Cabaret Voltaire co-founder Stephen Mallinder’s second solo outing for Dais further distills his signature fusion of minimal synth, oblique wordplay, and “wonky disco” into a riveting rhythm suite ripe for our age of escalation: tick tick tick. Channeling the temporal malaise of lockdown through a lusher palette of modular electronics and stereo strings, the songs embrace ambiguity and plasticity, loose systems of percolating circuitry and airless funk. Recorded across a handful of sessions at MemeTune Studios in Cornwall with frequent collaborator Benge (aka Ben Edwards), Mallinder cites no guiding aesthetic premise for the collection beyond “cowbell on every track, and entirely no reverb.”
From the first coiled cybernetic groove of opener “Contact,” the album’s spatial dynamics are disorienting and asymmetrical, alternately cold and sensual, opiated and claustrophobic. But, throughout, “rhythm is the default, the bedrock, the building block – even the melodies are rhythmic.” Across 40-plus years of electronic musicianship, Mallinder’s sense of timing and tempo has honed into a rare tier of mastery, limber and fluid but knotted with strange frictions. Shades of Detroit technoid industrial (“ringdropp,” “Shock to the Body”) crossfade into no wavy punk-funk (“Guernica Gallery,” “Galaxy,” “The Trial”), bad trip IDM (“Wasteland”), and jittery vapor house (“Hush”), at the threshold of modes both familiar and foreign.
Lyrically the record is equally evasive, rich with allusions and associative linguistics, surveying liquid notions of societal noise, ecological ruin, art world pretension, and the trials of daily life. But the lack of fixed meaning remains Mallinder’s main muse: “Music should draw you in; lyrics should make you think. Most interpretation is misinterpretation.” This is music of countdowns and comedowns, fleeting pleasures and opaque futures, observing the great decline while dancing on its ashes. Flux is deathless and forever; the rest, illusion: “I will be a constant figure / Flickering a moving picture / Turning in your head forever / Split apart but held together.”
LP / Digital Album
Dina Summer, the collaborative band project between Kalipo and DJ couple Local Suicide, announces their exciting debut album “Rimini”. The LP is a unique blend of their influences, drawing from 80’s disco, 90’s electro, new wave and downbeat for a fun, nostalgic and dark retro sound.
The Berlin-based project is fronted by Dina P, who lends her vocals and thought-provoking lyricism to the act. The Greek native first started performing as a teenager on local radio stations, where she made waves as one of the first women DJs in Thessaloniki. She later moved to Berlin, meeting her husband and DJ/Producer partner, Brax Moody, to form Local Suicide. The third member of Dina Summer is Bavarian-born Kalipo, who started his music career as the producer and a band member of the German electro-punk band Frittenbude. While the trio initially met at a rave at the Rock am Ring festival in 2013, they only began working on music together in 2019 and have since been refining their combined sound.
Dina Summer’s “Rimini” offers a nostalgic and beautifully crafted journey through retro disco sonics, incorporating synth pop, new wave, and disco elements for funky, upbeat, and versatile tracks that can be enjoyed beachside or on the dance floor.
LP / Cassette / Digital Album
The Glasgow 5-piece debut 4 tracks of post-punk with an ill-lit familiarity found in the early EPs of The Sisters of Mercy and Xmal Deutschland. Coupled with the angular metallic edge of Chrome’s Red Exposure and silky production, the sunless chants of Memorabilia are paramount to your winter soundtrack.
Cassette / Digital Album
German cold, minimal electro-wave and industrial from Dortmund/Ruhrgebiet, started in 1994.
CD / Digital Album
Kübler-Ross is a minimal synth/wave/industrial three-piece from Glasgow, Scotland, featuring Craig Clark, Katie Shannon, and veteran electronic producer and remixer producer Dave Clark, best-known for his Sparky moniker, and as one-half of the production/remix team Optimo (Espacio).
First emerging in 2015 with a couple of compilation appearances, Kübler-Ross released their debut, self-titled album in 2020. Originally released as a limited-edition cassette on the Glasgow label Akashic Records, the album — now resequenced and released on vinyl via Suction Records’ minimal synth sublabel Ice Machine — is a collection of tracks recorded over a three year period in a variety of studios, rehearsal rooms, and gigs, documenting the musical variety and ferocity of their incendiary live performances. The Akashic tape, despite being low-key, under-the-radar, and released in limited quantity, managed to earn them a Long List nomination for SAY (Scottish Album of the Year) for 2020.
LP / Digital Album
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