| |
|
News editors: Mikael Kahrle & Johan Carlsson |
 |
"Judgement" from VNV Nation soon upon us Feb 13 2007 | By: Johan Carlsson (Stockholm, Sweden)
The new album “Judgement” by VNV Nation is out on April 10, and supposedly has a varied sound, ranging from aggressive EBM with guitar sounding synths, electro-indie, to dark trance and beautiful ballads. Here is the track list: “Prelude”, “The Farthest Star”, “Testament”, “Descent”, “Momentum”, “Nemesis”, “Secluded Spaces”, “Illusion”, “Carry You” and “As It Fades”. Former Second Decay singer goes solo Feb 13 2007 | By: Johan Carlsson (Stockholm, Sweden)
The project is conveniently called Purwien, and he’s signed to Major Records. Purwien was part of the "Elektrisch" tour of Germany in late January with Mesh and others and will play in Sweden on February 23. Sister Vanilla resurfaces Feb 13 2007 | By: Mattias Huss (Uppsala, Sweden) Linda Reid's album "Little Pop Rock", which was released in 2005 in Japan only, will finally be out in the rest of the world in March. For those of you who can't wait for the Coachella festival, this is sort of a covert reunion of The Jesus and Mary Chain, since both of Linda's big brothers are behind her on the album. Apparently this release is not identical to the Japanese one. SAMA line-up Feb 11 2007 | By: Mikael Kahrle (Gothenburg, Sweden) John Foxx, Reaper, Menticide, Northborne, Anders Eliasson (and previously booked acts Client, S.P.O.C.K and Combichrist) will play at the final Scandinavian Alternative Music Awards in Gothenburg on April 6. Ellen Allien takes a trip to "The Other Side" Feb 9 2007 | By: Mike Whyte (Tokyo, Japan)
Ellen Allien is to release the fourth chapter in the “The Other Side” series, acting as the artist-guide to the city of Berlin. The format will remain the same as previous releases, being a dual release of both a CD and DVD. The CD version is a mix of tracks based around Allien's take on the Berlin music scene, while the DVD acts as an intimate visual guidebook to the best of Berlin, as seen through the eyes of Allien herself. The CD will not only feature a track by Ellen Allien, but classic cuts from the likes of Carl Craig and Plastikman, and the German version of the classic David Bowie track “Heroes”. “The Other Side – Berlin” will be released in both mixed CD and DVD form on April 28t, through Time Out and Deaf Dumb and Blind Recordings. Nine Inch Nails DVD, HD DVD and Blu-Ray imminent Feb 9 2007 | By: Mike Whyte (Tokyo, Japan)
Nine Inch Nails is to release a DVD simultaneously across three formats (DVD, HD DVD and Blu-Ray configurations) – the first commercially available music DVD to do this. The release “Nine Inch Nails Live: Beside You in Time” will be available from February 27, with the main focus being on concert performances from NIN’s “Live with Teeth 2006” tour. The DVD will feature 24 live tracks, spanning the artist’s career to date, and will also include music videos and rehearsal footage, among other things. In addition, the HD DVD and Blu-Ray formats will utilise increased definition and sound. The worldwide release was preceded by viewing parties in major cities across North America around the end of last month.
More "death disco" from Necro Facility Feb 8 2007 | By: Mikael Kahrle (Gothenburg, Sweden)
Necro Facility's critically acclaimed debut album will be followed by "The Room" on March 21. The release date and the artwork were just set. The young Swedish duo with Henrik Bäckström and Oscar Holter have been preparing the ten album tracks for two years and the label calls their sound "death disco". It's obvious to everyone and no secret the duo digs Skinny Puppy but "The Room" is said to also show a more aggressive, haunting style reminiscent of Nine Inch Nails. Oscar Holter works a musician/programmer and has done numerous jobs outside Necro Facility. "The Room" will come in regular as well as a limited edition of 200 copies with remixes from Interlace and others. Two new Necro Facility tracks were featured on the Progress label sampler "Born/Evolve/Progress 2", which climbed as high as number 16 in the regular Swedish sales charts. It remains to be seen if "The Room" gets a higher grade in Release than Skinny Puppy's latest album "Mythmaker" (which got a seven). Skinny Puppy side project Doubting Thomas reissued Feb 8 2007 | By: Johan Carlsson (Stockholm, Sweden) One of my favourite albums will be re-released soon, so a new generation can hear it. The Skinny Puppy side project Doubting Thomas made one EP (“Father Don’t Cry”) and an album (“The Infidel”), and both are pretty hard to get hold of today. Now they will both be available in as a double-disc package in late February. New artwork, bonus tracks, and a remaster make me want it as well, even though I have both discs in question. This is part of the Vault series, and you can order it from Subconscious. Michael Cashmore back with prominent guests Feb 8 2007 | By: Mattias Huss (Uppsala, Sweden) While the snow piles up here in Sweden, Michael Cashmore is releasing a new mini album called "The Snow Abides" in the end of February, with Antony Hegarty singing lyrics written by David Tibet. Antony appeared on the two most enticing tracks on Current 93:s latest effort "Black Ships Ate the Sky", which makes this effort all the more exciting. David Tibet, by the way, released Antony and the Johnsons' first album on his Durtro label long before the band achieved international stardom. Cashmore used to release music under the moniker Nature and Organisation, and has written most of the evocative music for Current 93 ever since the departure of Douglas Pearce of Death in June. He has previously released the full length album "Sleep England" under his own name.
Nine Inch Nails release "Year Zero" in April Feb 6 2007 | By: Johan Carlsson (Stockholm, Sweden) Wow, that was fast! The man who usually needs half a decade to produce a new album will release “Year Zero” in April, only two years after “With Teeth”. In further news, Ladytron will open for NIN on the upcoming tour. Covenant and Portion Control to remix FLA Feb 6 2007 | By: Johan Carlsson (Stockholm, Sweden)
On top of three new tracks, some interesting remixers were announced. Covenant will remix “The Storm”, which has Eskil himself on vocals. Should be interesting. Other remixers are Combichrist, Sebastian Komor (from Icon of Coil), DJ Acucrack, Portion Control, Greg Reely (long time producer and engineer of FLA), Dan Hearley (has worked with Nickelback, Strapping Young Lad and Zimmer’s Hole). FLA men Rhys Fulber and Jeremy Inkel have also made their own versions of two tracks. "Fallout" should be out in April or May.
First SAMA bands revealed Feb 4 2007 | By: Mikael Kahrle (Gothenburg, Sweden)
Client, Combichrist and S.P.O.C.K are the first three SAMA live bands to be announced. The tenth and final Scandinavian Alternative Music Awards takes place in Gothenburg on April 6. The voting is now open and closes on February 28.
The evil twin of Tinitus Feb 2 2007 | By: Johan Carlsson (Stockholm, Sweden)
Tomorrow, we see the return of Sonic Havoc, the evil twin of the Tinitus festival, arranged by the same people. The Stockholm audience likes it rough, and that’s what they’ll get here. A plethora of hard hitting bands will perform, as well as DJ:s and visual artists. Four of the bands are currently making a tour of Europe together, with Sonic Havoc as one of the stops. This Wintergewitter tour with bands from the Black Rain label started in Leipzig yesterday, visit Copenhagen tonight followed by Stockholm tomorrow. Then it's off to Norway, The Czech Republic, Germany, The Netherlands and Belgium. First off, we have Cyborg Attack, who has just released “Stoerfucktor” and play hard old-school EBM. Tyske Ludder has been around since the early nineties, and after a long hiatus, they released a new album in 2006. Supreme Court has existed in different incarnations since 1996, and has now returned after eight years of silence. They have made some tracks for compilations and also a collaboration with Feindflug. Which leads us neatly onto the next band, namely… Feindflug! Hard, uncompromising EBM with war themes that created a lot of noise at the Tinitus Festival in 2003. On top of these bands, local Swedish band Run Level Zero will play. RLZ make dark, moody electro-industrial, and perhaps we’ll hear something from the upcoming album, made with the help of Oskar from Necro Facility. Eskil Simonsson from Covenant will DJ on the "heavy monster-sound dancefloor", and so will the female DJ duo Devi & Nephilum, while Digital Youth takes care of the visual side, with huge projector screens. Tickets will be sold in the door for 200 SEK.
Throbbing Gristle's "Part Two" out on April 1 Feb 2 2007 | By: Mattias Huss (Uppsala, Sweden) Throbbing Gristle have finally finished their long awaited new studio album "Part Two", with the release date set to April 1 this year. The initial pressing will include one of four special "totemic gifts" but still be sold at regular CD price. The band has yet to announce any tour schedule for this year, but it seems that live gigs are indeed being planned. A teaser track from the album can be heard on MySpace. On a related note, Nurse with Wound, Current 93 and Coil have now all designed Absinthe bottles and cases for Absinthvertrieb Lion. Peter Christopherson is planning the first release from The Threshold HouseBoys Choir. Mind:State – new electronic music from Sweden Feb 2 2007 | By: Johan Carlsson (Stockholm, Sweden) It seems like there’s no stopping us here up north. New acts pop up regularly, and one of the latest is the futurepoppy Mind:State who recently got a deal with Alfa Matrix. Per Holmström is the man behind the name, and his first output on the Belgian label is the debut album “Decayed, Rebuilt” on February 27. Downbeat electronic music compilation Feb 2 2007 | By: Mike Whyte (Tokyo, Japan) Following on from recent News, Chillosophy Records has recently released their first compilation album. Entitled “Defining Moments”, the album is said to be based around the ethos of the label - "the core of Chillosophy", making it an important release for them. Over a year in-the-making, it features 13 tracks from the likes of Pan Electric, Omnimotion and Fingertwister, with a focus on downbeat electronic music (in a variety of different guises).
Apoptygma Berzerk to Arvika, Björk to Roskilde Feb 1 2007 | By: Mikael Kahrle (Gothenburg, Sweden)
Apoptygma Berzerk, IAMX, Pluxus, In Flames, The Ark and The Magic Numbers are some of the latest addition to the Arvika 2007 line-up. In neighboring Denmark, Roskilde Festival has announced that Björk is one of the headliners this year. |
Christian Stephan Purwien, former singer in the German electropop band Second Decay, has gone on to make a solo album called “Eins”. The first single “Alle Fehler” comes out on March 16, and features Joachim Witt as well. 
