Dean Wareham is someone who could be called Shoegaze royalty. He has been partnering with Britta Phillips for some time now making some fine records, but this is a different, even more interesting beast. The Spacemen 3 centerpiece Sonic Boom collaborates with Dean & Britta for an album which combines Continue Reading
Cold Wave
Cocoon – You’ve Arrived
For those of you old enough to remember the seminal French cold-wave band Clair Obscur, this album relates. From Cocoon’s Bandcamp site: “Cocoon is Christophe Demarthe’s project. It continues Clair Obscur’s attempt to shift the frameworks of performance and reception, using the means of electronic music, video and performance.”
Various Artists – TogoPop: Marche Noire
I realized I didn’t have many records from Togo listed on the blog, so, going down the rabbit hole, I found this curious compilation on TogoPop Records. It sounds NOTHING like what I was expecting. If anything, the artists on this compilation sound more like they were influenced by French Continue Reading
JOHN 3:16 – The Pact
Folks, we have a very long wait for JOHN 3:16’s next opus (April of 2024), but judging based on how good the samples have been so far, this is going to be the band’s most profound release yet. The tension on the album reminds me of early, more Industrial-era Laibach Continue Reading
Severine Day – Unsterblich EP
Severine Day hails from Belgium, and she produces an post-punk sound that brings up memories of bands like Siouxsie and the Banshees, French cold wave bands like Clair Obscur, and even a touch of Nico, but with a sound that is as modern as it is authentic. It’s a thrill Continue Reading
The Secret Society of the Sonic Six – Out Of The Past EP
A decade or two ago, there were only four bands who I would bother to make the trek out from the suburbs to the ‘great’ metropolis that is Los Angeles: Farflung, Tunnelmental, The Flash Express and The Secret Society of the Sonic Six. Each were brilliant in their way, and Continue Reading
Clair Obscur – Auld Lang Syne
As we have but one day left in the calendar, we bud you adieu with the legendary French cold wave band Clair Obscur doing Robert Burns proud.
Venus Berry – Shibari
This is perhaps the coldest of cold wave releases I’ve ever had the pleasure of reviewing. Venus Berry is the nom de plume of Anouk Allard, who is not only a musician but has a background in visual art. Her style covers not only the aforementioned cold wave which the Continue Reading
Toronja – QuedarseIrMorirEgo
This one-track release was in my queue while I was doing some work, and when it came on, I assumed it was a track of Spanish cold wave from the early 1980s. Toronja, as it turns out, is a Chilean project from this year, and they manage to do a Continue Reading
JOHN 3:16 – Tempus Edax Rerum
Our friends JOHN 3:16 come at us with less an audible listening experience than a sheer sonic pummeling. Take for example Part I, which sounds as though the ghost of Cop/Greed-era Swans was under more control, a more musically apt, and put through the gothic/post-punk music grinder. Part IV goes Continue Reading