It all began in 1983 under the name Xymox, a musical project founded and spearheaded by Ronny Moorings. Shortly after, the project evolved into Clan Of Xymox, marking the birth of a band destined to leave an indelible mark on the Dark-Wave scene. Signed by the legendary British label 4AD, the band released two seminal albums that would become classics in the genre. While they briefly returned to the original name, since 1997, they have been known exclusively as Clan Of Xymox. What makes Clan Of Xymox truly special is not only their pioneering role in the New/Dark-Wave movement but their unwavering ability to create valuable and impactful music over the decades.

Unlike many of their contemporaries, who often rely on the nostalgia of 80s hits, Clan Of Xymox has consistently released strong, fresh material, proving that their creative spirit remains as vibrant as ever. With a career spanning over 40 years, Clan Of Xymox has firmly established themselves as one of the most influential forces in Dark-Wave. Ronny Moorings has remained true to the essence of his sound while allowing it to evolve, ensuring a timeless yet contemporary edge. Their latest and 18th studio album, “Exodus”, released via Trisol (Germany) and Metropolis (USA), is a testament to this balance. Featuring a collection of masterful tracks, the album combines melancholic, dark, atmospheres with Pop-infused arrangements that are both haunting and danceable.

I felt it was the perfect time to take a retrospective look at Clan Of Xymox’s incredible journey. In this interview, Ronny Moorings graciously shared his insights, reflecting on the band’s beginnings, their evolution, and their current work. I am deeply thankful for his enthusiastic cooperation and for taking the time to answer in such detail. His dedication to crafting inspired music over such a long period is remarkable, as is the man behind the artist. Respect! (Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)

‘I Wanted To Be A Part Of Things Which Were Happening In Front Of My Eyes’

Q: Getting back to the early 1980s which marked the rise of New-Wave music and subgenres like Dark-Wave, Cold-Wave, and Post-Punk. How do you reflect on those formative years and what do you recall from the very beginning of your career? Specifically, what events or circumstances led to the formation of Xymox and, later, Clan Of Xymox and what was your original dream when you first started making music?

Ronny: I will make this a short story because there is so much to say about how it came to be. I was in bands from on my childhood in my birth town Roosendaal (NL) where I already played live at the age of 11 with older 15 year old friends. When it was time for me to study, I first moved to The Hague, deciding after a year of Social Academy that I’d rather do a Sociology study in Nijmegen.

In the early 80’s there was a lot going on. Musically we had the Deutsche Welle and from the U.K. came New-Wave. This appealed a lot to me and DJed (what I also already did in Roosendaal as a teenager) this type of music in the local venue Doornroosje. It was volunteers work, but I got to see all the cool bands coming in.
The alternative scene was thriving in the whole of The Netherlands. Naturally many British bands were on the fore front of innovation. The Goth / Wave movement came also to Doornroosje. I remember especially Bauhaus and The Virgin Prunes making a big impression on me because they sounded and looked visually stunning. The Virgin Prunes making a complete theatre out of their show; it looked like genuine madness with a lot of stuff flying about on stage. With Bauhaus, Peter Murphy just looked the ideal part, a new ‘thin white duke’ with white light shining under his chin and the rest of the band in fluorescent colours, exposed with a black light.

Every week there was a brilliant band to be seen in Paradiso (Amsterdam) or in Doornroosje, like Echo And The Bunnymen In an army outfit with camouflage nets hanging over the stage, The Sound, Dance Society, The Birthday Party with Nick Cave swinging like a monkey from left to right from the light supports, giving it a high energetic performance, Siouxie And The Banshees, The Cure ( they played in a circus tent) and later seeing Robert Smith playing guitar with Siouxie in Rotterdam , Theatre Of Hate, Eyeless In Gaza, Black Flag, The Comsat Angels, Sisters Of Mercy, in the Milkyway Amsterdam,  of course with Wayne Hussey,  Further The Slits, Liaison Dangereuses, U2 ( played in Arnhem for 400 people) who was pretty unknown still etc. Too many to mention!

All bands not jet known by the majority of people but making a big impact on everyone alternative seeing them live. New-Wave, Deutsche Welle, Punk, Synth-Pop and New-Romantics was now a major alternative movement perfectly fitting the times we were living in.

Also the Netherlands produced influential bands who made quite an impression on me, like I already mentioned Mecano & Minimal Compact from Amsterdam, Nasmak from Eindhoven, Coitus Interruptus from Utrecht, and ‘famous’ local bands from Nijmegen like Mechanic Commando and Vice.

By seeing all these brilliant international and national bands I knew there and then that I had to start something new and interesting too. I wanted to make music like these bands. I was totally inspired. I wanted to be a part of things which were happening in front of my eyes. I wanted a band instead of just making things late at night on my own on a 4 track for no one else to hear.I wasn’t the only one feeling this way. It seemed that nearly anyone in the local scene started a band. In every squat people started a band and rehearsing was no problem in these industrial buildings we all occupied. Music was becoming a way of life, a means to express your views. There were enough opportunities for bands to play. There were always some old factories freshly squatted. One of the first shows I did was on a festival in De Plu Fabriek, a desolate disused umbrella factory. The festival had a social awareness theme about ‘Acid Rain’ of which maybe a handful had heard about. It was not taken very serious yet by the general public. It was the first ever show of Xymox there.

Round the same time at the University we had to do a video project. We had to film something about a socially significant social subject, so I started filming and interviewing the squatters local bands I knew. I still have the V2000 video tape but because of its backdated discontinued format, I haven’t been able to see it since the presentation at the University of Nijmegen.

In the beginning of 1980 in Nijmegen I had no real serious relationship with anyone. I was fairly new in town and most people I found quite uninteresting. The typical jeans and long hair student types, freshly coming from their cosy parental homes, with only one aim in life and that is to study, graduate and getting a job. Also most people were just coming out of the seventies and their clothes reflected that, very colourful shirts, a lot of blue jeans and mostly having long hair. In Rotterdam long hair in the back and short in the front was accompanied by a little moustache was the local fashion there.

Anyway, just after my initiation weeks of the University back in Nijmegen, one night I went out, going to a bar where I would normally not come with my fellow student friends. I was standing there drinking beer with my mates until I spotted this girl in the distance. She had the same kind of image as me. Out of place I thought. I simply had to talk to her and soon we were engaged in conversation and ended up spending the night together in her basement flat.. She told me she came from Nuenen, a small village close to Eindhoven but very famous for the house of Vincent Van Gogh. Her name was Anke.

In this period I wanted to start a Live band with the name I already had:  Xymox.  One day I showed her my songs I had recorded and asked if she would want to be in my ‘band’ which was just me at the time 😉 I said it would not matter that it was only the two of us because a lot of bands played with a drum machine and it would be a cool thing to do; she agreed. The songs were most of the time two or three chords so it was not too difficult for her to learn the tracks. I released this tape at the time, sold it for cheap (some people still have it). She liked the songs and decided to learn and play the bass guitar so she could play live. We started rehearsing together in 1982. I started sending my old Xymox demos to various venues and to my surprise a dozen clubs or so liked it.

Soon we played live with the two of us in various alternative clubs. I was singing, playing guitar and the synth plus operating the rhythm box. She played the bass by now and did some backing vocals . The songs were all mine, if you could call them songs 😉 For transportation I had my old cheap orange Renault 4 with a shift stick. All the equipment fitted in beautifully. Because we were just with the two of us and the fuel was very cheap, the money earned was very reasonable for those days.

Later we got asked by the locally known band Vice to support them. We did so and managed to play quite a bit of shows in the South of the Netherlands again. We felt we were getting somewhere.

Later a few friends to join our ‘band’ live. They were hitting metal pieces or doing backing vocals etc. Inspired of course by Einstürtzenden Neubauten. We started rehearsing in the empty vaults of a squatted bank building. Soundproof and safe it luckily was 😉

Anke wanted to move to Amsterdam in 1983, when she changed her study. She wanted to study Psychology and since I finished my Sociology ‘Candidates’ phase holding an official diploma. I was looking for a relevant Masters study so I decided to go to Amsterdam as well, I chose for  ‘Media Studies’ at the ‘University of Amsterdam’. Apparently you would have a lot of freedom with this study as well.

In Amsterdam I was asked by a friend in 1983, if I wanted to DJ for a local pirate radio station WHS. The show; ‘De Lege Huls’, translated ‘The Empty Shell’, would be late at night which of course I gladly accepted. I did this for quite some time well into 1985 until I got too busy with Clan Of Xymox and its many obligations.

As I already said I saved for a while every penny in order to buy my much desired object, a Teac 4 track multi tape recorder. I bought it in Antwerp, Belgium, November 1982. After many recordings of songs and ideas in Nijmegen I started a new In April 1983, frantically starting to record some new songs; the old ones were already more than a year old and I wanted to have new ones. With the help of the Teac 4 track recorder I could be more creative with writing and recording, bouncing previous recordings and build on that.

The instruments I had access to were: a Yamaha synth, Korg Poly 6 Synthesiser, Korg MS10 and MS 20, a rhythm box K500 , an electric Framus guitar, Welson Keyboard, a standard Shure 58 mike of course, my fantastic vintage space echo, melodica, guitar pedal effects and a bass guitar. A later valuable asset was later a Solina Strings but this one was borrowed once and a while.

All instruments were played in real time on tape. No sequencer used. That was too expensive.
These were the days computers were only academic and hardly used by anyone at all. Computers were just those big main frames standing in a government building or only portrayed in science fiction. Today our ears are completely trained to sequenced patterns, then it was something new, the ear was untrained to these sounds and pattern uses.

Soon things were ready. I asked Anke if she wanted to sing one song on the track I already prepared for her. It ended up with the title “Call It Weird “, so now  all tracks were done and everything was set up to bring these recordings to a mastering plant near Amsterdam called  Dureco. This was a vinyl factory specialised in producing Dutch product, the type like ‘Dutch Schlager’ like Vader Abraham known internationally for his “Smurf” songs. He was prominent on the wall everywhere in the factory offices. The main earner. Newer versions of this first EP exist: “Muscoviet Musquito” ( deliberately spelled this way) and “Going Round”. Both have various versions over the years.

‘I Felt That The Xymox Days Were Not The Right Way To Go’

Q: Xymox became Clan Of Xymox when you signed to 4AD, but later you reverted to Xymox before ultimately returning to Clan Of Xymox in the late ’90s. How do you view these shifts in retrospect? What, in your opinion, distinguishes Xymox from Clan Of Xymox?

Ronny: I started with the name Xymox and released my first EP “Subsequent Pleasures“ under this name. When Xymox got signed by 4 AD and the first debut album was called “Clan Of Xymox” I decided it was a slightly better name also because I had found people to play the songs live, so hence the ‘Clan’. I considered Xymox as my Pseudonym.

When Clan Of Xymox got signed by Wing / PolyGram USA I felt this was a significant change and wanted to underline this with shortening the name and perhaps with the reasoning that it would be easier for people in general to remember our name when it was shorter.

After 4 albums under the name Xymox, with the album “Phoenix” it had gotten too commercial in my opinion. With the 2 UK releases “Metamorphosis“ and “Headclouds” which were too Experimental and nothing much to do with the early material on 4 AD I decided in 1997 it was time to reintroduce Clan Of Xymox again with the same approach and attitude as in the earl 80’s. I felt that the Xymox days were not the right way to go and that it was better to stick to my own opinion instead of letting people influence me in one way or the other.

The result was the album “Hidden Faces” released worldwide on Tess Records and Pandaimonium Records in Germany in 1997. This was the start of Clan Of Xymox again. Since Phoenix I didn’t tour anymore. Had actually no live band anymore. I started to find again people who could play live with me and soon I had a live band ready to start promoting “Hidden Faces” and the older works on 4AD. Mojca my partner was there already since 1991 with me learning to play an instrument, keys and bass. She already designed the artwork from on 1992. In 1995 I decided to play in The Netherlands and promote “Metamorphosis” and “Headclouds”. The old live members from the 80’s Frank Weyzig and Will Anvers joined me on stage together with Mojca on Keyboards. This tour made me realise I missed playing live and soon since 1997 Clan Of Xymox played live each and every year till now and will keep on playing live.

I have a steady crew for more than a decade now with Mojca from on 1991 (of course), Mario ( more than 20 years), Sean and Daniel. I stay with the labels Metropolis (USA ) and Trisol (Germany ) as well as I run my own label Xymox Control now for decades a steady course with Clan Of Xymox, only expanding with my band, slowly but gradually. It manifests in the vast amount of sold out shows we are having each year.

‘We Were In Our Extravaganza’

Q: You were closely associated with 4AD, one of the most groundbreaking labels of the early New-Wave era. How did an unknown band from the Netherlands find its way onto such an iconic label? And how did your time with 4AD influence your evolution as an artist?

Ronny: Back in 1983 I felt that my former town Nijmegen ‘deserved’ a few copies of “Subsequent Pleasures” too. I was doing all the distribution myself. I sold 150 through Rough Trade UK, 150 in New Waves France and 150 export to Essen in Germany. Anyway, so I went to Nijmegen the night of the ‘Day of the Dead’, 1st of November.
I decided to visit a friend but he was not at home so not knowing what was going on that evening  I soon found out The Cocteau Twins were playing in Doornroosje that night, so I had to see them. There was still plenty of time left so I decided to have something  to eat in my favourite eating cafe De Plak. Whilst having dinner I heard English was spoken on another table, so my interest was aroused. Maybe this couple were The Cocteau Twins? Had to be! An English male and female.  Without any hesitation I went to their table and asked them all sorts of questions about their band The Cocteau Twins. They informed me politely that they were not The Cocteau Twins but were their supporting act called Dead Can Dance and if I wanted they could put me on the guest list; which I naturally did not decline since I was no longer active in Doornroosje anymore. In return I gave them a copy of “Subsequent Pleasures” for them to listen to.

Having seen Dead Can Dance they blew me away, just like of course The Cocteau Twins. After the show I went boldly to the dressing room and drank some beer with both the bands as they were sharing the dressing room and already established that we were all like-minded, talking to each other, or trying to, because Robin Guthrie of the Cocteau’s had a very heavy Scottish accent. Difficult to understand for a  Dutchman who knew and spoke only ‘school’ English. That night I learned then that Brendan was Irish, lived in New-Zealand, moved to Australia, met Lisa in Melbourne and moved to London to work on their musical career. A similar story was true for The Cocteau Twins who moved from Scotland to London to work on their career. All was very interesting and at the end of the night we swore to keep in contact and said our goodbyes.

During that time I kept in contact with Brendan and Lisa who lived together on the Isle Of Dogs. They invited me to their London home and I stayed at their place quite a few times. In those days I had to travel by ferry to the UK, a long journey. They lived on the 11th floor with a fantastic view over London. The flats were those typical council flats, ashen grey and reeking of urine in the elevators. They had a staggering amount of locks installed on their front door. With all their equipment at home I could understand their mistrust of their surroundings. It was all very depressing but very exciting for me. Brendan worked the same way as I did. We ended up with almost the same equipment in 1986. Brendan and Lisa were then still living together and were really dedicated to music. Every day they recorded or rehearsed. Lisa mainly singing and playing the Yang Ching. I slept in the living room and later on some visits they had a closet, like the one of “Harry Potter”. I slept there and was pretty cosy;)

Xymox started playing live in 1984 again. One day Brendan Perry called me up and asked me if we wanted to support them on a tour in the UK.  Without any hesitation I agreed to do it and almost a week later we were in London. Unfortunately when we arrived nearly all the dates of Dead Can Dance got cancelled and there were only three dates left:  one in London, Huddersfield and one in Dudley. We stayed with Brendan and Lisa, sleeping all on the floor in the living room, which I knew already too well.

During our first concert In London I nearly disappeared through the hole in the stage, I had to walk very carefully  because they did not manage to cover all the holes under the stained carpet. The father of Brendan was I believe the tour manager and his mother made sandwiches for Dead Can Dance when we went on the road to Dudley. The town looked nothing much and the bar we had to play likewise.. our dressing room was between beer barrels and if we wanted to have a drink we had to buy it at the bar said the promoter resembling “Dell Boy” of “Only Fools And Horses”. Still we had a great time hanging out with Brendan and Lisa, who were very generous to give us some money for covering our ferry expenses, which I know for sure they were paying out of their own pockets. After that we did more shows all over The Netherlands till summer.

Brendan Perry was the first one who told me about 4AD.  Before that I only paid attention to bands and not too much to record labels strangely enough.  He said he gave “Subsequent Pleasures” to Ivo Watts Russell , the label boss of 4AD, and so I followed up with sending a demo to 4AD with some newer additional tracks in July 1984, recorded in the Amsterdam Octopus 8 track studio. The demo I had sent 4AD after our shows in Paris’ old theatre La Seballe Club, several Dutch and the 2 UK dates. I was getting impatient as always. I gave Ivo Watts Russell a phone call. I was complaining about how the Dutch music industry sucked and that his label was the only independent label appealing to me. A week before that,  I had a meeting with the Dutch division label EMI but this meeting reminded me of all the cliches I ever heard about Major labels. To my absolute delight and surprise Ivo told me he liked what he had heard from the demo so far and wanted to meet, to see us in person and talk about it.

Ivo wanted to meet the band, so arriving in London, me and Anke  were heading to the private home of Ivo Watts Russell and his girlfriend Debby who also worked for 4AD as their press agent. They lived together in a residential SW12 London area. We stayed in their house for a week.

Anke and I had placed these long extra hair extensions in our hair so we looked a bit like ‘Uber Goths’ with a lot of make-up and special clothing we had designed for us by a friend who was handy with the sewing machine and wanted to become a fashion designer. I saw the surprise on Ivo’s face when he saw us for the first time. We were obviously not looking the way he expected us to look. Most of his bands on the label looked actually quite normal with no real image to speak of; so here we were in our extravaganza.

Luckily Ivo and Debby liked us or the music enough to offer Xymox a record deal and with that great news we went back home. The news had spread that we were the first band 4AD signed since two years of their last signing of Dead Can Dance. After this published fact my phone started to ring frequently and offers for radio and new Dutch live shows offers came in by the plenty.

When the self-titled album “Clan Of Xymox”’ was released funny enough nearly all the journalist thought we were Scottish by origin judging by their reviews. An Englishman is always very sensitive to accents. I saw it as a compliment though. Of course ‘Clan Of’ was suggestive enough 😉 . Most reviews were ecstatic, full of praise with five star ratings, the highest you could get. I guess we got lucky with my intention not to advertise we were Dutch. Having no names on the artwork and let the album speak for itself.

The British can be real chauvinists regarding their music industry, they didn’t take foreigners making music too seriously in those days. Of course the weekly music magazines Sounds, Melody Maker, New Music Express etcetera made up their ‘mistake’ in the eye to eye interviews, clearly pointing out us being Dutch and using the usual stereotype references, with headlines like ‘Dutch Bake’, ‘Dutch Courage’, ‘Going Dutch’, ‘Hollandaise Sauce’ and any phrase relating to the war between the Dutch and the Brits a few centuries ago. Anyway it did not matter anymore because we got the attention;  had a proper selling debut album. We did a lot of photo shoots with an English photographer using drapes in the back ground giving us a more Gothic image. This was used as our promo picture.The Music Maker and Sounds were giving us regular features and interviews afterwards, which gave us finally an international standing. Soon 4AD set up a few shows in Croydon and the University of London plus a John Peel session, which was very important to establish up and coming bands.

‘We Had To Prove Ourselves Time And Time Again’

Q: You’ve already mentioned several legendary British bands that were prominent in the 1980s and shared strong connections and camaraderie. What was your experience of the Dutch music scene during that time? How do you reflect on it now?

Ronny: I only had French, British and Scottish bands as friends. I could not get along with any band in The Netherlands in the mid-eighties. In the Netherlands there was a very strong Rock culture with no space for bands like us. We had to prove ourselves time and time again. I didn’t understand the provincial attitude towards synths coming from the Dutch critics. In a very first review the national music magazine Oor reviewed synths as magic boxes which made them nervous listening to them. When our first album came out we finally got greeted by the more alternative media which just got a foot in the door and were played on radio and TV, MTV and the like. Suddenly we were part of a movement to be reckoned with. Sometimes we even played live twice on a day in The Netherlands.

‘The Only Disappointment For Me Was That I Actually Never Got To Meet John Peel’

Q: During that period, you worked with or crossed paths with notable figures like the aforementioned Brendan Perry. But what about John Fryer, David M. Allen and John Peel? What can you share about those interactions and their impact on your journey?

Ronny: Our first John Peel session was in the beginning of  November 1985. It was pretty stressful for me. We had to record 4 to 5 songs with the live band in one working ‘BBC’ day of 6 hours or so. It didn’t occur to me that I should have taken adaptors for English power plugs with me.  Because it is the BBC, no one is allowed to change a power plug without the assistance of a fully qualified engineer, so it took them already one hour to find such a person as labour union regulations dictated that the technician supposed to have his tea break of an hour. We were already losing valuable time! We didn’t have computers in those days. My first Commodore computer with TV monitor I got in 1988 when I wrote the “ Twist Of Shadows“ album.  The Macintosh 128K a normal mortal could not afford. Clan Of Xymox did however use an 8 track recorder for the backing tracks, like Depeche Mode or The Cocteau Twins used as well. It consisted of individual drum tracks, sequenced bass triggers and strings. This made life a bit easier.  We could thanks to the ‘eight track’ finish within the timeframe of the BBC.

The only disappointment for me was that I actually never got to meet John Peel. Even then he was a legend, especially to me, because it was the best program for discovering new exciting bands. I only got to call him from the 4AD office, thanking him for the opportunity he gave us. He declared in his program that we were the pioneers of Dark-Wave. That was a huge compliment and recognition for Clan Of Xymox. Soon Dutch radios started to follow suit. We got to record a live show for Radio Veronica in Hilversum. Several TV shows invited us for music programs like the VARA. MTV picked us up too. We felt we were on a roll!

John Fryer I instantly liked as a person and sound engineer. He was the in house sound engineer of 4AD and knew what he was doing. He was not afraid to experiment with sampling sounds and replacing them. The AMS delay was his secret weapon. I remember sitting evenings together with John mixing tracks by hand. So I had to pull and push knobs on my side and he on his side. It was a lot of fun and very educational. Later in live John made me a remix for “Big Brother“ from the album “Limbo” (2021).

I worked with David M. Allen on tracks like “Out Of The Rain” and “Sing A Song” together with Jools of Nitzer Ebb. It was in Leamington Spa in John Rivers’s studio. I worked with John Rivers already on the “Blind Hearts”-EP for 4AD and several B-sides for later PolyGram. Now I was working with John on the “Hidden Faces”-album (1997) and we thought it would be very cool to have Dave M. Allen involved. This certainly worked. I wished we had the budget to work on all the songs but I was already glad these two songs worked out fantastically. Dave is a very likeable person with an air of mystique around him. He gives suggestions for you to try and they always make sense. He taught me to delve deeper when needed.

‘Without Me There Is No Clan Of Xymox’

Q: Both Xymox and Clan Of Xymox included founding members Anke Wolbert and Pieter Nooten. What role did they play in shaping the band’s identity, and how do you reflect on the line-up changes over the years?

Ronny: They were both not founding members. They joined me in the beginning of the Xymox period. First Anke as I told you and later in 1985 Pieter. Because they were the first ones joining they are seen as founding members but I am sorry to say; it was always my thing. I was and still am the driving force behind the band and it’s musical direction. No one else. They concentrated mainly on their own songs like “Masquerade” or “Stumble” and “Fall” back in the days. The bulk I wrote. I participated also on their songs as well.

Regarding the songs it is true we worked more together like a band should. In the beginning we rehearsed the songs for live shows and many got changed during this process. This was only sustainable for a short while as nobody liked to rehearse together.

We ended up as 3 individuals writers with different taste and musical directions so it was inevitable it wouldn’t work out long because we were all to egocentric to begin with. When I officially broke up with Anke it was also the end of working together as a collective. We all went our own way.

Indeed we had many changes but maybe the irony is in the word ‘Clan’, a group of close knitted people. So in the end there were many LIVE musicians joining the band for a short or longer period. Joining ‘the Clan’. The red line was and is simple: without me there is no Clan Of Xymox.

All happened really fast in those days. It was a learning process for all involved. Books about the music industry and bands hardly existed. Everyone was left to do whatever with their experiences, positive or negative.
I never knew or expected that just making music could make me enemies but also gaining a lot of friends of course. Jalousie and spite can make people really vicious and vindictive and yet equally so many fans or friends treat you with the utmost respect or even adoration. To me it is just music but soon you realise it is something more than that. 

Former friends or partners turning into your personal enemy. It is the worst thing that can happen, because they know your weaknesses and irritation points and will not shy away from using this against you if they have no pride, dignity or integrity.

Thinking back on this short period between 1985 and 1989 stir more negative emotions then positive ones in me. It wasn’t all bad of course but I can’t remember real long good periods. I realise looking back that I am only happy with the band since the beginning of the  mid 90’s to now, at least 33 years so far:)

Q: How does the young Ronny Moorings compare to the musician you are today? What traits have endured, and which aspects of your younger self do you miss in your music or approach to life?

Ronny: I was definitely very naive in the beginning. When I wrote a song for example I just split the rights between the band members because I thought it would motivate my band to pull more their weight in the band and…. after all I was a socialist and not a capitalist 😉

Soon I discovered that when people sense they don’t have to do too much and can simply lay back whilst I do the heavy lifting because they get paid anyway.

I started to get annoyed with this uneven situation and learned from this that I should not give away my rights that easily just to please band members or partner. So I ended this naive approach and never looked back.
Equally I used to work with bigger crews, managers, tour managers, lawyers and all the professional people they told you would need to have in order to make it as a band.

After many annoyances about the enormous bills I decided I could do most jobs way better. I know I am a control freak. You have to be. You have to understand the way things work. Now I have a lean machine and I like it a lot. Later I also learned to delegate things and that is also very rewarding. I guess ‘live and learn’ is true in my opinion.

‘Dark-Wave Has A Strong Hold All Over The World Like In The 80’s’

Q: Many legendary New/Dark-Wave bands achieved their greatest success in the ’80s. Why do you think those years were so special and unique for the genre? How do you see the evolution of New/Dark-Wave music from its origins to today, particularly in terms of its spirit and cultural significance?

Ronny: Yes, it was a new style taking over with fashion unseen before, It was against the Hippy culture, the jeans wearing long haired pot smokers. It was a clean break from all of this, plus the ‘no future’ feeling with all the political turmoil and nuclear threats hanging over our heads. Remember Thatchers England. Ronald Reagan as president.

These bands made the sound track of our lives and guess what? It is happening again. Dark-Wave has a strong hold all over the world like in the 80’s. Yes, it’s not on the dying radio or TV stations as we know it but streaming like crazy, this time on internet radios, YouTube, Spotify It feels a bit like maybe the pirates in the 80’s.

It feels the same to me and also we have the same nuclear threats back again. In a way it feels coming ‘full circle’.

Q: Over the decades, the music industry has undergone tremendous changes -rising social media, streaming platforms, declining physical album sales, advances in technology, and shifts in performance venues from intimate gigs to massive festivals. How have you navigated these transformations, and what are your thoughts on the (r)evolution of the industry?

Ronny: I navigate these changes just fine I think. I always welcomed change and will ever do. We need to improve. We need to move forward and not backward. When for the very first time in the 80’s I could get my hands on a computer I embraced it as a big help with sequencing and programming. It made endless rehearsing patterns on keyboards so much easier. Later it became my entire virtual studio platform. Streaming is now the most important thing now in the music industry and some artists do not like it, but remember when music was pirated and artists would get nothing from it financially and no insight how many like to listen to your music etc. I love Spotify and as an artist you have access to all date regarding what your fans are listening to.
Most music I listen to these days is from platforms, on my phone with airpods. This gives me more time to listen to music when I am on the move or outside. Everything in one device is just brilliant I think. Of course I have at home all old media devices still in place. I do play vinyl as well when I am in the mood. I still love vinyl and the looks of it. The best format for the artwork to shine.

Q: While it’s difficult for any musician to choose a single album or song as their best, is there a particular piece in your discography that holds special significance for you? Or do you believe that your most recent work is always your finest?

Ronny: I have to agree with my fellow musicians. My recent is indeed the best so far as I can see and feel 😉 It is simply because new songs are for the one who wrote and recorded it the most exciting, the most fresh and recent to your current experiences. You have to play them live which you haven’t done before and in the end they will sound different then when it came out. If you don’t have that feeling the artist should not release the album in the first place 😉

‘I Let The Listener Feel What I Feel’

Q: Your lyrics often feel deeply expressive, sometimes addressing social and political themes, other times delving into introspection. Do you see your lyrics as a reflection of your true self? What value and purpose do they hold for you?

Ronny: Sometimes yes and sometimes no. It’s complicated 😉 I definitely sing about emotions I feel or felt. Say I sing about Evelyn, Louise or Michelle. That doesn’t mean I know a person with that name or sing about a real person. All these names are fictional but the feelings and thoughts what went into these songs are real. Sometimes more than one person I think about finds its place into a song lyric. It all depends. Political themes are the ones which affected me like in the Lockdown periods in the early 20’s. It comes home, becomes personal and I describe more the situation than anything else. I let the listener feel what I feel.
Sometimes I write a song to blow off steam and feel good afterwards. Most of the time it’s about a person who doesn’t want to leave me alone almost my entire life 😉 I can keep going on like that. I always delve the lyrics out of the depths of my mind where it lay buried until I get it out through some type of instrumentation deciding for me what the topic is going to be. A new to be written song has most of the time its own will and direction.

Q: Clan Of Xymox has consistently attracted new fans over the years. What do your fans mean to you, and how does it feel to have a lasting influence on the Dark-Wave scene?

Ronny: Fans are the most important to me. Without a doubt. We meet so many dedicated fans, traveling to all of our shows they can reach within reason. We always talk to anyone after the show who’s interested, have selfies taken, give autographs, give something a fan would like to experience, a closeness you can’t give onstage. A hand shake, a look in the eye.

I am honoured to contribute to the Dark-Wave scene as it is today. All bands who are now big I met when they were still beginning and were our support one time or the other. I know that we had an influence on them but now they are an influence on me the same. So it works in the end both ways. To me this scene is the best scene ever for me.

Q: Looking back on your career, what do you consider to be your biggest milestones? And what were the most significant disappointments?

Ronny: I am still working on my biggest milestone 🙂 My quest is to see how long I can still play live with the band. That is my ultimate quest in life. Disappointments enough, especially in people, but to me that is also an inspiration to write songs about so in the end all turns out for the best. I am lucky I have many good friends in my life to compensate for the negative. Unfortunately I am a person who has to be on the darker side of things in order to feel inspired. So I don’t mind 😉

Q: How have you managed to keep finding fresh ideas and challenges over the years? Were there periods where inspiration waned, and if so, how did you overcome those creative blocks?

Ronny: I think in the beginning it was harder to write as it is now. To me writing comes very natural I think. Maybe because I have more to say now than when I was in my twenties. In that time I read a lot of books in order to get lyrically inspired. For a long time now I just write from what comes up in my mind and put it into lyrics. Way easier I think and less time consuming 😉 The music was never a problem. Finding words to it is a harder nut to crack sometimes.

A creative block I handle very easy: I put the song away and start with something else. Sometimes its years later that I have a look at it again, if I can do something with it and often that’s the case. So for me I don’t like to force a song if it doesn’t present it by itself.

‘Joy Division, The Sisters Of Mercy And The Cure Were Very Important To Me’

Q: One of the most surprising entries in your discography is “Kindred Spirits” (2012), a cover album featuring renowned songs and artists. How did you choose the tracks, and what connection do you have to those songs? Would you consider them key sources of inspiration?

Ronny: When I was young, the only means of getting to know music was the radio or “Top of the Pops” later in the 70s. In the Netherlands we had bands like Shocking Blue, Brainbox, Earth And Fire, Focus, The Golden Earring and such, which appealed to me a lot. These were the bands I was interested in. On TV we grew up with The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and of course The Monkees especially grouped for US TV. These bands made me want to play an instrument at a very young age. After that I always stayed on the alternative side of music. On my album “Kindred Spirits“ you can see and hear which artist influenced me in the direction I was going. Bands for example like Joy Division, The Sisters Of Mercy and The Cure were very important to me.

I gave or restricted myself to make a choice for ten songs of bands who had in one way or the other an impact on my musical taste. I wanted to give an ode to these bands and revive these songs in my memory to keep and make them as my own. In the end I did 11 tracks of my all-time favourite bands or songs.

Too many bands like to hide their influences or deny them. I decided to give them my own pedestal.

Q: This year marks the release of Clan Of Xymox’s 18th album, “Exodus”. What does this album represent within your extensive discography? Can you share insights into its creation?

Ronny: I finished and released the album “Limbo” in 2021 and I wrote the “Exodus” album after writing “Save Our Souls” in 2022 in 2023. The last song I wrote for this album was in January 2024 and here we are. In a way keeping the tradition of one album release in every two or three years.

We toured an awful lot so the little time I had, I spend in the studio taking my mind of things. The late general developments in the world I felt writing about. Instead of introspective lyrics I felt more like describing our current times we live in. After “Save Our Souls” I wrote “Fear For A World At War”, especially after all the rhetoric of Putin threatening Europe or the world with nuclear strikes. Because the world is massively gearing up for war.

When I was born there was the biggest world crisis between the Soviet Union and the USA about the missiles in Cuba.

It is ironic that now we are living with almost the exact conditions but this time closer to home, having a nuclear missile threat. History repeats itself . I certainly hope this is not getting out of hand but the signs are that we seem to step up our war talk more and more. SOS indeed. The world is at turmoil and nothing good will come out of this. Exodus for me as well when it gets out of hand. Anyway, this is the back ground for writing all these songs for “Exodus”.

Q: Talking about “Save Our Souls”, there clearly is a sense of commentary on the state of the world. Do you see music and this album as a unifying force in troubled times? How do you perceive its broader impact on society?

Ronny: “Save Our Souls” was specific about the invasion of the Russians into the Ukraine. It was a shocker for me. Especially after just having toured there in September 2021. I see music in troubled times more as a safety blanket you can wrap yourself in. It gives comfort and soothes your mind and well-being. An escape as it were from the daily sorrows we get bombarded with each and every minute. So far music can change or influence politics when masses cry out for social change. I don’t see that happen with this album or any of my albums;) Never intended for it either.

Q: Authenticity seems to be a hallmark of your music. Many fans describe a sense of genuine emotion and connection in your work. How do you experience this dynamic and interaction with your audience? How powerful or influential do you think music can be in bridging gaps and inspiring change?

Ronny: Wow, if you talk about the grand scale of things you might have a chance to do so but in the cult circuit we are maybe just the inspiring factor. That which might work on a small scale. I should certainly hope that our fans and other listeners get the music of Clan Of Xymox and feel the emotions I feel when I perform these songs with my band. Live you notice this the best. During the show I always look at people and there are so many various expressions on people faces, you feel that you are almost privileged to see an expression of someone when they sink into the song with mind and body. I love it!

‘Contrast Works Always The Best In A Way’

Q: Your music often combines dark, melancholic themes with an energy that makes people dance and feel alive. How do you reconcile these contrasting elements?

Ronny: Contrast works always the best in a way. I defines, it outlines. I have a lot of slow songs with equally dark lyrics but playing live I want to entertain people, want to make them move inside and out. I have luckily lots and lots of songs to choose from and during the years it taught me a lot about which songs people like to hear when they go to our concert. That means the classics are always included and never ignored.

Q: Finally, let’s end with a few rapid-fire questions:

• ‘Sex, Drugs, and Rock ‘N’ Roll’: does this resonate with you?

Ronny: During my long career all certainly resonates at one time or the other. Experimenting with drugs I steered away long time ago. It was perhaps hip in the 80’s or attractive to experiment but the same goes for smoking or anything else unhealthy. I value a healthy life style with perhaps an alternativee: Sex, Wine and Wave 😉

• Is there a band or artist you would have loved to collaborate with?

Ronny: It’s a shame I never got to work with David Bowie. I met him once in LA when he came to see our concert in the Palace. I was too starstruck to even think of asking him. What a missed chance !

• Do you feel a spiritual connection with any particular artist or band?

Ronny: Yes, plenty! I have got so many great friends in the current scene who make great music. Backstage is always fun when we meet.

• In a world without music, what do you think you’d be doing?

Ronny: Not breathe.

• Which Clan Of Xymox song would you recommend to someone who has never heard your music before?

Ronny: “A Day”, “She” or “Loneliness” as a starter.

• How many albums has Clan Of Xymox sold, and which remains the most successful?

Ronny:  Wouldn’t you like to know 😉 “Twist Of Shadows” was still the most successful in terms of hard record-CD/Cassettes sales because it was at the time people could only buy that and did. There was no piracy then, apart from the classic copying on a blank cassette. In terms of streaming and overall impact I have to point to my later works.

• What is the ultimate dream for Clan Of Xymox?

Ronny: To carry on like the last two years.

• What would you want written on your epitaph and that of Clan Of Xymox?

Ronny:  

See you on the other side.

I am the sunlight on ripened grain.

I am the gentle autumn rain.

Do not stand at my grave and weep.

I am a thousand winds that blow.

I am not there, I didn’t go.

I didn’t die, so you know. 

See you on the other side.

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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Irish musician and artist Gavin Friday (Virgin Prunes) is back with his first solo album in over a decade, “Ecce Homo”, set for release on October 25 via BMG. Produced by Dave Ball of Soft Cell and Michael Heffernan, this marks Friday’s first album since 2011’s “Catholic”. Along with the announcement, the title track is now available as a digital EP featuring two remixes and an instrumental version.

Friday, known for his role as the frontman of Virgin Prunes, has a career spanning four decades, collaborating with artists like U2, Sinead O’Connor, and Scott Walker. His work extends beyond music into visual arts and composing for films, earning Ivor Novello and Golden Globe nominations for “In The Name of The Father“.

“Ecce Homo” blends electronics and acoustic sounds, exploring themes of anger, independence, love, and loss. Friday describes the album as his “most honest, reflecting on personal and collective struggles.”

The album’s first single, the title track “Ecce Homo”, is a track confronting societal challenges. Accompanied by a video created entirely with AI, Friday calls it “a personal kick in the head and kiss on the cheek to a world gone very wrong.”

The album will be available digitally, on limited-edition vinyl, and as a deluxe CD featuring bonus tracks and remixes.

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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Andy Bell, the frontman of Erasure, is featured on the remix of the U2 classic “Pride (In The Name Of Love)” by Dave Audé. Andy Bell is featured along other guest vocalists such as Crystal Waters, Sarah Potenza, Wyn Starks, Plumb, and Zee Machine.

In the UK, the single is currently sitting at number seven on the Music Week Commercial Pop Chart, and down under in Australia, the track is maintaining the number one position on the Hot 30 Chart for five consecutive weeks. The DJ Tracy Young remix of the track is also doing well in Scandinavia, holding the sixth spot on the iTunes Dance Chart in Denmark and ranking 41st on Denmark’s overall iTunes chart.

The remix was released under Audacious Records on August 23 and is available across all major platforms, including Apple Music and Beatport, with various remixes by DJs made available.

Check for yourself.

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 Hertfordshire-based industrial-postpunk band History Of Guns has released a new single, “What’s Buried (Will Rise)”, from their latest album “Half Light”. In the single the band continues to explore psychological themes, addressing the repression experienced by non-conformists and the resulting systematic amnesia. The single, inspired by Freud and Jung, features a video influenced by “The Talented Mr. Ripley” which you can see below.

“How well do we really know ourselves? The “introspection illusion” suggests that the way we view ourselves is probably inherently distorted. In terms of the conscious, the subconscious and the unconscious, how much of how we think and behave is driven by each aspect? Freud & Jung’s theories of repression say that the more you try to bury something that happened, or some aspect of your self the more it will come back in some form or other as “the return of the repressed’,” says producer and band member Max Rael.

“As for the video, I’ve always been obsessed with that kind of high contrast black white look ever since I fell in love with Orson Welles. I was watching the recent adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s Talented Mr Ripley books on Netflix, and there’s an episode where Tom and Dicky are out in this little two-man boat. Because the songs on ‘Half Light’ are aligned to the Greek Elements, I thought it’d be great to have this video in black and white, with shots of submerged objects floating to the surface. We had some help from ace director and VFX supremo Howard Gardner. I think the end result is intriguing, and a bit wrong, but hopefully wrong in a good way!”

The full album “Half Light” was mixed by Max Rael and Caden Clarkson, produced by Rael, and mastered by Pete Maher (known for his work with U2, Pixies, and Depeche Mode). On this album, founding members Del Alien (vocals) and Max Rael (keyboards, programming) are joined by guitarist Caden Clarkson (the newest member of History Of Guns). The album is available on Spotify, Apple Music, and Bandcamp.

The new album (released via the Liquid Len Recording Company) was previewed by the singles “No Longer Earthbound” and “When You Don’t Matter”.

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

History Of Guns comes from the 1990s UK EDM / electronic scene and became famous thanks to their ‘meta-modernist’ industrial sound. Their new (and eighth) album “Half Light” out via the Liquid Len Recording Company follows the singles “No Longer Earthbound” and “When You Don’t Matter”. Mixed by Max Rael and Caden Clarkson, this album was mastered by Pete Maher (U2, Pixies, Nick Cave, Depeche Mode, Nine Inch Nails).

On this album, founding members Del Alien (vocals) and Max Rael (keyboards, programming) are joined by guitarist Caden Clarkson (the newest member of History Of Guns). We also hear Andy Webster and Marnie from Spucktute on vocals on “Never Give it Up”, Amon Ásentir and Mark Eris from Xykogen on vocals on “Arcadia” joined by the Arcadia Choir (Emma Mills, Priyanka O’Neill, Sohm O’Neill and Ninotschka G.) and finally Nykky Spectre on vocals on “An Invitation”.

“When we came back from hiatus in 2022, we wanted a completely fresh start so we wrote the industrial rock / metal album ‘Forever Dying in Your Eyes’ from scratch. We had half of ‘Half Light’ at least sketched out as an electronic album back in 2008/2009,” explains Max Rael.

“Fortunately, people seem much more comfortable with us being genre-fluid these days and it’s less cause for criticism. Back in the day, certain camps seemed to have a definite need for bands to fit neatly into particular genres and not stray too far outside of it, which meant some of our early stuff was maybe a bit misunderstood because people didn’t know where to put it. We’ve been genuinely amazed by the reaction to the first two singles and are in nervous anticipation for what people will make of the album”.

Formed in Cheshunt, Hertfordshire in 1996, the duo became frontrunners of the Wasp Factory / FuturePunk scene of the early 2000s. The band went on hiatus in 2012, returning with 2022’s album “Forever Dying In Your Eyes” before setting about finishing an electronic project they’d begun in 2008 – resulting in “Half Light”. The starting point for this album lays in Robert Anton Wilson’s words “The future is up for grabs; it belongs to any and all who will take the risk and accept the responsibility of consciously creating the future they want.” The release contains elements of a story currently being written as a novel by Max Rael, with these 10 tracks exploring inner and outer space.

Below is the video for the single “When You Don’t Matter”.

And this is the video for “No Longer Earthbound”.

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 Kevin Estrada) Beauty In Chaos has teamed up with The Mission’s Wayne Hussey and Cinthya Hussey on the “Diving For Pearls” single. Cinthya is Wayne’s wife and partner in Archeometre. This is the fourth song Wayne Hussey has fronted with Beauty In Chaos.

The new single goes accompanied by a video which you can view below. This is the first offering from the forthcoming record by Beauty In Chaos, formed in 2018 by guitarist Michael Ciravolo. Entitled “Dancing With Angels”, the full-length album is set for world-wide release on July 24.

The ‘single version’ was mixed by Tim Palmer, whose production and mixing credits include The Cure, U2, David Bowie, Robert Plant, HIM and The Mission, among many other artists.

“When Michael first sent me the music track, I was on tour with The Mission. I had a few listens and thought, yes, this is good, I can find something to sing to this easy enough. And then nothing. For months, I’d listen, and I would come up with melodies aplenty, but no words. More time passed and Michael would ask how I was getting on and each time I’d reply, “I’ve got vocal melodies but no lyrics, absolutely nothing is coming”. I must confess that I was getting worried that I’d never be able to write another song – ever,” recalls Wayne Hussey.

“I was raking over all my old lyric notebooks and various word documents on old hard drives and still nada. I was bemoaning my situation to Cinthya one evening and she suggested I write about a personal situation I’d found myself in a few years back. I got my mind focused in the right direction, and while in the studio singing along to the track, I soon got the first line, with the rest following fairly easily…and quickly. It was a huge relief to have the elusive muse visit me again. I played it to Cin and she suggested a couple of small changes and voila, here you have it! I won’t explain what or who the song is about, there’s no need for that, I’ll just leave the listener to make up their own mind, and take from it what they will”.

Cinthya Hussey adds “When I first heard the instrumental track for this song I immediately fell in love with Michael’s guitars. It’s the kind of song that embraces you… and I could listen to it all day long. Wayne was a bit stuck for ideas so I threw an idea at him that was relevant and would be good to get out of his system… And off he went… majestically so! This is probably one of my favourite Beauty In Chaos songs!”

As of June 4, “Diving For Pearls” will be available a limited edition CD single and also digitally everywhere, including Bandcamp, Apple Music and Spotify via 33.3 Music Collective.

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

Underground 90s industrial legends History Of Guns present “When You Don’t Matter”, previewing their “Half Light” album – their eighth to date. This is the second taster of their “Half Light” album, following the lead track “No Longer Earthbound”. “Half Light” will be out June 20 via Liquid Len Recording Company.

On hiatus from 2012 to 2022, they finally had the opportunity to finish off an electronic project they’d begun in 2008. The result is the “Half Light” album, which also presented the opportunity to work with Pete Maher (U2, Pixies, Nick Cave, Depeche Mode, Nine Inch Nails). On this album, founding members Del Alien (vocals) and Max Rael (keyboards, programming) are joined by guitarist Caden Clarkson, the newest member of History Of Guns. The whole was produced by Max Rael, mixed by Max Rael and Caden Clarkson.

“I think most people know of either a moment, or something sadly longer, when you’re on your own, and no one knows where you are, how you are, or even if you’re alive or dead. I think this like a History Of Guns version of a ballad, for abandonment. But whenever we have something we think is beautiful, we always have to smash it up somehow. From an existential point of view it might be true, maybe we don’t matter. We are meaning-seeking creatures in a world with no objective meaning. Ultimately we have to find a way to make ourselves matter to ourselves,” says multi-instrumentalist Max Rael.

Del Alien adds, “It’s like the vain attempt to help people. Maybe they know it, maybe they don’t. It’s not a personal thing is it? Is this what society has done to us? Is it worth you thinking about? Getting cold in a box just to be burned and scattered to the wind, only to end up in the mouth of a dying junkie… or like sleeping with the sanest lunatic you ever met, but there’s no one there in the morning to make you breakfast. If the product is not good from the start, how can it be in the end? Losing the place you stand, just to hold another’s hand.”

History Of Guns was formed in Hertfordshire in 1996 becoming the frontrunners of the UK’s Wasp Factory / FuturePunk scene of the early 2000s. After going on hiatus in 2012, they returned in 2022 with a new album – “Forever Dying In Your Eyes”.

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

UK electro-goth post-punk act History Of Guns presents “No Longer Earthbound”, the first taste of their eighth album, “Half Light” out June 20 via Liquid Len Recording Company. “Half Light” was mastered by Pete Maher (Pixies, U2, Nick Cave, Depeche Mode, Nine Inch Nails).

History Of Guns was formed in Hertfordshire in 1996 becoming the frontrunners of the UK’s Wasp Factory / FuturePunk scene of the early 2000s. After going on hiatus in 2012, they returned in 2022 with a new album – “Forever Dying In Your Eyes” – then set about finishing an electronic project they’d begun in 2008. The result is this “Half Light” album, produced by Max Rael and mixed by Max Rael and Caden Clarkson with mastering by Pete Maher (U2, Pixies, Nick Cave, J&MC, Depeche Mode, Nine Inch Nails). On this new album founding members Del Alien (vocals) and Max Rael (keyboards, programming) are joined by guitarist Caden Clarkson, the newest member of History Of Guns.

On the album we also noticed a guest performance by Andy Webster and Marnie from Spucktute on “Never Give it Up”, Amon Ásentir & Mark Eris from Xykogen on “Arcadia”, the Arcadia Choir (Emma Mills, Priyanka O’Neill, Sohm O’Neill and Ninotschka G.) on “Arcadia” and Nykky Spectre on “An Invitation”.

Max Rael says this about the new single: “This is a song about shifting focus away from this planet and to other places or realities.The existentialist question about why worry about saving the planet and endangered species when ultimately life will be unlivable on Earth in 1.3 billion years? If everything ends anyway, where else could we go? We pictured escaping the planet either through space travel, virtual reality or death. It is also about what we choose to leave behind as we shed one existence and go looking for another. That’s not to say History Of Guns don’t care about the planet. We recycle! Though apparently most of it ends up in landfill anyway.”

You can check the video for the new single “No Longer Earthbound” 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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(Photo by Cal McIntryre) The shoe gaze act Ride have announced a seventh studio album, “Interplay”, out 29th March via Wichita Recordings / PIAS. The new record is the Oxford four piece’s third since reforming in 2014. The announcement is accompanied by the album’s first single, “Peace Sign”, out now.

The album is the follow-up to 2017’s “Weather Diaries” and 2019’s “This Is Not A Safe Place”. The new album was produced by the band with Richie Kennedy and mixed by Claudius Mittendorfer inspired by 80’s pop bands like Tears For Fears, Talk Talk and early U2.

Thematically, it pairs classic Ride lyrical hallmarks such as escapism, dreams, and the dissatisfaction of modern life with a sense of resilience and perseverance that come from imploding, then reforming and finding a way forward to their second peak, as guitarist and singer Andy Bell explains: “This album has taken a long time to make, and has seen the band go through a lot of ups and downs; maybe the most of any Ride album. But it has seen us come through the process as a band in a good place, feeling able to shake off the past, and ready to celebrate the combined musical talents that brought us together in the first place.”

Speaking on the new “Peace Sign” single, Andy says: “‘Peace Sign’ started life as a jam recorded at Marks’ OX4 studio, in early 2021. We called it ‘Berlin’ and initially it featured Loz on drums, Steve on bass and myself on a prophet 5 synth. About six months later I got hold of the recording and wrestled it into song form. Lyrically I was inspired by a film called ‘The Alpinist’ about the visionary free climber Marc-André Leclerc. Soon after I’d finished working on the song I remember I was raving to my bandmates about Leclerc at OX4, and a good memory of that time was us all watching that film at Mark’s studio.”

Here’s a video for “Peace Sign” 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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The industrial metal act FEBRVVM has released the third single from its upcoming new album “Cholera in the Time of Love” which is due on February 16. The song is called “One Two Three Four” and is accompanied with a lyric video that features AI-generated monstrosities.

The band explains the video as follows: “Basically it is a collection of Midjourney pictures, most of which are anime girls with guitars. Multiple impossible guitars. Played by creatures with three arms who have six fingers on each hand. You know, the usual stuff. The longer you look at the picture, the worse it gets. Does it have to deal anything with the subject of the song? It kind of does.”

You can watch the lyric video for the track below.

You can download the track via Bandcamp as well.

About FEBRVVM

FEBRVVM is an alternative/industrial/gothic rock/metal band hailing from Providence, Rhode Island. The band, characterized by its industrial metal roots, has also been known to infuse elements of gothic metal into its sound.

The discography of FEBRVVM includes several releases including the debut EP “Secretly Dreaming of Freezing to Death” from 2017. This was followed by the EP “Ekpyrosis” in 2018 and “Praemeditatio Malorvm” in 2020. The year 2021 saw the release of two albums, “Apokatastasis” and “Breaking the Broken”.

In addition to original compositions, FEBRVVM has also made a mark with a cover album, “Cross Over and Turn”, offering his take on songs by The Cure, The Sisters of Mercy, Leonard Cohen, Low, Tweaker with Will Oldham, U2, and more.

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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FEBRVVM, an industrial metal act, has released the second single from its upcoming album “Cholera in the Time of Love” due in February 2024. The song is called “Sleeve” and deals as the band says “in a humorous manner with situations which are, frankly, not funny at all.”

You can watch the lyric video for the track here.

The single is available for streaming pretty much everywhere, including bandcamp.

About FEBRVVM

FEBRVVM is an alternative/industrial/gothic rock/metal band hailing from Providence, Rhode Island. The band, characterized by its industrial metal roots, has also been known to infuse elements of gothic metal into its sound.

The discography of FEBRVVM includes several releases including the debut EP “Secretly Dreaming of Freezing to Death” from 2017. This was followed by the EP “Ekpyrosis” in 2018 and “Praemeditatio Malorvm” in 2020. The year 2021 saw the release of two albums, “Apokatastasis” and “Breaking the Broken”.

In addition to original compositions, FEBRVVM has also made a mark with a cover album, “Cross Over and Turn”, offering his take on songs by The Cure, The Sisters of Mercy, Leonard Cohen, Low, Tweaker with Will Oldham, U2, and more.

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 Elliot Pietrapiana) The French postpunk band Corpus Delicti comes back with a new single, “Chaos”, 28 years after their last album. “Chaos” is now available on Youtube. The single will also be released as a 7inch vinyl which will also include an exclusive B-side “The Crown”.

“Chaos” was produced in the United States by American musician William Faith (Faith And The Muse, March Violets) and was mastered by Grazz (U2, Pogues, Prodigy, Kills..) at The Exchange (London). The video was directed by Stéphane Lionardo.

About Corpus Delicti

Corpus Delicti was formed in Nice in 1992 by Sébastien (vocals), Franck (guitar), Chrys (bass) and Roma (drums). Their debut album “Twilight” was released in 1993. After two more albums, the band broke up in 1997. They reunited 23 years later and signed with the American label Cleopatra, who are preparing to reissue of the band’s backcatalogue. Roma, no longer able to play due to health reasons, was replaced by Laurent Tamagno, drummer for M83 among others.

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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Former The Cure member Lol Tolhurst, former Siouxsie & The Banshees drummer Budgie, and producer Jacknife Lee have teamed up to create their debut album, “Los Angeles.” This 13-track album is out now through PIAS.

The trio describes the record as “a hard-hitting and compulsively exploratory 55-minute electronic mindscrew, founded on unrivalled rhythmic expertise, fleshed out with an armoury of synths, guitars (Jacknife’s forte) and supplementary percussion, often overlaid with elite-class strings and brass, then universally twisted, manipulated and quite masterfully sculpted by Lee, with his super-producer’s hat on.”

Joining forces with these music veterans are such artists as LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy, Primal Scream’s Bobby Gillespie, U2’s The Edge, IDLES’ Mark Bowen, Lonnie Holley, Mary Lattimore, Modest Mouse’s Isaac Brock, and Pan Amsterdam.

The debut single, “Los Angeles”, features James Murphy’s lead vocals. The single comes accompanied by a music video, directed by John Liwag.

The tracklist for the album is the following.

1. This Is What It Is (To Be Free) (with Bobby Gillespie)
2. Los Angeles (with James Murphy)
3. Uh Oh (with Arrow de Wilde and Mark Bowen)
4. Ghosted at Home (with Bobby Gillespie)
5. Train With No Station (with The Edge)
6. Bodies (with Lonnie Holley and Mary Lattimore)
7. Everything and Nothing
8. Travel Channel (with Pan Amsterdam)
9. Country of the Blind (with Bobby Gillespie)
10. The Past (Being Eaten)
11. We Got To Move (with Isaac Brock)
12. Noche Oscura (with The Edge)
13. Skins (with James Murphy)

In related news, Lol Tolhurst, co-founder of The Cure, is to release a new book titled “Goth: A History” on September 23rd. The book is a historical account of the genre and culture of goth music, building upon his first memoir, “Cured”.

In it Tolhurst identifies key players in the establishment of the genre, referring to them as the “Architects of Darkness”. This group includes Bauhaus, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Joy Division, and The Cure. He further discusses a group of bands he labels as the “Spiritual Alchemists”, which includes Depeche Mode and Cocteau Twins, indicating their role in extending the reach of goth culture. The book also tracks the genre’s expansion from England to New York, Los Angeles, and other locations.

Side-Line also covered The Cure’s ‘Paris’.

About Lol Tolhurst

Laurence “Lol” Tolhurst (born 3 February 1959) co-founded the Cure in 1976 alongside childhood friend Robert Smith, originally on drums, later switching to keyboards. He played on the band’s early albums, including “Three Imaginary Boys,” “Seventeen Seconds,” “Faith” and “Pornography,” and departed in 1989 following the recording of “Disintegration.” He rejoined the Cure for a 2011 reunion tour and was inducted with the band into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2019, and published the memoir “Cured: The Tale of Two Imaginary Boys” in 2016.

After leaving the Cure, Tolhurst moved to Los Angeles and formed the band Presence with singer Gary Biddles in 1990, releasing the album “Inside” (1993). In 2002 he and wife Cindy Levinson formed the electronica act Levinhurst, releasing “Perfect Life” (2004) and “House by the Sea” (2007).

Tolhurst’s most recent studio work is “Los Angeles,” a collaborative album with Siouxsie and the Banshees drummer Budgie (Peter Edward Clarke) and producer Jacknife Lee, released via PIAS Recordings on 3 November 2023. The album features guest contributions from James Murphy, the Edge, Bobby Gillespie and Isaac Brock. “Los Angeles” is billed as the first collaborative album between Tolhurst and Budgie, the longtime Siouxsie and the Banshees drummer.

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, Dream-Pop, Indie.

Format: Digital, CD.

Background/Info: You don’t exactly imagine a Dark-Wave band hailing from Nashville (USA) and yet Palm Ghosts are now active for several years and have released a considerable number of albums. “Post Preservation” is their newest work dealing with love.

Content: This band is clearly driven by 80s Dark-Wave bands and other inspiration from that decade. The guitar has a prominent part injecting the spirit to the work. This album sounds like a melting pot between The Smiths, The Cure, Modern English and even U2.

+ + + : I can’t say Palm Ghosts took me by surprise but they definitely have great writing skills. Especially the true 80s driven songs like “Believer”, “Cross Your Heart” and “She Lies Awake” are great exposures appealing for fans of The Smiths.

– – – : I think the vocals could have been produced with a little extra diversity.

Conclusion: Palm Ghosts are more than simply copycats and spread a great 80s flavor filled with nostalgia.

Best songs: “She Lies Awake”, “Believer”, “Cross Your Heart”, “No Joy”.

Rate: 7.

Artist: www.palmghosts.net / www.facebook.com/palmghosts

About Palm Ghosts

Palm Ghosts is an American indie rock band formed in 2013 in Philadelphia by singer-songwriter and producer Joseph Lekkas, who released the project’s self-titled debut album independently in 2014. Lekkas relocated to Nashville in 2015 and, joined by guitarist and keyboardist Benjamin Douglas, recorded the follow-up “Greenland”. The band shifted toward a New Wave-influenced sound with “Architecture” in 2018.

Original drummer Walt Epting rejoined in 2020 after a lineup reduction during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the band released “Lifeboat Candidate” in 2021, followed later that year by “The Lost Frequency”. Guitarist Jason Springman left in 2022, leaving Lekkas, Douglas and Epting as a trio for “Post Preservation”, the band’s sixth album. Palm Ghosts followed it with a seventh album, “I Love You, Burn In Hell”, in November 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.

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As the Belgian, Brussels based, Crammed Discs label turns 42 this year, they are taking this opportunity to focus the spotlight on certain areas of their catalog that have been somewhat obscured in recent years. Some music trends which are back popular now were originally explored by the label in the 80s and 90s, but were never released digitally before.

We are speaking of 250 tracks that were once only released on vinyl (or on CDs that have been discontinued for a long time) via SSR Records (Sampler & Sans Reproche) which released music covering a range of styles, from early new beat to downtempo, techno, house and hip hop.

These digital reissues will be released in different phases in the coming years, each consisting of a compilation plus a number of related EPs. They’re introducing the series with a sneak peek, the “Appetiser: Rare Early SSR Electronica” EP which is out today, May 27 and holds material from the era 1989-91.

This release will be immediately followed by the “Phase 1: Rare SSR Electronica”, which focuses on the early days of the ‘electronic’ SSR label from the period 1988-94 with a 24 track compilation and five standalone EPs or albums, all of which come out on June 17.

Here is the complete list of scheduled release waves:

• Appetiser: Rare Early SSR Electronica EP 1989-91 (Crammed Archives 0) out on May 27 – 22
• Phase 1: Rare SSR Electronica 1988-94 (Crammed Archives 1) out on June 17 – 22
• Phase 2 : Rare Global Pop 1980s (Crammed Archives 2) out in Autumn 2022
• Phase 3 : Rare Electronica 1994-01 (Crammed Archives 3) out in Spring 2023
• Phase 4 : Rare Electronica B-sides 1988-97 (Crammed Archives 4) out in Autumn 2023

What’s on the first EP out now?

Here is a description of the tracks on this first EP.

“Hallucination Generation” by The Gruesome Twosome : The GT were an outfit formed by Samy Birnbach/Morpheus with Norwegian techno whiz kid Per Martinsen, and later joined by Bertrand Burgalat. This track – as well as the Mr Big Mouse track mentioned below – enjoyed considerable club success in the US, where they made it into mainstream and underground charts, from Billboard to Rockpool etc..

“A Byte of AMC” by Bleep : Bleep aka Geir Jenssen was a member of Bel Canto. After several EPs and a debut solo album on SSR (as Bleep), he went on to become a leading ambient electronic composer under his Biosphere moniker. This track pays tribute to Manchester hip hop duo Kiss AMC and their cheeky track “A Bit of U2” and also includes an – authorized – sample from the Sussan Deyhim / Richard Horowitz album “Desert Equations” (recently reissued by Crammed). The debut singles by Geir Jenssen and Per Martinsen on SSR are considered as the first Norwegian techno tracks ever. You will notice some Bel Canto sounds too on it.

“Drop That Ghetto Blaster” by Mr Big Mouse feat. Karen Finley : Mr BM were none other than Crammed’s Vincent Kenis and Marc Hollander, and this song was conceived as an ‘answer track’ to the hit single “Theme from S’Express” (and to several other tracks) which had made extensive use of vocals by provocative NY performance artist Karen Finley (lifted from her “Tales of Taboo” EP, released by Crammed in 1986).

“Danger” by Alegria : This was the debut release by Bjørn Torske who, alongside the aforementioned Per Martinsen, is one of the godfathers of Norwegian techno. “Danger” came out as part of the T.O.S. EPs, which laid the foundations for what later became a vibrant electronic music scene, with the likes of Todd Terje, Lindstrøm, Prins Thomas, Röyksopp et al.

“Security” by Farida International : A track created by Mr Big Mouse aka Kenis and Hollander from elements of a song by Middle Eastern rock band Foreign Affair (a Minimal Compact splinter group) and from a bunch of other things.

About The Early Days Of SSR

The story of SSR in a nutshell: As soon as the first wave of Detroit techno hit Europe, and playful, sample-based electronic dance music started popping up in the UK, the people at Crammed Discs were immediately excited about these new combinations of sounds, and started their SSR division in on 1988.

In those early days of SSR, a Belgian-Norwegian axis emerged, when a handful of young Norwegian musicians and producers came to Brussels (in connection with Bel Canto, the electro-pop group then signed to Crammed), and sat down with central figures of Crammed Discs such as Minimal Compact vocalist Samy Birnbach (later known as DJ Morpheus), label owner Marc Hollander, and Vincent Kenis (Marc’s former partner in Aksak Maboul).

A series of hybrid electro EPs were released, mixing early techno styles with influences from around the world.

SSR (and its sub-labels Language and Selector) would release more than sixty albums and dozens of EPs, spanning various styles (from house and techno to downtempo, ambient, broken beats, drum’n’bass and hip-hop), featuring artists such as Carl Craig, Snooze, Juryman aka Ian Simmonds, DJ Spinna, 4hero and Tek 9, Bleep aka Biosphere, Telex, DJ Morpheus and many others.

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 single by Lakeside X, “Rising”. The single release goes hand in hand with a brand new video shot in Berlin. Included in the single release is also a remix of the title track by Mesh’ Mark Hockings as Blackcarburning.

The single is a new teaser for the band’s forthcoming album “Love Disappears”. The new album will be produced by Daniel Myer (Haujobb , Liebknecht , Covenant , Architect). The Prague based synthpop act made a comeback last December with the release of “Fire in the Sky”, the first single after 11 years since their last studio album.

The single is available via all digital platforms.

Video out as well

The trio Janne Marvannen, Robert Broj and Igor Dvorsky have taken to the streets of Berlin to shoot a completely self-produced music video with a few very special cameo appearances.

“This was the first track that Janne demoed to us and also the first track we started our collaboration with Daniel on. I knew right from the start, that this was going to be a single”, says Robert Broj, the keyboard player.

Jane adds: “I wandered through the streets of Berlin, headphones on my ears and listening to Nick Cave, David Bowie, U2, Depeche Mode – all those giants, who recorded their fundamental albums in Berlin – and I wrote glimpses of thoughts that would later become song lyrics. Somewhere there, in the middle of cold nights of November 2019, shortly before the circumstances were about to lock us at home for a long time, I have decided to work on new things for Lakeside X, on new songs about a journey, about disappearing from this world, about falling down and rising up from the ashes and about new hopes. I wanted to shoot the video just in Berlin, and by doing that we could, in a symbolic way, pay a tribute to all those, who went this path before us and to whom we owe a lot.”

Crowdfunding campaign

To help with funding the whole project a crowdfunding campaign was launched with tons of exclusives, unreleased material, artwork or even a lifetime access to any and all of their upcoming live appearances.

“This time we are going full electronic-synth way. “Rising” is a “flagship” track for us. This is Lakeside X in 2022. It’s a story that can be purely personal but also it’s a story of a band, that has risen from the ashes and it’s stronger than ever before. The video to the single contains apart from many pop-cultural references on our famous colleagues, also remarkable amount of mixing present and past. We are a band coming from the country that once was part of the Eastern block, we all do remember the Wall, cold war, state police agents and the atmosphere of fear that ruled our homelands. The divided Berlin was a symbol of this time and of it all. At the same time it was a place where at that time, Bowie, Cave or DM created something that inspired not just us, but a whole generation of artists. We tried to concentrate this all into the video, and for us, Berlin is and always will be a city, that has risen from the ashes and is a never-ending inspiration for everyone”, says Janne Marvannen.

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 Steve Gullick) Scotland’s The Jesus and Mary Chain have signed to the London-based independent label Fuzz Club Records. Fuzz Club are marking the new partnership by revealing upcoming reissues of the band’s 2017 studio album “Damage and Joy” complete with three new bonus tracks as well as their “Live at Barrowland” LP. On top of the reissues Fuzz Club will encompass reissues of their earlier works, new live releases and brand new studio material.

Originally released in 2017 on the band’s own label Artificial Plastic, “Damage And Joy” was The Jesus and Mary Chain’s first studio album in nearly two decades. Co-produced by Youth (Killing Joke) it also featured guest appearances from Scottish singer-songwriter Isobel Campbell and American alt-pop star Sky Ferreira. For the reissue the material was remastered by Pete Maher (U2, The Rolling Stones, Jack White, Liam Gallagher) and it now also includes “Ono Yoko” (originally only available on the Japanese CD version of the album), as well as alternative versions of “The Two Of Us” featuring Sky Ferreira and “Black And Blues” featuring Isobel Campbell.

The Jesus and Mary Chain have started recording an album just before COVID hit and returned back in the studio in October 2021 for the first time in two years.

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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Here’s something for the readers amongst you. “William S. Burroughs & Brion Gysin” is brand new vinyl release on Cold Spring Records holding rare recordings of beat/cut-up writers and artists William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin. The release comprises the complete recording of Burroughs reading live in Liverpool in 1982, plus performances by Gysin of a selection of his poems, as well as home recordings made by the pair in Paris in 1970.

All recordings present on this release are taken from original tapes in the British Library collection. The release is officially licensed from the British Library, The Estate of William S Burroughs, and The Estate of Brion Gysin.

About William S. Burroughs

William Seward Burroughs II as he was really named, (1914 – 1997) was an American writer and visual artist, credited as a primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodern author who influenced popular culture and literature. Burroughs wrote eighteen novels and novellas, six collections of short stories and four collections of essays. A further five books have been published of his interviews and correspondences.

He also collaborated on projects and recordings with numerous performers and musicians and made many appearances in films. He was also briefly known by the pen name William Lee. Burroughs created and exhibited thousands of paintings and other visual artworks, including his celebrated ‘Shotgun Art’. Burroughs’ last filmed performance was in the music video for “Last Night on Earth” by U2, filmed in Kansas City, Missouri, directed by Richie Smyth and also featuring Sophie Dahl.

Despite being a fan of a right-wing columnist, many in his entourage such as Genesis P-Orridge and Al Jourgensen are notable for far-left, anti-capitalist, and anti-fascist politics. He was also a fan of the left-wing Dadaist movement. His overall views can generally be seen as anti-establishment, anti-conditioning, and anti-control.

For the rest Burroughs led a turbulent life to say the least…

About Brion Gysin

Brion Gysin (1916 – 1986) was a painter, writer, sound poet, performance artist and inventor of experimental devices born in Taplow, Buckinghamshire.

He is best known for his use of the cut-up technique, alongside his close friend, the novelist William S. Burroughs. With the engineer Ian Sommerville he also invented the Dreamachine, a flicker device designed as an art object to be viewed with the eyes closed. It was in painting and drawing, however, that Gysin devoted his greatest efforts, creating calligraphic works inspired by cursive Japanese “grass” script and Arabic script.

Burroughs later stated that “Brion Gysin was the only man I ever respected.”

Also Gysin had a life full of experiences including being expelled from the Surrealist Group by André Breton.

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 the end of 2020 Transmission unleashed the debut album “Cosmos” on Wave Records. The French solo-project is driven by Sandrine Deville. She’s dealing with a rather Minimal-Electro/Wave style with some violin tunes on top. It’s a fascinating- and accomplished experiment revealing an artist with a very own and creative approach. Here’s what Sandrine has to say about Transmission.

(Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)

Q: How did you get contaminated by the music virus and finally come to set up your own music project?

Sandrine: I began to learn how to play violin at the Ferney-Voltaire regional conservatorium of music, in France, when I was ten years old, during four years. And, this was the time I listened to bands like A-Ha, Alphaville, U2, Pink Floyd, The Cure at the junior high school of my city, and, maybe one of the most influent band that led me to practice guitar, Dire Straits and the song “Money For Nothing”, for which I recorded a tape with this same only track, that I listened to for hours, showing me the power of music to immerse myself in a very special universe, at a high noise levels of my headphones.

I could define for Dire Straits a word that I will use to define my own music project: ‘soundscape’, when you discover landscapes from beautiful sounds. There also was Depeche Mode with the track “Never Let Me Down Again”, and, of course, Joy Division with the incredible bassline of “She’s Lost Control” were offering beautiful soundscapes to my ears when I was a teenager. Today I feel the same, but with other bands like Massive Attack, Bauhaus, Bowie, Linea Aspera, The Soft Moon, Kraftwerk, PJ Harvey, Nine Inch Nails, Kas Product.

On one hand, I wanted to play guitar in a band when I was teenager, but on the other hand, there were a lot of excellent guitarists and I was not, so, I decided to learn playing bass guitar. First, I was a bass player in a Funk/Folk /Psyche band called Hopupu and later on in between 2011 and 2016 in a Cold-Wave duo called Rive Droite Rive Gauche.

Then, I wanted to create my own music project and, after a few years of involvement with various bands, from Post-Punk to Punk, I decided to create the Electro/Dark-Wave solo-project called Transmission, recording first the track “Cosmos”.

Q: The name of your project is clearly reminding one of Joy Division’s legendary songs. Is it just a coincidence or clearly a link with some of your main sources of inspiration? What kind of sound did you’ve in mind when setting up Transmission?

Sandrine: Joy Division is one of my favorite bands. I adore all their songs and the atmosphere of “Shadowplay” gives me goosebumps each time I listen to this track. As I passed my bachelor in design in Toulouse (France) in 2018, I presented “Transmission”, the all white 3D printed Electro-Acoustic violin I created, inspired by pulsars shape, those mysterious white lines that we can see on the artwork of the LP “Unknown Pleasures” from Joy Division, and designed by Peter Saville. So, in this way, I could say that the name of my project is inspired by Joy Division, but mainly the white lines of the artwork of “Unknown Pleasures”. We can discover more about my violin called ‘Transmission’ on my own artist website here:

https://www.bluefactoriz.com/transmission

And we can discover more about my violin too, from pages 277 to 286 of the book of Pedro Peñas y Robles called “Joy Division, Paroles De Fans”, Editions Camion Blanc, 2018, here:

http://www.camionblanc.com/detail-livre-joy-division-paroles-de-fans-1216.php

Regarding the sound of my project, the effects are allusion to any effects used by the brilliant Martin Hanett for the soundscape of Joy Division, but, the kind of sound, the essence of the sound, come from a lot of references, as Kraftwerk, Nitzer Ebb, Covenant, Nine Inch Nails, Massive Attack, Linea Aspera, Boy Harsher, Buzz Kull, Minuit Machine, Years Of Denial, Kas Product.

Q: You last year released your debut album “Cosmos”. Tell us a bit more about the writing- and production process of this opus and what did you try to express lyrical wise?

Sandrine:The process of the composition was the same for all the tracks; I switched on my Korg Minilogue, synchronized with the little Korg Volca Sampler for the drums, and I tried to play live with this set up, recording a bass line using the Minilogue when I thought I could have something interesting. Then, recording this on my PC using Ableton software, I began to look for a structure, and sing the violin line, and the melody, or writing the words for the future track. Many times, I wasn’t able to record the exact bassline I wanted on the synth, and then, I tried to do my best with this new sound. Tracks like “Cosmos” and “Désuétude” both are like soflty spoken words; tracks like “De Stijl” or “Echouées” both are using punchy spoken words. As a reference, I could say that “Désuétude” is inspired by the way Anne Clark is ‘screaming’; “Cloud 9” and “Illusion” are both mixing spoken words, and a melodic chorus. I was very happy, too, in the way I used different languages: French, English, German, and Spanish too. For the lyrics, sometimes, first, I wrote them, and sometimes, they came after the soundscape, it depended of the feeling I had at the moment of the creation phase.

Q: I’m always wondered why there’re no more female artists composing Electronic underground music? Do you’ve an explanation and what have been your experiences as female artist in this scene so far?

Sandrine: I really don’t know why there are no more female artists composing Electronic underground music. Well, one of the most iconic is Anne Clarke, but today, we have the excellent solo-project of Alison Lewis called Zanias who’s also involved with the excellent duo Linea Aspera and Keluar. In France we have the excellent female duo from Paris, called Oktober Lieber. And there is also the excellent female solo-project called Hante from Hélène De Thoury who’s also member of the female duo Minuit Machine.  In the USA, even if it is a mixed duo, there is the excellent Boy Harsher. And I recently discovered the solo-undergound artist from New-York called Ani Klang. I also think to the excellent first LP “Push” from the L.A based Iranian producer and DJ Maral. In Germany there is in a dark, clubby style Ellen Allien.

So even if there are less female artists involved, I think that there will be more and more female Electronic underground artists. As I am beginning in this scene, I don’t have yet a lot of experience, the only thing I could write, is that I think that maybe women have to forget their shyness (if they are), and to prove by themselves that they can make Electronic underground music as well as male artists.

Q: Transmission has been introduced as a solo-project although you got some help to achieve “Cosmos”. Tell us a bit more about this collaboration and what has been the impact and bonus on the final result?

Sandrine: At the beginning of the year of 2019, I had a first demo of the track “Cosmos”, and I was wondering how to go on with this project. Thanks to my duo Rive Droite Rive Gauche I met a lot of people of the Gothic scene of Bordeaux who became good friends. In January, I went with two friends to the Nitzer Ebb gig in Bordeaux, and, then, we met a lot of friends of the Gothic scene of the city like Jean-Philippe Torres who has his Drone Studio. He is also one of the musicians of the excellent duo Dark Line Spectrum; Speaking with him, it became to me an evidence that he could be the most appropriate friend to achieve “Cosmos”. I sent him the demo of “Cosmos”, “Désuétude” and “Echouées” in order to know if this project could have an interest for him, and, as he was enthusiastic about this, then, we began a very friendly and productive collaboration.

The process was for each track the same; I sent to Jean-Philippe the ‘pre-mixed tracks’ by wetransfer, and then, he added his additional synths and old-school rhythm box, made the sound design and the arrangements, and the mix and mastering. It was perfect! I am used to comparing him to Martin Hanett. Martin Hanett defined the special soundscape of Joy Division, and Jean-Philippe defined the special soundscape of “Cosmos” and I think that he made my dream come true: having my debut LP realized on a good label.

Q: It’s probably a bit risky and also a true challenge to release a debut album during the ongoing pandemic. How do you –and Wave Records, manage this aspect and how do you expect things evolving considering live performances, further releases and  plans?

Sandrine: I really thanks so much Alex from Wave Records. I know that, in this special context of this long pandemic, the action of releasing albums for new artists, is a very risky business for the labels, moreover, for independents labels, as they don’t know how they can sell the albums and if people will buy or not a debut work.  Alex is doing his best for the promotion of the album with a large number of contacts, with an effective sharing on the social network, on Youtube too for the videoclips of various tracks I realized myself.

I gave my first gig on the 2^nd of July, thanks to the association Distopia Mutante of San Sebastian in Spain, and it was an unbelievable good moment as there was a good interaction between the public and me. It is since January that Distopia Mutante tried to organize a gig for my project. But finally we did it, at the beginning of July, and we hope that there will be others. I hope I will be able to perform at other places and in other countries, even if we don’t know what the future will be.

Thinking about the second album of Transmission, I will not change the way I am using to create the sounds, and I am thinking about around ten tracks that could explain a lot of feelings that we are facing to in a whole life, using various BPM’s.

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 now via the Fatal Vision label, is the three-track EP “Parallel Lines” by the Irish post-punk act Scattered Ashes. Written in April 2020, all of the “Parallel Lines” EP’s songs were recorded and mixed in Darklands Audio Dublin City with Dan Doherty (Fontaines D.C), before mastering by Pete Maher (U2, Echo & The Bunnymen).

Included in the EP is a rework of “Love Is Not An Option” by Soft Boy Record’s Wastefellow. Alongside “Love Is Not An Option”, the EP also features “Parallel Lines” from which the EP takes its name. You can definitely hear influences from Interpol, Joy Division, Bauhaus and Gang of Four.

Scattered Ashes consists of Rob (Rhythm Guitar & Vocals), Tom (Bass Guitar & Backing Vocals), Ben (Lead Guitar), Eunice (Synth & Backing Vocals) and Kian Johnston (Drums).

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 Glen Burrows) Killing Joke bassist and producer Youth has announced that he will launch a new record label in December 2020.

The Youth Sounds imprint will release a varied array of artists on vinyl, CD and DVD over the next six months and beyond, beginning with “I Have A Voice”, a 12 inch vinyl EP from Vivien Goldman.

It’s a taste of what to expect from Goldman’s label debut album “Next Is Now” which is due early next year. “I Have A Voice” also comes with additional mixes by Youth and Toby Andersen together with a whattodo V’s Massive dub re-work.

More releases in 2021

January and February 2021 will see the release of “Interstellar Energy” an album Youth has recorded with Hawkwind’s Nik Turner, and the Youth Meets Jah Wobble album “Acid Punk Dub Apocalypse” which also includes singers and players such as Hollie Cook, Richard Dudanski, Andrew Weatherall, Nina Walsh, and The Orb’s Alex Paterson.

The label will furthermore release new records from Blue Pearl, Mad Professor, Lee Scratch Perry, Big Paul Ferguson (Killing Joke) and “Youth – Sketch, Drugs & Rock N Roll” The latter is a DVD that charts the life of Youth himself with contributions from Boy George, Paul McCartney, David Gilmour and Alan McGee.

Next Spring will also see the arrival of Youth’s debut album – the first ever solo outing from Youth (aka Martin Glover), the musician, producer and mixer after a genre-bursting career that spans forty years including work with Alien Sex Fiend, Art of Noise, The Charlatans, The Cult, Erasure, Marilyn Manson, The Orb, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Sugarcubes, U2, The Verve etc..

And that’s just a small list of what Youth has been up to. He was for instance – and not many people will know this – also behind Butterfly Records, the label that has produced artists such as Take That, Wet Wet Wet, Tom Jones, The Orb, System 7, Maria McKee and Heather Nova. From gothic icon to popstars, Youth knows all about it.

More info at https://youthsounds.net .

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 Cecily Eno ) “Film Music 1976 – 2020” is a brand new Brian Eno release out on double vinyl / CD and download on November 13th in the UK and followed by a US release on January 22nd.

“Film Music 1976 – 2020” is the first ever collection of music from his film and television soundtrack oeuvre. Spanning five decades, this release features classic Eno compositions, lesser-known gems and seven previously unreleased tracks.

Eno’s long-standing affair with film goes all the way back to 1970 with his soundtrack to Malcolm Le Grice’s short experimental film “Berlin Horse”. In 1976 he followed this with “Sebastiane” and a long forgotten Greek b-horror film, “Land Of The Minotaur” AKA “The Devil’s Men”.

Early classic Eno film moments include “Prophecy Theme” from David Lynch’s “Dune”, “From The Beginning” from Dario Argento’s “Opera”, “Force Marker” and “Late Evening In Jersey” from Michael Mann’s “Heat”, “Under” from Ralph Bakshi’s “Cool World” and his cover of William Bell’s soul classic, “You Don’t Miss Your Water”, in Jonathan Demme’s “Married to The Mob”.

His 1978 studio album, “Music For Films” was a loose compilation of material recorded between 1975 – 1978. It was intended as a conceptual soundtrack for imaginary films and only the last track, “Final Sunset” was written for an actual film. It proved to be a fruitful project with nearly every piece on the album going on to be used in future films.

Eno again explored the above approach with U2 as passengers on their collaboration album, “Original Soundtracks 1”. Four of the tracks from the album were used in films prior to release: “Beach Sequence” and “Your Blue Room” in Michelangelo Antonioni’s “Beyond the Clouds”, “Miss Sarajevo” in an eponymous documentary about a beauty pageant held in the midst of besieged ‘93 Sarajevo, and “One Minute Warning” in Mamoru Oshii’s Japanese animation classic, “Ghost in the Shell”. Another track, “Always Forever Now” later appeared in “Heat”.

In the mid-seventies Eno began a collaboration with British film maker Derek Jarman, who initially commissioned Eno to record “Final Sunset” for the closing scene to his first feature film, “Sebastiane”. The collaboration continued all the way through until Jarman’s untimely death in 1994.

“An Ending (Ascent)” and “Deep Blue Day” are taken from “Apollo: Atmosphere & Soundtracks”, Eno’s collaboration with his brother Roger and Daniel Lanois. The music was originally written for Al Reinert’s documentary of the Apollo moon landing, “For All Mankind” although since then “An Ending (Ascent)” has taken on a life of its own and is now remembered just as much from Steven Soderbergh’s “Traffic”, Danny Boyle’s “28 Days Later” and Miguel Arteta’s “Beatriz at Dinner”. It even made an appearance in the 2012 London Olympics opening ceremony. And then there’s “Deep Blue Day”, which will forever be identified with Ewan McGregor’s legendary toilet dive in “Trainspotting”.

Besides this and more filmwork, Eno has also scored extensively for television, including all three series of award-winning UK crime drama “Top Boy” and Danny Boyle’s “Mr Wroe’s Virgins”. Other television credits include his scores to BBC Natural World’s “Hammerhead”, “Francis Bacon’s Arena”, Neil Gaiman’s futuristic urban series, “Neverwhere”, and Stewart Brand’s BBC mini-series “How Buildings Learn”.

Check out the “Ship In A Bottle” video.

Track-list:

1. ‘Top Boy (Theme)’ from ‘Top Boy’ – Series 1, directed by Yann Demange, 2011
2. ‘Ship In A Bottle’ from ‘The Lovely Bones’, directed by Peter Jackson, 2009
3. ‘Blood Red’ from ‘Francis Bacon’s Arena’, directed by Adam Low, 2005
4. Under’ from ‘Cool World’, directed by Ralph Bakshi, 1992
5. ‘Decline And Fall’ from ‘O Nome da Morte’, directed by Henrique Goldman, 2017
6. ‘Prophecy Theme’ from ‘Dune’, directed by David Lynch, 1984
7. ‘Reasonable Question’ from ‘We Are As Gods’, directed by David Alvarado / Jason Sussberg, 2020
8. ‘Late Evening In Jersey’ from ‘Heat’, directed by Michael Mann, 1995
9. ‘Beach Sequence’ from ‘Beyond The Clouds’, directed by Michelangelo Antonioni, 1995
10. ‘You Don’t Miss Your Water’ from ‘Married to the Mob’, directed by Jonathan Demme, 1988
11. ‘Deep Blue Day’ from ‘Trainspotting’, directed by Danny Boyle, 1996
12. ‘The Sombre’ from ‘Top Boy’ – Series 2, directed by Jonathan van Tulleken, 2013
13. ‘Dover Beach’ from ‘Jubilee’, directed by Derek Jarman, 1978
14. ‘Design as Reduction’ from ‘Rams’, directed by Gary Hustwit, 2018
15. ‘Undersea Steps’ from ‘Hammerhead’, directed by George Chan, 2004
16. ‘Final Sunset’ from ‘Sebastiane’, directed by Derek Jarman, 1976
17. ‘An Ending (Ascent)’, from ‘For All Mankind’, directed by Al Reinert, 1989

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-rock, goth-rock.

Format: Digital, CD, Vinyl.

Background/Info: Λευκή Συμφωνία (Lefki Symphonia) is a Greek formation set up in 1984. Hailing from Athens the band was mainly active during the 80s and 90s. After a long silence the band struck back with a few singles to announce the new album.

Content: The main influence running through the album is clearly based around rock music. It’s a dark way of rock music, which is sometimes merged with gothic elements. One of the main particularities is the Greek singing, which is somewhat surprising for non-Greek listeners. The songs are driven by dynamic drum parts and mature guitar playing.

+ + + : No doubt about it, this band is for sure more popular in their homeland than abroad. But you can just see by discovering the artistic digipak of the CD format this band –and their labels, don’t spare any effort to get a professional artwork. And this professionalism comes back in the global production of the album. The guitar playing is professional and clearly one of the album’s main strengths. It’s quite similar for the drum sections injecting some extra dynamic to the work. The title song is a well-crafted song and definitely an absolute attention grabber, which reminds me somewhat of U2. The song is characterized by an alluring chorus, which appears to be one of the band’s trademarks.

– – – : I would be really wondering how this band would sound with English lyrics. One thing is for sure, it could catch the attention of an international audience. I however can’t say this album sounds like a successful ‘rock’-driven production; it’s easy listening music, but nothing groundbreaking.

Conclusion: Speaking for myself this album made me discover a band from the Greek rock scene, but I can’t say I was totally convinced.

Best songs: “Σαν Τον Ήλιο”, “Μαύρο Φως”.

Rate: (6).

Artist: https://lefkisymphonia.gr /

www.facebook.com/lefkisymphonia

Label: www.facebook.com/Labyrinthofthoughts / https://www.thelabtshirtathens.com/the-lab-records /  www.facebook.com/thelabrecordsgreece

About Lefki Symphonia

Lefki Symphonia (Λευκή Συμφωνία) is a Greek dark-rock and post-punk band formed in Athens in 1984. Fronted by Theodoros Dimitriou, the band released four albums and toured Greece, Spain, Romania and Germany between 1986 and 2000 before going on hiatus. Lefki Symphonia comprises Theodoros Dimitriou (vocals), Kostas Mihalos (guitar), Diogenis Chatzistefanidis (bass) and Vangelis Tsimplakis (drums). The band returned from its long silence with “San Ton Ilio/Like The Sun” via Labyrinth Of Thoughts Records and The Lab Records, and released a sixth album, “Anthi Tis Siopis / Blossoms Of Silence”, in 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

Genre/Influences: Chanson, cinematographic, neo-folk.

Format: Digital, CD.

Background/Info: Hailing from Luxemburg, Rome, the project set up by Jérôme Reuter, this year celebrates its fifteenth anniversary. The band rapidly gained a name in the neo-folk scene by the early works released on the defunct Cold Meat Industry. Rome next moved to Trisol while the music progressively evolved, touching ground with different music genres. “The Lone Furrow” is Rome’s newest work, which comes as a (new) critical perception of the world we’re living in.

Content: One of the main elements of this work is the presence of multiple guest artists. Some of them like Alan Averill (Primordial) and Adam Nergal Darski (Behemoth/Me And That Man) are active in the wider fields of metal music. Other guests areLaure Le Prunenec(Rïcïnn),Joseph D. Rowland (Pallbearer) and J.J. (Harakiri For TheSky).

Sound-wise the album is getting back to the influences from the past few years, which means elements of dark-chanson and neo-folk, but the global production has been seriously boosted by impressive bombastic arrangements. There also is a more cinematic part running through the work. The songs have been mainly sung in English, but Jérôme is also singing in French and German. The contributions of numerous guest singers injects some extra diversity to the album.

+ + + : Rome has released an impressive number of works over the past 15 years and I’m each again surprised by the quality and artistic level of the work. Jérôme Reuter is not repeating himself; he’s in a constant move and tries to accentuate each of his productions with different elements. He on this time realized a new tour de force mixing different influences from his career thus far. The overwhelming orchestral treatments are impressive and very powerful. This bombast sounds a bit like the red line throughout the work. The diversity of the singers is also a noticeable element. I’ve to mention the song “Achtung, Baby” (which is a wink to the legendary U2 album) featuring Alan Averill. But one of the absolute highlights is without a shadow of doubt “The Angry Cup” featuring Adam Nergal Darski. “On Albion’s Plain” is just Jérôme Reuter and himself, but it also is a brilliant song. Some of the songs and Jérôme timbre of voice are once again evoking Nick Cave to me, but the work also reveals cool cinematic passages.

– – – : I don’t have real minor points, this artist just moving on his artistic voyage accomplishing a new masterpiece.

Conclusion: Rome remains a prolific project, but the quality of each production remains top-notch.

Best songs: “The Angry Cup”, “Achtung, Baby!”, “On Albion’s Plain”, “Kaili Yuga Über Alles”, “Tyriat Sig Tyrias”.

Rate: (8½).

Artist: www.facebook.com/romeproject

Label: www.trisol.de / www.facebook.com/pages/Trisol-Music-Group/104166526285471 Read the news on ‘The Lone Furrow’.

About Rome

Rome is the project of Luxembourg-based musician Jérôme Reuter, marking its fifteenth anniversary this year. Early releases came out on Cold Meat Industry before the project moved to Trisol.

“The Lone Furrow” features guest contributions from Alan Averill (Primordial), Adam “Nergal” Darski of Behemoth and Me And That Man, Laure Le Prunenec (Rïcïnn), Joseph D. Rowland (Pallbearer) and J.J. of Harakiri For The Sky.

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

Fresh news from the experimental neofolk and martial industrial act Rome aka Jérôme Reuter of Luxembourg. Out on April 30th are 2 releases, the first being a limited vinyl edition of “Gärten und Straßen“. This represents the second instalment in a series of releases featuring exclusively martial ambient material and industrial collages, partially reminiscent of earlier Rome works such as “Hate us and see if we mind” (2013), “House of Stone” (2014) or parts of the “Die Aesthetik der Herrschaftsfreiheit” trilogy (2011).

Whereas Rome’s oeuvre usually features lots of guitar work, “Gärten und Strassen” focuses on complex industrial loops, unconventional bruitist arrangements and instrumental ambient collages.

This release comes in a black 180g 12″ vinyl, high quality, super-audiophile disc, hand-numbered and personally signed by Jérôme Reuter. The set is strictly limited to 500 copies.

Next is the 7 inch ‘Ächtung, Baby!’ which is the teaser single from the upcoming new album “The lone furrow” (which will feature a range of guest appearances). The title “Ächtung, Baby!” is a tongue-in-cheek reference to U2’s 1991 hit album “Achtung Baby”. The single features Alan Averill (Primordial) and an exclusive bonus track “Any Other Grey“. The single is strictly limited to 500 copies. Read the review of ‘The Lone Furrow’.

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

64 Rockets is a retrowave solo-project of Mike-E, the man behind the music of the futurepop duo Unity One. Started as a chiptune-flavored electropop, after a number of well-received remixes and covers, 64 Rockets has gradually evolved into a retrowave dance project and is now about to release a debut single: “Ruhleben”.

“Ruhleben” was inspired by a visit to Berlin and frequent trips on the U-Bahn, the city’s rapid transit system. Mike-E: “This particular track is a hi-energy retrowave ode to U2, Berlin’s most famous U-Bahn line, that starts in Pankow and runs through the city to the Ruhleben terminal station.”

In addition to the title track, the single features a club remix by Qodex as well as a fully instrumental version of “Ruhleben”.

Check 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

(Picture by Mehdi Benkler / Analog Photography) In 2007 The Young Gods released the album “Super Ready/Fragmenté”. “Super Ready/Fragmenté” was the sixth album by the Swiss industrial rock band The Young Gods and after it was released on April 16, 2007 via the Ipecac label, it spent 4 weeks on the official Swiss charts. Quite unusual for an industrial act.

Now, 13 years later, it is finally released via Two Gentlemen on double vinyl with artwork by Ich&Kar. The vinyl will hold the 12 original tracks from the album. You can check out the album below and buy the vinyl right here.

The Young Gods

The Young Gods are a Swiss industrial rock band from Fribourg. The band’s original lineup consisted of a trio composed by a vocalist, a keyboardist/sampler operator, and a drummer. Over the years the only constant member has been the frontman Franz Treichler. In 2007, a fourth member joined the band. Their instrumentation often includes sampled electric guitars, drums, keyboards, and other samples.

Their name is taken from an early EP by the no wave/noise rock band Swans. Coincidence or not, Roli Mosimann of Swans has worked with the group as a producer.

Artists influenced by the Young Gods include Pitchshifter, Mike Patton, Sepultura, The Edge (as stated in U2 by U2), Devin Townsend, Ithak, Econoline Crush and David Bowie. Asked in 1995 if his album “Outside” was influenced by Nine Inch Nails, Bowie answered: “The band that I was actually quite taken with was three guys from Switzerland called the Young Gods… I’d been aware of them previous to knowing about Nine Inch Nails.”

Interesting detail, the group supplied the original music for the 2012 animated short film, “Kali the Little Vampire”, which went on to win over 20 international awards.

Their eight album, “Data Mirage Tangram”, was also their last one for the moment being and was released a year ago. You can read an interview with the band right here talking of this album.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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

side-line.com

Read the review of ‘Data Mirage Tangram’.

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: Ethereal-pop, heavenly voices, psychedelic, cinematographic.

Background/Info: This is the fourth full length album by the Scottish female duo Elizabeth Heaton – Rowan Burn. Next to the CD- and digital format “Evaporate” will be also available as a strictly limited vinyl release.

Content: Good music is something emotive and that’s precisely what “Evaporate” is a all about. You rapidly will feel entranced by the heavenly, ethereal voices joined by delicate piano playing and uplifting guitar parts. The dreamy sensation is accentuated by the delicate sound arrangements. The tracklist is progressively evolving, revealing the best cuts during the final part. “Evaporate” now becomes emotional and pretty cinematographic as well.

+ + + : This album reveals an artistic elegance accomplished by talented and sensitive artists. I don’t know if it’s because of the ‘female touch’, but the songs reflect such a delicacy you get the impression music sounds like porcelain. It’s a brilliant, but fragile composition carried by masterful vocals. It’s the kind of vocal parts that would perfectly fit to the sound of Delerium. But a good singer is nothing without great music! And “Evaporate” reveal a great writing, perfectly matching with the emotions running through this work. It’s not only about meticulous and detailed arrangements, but also the alluring guitar parts, which sometimes remind me of U2.

– – – : I don’t have real minus points about this creation, which says something more about the qualitative level of “Evaporate”.

Conclusion: I already heard great music composed by Midas Fall, but “Evaporate” is the kind of opus magnum an artist released once in a lifetime.

Best songs: “Glue”, “In Sunny Landscapes”, “Bruise Pusher”, “Evaporate”, “Soveraine”.

Rate: (8½).

Artist: www.midasfall.com / www.facebook.com/midasfall

Label: www.monotremerecords.com / www.facebook.com/MonotremeRecords

About Midas Fall

Midas Fall is a Scottish band built around Elizabeth Heaton and Rowan Burn. The group’s catalog includes “As Our Blood Separates” (2011), “Wilderness” (2013) and “The Menagerie Inside” (2015), before “Evaporate” in 2018. The band later released “Cold Waves Divide Us” on Monotreme Records in 2024.

Inferno Sound Diaries

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

www.side-line.com

Genre/Influences: Electro-rock, pop-rock, new-wave.

Background/Info: 2017 has been a major year for German Palast trio. They released this self-entitled debut full length and went on tour as support act for Mono Inc.

Content: Palast moves on there where they stopped on their previously released “Hush”-EP. The sound is a mix of multiple influences and played by electronics and guitar. Some of the tracks are getting back to the 80s vaguely evoking an imaginary hybrid between Duran Duran and Gary Numan while other cuts are more into a mix of new-wave and rock music.

+ + + : “Palast” is a quite accessible work, which has the power to seduce numerous music lovers. That’s because of the perfect assimilation of all influences, which will now please new-wave lovers and then music fans listening to pop & rock music. The songs are entertaining while I especially love “When You Fall” for the opening part reminding me to U2 (cf. “New Year’s Day”) and progressively evolving into a powerful pop song carried by great guitar play. I also like some bombastic arrangements in the global drums production. Last, but not least this band is also driven by a talented singer.

– – – : “Palast” reveals cool songs, but I’m missing some details especially in the choruses. Some extra melodic lines would have made it more accomplished.

Conclusion: Palast awakens some good-old souvenirs and has achieved an enjoyable work although without a climax.

Best songs: “When You Fall”, “Nightfall”.

Rate: (6½).

Band: https://www.palastband.com / www.facebook.com/palastband

Label: www.spv.de / http://de–de.facebook.com/spvhannover

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

Australian duo Kylie (vocals) and Amps (instruments, programming) were previously involved in Ostia. They next moved on with Friends Of Alice And Ivy. This new band deals with multiple influences such as ethereal, neo-classic, experimental, electronics ao. The music reflects a very own approach resulting in artistic productions. They recently self-released a kind of mini-album entitled “The Last Days Of Fenwyck” confirming their great talent.

(by Inferno Sound Diaries)

Q: Friends Of Alice Ivy is already active for a couple of years now and has been set up after your involvement with Ostia, right? How did you come to set up this new project and what have been the main purposes? 

Amps: Yes, that’s right. We have actually been working as Friends Of Alice Ivy for a good ten years now (time flies!). We started working on Friends Of Alice Ivy before Ostia’s last EP (cf. “Between Two Cities” in 2007). It really came about because we felt that Ostia had really run its course and we knew that we still wanted to make music in a slightly different format. Ostia was very much guitar-driven and we wanted to experiment with a more neo-classical sound and use more string-led instrumentation such as harps and cellos etc.

Q: What is the name of the band all about and whatʼs the possible link with the kind of music youʼre dealing with? 

Kylie:  The name ‘Friends Of Alice Ivy’ is completely made-up. I love the name ‘Alice’ and I saw it once written with ivy entwined between the lettering… it made think of the name ‘Alice Ivy’ and I simply and quite unconsciously added the ‘Friends Of’. The name does link with the music beautifully, I think the imaginary ‘Alice Ivy’ is as whimsical, mysterious and other-worldly as the music that accompanies it.

Q: Referring to the music and the ‘soundʼ properly speaking, youʼre clearly experimenting with multiple influences creating a very own style. Tell us a bit more about these influences and potential sources of inspiration? 

Kylie: It’s very strange, I don’t think our influences are particularly present or explicit in our sound. A lot of writers and reviewers etc compare us to Dead Can Dance and that sort of thing; and whilst they have been hugely influential (and we love what they do) we have really been more influenced by weird sixties and seventies English folk music, classical music, psychedelia and a lot of post-punk stuff like early Cure and the Banshees.

Q: When listening to your music I get the impression to hear artists who really care about ‘artistic creationʼ and whoʼre in search of a very own sound identity, kind of sound DNA! What does music mean to you and whatʼs your perception about ‘creationʼ? 

Amps: I am really pleased to hear you say that because we really do labour over our music and it is very carefully crafted. We do try to completely eschew ‘influences’… it sounds a bit pretentious to say this, but we really don’t consider influences when we create our music. We would clearly be lying if we said we were not influenced at all… and clearly everyone is influenced by something… but I do think that Friends Of Alice Ivy’s music comes from the heart. We’re not really ‘musicians’ in a trained sense and so everything we do has a visceral and immediate impetus or origin… we operate very much on instinct when it comes to our music. Even though it is carefully crafted, we don’t really consider anything but the sound and the emotional response we get from creating the songs. If other people enjoy it too, that is a wonderful thing… but we’re really just creating a lot of it purely on instinct.

Kylie: I agree with Amps that our music does come from the heart. One of my most favourite and inspiring artists is William Morris and he once quoted ‘My work is the embodiment of dreams in one form or another’ and I think this is simply just perfect for what we do with our music. Whilst we adore and love exploring new music, stories, art, nature and other lovely things, when we song-craft, the music created is merely a response, a emotional reaction to those things, not an attempt to emulate or sound like someone else.

Q: “The Last Days Of Fenwyck” is your first new work since your debut album “The Golden Cage And Its Mirrored Maze” (2014). What do you keep in mind from the composing/recording process and what does this new album mean to you? 

Kylie: As time progresses, we are finding that we are having a very strange relationship with the “Fenwyck” album.  We love it and we worked incredibly hard to bring it to life, but for some reason, it seemed to come together in a difficult time for us both personally. It doesn’t feel ‘Friends Of Alice Ivy’ enough for us in hindsight. There is something quite tense and fraught about it. The subject matter is quite dark and to me it sounds somewhat anxious and strained. We are working very hard on a new album at the moment and we would really like to reintroduce some of the whimsy and naivety of our earlier work, including “The Golden Cage”. It’s strange for us to follow up an album so quickly, but we feel very passionate about returning to our ‘roots’ and we hope to have a new album ready for release in late European Summer/early Autumn 2018.

Q: Internet, social media etc are connecting people with each other and yet I think itʼs not that easy for an Australian artist to reach other continents and foreign music scenes. What are you very own experiences about this item? 

Amps: Yes, I would agree that it is very difficult. Firstly we are just so far away from Europe, and our audience is very much a European one. I would conservatively estimate that around 80% of our sales are to Europeans, and we are forever responding to lovely emails from people in Europe about when and if we will come to Europe to play shows. It’s also difficult because Australian audiences find it very difficult to understand our music… it’s not that they are particularly conservative, but the spectrum of live music performed here is just not as broad as it is in Europe. The internet and social media is really a double-edged sword for us… on the one hand it means that smaller bands like us can reach audiences on the other side of the world without the need to tour… but on the flip-side, it means that the volume of music that seeps out there is incredibly large, so it makes it hard to stand out. Then there are the obvious commercial issues with music being incredibly difficult to monetise… and so this makes it somewhat hard to plan for your next work as you’re never sure if you can afford to keep recording new music! I am glad that we have managed to find appreciative ears despite this; and I am always very grateful to journalists and writers who are prepared to take a risk and write about bands who are never going to be as big as U2…ha ha!

Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries

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

Background/Info:

Read the news on ‘Jewel’.

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

To celebrate the release of “Is This The Life We Really Want”, the newest album by Roger Waters (Pink Floyd) in 25 years, the Belgian artist ‘NOIR Artist’ (real name Lucien Gilson) was asked to create a mural painting (see above) which is based on the artwork of the album. That painting will be shown to the public at the Brussels-South station on june 2 en 3 (via the entrance located at the Horta Square).

It’s not the first that that Sony Music België works with the Liège based mural painter NOIR Artist. He also made one for the release of Leonard Cohen’s last release “You want it darker”.

“Is This The Life We Really Want?” was mixed and produced by Nigel Godrich (Radiohead, Paul McCartney, Beck, U2) and holds 12 new tracks. You can already listen to the first track 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

We have again found some real gems in the list of releases especially produced for the upcoming Record Store Day on April 22. We put them in a list below.

For those unfamiliar with the phenomena, Record Store Day (aka RSD) was conceived in 2007 at a gathering of independent record store owners and employees as a way to celebrate and spread the word about the unique culture surrounding nearly 1400 independently owned record stores in the US and thousands of similar stores internationally. The first Record Store Day took place on April 19, 2008. A Record Store Day participating store is defined as a stand alone brick and mortar retailer whose main primary business focuses on a physical store location, whose product line consists of at least 50% music retail, whose company is not publicly traded and whose ownership is at least 70% located in the state of operation. In other words, we’re dealing with real, live, physical, indie record stores—not online retailers or corporate behemoths.

So what items did we find in the list of planned releases?

PANKOW – “TIMES”
Format: Grey Color 10″ / Quantity: 175

The two earliest Pankow recordings to see a release were “We Are the Joy” on one of the first Italian new wave compilations (Gathered), and following that “Wither” on a split 7” which was enclosed in the “Free8212” fanzine from Florence. Two other tracks that have never before been released appear together on Times, a gorgeous 10″ vinyl coming courtesy Toronto-based Artoffact Records. This 10″ features spectacular new artwork created by Pankow’s own fm, and is fully authorized by the band. An essential document of one of Italy’s most important electronic artists. The black vinyl version can be bought right here already.

ALICE IN CHAINS – “Get Born”
Format: 2 x 7″ / Quantity: 4000

This special Alice in Chains 45 RPM double 7” single collects four hard-hitting tracks remastered and available on vinyl for the first time. “What the Hell Have I” and “A Little Bitter,” released on the soundtrack to the Arnold Schwarzenegger film Last Action Hero in 1993, were the first to feature new bassist Mike Inez, who’d played with Ozzy Osbourne for five years. “Get Born Again” and “Died,” released on the box set Music Bank in 1999, were the band’s final recordings with original vocalist Layne Staley.

THE CURE – “Greatest Hits”
Format: 2 x LP Picture Disc / Quantity: 3250

Limited edition double picture discs of The Cure’s Greatest Hits. Featuring their best known tracks, including “Love Song”, “Friday I’m In Love” “Never Enough”, “Mint Car” and many more. Curated and remastered by Robert Smith. On vinyl for the very first time for Record Store Day 2017.

THE CURE – “Greatest Hits Acoustic”
Format: 2 x LP Picture Disc / Quantity: 3250

Limited edition double picture discs of The Cure’s Greatest Hits performed acoustically. Featuring their best known tracks, including “Love Song”, “Friday I’m In Love” “Never Enough”, “Mint Car” and many more. Curated and remastered by Robert Smith. On vinyl for the very first time for Record Store Day 2017.

JANE’S ADDICTION – “Been Caught Stealing”
Format: 12″ / Quantity: 3500

Originally released in 1990 in conjunction with the Ritual De Lo Habitual album, “Been Caught Stealing” was a massive hit for Jane’s Addiction. This 4 track replicates the original European 12″ release and contains the album version and a remix of “Been Caught Stealing” plus “L.A. Medley” which includes Woman” (The Doors), “Nausea” (X) and “Lexicon Devil” (The Germs).

MOTORHEAD – “Clean Your Clock”
Format: 2 x LP Picture Disc / Quantity: 1500

Motorhead are immortalized one more time in “Clean Your Clock”, the superb live album recorded at the Zenith in Munich, Germany during the Winter 2015 Bad Magic Tour. The indomitable cocktail of power, purpose and head-crunching volume that Lemmy Kilmister, Phil Campbell and Mikkey Dee always succeeded in producing is captured superbly by long-time producer Cameron Webb’s mix,giving this landmark Motorhead release the warmth, curve and punch which helped the band achieve international acclaim during a career which saw the Grammy-winning icons sell over 15 million albums and play to millions worldwide.

PINK FLOYD – “Interstellar Overdrive”
Format: 12″ Vinyl / Quantity: 4000

A previously unreleased 14:57 minute recording from 1966, released in mono at 33 1/3 for Record Store Day.

RAMONES – “76-’79 Singles Box”
Format: 7″ boxset / Quantity: 3500

A box of pre-1980 US 7″ singles by the Ramones, authentically reproduced with Sire labels, picture covers where applicable and a selection of great punk rock tracks that changed the course of rock ‘n’ roll. All packaged in a unique cigarette-style outer box, with an insert and individually foil-stamped numbered global edition of 6500. Wall-to-wall Ramones classics including “Blitzkrieg Bop”, “Sheena Is A Punk Rocker”, “Swallow My Pride”, “Rock ‘N’ Roll High School” and a special mono/stereo promo edition of “I Wanna Be Sedated”, all presented the way punk rock should be–as 45 RPM slabs of wax.

THE SMITHS – “The Boy With The Thorn In His Side”
Format: 7″ Vinyl / Quantity: 5000

A 7″ single featuring previously unreleased versions of “The Boy With The Thorn In His Side” and “Rubber Ring”. Includes new artwork featuring Salford actor Albert Finney.

U2 – “Red Hill Mining Town”
Format: 12″ Picture Disc / Quantity: 7000

To coincide with the 30th anniversary of U2’s iconic album “The Joshua Tree”, Island Records will release a 2017 mix of ‘Red Hill Mining Town’ on limited edition 12” picture disc, featuring the classic photography of Anton Corbijn in colour. The previously unreleased mix is by Steve Lillywhite, who produced the band’s critically acclaimed debut, ‘Boy’. ‘Red Hill Mining Town’ is famously “the single that never was”, originally discussed as the second single from The Joshua Tree but then put to one side at the last minute in favour of ‘I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For’.

VANGELIS – “Blade Runner” Original Soundtrack
Format: LP Picture Disc / Quantity: 3500

2017 sees the 35th anniversary of the original release of Ridley Scott’s 1982 cult film Blade Runner. The original soundtrack, composed by Vangelis will be released on picture disc for the first time, housed within a die-cut single sleeve jacket. (Limited worldwide release of 7500.)

CONJURE ONE – “Conjure One”
Format: 2 x LP / Quantity: 900

Originally released on CD in 2002, Conjure One was the brainchild of Front Line Assembly and Delerium co-founder Rhys Fulber. The debut set a new standard in world electronica and went on to sell over 50,000 CDs globally. The album features guest vocals by Sinead O’Connor, Poe, Marie-Claire D’Ubaldo and Chemda as well as mixes by electronica pioneers Junkie XL and Carmen Rizzo. It’s being released on double 45 RPM 180g colored vinyl for the first time, and includes a download card with three new bonus tracks.

PINK FLOYD – “London 1966 – 1967”
Format: 12″ Picture Disc / Quantity: 650

The first studio recordings from the classic ’60s Pink Floyd line up released for Record Store Day on limited edition 12″ picture disc 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!

side-line.com

Available online now is a live version of Sacha Korn’s “90 Millionen” track taken from the excellent Neue Deutsche Härte album “Funkenflug” originally released in 2013. Interesting detail, the track was recorded in front of fans in the legendary Hansa Studios in Berlin, the place where the album was also recorded.

There aren’t many bands who invite their fans into the recording room and play a live session. Sacha Korn is the exception, and you can notice that there is no stage, instead the band plays between some 50 selected fans and friends. Says Sacha Korn: “It was an unforgettable night to play live in these legendary recording rooms where such legends as U2, Depeche Mode, Nick Cave or David Bowie recorded many of their hits. REM just finished their very last album a few days before we hit the studio there.”

Note that Sacha Korn recently launched a Bandcamp page from where you can download his releases and get merchandise as well.

Enjoy this excellent live version:

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