The annual Virtual X-Mas took place at Mejeriet in Lund, Sweden last weekend on December the 12th. About 800 people paid a visit there and after going through a long and hard queuing all could enjoy Elegant Machinery playing their nostalgic synthpop, VNV Nation serving rough EBM, Statemachine rocking on with their swinging electromusic and Das Ich performing a remarkable liveshow.
Everybody was given a CD for free at the entrance with three of the four live bands as well as two others. And for those who wanted to have a drink and buy a couple of CD:s or T-Shirts, that opportunity was of course also given, as well. /Sussi Pettersson

It still seems that both The Nefilim and Fields of the Nephilim will put out new releases next year. First The Nefilim during the spring and then Fields of the Nephilim late 1999.

Some time ago Dead Can Dance split. They have now released the following statement:
Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard have decided to bring to an end their musical collabaration as Dead Can Dance in order to concentrate on their respective solo works. They would like to thank all those people who have helped them to be self sufficient as artists over the years and aided them in the pursuit of their creative vision. A special word of thanks goes out to all their fans who have been wonderfully supportive and Brendan and Lisa hope that they will find great value and worth in future works to come. /Dead Can Dance. Dec 98

Three of the members from the Swedish industrial band Headtrip Inc (pic) are also members of the new Q-department a.s (former d.c). Q-department started over again with new members this summer and are now working on new material which will be completed early 1999. The album with the old Q-department that was scheduled for a 1998 release was never realized.

Some years ago there were several EBM-bands from Uppsala, Sweden but all of them have disappeared. We are talking about Cultivated Bimbo, Inside Treatment, Systema and Scapa Flow. We asked Carl Sjöström of Scapa Flow what happened to his band:
- Scapa Flow is no more, I guess. We haven't really done any music since 1995, except for some sessions with members from the old days. I doubt the other two new guys in the band have done any music since, but I don't know. The three of us met last summer and decided to publish a webiste
and offer some songs that noone has heard before!

Hidden Power will be doing an exhibition of strange musical packaging in Stockholm at Lava which is a part of Kulturhuset. The exhibition begins on January 5, 1999 and continues until February 28. Featured bands: Zoviet France, Con-Dom, Nocturnal Emissions, Masonna, Stock, Hausen & Walkman, Etannes Donnes and many more. For example one cassette compilation called "Noise War" is packaged in concrete which must be smashed in order to get to the tapes. Another is an LP with a swiss mountain hand built on one side of the record with music by a member of the Legendary Pink Dots. A listening station will be included as well as a day in which people can come and make their own weird music packages.

Still no new material with Pouppée Fabrikk has been released by their record company Energy Rekords. In February they will play at the club Electropolis in Gothenburg.