Lebanon Hanover - Gallowdance

  Founded in July 2010 in Sunderland, UK, Lebanon Hanover a Duo influenced by 80s Cold-Wave decided to stand up and disapprove with the high pitched overproduced music that peaks in your ears.
  Their recordings are rather minimal. A sore distorted guitar, leading post-punk basslines, and their female/male vocals are depressive and full of world weariness. Hardly suprising they call themselves «New Misanthropics.»
  After some of their tracks have been featured on compilations like „Darkness before Dawn“ “ The Almighty Wire“ „Monosynth“ and „Death Disco“ they have released their first 12“ vinyl on Fabrika Records (Greece) in February 2012.   
  Since moving to Berlin in spring 2011 Lebanon Hanover were irritated by too many humans and moved back to the seaside of North-East England and are recording and mixing on their new stuff. 

http://lebanonhanover.bandcamp.com/ 

 Listen to their new single, for the dark nights!!

 

                                      

  discography:     

                                               

 

- Why not just be solo

The world is getting colder-

 

Cold Showers - Highlands

   Based out of Los Angeles comes the fresh sounds of  COLD SHOWERS. 

  Highlands is their first release to date with a promising sound coming from the Mexican Summer label.

  Combining influences of late 1970s post-punk with a sonic exploration closer to something from Neu!, it is the carefully constructed spatiality of the music that gives the somewhat minimal lyrics their weight; distant and atmospheric. 

 Moments of aggression and transcendence transform the songs from mere sound to rich sonic narratives: within the rise of the language lies a vision under restraint, a pent up joy that is like nothing else. The resulting sound is unexpectedly tough, vital, and contemporary.

http://www.facebook.com/coldshowersband

Take a listen, a really nice surprise in these post punk waters , lovely indeed!! 

In their first Room 205 installment, the aptly named Cold Showers deliver an icy hot, uptempo performance of "So I Can Grow" from their forthcoming debut album.

 

Seaside Postcards - EP

  

  For fans of Joy Division, this trio hailing from Pesaro, Italy is a must listen. Their dark indie sound is reminiscent of the stark moodiness of Ian Curtis and with their minimal guitar lines and heavy bass.

  Their personal interpretation of a perfectly connotated and deep-rooted sound is the sound of the cold Manchester at the end of the '70.

   Tangible proof is the new homonymous EP, self-produced, recorded and mixed in summer 2011.

   Seaside Postcards are already playing live and writing new songs that will see the light at the beginning of 2012.

   Watch the video for “Strange Days” below and be sure to download your free copy of their self-titled EP, give them support!

 Seaside postcards - EP
Bandcamp 

Crystal Castles – Suffocation

   Crystal Castles have released the video for "Suffocation" off their 2010 self-titled album, in collaboration with Vs Magazine. 

   They're calling it a "fashion video," and it features Alice Glass pouting and moping around an abandoned mansion wearing all kinds of fancy wardrobe.

  They are known for their melancholic lo-fi sound and their explosive live shows. 
  Expect third album from Crystal Castles this summer, until then take a look a new video!

Suffocation

They followed that up with a remix of “Suffocation” by HEALTH

 Crystal_Castles_-_Suffocation_HEALTH_Remix.mp3

Soviet Soviet - Contradiction

    The masters of  Europian post-punk/new wave are back with a new video for their track “Contradiction”, the opener off their 2011 release, "Summer, Jesus". 

   The band has received numerous feedbacks from audiences and critics, "Contradiction" comes to crown a golden period for the Soviet Soviet, who had many dates abroad , particularly in eastern Europe. 

  Amazing artists with a sophisticated sense for making an extraordinary music, its hardly to find such a high-quality band in these waters. 

  Big support and good luck in the future!

Highy recommened!

Myspace

 The video was directed, edited and produced by Roberto ‘RUP’ Paolini. 

The Beauty of Gemina - Iscariot Blues

  The Beauty of Gemina is a music group of the Swiss Michael Sele, which was founded in 2006.

  He's leading this project - accompanied by the musicians David Vetsch (bass) and Mac Vincens (drums) - onto the next level. 

  The band mixes elements from synth rock , dark rock  and electronic music.

  In the ten hymn-like and diversely arranged tracks the band leader seduces the listener with his dark timbre, lures hypnotically, constantly driving by powerful vocals and an unmistakable guitar play. He skilfully shuttles between melancholic intimacy and stadium sound, processing rock, wave, goth and blues influences.

   On the one hand Michael Sele reveals his habitual darkness; on the other hand he appears growingly political, proclaiming a new revolution and thus predicting an according cultural and social change of paradigms.

  The Beauty Of Gemina conceive themselves as a modern rock band orbiting close to the spirit of the age. Nonetheless, their sound knowingly eludes a clear musical categorisation.

  A distinctive voice as primary component, psychedelic guitar sounds, driving electronic devices, acoustic elements and profound lyrics peak to an arc of suspense, belt the mighty, epic-dark songs and reflect Michael Sele's atmospheric and at the same time daunting imagery output. 

  The Beauty Of Gemina with their new album Iscariot Blues are staging an opus of timeless-dark elegance, guiding their unique style to perfection. 


 My Space

 

Tracklist: 

01. Voices Of Winter
02. Haddon Hall
03. Badlands
04. Golden Age
05. Stairs
06. Prophecy
07. Dark Revolution
08. June 2
09. Seven-Day Wonder
10. Last Night Home

 

Video from the 2011 tour

 

At The End Of The Sea(2010)

Tracklist:

01. Dark Rain

02. Obscura

03. Rumours

04. Kings Men Come

05. Sacrificed To The Gods

06. End Of All

07. Counting Tears

08. In Silence

09. A Fortune Tellers Dream

10. Black Cat Nights

11. Narcotica

12. Endless Sleep

 

A Stranger To Tears

01. Galilee Song
02. This Time
03. Psycho Flood
04. Shadow Dancer
05. Colours Of Mind
06. The Lonesome Death Of A Goth DJ
07. Heart Of A Gun
08. In Your Eyes
09. Into Black
10. One Day
11. Last Kiss
12. Narcissus
13. Simple Death
14. Tell Me Why
15. Wishful Promise
16. Essai Noir 

Diary Of A Lost

Tracklist:
01. Suicide Landscape
02. One Step To Heaven
03. Hunters
04. Kingdom Of Cancer
05. Victims Of Love
06. Forgiveness
07. Nevertime
08. Trapped
09. Monster In Me
10. Fight Song
11. Isle Of Desire
12. Lovehate
13. La Reve De L'infidele

Contre Jour - One Night At The Station

  

  Contre Jour is a french band which started playing in 2009. The band includes Roxy (vocals), Christof (bass guitar), Greguy Leodocard (keyboards) and Manu (Guitar).

  Their first album called « One night at the station », which is a self-product project and was released in January 2010, combining many influences from the 80′s and the 90′s, offers a punchy sound between Post-punk and New wave.

 Their influences include Joy Division, The Chameleons, Siouxsie & the Banshees and The Cure. 

 Official site
 My space 

 Tracklisting :
01. Hourglass
02. À contre Jour
03. The chosen One
04. Grey House
05. Vladilen
06. Lies
07. One Night at the Station
08. Tension
09. This Feeling
10. Decay
11. A Recklessness
12. The Travelling 

 mediafire

  This self-produced debut album of 12 songs can produce for itself a darkly romantic world in your head and offers the dawning of the dark seasons suitable for lonely dark hours or parties.

Adventure - Lesser Known (2011)

   Adventure is yet another contemporary act infatuated with the epic sound of 80s electronica. The Baltimore based musician behind Lesser Known, Benny Boeldt, uses a palette of sounds and beats to recreate and expand upon the indulgent atmospherics that groups like OMD and Visage came up with the first time round.

   The opening track, 'Song 1', sounds like an instrumental remix of New Order's 'Bizarre Love Triangle', and this is soon followed by 'Smoke and Mirrors' and "Fools Paradise".  Boeldt creates a lush sound that is melodramatic, urban, melancholic and rapturous; In short, Boeldt is a musician, a technician and a post-modern romantic.

   At its best, Lesser Known crescendos to create a big sound using melodic hooks, electronic strings, samples and simple vocals.

   For some people this kind of music will sound derivative and nostalgic, but it's not really as simple as that. Although the template may be very similar to 80s electronica, the schematic has changed and Lesser Known does sound like the next generation of synth-pop.

01. Open Door

02. Feels Like Heaven

03. Smoke and Mirrors

04. Fool’s Paradise

05. Rio

06. Lights Out

07. Relax the Mind

08. Another world

09. Electric Eel

10. Meadows

Download

The Frozen Autumn - Chirality (2011) & Discography

  

  The Frozen Autumn is an Italian darkwave band, formed in May 1993, characterized by a blend of melancholic vocals, atmospheric gothic-wave and 1980s-style electropop.

  The Frozen Autumn started life as the solo project of Diego Merletto, founded after several years of involvement with various darkwave groups in Turin. The singer, keyboardist and synth programmer employed the talents of guitarist Claudio Brosio during early studio sessions and live performances, then in 1995 the first album, Pale Awakening, was released under the German Weisser Herbst Produktion label. The album was well-received by gothic-wave/dark-romantic fans across Europe, and in 1997 the follow-up was released, Fragments of Memories, this time by Milan-based Eibon records.

   In 1998 Merletto co-founded a side-project called Static Movement with Arianna, who provided guest vocals on the title-track from Fragments of Memories. The duo composed together for six months and in March 1999 the album Visionary Landscapes was released. The musical style of Static Movement was not dissimilar to The Frozen Autumn, however with only electronic instruments being used, the result was a more synthetic coldwave sound. The partnership proved fruitful for both parties and so Arianna became a permanent fixture in The Frozen Autumn line-up, Static Movement remaining their "concept research project".

 

  After 18 months working on The Frozen Autumn's third album, Emotional Screening Device was released in April 2002 and hailed as the group's best album to date. They decided to leave Eibon Records in 2003 and, while contemplating offers coming in from both Italian and foreign labels, spent over two years on the next album. Is Anybody There? was finally released in September 2005 by the Argentinean label Twilight Records and German label Pandaimonium through Xymox Control.

  Merletto has since been working on his video art which has in recent years become an integral part of the band's live shows, while in addition to playing concerts all over Europe and collaborating with various artists, the duo have (as of October 2006) begun the process of reprinting The Frozen Autumn's back catalogue. In 2009, "Pale Awakening", "Fragments of Memories" and "Visionary Landscapes" were re-printed through Twilight Records. At the same, The Frozen Autumn announced that Ashes is no longer their official fan club. In September 2009, a new official forum was created.
 

   In December 2009, The Frozen Autumn published in their Facebook a "Manifesto against music killers", stating their position on music sharing over the Internet. In the same article they pointed out that they were exploited by someone who they thought as a good friend.

   In October 2010, four new songs from a new single: "Rallentears" will be performed live. The song is on their new label, Calembour Records, as a forerunner of their next album, called Chirality is released in November 2011.

  

  Discography

• Pale Awakening (1995) - reprint in 2009
• Fragments of Memories (1997) - reprint in 2009
• Visionary Landscapes (1999) - From Diego and Arianna's side-project, Static Movement - reprint in 2009
• The Pale Collection (2000) - Re-printed version of Pale Awakening including a remix of This Time and one new recording.
• Emotional Screening Device (2002)
• Is Anybody There? (2005)
• Chirality (2011)

 Official site

 The Frozen Autumn - Chirality (2011)

01 Before the storm

02 Sideral solitude

03 Chirality

04 Breathtaking beauty

05 So brave

06 The Exile

07 Victory

08 Rallentears

09 In the golden air

10 The last train

Download

 


Rallentears (EP 2010)

01 Rallentears

02 So Brave

03 The Last Train

04 Wait For Nothing (Froxy Vox Version)

Is Anybody There (2005)

01 Evening Falls

02 Faceless Names

03 Ashes

04 Polar Plateau

05 Static Cold

06 Oblivion

07 Venetian Blinds

08 Guardian Angel

09 Concavo - Convex

10 Citywards

11 Ashes (Clan Of Xymox Remix)

12 Polar Plateau (Dust Of Basement Remix)

Download

 Emotional Screening Device (2002)

01 Second Sight

02 Silence Is Talking

03 When You Are Sad

04 Wintertag

05 Is Everything Real

06 Precious Lives

07 Emotional Screening Device

08 Verdancy Price

09 Sperm Like Honey

10 Freon Heart Fayence Mind

11 Second Sight

Download

 

 

The Pale Collection (2000)

01 This Time (electro mix)

02 Bio Vital

The Pale Collection

Fragments Of Memories (1997)

01 The Echo of My Lies

02 There's No Time to Recall

03 Dusk Is Like a Dagger

04 Winter (Reprise)

05 Don't Cry for Me

06 Chimney's Song

07 Painted Girls

08 Fragments Of Memories

09 I'm Coming From Nowhere

10 The Forgotten Frontier

Fragments of Memories

Pale Awakening (1995)

01 Pale Awakening (Intro)

02 Again

03 Winter

04 Another Tear

05 Onyria

06 This Time (80's song)

07 In The Nightime

08 Wait For Nothing

09 Scent of Innocence

10 When The Dreams Become Memories

Pale Awakening

Minks - By The Hedge (2011)

   "In April of 2010 Captured Tracks released a 7" single by an unknown new york band called Minks. On the date of release, few people knew any information about the musicians behind the music. Most writers and listeners assumed that it was a one man bedroom music project, like many other artists on the label, and were confused even more when six musicians appeared on stage to perform songs at the first Minks concert. 

  The first single, titled "Funeral Song" was quickly praised by music journalists and publications like Pitchfork, Stereogum, and Fader. Fader said that it sounded like "If Robert Smith gave birth to a baby, and the baby was actually a cassette of Cure demos that had a lot more staying power than actual Cure demos." Seasons changed, and MINKS returned with a follow up 7" single titled "Ophelia," which continued to shadow people's minds with curious thoughts and open ears.

  The uniqueness of these early singles showed the ability to balance the feelings of joy and sadness, as well as a door to past and present worlds. 
  For these songs were less about the songs themselves, but the ability to make you feel a certain emotion when listening to them. No element alone would stand out, but as a whole, the swirling waves of sound which Pitchfork would describe as "all texture and drift," would drive you away to a nostalgic place in your mind.

  With the release of "By The Hedge," MINKS further the ability to make you feel eternal autumn.

  
   Frontman and songwriter Sean Kilfoyle's ability to capture the raincoat grey Boston mornings of his youth, have the desire to make you feel like you are listening to a dream while awake and standing in the pouring rain. put on your raincoat and enjoy the splendor."

Tracklist: 

1. Kusmi
2. Out of Tune
3. Life at Dusk
4. Indian Ocean
5. Funeral Song
6. Our Ritual
7. Cemetary Rain
8. Bruises
9. Boys Run Wild
10. Ophelia
11. Juniper
12. Arboretum Dogs

Minks - By the Hedge 

Xeno & Oaklander - Sets & Lights (2011)

  Xeno and Oaklander is a minimal wave/synth duo from Brooklyn, New York, comprising Sean McBride and Miss Liz Wendelbo. They began writing music in 2004 and they record their songs live in their studio and play analogue synthesizers and instruments exclusively.

  Discography:

- Vigils (2006) (Xanten)

- Saracen (2009) (Wierd Records)

- Sentinelle (2009) (Wierd Records)

- Sets & Lights (2011) (Wierd Records)

  The new video for “The Staircase,” by the synth pop group Xeno & Oaklander, epitomizes the cool aesthetic of the underground minimal electronics movement. 

   The video has the quality of a Xerox, reproduced over and over, blown out and dark, and induces a sense of something lost. 

  Taryn Waldman of Boxmotion, who directed the “The Staircase,” and Patrick Stroub, its cinematographer, make references to Roman Polanski’s film “Repulsion,” as a slip of a woman, Xeno (Wendelbo), climbs the stairs of a claustrophobic 19th-century Brooklyn tenement building, seemingly unaware that the object of her affection and of her voyeurism, Oaklander (McBride), is right next to her.

http://xenoandoaklander.com/

Tracklist:
1. Sets & Lights
2. Untitled*
3. Years Before
4. Corrupt
5. Blue
6. Italy*
7. Autumn’s Edge
8. The Staircase
9. Desert Rose
10. Open Walls

Download

SOVIET SOVIET - Summer, Jesus (2011)

  
  Summer, Jesus is the latest EP from Italian trio Soviet Soviet. In quite a unique manner they fuse industrial dirt with more accessible emo punk.The real muscle in ‘Summer, Jesus’ is the instrumental. It’s dark and menacing with rasping guitars and ominous leading bass lines.

  The vocals retain throughout punk's trademark declamatory, accelerated delivery that is unexpectedly but effectively supported by sophisticated, drumming while guitar and bass stick successfully to conventional punk simplicity and directness. 
 Sung in international English, the songs are sufficiently varied and engaging as are, naturally, their political messages.

  Soviet Soviet have a new video out for their song, "Human Nature"From summer, jesus EP released 08 October 2011 VIA Tannen Records.

Download 

01. Contradiction (03:03)

02. Human Nature (03:33)

03. Prince, Prostitutes (03:20)

04. Warmata (03:42)

05. The Beasts Are Brave (03:33)

06. Aztec Aztec (03:33)