Synth-punk project from Berlin.

LP / Digital Album

Atol Atol Atol exploded onto the scene of Wroclaw, Poland as the result of combined musical talents of the strongest pillars of the CRK’s ‘Salka’ community. Ukryte Zalety Systemu, Kurws, Przepych – they were the ones who raised the wave of the most exciting music to come out of Wroclaw since the legendary Klaus Mitffoch. The fact that this wave is still going strong is proved by Łukasz Plata (bass, vocal), Agata Horwat (keys, vocal), Hubert Kostkiewicz (guitar) and Artur Soszyński (drums), grouped under a bizarre banner in which a fantasy of having an exotic holiday clashes with a phantom of nuclear annihilation. The Atols play post-punk, but not in the manner dictated by the worn-out Anglo-centric canon. They rather evoke the dreadful spirit of no wave, the social sensibility of Dutch anarchists from The Ex, the approach of free music, and the reminiscence of the European rock avant-garde tagged as Rock In Opposition. All mixed together in changing, mutating proportions. The result is ragged, lunatic songs in which space is straddled by a sharpened groove, druggy synth clouds, the moans of a degenerated guitar and mechanically organised vocals, drawing heavily on Devo.

On their first album, tied to island imagery and filled with alarm sounds, Atols proclaimed the surreal “End of the Thousand Islands Dressing” (pol. “Koniec sosu tysiąca wysp”, 2022). Now they reduce the title message to a stark warning: Drone Drone Drone. The heat of the Pacific beaches recedes to make way for the cold breeze of local dystopia. In Plata’s lyrics, rats chase dogs in staircases, city blocks form Kafkaesque labyrinths, and icy neon lights bombard the streets. Drones fly into households through open windows (‘or maybe it’s just the system dropping by because it wants to know how you’re doing?’), ‘there’s stress in the air’. When exposed to these daily oppressions, the band acts like an irritated nerve, twisting in a feverish convulsion. However, it steps out of it in a dance-like manner, guided by the angular paths of a hyperactive bass. As if allowing itself one last dance against the world’s end. It is significant that the album ends with a denial, the word ‘no’ shouted at the end of the track 2025 – a readiness to resist. It is affirmed in the music: jagged, anarchic riffs and relentless rhythms, ready to tear the bodies and minds of listeners away from their senseless service to global capital and plunge them into a liberating trance.

“Dron Dron Dron” also channels connotations towards the second album by the unmissable band Przepych – “I inne zabawne rzeczy” (2022, eng. And the Other Hilarious Stuff). This is where the title track comes from, which Atol Atol Atol generously decided to save from obscurity and include in their repertoire. Both albums are imbued with an atmosphere of joyful experimentation. Here and there, electronic spectres and flashy dubs fly by, opening up spaces for motoric improvisations that enhance the absurdity of Plata’s poetry. The mosaic of references beams in many directions: the well-known This Heat, Contortions, a touch of Japanese Wha Ha Ha-style wackiness, but also the familiar native neurosis of and 80s Polish band Kosmetyki Mrs. Pinki. The result of this strange equation is a brilliant, stirring soundtrack to the old crises of the new times. [Mateusz Sroczyński]

LP / Digital Album [free download]

Minimal electronic beats meet laconic spoken vocals, creating a sound that is both precise and stark, yet rhythmically compelling. The lyrics offer short, fragmentary images: bodies, bones, machines, decay — lists and observations capturing what remains, or what falls apart. At times, one hears the precision of DAF, elsewhere the dramatic flair of Falco, and a detached, documentary-like intimacy reminiscent of Hubert Fichte.

Digital Album

Old school punk rock / post-punk from Berlin, Germany.

12″ / Digital Album [free download]

After an EP called ‘EP’ in 2022, Rare Spam now gives the world a full album of minimal post-punk songs and weirdo pop hits. Its bubbly bass lines and wobbly guitars making it the perfect soundtrack to walk back home to after having one too much at your favorite bar – or the worst!

As it initially was intended as two EPs you actually save a buck ordering this tape as it’s not two tapes…

Cassette / Digital Album [free download]

Named after a French drama from 1953, recently remade in 2024, Lohn Der Angst defies the sound of both eras. With growling synths, hypnotic drumming, and yelled vocals, the duo navigates through rough terrain, best experienced in their intense live shows.

Nachschlag and Mangel now release the second tape for this project, with members also performing in Schwund, Kryptkeeper, Das Das, Die Hühnerfickerkombo, and more…

Cassette / Digital Album [free download]

After releasing three songs on YouTube, the Antwerp-based post-punk band Rehash has teamed up with Mangel to launch their first release, ‘Aktion Reaktion!’, on vinyl and tape. Their stripped-down German lyrics, more slogans than poetry, provide a rebellious soundtrack not only for Antwerp’s youth. Drawing inspiration from late 70s German and British punk, they infuse these influences with a modern twist.

12″ / Cassette / Digital Album [free download]

With ‘Okrucha’ the Warsaw-based artist mostly leaves behind the darkwave-influences that were present in some of the tracks on the debut from 2023 and steps even further into dark electronic territories, wandering between Techno, EBM and Experimental. While some of the 7 tracks on Mangels latest release are growling and banging rather slow in the line of UVB76, others flirt with breakbeats or even chiptune.

One only can hope Wydma soon will hit the road to bring these tracks to the dancefloors.

Cassette / Digital Album [free download]

Plexi Stad comes around the corner with their second 7”, which is their first release on Mangel.

With broken-down melodies, they insist on rhythms and tones, somehow stubborn and angry. The bass purrs along and the guitar works its way into the rhythm section, while the vocals sit on top, somehow offended, once more whipping the songs forward. Sometimes a melody breaks through and the whole thing becomes catchy and dancy.

7″ / Digital Album [free download]

Post-punk / dream pop duo from Schaffhausen, Switzerland.

LP / Digital Album