Nocturnal Emissions ao revealed their first experiments to the world. It’s a mix of industrial- and experimental music. It’s hard to hear what’s improvised and what not. Creating and manipulating noises appeared to be more interesting than composing ‘songs’. It was a period of ‘anti-music’. 

+ + + : It’s just great to get back to this forgotten record and especially (re)discovering the work of Attrition. This composition has nothing in common with the later electro style of Martin Bowes. No, this is total experiment and improvisation although resulting in a few little jewels like “Day I Was Born” –which might be considered with a little bit of imagination as the basis for the later sound of the project while “You Will Remember Nothing” is pure Throbbing Gristle-music. Alu is comparable to the work of Attrition and yet it sounds more diversified. Sometimes industrial with a funky touch on top and next total improvisation. The fans of Throbbing Gristle will like these songs as well.

– – – : The extremely experimental approach and impro style both made it hardly accessible for a wider audience.

Conclusion: This album belongs to the history of industrial/experimental music and it’s really great it has been recovered from dust to get now released on CD format. 

Best songs: Attrition: “You Will Remember Nothing”, “Day I Was Born”, “Onslaught” + Alu: “Vendetta”, “Unaba”.

Rate: (7).

Artists: www.attrition.co.uk / www.facebook.com/ATTRITIONMUSIC /  www.alugenerator.de

Label: www.peripheralminimal.com / www.facebook.com/PeripheralMinimal

About Attrition & Alu

Attrition is the project of English musician Martin Bowes, formed in Coventry in 1980 with Julia Waller and her brother Ashley after Bowes ran the local fanzine Alternative Sounds from 1979 to 1981. Alu was a German project formed from the remains of the Krautrock band Sand in 1979 by Ludwig Papenberg and Johannes Vester, joined by Nadja Molt in 1981 before disbanding in 1986. The two acts shared this split release on IRRE Tapes in 1983, reissued on CD here. Attrition remained active for over four decades, releasing “The Black Maria” in 2024 with returning original singer Julia Waller, discussed by Martin Bowes in a Side-Line Click Interview.

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

Larme Blanche (which can be translated as ‘knife’ or ‘rudimentary weapon’) is a brand-new project driven by an artist wearing a mask and keeping his name secret. He claims his music is more important than his face and even the label, Unknown Pleasures Records, where he released his debut album “Demain Est Mort” doesn’t know his identity. But music indeed is more important than faces and the minimal-electro composed by this artist is absolutely worthy of examination. All songs are sung in French mainly revealing critical and political subjects recovered with obscure and gloomy atmospheres plus danceable sequences. This album took me by surprise and incited me to get in touch with the man with the mask…

(Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)

Q: You don’t want to reveal your identity, so what fascinates you working anonymously? Or is it just a strategy to keep people busy to guess who’s hiding under the mask you’re wearing? How did you get interested in electronic music to finally set up Larme Blanche?

LB:My identity is not important, but the music is. Wearing a mask (a balaclava, precisely) is not a strategy, or a marketing shit. I’ve read a lot about the symbols of the mask, and I think hiding my face and my own identity is a way for me to be truly myself. I can say whatever I want, without any filters or any fears to be judged. Hiding is for me artistic freedom.

Honestly, playing electronic music is not a choice. It’s just the best set up if you’re alone in a musical project. With my synths and drum machines, I can play nearly everything by myself. I just sometimes need the help of true musicians to reach a higher level, like Quentin Dubarry, who plays saxophone on the song “Overdose d’Épicure”, or my friend Fred that mixed and mastered my music.

Q: What was your initial purpose when starting this project? Did you have specific ideas/criteria in mind about sound, influences, equipment, ao?

LB: At the very beginning, my purpose was to make a lot of noise. At the time, I wanted to play with the industrial/noise codes and techno music. At first, I thought the project will be fully instrumental, no voice. Probably because I like cinematic music. But life is full of surprises, right ? One day, I put my voice on the song “Paris La Nuit”, and I thought it sounded very cool. So in the end, I decided to focus more on the vocals and lyrics.

About the influences, I would say Suicide, Chris & Cosey, Throbbing Gristle, D.A.F., Death In June and a lot of French wave, from Taxi Girl to Etienne Daho. The movies of Gaspar Noé also had a big impact on me.

Q: What’s your main focus when you compose a song and what are the different stages you’ve to go through to achieve a song –and an album?

LB: I don’t have a formula. I can start with a sound, a beat, a synth bass line, sometimes with a sample… It really depends of my mood. Usually I mess around with sounds for hours, and I see how far it goes. I have hundreds of little loops in my archives. The most difficult thing is picking the good ones and turn them into a ‘real’ song. Usually, I pick the ones that inspire me vocally, or the ones that sound weird.

About the lyrics, I like to write down ideas when it comes, wherever I am. Sometimes when I walk in the street, sometimes in the train… So as soon as I have a good instrumental music, I just have to read my notes again and find the idea that fits the best with the track.

Q: All songs have been sung in French while the lyrical content appears to be engaged, critical, political, sensual, sometimes featuring historical samplings (cf. “Le Dernier Soupir”), dark and into poetry. Tell us a bit more about this essential element of the album and your project?

LB: Singing in French is at the core of this project and it will never change (except for covers, like the one of Death In June that I just released). When you play rock’n’roll, it’s easy to sing in English, because it works well with gimmicks. But I think French language work better with electronic music. It’s important for me to sing in my native language, because it forces me to work harder and deeper on the words. Believe me, writing those lyrics was a long process, way longer than the music!

I may hide behind a mask, but lyrically I’m naked here. I don’t know if this record is engaged, but it’s critical and political for sure. A song like “Assez!” was inspired by the yellow jacket movement that happened in France last year. I’ve seen far-right and far-left people crushing my country to the bone, and it made me sick. As a result, I wrote this song. I’m also a huge fan of History, as you can hear in “Le Dernier Soupir”. In that song, I wanted to superpose the values of our past heroes (here a speech of André Malraux for the Jean Moulin funerals, he was a famous resistant that fought against the Nazis) to the vacuity of our current heroes. Do the pop stars, starlets, actors and TV reality people deserves to be our heroes? I’d like to make people dance, but I’d like to make them think too.

Q: The title song “Demain Est Mort” is the last –hidden, song from the album. What did you try to express with this title, which also sounds as one of the most enraged songs of the album?

LB: Enraged, that’s a good word to describe it! At first, this song was just a fist in the face. I came back at home one shitty day, after another crack head of Paris insulted me in the street. It’s those kind of days when everything turns bad and when you want to kill everyone. So instead of turning into a mass murderer, I decided to write about that feeling. And it became “Demain Est Mort”, which means “Tomorrow Is Dead”.

It was a cathartic experience, it all happened very quickly. In a way, I wanted to sound like a nihilistic version of this old French punk band called Bérurier Noir.

Q: You released a few clips and it’s interesting to see the contrast in the themes between “Paris La Nuit” (about the French Capital) and “Taiga” (about nature). What did you try to express here?

LB: The message of “Paris La Nuit” is very simple; it’s all about this city that makes me sick every day. Usually, when I travel, all the people I met are always fascinated about Paris, you know with all the clichés: the city of love, so romantic blah blah blah… But I live in a very popular area of the city (where the video was shot) and it’s not glamorous at all. It’s full of crack heads, dealers, gangs, violence… With people literally sleeping on the pavement (as you can see in the video clip). This song is a vision of my Paris, the real Paris, not the one for tourists.

“Taïga” in a way is a response to this urban decay. I wrote that song after a trip in the Canadian taiga last Summer. I felt so good in the nature that I wanted to disappear there, and never come back to the madness of a big city. What’s the point of living in a world like that, were a phone made by a child in China is more important than the wildlife? How absurd is that? I think humanity has lost itself into consumerism and turned into a freaky monster. In those troubled times, nature appear to me as a peaceful shelter.

Q: What are the further plans?

LB: I’ve just released a cover of “Break The Black Ice” by Death In June for the tribute album “Honoris DI6” to be released on Unknown Pleasures Records in June (obviously). I also have an unreleased track called “Amor À Mort” that will be released on the vinyl compilation “My Precious! Vol. 3” (on the Belgian label Red Maze Records). It’s a very weird, erotic track inspired by the EBM of D.A.F. and the sadomasochistic band Athamay. It smells like whip, leather and latex. In June, I’ll also publish an experimental video of a new song called “Le Poing Et La Chaîne”, which I’m very proud of. It was made in confinement and it’s raw and very industrial, with live recordings of percussions played with chains. There is a big work on the sound and I think it can give some clues about the future direction of the project…

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

In October 2017 we announced that Genesis P-Orridge had been diagnosed with chronic myelomonocytic leukemia. After a battle of more 2 years Genesis P-Orridge died in New York City on March 14th.

The troubles for Genesis P-Orridge started earlier in 2017 when she had been hospitalized more than once. In a post in September 2019 Genesis P-Orridge said things were not looking good: “My breathing in particular is poor. At times 35% ov normal lung capacity. So most days to walk just a hundred yards to the nearest Pharmacy & store we need to wear an oxygenator. Otherwise we are too short ov breath to walk more than a few steps.”

Genesis Breyer P-Orridge was an English singer-songwriter, musician, poet, performance artist, and occultist and was the founder of the COUM Transmissions artistic collective and lead vocalist of seminal industrial band Throbbing Gristle. P-Orridge was also a founding member of Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth occult group, and fronted the experimental band Psychic TV. P-Orridge identified as third gender, and they preferred gender neutral pronouns when being described.

Our sincere condolences to family and friends.

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

Out now is the brand new Attrition video “The Great Derailer” for the single which was already released on January 31. The video was directed and edited by Antony Weir and camerman Tom Laxton and filmed on location in Coventry, England with additional footage of Emke.

Attrition are currently setting up shows in support of “The Great Derailer”, so far confirmed are:

• April 3rd- The Tin, Coventry, UK
• June 13th: Woodgothic Festival, Sao Thome Das Letras, Brazil
• June 17th – Gothic Ba, Buenos Aires, Argentina
• June 19th – Producciones Mortem Collections, Santiago de Chile
• June 20th – Tumbas Eternas Producciones, Lima, Peru
• July – Manchester – tbc
• August 20th– Feketa Zaj festival, Hungary
• August 30th – Infest festival, UK
• November 28th: Winter Ghosts Symposium, Whitby, UK
• December 5th – Face Bar, Reading, UK

You can watch the video below.

Attrition are an electronic music band, formed in Coventry, England in 1980 by Martin Bowes and Julia Niblock. The band emerged from the experimental post-punk scene of the early 1980s and, along with other groups such as Throbbing Gristle, Coil, Einstürzende Neubauten, and In the Nursery, greatly contributed to the development of industrial music in the UK.

Read the review of ‘The Black Maria’.

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: Industrial-metal, industrial-rock, EBM

Background/Info: The famous Wax Trax! Records label was originally much into new wave and punk music and was founded by Jim Nash and his partner Dannie Flesher in Denver in 1975. In 1978 the independent label moved to Chicago and became the most important record label and store/boutique for industrial music in the US that served as the headquarters of underground electronic and industrial bands in the eighties and nineties. The strong brand Wax Trax! offered record deals to the artists they liked (as fans) and also licensed European artists in America. The very impressive Wax Trax! catalogue featured well-known bands like Ministry, Front 242, Revolting Cocks, KMFDM, Front Line Assembly, Coil, Chris & Cosey and more!

Content: Industrial Accident has contributions of Al Jourgensen (Ministry/Revolting Cocks), Paul Barker (Ministry/Revolting Cocks), Chris Connelly (Ministry/Revolting Cocks), Luc Van Acker (Ministry/Revolting Cocks), Richard23 (Front 242/Revolting Cocks), Patrick Codenys (Front 242), Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails), Bill Leeb (Front Line Assembly), Groovie Mann (Thrill Kill Kult), David J. Haskins (Bauhaus), Sascha Konietzko (KMFDM), En Esch (KMFDM), Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters, Nirvana), Jello Biafra (Dead Kennedys), Steve Albini (Big Black), Cosey Fanni Tutti (Throbbing Gristle), Ian MacKaye (Minor Threat, Fugazi) and more. It explains the rise and fall of an important musical movement as well as the details and artifacts of this entire Wax Trax! Records history that was nearly lost forever.

A lot of hilarious anecdotes are explained by the contributing artists which makes it fun to watch! Al Jourgensen: “I played in Divine’s band by the way, playing guitar for Divine was … bizarre!”. Luc Van Acker, when speaking about Laibach: “How provocative can you be? It takes intelligent people to understand that! Wax Trax! created a space where we could do whatever we wanted!”. Unfortunately the label without business model (operating on trust, without contracts with their artists) declared bankruptcy in 1992 and Jim and Danny sold it to TVT Records. Jim Nash passed away on October 10, 1995 and Dannie Flesher deceased on January 10th, 2010.

+ + + : This 94 minutes (+ 75 extra minutes bonus material) documentary was directed by Julia Nash (daughter of Jim Nash) and won awards on the Santa Cruz Film Festival and Chicago Underground Film Festival. It is also available on Blu-Ray and as download on AppleTV, Amazon Prime and Google Play/YouTube Streaming.

– – – : Just one minor point: to make the circle complete, maybe an interview with some licensed European bands that were released by Wax Trax! (The Neon Judgement, The Young Gods, A Split Second, Laibach and more) would have been interesting, to hear their point of view.

Conclusion: Although it’s a huge story to tell the complete Wax Trax! history, this documentary gives a pretty good overview of what happened in the old days. Jim and Dannie “accidentally” built up the industrial scene in the US due to their passion and love for this music and bands and will never be forgotten!

Label: www.waxtraxchicago.com / www.facebook.com/WaxTraxRecords.Chicago/

About Wax Trax! Records

Wax Trax! Records was founded by Jim Nash and Dannie Flesher, first in Denver in 1975 as an outlet for new wave and punk records. The label moved to Chicago in 1978 and grew into the main hub for industrial music in the United States through the 1980s and 1990s, signing and licensing acts on both sides of the Atlantic.

The label ran without contracts, on trust between Nash, Flesher and their artists. It filed for bankruptcy in 1992 and was sold to TVT Records. Nash died on October 10, 1995, and Flesher died on January 10, 2010.

“Industrial Accident: The Story Of Wax Trax! Records” is directed by Julia Nash, Jim Nash’s daughter, and gathers the artists who built the label’s catalogue to tell that history on screen.

Genre/Influences: Industrial, dark-ambient.

Background/Info: Swedish industrial veteran Peter Andersson aka ‘Lina Baby Doll‘ is back on track unleashing his newest opus featuring eight songs. 

Content: “Staring At My Wall” moves on where previous releases left off. Lina Baby Doll moves back to some early influences of industrial music, but he also takes care to support his songs with an overwhelming dark atmosphere. There’s an interesting progression in the songwriting, which also reveals a few minimal-electro passages (cf. “Amphibian Shadow”), vague tribal passages (cf. “Pasolini”) and even a pure old-fashioned industrial sound (cf. “Let Go And Slip Away”) reminding me of Throbbing Gristle. On top of the songs you also will hear the charismatic vocals of Lina Baby Doll.   

+ + + : Deutsch Nepal always has been rather unique in its genre. There for sure is a link with old-school industrial music, but the composition first of all reflects a very own approach mixing industrial with electronics and other elements such as tribal and ritual music. The production of the vocals is quite important. The artist’s way of singing has something shamanic, inviting his followers to join in for a dark and industrial transcendental trip. It’s a scary adventure accentuated by some lyrical, disclaiming passages like ‘this is a terrible place to live in’ on the title track. The last part of the album is absolutely worthy of examination and leading the listener into a total apotheosis. 

– – – : Deutsch Nepal is a project that never stops to evolve and this new opus again sounds as a truly masterpiece. 

Conclusion: Deutsch Nepal moves back to early industrial music, which has been mixed with a very personal and contemporary touch. The result is a fascinating sonic travel. 

Best songs: “Staring At My Wall”, “Pasolini”, “Let Go And Slip Away”, “These Eyes I Found Upon The Hills”. 

Rate: (8½). 

Artist: www.facebook.com/deutsch.nepal.generalstaab 

Label: www.facebook.com/entartete.musikk 

About Deutsch Nepal

Deutsch Nepal is the solo project of Swedish musician Peter Andersson, known by the nickname “Lina Baby Doll”. Andersson started out in the industrial project Njurmännen before launching Deutsch Nepal in 1991, taking the name from a song by the German psychedelic rock band Amon Düül II.

Andersson releases Deutsch Nepal through his own label, Entartete Musikk, which also issued the compilation “Homo Strepitus” and the 2018 split “Eating The Dust” with Reutoff. In a Side-Line interview published two days after “Staring At My Wall”, Andersson said every album should “have a personal character,” adding: “I don’t like to reproduce the same album again and again.”

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

Cold Spring has announced the reissue of Coil’s 1992 album “Stolen & Contaminated Songs”, presented on CD and, for the first time, on vinyl. “Stolen & Contaminated Songs” was recorded and produced by Coil in 1992 and Swas the first of two albums recorded and produced by the band in that year. The album is composed of outtakes and unreleased songs from their prior album, “Love’s Secret Domain”.

The line-up in 1992 consisted of John Balance, Peter Christopherson, Stephen Thrower and Danny Hyde. The release will be reissued on CD (available here) but also on vinyl including a limited bone coloured 2LP (limited to 800 copies – you can buy it here) and a regular black double vinyl.

Coil, a short history

Coil were an experimental music group, founded in 1982 in London, England and concluded in 2005. Initially envisioned as a solo project by singer and songwriter John Balance (born Geoffrey Burton) while he was in the band Psychic TV, Coil evolved into a full-time project with the addition of artistic creative partner Peter Christopherson, a founding member of Industrial Records and pioneering Industrial music group Throbbing Gristle, who also became Balance’s life-partner. Throughout the group’s existence, Balance and Christopherson were the only constant members; other members and contributors included Stephen Thrower, Danny Hyde, Drew McDowall, William Breeze, Thighpaulsandra (Tim Lewis), and Ossian Brown (Simon Norris).

After the release of their 1984 debut EP “How to Destroy Angels”, Coil joined Some Bizzare Records, through which they released two full-length albums, “Scatology” (1984) and “Horse Rotorvator” (1986). After departing from Some Bizzare, Coil had established their own record label, Threshold House, through which they produced and released “Love’s Secret Domain” (1991), which saw the duo incorporate the influence of the UK acid house scene. Financial difficulties slowed the group’s work in the early 1990s before they returned to the project as well as releasing several projects under aliases.

Following the death of John Balance on 13 November 2004, Christopherson announced via their official record label website Threshold House that Coil as an entity had ceased to exist, and after working on the record’s content to his extent officially ended the Coil discography with “The Ape of Naples” (2005). Read the review of ‘Stolen & Contaminated Songs’.

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