Back in 2015, the lead singer and co-founder Tod Law of Unit:187 died of leukemia. Leaving a huge hole in both the Vancouver industrial scene and in the band, that could easily have been the end of this impressive group. But if we fast-forward to 2024, there’s new life surging and the album “KillCure” is ready to be unleashed on the masses, via Metropolis Records. I’ve been following the process for a while, having heard clips of the songs in an unfinished state, before they were sent off for mastering. Even then, they sounded massive. [more...]
“Songs of Future Memories“ is a combined 3 CD and a 72-page art book, collecting four decades of Twice a Man – pioneers of Scandinavian electronic music. We meet up with Dan Söderqvist, Karl Gasleben and Jocke Söderqvist. [more...]
40 years after their self-titled debut album Duran Duran is still going strong with their 15th studio album ”Future Past” (October 22, 2021). The new album features collaborations with artists as diverse as Swedish pop star Tove Lo, Blur guitarist Graham Coxon and Japanese punk band CHAI. Erol Alkan and the legendary Giorgio Moroder helped out with production.
Release’s Sebastian Hess had a nice video chat with founding member Nick Rhodes while the band was preparing for a performance at the Austin City Limits Music Festival. They talked about how the pandemic made the album better, favorite collectables, Swedish connections, Nick’s side project and they even had time for a mini quiz.
Fix8:Sed8 have steadily been rising through the ranks of the electro industrial scene, getting stronger and stronger with each release. Melding Vancouver industrial à la Skinny Puppy and Front Line Assembly with its own twists and turns, the latest album “The Inevitable Relapse” further cements the band’s position. So we figured it was time to reach out to the man behind the name, Martin Sane. [more...]
The Damage Control collective shares the love for old school industrial – interview
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Collaborations are common on the industrial scene, but Damage Control takes it to the next level. So be warned: there’s some serious namedropping in this interview, including Chris Peterson, Phil Western, Greg Reely, Claus Larsen and Gin Devo.
Damage Control is quite new on the scene, having only released one album so far. It’s quite a strong album, and now it sort of returns albeit in remixed form. It’s all about the love for groovy old-school industrial music like Front Line Assembly, Noise Unit and Skinny Puppy. We asked Bill Barsby some questions, he is the main man behind the name and resides in Melbourne, Australia. [more...]
Release writer Sebastian Hess talked to Adam Anderson, one half of Hurts, about their 5th album “Faith”, partly recorded in Release hometown Gothenburg, struggling like Depeche Mode and the fact that singer Theo spent the first two weeks of lockdown in the company of only an octopus named Arnold. Singer Theo Hutchcraft has said that the new recordings were driven by the “darker elements of pop” and that the lyrics were inspired by “isolation, desperation and mania”. [more...]
Indochine 40 and more Swedish connections – Nicola Sirkis and Ludwig Dahlberg interviewed
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In 2015 Sebastian Hess and Henrik Wittgren from Release interviewed Nicola Sirkis in Stockholm, which resulted in our ”Indochine – The Swedish Connection” feature. In 2021 Indochine will celebrate 40 years as a band and we got the opportunity to talk to Nicola again. We also talked to Swedish drummer Ludwig Dahlberg to hear how he ended up in the biggest band in France. And as if this wasn’t enough, some early photos of Indochine in Sweden surfaced through a newly started Swedish Facebook group. Check them out towards the end. The 40 year celebration will include two compilation albums (the first one is out now), arena shows in France and a couple of new songs of which the single ”Nos Célébrations” is the first one. [more...]
It’s not often, if ever, you get a chance to meet your heroes. So when Alex Paterson, the only ever-present in the collective known as the Orb, pioneer of ambient electronic music, and the creator of the iconic tracks “Little Fluffy Clouds”, and “Blue Room” appears on your radar – even during times of lockdown – it’s time to give him a call. Mike Whyte has an inspired conversation with Mr Paterson in this Release Magazine exclusive. [more...]
Julian Brandt has a prolific musical past as a solo artist and in pop bands like Bobby and Lustans Lakejer and Marina Schiptjenko hardly needs an introduction as her contribution to the synthpop scene has been evident since the early eighties. As Julian & Marina the two have created lush electropop with bossanova influences for almost ten years now. We had a brief chat with Julian in connection to their new album “For Beautiful People Only” about their sound, a new Lustans Lakejer album and a possible Bobby reunion. [more...]
Following September’s News piece on celebrated coldwave duo Linea Aspera’s reunion, I spoke to Zoé Zanias (Alison Lewis) who revealed the current release and tour plans. [more...]