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News editors: Mikael Kahrle & Johan Carlsson |
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Saturation
Bombing fest in Toronto; US Customs for
Belgians
Weave live
at Saturation Bombing II, Toronto.
Photo by: Alex Veronac (Release)
•
This year's Saturation
Bombing festival started with launch
party with Weave
headlining. Easter weekend's rhythmic noise
festival in Toronto featured the North American
premiere of Belgians This
Morn' Omina and Empusae.
Ah Cama Sotz
and Needle Sharing
helped round out the roster of 16 performing
acts over the four nights. Plans are already
being made for 2005's Saturation Bombing
3 festival.
Afterwards, members of Ah Cama-Sotz/Empusae
and This Morn Omina were stopped at US Customs
twice and refused entry from Canada. They
were to perform at a festival date in Washington
DC on April 15. Border officials decided
that the promoter was not able to complete
documentation for their stay in America.
Tonight's Washington gig goes ahead with
Columbian Manufactura
and New York City noise terrorists Terrorfakt.
/Alex Veronac
Eventful
and dark month awaits Z-Prochek
• There will be as
many as 30 "release events" during
one single month (May) throughout Germany
and Switzerland in connection to Swedish
futurepoppers Z-Prochek's
new album "Viewers".
In the schedule we find some charming names
like Slave to the Wave, Hymnen
an die Nacht, Return of the Living
Dead but most clubs have well, darkness
in common: Dark Celebration, Dark
Desire, Dark Floor, Dark Night
Special, Darkest Night (darker
than Dark Night Special then?), Dark
Area, Dark Noir, Dark Awakening,
Dark Flower, Dark Trax...
/Mikael Kahrle
Wolfsheim tour ends with Ayria
Ayria live
at EBMFest 2004, Toronto.
Photo by: Alex Veronac (Release)
•
Wolfsheim's
first ever US tour ended in San Francisco
last week after playing ten cities. The
last tour gig had Canadian-American synth
act Ayria
as support. Ayria's Jennifer
Parkin was very happy to tell
us that it was the largest audience the
band had played for yet, numbering 700.
Ayria already have four tracks in demo form
for their next release but hope do some
more live gigs in Europe to promote their
latest "Debris" release.
Catch the review of Wolfsheim's last full
length release here.
/Alex Veronac
Mysterious
Portion Control comeback tonight
• Today sees the Portion
Control releasing "new product"
as they put it. Their site is currently
only an index with no information about
this item. The only content is a flashing
icon stating "well-come". The
exact time of this unveiling is 2300 hrs
but the time zone is not mentioned.
Portion Control split in the mid-80:s and
are also known for their work under the
Solar Enemy
moniker. Often cited as an influence by
Skinny Puppy
and Front Line
Assembly, Portion Control, much
like Fad Gadget,
enjoyed a certain amount of notoriety and
infamy for their unorthodox approach. /Peter
Marks
And
One played four covers at two hour tour
start show
•
Last week, And
One and Statemachine
started their new "Überall Tour"
in Rostock with about 900 people in the
Stadthalle. Statemachine's 30-minute warm-up
gig was appreciated by the majority of the
audience. And One entered the stage with
a intro spoken in German and then played
for two hours. We got to hear "Krieger",
"Recover You", "Speicherbar",
"Sternradio", "Fernsehapparat"
and the legendary "Techno Man",
"Metalhammer", "Take Some
More" and "Second Voice".
They also did three (!) Depeche
Mode covers (among them "Photographic")
and DAF's
"Der Räuber und der Prinz".
/Jens Krause
Lustans
Lakejer to Arvika
•
The
Arvika Festival has added
Lustans Lakejer,
Weeping Willows,
Eskobar
and a bunch of small Swedish indie bands
to their line-up. /Mikael Kahrle
Marilyn
Manson covers Depeche Mode
• Marilyn
Manson is currently in the studio
working on some new stuff. A greatest hits
album is in the works, and it will feature
some of the new material. The next single
– also included on the album –
will be a cover of “Personal Jesus”
by Depeche Mode.
All Marilyn's videos will be available on
a DVD as well. /Johan Carlsson
Tenant
Lowe?
• No, this newspiece is not about
Pet Shop Boys,
instead it’s about the Swedish electropop
band Lowe,
who are working on their debut album “Tenant”
– and yes, it’s supposed to
be spelled like that. Lowe’s latest
single “Ahead of our Time” is
out now, on Megahype Records, and
they were the people’s nomination
for “Best Newcomer” at the recent
Scandinavian Alternative Music Awards.
/Johan Carlsson
Erasure
working on new album
• Vince
Clarke and Andy
Bell aka Erasure
are working on a new album, and are right
now mixing in London. Shockingly enough,
analogue wizard Clarke is using softsynths
only on this album! Check out the studio
diary on www.erasureinfo.com
./Johan Carlsson
Skinny Puppy seeks live tour drummer
Can you
drum on stage with these guys?
Doomsday 2000 photo by: Alex Veronac (Release)
• It seems the touring band Skinny Puppy is without drummer. The band placed an ad in newspaper LA Weekly this past weekend. The candidate must be able to tour Europe this summer and learn the drum parts from Cevin Key. Auditions will be on April 10 in the Los Angeles area. This leaves us to think that a second possible keyboarder and fourth member on stage is already assigned. /Alex Veronac
Four new tracks on new FLA EP
• After the successful release of
“Civilization”, Rhys
Fulber and Bill
Leeb are now setting their eyes
on their new EP, “Vanished”.
The fansite Mindphaser recently interviewed
Bill, and spilled the following information
as a teaser before posting the entire interview.
The EP will contain a new upbeat version
of “Vanished”, as well as no
less than four new tracks. One of those
is the track “Almost Gone”,
which nearly made it onto the album.
Work on a new Delerium
album won’t be started until next
year, and it will probably be mainly instrumental
with perhaps one vocalist. /Johan Carlsson
Redemption
is at hand for Imperative Reaction
• American EBM band
Imperative Reaction has just
released their latest album “Redemption”
on Metropolis in the US. It is described
as aggressive with explosive beats and smooth
programming. /Johan Carlsson
Charlie
Clouser and Rhys Fulber remix LA duo Collide
Photo by:
Chad Michael Ward
• Collide's latest album “Some Kind of Strange” was released last year, and now it’s time for a mix treatment of a lot of their songs. On the remix album “Vortex”, out on May 18, they have drafted remixers such as Charlie Clouser, Rhys Fulber and Mark Walk. It’s a double disc affair, with over 140 minutes of music. /Johan Carlsson
SAMA victory for Statemachine
Photo
by: Karin Martinsson
•
Statemachine
grabbed the album and artist awards at Friday's
crowded Scandinavian Alternative
Music Awards in Gothenburg. Alice
in Videoland was for awarded
best newcomer and The
Knife for best song ("Heartbeats").
Read our report. /Mikael Kahrle
SAMA tonight
Suicide Commando.
•
Tonight
(17.30-05.00
to be exact),
it's time for this year's Scandinavian
Alternative Music Awards at Trädgår'n,
the largest night club in Gothenburg, Sweden.
13 artists are going to perform live on
three stages; among them And
One, Mesh,
Suicide Commando
and Bodies without
Organs, the new project from
Alexander Bard
(Army of Lovers,
Vacuum).
Four awards for best album, song, newcomer
and artist will be handed out during the
evening. SAMA is of course also something
of an annual music business gathering, with
people from bands, labels, clubs and media
(for instance six crew members from this
particular mag).
On short notice, SAMA has announced an after-SAMA
party at Trädgår'n tomorrow.
/Mikael Kahrle
VNV Nation: delayed DVD and new album
•
The
"Pastperfect" DVD from VNV
Nation was expected last autumn,
but production problems forced a change
of editing company. Now, all is set for
a May 10 release on Anachron Sounds/SPV.
The band apologizes for the delay but claim
it will be well worth the wait. Expect free
previews around Germany (to be announced
later).
VNV Nation are also preparing their fifth
album "Matter and Form". /Mikael
Kahrle
New EP from Seabound in four weeks
•
The
aforementioned EP for the song "Poisonous
Friend" will be released on April 26
with remixes of "Poisonous Friend"
executed by Seabound
themselves, Iris,
Cut.rate.box
and Severed Heads.
Haujobb
have remixed the track "Watching over
You" with Stromkern
delivering their own mix of "Transformer".
Two non-album tracks, "Without You"
and "Traitor" have also been included
to sweeten the deal. Two of the EP tracks
will be available on the Dependent
site shortly. /Peter Marks