Beats News

Following on from last December’s sold out “Scarred For Life Volume One” CD and the subsequent clamour for a vinyl version, here we bring you a second volume of TV themes for the shows that might have been, or actually never were. An unashamedly hauntological deep dive into an alternative 70s/80’s where our viewing reality was slightly warped. Gauzy memories of our early interactions with the TV, long buried, but remaining in the periphery of our childhood memories...
The SFL Volume One team has been reassembled, with some significant new additions to the line-up.

Taking up the gauntlet thrown down by New York's no wave scene, many Italian bands of the early '80s, playing far from the footlights of the world's stage, began creating compelling, and often cutting edge, hybrid sounds. This kind of experimenting soon went viral along the entire peninsula: from Southern Italy to the Alps, creating a brave new Italian take on post-punk. From the nervous white funk of Neopolitans Bisca, to the instrumental explorations of Confusional Quartet, to the "fake jazz" of the Hi-Fi Bros (who even had a track produced by Arto Lindsay), to Band Aid, this collection testifies to one of the most creative periods of the Italian underground. Also features: Eazycon, Modern Model, Die Form, Funkwagen, Nofun, Hakkah, Illogico, Rinf, and State Of Art. Includes CD; CD features the previously unreleased bonus track by La Maison, "Noise Express".

Yearly compilation album RADAR by KEROXEN returns with its fourth volume in the ongoing series of themed based albums showcasing the talents and misfortunes of carefully selected musical projects based or connected with the Canary Islands.

With its first volume released in 2020 aiming to promote and divulge adventurous Island based music, the Keroxen imprint now presents Vol.4 with another showcase of the various insular musical scenes made in the outermost regions – in this case, a very rare incursion outside the Canary Archipelago by way of handpicking friends and colleagues working in the further most regions we can think of. A very special showcase then, featuring the Azores Islands, Reunion Island, Canary Islands and French Guiana - a true connection of likeminded minds whom demonstrate once again that you do not need to be in an western hipster mecca to make interesting work.

The presentation format sticks to its breakable rules, with each artist offering one track per side and the full thing of course wrapped up in Pura Marquez dizzying post-tropical art.

The album opens with the Julee Cruise inspired project Akane by Tenerife’s Carolina Machado where synth arpeggios intertwine organically with her soothing voice, setting the tone for Reunion Island’s Jako Maron and his unique take on local Maloya music by way of electrifying it into a trance like looping beat. Enter French Guyana’s Daryanna Jean unique sound artistry with sampling, cutting and pasting local(?) sounds into a disorientating needle jump glitch fest. Side A eventually closes with a very Azorean take on the very English hauntological sound by borrowing those pastoral melodies and synth riffs of yesterday and transposing it to the remote Sub-Tropical fields of São Miguel island, in the Azores, courtesy of Flipping Candy.

Side B emphatically reinforces the compilation’s original concept that no matter where you are, in this post internet, post everything world, outsider music thrives and keeps raising the invisible bar, true that!

“The Missing Boys” is a film born from the need to tell the story of the emergence and affirmation of a forgotten music scene, like much of the youth movement that spread in metropolitan areas as well as in the provinces more than forty years ago, dealing with the same critical issues of everywhere. It’s a story of mostly unknown bands, who from Sardinia, especially from Cagliari and Sassari, interrupt the blissful isolation of an island, only apparently distant from that revolution that ignited wherever there was a stage and a power socket. The birth of a path that began with punk and quickly transformed into a magmatic picture where research, experimentation, sound subversions and slivers of darkness, shape a multifaceted and unique scene in balance between affinities and divergences with its whole surroundings. The examined period between 1979 and 1989 marks a seminal decade, a ten years time-frame linked to an indelible generational transition, like an imaginary journey “from the ants to the clouds”, an invisible thread suspended between those kids and their great dream. This album contains music from a vibrant and uncompromising season, just like all that cannot be recognized as industrial product and maintains an independent spirit. (Davide Catinari)

Several years of mutual appreciation and encounters on- and off-stage have been the root of this chance meeting, resulting in an unplanned mysterious collaboration album where the aura of each individual is augmented by the magic osmosis of united forces. The 12- tracks display a collage of dreamy musique concrète with desolate instrumental and vocal interventions, masterfully balanced out by Vincent Epplay.

Reissue of the first three 12” in the record series dedicated to musicians who took part in the Greetings festival. It happened in 1987, it was time for Materiali Sonori 10th anniversary, an historic goal for the label/collective born in the small Tuscany village of San Giovanni Valdarno. The small celebration brought to life a box collecting the first 3 Eps of the Greetings from S.G.V. series. The series was intended as symbolic sound postcard, made with various musicians with whom the collective label shared a path, whether small or long. The Durutti Column, The Stockholm Monsters and Blaine R. Reininger (Tuxedomoon) are among the artist who took part to the project, here collected for the very first time. Lantern is pleased to pay tribute to the work of people whose passion, attitude, commitment and genuineness inspired this adventure still true to these days. "Our presence in this small tuscan town is almost casual... physically we were born and grew up here, while our hearts and our minds were travelling to Paris, Berlin, Brussels, New York or London" (Giampiero Bigazzi of Marteriali Sonori , taken from the original inner sleeves notes).

Nichts wirkte in den 70er und 80er Jahren so neu, modern oder futuristisch wie ein Synthesizer. Wenn ein Werbespot das Produkt oder sein Unternehmen zukunftsorientiert und der Zeit voraus erscheinen lassen sollte, wollte man etwas Elektronisches, etwas Außergewöhnliches. Als Fernsehproduzenten und Werbedirektoren nach Musik suchten, die wie 'Tubular Bells' und später nach Jean-Michel Jarre klang, mussten Musikbibliotheken wie De Wolfe, Bruton, Parry und Chappell die Titel sofort verfügbar haben. - 'Tomorrow's Fashions', zusammengestellt von Bob Stanley, reicht von Werbe-Jingles und TV-Themen bis hin zu herrlicher, beatloser Atmosphäre. Die Electronica-Marke 'Tomorrow's Fashions' nahm New Age- und Ambient-Musik vorweg. Sie hatte auch einen direkten und indirekten Einfluss auf Pop - die frühen Human League und die dann folgenden Sounds von Warp Records sind überall in dieser Compilation zu finden. Electronic Library-Tracks wurden von vielen Artists gesampelt, von MF Doom bis Kendrick Lamar. Was für den einen primitiv und experimentell ist, ist für den anderen ein Schlaflied aus dem Weltraumzeitalter. Dies war Musik, die im Verborgenen gemacht wurde, in Sohos geheimen Musikbibliothek-Studios, und die jetzt begehrt bei Sammlern und nicht zuletzt einflussreich geworden ist.

Dies ist die LP-Version der sehr erfolgreichen CD-Einspielung des Arrangements für vier Klaviere von Mike Oldfi elds Kultstück "Tubular Bells".
"Tubular Bells", veröffentlicht 1973, ist das bahnbrechende Debütalbum des britischen Multiinstrumentalisten Mike Oldfi eld. Die Mischung aus progressivem Rock, Klassik und Volksmusik machte das Album für seine experimentelle Struktur berühmt, die zwei Teile erstrecken sich über insgesamt fast eine Stunde. Die Musik ist vollständig instrumental. Was "Tubular Bells" so einzigartig macht, ist die vielschichtige Komposition, bei der Oldfi eld alle Instrumente – insgesamt über 20 – selbst spielt, darunter Gitarren, Keyboards, Schlagzeug und natürlich die Röhrenglocken, die
"Tubular Bells". Das eröffnende Klaviermotiv, das im Film "Der Exorzist" von 1973 eine wichtige Rolle spielte, wurde zur Ikone und trug zum kommerziellen Erfolg des Albums bei

Technology was meant to be humanity’s tool to combat famine, disease, confusion, and to facilitate life, culture, and innovation. Instead, we’re mired in a digital labyrinth that few care to navigate or even solve. Perhaps it’s not a ruse and the matrices coded by keyboard maestros are a path to liberation, but without querying the constructs we cannot ruminate on their affectations on humanity.

VR SEX are audio/visual provocateurs who transpose the identifiers of death rock, synth punk, post-punk, ambient, and ethereal soundscapes into an audit on technology and its imprint on our collective psyche. Comprised of visionary mercenaries Noel Skum (Andrew Clinco of Drab Majesty), Z. Oro (Aaron Montaigne of Antioch Arrow/Heroin/DBC) on vocals and drums, and Mico Frost (Brian Tarney) on synths and electric bass.

Their debut tome, Human Traffic Jam, focuses on lyrical themes that probe the possibilities of loss of autonomy through social media, the decline of human interaction, and celebrity favoritism. Skum believes in the stabilization of society and preservation of our planet by reducing its amount of procreators.

Through PSRS or Procreation Simulation Reproduction Stimulation, humans can act on their hedonistic desires and not face the responsibilities and consequences that come with being an ill-prepared guardian. The future of our offspring will exist in virtual realms and population growth in turn will be stabilized. VR SEX is the cure to most societal ills.
Thematically condensed into an eight song album, Human Traffic Jam was written and demoed by Skum in a flat in Athens, Greece during the winter of 2017. During a rigorous week long session at Figure 8 studios with experimental and dimensional production extraordinaire Ben Greenberg (Uniform/The Men), Skum solely committed all the instrumentation present on Human Traffic Jam.
Rather than being emblematic of influences, each song on the LP infuses a dire tension that cuts shimmer with fetid frequencies, never establishing an aural hierarchy or urgency. Instead, we’re lead into punchy capsules of “dour pop”; the balance of saccharine and sour so emblematic of the VR SEX hive mind.

DAIS Records releases VR SEX’s debut album “Human Traffic Jam” on April 26, 2019 on digital, vinyl LP (packaged in a thick matte stock jacket with a printed inner eurosleeve with lyrics and download card in various colored vinyl variants), as well as compact disc, housed in a matte digipack with lyric insert and features the bonus track “Corridor (Epilogue)”. Cover art by Brooklyn based artist Adam Helms.

Technology was meant to be humanity’s tool to combat famine, disease, confusion, and to facilitate life, culture, and innovation. Instead, we’re mired in a digital labyrinth that few care to navigate or even solve. Perhaps it’s not a ruse and the matrices coded by keyboard maestros are a path to liberation, but without querying the constructs we cannot ruminate on their affectations on humanity.

VR SEX are audio/visual provocateurs who transpose the identifiers of death rock, synth punk, post-punk, ambient, and ethereal soundscapes into an audit on technology and its imprint on our collective psyche. Comprised of visionary mercenaries Noel Skum (Andrew Clinco of Drab Majesty), Z. Oro (Aaron Montaigne of Antioch Arrow/Heroin/DBC) on vocals and drums, and Mico Frost (Brian Tarney) on synths and electric bass.

Their debut tome, Human Traffic Jam, focuses on lyrical themes that probe the possibilities of loss of autonomy through social media, the decline of human interaction, and celebrity favoritism. Skum believes in the stabilization of society and preservation of our planet by reducing its amount of procreators.

Through PSRS or Procreation Simulation Reproduction Stimulation, humans can act on their hedonistic desires and not face the responsibilities and consequences that come with being an ill-prepared guardian. The future of our offspring will exist in virtual realms and population growth in turn will be stabilized. VR SEX is the cure to most societal ills.
Thematically condensed into an eight song album, Human Traffic Jam was written and demoed by Skum in a flat in Athens, Greece during the winter of 2017. During a rigorous week long session at Figure 8 studios with experimental and dimensional production extraordinaire Ben Greenberg (Uniform/The Men), Skum solely committed all the instrumentation present on Human Traffic Jam.
Rather than being emblematic of influences, each song on the LP infuses a dire tension that cuts shimmer with fetid frequencies, never establishing an aural hierarchy or urgency. Instead, we’re lead into punchy capsules of “dour pop”; the balance of saccharine and sour so emblematic of the VR SEX hive mind.

DAIS Records releases VR SEX’s debut album “Human Traffic Jam” on April 26, 2019 on digital, vinyl LP (packaged in a thick matte stock jacket with a printed inner eurosleeve with lyrics and download card in various colored vinyl variants), as well as compact disc, housed in a matte digipack with lyric insert and features the bonus track “Corridor (Epilogue)”. Cover art by Brooklyn based artist Adam Helms.

East Coast minimal wave institution Xeno & Oaklander’s seventh full-length further distills their iconic noir synth pop into a streamlined suite of gleaming, graceful retrofuturism. Inspired by ideas of synesthesia, scent, star worship, and obsolescent technologies, the duo of Liz Wendelbo and Sean McBride began conceiving the blueprint of Vi/deo while sequestered at their Southern Connecticut home studio during the pandemic. The context of isolation, streaming, and remote dreaming seeped into their chemistry, manifesting as both homage to and meditation on a certain cinematic strain of technicolor fantasy: the screen as stage, distance disguised as intimacy, where tragedy and glamor crossfade into one.



Opening with the precision synthetic melancholy of “Infinite Sadness,” the album marks a peak fluidity between the pair’s fusion of analog electronics and poetic melody, both refined and oblique, classic but contemporary. Wendelbo modeled her singing on “a young boy in a choir,” alternately holding notes and whispering them, with the lyrics clear, the voice elevated. McBride’s synthesizers serve as the perfect counterpart, tiered and polished, threading fluorescent architectures of a lost audio-visual age. Theirs is a... more