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Celldöd, the emperor of Swedish Electronic Body Music, is back on Electronic Emergencies with Pandoras Ask, an immersive 4-track EP. When Pandora opens her box, she completely loses control. Aggressive industrial beats, distorted emotional lyrics and heavy synths are catapulted into the universe. A wall of sounds fills the room and your heart immediately, forcing you to dance. Pure chilling Nordic EBM with a sprinkle of acid and electro.
In 2023 it will be exactly 40 years since Enzo Kreft saw the light of day. In 1983, the then 22-year-old Eric Vandamme came up with the name Enzo Kreft and that same year he released his first album on cassette, “Me Is!”, in genuine DIY style, recorded at home with minimal resources. The obscure “Me Is!” ended up in London via underground channels and eventually spread through collectors to all corners of the world. The following year there was a second album “Cicatrice” and then Enzo Kreft went into a long hibernation. However, Eric Vandamme did not sit still, he was part of a number of bands in that interim period and he had musical projects with some good friends. He was also visually active with drawing, painting, sculpting, etching, screen printing and video. Around 2011, Enzo Kreft slowly started to wake up from his hibernation and some new tracks were in the pipeline. In 2016, Kreft made a definitive restart. The release of “Dark Matter,” the vinyl album released by Walhalla Records featuring tracks from “Me Is!” and “Cicatrice”, fueled the “craving” and at the end of 2016 Enzo Kreft released “Turning Point”. Then things went fast, new albums followed each other (“Wasteland” in 2017, “Control” in 2019, “Different World” in 2021 and “Shelter” in 2023), all in his typical DIY style. Everything involved in the creation of albums, including production and artwork, is consistently done in-house. Lyrics full of social criticism are combined with often dark, but danceable and melodic electro. Enzo Kreft has performed successfully a number of times with not unnoticed shows, accompanied by breathtaking video projections. 40 years of Enzo Kreft, reason enough for a party! For this special occasion, the compilation album “XL” (40 in Roman numerals) is released.
Long time collaborators and friends Travis Thatcher and Chris Daresta met many years ago in the underbelly of Atlanta’s noise and experimental music scene. Chris fondly recalls someone saying “hey, you should meet this cool guy who likes drum machines as much as you.” Years later, Chris would go on to co-found DKA records, with Travis mastering many of the releases. The old friends went on to record a couple split cassettes with their solo projects Anticipation and Voice of Saturn, both released on DKA. During this time, a duo named Karger Traum from Oklahoma City sent in a demo to DKA. Their vocalist Taylor McKenzie and Chris immediately hit it off, with many long emails sent back and forth. Karger Traum would go on to release their first album on DKA, and Taylor founded the Oklahoma City dance label Fixed Rhythms. Life was good, bands went on tour, tapes and records flew out the door, and countless alcoholic beverages were spilled on the nation’s dance floors. But then the pandemic hit. Stuck inside with the monotony of doing nothing, a new project begins to brew. Chris started sending tracks to Travis, who had moved to Charlottesville. Drum machines and synthesizers were dubbed out with echo, reverb, and onto lofi-tape machines. Six mercurial tracks emerged over time, but they needed something… But what? Thinking outside the box, Chris decided to reach out to Taylor to explore what vocals could bring to the music. After recording sessions with Nick Owen from Fixed Rhythms, the new project truly had come together. Taking its name from the influential and beloved cassette release “Domestic Exile” by Daniele Ciullini from 1983, the unworldly sounds of which seemed to so perfectly mirror the sound of the fledgling trio. With a name selected, the band Domestic Exile was now complete. The music on Domestic Exile’s “self-titled” cassette is influenced by the already mentioned Daniele Ciullini of course, but one can easily hear industrial touchstones DAF and Liaisons Dangereuses, through the experimental filter of adventurous musicians like Drexciya, Cluster, Neu, and even the manic Void side of the Faith/Void lp. This is moody EBM dance music for those who like the darker, murkier, and obscure cassette releases of the eighties. Domestic Exile is a futurist soundtrack for the straggling and obstinate machines, still partying at the end of the world, despite the obvious.
After all these years, to be honest 35 years, it was time for a kind of restart. This time our music is more experimental and avantgarde, like in our very early days, when we did not had a specific style. Of course this time you hear that it’s definitely Rorschach Garden, but some of our new songs will be very unusual, because we did not made everything with electronic instruments. So now that this purgatory is done, we will head to other horizons. Enjoy this not so usual trip with us. For us it’s one of our most important albums ever. Cheers! Digital Album [free download] |
