Ortrotasce comes to Dark Entries with Dispatches from Solitude, their latest LP. For over a decade, Nic Hamersly has been using the Ortotrasce (pronounced: or-tro-task) moniker to unleash brooding-yet-propulsive darkwave anthems upon the world. Hamersly’s work explores the intersection between industrial and synth pop, drawing a line from the sounds of the past to the present.

Recorded during the Covid and post-Covid era, Dispatches from Solitude brings 8 tracks of tightly wrought synth-pop exploring grief, romance, and our strange world – which just keeps getting stranger. The cover art was designed by Hamersly, and the record includes a postcard with notes. Dispatches from Solitude will thrill fans of classic industrial-laced wave bands like Hard Corps, Fad Gadget, and SPK.

LP / Digital Album

Lust Pattern slithers its way to Dark Entries with four tracks of deviant electro-wave on Stand, Scatter. Ryan Ambridge has graced Dark Entries several times via his project Linea Aspera, a revered coldwave revivalist duo with Zoe Zanias. As Lust Pattern, Ambridge draws hypnotic paths through the reverb-laden halls of post-punk and electro-funk, coursing in a gait uniquely his own. Built up from improvised jams, the four cuts on Stand, Scatter defy neat categorization while spanning a wide breadth of genres.

Opener “Forming Lines” features Drexciyan squelch, silky guitar, and bursts of live drumming; this sounds like a lot, but it coheres into a perfectly simmering stew of funk. “Choreography” preserves the aquatic vibes but bumps the tempo up into space disco territory, complete with laser bleeps and Moroder-esque pads. It’s a mark of Ambridge’s craft that closing track “No Floor” – a searing motorik synth punk jam that recalls Suicide at their finest – sounds not at all out of place, but rather serves as a logical conclusion to this illogical picture.

Stand, Scatter drifts across genres but never loses its focus on the unorthodox groove.

12″ / Digital Album

Glaswegian producer Fear-E returns to Dark Entries with Mechanical Music for Brighter Days. Scott McKay has been using the Fear-E moniker for the better part of the last decade to explore rave-inflected acid techno as both a DJ and producer. Since 2016, he has released on lauded labels such as Dixon Avenue Basement Jams, Don’t Be Afraid, and Super Rhythm Tracks. He made his debut on Dark Entries previously with Grey Skies in a Dear Green Place in 2019.

Mechanical Music for Brighter Days contains six diverse tracks that are united by their unbridled energy. While Fear-E centers DJ functionality, these works are not to be dismissed as mere DJ tools; they ooze personality and display subtle mastery of varied rave idioms. “D10S” and “Gladiator Rhythm” offer chunky electro beats, muscly synthlines, and ethereal sci-fi pads harkening to both Detroit and Den Haag. Elsewhere, such as on “El Bimbo de Oro” and “New Cycles”, Fear-E channels the kind of raw, high-impact techno that would have been at home on labels like Djax-Up-Beats or Tresor in the 90’s. But the tracks on Mechanical Music are knowing without descending into pastiche – Fear-E’s clever production techniques keep things fresh. All tracks were mastered by George Horn at Fantasy Studios. The artwork by João

Ervedosa features a rave nostalgic neon yellow and slate gray color scheme with blocky robotic text.

Digital Album