To celebrate the 40th anniversary of Soft Cell, Marc Almond and Dave Ball will be joining forces once again to play one final show, A Wild Celebration! The show will take place at the O2 Arena and tickets go on sale on Friday. All links will be published ahead of time on the front and Live pages so keep an eye out and join Soft Cell for One Last Time, A Wild Celebration. More after the jump...
U.S. Girls have released their seventh studio album this year. The album is titled 'In a Poem Unlimited' and has been released on 4AD on February 16th. "Rosebud" is the fourth single to be taken from the album and the video for it was directed by Alex Kingsmill and Edited by Meg Remy. Soon more about the album!
Back
in 2008 MGMT was quite a discovery for us, in particular for the single
"Time to Pretend" which was magnificent both in terms of visuals and
sound. Their debut album 'Orracular Spectacular' was among the top 5 Album
releases of the year and it turned out to be the ultimate summer soundtrack
spawning a whole line up of hits including "Electric Feel" and
"Kids". It was a spectacular blend of indie neo-psychedelia with the
absolute highlight being back then seeing them live at the Sziget festival in
Budapest.
Ten
years have passed now since the release of their debut and in the meanwhile the
band released two more albums which sadly did not live up to the standard of
their debut. In late 2017 MGMT surprised the world with the release of their
single "Little Dark Age" which saw them entering dark waters and
adopting 80's visual and rhythms. The Album which takes the same title as the
first single was officially released on February 8th and after few plays it is
clear that the album features a whole variety of sounds and influences.
"Little Dark Age" for example leads the dark 80's synthpop inspired
section which is also evident on "One Thing Left to Try" and "Me
and Michael". On the other hand there is also a strong influence by the LA
music scene and in particular Ariel Pink which gives MGMT's indie
neo-psychedelia new face by mixing the new sound with hypnagogic pop. The album
unfolds a whole variety of sounds and moods from dreamy to rhythmic upbeat
tunes all reflected by layered and well imagined concept with twists of liquid
elements and quirky 80's midi patches.
So
far, four songs have been released from the album and it seems that this will
be an album of hits but also as a concept and a whole package. It echoes a good
focus, energy and maturity in sound and definitely brings MGMT back in the
spotlight by giving 'Orracular Spectacular' a huge challenge. 'Little Dark Age'
certainly is the big opener for 2018 and I am sure it will have an impact on
the days to come.
“Under Glass” was released by The Legendary Pink Dots as single in 1988 on Play it again Sam Records and featured two other tracks. This song used to mix neo-psychedelia, elements of goth with vivid and dark Synth-pop. During the same year they also released their album Any Day Now.
In 2001, when this album was reissued, beside the standard track listing, it featured all three tracks previously only released on single format.
In the 20th Century, the year 1988 was the year with the most Roman numeral digits, but more important, in science and technology, it was a year of the first Internet-based chat protocol between the USA and Europe.
On the music level, the charts were still dominated by the Stock- Aitken-Waterman hits who received the Brit Award for their music production skills. On the different floors, House music was slowly emerging, while Alternative and indie rock were even more diversified into various other musical sub-genres.
One last tribute and farewell to Mark E. Smith from the Fall who released "Victoria" thirty years ago. Throughout his impressive music career, Mark E. Smith remained as the only constant member of the Fall since its foundation in 1976 with a band that featured over 60 different members in forty years.
As the Fall, Mark released more than 30 albums, numerous EP and more than 50 singles. He died in the age of 60 after a long illness. RIP Mark!
The Damned return 10 years after their last LP release ‘So, Who's Paranoid?’ from 2008. The new album will be entitled ‘Evil Spirits’. Propelled by an enormously successful PledgeMusic funding campaign and was produced with Tony Visconti who also worked with David Bowie and other popular musicians from 70’s up to date. The album is preceded by new single ‘Standing On The Edge Of Tomorrow’ which also announces band’s ‘Evil Spirits UK’ tour starting on 26 January. The album itself is set for release on April 13th through Search And Destroy/Spinefarm Records.
Beverly Girl is one of the finest new offering coming from Scandinavia. It is that type of music we would expect to hear from the production houses of Italy and Germany, but this time a very fine flavor of New Retro Wave comes from Northern Europe. Beverly Girl are Yohanna, Artur and Tracy based in Helsinki Finland. During 2017, they have released three singles where they reveal brilliant dance forms of synth electro lush in the setting of the Neon Light. The band is currently working on a special co-write release in LA, which will be released during the spring of 2018.
Editors have revealed the video for the first single "Magazine" on Youtube. The song also announces the brand new album 'Violence' which will be released on March 9th, through through 'Play It Again Sam'. The music video for Magazine was directed by Rahi Rezvani.
Preoccupations have announced the release of a brand new Album, simply called 'New Material' which will be a direct follow up to their marvelous self titled sophomore album which was our Album of the Year in 2016.The band released their debut album as Viet Cong in 2015.
The expectations are huge even for this new release. The first single from the album has been revealed as well and it is titled "Espionage". 'New Material' is announced to be released on March 23rd on Jagjaguwar.
The San Francisco based synth trio Inhalt have released their debut album titled 'Part Time Punk Sessions'. This LP features the best of the band's signature synth-driven dark analog pop previously included on their EPs 'Vehicle' and 'Occupations'. This is both a live and a studio album, having been recorded in real time in collaboration with the Part Time Punks radio show in Los Angeles and now it has been released by Cleopatra Records.
Previously, both their EPs were featured on our year end EP lists in 2012 and 2013 respectively and one occasion, we also did an interview with Inhalt which is available through the link below. Thanks Ty Volatire and the band for this:
Cleopatra Records has released a rare debut recording by Duran Duran which was recorded in 1979. The four song EP is entitled 'Girls on Film - 1979 Demo' features the group's early frontman Andy Wickett alongside with the original members Nick Rhodes, John Taylor and Roger Taylor. It includes the original version of the smash hit single “Girls On Film" plus “See Me Repeat Me,” which would later become “Rio,” and 2 other
songs that the group shopped around to various labels, eventually
signing with EM. The EP was released on December 29th 2017.
