Mannequin: Tommy De Chiroco- Close Your Eyes 12” EP

Mannequin Records is proud to present a true pearl of the Italian Minimal Synth from the 80′s. Tommy De Chirico founded the post-punk band Politburo in Turin during 1981 togheter with Maurizio Rubinetti (Sick Rose) and Massimo Aluffi (Ivan Siberia). On his own, he released the 7″ “Close Your Eyes / Flower Into The Factory”, produced and recorded at TKS Studio by the Monuments’ Mauro Tavella between 1982 and 1983 and subsequently released by Turin’s Shirak Records in 1984.

When Politburo split in 1986, Tommy continued to experiment with various projects and sounds, including Thugs, Quiet (with members of Monuments and Deafear), Noxeda and Lacrimal, with whom he still plays today.

Presented here are also 3 bonus demo tracks: a rare version of “Close Your Eyes”, and 2 out-takes from 1983, “Vuh-Ya” and “Tuxedo Dance”.

The original graphic cover was realized by Bruno Zanichelli aka Pennarex, an underground artist from Turin, who died prematurely some years after.

Strongly recommended to fans of Martin Dupont, Oppenheimer Analysis, Das Kabinette, Victrola, Neon.

Listen and order on Mannequin Records‘s bandcamp.

Posted on November 23rd, 2013 under Releases, ,

Mannequin: Various Artists- The End Of Civilization

From Mannequin Records:

Mannequin has the dual and parallel aim to unearth hidden or unpublished gems, running along a road that starts from the period of reference for this kind of music (late 70s – mid 80s) and comes to nowdays, with a vision deeply influence by Factory Records / 4AD labels.

Catching the same spirit of such great labels, we asked to the Italian synth wave princess Mushy to create a compilation starting from a tabula rasa. The mission was hard. Following her tastes and heart, she had to select a dozen of new bands from all over the world with unreleased and unique for this project tracks, picking up the title and realizing the graphic design and artwork. The full process of “The End Of Civilization” took almost 1 year but the result was touching us deep into our soul.

Mushy began her career crafting noise bursts and aggressive oblique instrumentals before, in her newest form, blooming into a beautiful, epic and heart-heavy icy synth sound, having both “Faded Heart” (2011) and “Breathless” (2012) as album of the week at Rough Trade. “The End Of Civilization” perfectly represents her double sided synth-wave / kraut-psychedelic soul. Every track she selected for us is an absolute highlight, moving from the analog minimal / cold wave sounds of Police Des Moeurs, ASSS, The Circa Tapes, TEEEL and Rosemary to the tempestuous post punk and psychedelia of Deathday, The Murder Act, Phosphor and The Strange Forces, ending with spectral cold folk of Tablets and The Long Wives.

Police Des Moeurs – The End Of Civilization – Tout Ce Qui Te Fait Mal Te Fait Du Bien

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Posted on February 16th, 2013 under Releases, , , , , , , , , , ,

//TENSE//- Escape

Even thought I only discovered //TENSE// last year with Sin Reality (Memory – 2010) that totally blew me away, this is already their 7th release since 2008.

What first came to my mind when discovering this Texas duo were the strong Front 242 and early Ministry influences. As I was really astonished by their work, I immediately pre-ordered this EP from Mannequin (limited to 500 copies) before it came out in April.

On the first listening, I got at a little confused as I was expecting the raw sound of Sin Reality, but I quickly grew to understand how they had evolved and I was not disappointed. To simply describe this sound evolution, the recording might be a little more polished with cleaner vocals–using different effects–and a cleaner sound in general. That said, the marginal madness and energy is still authentic while the whole record was made with some kind of futuristic esthetic.

The first song starts off with the sample of a man getting diagnosed by a psychiatrist saying: « So your official diagnostic is schizophrenic psychosis »–a common consequence of hard drug abuse–and the poor guy goes «No, it can’t be ». This introduction is a good representation of the global theme with lyrics expressing a fear of society, paranoia, social isolation and subliminal suggestions of recreational drugs usage.

I especially enjoyed the Pulse Beat lyrics, treating of an evil side of today’s internet connectivity. Nowadays, as we can see the masses heavily using social networks owned by private corporations without thinking any further about the inherent ethical issues, we can at least say these lyrics were not based on irrational fears after recently seeing social networks turning into public hubs of mutual surveillance, sadly reminding us of Orwell’s fiction. As some already said regarding Phillip K. Dick masterwork: paranoia is a gift.

Unmanned Cars is perfectly ending the album with an ambient song using smooth soundscapes with terrific effects, leaving me dreaming of dystopic science fiction scenes…

This is an excellent release that should please many EBM fans as well as other electronic music lovers out there. I am surprise to see it is not sold out already!

Posted on August 6th, 2011 under Reviews, ,