Limited to 400 hand numbered copies with screenprinted artwork,  Torment is the long awaited first full length album from Makina Girgir that just came out on La Forme Lente.
Makina Girgir, also known as AratkiLo, is a solo project from Toulouse, France. In 2007, the debut EP The Spell was released on Das Drehmoment and other tracks also appeared on various compilations like Dance With Us! and Synthesize Me in 2007, Circuit d’Actes 2 in 2011 and The Future Echo Tapes in 2012.
Faithful to the original spirit, every song is mixing cold and spacey sounds with warm and haunting melodies. Often urging you to dance, robotic rhythms and piercing synth riffs are contrasting in sweet and seducing harmonies. Mechanical sequences are arranged with deep and spacious soundscapes in a way that won’t leave anyone indifferent.
Female spoken words, processed through icy effects, are also making this record even more slick and sexy.
Definitely getting off the beaten paths, Torment has a modern edge that I found original and refreshing. Every listening got me totally absorbed with the head in the clouds, ironically taking me away from life’s torments…
Makina Girgir – Torment
 Ame de Boue is the solo project from Datz, a member of Dolina and the man behind Spielzeug Muzak. If you never heard of anything from Dolina yet, you must go listen to some of their material right now. This French project is still keeping me totally fascinated since I first discovered them in 2009.
To speak of Ame de Boue, this is the debut album and only 250 copies were released on Treue Um Treue, in February.
Soundwise, I was pleased to find back some elements from Dolina but the obscure madness was pushed a bit further. I got stunned by the diversity and the beauty of the sounds that seems to be mixed and arranged with real magic. As others often reuse the same type of classic analog sounds, there is much more originality to be found here.
Musically, most of the album has some sort of bizarre carnivalesque ambiance, making me dreaming of clowns dancing on barrel organ music. The spooky theme, from the beginning to the end, really stirred me deep inside.
Out of 15 songs, my favorite title is definitely L’Inconfort Néccésaire (live and very different version). The beat stays on a slow tempo but near the end, It’s Fun to be Dead also kicks in with a danceable song using a distorted rhythm over a killer bassline.
The intro and the first 2 songs are written in French, 5 are in English and the rest is instrumental. The vocals are sang or spoken in some kind of simple and modest way that really makes them shine. At other times, wicked effects are also used over vocals for more experimental passages.
Why only 250 copies were printed? Given the quality of the music, I think it is a big nonsense but to be selfish, I am very glad to own my copy of this limited edition. It seems that Ame de Boue and Dolina aren’t much into self-promotion. Just search online and you won’t find their page on any stupid social network. I found it relieving after wondering what’s the matter with so many artists and so-called marginals, using private mainstream medias without much consciousness.
Certainly, L’Inconfort Nécéssaire will pass the test of time as I have no doubt its intemporal originality will make it a priceless collector item.
Also worth mentioning, you should check out Illustrations Sonores, a new and very promising project from Datz and Froe Char.
L’Inconfort Néccésaire on Discogs
 Hailing from the UK, The World Is Getting Colder is the debut LP from Lebanon Hanover, a duo formed of William Maybelline and Larissa Iceglass.
It came out in February as the 5th release from Fabrika Record. Before that, you might have heard Kunst that appeared on Monosynth and they also released a split cassette with La Fête Triste on aufnahme + wiedergabe, in September 2011.
The first song, Die World, starts up with an harmony from Bauhaus’s classic Bela Lugosi’s Dead, to quickly bring us into the mood for the bewitching ambiance that follows up.
In its whole, Lebanon Hanover are using distorted guitars, bass guitars, sporadic synthesizers and a drum machine to create a cold and minimal aesthetic, all structured in a very shiny way. Their haunting vocals highlighted in wide reverberations, which didn’t fail to rock my guts more than once, are adding a nice touch of warmness. Mixing a bunch of efficient elements from the past into their sauce, I think Lebanon Hanover still innovated with a very distinct sound.
Just listen to Totally Tot where things are getting pretty mad with this earth shaking rhythm and deep pounding bass line. I have no doubt it is going to hit the dance floors like a ton of bricks!
The World Is Getting Colder is still available on Fabrika Records store.
 You might have heard about the Berliner duo Bloodygrave & Die Lust!, but before these synth punk rockers met in a night club and soon started playing together, they were also making music on their own.
Surprisingly, only 3 months after their latest release on Aufnahme + Wiedergabe, Die Lust! came out in December with Saga Elettrica, containing 10 songs on CDR, DIY style, on the Italian label La Statua Sommersa Produzioni. LSSP has been around since 2006, where Bloodygrave also released a demo in 2009 and Bloodygrave & Die Lust! released their first EP in 2010. As some people said, the best things in life are free, just like having sex, going skinny dipping or downloading LSSP records!
Released in December, this is already the 8th release from Die Lust! Each songs are quite different, using a very wide palette of sounds, combining different atmospheres and styles resulting in quite a crazy trip.
Colonna Sonora Per Una Poesia gently opens on a smooth and trippy ambiance, with spoken words in Italian over gorgeous synthesizer arrangements. Later in Wild As The Wind, we can hear the same Italian vocal, but singing in a very suave way on a slow tempo over some more beautiful synths.
On other songs like Trasformazione and Captain Of My Soul, we’ve got plenty of spastic electronics for lots of fun! Think of Devo meeting DAF with a touch of early Suicide. On Captain Of My Soul, one of my favorite tracks, sweet female vocals are also adding spices into the mix.
Then we’ve got instrumental tracks, like Devo and Saga Electtrica I, where the synthesizers are getting even more wicked. Hidden at the end, there is even an 11th track where the machines are totally getting out of control.
But Saga Electtrica doesn’t only contains electronics. On Arno, it gets a bit wilder with distorted guitars and a real bass over a slow rhythm for a darker outro lasting over 9 minutes, also featuring another Italian back vocal.
Saga Elettrica is definitely a wild and tangy record. It will fit perfectly for any crazy parties, as background music for having wild sex or even for going berserk, dancing alone and banging your head into the walls.
 Here’s the debut LP of HNN from France. Limited to 500 copies, it was released on October 1st by La Forme Lente.
HNN was Gregg Anthe’s solo project, until it was announced Martin Dupont joined to form a duo. The acronym stands for Hsilgne Nekorb Ni, which makes In Broken English if you read it backwards. This lead me to discover Gregg is also the singer of In Broken English, an interesting rock band with a nice touch of electronics.
Face A opens with Life X-Press, the most upbeat and pop song on the album. The rhythm then slows down with Renouveau Ordinaire, an instrumental song featuring a female vocalist humming over nice vocal pads and analog sequences, followed up by Mono, driven by an hooking bass line on top of warm strings and beautiful melodies.
Then face B starts with Iris, an instant classic and my favorite title, followed up with Exhibition, another pure instrumental synthpop tune and A Step Outside, that makes a big wink to Kraftwerk, proudly claiming its synthpop influences by borrowing the air of Computerlove.
Even if Piece Radiophonique, as its title stands, would be pretty enough to play on mainstream radios, it think it is rather dedicated for true synthpop lovers. The organic tone of the synthesizers and the elegant arrangements left me very impressed; these throbbing melodies, delightful sounds and the overall emotions are really speaking to me.
After delivering excellent pop songs, each side is nicely ending with ambient and experimental tracks, and I have a feeling the next release with Martin Dupont will be exploring new musical grounds…
You can still order Piece Monophonique on Discogs.
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