If 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.
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.
From 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.
Dear darklings, the soundtrack of April 2022 is meant to get you off your seats. Its purpose is to rekindle your desire to go out dancing because, let’s face it, we’ve done enough dancing in our bedrooms over the last two years. If there is one thing we can conclude from the releases of the previous month, it is that, despite the world being in standstill, bands and musicians were working on new stuff behind the scenes. This month we had the comeback of Rammstein after three years with ‘Zeit’, an album the equal of ‘Liebe Ist Für Alle Da’. We also had the return of Archive with ‘Call to Arms & Angels’, original material coming six years after ‘The False Foundation’. Beloved punk disruptors CROWS have offered another addictive collection of songs in their sophomore album, while Sudden Infant have returned with a poetic, sometimes punk, sometimes noisy, minimalistic album, four years after ‘Buddhist Nihilism’. Speaking of punk, Lady Bird have made a powerful entrance onto the scene with ‘WE’, their debut album, and are now been on our radar as a ‘must see’ live band.