Posts Tagged ‘electronic music’

Monthly playlist-Favourite albums November 2023

Posted: 27th December 2023 by blaue-rosen in Music News,press releases
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logo playlistOne month before the end of the year, our favourite albums covered all the colours of the industrial/noise music spectrum offering a lot of room for self-reflection. There were some very memorable come backs during this month and the first was the new album by Riotmiloo, probably the conceptually darkest release of the band so far. Taking inspiration from bands like Haus Arafna and Monolith, and developing their sound in such a way so that it reached the depths of their existence, the band has created an almost autobiographical album that has a very strong grip around one’s heart.

Another surprising come back, was that of Lebanon Hanover, who released the EP ‘Better Than Going Away’ and seem to have altered their sound in such a way that the neofolk/militaristic references have become very prominent.

 

The synthwave music spectrum was covered fully with the trippy and very memorable release by Nick Carlisle ‘Bloody Saturnalia’ while the album ‘The Most Dangerous Machine In The World’ by strom|morts can clearly be characterised as the weirdest, experimental release of this month. Next to this, sits the mesmerising storytelling album of Edward Ka-Spel, ‘Tease, Seize…Apply’. We can never get enough of sonic wizard Edward Ka-Spel’s otherworldly stories who always manages to make everything feel lighter and manageable!

Lastly we would like to draw your attention to the forceful ceremonial atmosphere created within the latest dark ambient gem released by Atrium Carceri. This is an album that will immediately transfer you into the dimly lit, mystic corridors of some far away castle and it should not go unnoticed.

We hope you enjoy this playlist as much as we did while preparing it.

 

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For some reason, we have always thought that reviewing a personal album, like this one, would never do it justice. We overcame these hesitations, and this had everything to do with the album’s particular atmosphere created by the music.

Nick Carlisle coverWe have been trying to think of another album we have come across that had so much light amidst so much darkness…nothing comes to mind and, with every new listening session, we are getting more and more reassured about this. But let’s take things from the beginning.

Bloody Saturnalia‘ comes after the release of a haunting soundtrack to celebrate 100 years from the release of the movie ‘Hӓxan’. It is an album inspired by and dedicated to Nick Carlisle’s father, who sadly passed away on New Year’s Eve 2023. The title of this album and the subjects of its lyrics also relate to the book ‘Defying Hitler: A Memoir by Sebastian Haffner’ whose theme, the rise of Nazism in Germany, is a timely one as we see the rise of populism around the world today. Kenneth Clarke’s documentary series ‘Civilisation’ also fed into the themes of various songs on this album (e.g. ‘Another Level Down‘, ‘Life in A Major Key, ‘Bloody Saturnalia‘).

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Monthly playlist-Favourite albums June 2023

Posted: 17th July 2023 by blaue-rosen in Music News,press releases
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logo playlistHeavy guitars, grinding synths, industrial textures, and captivating post-apopalyptic folk were the order of this month. Our favourite albums and music releases seemed to respond to some sort of ominous call. Maybe it’s Johny Brown ‘s poetic farewell to an imaginary Babylon or even the title of King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard’s self-released album, but in any case we feel that there is something sinister in the air, something close to what this band describes through heavy psych rock music as a petrodragonic apocalypse.


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Monthly playlist- Favourite albums March 2023

Posted: 27th April 2023 by blaue-rosen in Music News,press releases
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logo playlistThere was a palpable darkness all around us in March, which somehow, all our favourite releases of the month, have managed to channel through their sound.

The soundtrack of this month, will take you on a dark experimental journey, pass you through industrial sonic spaces with incredible texture, electronic and synth brilliance and land you on ethereal otherworldly worlds. The trip promises to be poetic, ritualistic and reflective with a few moments of uneasiness.

There were many highlights during this month, and the first one was the return of Depeche Mode with their darkest, most solemn and more gothic album to date. Having teased us with a great video accompanying their best song of the album ‘Ghosts Again‘, Depeche Mode unleashed a darkness that seemed to have been nicely disguised up to now. The band’s life much like everyone else’s has been affected by everything that the world has gone through in the last few years but also by the unexpected loss of Andy Fletcher, the co-founder and keyboardist of Depeche Mode. Their last album ‘Memento Mori’ does not hold the melancholy back, it doesn’t prettify any verse and it is not here to make us feel happy. All this is evident from the slower, darker rhythms and the sadness in the lyrics that traverse this whole album. There is bitterness, there is sadness about the loss of their bandmate, and there is still some jauntiness here and there. Similarly strong, was the new album by Fever Ray ‘Radical Romantics’. Six years after their latest studio album ‘Plunge’, the band’s new album is more haunting than ever. Like Depeche Mode, Fever Ray have embraced the darkest corners of the human mind as far as their lyrics are concerned but have also added tribal, minimal and dance elements in their rhythms, making this album much more interesting this time.

As far as the post-punk part of this monthly soundtrack is concerned, De Ambassade‘s sophomore album was a true revelation. Blending the boundaries between poetry and early industrial music, ‘The Fool’ is a cinematic album that made us wonder where is the movie and/or book that it accompanies? Using Flemish, German and English in their lyrics, mixing vocals and other samples in attractive ways, De Ambassade have been inspired by John Cage but also from new wave and horror folk cinema I dare to assume, judging from the overall atmosphere of this album. One has to admire the air of mystery that this album creates and envelops us with.

Finally, the new offerings by Fatima Al Qadiri and Alan Currall also need some special mention. The former, is an EP that blends eastern music rhythms and vocals with some deeply ceremonial and dark music. The vocals are layered and texturised throughout and their repetitive nature increases the reflective element of the sound before the notes add an air of disquiet in the atmosphere. We don’t often see such level of experimentation with eastern music and for that reason we felt this EP deserved a good place in our soundtrack. ‘Buried Structures’ the latest album by Alan Currall is the only release that got us on our feet and allowed us to breathe without worrying too much. Moments of electro/synth brilliance take inspiration from the house and techno scenes and create the only album that we can dance to!

You can browse the rest of our playlist in order to find out, self-released singles and EPs by new and well-established bands.

We won’t tire you more but we do hope that if you like any of these releases as much as we did, you will not think twice about supporting the bands!

 

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Monthly playlist-Favourite albums February 2023

Posted: 27th March 2023 by blaue-rosen in Music News,press releases
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logo playlistFebruary was definitely a better month in some ways, and its music releases are testament to the different energy that it brought about. We listened to 58 independent and underground albums, EPs and singles and we created the soundtrack of the month that took us on an electro/industrial, punk, darkwave, synthwave, post-punk trip which had neoclassical and black metal moments of brilliance as well.

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Monthly playlist-Favourite albums September 2022

Posted: 9th October 2022 by blaue-rosen in Music News,press releases
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logo playlistIf a path cannot be fathomed nor designed, then sound shall carve one out of nothingness. We might not ‘curse’ anyone this time, but our favourite songs celebrate both the realms of death and those of a pastoral nature with equal passion.

 


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Monthly playlist-Favourite albums May 2022

Posted: 16th June 2022 by blaue-rosen in Music News,press releases
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The future has a dark face as Soft Cell are singing, but it listens to some pretty good damn music or at least that’s our take on the matter.


logo playlistFrom the bone-cracking realism of Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio and their dark ritualistic waltzes, to the captivating, motivating, exhilarating soundscapes that came out of the synergy of TOKEE, Static Logic and Access to Arasaka, the soundtrack of the previous month was more ‘grounded’ in terms of its energy compared to the previous month, but equally stimulating when it came to the concepts behind the releases and the music. We welcomed the return of Soft Cell with ‘Happiness not Included’, a dystopian pop, noir synthpop album that addressed ideas that cross our minds everyday. Channeled through the humble – yet-bitter honesty of Marc Almond‘s performance, the topics of the latest Soft Cell album touched on religion, personal relationships and the human experience especially as it has been convoluted recently. Emma Ruth Rundle‘s demonic, paganistic, ritualistic call from another dimension was the release that haunted the creation of this soundtrack. The catchy EP entitled ‘Kiss the Boys’ by Je t’Aime, brought to mind the energy of the first gig of Dear Deer at WGT in Leipzig. So whether, you prefer the melancholic, post-punk injected sounds of Glaring or the techno inspired tracks of FEIERTAG, we hope you enjoy this playlist as much as we did while preparing it.

 

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Monthly playlist- Favourite albums March 2022

Posted: 23rd April 2022 by blaue-rosen in Music News,press releases
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logo playlistA month that includes new albums from Edward Ka-Spel and Current 93 is no ordinary month of the year, it outshines the previous ones and will do the rest (oh yes it will!). A month that resurrects our interest in the carefree 90s indie music scene with one of the best releases of PLACEBO to date, is definitely not a month to forget. We had incredibly dark, cynical (in terms of their lyrics), lyrical, poetic, haunting, releases during March – but overall they were all incredibly inspiring on some many levels. We have to draw your attention to the incredible experimentation of Alone In The Hollow Garden with instruments, and specifically the sonic dialogue between the electric saraswati veena and the electric sitar. The ceremonial aspect of the doom metal side of this monthly soundtrack is being represented mightily by the releases of The Nest and Egregore, while the emotionally lighter synthpop and post punk sides of it shine through the releases of Dear Deer, Rue Oberkampf, and Assassun. Industrial textures were craftily applied by Xotox to our all-time favourite ‘Popcorn’ while Kavinsky, Ben Lukas Boysen and BLVCK CEILING made sure that our addiction to dreamy, downtempo, trippy electronica was well-fed through their unique takes on each of these subgenres.


We feel that if we say more we might take time away from your enjoyment of this playlist. We hope you lose yourselves in it, in the same way we did while preparing it!

 

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Monthly playlist-Favourite albums December 2020

Posted: 30th December 2020 by blaue-rosen in Music News,press releases
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Monthly Playlist-Favourite albums June 2020

Posted: 22nd July 2020 by blaue-rosen in Music News,press releases
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