Posts Tagged ‘independent music’

Monthly playlist-February 2025

Posted: 17th March 2025 by blaue-rosen in Music News,press releases
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Monthly playlist-Favourite albums November 2024

Posted: 22nd December 2024 by blaue-rosen in Music News,press releases
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logo playlistIf 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.

 

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Monthly playlist-Favourite albums October 2024

Posted: 5th December 2024 by blaue-rosen in Music News,press releases
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logo playlistThe 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!

 

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Monthly playlist-Favourite albums September 2024

Posted: 26th October 2024 by blaue-rosen in Music News,press releases
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logo playlistPerhaps 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.

 

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

 

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Monthly playlist- Favourite albums July 2024

Posted: 27th August 2024 by blaue-rosen in Music News,press releases
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logo playlistJuly might have been much quieter than usual, but it was not a dull month in any way. The soundtrack of the month included the release of a very promising debut single by Virgin Vampires who are warming us up for their first album that sounds as if it will be following a darkwave path. The new offering by Peace De Resistance was refreshing with its combination of socially perceptive lyrics and a glam rock attitude. The new album by The March Violets is a classic gothic rock album that should be heard on the dancefloor of any dark alternative club.

Finally the new psych-rock release by Black Market Karma is inspired by the characteristics of analogue recording equipment with the aim of making the album “…feel like a collection of discarded and worse for wear instruments came to life, refurbished themselves and started to play. The sound is an attempt to give form to the often formless feeling that is nostalgia. With songs attempting to crystallise a feeling known as ‘fernweh’. A kind of longing for a place and time you’ve never experienced, be it in this world or another.” as Stanley Belton explained.

 

We think that this short and sweet playlist will be a great accompaniment to a very warm evening during the hours of the sunset and we hope that you enjoy it as much as we did while preparing it!


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Monthly playlist-Favourite albums May 2024

Posted: 3rd July 2024 by blaue-rosen in Music News,press releases
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logo playlistHere we are at the end of the Spring that never came with a monthly soundtrack that probably has the most debut album entries for a long time. There are two entries that need a special mention and they are the new releases by Chameleons and Barry Adamson. Both have been keeping us wondering about a next release and here they are. Chameleons with the EP ‘Where Are You?’ -teaser of an upcoming full-length album and Barry Adamson, faithful to his soul/rock existential blues offered us ‘CUT TO BLACK’ an album that fits very well within the rest of his discography.


Another special mention is due to one of our all-time favourite bands from Italy, no other than Ataraxia who kept us very good company with a nature-inspired, ceremonial, ethereal album entitle ‘Centaurea’. We particularly liked the psych rock releases of this month, both the new single by Julie’s Haircut and the new album by The Janitors which, at times, is reminiscent of the hazy  and grunge atmosphere of the music of The Stooges.

As always, we were delighted to listen to the new album by PIG, as his addictive sensual take on industrial music is always managing to make us realise that we really don’t have enough of this type of rejuvenating energy. Six years after ‘The Heretics’ Rotting Christ have come back with ‘PRO XRISTOU’, another album with big sound and big ideas, faithful to the band’s black metal character and favourite themes.

The debut albums of this month’s soundtrack prove that we are now living at a time when the quality of releases that come to us from new bands, is incredibly high. ‘YOBS’ by YOBS, ‘L’Enfant Terrible’ by L’Enfant Terrible, ‘Weaponize Tomorrow’ by MISSILES, ‘Discerning Spirits’ by A Sinister Light, all add a powerful note and reveal a fresh take on punk, coldwave and post-punk respectively.

We would like to end with a mention of the album ‘Heksescapes’ by Edward Ka Spel, an all-time favourite musician whose sonic spells accompany us like a protective spirit and the release of LEDFOOT, that hits our rock note and made us put ‘Thunder And Rain’ on our portable device so that we could listen to it on repeat.

Until next month, we hope you enjoy this as much as we did while preparing it.

 

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Monthly playlist- Favourite albums March 2024

Posted: 21st April 2024 by blaue-rosen in Music News,press releases
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Monthly playlist-Favourite albums February 2024

Posted: 30th March 2024 by blaue-rosen in Music News,press releases
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logo playlistA month whose soundtrack includes new albums by and also the trees, PET NEEDS and Whispering Sons is not one to pass by!

We might have had terrible cold, dark days here in London last month but great music kept us good company. With a few exceptions, most releases in February, explored existential themes as highlighted through their lyrics.

PET NEEDS have come back with yet another powerful, socially perceptive punk album that encompasses within its lyrics, everyday life scenes and thoughts of a reality consumed by existential fear. A similar path is followed by the lyrics of Whispering Sons, albeit one that has a stronger theatrical element. During February, we were delighted to listen to the debut post-punk/darkwave album by TORCH, a new band from Aarhus. and also the trees, offered us yet another beautiful album, an elegy to known and unknown sides of a city. Finally, a special mention is due, to Vera Sola , whose dark folk album ‘Peacemaker’ draws inspiration from her personal experiences and presents them using poetic, melancholic vignettes.

The psychedelic side of this month’s soundtrack is represented by the incredibly powerful album by Thee Alcoholics, whose cover is evidently inspired by pop art and some of its guitar riffs bring to mind those of Black Sabbath.

We hope you like this playlist as much as we enjoyed making it!

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Album Review: Nick Carlisle-Bloody Saturnalia

Posted: 14th December 2023 by blaue-rosen in Album reviews
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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 October 2023

Posted: 20th November 2023 by blaue-rosen in Music News,press releases
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logo playlistWe listened to 70 independent/underground releases during October 2023, and we were stunned by the debut singles/EP/albums during this month. 26 of these 70 releases form this monthly playlist and let us admit that there have been a few disappointing releases that did not make it despite our biased convictions that they would.

There are some big highlights here and I am not just referring to the customary October release by Nox Arcana who once again gave us a haunting gothic sonata to get us through Spooktober! Oliver Marson, whose intriguing stage presence we enjoyed recently at the 100 Club, released a very memorable, new wave, synthwave album entitled ‘Why Did I Choose This?‘. The overall sound of this album brings to mind equally the Psychedelic Furs and Japan and the melodies are addictive beyond belief. The lyrics also share some Bukowski qualities and are quite poetic and pop at the same time.

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