SIMON FRANK

 

I first heard of Frank through HOT & COLD's excellently sparse Border Area LP, but most of his solo output has eluded me.  Until no, that is - because after relentless and compulsive listening to 2018's Humid Music, I will be making every effort to seek down physical copies of everything. Everything. The 7+ minute "See Self" opener hits like an entire night at the club; everything is there. Everything is here. Monotonous SUICIDE clashing with driving '80s new beat by way of early PIAS and shades of NITZER EBB and then a burst of no wave like the brilliant "Good Taste Is Worthless." Simon freaks and chants deliberately over each track and it feels like you're in a trance just listening....I would love to experience this at full volume in a packed club.

HUMID MUSIC

THUMBTHUMB

 

Super trippy.
Like an improvisational synth artist interpreting a series of insect migrations. 
Definitely mysterious. 

THUMBTHUMB IS NOT MYSTERIOUS

~OTRON

 

It was ten years ago when I last posted ~OTRON, and my adulations today are no less intense and/or relevant. Outsider electronica sprinkled with '80s hi-NRG dance floor beats reimagined for the new generation....what else could you possibly want to validate your Tuesday existence?

DRIFT

PLETKYA

 

This Budapest trio is only going to get better with repeat listens. Bare bones synth/bass/drums with airy vocals like a minimalist RAKTA with indie/twee undertones....and PLETKYA really are as good as that descriptor suggests. If this witch shit could be the embodiment of modern dark wave then we would collectively think about that modern subgenre differently. Because this is what that should be. 

PLETKYA - DEMÓ

ENERGIES

 

Please.....just listen.

Gorgeous and etherial.

Beautiful.

Start to finish. 

ANNA LUISA.
EMMA CASTRO.
CHEETAH GIRL.
MICHAEL VIDAL.
CAT MAHATTA.
MONA DEMONE.
.....more.

ENERGIES

TEMPLES

 

Is there a place for pained, deliberate solo improvisational electronics in your life?

If your answer is yes, then I offer you TEMPLES. 

BESTIAL

HÄNDE

 

Why not continue on a theme, right? Moving from Austria to Poland with a sound more reminiscent of INTERNAL AUTONOMY or UK DECAY filtered through stark Eastern Bloc punk. Decidedly dreary and danceable, with hints of RAKTA creeping into "Parafina" via synths and drums that remind me of watching Natha at the Whistle Stop Bar in San Diego a decade ago....but I digress. demo hände closes with "Koniec" - it's the hardest hitter on the tape; a would-be late '80s dark alt classic with guitar, vocals and synth sharing the spotlight. Sometimes you hear a thing for the first time and it's already in you before the tape stops rolling...that's what happened here. 

demo hände

DYAD

 

I write these words on the evening of August 24th (composing tomorrow's post tonight...I do this sometimes). Sitting with Murder The (Internet) Cat on my left demanding attention and my mind demanding an escape from the day. It was an awful day - life be like that sometimes. And tonight as I write words that a couple of thousand random humans and countless LLMs will digest tomorrow, it seems that Colorado's DYAD are providing precisely the escape I'm craving. See what I did there? Sometimes DIY ambient minimal synth driven fixes everything....for a few minutes. 

CYBERIA

GRADIENT FADE

 

The first time I put this on I listened with intent for a few minutes and then more or less went about my afternoon with the early bars of the second track "Frost Heave" lingering in the background. I don't know when I realized that Sensory Drift was affecting my thoughts and movements, but somewhere in the middle of "Mount Analog" I had to adjust the volume (up, naturally), sit down and focus. I was focusing on the sounds to be sure, but really I was thinking about how the sounds made me feel....because the sounds made me feel. In brief moments, this recording sounds like an indie rock synth freak is trying to play funeral doom and there are other moments where it feels like a lost North Bay ambient new age relic. But in all of those moments (and all of the others), GRADIENT FADE sinks into you in a way that's hard to articulate - even the most calm and casual sounds are made with care and intent...the same way we should be treating ourselves. And maybe that's the thing, it feels like it's supposed to make you feel.

SENSORY DRIFT

BODY OF LIGHT

 

For any even casual visitor, I should be able to say that Arizona's BODY OF LIGHT moved from Ascetic House to Chondritic Sound in the 2010s and that should be enough. Gloriously dark synth....there aren't even words (right now) to capture how good this is. There's more....but for now there's this. 

VOLANTA DI AMORE

SOFT CELL

 

Hot on the heels of Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret, SOFT CELL were already deep in the well documented throes of consumption by the time The Art Of Falling Apart was released in 1983. An incredibly adult synth pop record - a parade of upbeat dancefloor bangers with Almond's sweet lilt delivering legitimately dark tracks like "Loving You, Hating Me," "Forever The Same" and "Numbers," an incredibly introspective assault on consumption and promiscuity. Listening to this record in real time (or in the years after its release when I was a young teen discovering and devouring UK synth and new wave) it was just another collection of songs....I am a middle aged man now and my ears, head and heart are different. The Art Of Falling Apart is a mature and real collection of songs anchored by a tortured two verse title track. Makes me want to dance like I'm too young to drive and can't identify with any of this. Don't dismiss SOFT CELL, they're (far) more than a kitschy cover tune. 

THE ART OF FALLING APART

=============================
I'm skilled at the art of falling apart

It's the holding together, together forever

Trying all of the vices is what's doing the damage 

All the good things are bad things 

And I'm paying the prices

ASPS

 

Sometimes it takes less than ten minutes to make you reconsider. ASPS is the solo embodiment of Andrea Blake (CHROME DOME, VACUUM) and their sole release is a dose of gloriously dark, minimal(ist) Australian synth that will remind the careful listener of WAX IDOLS and TJO. The causal listener will experience dark and deliberate sonic beauty...and isn't that enough?

ASPS

SANGUINE MOON

 

The polar opposite of yesterday's bludgeoning, Portland's SANGUINE MOON creep their way into your soul with one 19+ minute dungeon synth missive. Raw, distant, bleak, minimal.....haunting, introspective....complex in its deliberate simplicity. It would be a lie to say that I seek these sounds, but it would be dishonest to not acknowledge how tight their grip on me is. 

HAUNTING DREAMS OF AN ANCIENT TIME

MISTER BARCLAY 505

 

Look....if you're paying attention at all, then it's very difficult to feel normal right now. It's very difficult to imagine a return to anything even close to normal, or how challenging the path to that return might be. Feeling helpless is fine; feeling helpless is normal. So while you're feeling helpless, here are some innocent lo-fi home recordings from a relatively nice looking fellow from Albuquerque. When I got this tape, it kinda felt like everything was more or less okay (even if it wasn't). So it's kinda pleasant to take a minute and listen to the sounds of DAVID ISAAC BARCLAY now and think about that time and rage cry for a bit before returning to the bitter and very very real knowledge that even if things do return to a kind of normal....you won't be alive to see it. FUCK DHS. FUCK ICE. FUCK MAGA. 

ULTRA LO-FI DEMO

COLOSSAL YES

 

I do not know how best to describe or discuss my feelings about Surrounded By Progress. It's like listening to SURVIVE in an entirely different realm. Like listening to future music on the radio at your dentist's office. Like the comedown from a really weird weekend....but in the form of sound. "Docile Progressions" is simultaneously ominous and beautiful.......and there's your life metaphor, you know? Ethereal synth-driven other music from the Bay Area and also from another world that you would (probably....hopefully) rather live in. There's a connection to ONCE AND FUTURE BAND which will mean something to a few readers, but really....you need ton listen to COLOSSAL YES. Because these are important sounds. 

:Surrounded By Progress:

Doesn't progress make you feel good inside?
You're idea of progress wrecks too many lives. 
=================================

SURROUNDED BY PROGRESS

VISCOUNT

 

Yo - I was not expecting this shit. Not at all. This VISCOUNT tape was mixed in with some raw grind and primitive DBeat tapes because I'm disorganised and at first glance I figured it was maybe more of the same (which would have been fine) - I was wrong as fukk. VISCOUNT is the brainchild of Lucy from HYGIENE and PRIMETIME and though this is their first (and thus far only) release, it shows a vision completely realized and presented with confidence. Retro '80s dark wave energy (of course), and then throw in a bit of SHOP ASSISTANTS, TRVST, TJO....WAX IDOLS even. If goth twee is a genre then VISCOUNT bears their banner. If good music is to your liking then this tape will stop you dead in your tracks. 

10 PAST 10

LUNAR MIASMA

 

One half hour of meticulously crafted psychedelic space sounds from LUNAR MIASMA in the form of Heavy Mist. It's just before six in the morning as I write, and this is making me dream of dreaming in the bed that is still warm....these are night sounds. Ominous, foreboding, beautiful night sounds. 

HEAVY MIST

CCCRRCCSSLLRRKKRRSSS

 

Remember a few days ago when I jawed about the creative and prolific people in my orbit? File the extended MegaKut in that same category - (very) extended orbit to be clear, but some of them are right down the 101and I perk my ears up every time these cats drop new sounds...that means I'm perking my ears up often. CCCRRCCSSLLRRKKRRSSS are a different animal, self described "electechtro noise for b-girls and boys and creeps and burnouts" that defies any kind of traditional descriptor. If ever I have shared a vibe-inducing tape on these pages...this is it.Three expansive tracks spanning almost forty minutes released by Spareorgan to accompany the CD release on Megakut. 

miami - cochi - misdirect

•••••••

KMET

 

The patience required to make dungeon synth actually work is impressive, and the artists who can properly pull it off are few and far between. To create sounds that are equal parts sinister black metal, Stranger Things soundtrack and FLOCK OF SEAGULLS is one thing - to do it with a straight face is something else entirely. Croatia's KMET will have you suspend belief....anxiously waiting for a crescendo and/or a conclusion knowing that they're only inviting you along for the journey, not the destination. Smrt Feudalizmu compiles five painfully deliberate tracks all released digitally over the last few years - final cut is the magnificent "Kuga" but don't think you'll be free when it's finished. 

SMRT FEUDALIZMU