Soon to be released on vinyl through Stockholm’s FlexiWave label, Case Unclear is an ice-cold minimal synth track from Silent Em. New York’s Jean Lorenzo is Silent Em, and he strips down and dries out his songs until they are tense, fragile shards of sound. The crackle of snares in this track is set off nicely by the dark vocal line.
Track of the Day
It’s the battle of the Visages: Steve Strange has pulled together a new album under the monicker, but band cofounder and DJ Rusty Egan disputes its authenticity as a Visage product, when it includes only Strange from the original line-up. This is a trademark dispute that can’t be resolved by music fans, but it is no contest when it comes to comparing recent releases – Egan has the edge. This track has been produced separately by both Strange and Egan, so fans can make their own comparison.
Television is a common reference point for electronic music. Mute Records’ Daniel Miller’s early projects often made critical points about its influence (for example, T.V.O.D. by The Normal or TV Playtime by Silicon Teens). Karlskrona’s Kord also have some thoughts, as revealed on this exemplary cold electronic track.
Dreamy, hook-laden pop from Julian & Marina, that would not be out of place on a Pet Shop Boys album. They’ll get tired of being told that; but, so long as the PSB are singing the newspapers instead of making elegant pop songs, this is the real deal.
Johan Tronestam lives on Åland, an autonomous group of islands in the Baltic Sea inhabited by a Swedish-speaking population but politically part of Finland. Perhaps the experience of living on a rock surrounded by a lot of space, with a great view of the stars, helps to explain why his music has such cosmic qualities. This track is from the Planet X album.
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