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News editors: Mikael Kahrle & Johan Carlsson |
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Remixes by FLA, F242, KMFDM and Haujobb March 15 2006 | By: Johan Carlsson (Stockholm, Sweden) A whopping 17 different versions of Mindless Self Indulgence's track ”Straight to Video” are available on “Straight to Video – The Remixes” which is out now. This crazy punk-electro-industrial band has managed to score remixes by such artists as Front Line Assembly, Noise Unit, KMFDM, Combichrist, Front 242, Funker Vogt, Assemblage 23, Velvet Acid Christ, Haujobb and more, so there should be a mix for everyone. Live cyber industrial for hyperactive people March 15 2006 | By: Aimée Kreuger (Stockholm, Sweden) Do you think "Eisenkiller" is the ultimate in booty-shaking music? Does "Lichtlos" raise your heart-rhythm? Or are you wondering what this is all about? Either way, if hard industrial noise is your taste in music, then you should be interested in the duo Xotox's next release, "Dokumentation I: Ton". It's a live album with chiefly their strongest songs, and it's limited to 1 000 copies. It will be released when Xotox act as headliner of the first ProNoize Festival, which will take place on April 16, in Hannover, Germany. The stronger selling points, for the more demanding crowd, are the four previously unreleased and exclusive bonus tracks. "Fremdsystem" is completely new, but the other three are remixes. The club hit "Winterblut" has been remixed by Spiritual Cramp, "Dunkelheit" by X-Fusion and "Alone" by Missratener Sohn. And admit it; you never thought you would read "booty-shaking" here. Front Line Assembly in Europe March 13 2006 | By: Johan Carlsson (Stockholm, Sweden) Bill Leeb and his friends in Front Line Assembly will go on a tour of Europe around August and September. Confirmed dates so far: Summer Darkness Festival, Holland on August 11-13, M'era Luna Festival, Germany on August 12-13, Club Statisch, Gothenburg Sweden on August 17, Infest Festival, United Kingdom on August 25-27, and La Locomotive, France on September 3. According to member Chris Peterson's post on Mindphaser, a North American tour in June is in the planning stage as well. The new, still untitled album will probably be out in May or June and features an all-star line-up with Bill Leeb, Chris Peterson, Rhys Fulber and the new blood Jeremy Inkel and Adrian White. Jean-Luc de Meyer from Front 242 provides guest vocals on one track. System change March 13 2006 | By: Johan Carlsson (Stockholm, Sweden) The Swedish retro-electro outfit System has joined Progress Productions, leaving Lobotom Records behind. Herr A and Herr B (Mr. A and Mr. B) are now working on the finishing touches on a new album scheduled for this summer. You can have a listen here.
New World Cup, new Tyskarna från Lund single March 9 2006 | By: Aimée Kreuger (Stockholm, Sweden)
Tyskarna från Lund (The Germans from Lund, where Lund is their Swedish home town), who released "Global Fussball OK" during the 2002 World Cup, will of course be repeating their feat during this year's event in Germany. They probably hope the electronic joy mediated will raise the performances to a higher level. Although not a completely new song - the lyrics has changed, it has been remixed and it has a new name - "Global Fussball 06". Out on SSC on April 11. Moby slips back into the public eye March 9 2006 | By: Mike Whyte (Tokyo, Japan)
The Moby live DVD "Live the Hotel Tour 2005" is scheduled for March 13 (on Monday), while Moby music will also feature in the film “Southland Tales”, the latest film from director Richard “Donnie Darko” Kelly. January 23 saw the release of the latest single from Moby. “Slipping Away” is a brand new version of the album track with the same name; the original can be found on Moby”s last album “Motel”. There are nine different versions of the track up for grabs, spread across two CD:s and a 12” single. Potential highlights come from the remixes by Manhattan Clique (recent collaborators with Erasure/Andy Bell) on the maxi-CD, and electro-don Tiga on the 12” (Tiga has also remixed Depeche Mode's new single).
Hard electronics from down under March 9 2006 | By: Peter Marks (Portland, Oregon, USA) The second album from Australia's Temple of Tears, "Shattered" is now out. Temple of Tears describe their new album as "12 tracks of melodic gut-wrenching electro EBM". A remix of the title track by Assemblage 23 also is included. First three Depeche Mode rereleases on April 3 March 7 2006 | By: Johan Carlsson (Stockholm, Sweden) We have told you about the upcoming remastered editions of all Depeche Mode classic albums before, but now we have some more info. All albums will be available as both a regular CD/SACD disc with the remastered music in stereo on it, and as a DVD edition with the album in 5.1 DTS or Dolby Digital surround sound. The first batch of remasters consists of “Speak and Spell”, “Music for the Masses” and “Violator”, and comes out on April 3 in UK and on April 25 in the United States. The DVD editions will have bonus tracks on them, and they are the B-sides available from that era, also remastered in surround. In addition, the DVD versions will feature a documentary about the album. Check out remasters.depechemode.com for track listings. Depeche Mode in Simlish March 5 2006 | By: Johan Carlsson (Stockholm, Sweden)
- Depeche Mode has always been open to new ways of sharing our music, but re-recording a Simlish-language version of 'Suffer Well' just sounded completely bizarre. Of course, that's why we couldn't resist doing it. Furthermore, a video with footage of both Depeche Mode and gameplay from the game will be available on both thesims2.ea.com and www.depechemode.com. And it's not even April Fool's Day yet. Mortiis works with Rhys Fulber March 5 2006 | By: Johan Carlsson (Stockholm, Sweden)
Less elf these days. Norwegian dark elf Mortiis is working on a new album, this time produced by Rhys Fulber of Front Line Assembly, Paradise Lost, Delerium and Fear Factory fame. Apparently, Mortiis is focusing more on song writing this time, and he will try to make his industrial/gothic music more organic. - The distorted noise, electronics, and samples are still there, but these songs are more focused and have a more coherent interaction between the programmed and the organic, he says. Mentallo and the Fixer resurrected March 5 2006 | By: Peter Marks (Portland, Oregon, USA) "Enlightenment through a Chemical Catalyst" (Alfa-Matrix) - the new album from Austin, Texas' Mentallo and the Fixer - will be preceded by an EP entitled "Commandments for the Molecular Age". No release dates have yet been announced and it should also be noted that despite news to the contrary, Dwayne Dassing (Reign of Roses) has not re-joined the band but is assisting with production and final mixing. Mentallo and the Fixer debuted in 1990 after previously being incarnated as Benestrope with James Mendez (Jihad) handling vocals. The band became a household name in the electronic community throughout the 1990:s with albums such as "Revelations 23", "Where Angels Fear to Tread", "Continuum", "Burnt Beyond Recognition" (final album with Dwayne as a member) and "Algorythum" carving out quite a following. The next two albums "Love Is the Law" and "Vengeance Is Mine" saw Mentallo moving in a more experimental direction. "Enlightenment Through a Chemical Catalyst" is the first new work in over five years from Mentallo. Scroll down to read about Jihad. Old Swedish EBM vibes on the new Tolchock March 5 2006 | By: Mikael Kahrle (Gothenburg, Sweden)
Last summer we reported that EBM trio Tolchock from Northern Sweden was planning a comeback on the COP Intl label. Now, their new album "Wipe out, Burn Down, Annihilate" is out, a little later than initially planned. It's only USD 9.99, which might be a wise choice these days for a band like Tolchock. The sound immediately makes me think of the old Swedish EBM scene of the late 80:s and early 90:s released by labels like Front Music and Energy and lead by bands like Inside Treatment and Scapa Flow. These and Pouppée Fabrikk, Cat Rapes Dog and Cultivated Bimbo were also successful in Germany and some surrounding countries. Tolchock (then Tolchock 14) however, never really get their career going. 12x12 inch collection from New Order March 5 2006 | By: Mike Whyte (Tokyo, Japan) New Order have released a collection of rare, deleted or previously unreleased tracks. The collection, simply entitled "Singles", is made up of twelve 12-inch singles in total, and spans their whole career. Quite fitting from a band who released probably the biggest selling and most infamous 12-single of all time, the seminal "Blue Monday". As the title suggests, the core material of these special works is New Order's singles output, with tracks such as "True Faith", "Bizarre Love Triangle" and of course "Blue Monday" featuring. Some of the heavyweight remixers featured include Dave Clarke, Richard X, Arthur Baker and Steve "Silk" Hurley, among many others. For more information visit www.worldinmotion.net. The collection "Singles" is available now. Festival updates March 5 2006 | By: Mikael Kahrle (Gothenburg, Sweden) Germany's two-day fest M'era Luna reports that Bauhaus, Clan of Xymox, The Gathering, Liv Kristine, Unheilig, Spetsnaz, XPQ21, Within Temptation, Rotersand, Deathstars, Gothminister and Tristania are coming to this year's festival in mid-August. M'era Luna 2006 has a killer line-up headlined by Nitzer Ebb, Front Line Assembly, Ministry, Die Krupps, Apoptygma Berzerk and now also Bauhaus. As usual the four day mega event Wave Gotik Treffen builds an extensive program for the hardcore fans where most names are lesser known. Among the newer bookings we find The Dreamside, End of Green, Catastrophe Ballet, Deine Lakaien, Lacrimosa, Vive la Fete, Saltatio Mortis, Xandria, Samael, Liv Kristine, Necro Facility and Destroid with Daniel Meyer (Haujobb). Other updates include: Arvika: Blutengel and Hype. Roskilde: Sigur Rós and The Streets. Hultsfred: Within Temptation. Turkey calling March 5 2006 | By: Mikael Kahrle (Gothenburg, Sweden)
- People interested in alternative and electronic music in Turkey are not supported very much, he says. And because of the growing numbers of adsl modems here, people are downloading songs rather than paying for them. Like many other artists in countries with a weak scene like Turkey, Osman has used the full potential of internet. He has his own label, Ora, and sells his album digitally on sites like the new Swedish download store Klicktrack. Klicktrack features numerous indie labels, among them SSC, Memento Materia, Pluxemburg, M&A and Progress. One can listen pre-purchase. Klicktrack's CEO is Daggan Stamenkovic, perhaps known to some Release readers for his label Frequent Frenzy. Osman also burns CD-R copies for those who wants a CD version of his album. The Texas Jihad brothers return March 1 2006 | By: Peter Marks (Portland, Oregon, USA) Long dormant American electronic act Jihad have resumed recording activities. Composed of two brothers, Rich and James Mendez, the band have previously released one album entitled "A Prayer in the Night" in 1997 on the Ras DVA label. The title of the band's new album is "The Burning of Witches" with a label as yet to be decided upon for release. A side project called Trial by Fire also has been created. Their new work can be heard here and can best be described as very dark electro with classical flourishes and heavy atmospheres. They stress that these are instrumental versions with vocal parts still to be added. Jihad are based in San Antonio, Texas and were formed after Rich's departure from another Texan electro outfit called Benestrophe, which featured Gary Dassing (Mentallo and the Fixer) and Dwayne Dassing (ex-Mentallo and the Fixer, currently in Reign of Roses) as members. Stjarna: new project from John Alexander Ericson March 1 2006 | By: Niklas Forsberg (Kungälv, Sweden) Former Northern Territories member John Alexander Ericson keeps his busy schedule going. A new London based project called Stjarna is a collaboration with Mark van Hoen (producer for Mojave 3 and member of Locust) and Jamie Kane (Esher). The band have started to work on several compositions and can be heard here. John Alexander has also recorded a new solo album called "Black Clockworks" in Berlin, due out later in the year on Kalinkaland.
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Although enthusiastic
music fanatics aren't into
sports like your average "oh,
I listen to a little bit
of everything"-random guy,
we do have our own official,
unofficial World Cup soccer
song. 
Well, I bet you didn’t
see this one coming. Depeche
Mode will be featured in
the upcoming add-on to
the massive hit computer
game "The Sims 2", called “Open
for Business”. What’s
more, they will be singing
in the Sim language Simlish!
The track is “Suffer
Well”, and according
to the Electronic Arts
press release Dave Gahan
says:
Turkey's
Atonall is back with a
new album called "Waiting
for that Day". Atonall,
previously
featured in Release, is
a one-man project with
keyboard and bass player
as well as trained sound
engineer Osman
Refik Akyuz. He describes his
music as synthpop, industrial,
alternative and electro.