• On Monday January 31 we move the office to a new location in Gothenburg after six years in Linnéstaden. We change address and fax number, but not phone number. We recently changed URL and e-mail. See About. /Mikael Kahrle

Moby plan last “Play” single

• In March, Moby will deliver the last single from his “Play” album, “Natural Blues”. He also plan to do some DJ jobs during the spring and summer, mostly at festivals. /Jens Krause

De/Vision countdown

• The German synthpop band De/Vision will finally release new delayed material. The first single “Foreigner” is scheduled for February 28 and the album “Void” follows a month later. /Jens Krause

Morlocks about to sign record deal

• The Swedish band Morlocks is about to sign a contract with Nangijala Records, but nothing is definite as of now. /Mikael Kahrle

Huge Depeche Mode party

• This weekend, maybe the largest Depeche Mode party ever took place in Hamburg with 2 000 visitors. This was really a spectacle. The live bands on the party were Emergenz, Philtron and Welle Erdball.
The next Depeche Mode party in Hamburg is booked for May 27 and the organizers hope that S.P.O.C.K will play live. /Jens Krause

• Subjective preview: The new Covenant album “United States of Mind” is a fine addition to their line of great albums. The album shows different aspects of electronic music at its best: EBM, industrial, drum’n’bass, euro dance (yes...) and hints of synthpop and ambient. Sometimes the styles come one by one, sometimes mixed. The eleventh track is silent and named “You Can Make Your Own Music”.
Facts: “United States of Mind” hits Scandinavian shops on February 7 and the US shops on February 29. The single “Dead Stars” is released in Scandinavia and will be out in the US on February 15. We have no dates for other territories as of now.
Of course, both a review and a Spotlight will follow. /Mikael Kahrle

Bel Canto plan compilations and live album

• Some bands release best of compilations after two albums or live albums after each tour. Some don’t.
According to a Side-Line interview, Norwegians Bel Canto finally have some thoughts about these matters. They consider producing a compilation with unreleased and rare tracks, a live album and/or a singles/best of compilation. Bel Canto have lots of material never released or released in collaboration with other artists like Gavin Friday, Tim Simenon and DJ Krush. Another notable matter is that their single versions have often been slightly different to the album versions. /Mikael Kahrle

Roskilde 1999 a success and The Cure heading for Roskilde 2000

• The summaries for last year’s Roskilde Festival are completed and everything point at the word success. The popular festival generated more money than the year before, even though fewer tickets were sold and more effort was put into improving the festival. The money is donated to charity and similar destinations. Many people consider Roskilde Festival 1999 to be the best one ever. Even the weather was nice.
The Cure has confirmed they will play at this year’s festival. They will not visit Scandinavia on their forthcoming tour. No other big “Release names” have leaked out from the Roskilde office – yet. See On Stage. /Mikael Kahrle

• David Bowie will rerecord some of his old songs, according to MTV. He doesn’t specify which ones. /Mikael Kahrle

New single with Leather Strip on Bloodline

• Leather Strip has left Zoth Ommog for the new label Bloodline. A new maxi called “Carry Me” will be released shortly. /Mikael Kahrle, Jan-Erik Emanuelsson

• Oomph! have successfully completed their European tour. They are currently discussing if they should release a third single from their latest album, or a new one before the festival summer. /Jens Krause

The Cure European tour and exact release dates

• The Cure kicks off their new European tour in Madrid on March 27 and ends it in Rome on May 8. So far they have booked 25 dates in Spain, Italy, France, United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Austria and The Netherlands.
The new album “Bloodflowers” will be released in Japan on February 2, in Europe and the rest of the world except USA on February 14 and finally in the US on February 15. An extra song called “Coming up” will appear on the vinyl and Japanese CD version. It will also show up as a single extra track in the future.
An edited version (remixed by Mike Hedges) of the album song “Out of This World” (in “Disintegration” style) will be used as a promo song in the US and selected countries. It can be heard on the Cure web site.
No videos are planned this time. /Mikael Kahrle, Sussi Pettersson

And One single sample

• A promising fat and danceable clip from the new And One single “Wasted” is available at their official site. /Mikael Kahrle, Susanne Pettersson

The world’s largest music company is born

• The term “major” in the music business has a new meaning. This weekend Time Warner and EMI closed a deal where Warner buys a majority of EMI. It’s only two weeks since the Time Warner-America Online deal. What’s – or who’s next? /Mikael Kahrle

Mesh future plans

• Mesh puts together a full album of previously unreleased early demos. It will be available through their info service and web site in the near future.
They are also editing and mixing their new live releases: a video, an album and a single. If this wasn’t enough, they have started preparations for a new studio album.
They will visit the Swedish Alternative Music Awards in April. /Mikael Kahrle, Sussi Pettersson

Malaise mini album and live gigs

• Malaise is working on a mini album with remixes, new tracks and a cover. They also plan to play live after this new release. /Mikael Kahrle

Martin Gore sings Elvis and Oasis songs

• Depeche Mode are currently working with their forthcoming album and single and they have decided to hire Gareth Jones as producer.
A new bootleg is circulating with recordings of Martin Gore playing over 20 songs in the hotel bar of Hyatt Hotel in Cologne. He plays everything from Elvis Presley to Oasis and Depeche Mode’s “A Question of Lust”. /Jens Krause

New album and tour with Misery Loves Co

• The new impressive Misery Loves Co album “Your Vision Was Never Mine To Share” showed up from Earache Records today. It will be released on March 6 followed by a European tour.
The music is heavy dark rock with hints of industrial, dark wave and indie. The ten song album includes a cover of The Cure’s “The Drowning Man” and the sound is definitely closer to melancholic indie than metal this time. And several songs is close to the calm parts on Marilyn Manson’s “Mechanical Animals”. /Mikael Kahrle

Wire reunited for concert

• The legendary English punk and wave band Wire will reunite for a gig at South Bank Royal Festival Hall in London on February 26. They haven’t played live in ten years. /Mikael Kahrle

A likely hit for Apoptygma Berzerk

• The new Apoptygma Berzerk album “Welcome to Earth” (January 31) is likely to be a success. It offers the hallmark Apoptygma electro sound and the hit singles “Paranoia” and “Eclipse”. This time Stephan Groth has allowed more classic techno and trance elements in the songs than before. One song has female vocals.
Apoptygma Berzerk is one of the headlines at Swedish Alternative Music Awards on April 1. /Mikael Kahrle

Euro platina for The Cardigans

• The Cardigans will receive a European platina record at a ceremony in Brussels this summer. Their album “Gran Turismo” sold more than one million copies in Europe during 1999. /Mikael Kahrle

Kraftwerk Expo live tickets available in two weeks

• The tickets for Kraftwerk’s live performance in Hannover during the Expo 2000 world exposition will be available in two weeks for around DM 60. The concert will take place on June 4 or 9. /Jens Krause

• The Swedish indie electro trio Proxy has decided to quit due to lack of time. Singer and frontman Mikael Hermansson will however work on new projects, but we have no details on this yet. /Mikael Kahrle

...and Joyce switch name and musical path

• The Swedish synthpop duo Joyce has changed style from synthpop to modern upbeat techno. They claim they weren’t satisfied with the offers they got from synthpop companies. Now they call themselves Raindancer.
They discuss a deal with a company called DanceBeat and are preparing a debut single and album. They are also doing remixes. /Mikael Kahrle

New In Strict Confidence single

• The new In Strict Confidence single “Kiss Your Shadow”, featuring four mixes from Das Ich and others, will be available from February 7. As usual we’re talking about typical hard and dark EBM. /Mikael Kahrle

• Moby is heading for a new soundtrack, this time "Cecil B Demented" by John Waters. /Mikael Kahrle

...and Lisa Gerrard too

• Lisa Gerrard (Dead Can Dance) starts her work on the soundtrack for the new Ridley Scott movie “The Gladiators” any day now.
She has been nominated to a Golden Globe for her “The Insider” score. /Mikael Kahrle

Jarre single on the air

• The new Jean Michel Jarre single “C’est a Vie”, featuring ethno techno vocalist Natasha Atlas, has just been sent to radio stations. /Mikael Kahrle

Sombre View quits

• The Swedish electronic wave band Sombre View has decided to quit due to lack of interest from record companies, although their new material is impressive. Frontman Mattias Wåhlberg is considering to start on a new project. /Mikael Kahrle

Bloodline looking for artists to sign

• The new German electro company Bloodline, run by two former Zoth Ommog men, is looking for new acts to sign. See Links. /Mikael Kahrle

Avant Garde: new single, album and record company

• In about three weeks the new single from the Swedish synthpop duo Avant Garde will be delivered by their new company, Synthphony in New York. The single is called "Watch Your Back" and the song is featured in three versions. An exclusive bonus song called "Undress You" is included as well.
The album "Certified and Tested" is scheduled for a spring release. /Mikael Kahrle

New Flesh Quartet album in February

• The Swedish Flesh Quartet/Fläskkvartetten returns on February 14 with their ninth record "Love Go". They have a new home, Primal Music. /Mikael Kahrle

Vacuum delayed once again

• Stockholm Records have now excluded the new Vacuum album from their release plan. However, the single "Icaros" is listed for February 28. /Mikael Kahrle

New Bauhaus single

• KK Records will release the Bauhaus single "Reverence" on vinyl and CD on February 21. /Mikael Kahrle

New Crocodile Shop material on its way

• American industrial act Crocodile Shop will be back with the new release "Order + Joy" this spring, probably in April. The new tracks are both modern sounding and back to the roots. /Mikael Kahrle

• The awaited new Apoptygma Berzerk album "Welcome to Earth" has been delayed yet again. This time the date is set to the January 31, according to their web site. The US release date is set to February 22. To be continued? /Niklas Forsberg

Jarrett act dropping

• American label Jarrett Records have decided to drop several rather successful acts in the US, among them Mesh, Anything Box, Orange Sector, Matter of Fact, Infam and Psychopomps. Bands that are kept include Ravenous, Seven Red Seven, Rythmus, and Cause & Effect. /Niklas Forsberg

Slight delay for Covenant single

• The date for the new Covenant single “Dead Stars” has been moved one week to January 17. The US release date is February 15. /Mikael Kahrle 

• The Cure will release their new delayed album "Bloodflowers" in February. We have listened to it and can say that they have really improved their sound. It is more traditional and melancholic compared to "Wild Mood Swings". /Johan Astemark

New release from Diary of Dreams

• On March 7, Metropolis will release Diary of Dreams’ sixth album "One of 18 Angels". /Johan Astemark

Erasure completes new album

• Erasure has just begun working on the vocals for the next album, scheduled for an August release. Vince Clarke has completed the music and is very excited about the result. /Mikael Kahrle

The latest on The Smashing Pumpkins

• The Smashing Pumpkins new album “Machina: The Machines of God” will be put out in late February. According to frontman Billy Corgan, the new record has more energy than the previous “Adore”. The song “The Everlasting Gaze” can be downloaded on the net.
The band – including their new member, Melissa auf der Maur (ex Hole) – is currently on tour. /Mikael Kahrle

• By now, we have heard about all sorts of millennial celebrations, but good old Vince Clarke celebrated his New Year’s Eve in a very unique way.
He built himself a shed in his garden and transmitted a “shedshow” over the Internet from the shed itself. Since we were busy doing other things than surfing this particular night, we can’t give you any details. However, we’ve heard that there were some technical difficulties but that the parts transmitted correctly were “interesting”. Mr Clarke’s intentions were simply to drink, smoke, talk and show a couple of short films. /Mikael Kahrle

Male or Female – Front 242 side project

• Male or Female is a project with Daniel B and Patrick Codenys of Front 242. It has little to do with Front 242 but can be recommended for all friends of modern electronic music.
Male or Female are currently on tour in Japan and they recently played at two big Tokyo raves in front of over 20 000 people.
A CD release can be expected in the future. So far, Man or Female have participated on some compilations, for example one from Juno Reactor‘s Blue Room label. /Jens Krause

Haujobb finally on tour

• The German EBM/electronica project Haujobb will embark on their first tour ever in February. This will be North American tour only together with Decoded Feedback. Haujobb will perform material from all their albums. /Mikael Kahrle

• The next VNV Nation release will be the single "Standing", from their current album "Empires", in March. It will be released in two different formats; a standard single and a limited EP-CD (3000 copies), containing the single plus alternate versions of some "Empires" tracks. /Niklas Forsberg

New Sven Väth album in February

• The Frankfurt techno DJ and artist Sven Väth will release his new album “Contact” through Virgin Records in February. The sound of the new album is a perfect symbiosis of techno, dance and electro. Väth’s musical roots shine through strongly in some tracks. The best title is “Your Perspiration” – a successful homage to DAF and the potential hit of the album. /Jens Krause