independent music Archives - Blauerosen Blauerosen

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Monthly playlist-Favourite albums June 2026

The first month of the summer contained probably the darkest music of the year so far, both conceptually and in terms of the melodies.

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Monthly playlist-Favourite albums May 2025

logo playlist What can be more exciting news than the release of a new album by SWANS? Well…the release of a new solo album by Peter Murphy, and the resurfacing of These New Puritans, Somatic Responses and DARKWOOD is the answer. If, like us, you enjoy music that could be considered mutually exclusive, and despite this, you can still identify the common thread that ties all of these albums together, then I think we need to sit down and have a beer with you 🙂

‘Birthing‘ the new offering by SWANS is everything that is expected by the band. Apart from ‘Red Yellow’ all the other songs in this album are over 10′ long. This is a slow burner, with a tried and tested recipe that the band has refined over the years. Michael Gira, a summoner like those very few out there, is giving the signal needed for each song to open its tentacles to all sorts of dimensions. In his own words Gira has said about this album: “In all cases the material began with me sitting in my office with an acoustic guitar, singing and dreaming about what would become of these skeletal songs…” just before he throws a sort of bombshell: “We’ll do a final tour in this mode towards the end of 2025, then that’s it.” That’s IT? “After that, Swans will continue, so long as I’m able, but in a significantly pared down form.” We shall take this with a pinch of salt…for now.

Moving towards a less dark sonic part of this monthly soundtrack, we encounter ‘Crooked Wing‘ the new album by These New Puritans. Alternating tracks that bring to mind pre-classical compositions, others that belong to the sphere of dreamscapes, and others that explore krautrock dimensions, the band has offered us a lot of food for thought in this album.

In the realm of post-punk, we had the pleasure to enjoy really nice albums by Shad Shadows, No and The Discussion. ‘wunderhammer desire‘, ‘Desire Kills‘ and ‘All the pretty flowers‘ will definitely keep any dancefloor that hosts them very busy. With addictive and melodic synthwave soundscapes and motivating rhythms all three albums will keep fans of coldwave and darkwave music inspired.

Finally a special mention is due to Nytt Land who have reimagined Shamanic spells and set them to a different sound than they had in their original form. ‘Songs of the Shaman‘ is an album with an inspiring collection of positive spells employing throat singing and text in its original language. We believe this is the best way to prepare you for the upcoming Summer Solstice so…enjoy them with a shovel at hand or with your poison of choice in an unusual chalice.

Blaue Rosen

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Monthly playlist-February 2025

The Sick Man of Europe

Debut EP: Moderate Air
Quality

Label: The Leaf Label

topographies

EP: Brutality of Fact

Label: Human Seasons Records

The Men

Album: Buyer Beware

Label: FUZZ Club Records

Label: Infacted Recordings

Label: aufnahme_wiedergabe

Debut single:
The Soul

Children of The Night

Debut album: Children of the Night

Label: Mannequin Records

Self-released

Mortal Boy

Single:

Label: Trouble In Mind Records

Label: Fire Records

Rats on Rafts

Album: Deep Below

Label: Cleopatra Records

Label: Hammerheart Records

Label: Van Records

Label: Season of Mist

EP:

Label: Sentient Ruin Laboratories

Label: Season of Mist

Debut album:

Label: Relapse Records

Label: Hand Drawn Dracula

Label: The Larvarium

maud the moth

Album: The Distaff

Label: CBG Music Works

Blaue Rosen

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Monthly playlist-Favourite albums November 2024

logo playlist If our only focus on this monthly playlist was on the Cure‘s new album, then this would be a much longer summary and it would also not be very fair for the other releases of the month. For now let’s just say that this much anticipated new album ‘Songs of a Lost World‘ is a release that is much different than anything else from the band’s discography by exploring dark ambient and heavy rock sounds.

Another noteworthy album was Nick Carlisle‘s ‘Sailors On The Roiling Sea‘. With glam, psych and everything in between and with an abundance of synthesizers and social perceptiveness, Nick Carlisle has offered us an album, whose sound comes from the past but it refers to the present and the future in a fresh way. The only debut album in this playlist was Queen Willow‘s ‘Restful Tales of The Shapeless Seasons‘. Dreamy, ethereal, and folk sounds are beautifully combined with otherworldly lyrics that make them attractive winter sonic stories.

In the post-punk part of the soundtrack, we have been treated to a great teaser single from Minuit Machine whose melodies and vocals we have greatly missed. We are waiting impatiently for the full album release. We were very happy to listen to the new albums by Monsieur Crane and Position Parallele. Both releases flirt with synth-pop in different ways (Monsieur Crane by adding coldwave elements to his album ‘Les Ravages Du Temps‘ and Position Parallele by focusing on pop aesthetics in their album ‘AIGUILLE A DECOUDRE‘ ) and both seem to rely less on the attractive melodies of the recent past.

We absolutely loved all the remixes in the IDM/Industrial album ‘emergency landing‘ by anatoly grinberg & andreas davids which, together with the albums by Despiration, pale, voltarenes, and SANTACRUZ create an addictive set of releases.

The soundtrack of November had many positive surprises from we think it concludes the year with an eclectic mix of music. There is one month left until we wave goodbye to 2024 but until then, we hope you enjoy this playlist as much as we did while preparing it.

Blaue Rosen

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Monthly playlist-Favourite albums October 2024

The soundtrack of the harvest month, is as rich as a recently reaped crop. It includes all-time familiar names as well as new ones who offered us memorable releases. We will start by praising two of the debut album releases of this month for the richness of their sound and their conceptual originality. They are the albums ‘At The Sound Of The Heart‘ by Whispering Void and ‘Sober Maal’ by De Mannen Broeders. Whispering Void, bring together WARDRUNA’s ceremonial vocals (i.e. Lindy-Fay Hella(current) and Kristian “Gaahl” Espedal (ex-member)), ENSLAVED and TRELLDOM’s prog and black metal hues. The result is truly enchanting.

De Mannen Broeders is a project that had to be created as the personal stories of AMENRA’s frontman Colin van Eeckhout and Tonnie ‘broeder’ Dieleman, a Flemish folk icon, had so many common elements, that they had to be channeled through a common outlet. The debut album is entitled ‘SOBER MAAL‘ which refers to the process of eating a simple meal to express gratitude.

During this month, we welcomed the return of A Place To Bury Strangers with yet another powerfully addictive psych rock album entitled ‘SYNTHESIZER‘. The punk side of this monthly soundtrack, represented by MESTRE and M I C H A E L, combined heavy psych elements as well as bone-cracking social realism, making the albums ‘All of you are so far‘ and ‘Nite Salad‘ and , two of the best of the year.

Finally, Godspeed You!Black Emperor resurfaced with yet a new album with a title that acknowledges the incredible loss of life in Gaza and Lebanon. The album contains six tracks that build up the energy and anticipation through carefully crafted drone/ambient compositions.

We hope you enjoy this playlist as much as we did while creating it!

Label: Monolith Graphics

Whispering Void

Debut album: At The Sound of The Heart

Label: Prophecy Productions

Label: Debemur Morti Productions

Label: Extreme Noise Records

Label: Bat-Cave Productions

Label: Dakota Records

Label: COLD TRANSMISSION MUSIC

Label:Bat-Cave Productions

Self-released

bloody/bath

Album: In an Empty Space I'm Screaming

Label: Kooky Too

Album: All of you are so far

Label: Icy Cold Records

Label: Crackedankles

Label: aufnahme+wiedergabe

Label: Hospital Productions

SEX SWING

Album: Golden Triangle

Label: God Unknown Records

Label: Svart Records

Album:

Label: The Circle Music

Label: Cleopatra Records

Label: Neurot Recordings

Label: Relapse Records

Debut album:

Label: PANICMACHINE

Label: Sacred Bones Records

OBEY COBRA

Label: TANKCRIMES

SUN O)))

Album: Presents...PENTEMPLE

Label: Constellation

Album: NO TITLE AS OF 13 FEBRUARY 2024 28.340 DEAD

Godspeed You! Black Emperor

Blaue Rosen

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Monthly playlist-Favourite albums September 2024

logo playlist Perhaps we can admit at this point that this is the best month of the year in terms of its music output and the best playlist of the year in terms of the variety of styles and energies that our favourite releases represent.

The debut albums of this month, from Virgin Vampires and Dreamless Veil, have maintained our interest in great gothic rock and extreme metal music. The former has songs infused with macabre theatricality, and the latter has bone-cracking/grief-infused vocals followed by frantic guitar solos that make us wonder how it might feel to disappear fully.

The new offering by ABU NEIN, coming from a place of profound sadness as the band has admitted, continues to haunt us with melodies that touch some very well-hidden dark chords in our psyche. The punk section of the month’s soundtrack was powerful and socially perceptive as it should be with a new single by SPRINTS, and a new album by Golpe sending rare political resistance vibes to the world from Italy.

Perhaps the most powerful noise/industrial release of the year, is the new album by Dame Area which manages to bring back the (now) rare qualities of dynamin non-hypnotic, non-repetitive industrial music. Alongside it we can enjoy the new album by Phobos Reactor, taking inspiration from powerful old-school industrial rhythms and aesthetics.

This month’s post-punk section includes powerful entries by CROWS, kontrolle and Chain Cult who stress the melodic, the vindictive and the noisy aspects of post-punk.

We believe that the darkest sonic colours were used by the releases of Diablation , Tribes of Medusa and A Swarm of The Sun this month. We believe that only a lived experience can give to people the wisdom of the layers and textures of sadness and darkness and these two albums explore all of them!

Finally, a special mention is necessary for the new albums of The Beauty of Gemina and Tindersticks. The return of Tindersticks revealed a preference for soul-infused songs and an exploration of animation and humour in their video clips.

The new album by The Beauty of Gemina, sounds very personal as if coming from a place of sadness. We have welcomed the return of the melancholic post-punk melodies in the band’s songs also evident in their visuals.