The Night of the Stars’ is the fantastic sixth album from Swedish dream pop favorites AZURE BLUE. The album pushes the quality to its peak, exhibiting a richer, clearer, and more luxurious approach to the patented AZURE BLUE sound across ten enticing tracks. Three of the songs generated significant buzz when released as singles. Album opener ‘Rise’ is a shimmering track with a rushing drumbeat topped by luxurious layers of analog synths and a Peter Hook-like bass. The song is a dream pop anthem featuring a timeless chorus and vocal harmonies from AZURE BLUE’s long time companion The Land Below.
The crystal-clear topline in ‘Three Times The Drama’ shines over electric guitars and analog synths to create an immediate pop song with great summer hit potential. The song is also a bittersweet dedication to Tobias Isaksson’s mother, who recently passed away, and its completion provided comfort following a period of unspeakable grief. The album also includes ‘Define Your Dreams’—a bright flare first previewed during the dark days of the pandemic with massive synth walls and lyrics that suggest that while difficult times have passed, more difficult ones may be coming. ‘Visions and Themes’ will have its premiere on October 25 when it is released as the fourth single from the album, while the remaining six tracks provide even further evidence of the brilliance of one of Sweden’s most internationally acclaimed indie artists.
CD / LP
The second album from Noda & Wolfers on NIghtwind Records is here!!! With EVIL FADES IN ECHO the Japanese dub melodica virtuoso Takafumi Noda aka Mystica Tribe meets up with Danny Wolfers Legowelt again for an unique concoction of digital dub acid hall with raw lo-fi synth wave.
Buckets of echo, crumbled tapes, Mind altering phasers, luring spring reverbs, sloppy hythm boxes, HEAVY INTENSE BASS and the ever mystifying melodica playing from Noda bring this project to a new level.
LP / Digital Album [free download]
MEMORIA is the second album from Swiss cold-wave project Future Faces. In a synthetic, restless musical universe, it questions temporality and the consequences of a past action on the present and future. With a more nuanced instrumentation than the two previous releases, MEMORIA invites the listener on a contrasting introspective journey, moving from desolate minimalist climates to epic build-ups. In order to move on from a conceptual world and engage the audience, the album has been written in the same way as when the quartet builds a concert set-list; respecting the breaks, climaxes and outlets of a scenic musical narrative.
LP / CD / Digital Album
Here comes a new punk.
If you know anything about me – as in Andrea, the record label’s head – you know I have a thing for Oi since I was a teenage skinhead. And with Avant! being a coldwave/synthpop label, our next release couldn’t be more special. No Filter are three children of the French region of Dauphiné, active in the black metal scene for 20 years through different projects. They created No Filter with the aim of exploring punk, Oi and coldwave sounds.
They started by singing in English but after their first demo they decided to opt for French to improve their lyrics by singing in their own native language. Themes addressed in their songs are violence, hatred, party nights, the countryside, their roots and friendship. “Synth punk, bagarre et blousons noirs” in their own words.
12″ / Digital Album
With his new, second album “STRONG”, Berlin’s musician Jogger questions common notions of strength. Instead of delivering hymnic calls for self-optimization, he delves deep into the topic of self-pity – not as a burden, but as a radical form of self-love. While his debut album “BRD Noir” (2022) explored dark soundscapes of urban space, “STRONG” is more personal. The focus is on the question of adulthood and the contradictions of growing older, which may or may not bring with them new truths. Jogger moves skillfully between the themes of change and resistance. His music remains raw and direct, but never unfinished. “STRONG” is an album that does not want to shine perfectly, but finds a special closeness in imperfection.
12″ / Digital Album
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