News editors: Mikael Kahrle & Johan Carlsson

The Eurorock Electro-Gold festival lowdown
• Commencing on April 5 (Electro day), Belgium's Eurorock Electro-Gold festival will feature: Alphaville, Male or Female (Front 242 side project), Neon Electronics (Neon Judgement side project), Funker Vogt, Plastic Noise Experience, Suicide Commando, Praga Kahn, Project-X, Implant and many many more. On April 6 (Gold day) the festival concludes with several bands outside the Release area like Golden Earring and Green Lizard. The majority of the festival bands are Belgian. /Peter Marks

DAF on tour in April

An exclusive first look at the cover of the new "15 Neue DAF Lieder". We also show you the first single, "Der Sheriff".

• Gabi Delgado and Robert Görl of DAF will go out on their first tour together in 17 years this April. Confirmed dates are Berlin (April 7), Hamburg (April 9), Düsseldorf (April 10) and München (April 11). /Jens Krause

New single from Wolfsheim
• Wolfsheim are back with the first single from the forthcoming album and expectations are high. The electropop track is called "Kein Zurück" and has airplay and hit quality.
The last Wolfsheim album "Spectators" sold more than 250 000 copies in Germany and reached gold. /Jens Krause

Covenant goes east

• Eskil Simonsson of Covenant sent us this picture by Salt (Stefan Alt/Ant-Zen) and tells us Covenant are going east to play in Moscow on March 22. Other new dates includes Barcelona (home of Covenant's Joakim Montelius), Madrid and London (at the fourth Elektrofest at Astoria). On April 5, they headline SAMA in Gothenburg, where they are nominated (only) for the album award this year. /Mikael Kahrle

T.O.Y. give us the White Light treatment
• Volker Lutz unleashes the new T.O.Y. album on May 26 in Germany, with release dates to follow in other territories a few weeks later. The album is called "White Lights" and comes in a standard and limited fan edition. Steffen Keth (De/Vision) will do guest vocals on the track "The Sky Is the Limit". The fan edition will include a bonus disc of remixes that the band has done for In Strict Confidence, 18 Summers and more. /Peter Marks

Electronic pop with a twist by Naked Ape
• The Swedish band Naked Ape is made up of three blokes called Albion, Jonas and Olof. They play a kind of electronic pop with a twist, and lyrics in Swedish, which is quite rare. If you want to compare the music to anything, bob hund might come close - mainly because of the singers accent. Their 12” maxi single is out on Lobotom Records. /Johan Carlsson

David Gahan live solo debut announced
• Depeche Mode's frontman David Gahan will debut his new solo material live at two major metal music festivals this summer. Gahan will head up the smaller Alternastage at the Rock am Ring and Rock im Park fests. The promoter will announce up to 100 acts for the events, both slated for June 6 to 8 in Nürnberg and Nürburg (500 km away from Nürnberg), Germany. Americans Marilyn Manson will play the larger stage with Skold debuting live on bass. An expected 150 000 rock fans will be present over the three nights on each festival.
Gahan's as of yet untitled solo CD is set to be released June 2. No Gahan live band members have been announced yet.
See earlier Gahan solo news here. /Alex Veronac

Client's debut single on Andrew Fletcher's label


Client A and Client B dressed for success.

• After getting some attention from being the first signing to Depeche Mode man Andrew Fletcher’s new label Toast Hawaii, Client is now ready to release their debut single. Client is made up of two girls named Client A and Client B. The single is called “Price of Love” and comes in a CD and 12” vinyl edition. The latter contains some remixes, while the CD consists of three original tracks. Out on March 10. /Johan Carlsson

Gothenburg club and venue closed

Lustans Lakejer at Kåren.

• Business is over for the legendary Gothenburg venue Kåren and the nightclub Studs, both located in the same University building (Studenternas hus).
Studs was closed after last Saturday and just one or maybe two concerts remain for Kåren. That Studs and Kåren was about to close was expected but the final moves have been surrounded by misunderstandings. But Studs retro synth club Romo Night was nevertheless promised another season at Studs just recently. They doubled the dates (from once to twice per month) and booked a long list of bands for January to June.
- Then we got a phone call the other day. We are shocked. Now we have to cancel everything and find a new place. That's really hard, organiser Tobbe Eriksson says.
- The building will now be used solely for students, just as it is intended to. It's not our job to host concerts and clubs, Lars Götborg at the Gothenburg University says. Studs was facing bankrupcy last summer but the University (owner of the building) gave Studs the rest of 2002 to bring in money.
Romo Night has been one of the top clubs in Sweden for our music since 1996. Studs has also hosted several other clubs, like EBM club Phobia. Kåren has been one of the main venues in Gothenburg for a great number of years and Front 242, Nitzer Ebb, The Prodigy, Lustans Lakejer and Paradise Lost are among the many bands which have played there. Kåren has also been the home for SAMA, which has now moved to another venue, Vågen. /Mikael Kahrle

Goldfrapp back in April
• After the successful debut album “Felt Mountain”, UK duo Goldfrapp is going to release the follow-up on April 28. The new album is called “Black Cherry” and consists of ten tracks, including the single “Train”, out on April 14. Live dates in both America and Europe are being set up as we speak. /Johan Carlsson

Time for Polish electropop



• This debut maxi from the Polish electropop band Common Dream should have been released last year. It's released now. The disc goes by the name “Someone Could” and is filled with remixes, as usual these days, made by acts like Psyche, Colony 5, Obsc(y)re etc. A cover of The Cure’s “Bloodflower” is on it as well. The debut album is scheduled for May and is called “Gravity”. /Johan Carlsson

New Alphaville box in the works
• A follow-up to the box “Dreamscapes” from legendary German band Alphaville is being prepared. This new box is called “Crazy Show” and consists of four discs filled with both new and rare tracks. Some previously unreleased stuff is going in there as well. This box is sold exclusively through Alphaville’s website, so if you want your own numbered copy you need to make a visit there. /Johan Carlsson

Italian futurepop from Syrian
• Syrian is a band from Italy that will release their second album on Utah's A Different Drum soon. Their first single on that label, “No Atmosphere”, is out now. Their style is in the vein of VNV Nation and Apoptygma Berzerk. /Johan Carlsson

Winter, also on record


Album artwork for "The Winter of Our Discontent".

• American synthpop band Echoing Green has just released a new single, “Fall Awake”, which is a taste from the new album “The Winter of Our Discontent”. The album is scheduled for a February release, on A Different Drum. /Johan Carlsson

Erasure tours America
• Erasure will tour America in support of their new album “Other People’s Songs”, out on January 27. This is their first tour across "the pond" since 1997, and takes place on eleven dates between March 2 and March 23. /Johan Carlsson

Covenant’s new single "Bullet" out now - in Germany

• The eagerly awaited “Bullet” single from Swedish Covenant is finally out after heavy delays and so far only in Germany. Other countries will follow, but no information is known as of now. The single comes in two flavours, one with remixes and the new track “Atom Heart”, and one as a DVD with the popular video for “Bullet”. /Johan Carlsson

Solo records from Martin Gore and David Gahan close to launch
• Two of the members of Depeche Mode are getting ready to release solo albums this spring, as previously reported. Martin Gore gets out of the starting blocks first. His second solo effort is having a tentative release date of April 28, with a single out a little time before that on April 14.
David Gahan’s first solo album adventure has an approximate date of June 2. David will also release a single before the album, on May 19. No album titles are known.
In other Depeche Mode news, there are rumours about a DVD version of “101” this year, and maybe, just maybe, we will see a reunion of the fans starring in the first movie, filmed for the bonus materials. /Johan Carlsson

"Shockwave" from Decoded Feedback



• In February we’re going to find EBM band Decoded Feedback’s new album “Shockwave” on the shelves. The ten track album features a cover of The Swans' “Love Will Save You”, as well as a video for the track “Phoenix”. /Johan Carlsson

Juno Reactor enters the Matrix
• Juno Reactor has made a break in the work on their new album. The pause is done because they are making music for the sequel to “The Matrix”, called “The Matrix Reloaded”. They are excused.
The compilation “Odyssey 1992 - 2002” will be released in North America by Metropolis on March 4. /Johan Carlsson

Delerium remix contest open for North Americans

• Nettwerk is hosting a remix contest for Delerium. North American fans have the opportunity to download samples, both vocal and instrumental, from the track ”After All”, which is first single off the new album ”Chimera”. The contest is open until February 14 and the winning remixer gets to have his or her remix on the accompanying bonus disc for ”Chimera”. The album will be out on May 20. /Johan Carlsson

News from the Young Gods
• An ambient side-project of Young Gods entitled Music from Artificial Clouds is in search of a label.
In other Young Gods news a limited three track vinyl single for the song "Second Nature" is out now in extremely limited quantities. Intoxygene Records has released this single and may be releasing the aforementioned Young Gods side-project. More details as we get them. /Peter Marks

Pet Shop Boys + Yoko Ono = true

• This sounds like a weird collaboration, but might turn out interesting. Pet Shop Boys are doing a remix of Yoko Ono’s track “Walking on Thin Ice”, originally produced by John Lennon. It’s to be included on the upcoming Yoko remix album, released this spring.
The PSB remix album “Disco 3” will be out on February 3 (later in the USA and Japan). /Johan Carlsson

And One's new album on Virgin in April
• And One are ready to release their new album “Agressor” in April via Virgin in Germany. A single will come out before that, but not much is known about it as of now. We don't know which Virgin offices in other territories are going to release the album and if so, when. /Jens Krause

Statemachine members in new band
• Lowe is the name of a new band, started by Rickard Gunnarsson and Jörgen Josefsson from Statemachine. They also brought their friend Mehdi Bagherzadeh into the new project. It started off when they were writing material for the new Statemachine album, and found that they had some tracks that didn’t fit the Statemachine sound. Lowe makes music described as melancholic and electronic pop music, in the vein of Depeche Mode, Kent and David Bowie. Not far from the sound of Statemachine, after all. They’re working almost fulltime with it now, but do not have a record contract yet, although several labels are in negotiations with the band, according to the band. /Johan Carlsson

Chandeen release a new album on May 5

Steffi of Chandeen.
Photo by: Michael J Schwalm

• Chandeen's follow-up to 2002's "Bikes and Pyramids" is entitled "Echoes" and contains guest vocals by Antje Buchheiser (ex-Stoa). Some tracks have lyrics picked from Edgar Allan Poe, Oscar Wilde and William Blake. Chandeen will also appear with La Floa Maldita at the Leipzig Wave festival in June and at the "Black Magazine" party in Darmstag on May 9. /Peter Marks

First steps for new electronic music label
• Shadowplay Electronica (SPE) is a new label directed toward electronic music. SPE has only released one album so far - Marina Sirtis' debut album - but is working on more. One of the upcoming releases is the debut album of the band [brus] this spring. SPE also functions as a live promotor, and plan tours with Marina Sirtis, [brus] and Scapesonik. /Johan Carlsson

F.P. for fans of De/Vision and And One
• German synthpop label Calyx Records is set to put out the debut CD of F.P.. The name of the CD is "Invent" and the music is in the same vein as And One, De/Vision and Melotron. The texts are in both German and English.
Calyx Records is planning to start a new label collaboration next month, called “Electronic Music Cooperation”. It is supposed to be a forum for electronic and synthpop labels and they intend to support the labels and their bands in promotion and marketing. /Jens Krause