Instant Hit: Bernthøler - My Suitor

"My Suitor" was one of the two singles the Belgian avant garde group Bernthøler released in 1983. The group was formed in the early eighties as a "musical experiment" named after a line in a Virna Lindt song. "My Suitor" was originally released in 1983 in Belgium and a year later in the UK. The band didn't release any albums up to 2004 when their recording material was released on a compilation Merry Lines In The Sky by LTM Publishing (Les Temps Modernes). 

WAW: Chairlift- Met Before

Chairlift are back with a new video for the song "Met Before" which introduces the new interactive choose-your-own-adventure concept in the video. By clicking all the different decision points you are trying to find the different endings of the video and get a good impression of the song if you haven't heard it before. The video was directed by Jordan Fish.

     

Out This Week: VCMG- Ssss

The long awaited Vince Clark and Martin L. Gore collaboration album Ssss is out this week on Mute. The album was written and produced by Vince Clarke and Martin L. Gore and it was mixed by Timothy "Q" Wiles, recorded and engineered by Sie Medway Smith and Vince Clarke and mastered by Stefan Betke. The album features both single releases, "Spock" and "Single Blip" which preceded the album release. 

  mute.com

Erasure's 'Essential' Out This Month

Erasure will release a new best of compilation entitled 'Essential'. The compilation features 16 tracks spanning from 1985 to 2003 including some of their biggest hits such as "Sometimes" and "Who Needs Love (Like That)", but also lacks on some huge ones. 'Essential' is out March 19, 2012 through Lexer Music and available on pre-order. Their brand new single "Fill Us With Fire" is also out this month.

Track listing:
Who Needs Love (Like That)
It Doesn't Have To Be – Single Mix
The Circus – Single Mix
You Surround Me
Am I Right?
Sometimes – Single Mix
When Will I See You Again
Video Killed The Radio Star
Victim Of Love – Single Mix
Ship Of Fools
Star – Single Mix
Everybody's Got To Learn Sometime
Make Me Smile (Come Up & See Me) – Single Mix
Chorus
Always
I Love Saturday – Single Mix

WAW: Nite Jewel- One Second of Love

Nite Jewel has returned with her second album 'One Second of Love' which has been released this week (March 6, 2012). She has recorded a video for the song of the same name. The video for "One Second of Love" has been directed by Delaney Bishop and produced by Belinda Salazar.

 

Out This Week: The Magnetic Fields- Love at The Bottom of The Sea

The Magnetic Fields have released their eleventh studio album this week (March 5, 2012). The album is entitled Love at the Bottom of the Sea and it is the band's first release with Merge since 1999's '69 Love Songs'. After releasing three albums relatively free of synthesizers as part of a "no-synth trilogy", 'Love at the Bottom of the Sea' features the blend of acoustic and synthesized instruments that the band was known for in the 90's. The album was recorded by Stephin Merritt and Charles Newman at Bell Tree (LA). "Andrew in Drag" is the only track from the album which was confirmed as a single.

Chronicles of Punk, New Romantics and Beyond in 'We Can Be Heroes' by Graham Smith

'We Can Be Heroes' is a brand new book by Graham Smith that gives the insider's perspective on London's clubland 1976-1984 and celebrates the Punk and New Romantic movement. Graham Smith designed some album covers for Spandau Ballet and Sade. He was also unofficial house photographer of the London clubs and collected over 450 previously unseen images and 500 quotes from many of the chief creative figures of the punk and New Romantics era, projecting his masterpiece above and beyond the traditional photo book realm. The book was co-written with a friend and fellow Chris Sullivan who wrote a bestselling illustrated history of Punk that the Pistols say is the best book on the subject ever penned.  

The book was fully funded and released just before Christmas on December 8, 2011. You can still buy the book exclusively from Unbound, either as a limited Special Edition hardback, or as a numbered Deluxe edition, in an elegant box with two signed prints.

Retrovision: Visage- The Damned Don't Cry

Visage released 'The Damned Don't Cry' 30 years ago and the song topped the UK charts reaching number #11 in March 1982. It was their fifth single and the first one taken from Visage's second album 'The Anvil'. 

 

(C) 1982 Universal Records, a Division of UMG Recordings, Inc.

Reissue: Spandau Ballet- The Albums 1980-84 4CD Boxset

Spandau Ballet will release a deluxe 4CD Boxset which contains the first four classic Spandau albums 'Journeys To Glory', 'Diamond', 'True' and 'Parade'. The albums are packaged into individual sleeves then housed into a deluxe slip case with beautiful white and gold artwork. The remaster boxset includes all the hit singles from over the years "To Cut A Long Story Short", "Musclebound", "Chant No1", "Gold", "True", "Lifeline", "The Freeze", "Communication", "Only When You Leave"and many more. 

 The release date is set for April16, 2012. Pre-order your copy of Spandau Ballet The Albums 1980-84 4CD Boxset between now and March 16th and be automatically entered into their exclusive 'Mothers Day Draw' to win a framed Signed by all of Spandau tour program.   

www.spandauballetstore.com/spandauballet/CD/The-Albums-1980-84

Next Wave: Social Ambitions

Social Ambitions is a electropop/synthpop formed 2005 in Stockholm, Sweden. Members Anders Karlsson (vocals, synthsizer and production) and Mikael Arborelius(backing vocals, synthesizers and production) write, record and produce music in their studio in Stockholm. The duo is influenced by modern electronic pop, classic synth pop, electronic dance music and the drive of rock and new wave. The result is electronic pop music that bears the proud legacy of the Scandinavian sense of melody and danceable electronic rhythms. 

In August 2011 the single "Commandments" was issued with two previously unreleased songs.In October 2010, they released their debut album 'Almost Gone'. The album contained previously unreleased material and some songs from previous single releases – "Burning", "Innocence", "The Strip", and "Do you want to go". Now they are back with their second album, a mini-album where analogue synthesizers meet punchy beats. It's entitled Anticipation and it was released on February 27, 2012. 

www.socialambitions.com
www.facebook.com/socialambitions