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We come from nowhere and move towards emptiness. Leere is an introvert female music project. I am trying to express and fill the emptiness inside me. The use of analogue and digital sounds of the 80′s and the integration of sounds from Berlin, the city that influences me and my music strongly, helps me with that hard task. I am in permanent struggle with my dark side. And i want to be understood.
Technology was meant to be humanity’s tool to combat famine, disease, confusion, and to facilitate life, culture, and innovation. Instead, we’re mired in a digital labyrinth that few care to navigate or even solve. Perhaps it’s not a ruse and the matrices coded by keyboard maestros are a path to liberation, but without querying the constructs we cannot ruminate on their affectations on humanity. VR SEX are audio/visual provocateurs who transpose the identifiers of death rock, synth punk, post-punk, ambient, and ethereal soundscapes into an audit on technology and its imprint on our collective psyche. Their debut EP, Horseplay, was recorded solely by the mercenary seer Noel Skum (Andrew Clinco of Drab Majesty/Marriages) and initially released as a limited edition cassette in April 2019. Through PSRS or Procreation Simulation Reproduction Stimulation, humans can act on their hedonistic desires and not face the responsibilities and consequences that come with being an ill-prepared guardian. The future of our offspring will exist in virtual realms and population growth in turn will be stabilized. VR SEX is the cure to most societal ills. Rather than being emblematic of influences, each song by VR SEX infuses a dire tension that cuts shimmer with fetid frequencies, never establishing an aural hierarchy or urgency. Instead, we’re led into punchy capsules of “dour pop”; the balance of saccharine and sour so emblematic of the VR SEX hive mind.
Quieter Than Spiders release their long-awaited debut album Signs of Life. The Chinese-Anglo band was formed in Shanghai in 2012 and has been quietly rising to prominence among the electronic music community with what the group self-styles as ‘Shanghai Synthpop’. Online music magazine The Electricity Club included Quieter Than Spiders in a list of their favourite new artists and described them as “What OMD would sound like if they formed in the 21st Century”. Signs of Life was self-produced by the group and combines their contrasting styles of uptempo synthpop and slow reflective melancholy. The album features 10 tracks including familiar songs such as Hibakusha, Shanghai Metro, The Land of Lost Content and No Illusion. There are also 10 remixes by artists such as Kevin Komoda from Rational Youth, Vile Electrodes and The Silicon Scientist. Signs of Life also includes 8 mini interludes which the group describes as ‘brief dream sequences’. Group member Leon Zhang said: “the album includes a slower and more experimental side to our music that people haven’t yet heard from us, especially songs such as The Signs of Life and The Statues which are more personal and introverted.” The album was recorded in both Shanghai and the UK and was mastered in Germany by Stefan Bornhorst (aka The Silicon Scientist). The group did not use a formal recording space which gave them the opportunity to experiment. “We used minimal equipment which gave us the opportunity to record songs in a variety of places. We even recorded parts in an old deserted Shanghai building earmarked for demolition, and in an overgrown tunnel that we found deep in the English countryside”.
Walk Onto Sun is the solo vessel of Los Angeles, CA musician Ben Engebretson. The project began in 2016 with In the Inside EP, a recording of songs that webzine I Die: You Die described as, “fractured minimal wave, bleary post-punk, with a restless and claustrophobic mood.” After some local live performances, Ben continued to evolve and experiment with Grow Static, released on cassette by Minnesota experimental label Phage Tapes. Not tightly fitting into any one genre, these songs showcased a diverse palette of surrealistic compositions with political themes of alienation, degradation of facts, and the demise of the middle class. CVLT Nation described the EP as, “one of the most exciting darkwave/industrial releases this year,” and, “a fantastic EP highly recommended for anyone into darkwave, industrial, trip-hop, or even ambient/experimental noise.” In 2019, Walk Onto Sun’s first LP, released on French label Icy Cold Records in cooperation with Manic Depression Records (Digital, CD), and Phage Tapes (cassette), comes in full post-punk force with a dark dream like washing over the pulsing percussion. These hypnotic sounds find inspiration from older acts like Suicide and Public Image Ltd, and newer acts like The Soft Moon and Liars. Lyrical themes include a fluctuation between despair and hope living in current day America, navigating alienation, and taking on the autocratic tendencies of lies and disinformation. This LP features two brilliantly crafted atmospheric and EBM remixes of ‘Medicate’ by Spheric. Now a duo live, look out for live performances in the coming year and into 2020.
Hypnotic and bewitching, DEAD has built its universe around boxes with acid rhythm, dancing and a cold shamanic voice, associated with sharp guitars and feedback. After 2 stripping EPs TRANSMISSIONS and VERSE, the latest VOICES release gives us a resolutely hypnotic universe with dark and melodic atmospheres!
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