Norwegian Rock outfit LEPROUS have just launched a brand new “Live in Studio” video-clip for their song “On Hold”, taken from their current album “Aphelion”, in order to promote their upcoming European tour starting February 1st as well as the special ‘Tour Edition’ of “Aphelion”, to be released on February 3rd, 2023 via InsideOutMusic.
The audio for “On Hold (Live in Studio)” was recorded and mixed by Thomas Wang at Urban Sound Studios and the video clip was directed by Troll Toftenes.
LEPROUS commented as follows: “For the first time we chose to release a live recording/video from the studio. We decided to do this in order to capture and show a LEPROUS song in more detail and so allow the fans to get even more into our vibe. This footage was collected as a part of our latest rehearsals before our ambitious European tour taking place February 1st until March 18th. We are looking forward to seeing you all soon…”
The “Aphelion (Tour Edition)” release will be available both as limited 2CD Digipak and as Digital album (2CD) featuring the original “Aphelion” album, its two initial bonus-tracks as well as a separate, brand-new live bonus disc of 6 tracks/40 min. recorded this year during the first leg of the “Aphelion” touring campaign at Motocultor Festival in France and in Berlin, Germany. The new live tracks were recorded and mixed by Chris Edrich as well as mastered by Pierrick Noel at Atelier Mastering.
HIBOU is back with new single ‘Night Fell’, along with the announcement of a new EP ‘Arc’ (due 13 January 2023).
Floating through a breezy blend of gossamer vocals, twinkling instrumentals and lush textured melodies, “Night Fell” is a delicate and jangling track that paves the way for Hibou’s new EP ‘Arc’.
Born in Seattle and now based in Paris, ‘Arc’ is Hibou’s first release since his 2019 full-length LP ‘Halve’ and the new body of work sees the artist emerge from his lengthy silence and reel listeners right back into the glistening whirlwind of his sound.
A delicate blend of lo-fi alt-pop, nostalgic shoegaze and diaphanous dream-pop, Peter Michel (aka Hibou) spent the summer writing the EP along the Canal de l’Ourcq, before recording in various apartments, bathrooms and rehearsal spaces in Paris. Engineered and produced by Michel himself, the multi-instrumentalist also performs vocals, guitar and bass on each track, with drums courtesy of Jase Ihler.
A dreamy and diverse project, ‘Arc’ melds together a rich amalgam of sounds: from the delicate and dazing “June” to the buzzing and buoyant “Already Forgotten” and from the eerie twanging guitars on “Devilry” to the stormy, seesawing soundscapes on “Upon The Clouds You Weep”.
Taking its name from “an electric arc between things, or arc lightning”, ‘Arc’ is both sentimental and stylish with its carefully composed melodies seeming to tap into long-forgotten, hazy memories from the past just as easily as it does bolster hope for the future.
Inspired by shoegaze greats both past and present, Hibou’s elegant arrangements are hard to pin down, falling somewhere between the indie-rock tinted musings of Beach Fossils and DIIV, the folk-flecked intimacies of Alex G and the tenderly tormented sound of The Cure.
There is more than one way to listen to BEBORN BETON’s ninth album "Darkness Falls Again": it is possible to just dance and enjoy contemporary synth pop hymns that have a solid musical based in the golden 80s with a dash of cool 90s influences. Catchy tunes and mature songwriting combine to form a sonic joyride.
Yet there is another side to BEBORN BETON, which is mostly expressed in their lyrics. On "Darkness Falls Again", the Germans wade right into the political battles and culture wars of our times. BEBORN BETON speak out against the attempts to deny and deprive women of their rights. They take a strong stand against those who try to restrict love, the freedom to choose gender, and sexuality. The trio clearly call out racists, demagogues, preachers of hate and violence, and those who destroy our planet in order to enrich themselves. In short, BEBORN BETON put their finger right on the pulse of our time.
BEBORN BETON were founded by vocalist Stefan Netschio, keyboard player and drummer Stefan Tillmann, and keyboard player Michael Wagner in 1989. The trio set out with the declared aim to keep synth pop relevant and give it meaning. Their first signs of life were three self-released works, ‘Pyre’ (1989), ‘Scythe’ (1991, and ‘Die Stahlbetontour’ (1992) that came out on tape.
Following their first two regular albums "Tybalt" (1993) and "Concrete Ground" (1994), BEBORN BETON found a label-home where they joined renowned acts such as WOLFSHEIM and DE/VISION. Having conquered home, the three electro-musicians rapidly expanded abroad and the 1996 full-length "Nightfall", followed by "Truth" in 1997, and "Fake" (1999) gained the Germans strong acclaim by critics and fans around the globe.
By the time, "Rückkehr zum Eisplaneten" (‘Return to the Ice-Planet’) was released in 2000, BEBORN BETON had firmly positioned themselves as a headlining act within their scene and toured in all the strongholds of electronic music such as Canada and the US, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden, Switzerland, Poland, and even Russia among other places. In the North of America, the Germans had scored a veritable club hit with the track ‘Another World’ in 1997. Across the Atlantic, the track’s ever-growing popularity finally led to the exclusive US release of a best-of double-album entitled "Tales from Another World" in 2002, which was followed by extensive touring in North America with APOPTYGMA BERZERK in the same year.
Yet the heavy touring and the creatively highly demanding output of so many excellent albums in quick succession started to take its toll. After the release of "Tales from Another World" (2002) and the associated touring, BEBORN BETON went on an extended hiatus. It took 13 long years, until BEBORN BETON returned to the delight and surprise of their still huge following with a new album on Dependent Recordings. "A Worthy Compensation" (2015) was showered with accolades from the relevant magazines such as an "album tip of the month" in German Sonic Seducer and Orkus Magazine called the record an "undisputed masterpiece".
Having learned from previous experiences and not to fall back into a relentless production cycle, BEBORN BETON took their time to write another masterpiece. "Darkness Falls Again" has all the ingredients that make synth pop great. Catchy songs that make the legs twitch, a dash of melancholy, a pinch of irony, and a knife-tip of anger. Music with a meaning, welcome back BEBORN BETON!
Almost ten years after their impressive and critically lauded third full-length The Love Album, Volume I, Spanish avantgarde black-metal armada As Light Dies now return with their most complex and multifaceted album in their whole career, The Laniakea Architecture, Volume II, due for release on March 9th via Darkwoods.
Just recently, the Spanish group revealed the leading single titled ‘The Green’. Hear it here:
Produced by mastermind NHT aka Oscar Martin The Laniakea Architecture is an exceptionally ornamented compendium of intertwined extreme metal genres, with long and multidimensional songs containing a myriad of small elements that you will discover, little by little, as you dig deeper into the album…
Taken from their album ‘Apocalypse For Beginners’, Rabbit Junk have released ‘Nostromo’ as a taster of their bold technoindustrial/electropop/metal crossover sound.
Rabbit Junk draws subtle parallels between the challenges facing our species as a whole and the challenges facing our own personal lives. These challenges are characterized as foreseeable and yet tragically unavoidable. As such, the album communicates the fatalism and frustration of modernity alongside the lack of control we often feel over our own lives.
The album’s lead track “Stone Cold" (Feat. Amelia Arsenic) exemplifies Rabbit Junk’s willingness to take risks and defy genre norms. “Stone Cold” is a gender-fluid and genre-mashing anthem with an infectious sing-a-long chorus. The song featuries lyrics in both German and English delivered by masculine and feminine vocal textures floating over a mélange of punk, drum & bass, metal, and hip hop.
Other standout tracks include “Nostromo”, a sci-fi influenced art-metal meets synthwave track which is quickly becoming a fan favorite, and “Love Is Hell”, a decidedly danceable and gritty homage to everyone’s broken hearts.
The union of composers Lawrence English and loscil aka Scott Morgan is seamless, sublime, and long overdue.
Born of a conversation centered on the notion of “rich sources” as a forge for electronic music, Colours Of Air is a collection of recordings of a century old pipe organ housed at the historic Old Museum in Brisbane, Australia, which were then processed, transformed, and elevated into eight majestic electro-acoustic threshold devotionals. The timbre of the instrument and spatial fluctuations of room tone infuse the music with a subdued, sacred feel, like vaulted light in a nave of stained glass.
They describe the album as “an iterative project, a reduction and eventual expansion,” sifting the swells and drones of the organ for every shivering shade of radiance. The tracks are named for the hue each piece suggests – from the gauzy levitational miasma of ‘Yellow’ to the pulsing melancholic mirage of ‘Violet’ to the seething twilit sandstorm of ‘Magenta.’
French darkwave band, Divine Shade has just unveiled their new single, ‘Stars’.
The track was performed live during Divine Shade’s set in support of Gary Numan’s 2022 UK tour.
The song’s theme is simple. It addresses the concept of our “inner child” disappearing over time. Says, Rémi Thonnerieux, “I wrote this song to talk about the fact that love and resilience are the true paths to dreaming again”. 2022 has been a great new start for Divine Shade. "Stars" is their way of saying "Thank You" to everyone for this year’s success. The song will also be part of a big musical project to be announced in 2023.
‘Stars’ was produced by Ren Toner and features Shan Moue on additional vocals. ‘Stars’ is available on all major digital platforms including Bandcamp. Listen here:
Modern industrial/EBM solo-project of studio guru Sebastian Komor (also known as ICON OF COIL, ZOMBIE GIRL, BRUDERSCHAFT…), KOMOR KOMMANDO finally strikes back with an all new 8-track EP release!
Although KOMOR KOMMANDO is deeply rooted in Industrial/EBM style, Sebastian Komor is not the kind of artist repeating himself again and again. He does not hesitate reinventing himself, experimenting and incorporating elements from other music genres as long as the cocktail mix remains sparkling and exploding! Sonically, this new EP sounds like an exciting solid blend of old and new, incorporating classic EBM vibes with modern EDM inspired production.
The title song “One By One” is bound to become a new instant club-hit and features guest female vocals by Azul from THE TRUE UNION revealing a perfect artistic match wetting our appetite for more. “I was doing mixing and production for her new release and after hearing her vocals I just had to ask her singing on one of my new tracks. I was simply blown away! Her vocals took the song to places I could not even imagine at the time…”, explains Komor. Strong basslines, powerful captivating vocals and hypnotizing beats. This song also appears here remixed by Brute Opposition and by Sebastian Komor himself who gave it a cool retro synth twist in its “xenomorph remix” version.
“Get Off The X” is another banging dancefloor track, with a darker and more malevolent edge maybe, a sort of sonic reflection of the bad, the good and the fxxcking ugly… This banging cut also received the remix treatment by C-LEKKTOR, ANTHONY (H) and CLOCKWORK ECHO each bringing this cut into an all new sound perspective.
“Brahmua” is the 3rd new song revealed on this EP. This instrumental piece has that special feel of tension-building, rising angst and mental distress. A sort of groovy sonic painting depicting how stressful life can sometimes be in its darker days.
Heavy, pulsing, dark and floor-packing: KOMOR KOMMANDO is back – play it at maximum volume!
Synthpop artist, Meersein recently unveiled their third single, ‘Speechless’. In this acoustic version, which presents the artist’s first single in a stunning new guise, Meersein sums up the fear of failing someone who seems too good to be true.
We all live in a society that puts us under immense pressure; perfection instead of individuality. The fear of failing every day and not conforming to the norm hinders us even in something as natural and inscrutable as love.
With a minimalistic arrangement and soulful piano contrasting with Meersein’s classic synth-based electro aesthetic, the lyrics take center stage. The equally minimal lyric video helps invite you deeper into the heart of the singer. Both melancholic and affirmative, “Speechless” reminds you that you are not alone with your doubts. We are hundreds. We are thousands.
Do you know the feeling of being completely overcome by a sudden rush of emotion? You see that one person who makes your heart beat faster, and you are stopped in your tracks. All you can do is surrender to the awe of the moment. This is ‘Speechless’.
Otra is a duo of two sisters. Recorded at their home in foggy Pacifica, CA, their debut album I’m Not That Way (out digitally on Feb 10, 2023 via Thirty Something Records) documents their journey as they learn to see themselves more clearly and exist outside of expectations. As the band ruminates on their purpose and sense of self, the tracks search for their own sonic identities – weaving and wandering erratically through a fogfest of hypnagogic synths, chaotic clarinets, haunting vocal stacks, crunchy guitars, and polyrhythmic earth.
Of the first single ‘Repercussion Concussion,’ the band says: “It’s a love song we wrote in September 2019 inspired by Beirut and Sigur Ros! It’s about the weird little moments that make up a relationship, and the resounding joy of learning to move through challenges together.”
Aural Aggravation 