Quieter Than Spiders release their long-awaited debut album Signs of Life. The Chinese-Anglo band was formed in Shanghai in 2012 and has been quietly rising to prominence among the electronic music community with what the group self-styles as ‘Shanghai Synthpop’. Online music magazine The Electricity Club included Quieter Than Spiders in a list of their favourite new artists and described them as “What OMD would sound like if they formed in the 21st Century”.
Signs of Life was self-produced by the group and combines their contrasting styles of uptempo synthpop and slow reflective melancholy. The album features 10 tracks including familiar songs such as Hibakusha, Shanghai Metro, The Land of Lost Content and No Illusion. There are also 10 remixes by artists such as Kevin Komoda from Rational Youth, Vile Electrodes and The Silicon Scientist. Signs of Life also includes 8 mini interludes which the group describes as ‘brief dream sequences’. Group member Leon Zhang said: “the album includes a slower and more experimental side to our music that people haven’t yet heard from us, especially songs such as The Signs of Life and The Statues which are more personal and introverted.”
The album was recorded in both Shanghai and the UK and was mastered in Germany by Stefan Bornhorst (aka The Silicon Scientist). The group did not use a formal recording space which gave them the opportunity to experiment. “We used minimal equipment which gave us the opportunity to record songs in a variety of places. We even recorded parts in an old deserted Shanghai building earmarked for demolition, and in an overgrown tunnel that we found deep in the English countryside”.
2×12″ / Digital Album
NADANNA proudly presents its new project, the Canadian synthpop act TECHNIQUES BERLIN! Formed in 1984 by high school buddies Andreas Gregor and David Rout, the band started experimenting with synthesizers, drum machines and guitars. In the early stages, TECHNIQUES BERLIN was heavily influenced by UK new romantic acts like Japan, Spandau Ballet, Visage, The Human League, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Yazoo and Depeche Mode as well as rising Canadian synthpop bands Rational Youth (Dave become a member in 1998/99), Men Without Hats and Trans-X. It took them a few years to master their electronic toys and create a unique blend of addictive electropop melodies and beautifully crafted alternative beats.
In the late 80s, TECHNIQUES BERLIN played live on a regular basis and their 3 cassettes, released on their own Bombshelter label, received frequent local airplay in Canada. Despite their moderate success, the band failed to secure a record deal. A&R reps would comment that their songs were either too alternative to be classified as pop, or too pop to be alternative, which became rather discouraging in the long run. By late 1991, the band members had developed a strong interest in the burgeoning electro-industrial scene. Dave and Andreas had founded Bang Elektronika and were working with Digital Poodle as live drummers. Both of these projects were soon picked up by record labels. TECHNIQUES BERLIN played their last show at the University of Toronto in November of 1991, debuting the last track they had recorded, fittingly called “Time Fades to Nothing”.
Now over two decades later, TECHNIQUES BERLIN is staging a remarkable comeback! Encouraged by the growing interest in the long out-of-print “Back Issue Volume 1 and 2” (now available on iTunes) and the highly sought-after compilation “Suburban Playgrounds and Concrete Beaches” (released by Fabrika Records on vinyl), Dave and Andreas have decided to bring TECHNIQUES BERLIN back to life. A series of shows in Toronto and Montreal saw the addition of keyboardist and backing vocalist Dina Naskos to the line-up. To celebrate the anniversary of the label that they founded, they included an unreleased track on the 7” EP, Future Past, on the Bombshelter Productions label.
Andreas, Dave and Dina have completed an album of brand new material, titled “Breathing”. The set consist of the new album, as well as a previously unreleased material and alternate versions of tracks from the Bombshelter vaults. The 2CD version includes a bonus disc featuring remixes by the best of the minimal synth, electropop and Italo Disco scene!
2 x LP
Nadanna is extremely proud and excited to present TOBIAS BERNSTRUP’s new album “Technophobic”. Bernstrup who works both as a visual artist and musician has been touring worldwide since the late 1990s and positioned himself as one of the leading re-inventors of Italo Disco with his unique mix of Italo, Synthpop and Gothic noir.
He has created his own unmistakable stage persona wearing androgynous outfits in shiny latex and heavy make-up. Tobias has collaborated with seminal artists such as Trans-X, Apoptygma Berzerk, Martial Canterel, Xeno & Oaklander, Lebanon Hanover, and She Past Away.
“Technophobic” contains 10 smashing tracks including the recent single “Utopia”, and “Metropolis of Tomorrow” featuring French dark synth wave artist HANTE. Combining influences from classic synthpop, minimal wave, dark wave in a retro futuristic manner TOBIAS BERNSTRUP has created an album reminiscent of the 80s but in a contemporary context of sound landscape. The CD version contains the “Utopia” EP with sensational remixes by Covenant, Italoconnection, Flemming Dalum and 23rd Underpass plus bonus remixes by Confrontational, Makina Girgir, Nao Katafuchi, and Techniques Berlin.
LP / CD
“There’s nowhere to run to anymore – There’s nowhere to hide from the Third World War, You gotta live each day like it’s your last – You’re gonna lose it all in a nuclear blast.”
ART INTERFACE started in Lansing, Michigan, USA, in 1981, when Douglas Vasey (synths, bass, vocals, production), Steven W. Curran (additional synths) and Claes Roswall (drums) were just messing around with a TEAC 4-track, a couple of Moog, Roland and Korg synthesisers, and no real ideas. Having a real drummer is what drove the songs a bit wild, since nobody knew what was going to happen and they kept responding to what each other did.
Their first recording was “Secretaries From Heaven” which they sent to John Loder at Southern Studios in London, also known for being the studio of choice for Crass. John invited the band over to re-record it, so Douglas went and did it, and then worked for John for a while, and was a roadie for Crass, too. Back to the States, ART INTERFACE self-released “Secretaries From Heaven” as a single (IF2, 1983). Steven moved on running an 8-track studio and Roger Deason joined on guitar. In the following year they released the famous “Wardance” single (IF3, 1984) and two years later the vinyl debut “Great Big World Of Noise and Shit” (IF5, 1986). Then silence until 2005 when “Adrift In A Dream” was released and 2015, when Vinyl-on-Demand records released a double LP compilation with early tracks from 1981 to 1986 including the Southern Studios sessions and a co-operation with Annie Anxiety. Now, ART INTERFACE are back with a new EP which includes the previously unreleased track “Dance Hit” from 1981 which will appeal to fans of Units, Crash Course In Science and the likes, the newly remastered and still pertinent “Wardance” from 1984, and two new ones from 2017 (“Vox Populi”, “Thumbs Up”).
7″
Inspired by the early 80′s Cold Wave and New Wave, a German trio consisting of Andreas “Andi” Koch (synthesisers, backing vocals), Joachim “Joa” Saleina (synthesisers, drum machines) and Götz Langenbruch (vocals) already started recording together in 1986, disbanded in 1989 and reformed in 2008 as EPIC DREAMS with the aim “to revive the flair and sound of the early 80s – Electronic New Wave Music”. Since then they’ve re-recorded many of the original recordings and recorded new material which found its way already onto various compilations and two 7″ single releases. Using wonderful analogue synths and drum machines such as the Boss Dr. Rhythm DR-110, Casio VL-Tone, Korg KR-55 / M-500 SP Micro-Preset / MS-10, Roland CR-68 / Jupiter-4 / SH-101, Yamaha CS-01 II, they’ve found their very own melancholic and romantic style.
This CD contains material compiled by the band members themselves and differs from the upcoming 2LP version in both track selection and song versions.
Listen and order here.
|
