ARTIFICIAL MONUMENTS was an all-stars dark minimal / synthpop project from Copenhagen, originally formed by Patrick Ringsborg (Moth, Chainsaw Eaters, Little Boy Lost, Echo People et al.) Johannah Jørgensen (Metro Cult) and Kim Wolf Andersen (Moth, Chainsaw Eaters et al.). They were inspired by bands like Iron Curtain, Yazoo, Neon Judgement, Eleven Pond and Turquoise Days. Active between 2013 and 2015 only, the group disbanded due to Johanna’s health problems, leaving their debut album ‘Illusions of Identity’ on the cutting board. But it was posthumously finished over the next four years with the help of an incredible array of fellow artists from the new wave of post punk, who contributed their talents to the completion of the album: Sally Dige, Zosia Hołubowska (Mala Herba, Prison, Hände), Ina Noire & Lisa Løebekken (Techne), Sofie Jacobi, Cecilia Wörlén (Prison) and Christoffer Bagge (Metro Cult, Totem).
LP / Digital Album
Xarah Dion offers up her third LP PLEIN NORD. Brimming with incisive dance rhythms, the hypnotic compositions are a unique blend of past and contemporary coldwave. Dion has let time shape meaning and structure rather than forcing sound with a concept or aesthetic theme. Unknowingly, stripped bare, the album grew like mineral in the quiet dark – its irregular beauty, its throb and drive, its solitude and whisper, are the crystallized facets of process and patience.
Beneath PLEIN NORD is a rich foundation synthesized from Dion’s knowledge of music. After studying the waves (post-punk, new/minimal/wave, left-field house/techno…), she brings together her baroque music training, extensive musicianship and self-taught electronic music production to craft a vision of her own. At first guided by raw analog electronics, the album is powered by Dion’s renewed interest in production.
Embedded throughout PLEIN NORD are keys to its meaning. The title is meant as a direction (Due North) but also draws from the word PLEIN (full) and the implied contradiction of the Arctic as a symbol of emptiness facing a crowded future as the world changes under human influence. Using the secret code of langue française to express the thoughts over which she obsesses, Dion unfolds the surreal against the existential to reveal what cannot be spoken outright. Composition and lyrics are spaces and relations rather than stories. Dire narratives are sparsely etched, threaded together but never linear.
Pulsing with an intimate and visceral sound, PLEIN NORD will slide through your flesh and mind like a glove to the nervous system. [Jovien Smith]
LP / Digital Album
Container 90 are back again and for the first time on 7”. Those familiar with the usual electro punk, EBM sound of Container 90 can expect something slightly different. These tracks are actually quite old and are a kind of leftovers from producing the albums. The songs did not fit the sound of the albums but was still good enough to be released, so the single format was a way to go. We love 7”.
The song Friendship And Love is a homage to the early electronic sound of Germany and Neu Deutsche Welle. The lyrics are translated fragments from DAF lyrics and ended up as a tribute song to Robert and Gabi in all aspects of lyrics, instruments, sound and artwork. On the flip side you find a slow track inspired of the cold war era and nuclear power.
Acoustic drums are used on these recordings and are played by the super creative Stefan Eriksson that usually works in bands like Sister Electra (synth pop), Brotherhood (goth), Sophia(industrial), Fenix (indie pop), Alfahanne (rock) to name a some of them. Some girls’ choir was also added to get closer to the right feeling of the NDW sound.
7″ / Digital Album
One of the brightest interstellar events in history was SUPERNOVA 1006. This is also the namesake of the Russian electronic music duo of Andrey Yukhovich (singer/songwriter/guitar) Elizabeth Dolgikh (drums/synthesizers), who are about to release their latest LP Technical Support.
The record, a worthy successor to SN1006’s previous outing Blackout, evolving into from Darkwave LP, into something more akin to what the crew on the BBC 4 series Skins would listen to, while maintaining a broad appeal ranging, catering to the aural tastes of Technoheads, Post-Punkers, and Industrial/EBM kids.
This, however, is a political record, exploring the looming fear of Vladimir Putin signing into law the “sovereign internet” bill, an Orwellian piece of legislation that would give the Russian government control over the internet in ways that would rival that of China’s.
Of this theme for Technical Support, Andrey, and Elizabeth explain: “The main idea of the album was to describe the boundaries of ideas we are driven by the information field. Now any information has its limits and an acceptable qualification. Maybe you’ve heard that there’s no freedom of speech in Russia. At the end of 2019 the country will begin to “separate” from the global Internet with all the consequences. One big Russian firewall will “filter” and “prohibit”. Technical support – those who build this firewall. These are the ones who will limit the development of ideas and bury the unborn ones.” [post-punk.com]
LP / CD / Digital Album
Electro synth pop project around Slovak electronic musician Imrich Végh, also owner of the 4mg Records and member of Képeslap.
12″
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