Boxes of blow were founded in the summer of 2016 when Thodoris Koutsogiannis and Alexios Othon Theodoridis met at a festival playing with different projects each other. They decided to create a band with post punk, darkwave and noise sounds. After a lot of experimentation and changing members, the basic idea remains the same. Their music is a blend of clean and noisy guitars, bass and synth, along with some rythmic drums, that altogether create their characteristic atmospheric dark sound. After many concerts in Greece in 2017, a self released EP, the following year and some time for introspection that doubled due to the pandemic, they finally return.
“Dystopia” is the first LP of Boxes of Blow. It contains all the work they did from 2016 to 2021. Finally, it was decided to include all the tracks on this release mainly because it shows their first personal stamp from the first to the last track. There are many themes in it, the anxiety to find a solution to human problematic situations. Sometimes this anguish becomes a huge inaccessible “wall”, a boundary that we cannot cross, nor see beyond. Many metaphorical meanings, such as “black rain” that can symbolize any catastrophe internal to our existence or external to nature and the environment in which we live. Love, and how exasperating it is and rather hopeless. Yet, in all its elusiveness, love pushes us to stretch our limits, therefore becoming a necessary force. A force to reach beyond despite knowing that falling is almost certain, that’s why it is “the most noble” yet “the longest lost hope”. All this is expressed through the dreamy, atmospheric and electric sounds of the album. Usually after the first initial slow, simple theme there is a completion, fullness, abundance of instruments and sounds.
CD / Digital Album
“Backwards” is the first studio album by Unusual Architecture, a duo born in Ferrara (Italy) in 2019, released by the Brazilian independent label Wave Records.
This album is the result of the collaboration between the two members of the Unusual Architecture project: Davide Carlotti, saxophonist, keyboardist and synth programmer, and Susanna Zaghi, singer and lyrics writer. Both were previously members of Intelligence Dept., one of the most prominent bands in the history of the Italian new wave.
The sounds of “Backwards” are characterized by pressing rhythms, hammering sequencers, but also by rarefied atmospheres with a dark character. All this is overlaid by Susanna’s voice, always intense and rich in nuances, and Davide’s sax and keyboards, which create the musical fabric that blends with the sounds of electronic drums and synthesizers.
CD / Digital Album
Toiling in the dusk and shadows since 2017, Child of Night are no strangers to grey areas; The dark corners subtly illuminated by the first hint of the rising sun.
With this in mind, Child of Night present their first full-length release: “The Walls At Dawn.” The songs on the record address themes of transformation and illumination set against the backdrop of a collapsing empire.
The resulting sonic exploration is appropriate for consumption by those facing the dystopian reality of an unfamiliar world while experiencing the powerful urge to dance in the darkness.
Equal parts analog synthesizer exploration, noisy industrial dance beats, and swirling guitar-driven post-punk; C.O.N. seeks to have their sonic sensibilities firmly rooted in the traditions of their idols as well as carving their own unique path.
CD / Digital Album
Best of compilation from one of pioneers of Belgian darkwave / coldwave / synthwave. Geert Coppens and Peter Bonne started the band AUTUMN in 1981 and in 1982 they moved to TWILIGHT RITUAL project who recorded 9 albums and 2 singles. In 1985, Peter Bonne aka Chrismar Chayell founded A Split Second with Marc Ickx, and TR stayed as second plane for years. The iconic album RITUALS, including the hit CLOSED CIRCUIT was a rare item to found in the 80′s and 90′s.
Twilight Ritual was born in Geert’s mind during the first Autumn years. It was building integrity, clearer identity, admittance of mystery and surreal impressions. During Autumn recording sessions, musical style and experiment varied strongly, which is recognized in the various tape releases. However, some tracks had clearly more ‘spirit’ or ‘personality’ than others. It became clear that a new project was born out of Autumn work : Twilight Ritual.
Geert Coppens and Peter Bonne have been involved in many different projects, including many different musical styles, about which you can read more on other pages on this site, e.g the Micrart Group story, the Autumn history or within the A Split Second history.
The spirit of Twilight Ritual lingers on beneath the work of Autumn through A Split Second. The work of Twilight Ritual is diverse, yet concise. The Twilight Ritual work in the eighties inspired many other musicians, and became known throughout the world.
2 x CD / Digital Album
Active for about a year, Скубут [Skubut] is the 80s influenced Cold Wave / Post-Punk moniker of Russian young musician Mikhail Shlepin based in Vienna, Austria.
Cold, yet equally poignant, filled with dark, beautiful, aching sorrowfulness, ably blends the sharp, edgy iciness and minimalism ala Lebanon Hanover with the distinctive, intense melancholy and emotional turmoil of Russian ‘doomer’ bands.
First track “Акт самоубийства” deals with hidden obsessions that unravel in a suicidal fantasy realized alone in a bathroom with blood dripping down the walls, while someone knocks on the door, too late to help.
A seductively dark and penetrating spell exhales from the numb meander of the dense droning mists built by an ominous, rumbling bleak bass line, awash by looming, humming eddies of icy synth, whose persistent pulsating morbid obscurity is scratched by cascading slivers of trembling and ethereal, tinkling guitar reverberations, charged by crispy claps and quick muffled percussive patterns, drawing perpetual melancholic edges around morose, deep male vocals releasing shame, guilt, and pain into the nocturnal subconscious desires of an eternal, haunted peace, leaving us ultimately at the mercy of deafening silence.
CD / Digital Album
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