What goes through the minds of dictators, oppressors, and authoritarians? We will never know, but we can wonder. Lithuania’s Alanas Chosnau and Manchester’s Cultural Ambassador to Germany, Mark Reeder, raise the question that is impossible to answer but vital to ask.
Claes Bang will be immediately familiar to television viewers from his role in the series, Bad Sisters. In that context, he played an abusive douche who managed to insult everyone around him. The Danish actor also starred in The Square, Ruben Östlund’s Oscar-nominated film about a thoughtless curator. The problem-ridden characters played by Bang might not generate much sympathy, but his musical side-line is more endearing.
This Is Not America is Bang’s studio project. He has recorded a number of tracks together with Marina Schiptjenko (Page, BWO, Vacuum), with whom he worked on The Square. A real-life gallerist at Stockholm’s prestigious Andrehn-Schiptjenko, she also has some musical side-projects, including the Riviera-tronica duo, Julian & Marina. The two clicked, and Schiptjenko joined Bang to record several tracks in a Danish studio.
The latest EP from This Is Not America includes one solo track from Bang and two together with Schiptjenko. This one is not a million miles from the Pet Shop Boys; particularly in the chorus.
The latest album from Kanga, You and I Will Never Die, comes out on 26 March 2023. Until then, we have this to dance to: a charged, sleek-but-dirty electronic instrumental and vocals that remind one of Curve at their best.
Mistaken as an instruction manual by governments from America to Zimbabwe, George Orwell’s 1984 has a lot to say about the import of words. Music gets less of a look-in, but Orwell’s reflections on the power of propaganda raise important questions about control. The tools of the trade keep getting refined – facial recognition, Big Data surveillance, targeted political disinformation – without regard to ideology. Although written as a caricature of the Soviet Union, in order to discredit the socialists in Britain, 1984 has come to life in countries governed by social-democrats and conservatives alike.
Vaughty’s latest EP, named for the book, follows its story closely with a warning for our times. The title track is a nicely-constructed slice of pop, which brings to mind the Frankie remixes with their apocalyptic voice-overs. It’s a reminder that Big Brother isn’t just a game show in a house with a pool.
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Sweden’s Strikkland mix EBM and pop influences to great effect on their debut album, Bodypop. “Svenskt hat” [EN: “Swedish Hate”] has been given the single treatment, with a hilarious video featuring the national costume of gangster-wannabees. You might recognise some of the antiracist extras and scenarios.
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[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]New Yorker, Jay Wires, spends his days restoring and dealing in classic synthesizers. He has an EP in the pipeline; which, on the evidence of this first track, will be worth the wait into the late autumn.
Indeed, the seasonal change is the inspiration for “Candle in the Night,” which puts the technician behind the keyboard to map out the transitions from his special place in the Berkshire mountains of Massachusetts. Beginning with a space-age arpeggiator, the track soars with Wires’ vocal lines. Leaves bud, grow, fall, and turn to soil, in a cycle that mirrors the ASDR envelope of the equipment in his studio.
The song is about constancy amidst change, which is worth keeping in mind as the skies turn grey, the leaves decay on the pavement, and the temperature drops to Siberian levels. During such times, everyone needs a little light.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
Stockholm’s Emmon return with another dancefloor-oriented single. “Machines” builds on their EBM/pop fusion, combining Emma Nylén’s soaring vocals with Alan Wilder touches in the instrumentation.
There is a new album coming in October. Nylén explains the concept for the latest single:
The song, “Machines,” is a simple declaration of my constant love for the electronic music scene. About how much I love to be inspired and create music with different software and hardware synths, program midi and trigger different effects. This wonderful nerdism puts me in a state of mind that in the longer run creates both a mental and a physical addiction and a really strong attraction.
It is a reciprocated relationship. Emmon has moved in a harder direction over time, but “Machines” is no less impressed with the soul of the Swedish scene than the solid pop of “Lips on Fire.” Now they play on bills with Covenant and Test Dept, forging a combination of drive and melody that is tested in action.
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]From their bases in America and Brussels, Emileigh Rohn (Chiasm) and Jean-Marc Lederman (The Weathermen, Kid Montana, Fad Gadget) have released another collaborative EP. “It Hurts!” features a lead mix by Stefan Netschio from Beborn Beton and this remix by Denmark’s Leaether Strip. Coming ahead of their new album, RAGE! (due 2 September 2022), “It Hurts!” has the drive of Curve and a sting in its tail.
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The House of Love are back with a new summer single. “Clouds” immediately stands out as a heavier song than previous HoL releases, which defined psychedelic dreampop. The distorted, urgent guitar lines carry Guy Chadwick’s vocals on a more indie current, but there is nothing wrong with a little crowdsurfing. Just don’t call it shoegaze.
This is our first glimpse of the new HoL album, forthcoming from Cherry Red in September. A State of Grace will be the seventh studio album from the HoL, but it will not feature guitarist Terry Bickers. Bickers and Chadwick’s complicated working relationship is currently in an off-again phase, though they purport to remain friends. As Chadwick prepares for an American tour, a new line-up has been recruited and a new burst of distortion has been fed into the amps.
Lifted from their 2014 album, Absence & Distance, and remixed for the scorching Midsummer of 2022, comes “And the Summer” from Julian & Marina.
The Swedish duo of Julian Brandt (Bobby, Lustans Lakejer) and Marina Schiptjenko (Page, BWO, Vacuum) have been capturing the feelings of summer days and starry nights since 2012. Their last single, “Open Relationship,” was about their musical collaboration. Long may it last.