This blog is dedicated to the lost world of seven and twelve inches from the 70's/80's, mostly from minimal synth, post punk, dark wave, cold wave, industrial, no wave, experimental area.
After 2 years of exploration into the depths of Italian Minimal Synth and Cold Wave, Mannequin is back with the second volume of the much acclaimed compilation 'Danza Meccanica - Italian Synth Wave 1981-1987'.
Here are three new absolutely stunning gems in streaming:
Vision Fortune – Black Coral / Void Of The Valley 7" (Mannequin MNQ 019)
Release Date: 26 November 2011
7" Single - Limited Edition 300 Copies
Vision Fortune are two brothers spirits from London, UK, who sent us a strange and entertaining short email letting us know that they had some sounds to hear up on their Soundcloud.
“We are fans of you, maybe you will be fans of us”.
With such a great invitation we couldnʼt help but head over for a listen and what we found were “Black Coral” and “Void Of The Valley”. Instantly, i saw “Black Coral” travelling on the train of Savage Republic, Red Temple Spirits and the Californian Trance and on the other side “Void Of The Valley” channeling in the same breath the spirit of King Crimson, so full of sax wails over a steady hynotizing bass line which frames the dual vocals that is almost a chant.
We are pretty sure that Vision Fortune will be one of the next big things in the UK indie scene in 2012, so we are really proud to present you their debut 45 revolutions-per-minute single.
"It's downbeat, pretty dense in it's recording and doesn't really seem to care if the listener is having a good time." (LOST LOST LOST MAGAZINE)
"Picture, if you can, a bunch of other-worldly belly dancers beaming down to Earth, bringing with them a musical language consisting of avant garde, jazz fusion, a raw sense of garage rock and a talent for a creating damn catchy pop hooks." (CANT HEAR MY EYES MAGAZINE)
"Each moment that passed was one step closer to our insanity as we wandered through the void of the valley" (GOOD POP BAD POP MAGAZINE)
"Vision Fortune sound like an unlikely jam between Abdullah Ibrahim's Dollar Brand, Bill Laswell's Material, King Crimson and Joy Division. And they definitely sound like a bunch of great musicians with a rich musical background and a true songwriting craft" (SPIRIT OF EDEN MAGAZINE)
"Do check out their Soundcloud (in the most stable frame of mind you have) for more material from these South London drone-smiths. I'm not joking; these guys literally open new doors on perception." (SPOONFED MAGAZINE)
I brani selezionati nella mixtape vivono sospesi in un istananeo gioco di flashback e flashforward, tra cospirazioni e ispirazioni, un'eterna altalena tra brani inesplorati del passato e nuove glorie.
Tracklist e note.
01 Craig Leon - One Hundred Steps ('Vising' LP, 1982)
Uno dei più famosi produttori di NYC (Blondie e Ramones tanto per spararne due a caso) qui impegnato come solista in un'orgia synth-psichedelica senza respiro. Da riscoprire e rubare a piene orecchie.
02 Chris Carter - Interloop ('The Space Between' K7 1980)
Fresco di ristampa su Optimo Music, nel 1980 Chris Carter tralascia il momento Throbbing Gristle per dedicarsi alla sua più grande passione: i sintetizzatori. The Man vs The Machine(s).
03 Nagamatzu - Murderous Passions ('Sacred Islands Of The Mad' K7 1986)
Qualcuno si ricorderà sicuramente il produttore techno inglese Andrew Lagowski nel suo momento novantino. Pochi sanno però che appena 10 anni prima il buon Andrew si faceva intere dosi di dark wave in vena. Joy Division meets electro.
04 The Soft Moon - Total Decay ('Total Decay' 12'' EP 2011)
Previsto per il giorno di Halloween il nuovo EP firmato a nome Soft Moon aka Luis Vasquez. Il classico "can't wait for".
Se persino la Thrill Jockey inizia a pizzicare nell'underground, probabilemte quello che dicono è vero. La minimal synth o minimal electronics ha raggiunto il suo apice in termini di popolarità. Tunnels suona come Dark Day catapultato nel 2011. Magnifico.
06 The Royal Family and the Poor - Voices ('The Project Phase 1 - The Temple Of The 13th Tribe' LP 1984)
Il lato esoterico-wave della Factory Records, ovvero la mia etichetta preferita. Disco inarrivabile, indefinibile, da lacrime. Da notare Peter Hook che fa capolino al basso in un momento di estrema lucidità creativa.
07 Brassica - Ballo Dei Morti (Various – Somewhere Out On The Nightside 12'' 2009)
L'unico uomo in grado di fondere il testo di un pezzo degli Slayer tradotto in italiano e super-vocoderato con l'italo disco di deriva cosmic sound. Magic waves for you.
Title-track appena premierata come traccia della settimana su Pitchfork per il duo minimal synth newyorchese più influente degli ultimi 30 anni. Liz & Sean, i love you!
09 The Night Terrors - Human Hair ('Back To Zero' CD 2009)
Krautrocker australiani con enormi synth monofonici e il theremin di Miles Brown a guidare il tutto. Epic sound.
10 Led Er Est - Plants ('May' 12'' EP 2011)
Dopo le bombe atomiche 'Dust On Common' e lo split con gli Ancien Regime, i tre scatenati di Brooklyn tornano alla carica con una psichedelia di deriva synth minimale, dove si intrecciano sperimentali echi di chitarra acustica e melodie vogliosamente pop.
11 Rituals Into The Fire - Gift of Time ('Journey Through Darkness, Searching For The Sky...' 12'' 1988)
Gruppo canadese praticamente sconosciuto, impegnato in un disco senza continuum temporale tra dark wave, ambient e new age, il tutto condito da piano e violini e due voci dell'oltretomba. Creepy.
12 Esben And The Witch - Eumenides ('33' Demo 2010)
Sono passati ormai due anni da quando scaricai questo splendido demo in rete (molto più grezzo negli arrangiamenti e nella produzione rispetto al successivo 'Violet Cries'), subito dopo aver acquistato il loro primo 7''. Il mio primo pensiero fu quello di contattarli per Mannequin ma alla fine non feci nulla. Male. Nel 2011 gli Esben sono stati il primo gruppo inglese a firmare per la Matador negli ultimi dieci anni.
A fine 2009 mi trovavo a NYC per presentare Danza Meccanica e Pieter della Wierd Records incensò questo duo, una ragazzona di colore e un tipo di origini italiane, a suo dire tra le cose migliori uscite nell'elettronica wave americana degli ultimi anni. Beh si, effettivamente avevi ragione da vendere, Pieter.
INFO: MANNEQUIN FESTIVAL . CHAPTER #0 MARTIAL CANTEREL + TROPIC OF CANCER 02.11.2011 La Mécanique Ondulatoire, 8 Passage Thiéré, 75011 Paris, France Inizio h. 21,30 Ingresso: 8,00 € Prevendita: booking@mannequinmailorder.com o discoetchaos@gmail.com
MANNEQUIN FESTIVAL . CHAPTER #1 TROPIC OF CANCER + MUSHY + DIE SELEKTION 03.11.2011 Closer Club, Via Vacuna, 98 Inizio h. 21,30 Ingresso: 8,00 € info: booking@mannequinmailorder.com
At the tail end of 2010, San Franciscan Luis Vasquez put out his dark, fever-soaked self-titled debut LP as the Soft Moon. The follow-up to that release, the Total Decay EP, is out on October 31 (yes, Halloween, fittingly) on Captured Tracks. Check out the title track below.
MNQ 018 The Present Moment - Loyal To A Fault LP/CD
A new effort entitled Loyal to A Fault will soon see the light on Mannequin. This new record is a collaborative effort between Scott Milton and Philipp Munch of The Rorschach Garden.
It explores a relatively similar dynamic pop territory, still opened to new musical tendencies and new sonorities without loosing cohesion. Consequently this last effort promises a completely mesmeric musical odyssey made of eerie drones, addictive electro moves, propulsive batcave bass lines and captivating plaintive-melodic sections which culminate into a sort of ecstatic consuming reverie. Scott Milton’s rich sense of composition gives to the arrangements a radical and unique feel, somewhere between the narcoleptic twist of The Sisters of Mercy, the regular addictive density of Front 242 and the touching goth- dramatic sense of Colin Newman or Asylum Party. The Present Moment means a real sense of adventure towards music and a fair degree of passion for singular, creative and fugitive shared moments, against any procrastination. Prepare yourself for this transgressive, post-romantic electro adventure.
This year, Scott Milton’s live band played with a handful of notorious figures of the synth-minimal cold wave circle such as Light Asylum, Salem, Gatekeeper, Iron Curtain, Legendary Pink Dots, Soft Metals just to name a few…
“There’s rarely any way to sing about love here without it feeling like the end of world.” (Altered Zones)
“Synthpop is pop made with synths, simple as that and The Present Moment are a more than an excellent example, showing that today there is talent in this genre.” (Peek A Boo Magazine)
“The Present Moment’s new album is a real outlier in the surge of new dark music coming out of North America” (I Die You Die)
Survival Records was the home of such great acts like Drinking Electricity, Richard Bone, Tik & Tok, just to name a few. Back in 1981, the third release was a 7'' from Analysis, in other words half of cult minimal wave duo Oppenheimer Analysis. Martin Lloyd is producing here 2 instrumental electronic dance tracks co-written by David Rome, the boss of the label.
Engineer – M.Kemp Written-By – David Rome and Martin Lloyd Recorded at Spaceward
Vitor Hublot were a minimal synth band from Belgium, i recently found their first 3 releases (PSO 001, 002, 003) during a travel in Antwerp, so im really happy to share with you all.
'Aller Simple' (from the 12'') was included in BIPPP : French Synth-Wave 1979/85 compilation and recently in Belgian Wave & Pop Songs From The 1980's compilation.
Here ripped the 7'' single from 1985, both the songs are an adaptation of traditional French and Walloon songs.
I found this 7'' in a recent travel in Antwerp, i really liked the front cover so i decided to buy. As i found through their Myspace page, Apologies For Innocence were an early 80's indie / new wave band coming out from the Liverpool scene (Formby). I found a lot of analogies with the Gang of Four sound since the first guitar riffs....i was more than surprised to hear a 'Goodbye goodbye goodbye goodbye' on the B Side 'Days Alone'....so my suspects were more than confirmed.
Produced by A.F.I. and Mike - All songs by Lodge / Jackson Artwork Lynne - Layout Mike
Mannequin is seriously proud to release on 45 rotations-per- minute seven inch single a nearly forgotten collaboration dredged and now seeing the light of day.
Played entirely live in one ago and using only vintage analogue synthesizers and sequencers, Martial Canterel and Tobias Bernstrup four-hands / two voices put our minds in another dimension, in an hypotetical night-time “outside”, where shadows and confusion are leading the way, creating simply a milestone for all the minimal electronics music lovers.
Martial Canterel is definitely one of the most talented artist in electronic underground music of our time, beeing the pioneer and instigator of what has now become a new movement of minimal electronic bands in the United States. With several albums on his back and deeply related to Wierd Records, Sean McBride is also the vintage controlled mind of Xeno & Oaklander.
Tobias Bernstrup is a swedish contemporary artist working with videos, interactive works, live performances and electronic music, mixing electro pop, italo disco and some darker synth moments. Several of his songs from videos and performances have been released by museums, galleries art institutions on CD or vinyl.
01 Martin Hall - Synthesis 02 Duet Emmo - The First Person 03 The Enter - The Contract 04 Autumn - Reach You From Behind My Walls 05 LASS Crime - I’ll Merry Go Round 06 Overlords - Secrets of the Universe 07 //TENSE// - Body Conscious 08 Ghibli - I’m Looking For You 09 Xeno & Oaklander - The Staircase (Live) 10 Sixth June - Come Closer 11 Octavius - Of Mask and Money 12 Frio - Someone Else
Mannequin is so happy to release under its wings one of the best talents in the minimal synth new scene that you better don’t miss.
We are talking about the serbian duo Sixth June – Laslo Antal and Lidija Andonov – who are rising from the mostly unknown music scene in Belgrade but nowdays re-based in the analog paradise called Berlin.
Sixth June started their musical adventure back in 2007 and in their tracks you can let your heart listen their deep influence for everything that has a synthesizer sound and found its origin in the Eighties; the duo represents perfectly the two sides of the same coin, in fact while Laslo is producing obscure but expressive, powerful and danceable textures, on the back side the voice of Lidija is living the shape to a wobbling atmosphere you won’t escape from.
Their debut album “Everything” released on Genetic Music’s side label No EBM Blanc had got an enormous positive feedback from the Minimal Electronics-fans worldwidethey were playing live at BIM Belgian Fest 2010 in December 2010 togheter with Absolute Body Control, Portion Control, Twice A Man and many other amazing bands.
Limited edition of 500 hand-numbered copies.
Tracklist:
A1 – Back For A Day A2 – Today A3 – Come Closer B1 – Inside B2 – 82
We are really excited to introduce you the cold factory sounds of the Houston duo //TENSE//, with a 12'' 5-tracks, surely one of our top-notch releases for 2011.
After an acclaimed tour opening for Nitzer Ebb in North America and a prolific production for Desire Records, //TENSE// is back in their creepy studio and the result is a constellation of brooding synth bass lines, pounding electronic drum pad sounds, movie samples and distorted vocals that sound pitch perfect underneath all of the madness.
To have an accurate idea of what we are talking about, imagine that Snake Plissken never escaped New York and he started an electro body music band with The Duke. Then, you are almost close to.
//TENSE// are definitely bringing back to life the earlier days of EBM, in a funky-industrial mixture that is so close to the shiny mid 80s period of Cabaret Voltaire or earlier Ministry, think early Wax Trax-era US industrial (Ministry, Skinny Puppy) crossed with the more minimal european wave sound (Absolute Body Control, A Split - Second).
An European 2011 Tour is soon to come (late August-September) in collaboration with Desire Records.
Mushy’s Faded Heart is out on the 28th in Mannequin Records, packing ace bonus remixes from Newclear Waves, Soft Metals, Heinrich Dressel and Crossover.
Tracklist: 01 Frank (just Frank) – Saint (MNQ 013) 02 Ancien Régime – The Phantom Chariot (MNQ 012) 03 Led Er Est – Orange (MNQ 012) 04 Intelligence Dept. – Intelligence Dept. (MNQ 011) 05 Chromagain – Killing Dome – Demo Version (MNQ 010) 06 Janitor Of Lunacy – Shadow Of A Desert Land (MNQ 008) 07 //TENSE// – Disconnect Myself (MNQ 014) 08 L.A.S.‘S Crime – I’ll Merry Go Round (MNQ 016) 09 Mushy – Burn Me (MNQ 004) 10 The Metronomes – Sex I (MNQ 015)
Mannequin is seriously proud to announce the release of the first full-lenght vinyl of Mushy, the stage name of Valentina F., 26 years old sound-experimentalist rising from the dusty ruins of Rome, making music all by her lonesome since the year 2003.
For the lo-fi atmospheres and the tales of lost loves, ʻFaded Heartʼ might be considered the italian answer to the magnificient Zola Jesus release ʻThe Spoilsʼ on Sacred Bones (NY). Home-recorded, ʻFaded Heartʼ was lately mixed and processed at Mannequin studio with a full analog setup.
Top-notch Minimal Electro Wave from INTELLIGENCE DEPT., hailing from Ferrara, Italy.
Includes both their complete and impossible-to-get demo cassettes “Sleeping City” (1984) and “The Big Trouble” (1985), thus also including their well-known beautiful tracks “Sleeping City”, “Anger Inside”, “Too Late To Love” which were also featured on the 1984 LP compilation “A White Chance”, and “Loneliness” from Mannequin’s “Danza Meccanica – Italian Synth Wave 1982-1987” LP/CD compilation, as well as a cover version of “Sister Europe”, originally by The Psychedelic Furs.
Additionally, the CD includes four live tracks, “Sleeping City” and “Too Late To Love”, as well as the two previously totally unknown tracks “Nice Faces” and “Black Widow”, recorded live at the Arena Nuovo in Ferrara in 1985, so a total of 13 amazing tracks, beautifully presented in a six-panel digipak.
01 Mushy - She Was Elsewhere (Faded Heart LP MNQ004) 02 Led Er Est - A Darkness in my Soul (Split 12'' EP MNQ012) 03 Frank (Just Frank) - Valerie (Split 12'' EP MNQ013) 04 Janitor of Lunacy - The Red Moon (Crimes On The Dancefloor CD MNQ008) 05 Intelligence Dept. - Intelligence Dept. (Sleeping City LP/CD MNQ011) 06 Chromagain - Ethnic Box (Any Colour We Liked LP/CD MNQ010) 07 The Metronomes - Sex II (The Ballad Of The Metronomes 2LP+7 MNQ015) 08 Violet Tremors - Time Dissolver (tba LP 2011) 09 Sons Of Science - Way of Life (Danza Meccanica Vol 2 2011) 10 Victrola - Beyond The Door (Danza Meccanica CD MNQ005)
