After The Last Frame

Here’s another digital release of this very prolific progressive-occult-ghost-wave solo project from Porl King.

Created from manipulations & interpolations of the soundtrack to suicidemouse.avi.

Listen and download here.

Posted on December 29th, 2014 under Releases, ,

Martial Canterel - Gyors, Lassu

Since his first live performances in 2002, Sean McBride, aka Martial Canterel (who also performs as half of the duo Xeno & Oaklander), has crafted his electronic sound in a peculiar intersection between avant-garde and pop. Merging the influences of the first wave of relatively unknown minimal electronic bands in northern Europe, and seminal industrial noise bands such as Throbbing Gristle and SPK, with the smoothly stylish songcraft of early British New Wave, Martial Canterel records and performs using analogue synthesizers, sequencers and drum machines exclusively, molding electricity to fix the action of music creation in substance. The mastery of his composition technique, a second nature of harmonic complexity, along with a unique talent for melodies, enables him to manufacture gems of extreme noise pop, making use of all its unexpected ingredients.

Gyors, Lassù marks an important milestone in the evolution of Martial Canterel‘s music, progressing far beyond the cages of “minimal synth” and embracing the noisier qualities of its sound with a renewed urgency, a kind of thickness embodied in multiple layers using only eurorack, Serge and Roland 100 modular systems at his disposal and flushing out the entire session in one take. Sine waves are rendered into walls of guitar-like noise on songs like “And I Thought”, while the stretching out and liquifaction of what were once very precise pointillistic staccato synth arpeggios are marshaled into layers of violent bliss on “Gyors/Lassù”. The analogue labor and the density of sound highlight the character of continuous performance of the music, where the intertwining of the artist and his work is profoundly material in its quality. As in a modern embodiment of the potter’s wheel…the hands, the texture of clay, with ceramic material. Translated lyrically and conceptually, music performance is for time what travel represents in space, and Gyors/Lassù is the sonic rendering of McBride’s wanderings between Hungary (“Bulvàr”, “Budapest II”) and the South of Italy (“Teano”), between vibrant rhythmic structures and melancholic instrumentals, balancing its bodily intensity with abstract experimentation against the regression of the modern listener.

Listen here and order here.

Posted on December 26th, 2014 under Releases, ,

Youth Code - A Place To Stand

Youth Code’s latest release, A Place To Stand, is an expression of rage that could only come from Los Angeles. Perfectly capturing the frustration and claustrophobia of the early 80s LA hardcore scene but re-appropriating that aggression and melding it to the strict, pounding electronics of classic industrial. Produced by Josh Eustis (Nine Inch Nails, Telefon Tel Aviv, Sons of Magdalene), Side A of A Place to Stand features four new Youth Code tracks that showcase the band exploring an evolved sense of melodic synth work and more varied tempos than anything they have released to date. From the pure adrenal rush of opening track, “Consumed By Guilt” and the Wax Trax-esque dance floor anthem “To Burn Your World” to the lush synthscape melodies of “For I Am Cursed” You can hear Ryan George and Sara Taylor perfectly balancing respect for their elders whilst creating something that’s uniquely their own. Rounding out the Youth Code originals on Side A, “A Litany (A Place To Stand)” figuratively stands out, as it is a spoken-word diatribe on society that encapsulates the feeling of the entire record.

Side B of “A Place to Stand” collects four remixes of earlier Youth Code tracks, from artists as diverse as Corrections House’s Sanford Parker, Sub Pop signed avant rap crew Clipping., industrial / EBM mainstays God Module & the dark and minimal techno mastermind, Silent Servant. What makes A Place to Stand exceptional is Youth Code’s ability to coax raw, organic emotion out of cold, primitive synths. A trait that stems from the band’s peculiar genesis.

Listen here and order here.

Posted on December 23rd, 2014 under Releases, ,

Statiqbloom- Zex Model - Split LP

Brooklyn’s Statiqbloom is the dark hallucinogenic brainchild of Fade Kainer. Drawing from the grittiness of early industrial and EBM, Statiqbloom combines hard dance beats and haunting electronics with disorienting vocals to create a pulsing raw vision of music for today.

Kainer has also provided vocals and electronic soundscapes for industrial doom metal band Batillus, and, previously, industrial metal duo Inswarm. In addition, Kainer is a member of blackened synth band Theologian, has played synths and percussion on tour for Jarboe, and has done remixes for a variety of bands and artists, including Chris Connelly, Nachtmystium and Secrets of the Moon.

Listen and order here.

Posted on December 20th, 2014 under Releases, , ,

Minuit Machine - Live & Destroy

Minuit Machine, a synth wave band based in Paris, is the association of Hélène de Thoury’s electronic melodies and Amandine Stioui’s vocals.

The project was born in Hélène’s mind in June 2013 during a tour with Phosphor, her former band. In September this same year, she met Amandine and fell in love with her voice. Together, they released their first EP called “Blue Moon” in October 2013. The sound of the French duo, based on powerful electronic drums and the accumulation of dark synth lines, is a mix between all their inspirations that range from minimal wave to electronic rock.

Their debut album “Live & Destroy” will be released by established french label desire in the Fall of 2014 and will be followed by an european tour.

It talks about life, love, self-destruction and fear, all the struggles we encounter one day or another, all the doubts and darkness that can sometimes bring us down. And the idea that our worst enemy could be our own mind.

Listen and order here.

Posted on December 17th, 2014 under Releases, ,