News editors: Mikael Kahrle & Johan Carlsson

Marc Almond and Soft Cell tour dates plus some solo news
• Mr Almond will be performing solo on June 30 as part of the San Francisco gay pride festival and then he is off to Germany to perform at the Braunschweig gay pride "Sommerlochfestival" July 27.
Almond's Soft Cell will be playing at the Arvika Festival in mid-July, EuroRock on August 4, the M'era Luna Festival on August 11, the V2002 festival in Hyland's Park, Chelmsford, England on August 17 and the V2002 festival again on August 18 in Weston Park, Stafford, England.
Marc Almond will be returning to Russia shortly to finish the vocals for his "Heart on Snow" album. No release date has yet been set. /Peter Marks

Melotron sign with SPV, cancel a tour and release a new single

• A busy time indeed for the German synthpoppers Melotron who have left Bloodline and signed with the far-reaching entity that is SPV. Their new single "Gib Mir Alles" will be out on June 17.
The latest European tour entitled "Give Us Everything" has been cancelled but some shows have been arranged in spite of the sputtering of their club tour: June 9 in Schwerin and June 28-30 in Toronto, Canada at the Palaise Royale. /Peter Marks

My Magic Armchair release new demo
• The Swedish band My Magic Armchair has released a new demo CD entitled "In the Cycle". The music is being made by C-F.K and Virtual S, and they top it off with a female singer, Mistress of Mind. Those names just might be pseudonyms though... Together they make entirely electronic melancholic pop. At the moment they are looking for labels and concert bookings. /Johan Carlsson

New live dates with The Human League

Back on stage. The Human League at the Astoria last year.

• The Human League have just been booked to Amsterdam's Paradiso on August 11 and 12. Prior to this, they are scheduled for the Lokerse Festival. These are no retro shows and will include many new songs. /Mikael Kahrle

"Punchier" and "bigger" sound from Assemblage 23
• Tom Shear aka Assemblage 23 has completed the music for his new album "Defiance". Now it is time to add vocals, and mix it all, before the album comes out. According to Tom himself, the new tracks sound "punchier" and "bigger", and he also feels that the album contains some of the his best melodies ever. To make our wait easier, a new single called "Document" will probably be out in September. It will feature remixes by Omnibox and Haujobb, as well as an unreleased track from 1995. /Johan Carlsson

Dismantled already working on new EP



• "Dystopia", the first release from the Russian/American debut act Dismantled, is now out on Dependent in Europe and Metropolis in USA. It features a single edit of the title track and an instrumental version of the album track "Purity", as well as the track "On Your Knees", a track about the events on September 11. The self-titled album is out now in USA, and hits the European streets on June 17. Work on a brand new EP called "Post-Nuclear" is underway and supposed to be darker and more ambient. /Johan Carlsson

Catching up with Robert Enforsen
• Elegant Machinery vocalist Robert Enforsen has just returned from gigs in Mexico and this year's shaky SynthCon in Los Angeles with his Gobble & Gag. He claims the SynthCon event was depending on Gobble & Gag's performance, after the initial band cancellations from S.P.O.C.K and others).
- After arriving to LA, I was told we could cancel SynthCon but then the whole event would have been cancelled, he says.
Three Enforsen bands are now one.
- Gobble & Gag is buried and transformed into a trio with me, Joel Lindqvist and Carl Steinmarck under the name Hyper. We have slowly started to negotiate with some German and American labels, Enforsen says.
Hyper was previously just Enforsen and Steinmarck, former vocalist of Saft. There is also another Enforsen project called Enforce.
- Enforce is as dead as the street we are walking on. The fact is, I haven't heard from neither the record company, nor the other half, Werner Seega. /Mikael Kahrle

Balligomingo finally here



• The much delayed debut album by Balligomingo called "Beneath the Surface" is out today. The album features vocals from Delerium collaborator Kristy Thirsk and one track with production by Bill Leeb and Chris Peterson. The sound is similar of the new Delerium. /Johan Carlsson

"Inferno" by Project Pitchfork in September
• The new album by Germany's Project Pitchfork "Inferno" is scheduled for September 30. No single will come out beforehand, but a DVD comes out on July 8. It's called "Collector - Adapted for the Screen" and features the five latest promotional videos, live photos, complete discography, and a live bonus track. /Johan Carlsson

DVD with The Sisters of Mercy?

Chris of The Sisters of Mercy's live line-up.

• The Belgian Alive Festival (July 26-28 in St Vith) has added The Sisters of Mercy to their live package. The festival claims the band is planning a live DVD as well as a tour this autumn.
About half of the live songs these days are new, unreleased ones, but there are still no details on future CD releases. An updated light show is to be expected when The Sisters of Mercy embarks on yet another summer of festivals. So far, Bex Rock in Switzerland and M'era Luna in Germany are confirmed. /Mikael Kahrle, tip from Johan Aman

First concert for And One in Russia
• The mastermind of And One - Steve Naghavi - has played a concert in Moscow together with Chris Ruiz. The concert of And One was the highlight of the biggest Depeche Mode party in Moscow ever, celebrating the birthday of David Gahan. Steve is right now producing the new And One album and has also co-produced a new record from the band New Concept. /Jens Krause

A trip back to the birth of the German punk scene



• The book publisher Suhrkamp will release a special book by Jürgen Teipel under the name "Verschwende Deine Jugend". The book tells the story of the German punk scene during the years 1978-1983. It is full of interviews and stories with all legends, such as DAF, Der Plan, Male, Die Krupps, Einstürzende Neubauten and more. The old German label Atatak is also releasing a double-CD with the same name including all the hits and classics of this German music phase. Featured on the CD are many different artists like DAF (with two unreleased demo versions), Jürgen Engler's punk band Male, Die Krupps, Tommi Stumpf, Andreas Dorau, Einstürzende Neubauten, Pyrolator, Der Plan, Neonbabies and others. /Jens Krause

New material from Covenant in August
• The new Covenant single is now named "Call the Ships to Port" and comes out in August. The new album follows in October and is produced by Jakob Hellner, who has worked with Rammstein and Clawfinger. Covenant will play at EuroRock this summer, and the band is also planning a big tour in November. /Johan Carlsson

Another new remix 12" with old Nitzer Ebb


A dusty old picture.

• After the release of the remix 12" with Nitzer Ebb's "Shame" and "Join in the Chant", it's now time for "Let Your Body Learn" and "Control I'm Here" to get the same treatment. Not many details are known yet, except that it will be out on Novamute. /Johan Carlsson

Arvika: Soft Cell on, KMFDM off

Star among stars.

• As reported earlier, Ohgr have cancelled their appearance at the Swedish Arvika Festival. Unfortunately KMFDM follows in the same footsteps. Don't be too sad though, Soft Cell and Twice A Man have recently been added to the festival's already impressive roster. Other bands coming to the festival are The Cure, Primal Scream, Orbital, Assemblage 23, Tiamat, The Mission, Deathstars and many more. /Johan Carlsson

Thirlwell's blitzkrieg commences; The The is infected
• Foetus anchor J G Thirlwell will be performing as a member of Baby Zizanie at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in the UK on June 25. In addition, he will perform as a member of his long-time friend Matt Johnson's band The The the same night at the aforementioned hall. Johnson is living in Release home town Gothenburg, Sweden since a couple of years.
Further recordings has been worked upon for the new Manorexia album (due late summer) and the next Foetus album (due fall 2003). Add to all of this J G's Steroid Maximus project will perform as a nineteen piece incarnation in France in April 2003. This version of the ensemble will likely be assembled in Paris with several other European dates to be announced. /Peter Marks

Time to buy a new Komputer in July?
• A new album from the British electro-poppers Komputer is on its way. It is called "Market Led" and will be preceded by a single sometime in July. /Johan Carlsson

Vacuum starting where the story ended


Vacuum 2002, now without Alexander Bard.
Photo: Martina Hoogland-Ivanow

• Swedish synthpop band Vacuum returned a while back with the strong single "Starting (Where the Story Ended)" (see review). A new album is now prepared by the duo Mattias Lindblom and Marina Schiptjenko together with co-song writer Anders Wollbeck. But the return of Vacuum was never certain.
- We weren't sure if we wanted to start up the band again after some record company trouble and a long tour of Russia, vocalist and song writer Mattias Lindblom tells us.
- We needed a break and now I'm glad we had one, he continues.
He goes on to tell us that SubSpace Communications, their new label, contributed in a big way to the band's comeback.
Vacuum enjoyed huge success with their first album "The Plutonium Cathedral", mainly in Russia but also in countries like Italy. The second album "Seance at the Chaebol" and the third "Culture of Night" (with songs from "Seance at the Chaebol and some new tracks) were never released in Sweden mainly because of this.
- They were released in a number of countries. The reason they were not put out in Sweden was mainly due to our great popularity in Italy and Russia. We hope to put more focus on Sweden with the new material, Lindblom says.
Story continues here.

Butch Vig leaves Garbage's tour
• Garbage drummer Butch Vig is suffering from "an acute inner ear infection causing painful sensitivity to sound" and has left the current tour for the band's latest work "Beautifulgarbage". He is replaced by Matt Chamberlain (ex-Soundgarden). Vig will return behind the skins once he has recovered from this rather nasty affliction. /Peter Marks

Billy Corgan hangs with Berlin in the studio

Terri Nunn of Berlin.

• Continuing with his current meeting of pop music's elders, Billy Corgan is in the studio with the eighties band Berlin. Mr Corgan is assisting them with work on their new album "Voyeur. It will be the first new studio album since 1986 and will hit the streets in September at the earliest. Terri Nunn's last vocal appearance was with The Sisters of Mercy for their 1993 "Under the Gun" single. It is not known at this time if the entire original line-up of Berlin is taking part in the recordings currently under way. /Peter Marks, Mikael Kahrle

Fresh single from Funker Vogt



• "Date of Expiration" is the title of the new Funker Vogt single. When? Anyway, it will be out on June 10 (Bloodline, Metropolis) and features three mixes of the title track, as well as two new songs. /Johan Carlsson

Essential synth and wave compiled
• The German ZYX is releasing a double CD compilation called "Synth and Wave - Essentials", in co-operation with the German remix- and event organisation team Memphis. On the first CD, there are lots of electronic classics with such bands as OMD, Boytronic, Visage, Cetu Javu and Moskwa TV. On the second part of this double compilation, there are club hits of De/Vision, Covenant, VNV Nation and others. An added bonus comes in the form of five unreleased mixes by the Memphis DJ team of Psyche, Philtron, Oomph!, In Strict Confidence and The Bad Culture. /Jens Krause

Love and Rockets offer reward
• The ADAT tapes of Love and Rockets final show which have been missing for some time are being sought once again by members of the group. A $500 reward is being offered for the return of the audio tapes, which will complete the release, planned posthumously by the group. Further details can be found here. /Peter Marks

Country mini special: No need to cry for Argentina...

Karen Sudnius of Argentinean band Melmoth.
Photo by: Madrid

• We constantly receive evidence of the electro scene's growth south of the US. Hocico from Mexico have shown bands from this part of the world can be globally successful. Now, Argentina has seen the birth of their first label specialised in synth and EBM, Nullrepublik Records. Their first release is a compilation called "Plan Identitaat", featuring seven home-grown acts and twelve tracks in total.
Release contacted Luciano Quiroga of Nullrepublik to hear more on what is going on. We were told the scene is growing in Argentina. Some of the major acts like Front 242 and Depeche Mode have performed there, as well as some smaller acts like Lacrimosa and Clan of Xymox. There are also a few clubs catering to the electro crowd but there is a need for record labels and distribution.
- Only a few bands manage to release their music - with big effort - because there are no record labels for these music genres in Argentina. Nullrepublik was born to show some of these bands to the world, Luciano tells us.
Despite Argentina's recent huge economical problems, Nullrepublik Records has a positive approach to the future. /Peter Takizawa

Jean Michel Jarre to host award ceremony
• This year's IFPI Plantinum Europe Awards in Brussels on July 10, will be presented by Jean Michel Jarre. Artists with sales below one million copies don't have to bother. /Mikael Kahrle

Finnish machinery runs smoothly
• Finnish electronica festival Koneisto ("machinery") is on it's third year and running. This time around it has been moved to the Finnish capital of Helsinki and scheduled for July 26-28. The main part of the festival takes place in the huge cultural centre of the Cable Factory smack in the middle of the capital.
Performers include the cream of the Finnish scene plus numerous international acts like Ken Ishii, The Orb, Telepopmusik and Swedish Pluxus. Koneisto is rapidly turning into a major festival, this time aiming for an audience of around 40 000 people. /Mattias Huss

Behold the "Virgin Mary"

• The new album "Virgin Mary" by 18 Summers (formerly Silke Bischoff) is out now and features Felix Flaucher and Frank Schwer as the sole members. Samples of the album can be listened to at the 18 Summers web site. This new work is definitely a continuation of ideas and concepts from their final release as Silke Bischoff, "Phoenix from the Flames". No tour dates have been arranged as of yet but Felix has managed to concoct yet another album sleeve chock full of some very beautiful women to compensate for that... /Peter Marks

The Klinik to release a new album
• Influential EBM legend Marc Verhaeghen is alive and well after yet another long absence.
The Klinik have signed a new deal with Hands Productions and will release their new album "Sonic Surgery" in due course. "Hard-kicking progressive electro" is what Hands describes this new chapter of The Klinik as. Verhaeghen and Nickanor round out the current line-up of the band.
The Klinik were formed in 1984 and originally consisted of Marc Verhaeghen, Dirk Ivens, Eric van Wonterghem and Mario Vaerewijck. The later two went on to form Insekt. Eric then formed Monolith and Mario Lowpass. Verhaeghen has released works under the names X-10, Para (with wife Sabine Voss), D-Sign (with Die Form) and did two albums with Bill Leeb as Noise Unit. Last year, after many years apart, Verhaeghen and Ivens released the four-disc box set entitled "End of the Line", to "officially" end their collaboration. /Peter Marks