Back catalogue: Coldwave/Synth

Review: Nicolas Motte, Raphael Top Secret, and Antinote's head honcho Zaltan debut their 18 Rays project with this sublime little album and, although this might sound like we're heading into hyperboles, it is probably the best example of modern cold wave that we've heard over the last five years. "I Feel Rain" is a wonderful piece of music with a subtle hint of Joy Division's melancholic drone at the core of its vocals, while "The Empty Stairs" encapsulates everything that we love about downtempo. "Long Time Ago" meanders into open seas thanks to the outfit's solemn vocals and electric use of sparse and explorative guitars, which leaves the fluttering harmonics of "North West Plaza" to linger beautifully in their own ambient swing. Warmly recommended.

Review: A Split Second's cult coldwave EP Flesh was dropped back in 1986 on Antler Records. The band of Marc Heyndrickx, and Peter Bonne (aka Chrismar Chayell) only formed a year earlier but his debut single made a huge impact and has become a real classic of the EBM and wave world ever since. Numerous albums followed well into the 90s but rarely did the pair ever top this - the jerking rhythms, ravey electronics and retro-future chords all resonating as much with audiences now as they did back then.

Review: Rudolf Abramov describe their sound as 'a response to a seemingly endless conflict about disgust, acceptance and love.' The Berlin-based duo are certainly pretty hard to define, as is proven on this five track outing that veers from something close to the Brothers From Different Mothers sound, to lo-fi Irish punk folk. And if that's not grabbed your attention, we don't know what ever could. Lazy Soldier', with words spoken by Brendan Cleary and an overwhelming feeling of counter culture to its simple stomped drums, whooshing synths, and bass guitar underpinning the speech. And 'Cold Feet' opens the scoring with a broken, twisted, psychedelic workout somewhere between 1970s rock and contemporary dancefloors. Better yet, Losing Perspective is so much more besides, too.

Review: Remastered and reissued with new a new album cover via the Clone West Coast Series, Adult's 'New Phonies' EP first appeared in 2000 as the duo moniker of Nicola Kuperus and Adam Lee Miller, two legit electro stalwarts. This is a proper snappy electro EP - of the least sympathetic and most coldly calculating kind - evoking the fright of becoming trapped inside an inescapable subliminal-sonic cybernetic feedback loop, with all human faculties thrown to the wayside. 'Hand To Phone', for example, locks us into a communicative-cybernetic stasis, with spitty acid 16ths betraying the mood of becoming affective chasers of electromagnetic signals, unwittingly carrying out the bidding of our new techno-evangelist overlords. The A-sider 'New Object', meanwhile, with its sizzling 808s, transitional fluctuations and hip-hop vocal refrain - "I need you to accommodate my comunication needs" - touches on several layers of objectification at once: sexual, commodification, loss of the ability to speak. Adult truly dealt with adult themes and embraced their recapture into the machine - now you too can own their New Object.

Review: The Advanced Cookbook Of Mr Selig And Kanzler Z was a short-lived experimental jazz act also known as Cookbook. They put out one EP and two albums, with this 12" being taken from the debut. It came in 1989 and German label the Zoo In You initially and has the vocals of Mr Selig on the A-side, and guitar by Wolfgang Bokelmann and words by Dieter Pougin on the flip. An original will cost you more than a night at the pub and even finding samples online can be hard. Rest assured it is future jazz that still sounds futuristic today.

Review: A new collaboration of Philoxenia Records founders Luigi Di Venere and Neu Verboten, Affekt Unit is informed by an aim to "spark new feelings on the dancefloor". The three track Discorgy EP celebrates their musical obsessions - Italo house, Frankfurt EBM-house and trance - with the result proving an electrifying crossover of these classic genres together with surprising new sounds. 'Oct-Opus' boasts a serious electro component, fused with progressive trance, UK bass, techno, transcendental rave and even a climactic outbreak of rave-era breaks. The title track 'Discorgy' draws from Euro dance and EBM, experimenting with a polyrhythmic bass line and bringing the kind of 'stadium house' that The KLF were always aiming for. Closing track 'Dreams Of Wrestlers' is cosmic house at its sweetest and beefiest, spruced here and there with Italo stabs and pianos, drum machine fills and some lovely subtle filtering. Not so much a case of something for everyone than everything from everyone, you might even say.

Review: Clara and Armand are the two producers behind the new Agar Agar project, and the French duo clearly intend to take electropop back to its golden days... we have absolutely no problems with that. This is their first release, and it comes courtesy of the Cracki label, a Parisian collective formed in 2010 that has been putting out nothing but fire since its birth; moreover, the imprint has scouted a lot of new talent from the streets. We would dub this sort of music disco-not-disco, a slow and mellow blend of slo-mo dance moves that often verge towards the utterly abstract. Most importantly, these are tunes that will be enjoyed by indie fans, and they should certainly not be looked at as mere 'dance' tracks. There is plenty to explore in here, and Agar Agar will surely pop back up on our radars very soon. Recommended!

Review: Second time around for Al Onzo's "Tango Japan", a fiendishly hard-to-find fusion of synth-pop and early Belgian new beat that's long been popular with serious Euro-disco crate diggers. As on the original, you get both vocal and instrumental takes, with the former layering sleazy male spoken word vocals and cheeky, high register female chorus vocals over a bubbly, synthesizer-heavy backing track rich in chiming melodies and fuzzy synth-bass. This time round, reissuers Mothball Records have also included a previously unreleased cut "Camel Soup in China Town", a similarly exotic, tongue-in-cheek and thoroughly entertaining affair. Simply essential.

Review: The Girls In Uniform 12" sees Poni Hoaxer Nicolas Ker and Versatile boss Gilbert Cohen revisit their Aladdin project. Legend has it heartbreak brought the two to form Aladdin, seeking solace in making music together after being dumped by their respective girlfriends. After a debut album back in 2011, the project was put on the shelf but the pair decided to get back in the studio at the behest of "a well-known energy drink" for a session with some killer musicians. The result on "Girls In Uniform" is a strange brew of rock, dub, and kraut and sounds wholly suited to Versatile, as do the accompanying versions from Trevor Jackson and Cohen.. The latter's dub version under the Graal alias is apparently one of the first recordings to roll out of his new Amsterdam studio!

Review: Ale Mania is Andrew Montoya, a San Diego native who originally released "Center" on his 2011 EP A, Who Sings The Beat. A serving of stylish synth disco-noir, the track gets a re-rub by Stuttgart retrovert Mick Wills who lends his midas touch as always. He first takes the razor to the "Mick Wills Edit Intro" which does exactly what it says on the tin, working the suspense of the intro's haunting strings and arpeggio mainly, before unleashing the power. On the flip the edit gets into full swing working the main groove and Montoya's wicked and sleazy vocals.

Review: If you were one of the lucky few to pick up the illicit compilation A Few More Things From Ivan Smagghe (And Friends) the dapper French selector put out a few years ago you should be familiar with this one. "Civil Defense" by Danny Alias first emerged in 1984, a strange proto-everything-that-has-come-since track which was spun by the great Ron Hardy and has been a long term favourite of Smagghe and his KTDJ cohorts. It gets another lease of life thanks to Smagghe and Leon Oakey's always entertaining Les Disques De La Mort label with no less than five different versions to choose from, including a re-edit from the aforementioned Ron Hardy.

Review: The mysterious 22recordings are Barcelona's loudest yet coolest answer to the scene's nascent popular demand for dark disco, gothic techno, neo-Italo and EBM; 2023 going into 2024 has witnessed them on a roll, issuing a string of fresh new EPs and singles in quick succession and all on vinyl no less. For the fourth addition to their original EPs series, this jet-set leather-bound inner circle welcome producers AMQN and PO into their coterie, and while we cannot for the life of us discern what these nominal acronyms stand for, we can almost certainly discern from the music on 'Capitulo IV' that said names probably refer to something deeply kinky, sublimated, transgressive. AMQN helms up the A for the hat-trick that is 'Natura', 'Este Mundo Es Loco', and 'SEX', spanning curious light-and-dark vacillations in uncategorisable yet no less propulsive sound - the essence of sadomasochistic switching, bottled in dance music form. PO opts for a different mood, with 'The Story Of Laura And Jim' tonally shifting into paranoiac narrations, gated phasings and dreamatic swells.

Review: Earlier this year Minimal Wave offshoot provided one of this year's most visceral dancefloor weapons in Kino-I, the debut from Doug Lee's new An-I project. Taking inspiration from techno, jack, industrial and punk, An-I successfully drew a line under some of the Berlin-based artist's previous disco-flavoured endeavours. And then some! If you like the Kino-I 12" you will love the new triplet of An-I productions housed on this appropriately titled Gutz 12". The title track alone should come with a health warning; such is the furious onslaught of machine funk it contains, whilst the unnerving "Rut" is the most schizophrenic production you will hear this year. Best of all id closing track "Save Us" sounds like a cross between in Aeternam Vale and Silent Servant. Pressed on a rather thick and dashing slab of magenta orange vinyl!

Review: An-i is the excellent new project from Doug Lee, a man previously responsible for some superb dancefloor ammo as part of TBD alongside Justin Vandervolgen, as well as working with Lovefingers on more mellow fare as The Stallions. If you were one of the lucky few to grab his Bad News 12" with LIES don Ron Morelli then you'll be ready for the haywire nature of the Kino-i EP. Finding a perfect home on Minimal Wave offshoot Cititrax, the EP sees the Berlin based producer indulge his machine love on three variations of the same track that almost explode off the wax - must check for fans of Nation, LIES, Mathematics. Pressed up on fluorescent 160gm yellow vinyl and housed in a high gloss black and white sleeve.

Review: Dan Andrei is arguably one of the finest selectors of this generation and a master minimal producer who makes electronic music of the highest order. His latest outing sees him inaugurating his own brand-new label alongside Claudiu Stefan. Rainbow Hill is a platform for their more personal ideas and starts with four more of Andrei's brilliantly deft yet dramatic tracks. 'Numan's Touch' kicks off with rolling drums and bass and a fine eco-system of cosmic pads, twinkling keys and fizzing synths that are theatrical and involving. 'What Else?' then gets darker and more intense with heady loops and wispy pads, and again the ante is upped and the darkness pervades once more on the tense and taught dub-tech roller 'This Is What I See'. Last of all, 'Bluer Than Ever' floats above the floor with airy pads and radiant chords. A perfect 5am vibe.

Review: Angela was the studio project of husband/wife duo Angela and Ingo Werner formed in 1981 in Russelsheim, Germany. Ingo had classical training in bassoon and piano at the Akademie fur Tonkunst in Darmstadt from 1966-70. He joined Krautrock band My Solid Ground in 1971 before going on to form his own project Baba Yaga in 1974. In the late 70s he formed the ensemble AIR with Armin Stowe and Reinhard Karwatky. The project debuted with a a concert at ARS Electronica Competition in Linz, Austria 1980, which they won. Klaus Schulze was on the jury with Wendy Carlos and Robert Moog - but more importantly, Angela was in the audience. Two days later, Ingo told the band he needed a singer, so they asked Angela, and recorded two albums for RCA between 1981-82 before being dropped. Ingo wanted to work on a new project that involved dancers and live video. They recruited American performance artist Jyl Porch, who was living in Munich, to assist with choreography with her friend Kirsten McKenley. Jyl ended up recording her own album first, which gained interest from Klaus Schulze, who helped them secure a deal with EMI in 1983. Later that year, the trio recorded 4 songs that would be released on Angela 'Fantasy' single on 7" and 12" formats in 1984.
The music on 'Fantasy' was completely created with computer software of Ingo's own design. The concept of a polyrhythmic, polyphonic, and polydynamic sequencer was realized by Ingo after a visit to Wolfgang Palm in Hamburg. He paired his sequencer with Palm's legendary PPG Wave Computer System, allowing for more dynamic and nuanced programming. Angela programmed the music, sang, and wrote the lyrics to "Painted Love", while Ingo arranged and played all electronics and keyboards. Jyl wrote the lyrics for "Fantasy" and the slow and sleazy, electronic disco B-side "I Gotta Little Love", where she also sings background vocals and the "hot little flame" rap. The original B-side to the 7" version was a cover of the 1967 Hal Hackady and Lee Pockriss song "Kites", made famous by Simon Dupree and the Big Sound. All songs have been remastered by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. The EP features the original 1984 cover artwork with a striking photo of Angela styled by Jyl in severe Neue Deutsche Welle fashion, and includes an insert with lyrics and and photos designed by Maycec..

Review: Reissue specialists Be With have a reputation for unearthing slept-on or hard-to-find gems. Their latest 'find' is Anna's Systems Breaking Down, a fairly obscure, left-of-centre synth-pop cut that's long been a favourite with Italo-disco DJs. This 12" reissue includes both versions from the 1982 RCA 7". The A-side boasts the skewed original, where Anna O'Malley's stylish vocal and frustrated screams intermingle with sustained chords, chiming melodies and fuzzy, downtempo drum machine beats. The real killer, though, is the stripped-back flipside "Dance Remix". Boasting less vocal, delay-laden drum hits and woozier chords, it's this version that has long been a favourite amongst collectors.

Review: For a four track electronic music EP, there's a lot here. Opening with 'Burning Fields' by Aphonia, the uninitiated might expect the whole package to nod to that classic electro sound, highly detailed but lo-fi, packed with dark atmosphere but all about dance floor energy. Skip to track two, though, and Angles of Pompeii present mutant indie-punk-dance in the vein of Detroit Grand Pubahs at their most guitar-y, and minimalistic.

Elsewhere, 'Retreat' is a slow mo maximalist triumph, acid lines flailing over the top of a muffled cacophony of noise that places the emphasis on a lunging, head-nodding bassline. Add 'Athma', Odopt's sinister low end and drum machine tune up that could almost be an accidental piece from the movie They Live and you've got not only a complex release, but one boasting replay value set to last for years after the investment.

Review: Army of God's 'Salvation'' back in 2012 soon became a cult coldwave cut. It was the one and only release by the pair of Aroy Dee and Miss Jagroe... until now. More than ten years on they are back with 'Endless Skies' which is a new EP full of analogue warmth, signature synth designs and aching strings. Of course, Jagroe's unique voice features and brings extra allure to the beats. Aroy Dee steps up with an edit of the title cut and lays in some more form drums and pairs back the vocals to make things even darker. On the flip you'll find the throbbing bass and off-kilter keys of 'Fear the Night' with a dark version going even more into the shady unknown.

Review: Having been friends and occasional studio collaborators for the best part of a decade, M>O/S Recordings main man Aroy Dee (real name Steve Brunsmann) and Marc Antonio Spaventi can usually be relied upon to bring the goods. While Brunsmann is of course better known for analogue-rich deep techno, his outings with Spaventi usually explore the pair's mutual love of throbbing, synthesiser-powered Italo-disco. That's certainly the case with 'Sorrow', a mascara-clad slab of raw, arpeggio-driven new wave/Italo-disco fusion that comes topped off by a particularly stylish, half-sung, half-spoken lead vocal. Heavier and more breathless dancefloor thrills are supplied by the accompanying 'Space Dub', where the track's pulsating groove is ratcheted up to 11 and periodically submerged in sparkling deep space synths.

Review: Los Angeles-based ASHRR are back with a new cut which comes from their forthcoming Sunshine Low album which they have re-interpreted as their ASHRR Soundsystem alter ego, while System Olympia also steps up with a remix on this fine new package from 20/20 Vision. In the hands of the latter, 'What's Been Turning You' is a remix with plenty of hi-fidelity cosmic details over mid-tempo deep nu-disco drums. The version from ASHRR is a chugging and Italo-tinged classic with loose-limbed and jumbled drum funk and plenty of bright, shiny arps. A great collection then.

Review: Some of the best record labels out there act as a platform for hitherto unknown artists and music scenes to get wider exposure, and with this latest release Golf Channel certainly fall under that banner. Autarkic is a cold wave project from Tel Aviv musician Nadav Spiegel whose work is new to us at Juno HQ but most certainly a fine addition to the Golf Channel canon. The four-track Hello To Mrs Blank arrives with the assistance of fellow Tel Aviv outfit Red Axes, channelling both a sound and look that feels very much like a well-executed contemporary take on the cold wave and primitive electronics aesthetic.

Review: Kris Baha had a big year in 2019 with the release of his debut album on CockTail d'Amore and an EP on Pinkman, and now the Australian body music man in Berlin is back with a high-pressure heater for [Emotional] Especial. "Barely Alive" is the kind of sinewy proto-industrial cut that will appeal to fans of Ministry's earlier work, when the synths reigned supreme and there was pop to match the noir. Especial then call on a cast of remixers to interpret the track in different ways, from Timothy J Fairplay amping up the dystopian disco tropes to Das Ding creating a sleek electro-funk twist with the original's gothic undertones intact.

Review: Kris Baha is fast becoming one of the most essential operators in the deviant disco underbelly of Berlin's scene, despite having landed in the city relatively recently. Baha's credentials with labels like Power Station and parties in Melbourne are all that you need to know, and now this release on the ever mighty Cocktail d'Amore seals the deal. Baha has never sounded more confident, pinging deviant synths around nasty drum bite and channeling the gods of industrial darkness to make some rugged body music for the darker kind of dancefloor. The experimental, non-party tracks are just as wild, dealing in all manner of uncompromising noise to further Baha's journey to the upper realms of sonic mud slingers.

Review: Over the last few years, Kris Baha's releases have become progressively more bleak and concrete-clad in tone. It's little surprise, then, to find that he's used this EP for She Lost Kontrol to give a decidedly 21st century spin on the Cold War era sounds of cold wave, industrial and EBM. There's much to enjoy from start to finish. Check, for example, the stylish spoken word vocals, alien synthesizer melodies and sleazy arpeggio style bass of "In Your Arms", the dirty, Nitzer Ebb style EBM sweatiness of "Revolting", the slow-motion dirtiness of industrial funk bubbler "Black Rose" and the guitar-driven post-punk goodness of "Jonathan", which sounds a little like a heartfelt tribute to Robert Smith and the Cure.

Review: For their latest No 'Label' release, Rush Hour has turned to "Brussels-based Prince of modern psychedelic electronics" Bear Bones, Lay Low, a prolific producer who has been delivering intriguing, synthesizer-based curiosities on obscure labels for well over a decade. Hacia La Luz begins with the trippy, Tangerine Dream-in-space swirl of "Lightning Eyelids", before heading to the rainforest with Timothy Leary and Terrence McKenna via the hallucinatory drums and humid electronics of "Jewelled Selva Mating Rites". Psychedelic synthesizer lines, exotic melodies and starburst electronics come to the fore on the album's other three tracks, with the magic mushrooms-in-Goa trip of "Crystal Poppies" standing out.

Review: REPRESS ALERT: As well as being a resident at Moscow's Denis Simachev bar, Leonid Lipelis has been slowly making a name for himself as a producer for some time. There's a whole raft of Lipelis remixes for the nu-disco set dating back to 2006, but it feels like the Russian producer has stepped up his game of late. Inbetween some killer edits for LIES and an upcoming Public Possession 12" as TMO, Lipelis dons his Beard In Dust guise for the latest release from the mysterious Bahnsteig 23 label. If you were a fan of that aforementioned LIES release or any previous BAH 12 it's highly likely you will dig the four cuts here with Lipelis drawing for some obscure sources with eminently danceable results.

Review: Under the Beard In Dust alias, Leonid Lipelis has produced some of the most inspired re-edits released over the last decade, often turning chunks of long-forgotten Eastern European disco, boogie, synth-pop and AOR into quirky dancefloor gems. He's at it again here, launching the Crudo Rircordi imprint via a trio of eccentric, mid-80s treats. With its driving, kick-drum driven beat, addictive bassline, foreboding synthesizer motifs and Mediterranean guitars, 'Senor Paraiso' is a Balearic proto-house gem, while 'Kirkovmoroder' is a cheery chunk of AOR synth-pop turned into a tongue-in-cheek dancefloor treat. 'Coconut Paradise', meanwhile, is an Italo-disco style slab of peak-time campness straight from the top shelf.