From Mannequin Records:
 Mannequin has the dual and parallel aim to unearth hidden or unpublished gems, running along a road that starts from the period of reference for this kind of music (late 70s – mid 80s) and comes to nowdays, with a vision deeply influenced by Factory Records / 4AD labels.
Catching the same spirit of such great labels, we asked to the Italian synth wave princess Mushy to create a compilation starting from a tabula rasa. The mission was hard. Following her tastes and heart, she had to select a dozen of new bands from all over the world with unreleased and unique for this project tracks, picking up the title and realizing the graphic design and artwork. The full process of “The End Of Civilization” took almost 1 year but the result was touching us deep into our soul.
Mushy began her career crafting noise bursts and aggressive oblique instrumentals before, in her newest form, blooming into a beautiful, epic and heart-heavy icy synth sound, having both “Faded Heart” (2011) and “Breathless” (2012) as album of the week at Rough Trade. “The End Of Civilization” perfectly represents her double sided synth-wave / kraut-psychedelic soul. Every track she selected for us is an absolute highlight, moving from the analog minimal / cold wave sounds of Police Des Moeurs, ASSS, The Circa Tapes, TEEEL and Rosemary to the tempestuous post punk and psychedelia of Deathday, The Murder Act, Phosphor and The Strange Forces, ending with spectral cold folk of Tablets and The Long Wives.
LP / Digital Album
 It’s quite unusual for an Italian band to get attention before its first full-length even comes to life. Ancien Régime from Rome might just be the exception to this rule. In fact, the band sole release before 2012 had been the quickly sold out limited edition split EP (Mannequin), released together with Brooklyn-based cold wave heroes Led Er Est.
Since then, Ancien Régime have been playing all over Italy along with outstanding bands such as Two Door Cinema Club, Is Tropical, The Soft Moon, Clan of Xymox, A Place to Bury Strangers and many others.
Their first album “The Position” evokes new wave and synth-pop memories, delivering epic vintage sounds and wrapping them all with catchy riffs and melodies. Still, despite this fascination with the past, the band’s work stands out as a distinctive, highly personal take on the genre.
The album is opened by the single “Negative”, with its dark gloomy vocals and war-like drumming. “Negative” is, in fact, the quintessential Ancien Régime composition: wave, biting snare, interweaving synths and guitars, reverbs, delays.
“The Position” was recorded and mixed by Alessandro Gavazzi of “Hell Smell” – Rome, and co-produced by Alessandro Adriani from Mannequin Records and Ancien Régime.
Ancien Regime – The Position – 01 Brief Encounter
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 Even thought I only discovered //TENSE// last year with Sin Reality (Memory – 2010) that totally blew me away, this is already their 7th release since 2008.
What first came to my mind when discovering this Texas duo were the strong Front 242 and early Ministry influences. As I was really astonished by their work, I immediately pre-ordered this EP from Mannequin (limited to 500 copies) before it came out in April.
On the first listening, I got at a little confused as I was expecting the raw sound of Sin Reality, but I quickly grew to understand how they had evolved and I was not disappointed. To simply describe this sound evolution, the recording might be a little more polished with cleaner vocals–using different effects–and a cleaner sound in general. That said, the marginal madness and energy is still authentic while the whole record was made with some kind of futuristic esthetic.
The first song starts off with the sample of a man getting diagnosed by a psychiatrist saying: « So your official diagnostic is schizophrenic psychosis »–a common consequence of hard drug abuse–and the poor guy goes «No, it can’t be ». This introduction is a good representation of the global theme with lyrics expressing a fear of society, paranoia, social isolation and subliminal suggestions of recreational drugs usage.
I especially enjoyed the Pulse Beat lyrics, treating of an evil side of today’s internet connectivity. Nowadays, as we can see the masses heavily using social networks owned by private corporations without thinking any further about the inherent ethical issues, we can at least say these lyrics were not based on irrational fears after recently seeing social networks turning into public hubs of mutual surveillance, sadly reminding us of Orwell’s fiction. As some already said regarding Phillip K. Dick masterwork: paranoia is a gift.
Unmanned Cars is perfectly ending the album with an ambient song using smooth soundscapes with terrific effects, leaving me dreaming of dystopic science fiction scenes…
This is an excellent release that should please many EBM fans as well as other electronic music lovers out there. I am surprise to see it is not sold out already!
 This white vinyl, limited to 300 copies, was released by Mannequin in February 2011. Mushy is a solo female project from Rome that has been around since 2003 and this seems to be the 3rd full length album.
I quickly got absorbed into Mushy’s thick and heavy atmosphere. Each of the 10 titles is colored of rich and dark pad textures with slow rhythms, reverberant drones and a touching vocal raising up from a deep cave. From the beginning to the end, it is depressing, hypnotic, neurotic and fatalist: definitely something reaching me deep inside. This is the perfect record to listen alone while thinking about the old skeletons hiding in your closet.
The song No More also involved Newclear Waves who accompanied with a drum machine and synthesizer.
Faded Heart is one of my favorite track. Listen carefully with sensibility to the details: you’ll notice divine rays of light cutting through Mushy’s obscurity.
Mannequin Label & Mailorder
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