Seja Records: Venin Carmin – Glam Is Gone

Venin Carmin - Glam Is Gone

‘Glam Is Gone’ is the vinyl debut of the French multi-instrumentalist Venin Carmin. She wrote all songs, lyrics and played all instruments by herself. Apparantly for a good reason she recorded the album at ‘Death To Majors Studio’, for this lady is averse to conventions. Venin Carmin has clear references in the New Wave and Post-punk of the eighties but manages to transfer this just as well with a modern twist. That makes “Glam Is Gone” into a contemporary album.

The lyrics, written from a female perspective, are about relationships, boredom, sex and violence. Sung in a naive kind of way they are occasionally caustic in its observations. Venin Carmin comes with an album full of goodies that changes flavor before you have in mind. It easily can put you on the wrong track. This moreish!

Listen and order here.

Posted on July 31st, 2015 under Releases, ,

Beläten: Grand Mal x – Before Life

Grand Mal X - Before Life

»Against Modern Disease« exclaims the verso of the J-card, and this odd juxtaposition of an entirely modern, electronic language, and an inward search for the atavistic purpose of man is the key to understanding the particular magick workings of Grand Mal x. But even with this realization, it isn’t a lesson easily fathomed.

With Before Life GMx return to Beläten with the chronological successor, and thematic precursor to last years Life EP. Where that work seemed to try to lure the listener onto a dimly lit physical dancefloor, Before Life beacons you towards an equally obscure, though entirely metaphysical one. GMx stumble through alternately illuminated and occulted back alley roads, in search of their own personal catharsis.

Grand Mal x are here to go. Deeper.

Listen and order here.

Posted on July 29th, 2015 under Releases, ,

Beläten: Alvar – Deceivers

Alvar - Deceivers

Det Stora Alvaret is a particularly barren plain situated on Öland off the eastcoast of Sweden, from which arid soils the mysterious spectre of Alvar has risen.

On Deceivers, the duo’s debut, we’re treated to some grade a horror electronics, formed by equal measures of hook-laden minimal synth and arafna cultura steeped technoire. Add a healthy does of the windswept gloom endemic to these parts of Sweden, and you get this: seriously apocal-hypnotic dance music, guaranteed to leave you dancing all the way to Ragnarök.

Listen and order here.

Posted on July 27th, 2015 under Releases, ,

Creme Organization: Marcos Cabral – The Conversation EP

Marcos Cabral - The Conversation EP

Next up on Creme Organization is accomplished American producer Marcos Cabral. He has been known to make everything from abrasive noise to disco edits via all sorts of house and techno on labels like L.I.E.S. and The Trilogy Tapes (as the noisy Chemotex). Once again the New Yorker impresses here with another original offering featuring four standout tracks.

Up first is the slow and slithering techno workout that is ‘Nearly Run Over’. With frazzled synths and plenty of beeps, it’s a real brain fryer. ‘Jumping Beans’ is another all analogue work out with loopy sine waves, distorted percussion and nasty drums that all come at you through a wall of fuzzy, broken and whirring machines. It’s dystopian music for hellishly dark back rooms before ‘Man’s Job’ gets a little more colourful. This one sounds like a burnt down disco track with distant synth patterns and metallic drums all fighting for your attention in a lurching fashion, then ‘The Conversation’ is the most upbeat of them all but is still a whacked out, degraded and compressed house tune with undulating synths and frosty percussion. Few people do damaged sounding tracks as well as this man and this EP highlights that fact once again.

Listen and order here.

Posted on July 25th, 2015 under Releases, ,

Medical Records: Synesthesia – The First Five Years

Synesthesia - The First Five Years

Medical Records is celebrating it’s 5 year anniversary as well as 50th release! Medical Records was founded sometime in 2007/2008 but released it’s first double header of reissues in May 2010 with the (at the time) little known Deutsche Wertarbeit (MR-001) and the first album by famed Italo/synthpop guru Alexander Robotnick (MR-002). Since the beginning, Medical has pledged to bring back long out of print and lost new wave, synth, and disco LPs from the 70s and 80s. With an emphasis on high quality heavy vinyl (with a dizzying array of colored wax), these essential records have been made available again at a reasonable price for collectors and new fans to cherish once again. Over time, we expanded our palette to include new artists with a similar aesthetic to our vision as well as crucial 90s reissues in the shoegaze and other unclassifiable genres.

With collaborations with Crispy Nuggets, Light In The Attic, and Portland’s 2010 Records, the back catalog of releases have spanned much ground. For this 50th release (MR-050), we have chosen to release our first retrospective with a twist. This double LP features a hand-picked selection of tracks intended to highlight our past reissues on the first 3 sides. Featuring such standouts as Lou Champagne System, Tony Carey, Gay Cat Park, and many more, it is a very nice representative collection. The 4th side of the double LP is a unique collection of our new (contemporary) artists performing specially selected cover versions of tracks featured on our past reissues. Examples include the sultry “We R” performed by Roladex (originally by Chrisma on “Hibernation”) and “Click” performed by Kline Coma Xero (originally by Disco Volante).

This collection will surely be a treat for the fans who have been following our evolution over time and will especially prove to be a staple in anyone’s collection who would like some of our reissued hits on one concise compilation. All reissue tracks and new tracks have received additional remastering and mastering (the new tracks) by Martin Bowes at the Cage Studios, UK. This collection will appeal to aforementioned lovers/collectors of rare new wave, private press synth, cosmic/italo disco, vinyl djs, and many more!

This double LP is housed in a specially designed gatefold heavy sleeve featuring the Medical logo in a “color blindness test” on the front with the gatefold filled with thumbnails of all 50 past releases. Presented on high-quality 160gram colored vinyl.

Listen and order here.

Posted on July 23rd, 2015 under Releases,