The Scream is the debut album by Siouxsie and the Banshees. It was an almost instant commercial success, peaking at No. 12 on the UK Albums Chart and was recorded in only one week and mixed in three during August 1978. The album was released on 13 November 1978 by Polydor. Before the album's release, the band had developed a strong reputation as a live act, and had achieved a Top 10 UK single with "Hong Kong Garden”, a track which did not appear on the original album, but was added not much later to most others issues of Scream.

Upon release, The Scream was widely acclaimed by critics. It was also a commercial success, peaking at No. 12 in the UK Albums Chart. The album is regarded as a landmark of post-punk.

Late 1977 and early 1978, Siouxsie and the Banshees received major press coverage but failed to secure a recording deal. A fan undertook a graffiti campaign in London, spraying the walls of the major record companies with the words "Sign the Banshees: do it now".[2] Polydor finally signed them in June.

J. G. Ballard and William Burroughs provided the reference points for the lyrics of The Scream.

Since its release, The Scream has received a number of accolades from the music press. NME rated it at No. 57 in their "Writers All Time 100 Albums" list in 1985. Uncut magazine placed it at No. 43 in their list of the 100 greatest debut albums. It was featured in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

The Scream placed the group among the pioneers of post-punk, as Robert Smith of the Cure said:

"When The Scream came out, I remember it was much slower than everybody thought. It was like the forerunner of the Joy Division sound. It was just big-sounding."

Joy Division's Peter Hook, who saw the band in concert in Manchester in 1977, said about The Scream: "Siouxsie And The Banshees were one of our big influences, The Banshees first LP was one of my favourite ever records, the way the guitarist and the drummer played was a really unusual way of playing."

The Scream had a strong impact on other musicians. Massive Attack covered and sampled "Metal Postcard (Mittageisen)" on their song "Superpredators (Metal Postcard)" in 1997.

Scream (1978 LP) - Tracklist

DISCOGS

US dungeon synth act SOMBRE ARCANE has unveiled their newest video for the track "Ancestral Seat Of The Barovian Scourge." The song was released on October 24th on the Wrought Records Halloween compilation entitled The Reliquary of Terror.

Phranick and Naginah of SOMBRE ARCANE perform a macabre ritual to summon the mists of Barovia as a means of conveyance to Castle Ravenloft.

This song is inspired by a playthrough of the Ravenloft Dungeons & Dragons module that the band played through during a campaign they have been playing together for about 8 years.

For fans of: MORTIIS, DEAD CAN DANCE & GUILD OF LORE

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Following the heels of her recent video, "The Day I Died," Italian gothic singer ELLE NOIR unveils her latest video - the title track from her upcoming EP, Like A Black Doll.

"Like a Black Doll" is a nightmare with different levels of meaning. At first sight it's the image of a girl who can't react to life, who closes herself in her dark inner world and surrounds herself with things that can't hurt her.

But deep down, the song tells about a traumatic situation of my childhood, which I do not talk about but have been able to elaborate on over the years thanks to music. It is one of the reasons that pushed me to sing, to use my voice and my songs to exorcise my demons."

"My inner worlds are always autobiographical, my songs are always lived in the first person. Death, mental illness and emotional states of discomfort are central themes in my writing. When I write a lyric I always have an image in mind and try to describe it. My lyrics are little narrated and very visual."

- Elle Noir

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Ethereal Darkwave duo THE PALACE OF TEARS has unveiled their new album Of Ruination.

Of Ruination is composed of seven tracks of somber beauty and otherworldly seduction. THE PALACE OF TEARS fuses hypnotic electronics, heavily layered processed guitars and sultry vocals that captivate, creating an ethereal amalgam that transcends boundaries.

The duo’s unique alchemy draws upon musical influences as varied as post-punk, shoegaze, dark ambient, gothic rock, electronica and much more. THE PALACE OF TEARS create their own sonic landscape full of haunting beauty - ghostly - evocative - sensual.

Of Ruination is available now everywhere digitally, soon to be followed by a limited CD edition.

Leah's vocals create a swoon of dream-felt caresses into the heart of the human psyche, weaving and layering lullabies of sensual longing into each moment, while Erick's dense swirl of ghost - layered guitars and atmospheric electronics conjure a sonic spell of aural mist to soothe the listener into its lush ambience.

Of Ruination caters to themes of love, death, and the search for truth in a world filled with grief and the longing for connection. Seven tracks of sonic escapism for the romantics and seekers daring to conjure their own ghosts from within. This body of work may serve as a vehicle for the listener to explore themes of illusion; "Masque L'Intrigue", the dark earthly feminine; "Thy Womb Full of Black Nectar", the pain and confusion of loss; "Shadows of Whispering Phantoms", ethereal bodies and strange entities; "Tears of the Moon", leaving dreams and entering harsh realities; "Of Ruination", and the impermanence of the body and the mind; "Cold Dead Skin", and the journey towards a deepening consciousness.

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Electric Café is the ninth studio album by the electronic group Kraftwerk, originally released on 10th November 1986. In 2009 it was re-released under its original working title, Techno Pop.
The initial 1986 Electric Café came in versions sung in English and German, as well as a limited "Edición Española" release, featuring versions of "Techno Pop" and "Sex Object" with only Spanish lyrics.
It was the first Kraftwerk LP to be created using predominantly digital musical instruments, although the finished product was still recorded onto analog master tapes. The album was recorded with the Emu Emulator II sampler (used previously on "Tour De France" and the demo of "Techno Pop" album) and various contemporary devices including Yamaha FM-engines, a Linn drum, and digital effect processors.

The album is somewhat infamous for taking the band almost half a decade to produce. Work is said to have begun as early as 1982 (with the working titles of Technicolor and then Techno Pop) but the project was delayed due to band member Ralf Hütter suffering a cycling accident and then due to concerns within the band that the production quality of the album was not sufficiently cutting-edge, necessitating much re-work. It is the last Kraftwerk album to feature Wolfgang Flür, who subsequently left the group in 1987.

Two singles were released from the album, "Musique Non-Stop" and "The Telephone Call". Both were accompanied by promotional videos. Though both singles went to #1 on the Billboard dance chart in 1987, neither of the singles performed well in the general pop charts. However, "Music Non-Stop" (based on the later version from The Mix) has been the closing piece of Kraftwerk's concerts since 1991. In the early 1990s, a completely different version of "Musique Non-Stop" – slower and more melodic – was used extensively as a jingle on the MTV Europe channel. Earlier, MTV Europe had already included elements from the original song and the video in the title graphics for MTV's Greatest Hits.

The video for "Musique Non-Stop", created in 1984 and released in 1986, is notable in itself for showcasing a computer animated representation of the band. The animation, which was complex for its time, was created by Rebecca Allen, using state-of-the-art facial animation software developed by the Institute of Technology in New York. The slow rate of the album's progress, combined with rapid changes in software animation, meant that Allen had to archive the animation program developed at the Institute of Technology until Hütter and Schneider were ready in 1986 to travel to New York to edit the images to the final version of "Musique Non-Stop".

Electric Café