Pleasure Principle – Self-titled

Pleasure Principle is located somewhere within a triangle formed by Francis Bebey, Add (n) To X and Ludwig Von 88; it is a solitary race to the outside, an ode to the forward flight, a way to escape in the peaceful expectation of the great liberating flash. I often find myself dancing like a monkey who forgets the world when I record at night in my room, and I hope to provoke the same reaction in people.

LP / CD / Digital Album

Posted on March 9th, 2020 under Releases, ,

SARIN – Moral Cleansing

SARIN, the A/V industrial technoid electronics project of Emad Dabiri, releases his first ever full-length album Moral Cleansing on BITE. After debuting on the label last year with his Kuleshov Effect EP followed up by a collaborative 12” with Imperial Black Unit earlier this year, Dabiri advances his sonic identity by leaps and bounds through his application of subtle pop and electro elements with a greater focus on groove and melody, syncopated basslines, FM synthesis, and his signature cut-up sampling.

The album showcases SARIN’s core elements as one of the main influencers in the current EBM techno wave with his brutally minimal sequences and abrasive drum programming. He began operating as SARIN in 2013 in Toronto before moving to Berlin in 2014. Since then he has been actively touring the world with his live performances & DJ sets. A remix 12″ of select tracks from the album done by Broken English Club, Privacy, Teste, and Phase Fatale will follow in 2020.

LP / Digital Album

Posted on March 8th, 2020 under Releases, ,

Katjusja ‎– The Bomb

Here’s the latest release of Katja Nielsen aka Katjusja, a Synthwave project from Sweden.

Cassette / Digital Album

Posted on March 7th, 2020 under Releases, ,

Rue Oberkampf – Christophe-Philippe

Founded at the end of 2016 by three DJ*s, Rue Oberkampf combines 80s ecstasy with the atmosphere of fog-shrouded, strobe-lit dance temples of the techno era. The combination of urban electronic music’s gritty drive with Julia’s French-German vocals reminds some critics of a more forceful version of Deux or Kirlian Camera: yet at the same time it creates something entirely original.

LP / CD / Digital Album

Posted on March 6th, 2020 under Releases, ,

Soft Riot – When Push Comes To Shove

When Push Comes To Shove is the seventh studio album by Soft Riot, the stylised musical alter-ego of Glasgow-based Canadian artist JJD .

Resonating with references from all corners of the synthpop’s origins (DAF, Fad Gadget and John Foxx to name a few), Soft Riot’s latest release nonetheless manages to retain its own individual voice, melding and reinterpreting its antecedents with a personal twist and an impressive demonstration of synth-craft and programming. Following on from 2018’s The Outsider in the Mirrors, these ten tracks represent a change in themes and an evolution in production and sound.

The forthcoming single and album opener “Taking The Edge Off” sets out the Soft Riot manifesto, a propulsive future-synth tale of forging ever-forwards in an increasingly noisy world. “It’s No Laughing Matter” is a hedonistic yet propulsive dance-floor slammer — shades of minimal synth and metallic Belgian new beat condense in side one closer “Fate’s Got A Bone To Pick With You” and the dizzying italo-matic muscle workout “Don’t Get Yourself Bent Out Of Shape” is the ultimate self-help smack down.

Although there’s no overarching concept to the album, Soft Riot has used this release as platform to experiment with his own concept of “déja vu”, using minute details of musical phrases and lyrics that have been used before in previously released Soft Riot material, and even between songs on this album. Some of these mirrored details are very subtle and would only be picked up by someone who has listened to all of the material up until now. It could also be the underlying black humour of Soft Riot’s work, mischievously playing off the old saying “it’s all been done before”.

The tracks were all composed in an extended hiatus from live performance between November 2018 and January 2019; a deliberate move on the part of JJD in order to foster a more focused creative atmosphere and allow for the writing process to have a more intuitive flow. This also allowed for a deeper exploration of sound design of his equipment, with this release utilising a range of different synths, something that reflects in the depth and richness of the new album’s sounds.

LP / CD / Digital Album

Posted on March 4th, 2020 under Releases, ,