Margaret Chardiet was born and raised in New York City She has been making power electronics/death industrial music under the name Pharmakon for five years. As a founding member of the Red Light District collective in Far Rockaway, NY she has been a figurehead in the underground experimental scene since the age of seventeen. She points out that the environment there amongst so many other experimental artists (amongst them Yellow Tears & Haflings) inspired her to keep making increasingly challenging work. She describes her drive to make noise music as something akin to an exorcism where she is able to express, her “deep-seated need/drive/urge/possession to reach other people and make them FEEL something [specifically] in uncomfortable/confrontational ways.” Engineered by Sean Ragon of Cult of Youth at his self-built recording studio Heaven Street, Abandon is Pharmakon’s first proper studio album and also her first widely distributed release.

Unlike other experimental projects, Pharmakon does not improvise when performing or recording. She is concise and exact; each song/movement is linear with a clear trajectory. Perhaps more than any other style of music, noise is a genre almost exclusively dominated by male performers. Spin Magazine is apt to point out that her,“perfectionism might explain why her recordings are few and far between — a rarity in a scene where noise bros are want to puke out hour after endless hour of stoned basement jams into a limitless stream of limited-edition tapes. Her music may be as cuddly as a trepanning drill, but it’s also just as precise: She glowers in measured silence as often as she shrieks, and every serrated tone cuts straight to the bone, a carefully calibrated interplay between frequency and resistance.” The songs on this album were all written and recorded during a turbulent three month time period during which several fundamental life changes forced her to begin living in a completely new way and in a new space. She describes the lyrical themes of this album as being about, “Loss. Losing everything. Relinquishing control. Complete psychic abandon. Blind leaps of faith into the fire, walking out unscathed. Crawling out of the pit.”

Listen and order here.

Posted on February 23rd, 2014 under Releases, ,

Noi KabatCan you tell us about your current line up and how did you guys started playing together?

Jonas: Well there have been a few developments only quite recently, unexpected, just prior to the show we did in Helsinki at Deadly Beat.

Dee: Owen left the band unexpectedly and for personal reasons and so myself and Jonas decided to honour the date in Finland and see how we stood with live as we have quite a few good commitments booked this year already. The show was well received and apart from the promoters I don’t think anybody could tell we were missing a member and had to scramble together a new show where half of the songs were written three days before.

Jonas: But be assured, whatever course it takes, myself and Dee and very much looking forward to the forth coming live dates and producing new material for the next series of vinyl releases. I see no reason why certain circumstances should affect our development and output as a band. I’ve been very encouraged by the quality of writing and the progression of new material.

Dee: That’s a point, a musician I talked to recently thought of me as just ‘the singer’, but I have learnt various instruments since an early age thanks to my conducter/horn soloist grandfather whom I owe a great debt to. I studied music exclusively at college and University. Just because I don’t want to play on stage doesn’t mean I couldn’t. Somehow I feel like it would take away something from the performance. I want to be free out there in the wilds.

Jonas: Regards how we met, it was basically through the cold/minimal/Industrial/80’s synth scene in and around East London, club nights like Divine Incest, Brave Exhibitions, Endurance, Reeperbahn. I guess we were brought together for a mutual love of this genre and the eventual desire to put a band together which was something that seemed to be lacking from the scene.

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Posted on February 20th, 2014 under Interviews,

Robert Maschke produced cover art that should give you a hint of what to expect from this 11 tracks double LP compilation, namely star gazing italo thick on the synthesis and notions of space travel and futurism. Across the 4 sides, ‘Synth Dimension’ essentially grants a quartet of highly regarded synth explorers 12″s to show their wares with Keen K, Kid Machine, Astro Chicken founder Hyboid and Infinity Night all involved.

2 LP Limited edition of 220 copies.

Listen and order here.

Posted on February 18th, 2014 under Releases, , , , ,

Nina Belief’s long awaited follow-up!

Full length release in red or black vinyl.

Listen here and order here.

Posted on February 15th, 2014 under Releases, ,

Brand new minimal-wave in a pure old-school style that sounds really fresh. Didscodeath come from Italy and remind us a mixture of the influential Italian electro bands from the 80′s, such as Neon, Pankow and Limbo. Very dirty in your ear but also very danceable. This LP saw the light thanks to the collaboration of Hertz-Schrittmacher & No Emb Blanc labels.

Green transparent vinyl limited to 300 copies.

Listen here and order here.

Posted on February 12th, 2014 under Releases, , ,