So it's been quite a long time since a new post has been made here, sorry about that! You know, the usual every day life excuses. In any case, here we have a really fun 7" flexi from Japan, featuring the track "Last Japan Dream", which you may be familiar with from a recently released compilation LP called "Various Distractions". I've been digging Japanese stuff more and more lately, and this record did not disappoint. Plenty of drum machine driven angst that should satisfy any lover of early post-punk / coldwave sound. Enjoy!
Track List:
A1 - Last Japan Dream
A2 - Kinzoku Bat
B1 - Sodai Gomi
As promised, the follow up demo tape to match the 12" below. I have to say, as much as I am fond of the vinyl release, this tape takes the cake for me. The first song is the hauntingly dark clip that was posted on Facebook, that I can't seem to stop listening to... The rest of the tape follows in a similar fashion, really enjoyable throughout. Other favorites would be "In My Memories", "Beauty", and one that grew on me "A Happy New Year". I've ripped far fewer tapes in my day than I have records, so I hope the sound on this is ok! Enjoy!
Track List:
A1 - A Melancholic Day
A2 - Resurrection
A3 - In My Memories
A4 - Beauty
B1 - A Happy New Year
B2 - Ich Möchte Lieber Träumen
B3 - Venezianisches Ballett
If you caught the gloomy sample clip posted on the Facebook page, then you had a glimpse of what's to come in this post and the next. In Search Of Beauty were a Swiss band that released this 12" as well as a demo tape which I will post right after this. I'm not certain whether the year for this is '84 as I don't see one listed anywhere on the record itself or the sleeve, so I'm just rolling with the Discogs info. The demo tape does have a year on it (1988), so it's very possible this record is a few years younger, but that's neither here nor there -- the music itself is great! If you love your melancholic darkwave as much as I do, the very first track will grab you immediately. It does goes on a few softer interludes that keep it from being a 10/10 for me, but still really good. Demo tape coming up next... Enjoy!
Track List:
A1 - Love Is Colder Than Dead
A2 - Midnight
A3 - Haunting Anguish
B1 - Never
B2 - Incredible Lightness
Here's a very nice collection of artists from Italy. A 2LP limited to 600 hand-numbered copies, which was included with VM fanzine "5". This will appeal to those who dig classic Italian cold, darkwave style. Suicide Dada is the standout for me by a slim margin, just see"Acque" for my explanation on that. What a track! Check it out and enjoy.
Track List:
A1 - Destijl - Il Vaso Di Pandora
A2 - Destijl - La Sfinge
A3 - Destijl - Taiga
A4 - Destijl - Assab
B1 - Suicide Dada - Acque
B2 - Suicide Dada - Grida!
B3 - Suicide Dada - Echi
B4 - Suicide Dada - Porto Sepolto
B5 - Suicide Dada - Waiting For September
C1 - Intolerance - Drugs
C2 - Intolerance - Terminal State
C3 - Intolerance - 24
C4 - Intolerance - Wait And Kill
D1 - Regard - The Empty Day
D2 - Regard - Happy Lifes
D3 - Regard - We Are Here
D4 - Regard - J'aine Le Noir
Note: the band will be releasing their albums + extras for sale as downloadable mp3 beginning some time around October 23rd, at which time I will remove the links here. This is intended to be exposure for the band, I encourage you to support the artists and buy the songs when they are available! They will likely be much higher quality than you can find here anyway :)
Derriere Le Miroir are another band from the goth / synth / wave genre that were somehow overlooked -- for the most part. I assure you, it is not due to poor song-making. Below you will find a full discography (2 cassettes, 3 albums, 2 eps, 1 "best of"), as well as 4 unreleased tracks given to me by Ralf (vocalist), which was very nice of him! Ralf is also a member of the more well-known band, In My Rosary, which are a bit more goth/folk and a bit less pop. I recommend the tracks "Uniforms" and "Soul Tide", however, they are all good!
As for Derriere Le Miroir... their sound is dark, emotional, and sometimes danceable. There are both male and female vocalists, delivering an incredible batch of lyrics and melodies that should please any fan of the broader wave pop genre. Anyone looking for a taste should start with "Selected 1992-1995", which is a nice compilation. Look below for a video of the band performing "Alibis".
Now, without further ado...
Devant Les Mots (demo) (1992)
You are not likely to find this elsewhere. I do not have the album art for this first demo tape, I received it from Ralf, who said:
"Devant Les Mots" was our very first demo tape. It contained 5 tracks ("Simple Blue", "L'autre Mort", "Alibis", "Detach" and as hidden track "Out Of It") which we recorded on a 4-track cassette recorder in our rehearsal room. It was distributed by Spirit Records, but since we went to a studio shortly after its "release" and recorded the songs for "Deux", it was quickly deleted. I think we just sold 30 copies or so. The quality is, hm, quite poor, but I uploaded them as a zip file for you (if you are interested). I converted them last month because I first thought about taking some of them as bonus tracks for the digital re-releases, but then I thought this wouldn't be a very good idea ;-)
Well, I wouldn't push these as your first listen, but after you've heard them from the releases below, I think you will enjoy these versions, as I do.
Track List:
01 - Simple Blue 02 - L'Autre Mort 03 - Alibis 04 - Detach 05 - Out of It (Hidden Track)
01 - Fancy Garden 02 - Passion 03 - The Second Curtain 04 - Monk On A Rope 05 - Gold 06 - Lost 07 - A Notion of Light 08 - Headless Mourn 09 - Electric Chair 10 - Fancy Garden II
01 - Alibis 02 - The Second Curtain 03 - Gold 04 - G.T. 05 - Good Night 06 - Passion 07 - Mirror 08 - Detach 09 - A Notion of Light 10 - Like The Sun 11 - Lost 12 - Just Like You 13 - Alibis (Blue Mix) 14 - Simple Blue (Demo Version) 15 - Tonight 16 - The Same 17 - Silent Breath 18 - Everybody 19 - ???? 20 - The 3rd Fault
Full Discography here. I prefer the 2nd, myself. Here's some info taken from Lowlife's wiki page:
Dead Neighbours was an early-1980s psychobilly band from Grangemouth, Scotland, originally consisting of Craig Lorentson (vocals), David Steel (bass), Ronnie Buchanan (guitar) , and Grant McDowall (drums). The band was managed by Brian Guthrie, brother of Robin Guthrie of Cocteau Twins, and had recorded an album, Harmony in Hell (1982), that briefly hit the lower regions of the UK independent record charts.
In 1983, Steel left the Dead Neighbours in the middle of recording the band’s second album, Strangedays/Strangeways. Upon learning that Cocteau Twins founding member and bassist Will Heggie had recently departed that band (after a lengthy and reportedly difficult European tour), Guthrie asked Heggie to help Dead Neighbours out in finishing the album’s recording, and join them on a tour opening for Johnny Thunders. Heggie agreed and, after the album was completed and the tour was done, he stayed on and began rehearsing new material with the band. Guthrie noticed that with Heggie, the entire chemistry of the group suddenly changed and they began forging a completely new, atmospheric sound very different from their original Cramps-influenced beginnings. Apparently unhappy with the direction they were clearly aiming for, Buchanan abruptly departed the band. A new guitarist was brought in, Stuart Everest, who adapted quickly to the band’s updated vision. In 1984, the group retired the Dead Neighbours moniker for good and rechristened themselves as Lowlife.
Lowlife are easily one of the most under-rated bands of all time. I expect that most of my readers are very familiar, or at least somewhat familiar with their music. For those that are not, it's time!
I plan on posting a semi-discography of the band that came prior to Lowlife (Dead Neighbours) after this.
A quick summary on the sound: A perfect blending of post-punk/goth/shoegaze sounds. Heavy, melancholic vocals and some of the most ethereal, dark, and overall brilliant musical compositions you'll hear anywhere. The members shifted around a bit early on (ex-Cocteau Twins, etc) before settling on a final line-up, which produced some of the most saldy over-looked songs of the style/era. Comparable to a number of bands, including Joy Division, The Cure, SaTB, Chameleons, Cocteau Twins, Asylum Party, etc.
01 River of Woe
02 Where I Lay, I'll Lay
03 Missing The Kick
04 The Beggars Burning Bush
05 Moved To Tears
06 Bittersweet
07 Forever Filthy
08 Neverending Shroud
09 We The Cheated
10 Acrid Tongue Download
This album is brilliant from beginning to end. Perfect, beautiful, dark... everything a lover of classic minimal/synthpop could want in a modern band. Again, I won't post the entire album as it is commercially available, but you can have a taste. Besides, I'm sure you all know where to look if you really want to find it. I couldn't decide which tracks to choose, so I just picked randomly. Hope you dig.
By the way, Geoffrey D., aka Dernière Volonté, is a member of this group. For those of you that are fans.
I recently bought this 7" and I consider it worth every penny. It's an interesting blend of songs, the 2 tracks aren't very similar. The A side is more of a pop song, featuring female vocals, and then you have my favorite part of this record, the B side, which features dark, echoey male vocals, great synth melody, and brilliant drum work. You should really check this one out!
If anyone has anything else by them, I'd love to hear it. I believe they have a few LPs.
Here we have a rare and magnificent darkwave masterpiece. I don't know much about this other than the band comes out of Hamburg, and that this was never officially released/sold. It was released only as a promo, as far as I know.
I took the liberty of adding an extra track, an edit of the standout track, "Ich Wollt". I removed the intro from an already long song, and sped it up a bit. I think you'll like the results.
Tracklist:
01 - Fear
02 - Ich Wollt
03 - Wild Kisses
04 - Ich Wollt (Vanilla Face Edit)*
This is a nice 7" from the UK which sounds a bit like early Cure/Siouxsie at times -- in a good way of course. I'm particularly fond of "Complications". I've seen the first 2 tracks from this around, but never the last track, which is why I ripped this. Hope the sound is ok, let me know if it's not!
Tracklist:
A1 - A Certain Bridge
B1 - T.V. Addict
B2 - Complications
3rd LP from the fairly well-known band Executive Slacks. Uploading this because I've been listening to "Say It Isn't So" a lot lately... great little tune...
UPDATE (11/20/09): The album "Nausea" was requested and posted in the comments below.
One for the weekend. Such an incredible record, "Wild World" has to be one of my favorite songs ever. If you don't know this one, it's not to be missed.
A1 - Wild World
B1 - A Thousand Face (Night-time)
B2 - Mysterious Eyes
I recently purchased this 12" and I must say... it's quite good. The opening track is fantastic (as seen in the video below), and I'm also quite fond of "Moans", which features Colin Newman of Wire. It should also be noted that some production for this record was done by Daniel B. of Front 242.
While browsing Mr. Goutroy's wonderful blog: A Viable Commercial, I noticed that I do indeed have several of the items in his wantlist. So, why not post them here for everyone?
I'm fortunate enough to own this 7" as well, I really love this title track. Like Boxbury Beat (below), "Sensation Boys" is also featured on the Maskidans compilation, but it's the demo version (which I don't think is nearly as good). The B-side, although not quite as catchy, is also worth a listen.
This is a great release, I definitely like the B-side the most, which is apparently on this release as well (not sure if a real release or not). The band also recently released the song "Thunder and Lightning" on the Maskindans - Norsk Synth 1980-1988 compilation. In any case, definitely add this one to your rotation if you haven't already.
I'm fortunate enough to own this rare gem. I don't know much about this Swedish band, beyond the fact that they disappeared after making this brilliant Synth / EBM 7" which was (in my opinion) ahead of its time. The b-side track, "Until Then" is pretty well circulated, but you don't run into the A-side often. Both tracks are fantastic, so if you don't know it already, be sure to check it out.
