M!R!M begun as a duet in 2011 and created a huge buzz around their name instantly. Today M!R!M is a 23 year old boy, named Lacopo Bertelli. His music was generously tagged as “post punk”, however the layers of it make any categorization, a difficult matter. Bertelli, created “Heaven” in his bedroom, trapped inside four walls of loneliness and fear of what the future may bring. Haunted by the Jesus and Mary Chains’ dirty guitar sounds, the New M!R!M keeps the powerful, dynamics of their older work intact, but upgrades it, adding the most essential ingredient in creating good music: The Passion. “Heaven” is literally Bertelli’s personal hell, and all his songs seem to feed on his subconscious, creating a doomed, vulgar, acid world with whispers that become screams and guitar effects blend with inner voices and synths.
You will be surprised many times, listening to “Heaven”. You might find traces of SUICIDE’s frenzy, WIRE’s straight forwardness and DNA’s nihilism.You might as well be surprised by the noir wave duet with Nathalie Bruno (from the promising band, PHOSPHOR), one of the highlights of the LP. M!R!M’s “Heaven” is definitely worth the wait of those who already new the band and a great introduction to all of those who search for a dirty, violently personal sound. The Cover is made by contemporary artist, Zigendemonic.
The LP will be released in 500,hand numbered, limited copies.
Listen here and order here.
Doric is the solo, side-project of Stathis Leontiadis, mostly known as the one half of the Human Puppets, as well as the Exetix and Plexiglas.
Being involved in various avant garde/new wave music projects since 1996, intrigued by the all analogue mentality of the late 70′s-early 80′s music field, he passionately committed to vintage synths and machines, creating a very distinctive and specific style and considered by many as “specialist”. His live performances are all analogue by choice and are interestingly captivating as the sound is being built on stage,just like the old days. We proudly introduced him as a unit to the world, with a brilliant and unique self title 7” (Feb/2013) that was an instant sold out. Therefore the next step of a full LP seemed inevitable and needed.
”Over Mentality” is a record, full of Minimal Electro perfectionism and New Wave complex landscapes, performed with the agility and passion of a natural born Purist. Doric’s mentality, carries raw, passionate, old school values filtered with the innovation of a musician that is cursed to live Today. His subjects vary from unexpected loves, cursed lives, wasted, devoured dreams however, all of them cling under one thematic area: How memories fulfill us and keep us sane. The artwork of the record implies the handmade, old school ethos as well.
The LP will be released in 500, hand numbered, limited, black vinyl copies.
Listen here and order here.
 Hailing from the UK, The World Is Getting Colder is the debut LP from Lebanon Hanover, a duo formed of William Maybelline and Larissa Iceglass.
It came out in February as the 5th release from Fabrika Record. Before that, you might have heard Kunst that appeared on Monosynth and they also released a split cassette with La Fête Triste on aufnahme + wiedergabe, in September 2011.
The first song, Die World, starts up with an harmony from Bauhaus’s classic Bela Lugosi’s Dead, to quickly bring us into the mood for the bewitching ambiance that follows up.
In its whole, Lebanon Hanover are using distorted guitars, bass guitars, sporadic synthesizers and a drum machine to create a cold and minimal aesthetic, all structured in a very shiny way. Their haunting vocals highlighted in wide reverberations, which didn’t fail to rock my guts more than once, are adding a nice touch of warmness. Mixing a bunch of efficient elements from the past into their sauce, I think Lebanon Hanover still innovated with a very distinct sound.
Just listen to Totally Tot where things are getting pretty mad with this earth shaking rhythm and deep pounding bass line. I have no doubt it is going to hit the dance floors like a ton of bricks!
The World Is Getting Colder is still available on Fabrika Records store.
 This is the first release from Fabrika Records, a new label from Greece, limited to 500 copies and featuring no less than 15 artists.
I already knew some of those that have been around for a while like Dolina (France), Sickdoll & The Nuclear Shades (Berlin), Martial Canterel (NYC), Led Er Est (NYC) and Velvet Condom (Berlin); I was very glad to find more recent acts like Gertrud Stein (Germany) and Bloodygrave & Die Lust (Berlin); and I’ve been greatly surprised to discover projects like Lebanon Hanover (Berlin), Jemek Jemowit (Berlin), Die Skeletion (Germany), Human Puppets (Greece), Petra Flurr & El Modernista (Germany), Selofan (Greece), Alienphobie (Germany) and Phoenix Catscratch (Greece).
It came out on September 1st for the Drop Dead Festival in Berlin. As about half of these artists where in the lineup, I find it did well represent the spirit of this memorable event, being just as worthy of the great performances I’ve seen there. I must admit this record is now priceless to me, as the perfect souvenir I brought back from this crazy-ass-festival that I now remember like a bizarre dream I wish had never ended.
In its whole, the spirit stays on a darker note with no pop nor anything that could please the masses. Every single song I found here is right in my bag–exactly what I am digging for the most: I Can’t Dance of Gertrud Stein makes me wanna dance like a wacky man and bash everything around–the rhythm is so damn good; Du Rennst of Die Skeletion is cold as hell and using amazing soundscapes; Kunst of Lebanon Hanover is a yet simple but very efficient tune with such a pretty vocal and dreamy synth pad; Dolina added some contrast with a lovely sentimental ballad, nicely colored of spacey sounds; and Sickdoll & The Nuclear Shades brought up a track with catchy guitars aside of so many freaking weird sounds that got packed into the same mix, leaving me anxious for their long awaited album.
There is not any weak song on this compilation, but I’d say Shadows from Martial Cantarel–probably the most cited artist of the minimal wave scene–could be the weakest one, just to say how much we’ve got hot stuff here…
There is so much more to say about this release but I’ll try to talk about other gems from these individual artists in upcoming posts.
Luckily, there is still some left for sale but this shouldn’t stay very long.
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