Berlin-based post goths, MERCIFUL NUNS, have released a video for their new single, "Blue Lodge", featured on their upcoming album, "Anomaly X", to be released on 6th April.
Check it out below!
Die Krupps frontman, Jürgen Engler, launches EBM-only project Die Robo Sapiens!
Staunch Electronic Body Music followers will surely instantly identify who is hiding behind this new band project: DIE ROBO SAPIENS! We saw thousands of them across the world wearing a t-shirt with this slogan and dancing to this club hit during their world tour for their “Machinists Of Joy” album…
Alfa Matrix is proud to present to you the new ultimate EBM project by the members of one of the cult electro industrial music pioneers of all times next to KRAFTWERK and EINSTÜRZENDE NEUBAUTEN: DIE KRUPPS’ very own Jürgen Engler, Ralf Dörper and Marcel Zürcher.
“We always end up with some tracks that are not guitar compatible when writing DIE KRUPPS material, so I decided we needed another outlet for all the Electro songs and keep the more metal songs for DIE KRUPPS! That's how DIE ROBO SAPIENS was born. This new band is essentially the “all Electro” DIE KRUPPS…”, says Jurgen Engler. “It was a logical move… And since one of DIE KRUPPS’ most recent and biggest hits was “Robo Sapiens”, we thought it sounded perfect as a band name...”.
Born from that boiling urge to create more upbeat electro songs which is kind of part of their DNA, Jurgen and his gang will serve you frontal dancefloor assaults incorporating the typical elements that all original DIE KRUPPS fans love: hard pumping sequencers, kicking beats, fat basslines, powerful vocals and smart critical lyrics, all bathed in a conceptual background characterised by dehumanisation and technological dependency of mankind.
Watch out! DIE ROBO SAPIENS are here to conquer! Tanz mit der Roboter… VOLLE KRAFT VORAUS!
Visit the band on Facebook
The Stricken, a new project featuring Claus Larsen (Leaether Strip) and Ian Donaldson (Bronski Beat)... Dark electro meets industrial!
The newly formed dark industrial band's debut album is being released 1st March 2018.
One best describes the album as a journey into a dark abyss of bombastic industrial sounds with aggressive yet poetic lyrics. Created out of love for the dark and fear of what is to come. It can best be compared to bands like Skinny Puppy, Delerium & Throbbing Gristle
Claus Larsen (Vocal, Lyrics) - Leæther Strip / Klutæ / Am Tierpark
Ian Donaldson (Music, Production) - Bronski Beat / Sordid Soundz
The story:
Two musicians meet online by chance - both finds out that they are both fans of each others music - a month later they collaborate and create art. A match meant to be!
Ian and Claus became The Stricken.
Ian Donaldson who moved from Glasgow, Scotland to London in the late 1980s, was making music in a couple of unsigned bands when in Scotland. He met up with Steve Bronski in the early 90s and worked on a couple of projects together before becoming a full time member of Bronski Beat, touring the world and recording! After Bronski Beat took a long break Ian began Djing as Sordid Soundz and played in all the top London clubs as well as gigs in Russia, Brazil and Europe. 2016 saw Ian & Steve reunite and recruit Stephen Granville, reworking the classic Bronski Beat album "The Age Of Consent" now called "The Age Of Reason" featuring new & old material, a remix album is coming with a new album planned for next summer!
Claus Larsen was first signed with his band Leæther Strip by the German Electro Label Zoth Ommog in 1989, LEAETHER STRIP quickly built a buzz as one of the most exciting emerging acts in Europe in the early 90s. Leæther Strip has been and still is a big inspiration to many of today's younger acts and is still one of the most productive and busiest live acts in the scene. Leæther Strip concerts are always highly energetic and aggressive and 2018 will mark the 30th anniversary of Leæther Strip. Claus is also the mastermind behind Klute - now Klutæ, and a half part of the Synth-pop band Am Tierpark.
The album is available as limited edition CD and digital download.
Tracklist
Remains
A Doom With A View
Havoc
The Chase
Men of My Blood
Endeavor
Tools of Hate
You Asked
Give it to me
Meet My Master
Hole in the wall
Strangers
All new Front 242 sideproject Lederman (The Weathermen) / De Meyer (Front 242) launched!
LEDERMAN / DE MEYER is the amazing and unexpected artistic fusion of two prominent figures from the cult Belgian electronic music scene.
Talented and humble musician and producer, Jean-Marc Lederman, was not only a member of FAD GADGET and GENE LOVES JEZEBEL but also founded the electro-pop project KID MONTANA and THE WEATHERMEN (known across the world with their interstellar hit "Poison"). He also composed lots of music for movies and video games under various pseudonyms and collaborated with a plethora of artists including Alain Bashung amongst others.
On the other side, author and performer Jean-Luc De Meyer, started his career with UNDERVIEWER before joining FRONT 242 from 1981 and then successively forming C-TEC, COBALT 60, MODERN CUBISM and 32CRASH and collaborating on record or on stage with many other artists (IMPLANT, HAUJOBB, PUNISH YOURSELF…). His unique and characteristic voice is unmatched and instantly gets recognised by any true self-respecting EBM-industrial-electronic music lover.
Watch the livecast video replay on Facebook.
On their “Eleven Grinding Songs” debut album, Lederman's keyboards are, as always, raspy, melodious and absolutely unpredictable, making it hard to imagine what direction each title will take. Songs starting with peaceful atmospheric intros grow into thick and exciting cuts (“Atoms In Fury”, “Heartbeat”…) while other straight binary dance tracks gradually morph into complex and rich tunes widening the stereo image spectrum to the maximum (“Back To Nature”, “Tout Me Fait Rire”…).
These quite eclectic and uncompromising song arrangements appear to be the perfect fertile ground allowing De Meyer’s dense and inhabited voice to unfold across different registers going from pure icebreakers to boiling volcanoes through melancholic whispers and other poetic grunts. The texts are dark and introspective, punctuated by sarcasm and self-mockery. And the care given to the lyrics definitely sets this project apart, miles away from the overused “first-degree” universe of standard alternative electro / EBM bands.
Among the album highlights we can definitely mention “A Tribe of My Own”, “Flowers and Birds and Bees” and “Not Really There”, three dark, oppressive yet very danceable tracks all bound to become new anthems in the best darkwave clubs.
“Eleven Grinding Songs” pushes the human in front of his anxieties, his deviances, his obsessions, his beliefs, his hopes and his defeats. A poignant and fascinating mechanical deconstruction jointly orchestrated by two artists reaching the top of their art. Play it loud!
Today it’s exactly 32 years since Siouxsie and The Banshees released their second single from their seventh studio album Tinderbox. The single Candyman was released as 7” and 12” on 28 February 1986 and is about child abuse. It became Siouxsie and the Banshees' 13th top 40 hit, peaking at number 34 in the UK single charts.
The 7” has the track Lullaby on the b-side, the 12” also featured Umbrella on the b-side.
