Hailing from Eindhoven, Netherlands, Wave Tension Records introduces the “Machinations” album, a creation of the Colombian producer Faunes Efe, better known by his alias, Filmmaker.

With an impressive portfolio of over 20 records in just five years, Filmmaker’s “Machinations” is a mini-album treat. Comprising 7 tracks, it’s a fusion of electroclash and minimal synth. The album predominantly features the Syntakt and a uniquely processed guitar.

To tease the upcoming release, an audio single titled “Wartech” has been unveiled, which listeners can enjoy alongside the album’s title track. “Machinations” is set to release on October 6th, 2023, and will be available on vinyl in two distinct editions: a hazy red 12″ vinyl (limited to 200 copies) and a classic black 12″ vinyl (limited to just 100 copies).

Dive into the album’s ambiance with the first two tracks available 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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Genre/Influences: Cold-Wave.

Format: Digital, CD, Vinyl.

Background/Info: Spleen +, a new Belgian label and subdivision of the established electronic label Alfa Matrix, brings a fresh focus on Dark-Wave, Post-Punk, and Minimal-Synth music. Their first signing is the iconic Belgian formation The Ultimate Dreamers, who rose to prominence in the 80s and re-emerged during the Covid-19 era. After releasing an album through Wool-E-Discs (“Live Happily While Waiting For Death”), they now present a new work produced by Len Lemaire (Implant), with a limited vinyl edition released by Wave Tension Records.

Content: Echoing Reverie showcases the band’s signature Dark-Wave style, featuring elements reminiscent of The Cure. One of the most surprising songs is a cover of AC/DC’s “Hell’s Bells”. The second part of the album introduces more explicit electronic arrangements, evoking the sound of 1000 Ohm. The final track is a very captivating Electro version/remix of “I Loved You?!” by Implant, reimagined as “Implant Loved You?!”.

Positives: The second half of the album is particularly noteworthy, with standouts such as “Midnight” (a must-listen for The Cure fans) and the Dark/Cold-Wave infused “I Loved You?!”. Though initially hesitant about the Implant cover remix, it ultimately proves to be a fantastic and extended edit perfect for Electro dance floors.

Conclusion: Echoing Reverie is an album of contrasts, with a tentative first half that gives way to a magnificent second half, ultimately delivering a very satisfying listening experience.

Best songs: “Midnight”, “I Loved You?!”, “Implant Loved You?! – Implant Remix”.

Rating: 8½.

Artist: www.the-ultimate-dreamers.com / www.facebook.com/theultimatedreamers

Label: www.facebook.com/spleen.plus Read the news on ‘Echoing Reverie’.

About The Ultimate Dreamers

The Ultimate Dreamers are a Belgian post-punk and cold wave band originating from Lessines in Hainaut province and now based in Brussels. The group first came together as teenagers in the mid-1980s, writing and recording a series of home and rehearsal-room demos between roughly 1986 and 1990 and playing shows in the local scene without releasing a studio album at the time. Those early recordings resurfaced decades later and were compiled as “The Ultimate Dreamers – Live Happily While Waiting For Death“, issued on digital, CD and vinyl formats.

From 2022 onward, The Ultimate Dreamers shifted their centre of operations to Brussels and joined the Spleen+ roster, the post-punk / cold wave division of Alfa Matrix. They released the “Polarized EP” and the two-track single “Polarized / I Loved You?!”, which prepared the ground for their first new studio album “Echoing Reverie” in March 2023. In parallel, the band contributed a cover of The Cure’s “Lovesong” to the Alfa Matrix / Spleen+ compilation “A Strange Play (Vol. 2) – Tribute to The Cure”.

Following “Echoing Reverie”, the group issued the “Violent Ghost” EP with alternative versions and remixes by artists such as Front 242, Shad Shadows and Hørd. In late 2023 they appeared on the seven-disc post-punk anthology “Resurgence”, released as a boxset in January 2025. The singles “Digging” and “Spiritchaser” mapped the route toward their second modern full-length “Paradoxical Sleep” on February 7, 2025.

In 2025, the band released the French-language single “Envoler” and its companion “Envoler-Wegvliegen EP”, before returning to the “Paradoxical Sleep” material with the “Kids Alone” EP at the end of the year. “Echoing Reverie”, reviewed here, remains the album that opened this run of releases on the Spleen+ label.

Eldrina Mich

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

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“Echoing Reverie” is the name of the brand new studio album from the Belgian post-punk / cold wave quartet The Ultimate Dreamers out now via the Alfa Matrix sub label Spleen+ on CD and as a download. The release comes after the release of the “Polarized EP”.

Active since the mid-80’s the band resurrected in a new line-up during the COVID lock-down, releasing a selection of old demos on the “Live Happily While Waiting For Death” CD and vinyl in 2021 and re-distributed via Spleen+ now as well.

Now signed to Brussels-based label Spleen+ (cold wave/minimal synth division of the Alfa Matrix label group), the band got its newest album produced by Len Lemeire (Implant, 32CRASH, Anne Clark, …). Also included on the album is the band’s interpretation of AC/DC’s classic “Hell’s Bells” as well as the bonus club remix of “I Loved You!?” by Implant.

The album is also be available as a limited vinyl edition, released by Wave Tension Records, with a slightly different track listing.

You can check the full release below.

And here is the previously released “Polarized EP”.

Official video clips on YouTube: Read the review of ‘Echoing Reverie’.

Eldrina Mich

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

www.side-line.com

The Austin, Texas-based cold wave act returns with an all new video for the track “Luminous and Sparkling” taken from their upcoming “Luminous and Sparkling” two-track EP which will be out on lathe cut vinyl on November 17th 2022 via Comiti’s own US imprint and Wave Tension Records in Europe. The B-side of the vinyl will be the track “For the Feeling”.

You can order the (extremely limited!) vinyl right here in the US, and right here in Europe.

Comiti is an Austin, Texas-based audio and visual experiment founded to explore different shades of ambience and the aggression in between. Musically they mix what the band describes as ‘nauseating synth soaked bliss and drum patterns that pummel you in the chest’, although you will agree this appealing mix sounds very cold wave like.

Here’s the music video.

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: Electro-Wave, Dark-Wave, Dark-Pop.

Format: Digital, CD, Vinyl, Cassette.

Background/Info: The Italian duoLuca Bandini –
Alessandra Gismondi  is mainly known for their involvement with Shoegaze/Dream-Pop formation Schonwald, but they’re also active since 2014 in Shad Shadows. Their common love for obscure Electronics brought them to set up this band, which has now released their fourth album. The CD is available via Silver Veins while last year Young & Cold Records released a vinyl and Wave Tension Records a cassette. “Toxic Behaviours” is a somewhat conceptual work inspired by ‘the fundamental issue whether ritual is a necessary part of all societies. Ritual does not really exist in modern Western society but some rituals became as “Toxic Behaviours” in unexpected areas of the modern life’. 

Content: The songs are clearly evoking some retro Electro-Wave influences, but sometimes also a kind of electronic transposition of Shoegaze. The songs are diversified, but always recovered with vintage-like synths. It creates a dark and somewhat depressed atmosphere, which totally fits with the band’s passion for ‘obscure Electronic music’. Both protagonists, but mainly Luca, are singing, the production of the vocals having something misty, mysterious and sterile. The album features 10 songs plus 3 remixes (only for the digital and CD versions) by Andrea 20Hz, Curses and an “Alternative Version” of “Leader”.

+ + + : Shad Shadows has accomplished an interesting retro-styled and yet personal work. The misty sphere supporting the work makes me think of an Electronic version of Shoegaze, but it definitely will appeal to lovers of good-old Electro-Wave. The songs aren’t into complexity, but the simple power of retro-like sound treatments with excellent, cold strings on top. The ghost-like production of Luca Bandini’s vocals are fitting with the retro Electro style. Alessandra Gismondi is more active as backing vocalist, but her sweet ‘ice-queen’ way of singing remains a little extra. There are several cool songs, but “Fight The Dragon” definitely sounds like a masterpiece.

– – – : The remix of “Sad Bodies” by Andrea 20Hz sounds pretty cool and definitely ‘clubby’, but is quite different from the original edit.

Conclusion: After the great Shonwald album released last year, Luca Bandini –
Alessandra Gismondi found more great ideas to accomplish this intriguing and great new work by Shad shadows.

Best songs: “Fight The Dragon”, “Sad Bodies”, “Catch Fear”, “The Grace”.

Rate: (8).

Artist: www.facebook.com/shadshadowsmusic

About Shad Shadows

Shad Shadows is the Italian electro-wave duo of Luca Bandini and Alessandra Gismondi, active since 2014. Its discography on Discogs runs from the self-released “Spectrum” EP and “Minor Blues” in 2015 through “Fix EP” (2017) and “Line” / “Nocturnal” (2018). “Toxic Behaviours”, written, recorded and mixed by the duo at their own Silver Veins Studio and mastered by Daniel Hallhuber at Young & Cold Studio, was released in September 2020. Shad Shadows later released “Prismatic” (2022), “Assault” (2023) and “Wunderkammer Desire” (2025).

Inferno Sound Diaries

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

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Genre/Influences: Cold-wave.

Background/Info: French-Swiss formation Factice Factory has accomplished their third full length. They self-released their previous and successful album “Nada”, which was also released as cassette on the Belgian label Wool-E Discs. “Lines & Parallels” got released as both CD and cassette on Wool-E Discs while Wave Tension Records (small label from The Netherlands) released the album on vinyl- and digital format. The trio Fabrice Lefebvre (known from his involvement with the beautiful ritual and ethereal Rajna project), his son Théotime Lefebvre and singer François Ducarn got the contribution of Rajna singer Jeanne Lefebvre on one of the songs.

Content: Just on previous work I’m once more surprised to hear another band than Rajna featuring Fabrice Lefebvre. The music is totally different, Factice Factory being clearly inspired by 80s cold-wave. Some guitar parts remind me of The Cure, but globally speaking “Lines & Parallels” is much darker. The guitar- and bass parts sound in the purest spirit of the 80s while the electronic arrangements add this little bonus to get it more harmonious. The vocals are adding some diversity to the work for being sung in German, English and French.

+ + + : If you like cold-wave music and you’re nostalgic of the 80s, “Lines & Parallels” clearly reveal multiple parallels with this golden decade of dark music. I especially like the guitar playing for the somewhat fuzzy approach. The global production is pretty cold, even a bit sterile, but definitely in the truly 80s spirit. After the successful “Nada”-album Factice Factory strikes back with a similar cold elegance. There’re several noticeable cuts featured and I also have to mention the song (cf. “Sway”) featuring the spoken vocals of Jeanne Lefebvre.

– – – : The album only features 9 songs and a bit more than 30 minutes of music. That’s pretty typical for 80s releases, but I would have liked to get a few more cuts… because this is a great band!

Conclusion: Factice Factory is not exactly the most famous name active at the wider fields of cold-wave music, but it definitely is a band you’ve to discover. They of course don’t reinvent cold-wave, but they play it with passion and efficiency!

Best songs: “Hatch End”, “Sway”, “Extinguisher”, “Audran”.

Rate: (8).

Band: www.facebook.com/facticefactory

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

Inferno Sound Diaries

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

www.side-line.com