Coming from Lille, France, another French band is on my menu. Their debut album “40” was released very recently, in December 2015, and I was wondering what was cooking in the French scene pot. The band label themselves as electro dark wave, I would not go much further than that description and there is a clear influence of the post punk and new wave here. The first track “Lake of Love” is indeed a…

  So, what’s new in UK? A fresh new project which started in 2014 but did not take long for the debut album released in November 2015. So what can we expect from this productive solo artist? In its core this project is a pure gothic rock with an extensive use of the synths that really combines well with the guitar riffs and all that gothic rock is characterised by. It is dark, it is…

  It is not easy to write a few words even about what I consider the best 2015. release. It was a great year for the music industry indeed, but between other great “mainstream” releases, this one should absolutely be named as a winner. They have been described as a psychedelic rock, and they label themselves funnily as epiphany pop, and epiphany it really is, at least as their last album is concerned. Even though…

  After missing from the public ear for some years now (originally a CD compilation released on Big Blue Records in 2007), this collection of uptempo numbers again sees the light of day in the form of a vinyl release. For many familiar with Venus Fly Trap, this is a representative selection of their past and present work – with panoramic quality to the songs, at times psychedelic and pastoral, and at times darkly energetic….

Mitra Mitra – “Mitra Mitra” (LP/cassette/digital, 2016) Theoretically, “mitra mitra” is Latin for sea slug. Musically, it is storming the sea, a brave experiment echoing sharply into the distance, its electronic signal reaching far beyond the sea horizon. A joint effort between New Zealand-born Violet Candide and UK-born Mahk Rumbae, Mitra Mitra recently delivered their very first proper, conceptually strong studio LP. Although the duo formed approximately a year ago, and a mere few live appearances and…

  Another electo-pop surprise comes from Milan, Italy this time and their name is Electrogenic. No wonder they chose that particular name, as they are an electro synth pop act very true to the mentioned genre. You can hear from the start that they are very catchy and melody oriented. They show a great sense for both the beat and the melody, as I would not expect less from an Italian project; Italians are proven…

  I wasn’t aware of My Robot Friend until accidentally discovering his adorable world of bleep through another great artist – Solvent. It was around 2009 and Solvent happened to be remixing one of My Robot Friend’s then current singles called “Waiting”. The song featured guest vocalist Alison Moyet and Solvent delivered his remix of the song in obsessively pleasant Yazoo-ish style which got me searching for more of My Robot Friend himself. Originally featuring…

  I must admit, Hellhumm wasn’t on radar until I got their CD, and of course my curiosity needed to be satisfied. I was interested to get to know their work better, especially since they are a Spanish band. Coming to the third song, I am not so keen of labelling them as EBM, as they lean more towards harsher synth-pop, sticking to a more minimalistic expression. I don’t have so many influential names to…