(Photo by Roger op den Camp) COP International Records, International Booking Department, and Resistencia Booking have announce the second leg of the CX40 tour of the Anglo-Irish post-punk group The Cassandra Complex. This second leg will take the band, which celebrates its 40 year anniversary, to Germany, Belgium, USA, Mexico, Costa Rica, Chile, Brazil, UK, the Netherlands, and Denmark.

The second leg will commence this summer with festivals in Germany and Belgium, followed by dates in the USA and Latin America in the Fall. The tour continues then with more shows in the UK and EU later in the year. The band will also be supported on select European shows by special guests and labelmates Sjöblom.

You can order your tickets here.

• 11/08/24 Hildesheim Germany, Mera Luna Festival
• 24/08/24 Ostend Belgium, W-Festival
• 25/08/24 Sint-Niklaas Belgium, De Rembrandt Festival
• 29/09/24 Chicago USA, Cold Waves Festival
• 12/10/24 Ciudad de México, Foro 28
• 15/10/24 San José Costa Rica, Amon Solar
• 18/10/24 Santiago Chile, RBX
• 19/10/24 Sao Paulo Brazil, Madame
• 23/11/24 Leeds UK, The Old Woolen
• 24/11/24 London UK, The Black Heart
• 26/11/24 Reading UK, The Facebar
• 29/11/24 Bielefeld Germany, Movie
• 30/11/24 Cologne Germany, Blue Shell
• 01/12/24 Bochum Germany, Rockpalast
• 04/12/24 Berlin Germany, Urban Spree
• 05/11/24 Copenhagen Denmark, Lygten Station
• (More dates to be confirmed)

About The Cassandra Complex

The Cassandra Complex was formed in 1984 by Rodney Orpheus (vocals, synths, drums machine), Paul Dillon (electronics), and Andy Booth (guitar, keyboards). Musically they bring a synthesis of post-punk, goth, EBM, and industrial music, coupled with Rodney Orpheus’ voice.

After a long hiatus, The Cassandra Complex recently returned with the album “The Plague”, recorded during the COVID lockdown. In March 2024 they released “Death & Sex”. Both albums are available from COP International Records on CD and on all streaming services.

Rodney Orpheus has also worked as a producer, remixer, and music technologist, working with artists such as The Sisters of Mercy, Kraftwerk, Beborn Beton, The Future Sound of London, Girls Under Glass, Faith & the Muse, Within Temptation, and many 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 Lina Gabrielli) The Swedish electropop trio Me The Tiger are to launch a second single, “I want it back”, taken from the upcoming album “Envy” expected to be released in Spring 2024. Earlier they released “Post Denial War”. The new single is also out via Progress Productions.

Below is already the cover artwork.

Me The Tiger (Gabriella Åström, Jonas Martinsson, and Tobias Andersson) was formed in Falun in the Spring of 2012 and has since released three full-length albums, a series of singles, and performed at festivals like M’era Luna (Germany), W-fest (Belgium), Eine Nacht im Bergwerk (Switzerland), Infest (England), E-Only (Germany), electriXmas (Sweden), and shared stages with Vince Clarke (Depeche Mode, Yazoo), Front 242, Kite, and Emmon.

In 2024, they will tour in Europe, including a performance at Solitary Experiments’ 30th-anniversary festival in Berlin and their festival debut in Poland.

The message the band wants to spread via their material is the following: “In a time where individualism thrives, the trio aims to highlight values of solidarity and contribute to a fairer and warmer society. We live together and have a collective responsibility to care for one another, regardless of class, ethnicity, or gender.”

Here’s their previous single “Post Denial War”. Read the review of ‘Envy’.

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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(Picture by Lina Gabrielli) Progress Productions has announced their latest signing, the Swedish trio Me The Tiger. “Post Denial War” is the first single to be released from the album “Envy”, expected to be released in Spring 2024.

The band members are Gabriella Åström, Jonas Martinsson, and Tobias Andersson. The electropop trio was formed in Falun in the spring of 2012 and has since released three full-length albums, a series of singles, and performed at festivals like M’era Luna (Germany), W-fest (Belgium), Eine Nacht im Bergwerk (Switzerland), Infest (England), E-Only (Germany) and electriXmas (Sweden). In 2024, they will tour in Europe, including a performance at Solitary Experiments’ 30th-anniversary festival in Berlin and their festival debut in Poland.

After they self-released their self-titled album in 2013, they were picked up by RepoRecords which released the album “Vitriolic” in September 2015. That album included the singles “What Promises Are Worth” and “As We Really Are”. In 2017 “What is beautiful never dies” followed and since then it went a bit quiet around the band until now.

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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Again not so good news from the (dark) Belgian festival scene. The Business Court of Hasselt has allowed Wave to Synth, the company behind the W-festival and Sinner’s Day, a procedure of judicial reorganization according to the Belgian newspaper Het Belang van Limburg. The organizer received a temporary suspension of payments until March 20, 2023. There is an outstanding debt of more than 2.8 million euros.

According to the organizer, the bankruptcy of the British company that arranged their ticket sales is at the root of the financial problem. The chances are slim that the organizer of Sinner’s Day and W-Festival will see some of their money back. They are now trying to reach an agreement with the creditors to allow the next edition of the W-Festival in Ostend to take place.

The 2023 edition of the W-Festival is planned for 25-27 August 2023. Already scheduled for that festival are the following acts: Nena, Bow Wow Wow, Midge Ure, Project Pitchfork, Modern English, When In Rome, Corpus Delicti.

W-Festival attracted over 20.000 people in the Summer of 2022.

As far as Sinner’s Day is concerned, the Winter 2022 edition was already canceled and postponed to next year. In a reaction the organisation then said that it was canceled “in order to keep our company in the game and to guarantee well organized festivals as we did this summer”.

The organizers also said that the reason for all this “is the lack of enthusiasm of the Belgian scene for the scheduled line-up this year, despite our marketing efforts – both in Belgium and abroad – the (ticketing) interest in our program is not at all what we had predicted, it is even far from our worst case scenario.”

Belgium and the darkwave scene, it has always been a complicated situation.

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 4th edition of the W-Festival will take place from 15th until 18th August 2019 in Waregem Expo, Belgium. About 70 new wave, EBM, industrial, post-punk, synth-pop and eighties bands are featured on 3 stages.

This year the line-up includes: The Stranglers, Echo & The Bunnymen, Killing Joke, Nitzer Ebb, And One, VNV Nation, Apoptygma Berzerk, Peter Hook & The Light, Blutengel, New Model Army, She Wants Revenge, Lebanon Hanover, Portion Control, Tyske Ludder, Mesh, Whispering Sons, Kaelan Mikla, Collection d’Arnell-Andréa, DaGeist, Pink Turns Blue, Red Zebra, Siglo XX, Merciful Nuns, Then Comes Silence, The Human League, Jimmy Somerville, Lene Lovich band, Blaine L. Reininger plays Tuxedomoon, Nik Kershaw, Howard Jones, Tony Hadley, Schmutz, Allez Allez and more!

On the camping area are a lot of special availabilities like B and Bee, Luxury Lodge and WaveTents. Other extra’s on the festival are silent disco, outdoor quiet zone, wellness, merchandise and more!

Tickets and VIP-tickets can be ordered here.

Nitzer Ebb has announced that they’ll be performing two legs of a U.S. tour this year – the first in May and then again in September. McCarthy and Harris will be joined onstage by original founding NEP members David Gooday and Simon Granger.

Nitzer Ebb 2019 tour dates

U.S. [First Leg]

• 05.09 – Paradise Rock Club – Boston MA
• 05.10 – Elsewhere – Brooklyn NY
• 05.11 – SAT (Societe des Arts Technologiques) – Montreal QC
• 05.12 – Theatre of the Living Arts – Philadelphia PA
• 05.14 – Danforth Music Hall – Toronto ON
• 05.15 – Baltimore Soundstage – Baltimore MD
• 05.17 – The Oriental Theater – Denver CO
• 05.20 – The Orpheum – Tampa Bay FL
• 05.21 – Terminal West – Atlanta GA
• 05.24 – The Ground at Space – Miami FL
• 05.25 – Numbers – Houston TX
• 05.26 – Trees – Dallas TX

EUROPE

• 05.30 – Primavera Sound – Barcelona, Spain
• 05.31 – Nuits Sonores 2019 – Lyon, France
• 06.07 – Wave Got Treffen 2019 – Leipzig, Germany
• 06.30 – Val de Rock – Chessy, France
• 07.20 – Amphi Festival – Cologne, Germany
• 08.03 – Bergfest – Thale – Germany
• 08.04 – Dekmantel Festival – Amsterdam, Netherlands
• 08.17 – W-Fest – Amougies, Belgium
• 08.24 – Infest 2019 – Bradford, United Kingdom

U.S. [Second Leg]

• 09.19 – The Mohawk – Austin TX
• 09.20 – Metro – Chicago IL
• 09.21 – St. Andrew’s Hall – Detroit MI
• 09.23 – VENUE – Vancouver BC
• 09.25 – Neumos – Seattle WA
• 09.26 – Wonder Ballroom – Portland, OR
• 09.27 – Slim’s – San Francisco CA
• 10.05 – The Regent Theater – Los Angeles CA

EUROPE

• 10.25 – Soundedit Festival – Klub Wytwórnia – Łódź, Poland
• 11.17 – La Machine – Paris, France
• 11.18 – La Laitrie – Straßburg, France

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rate: (8).

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

About W-Fest

W-Fest is an annual new-wave, EBM and gothic festival held in Belgium, running across several days and multiple stages. The 2018 edition drew on both veteran acts and contemporary bands, a mix reflected on this compilation.

The album was released on Wool-E Discs, the Belgian label that also documented the festival’s lineup through earlier compilations.

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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From 15th until 19th August 2018 the third edition of the W-Festival takes place at the festival-area in the Rue Couture d’Orroir in Amougies, Belgium. More than 60 new wave, EBM, industrial, post-punk, synth-pop and eighties bands are featured on 3 stages.

This year some of the confirmed artists are: Bauhaus (Peter Murphy 40 years of Bauhaus celebration feat. David J.), Anne Clark, DAF, Clan Of Xymox, DIE KRUPPS, Dive, Front Line Assembly, Suicide Commando, Covenant, Lords Of Acid, Vive La Fête, A Split Second, Project Pitchfork, Trisomie21, She Past Away, Chameleons Vox, Red Zebra, Kim Wilde, Paul Young, Marc Almond, Midge Ure, A Flock Of Seagulls, Heaven 17, ABC, …

Besides watching concerts you can also visit markets and merchandise shops, signing-sessions, afterparties and other exclusivities like the daily screening of “Industrial Accident – The story of Wax Trax ! Records” documentary (94 min.) from the 16th till the 19th of August at 10:30am.

Side-Line gives away 10 free tickets (for 4 days)! Just enter the contest below. We will choose the winners on June 18.

Information and tickets can be found here