Well done, Found Object! The tracks on this album remind me of some of best synth-pop bands I grew up with in the 1980s. Though Tangerine Dream is referenced as an influence, I hear something different – Kraftwerk, Blancmange, a more instrumental Depeche Mode or Soft Cell seem to be popping up as influences as I listen through. Really, a joyful album.
One of the benefits of being in Beijing at a high-grade academy is that I run into some rather brilliant young minds who are turning me on to great local music, case in point being Mimik Banka, who listeners would compare their music favorably to acts like dream pop and pop-psych bands like Dream Academy during their less somber moments and Khruangbin in places, and something radically their own in other spots. Perhaps my new favorite Chinese indie band at the moment.
Russian band Okolo Poludnya produce a very good retro-inspired EP influenced by new wave, synthpop and post-punk.
The ever-fantastic Wewantsounds is giving the gold-star treatment to Akiko Yano, wife of the recently departed Ryuichi Sakamoto and fine musician in her own right, collaborating with Haruomi Hosono, Yukihiro Takahashi, David Sylvian, Mick Karn, Charlie Haden, Bill Frisell, Thomas Dolby, and a host of others. From the label’s Bandcamp site: “Wewantsounds continues its Akiko Yano reissue programme with the release of “Iroha Ni Konpeitou,” another superb Akiko Yano album and one of her funkiest, highlighting her unmissable singing and songwriting talents. Recorded in Tokyo and New York City, the album features a superb line up of the best musicians…
Okolo Poludnya are a band out of Russia who have mastered the art of nostalgic synth-pop. Well done, and considering how old synth-pop is, it’s nice to hear bands keeping the genre sounding fresh.
I grew up with Electronic Body Music during my high-school years when my little brother and I would go clubbing in Hollywood, and the music has stuck with me for well over three decades. Spain’s Spammerheads have made a sound that would compliment early Front Line Assembly, the harsher vocal aspects of Front 242, and a recording technique that was compressed just enough to make me feel like I was dancing around in my old iron “Mad Max” boots over at Club F**k! back in the day. Well done!
What a charmingly weird discovery this is! Yiğit Bülbül is a London-based musician whose roots are in Turkey, and this mini-album combines the experimentation of artists like Holger Czukay with the dulcet sounds of Serge Gainsbourg’s backing band in their calmer moments. A surreal release this one…
Jukebox Babe by former Suicide frontman Alan Vega hasn’t been in print since 1981, so this 7-inch slab of new wave synth-pop is a welcome addition to the Suicide pantheon.
It’s nice to indulge in a guilty pleasure on occasion. Growing up in Los Angeles, we were lucky enough to have a pretty good Industrial dance / EBM scene in the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s. The clubs were amazing, the girls stunning, the beats driving. Jettenbach brings some of these older bands of the era to mind. There are elements of Thrill Kill Kult, Skinny Puppy, and innumerable synth-pop bands. For purposes of nostalgia, this was quite good.
This album works on so many levels. There is a blend of Italian romance, easy listening, French chanson, sophisticated City Pop, bossa nova, a touch of schmaltz, and electro-pop all rolled into one fine album. Drummer Yukihiro Takahashi had just helped form the Yellow Magic Orchestra after leaving The Sadistic Mika Band at about the time this album came out (circa 1978), and his new bandmates, Ryuichi Sakamoto and Haruomi “Harry” Hosono, ably assisted him in arranging everything from synths and brass. It’s an elegant album and would appeal greatly to those into everything from crooners like Al Bowlly and…