French Cold Wave was divided in two camps: on one side you had the underground dogs that were inspired by bands like Joy Division, The Cure, Virgin Prunes… represented by acts like Guerre Froide, Les Maîtres, Opera Multi Steel, etc. And there was the poppier/synth side with artists like Taxi Girl, Octobre, Martin Dupont, Deux, Celluloid bands (Mathematiques Modernes, Nini Raviolette, Suicide Romeo…).
AV is definitively inspired by the second ones: the energy rush of the post-punk era with a synth-pop touch and great sense of melodies. AV is the work of young French artist Adrien Viot and Venus Bar his first release.
Rather than lighting candles to his old 80’s glory he prefers to invite them inside the chaos of his generation. The synth from Suicide, Kraftwerk’s DNA & Taxi Girl are tatooed in AV, but he’s far from being one of those 80s revival nostalgia project, his production is current, dirty but rigorous all this helping his cheeky texts.
AV describes Paris and his own spiritual wandering. Often carnal and vicious, his texts have something from Serge Gainsbourg meets French cult singer Christophe.
First pressing – 500 copies – red vinyl.
Going further into techno territory, Orphan Swords come back with a three tracks EP called “License To Desire” on Paris-Based Desire Records. Following the “Risk In The New Age” EP (2014), this new hypnotic release is probably their most powerful so far, concentrating EBM, minimal techno gristle and industrial electronics.
This EP clearly relates to previous efforts such as “Caim” that has been described by XLR8R as “The grinding sounds and whirling blasts of white noise position the track directly in the realm of acts like Sandwell District and Richie Hawtin’s digressive and hypnotizing Plastikman moniker.” Make sure to check out the massive epic of ‘Asmoday’ and the textural sophistication of ‘Hooker’.
ORPHAN SWORDS is a Brussels-based duo previously described as “Oppressive industrial techno/drone pressure”, “industrial-slanted techno” or “new school industrial” by Boomkat, XLR8R and The Quietus, They have played supports for Vatican Shadow, The Body, Black Rain, Kyoka etc.and more. After releases on Idiosyncratics, an EP called “Risk in a New Age” was released on Desire Records in june 2014, it features a collaboration with NYC cult band Ike Yard. “Stunners, the lot of them!” said JUNO about that release. Following this, upon request of Desire, they made an official rework of Ike Yard’s NCR/Cherrish8.
« Factory Floor meets the Fuck Buttons. Tough stuff. »
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This music encompasses two worlds, lives in between territories – between techno and noise, the far end of a darkened club and a dreaming mind’s afterthoughts. Very earthly and deeply rooted, it sometimes appears fragmented, full of sonic embroideries, full of sonic dirt, even. Like two universes colliding, imploding one on the other, giving birth to a new space, without boundaries or restraints. Something to dance to, on a spaceship.
Sergie Rezza is the musical meeting of Romain Poncet and DJ Deep. In DJ Deep’s words there has been a “magical click” between him and Romain, when (after releasing the “Opening Moment EP” on Deeply Rooted) they both decided to meet in Romain’s studio.
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A kind of utopia. Just like the one found hidden away between the lines and pages of a few books, a few records that were born around the late sixties, early seventies. Those that spring in mind are by Terry Riley, Bridget Riley, Daniel Caux, Ariel Kalma. That sense of utopia which permeated their works is the one that was also found in the ideas and designs of the Bauhaus movement. Straight lines that, through a strange correspondance, are a reminder of the strong sound lines made by analog synthesizers. Those played by Model Alpha, aka Jonathan Fitoussi & Julie Freyri. Synth names full of wonders, like a sesame password to an unknown hidden world : Sequential Circuits Pro-One or Ems Synthi AKS, Philicorda or Ondioline, Roland TR-606, TR-707… Model Alpha makes them all vibrate, hiss, swirl, using them as they should (very clear sequences, straightforward percussions) but also as they shouldn’t.
Synth and drumboxes heard on this record act as if they were taking you on a psychedelic drift, making you feel that they are almost playing themselves, creating their own melodies out of their used circuitry. The great Anni Albers design used for the sleeve is another way of percceiving the duo’s electronic fluctuations : as straight hard lines that by sheer power of design and assemblage create illusions, make optic and audio nerves flutter away gently. Sound op art, in a subliminal way. Sometimes, Kraftwerk overshadows the whole music and one can only feel that the young French duo shares with their German model that same sense of making electronic music as modern ragas, nurtured by urban sounds and decays as well as an Indian sense of timing. Something for eternity, that goes on as long as electricity will be available.
As with the best techno, the best minimalist records, the best krautrock ventures, this first Model Alpha LP hints at a weird sense of time, not totally of the past, not totally of the future, not at all of the present. Something in between, a time travel machine that can take you on a random journey. Listening to those tracks is a bit like making time’s flow stop. Right now.
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‘Some More Terror’ is a Soft Riot recording consisting of 11 tracks of instrumental, ambient-influenced synth sounds. It provides a slight detour from the more song-based, psychedelic synth-pop trajectory established with the previous album, ‘Fiction Prediction’, and where that synth-pop sound will go on that album’s proper follow-up to come called ‘You Never Know What Might Come Next’.
All of the pieces on ‘Some More Terror’ are mainly improvisations, or based on one-session jams with a small amount of overdubs. They were usually done late at night and in the dead of winter, in between sessions recording tracks for ‘You Never Know What Might Come Next’.
Some More Terror locks onto the atmospheric element of Soft Riot’s recorded material to date and isolates it in a new environment, freeing it from the structure and formalities of the world of punk rock and pop music. It offers an audio landscape that augments a feeling of unease and reflection in the chaotic world of late-period modern capitalism and the wheels of progress. The flow of the album rides a slow sine wave, with moments of anxious dread to warm, expansive slabs of calm and harmony.
o some degree it’s an album of political commentary, but one without lyrics and familiar audio cues, allowing the listener to fill the gaps with their own speculation. And where the music is more ambiguous, a more upfront approach is emphasised in the track titling and artwork of the album; perhaps a conscious effort to challenge the idea that ambient or soundtrack-oriented music is passive or locked in the trappings of “new age”. It could be considered Soft Riot’s own private and current version of “punk rock” for these reasons, as well as for that it was written from a place deep within. There’s a lot of strange and harrowing events going on out there in the world these days, but also moments of peace and beauty.
Listeners may find some parallels with classic synth artists such as Tangerine Dream or Cluster, or perhaps the classic era of early/mid 90s Kranky Records (Labradford, Stars Of The Lid), or even at times the micropolyphonal sounds of György Ligeti. As one publication has put the music of Soft Riot: “The music tells stories like the great “irritation” sci-fi cinema of the 70s and 80s. Solaris pop. New Age Wave. The Canadian Jean Michel Jarre of the London underground.”
Listen and order here.
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