Helalyn Flowers - Nyctophilia

2018-06-19 (News)

Dear angels of the night, if like us you feel like belonging in the dark and feel so misunderstood by those people around you who find you sad, strange and even dangerous when they see you aimlessly wandering off late at night. We invite you embracing the Empyrean of darkness through Helalyn Flowers’ 5th studio album. The ultimate result of long creative night sessions in the band’s own studio in Roma - Italy.

With "Nyctophilia", Maxx and Noemi share their addiction to the night and carry us in their very own surrealistic nocturnal world where you will rapidly feel comfortable, far away from the daily routine, opening your mind to a unique mosaic of colours and emotions, plunging you into a sonic time tunnel sucking the 80’s New Wave moody catchy melodies and reinjecting them into a 21st century cyber industrial futuristic landscape, the whole reflected by Helalyn Flowers’ unique sonic kaleidoscope.
Strong from his constantly improving meticulous production skills that he could obviously solidify and refine throughout the previous albums recordings, Maxx intelligently revisited the aggressive hi-energy spontaneity of his early songs from the band’s 2007 debut "A Voluntary Coincidence" and fused it with the obsessive strength and vicious catchiness of the last "Sonic Foundation" opus.

"Nyctophilia" kind of sums up Helalyn Flowers’ stunning and quite eclectic discography while bringing it up to the next level. Wild mechanical industrial beats and sinister addictive synths blow an icy blast on the unique lush and revolted female vocals of Noemi Aurora. Fire and ice unite for a tour de force of high-impact sonic impressions and in-depth exploding emotions.
With "Nyctophilia", the alluring Italian duo offer us an escape from our basic down-to-Earth lifestyle towards the exciting darkside of the world where we acquire a deeper confidence with our own personal demons and turn them into sources of inspiration feeding our creative flow.
Helalyn Flowers’ new album has absolutely all the ingredients to apply for becoming one of the best electro pop rock albums of the year 2018!
The limited edition of the album holds a 12-track bonus disc featuring 3 amazing remixes by the band itself revealing the impressive ability of Maxx to mutate his own dark songs into forceful club anthems! Add to this a sonic orgy of remixes of the band’s last club hit single "Kamikaze Angel" rendered in the most varied styles ranging from hard dance to pop rock through lo-fi electro and other future electro. Last but not least, a very alluring duet on "Beyond" with the enigmatic Imjudas, Maxx’s very own and promising dark pop solo-project whose debut album is expected later this year... 

Aiboforcen - Sense & Nonsense

2018-06-17 (News)

It’s 7 years after the last "Dédale" album, that Belgium’s cult dark electro act Aiboforcen now returns with their 6th full length album "Sense & Nonsense".
Still mostly centered today around the intriguing personality of mastermind Benoit Blanchart and the enigmatic female singer Patrice Synthea (Regenerator lead singer), Aiboforcen once again could not resist collaborating with an impressive and more than promising list of special guests on this album!

Starting straight into it with what could be Aiboforcen’s best song ever, the poignant and electric "We Woke Up The Dragon" features the extraordinary vocal talent of Jean-Luc De Meyer (Front 242) who lends his unique voice on not less than 3 songs on this album, including a surprising upbeat EBM cover version of Front 242’s "Loud" and the more atmospheric and darkish "The Arrival".
All in all, Aiboforcen remain faithful to their characteristic mixture of low-tempo complex dark eletro arrangements with straighter modern up-beat synth- / body-pop songs. A melange which appears to be more than efficient when we consider that the band manages here to follow a meticulous artistic conceptual red line around contradiction, sense and nonsense while aligning such diverse songs as the oppressive "We Woke Up The Dragons", the future pop club hit "Come Clean" featuring Patrice Synthea at her best and especially on the moody dark trip hop "Tears".

Aiboforcen confirm once more to be a band who do not care much about any current music trends and favour taking the time they need to deliver another high quality album of dark melodic electronic music…
The limited edition of the album comes out with a 13-track bonus disc entitled "An End Unto Itself" revealing some 3 exclusive non-album tracks.

Juno Reactor - The Mutant Theatre

2018-06-15 (News)

From the back streets of London to Hollywood blockbusters of the Matrix, Juno Reactor's story is ever evolving. Ben Watkins aka Juno Reactor is constantly exploring new areas visually and musically, evidenced by the new album "The Mutant Theatre" (also the name of the new live extravaganza).
"The Mutant Theatre" is a resounding achievement from one of trance's most innovative, pioneering artists.

Johan Baeckström - Utopia

2018-06-13 (News)

Johan Baeckström, previously most well known as part of the electronic pop duo Daily Planet, made a highly acclaimed debut as a solo artist three years ago (2015), with the album "Like Before". Critics and fans praised the song material as well as the fact that Baeckström not only is a great synthesist and producer, but apparently also a vocalist to be reckoned with.

Finally we are glad to announce "Utopia", Johan Baeckström's brand new second solo album. The title track from the album was released in April and gave a good hint about what to expect from the album – Baeckström's characteristic electronic sound, weaved around strong melodies in a perfect mix of fast, slow and mid-tempo songs. The perfect electronic pop album.
Released as a limited edition CD, 500 copies worldwide, hand-numbered.

Jérôme Chassagnard - Sea

2018-06-11 (News)

The sea, the vast interconnected system of earth's salty, oceanic waters, has been traveled and explored since prehistory - an essential aspect of human trade, travel, mineral extraction, and power generation. Its importance has affected human culture from the early sea gods to hyperrealist marine art, and inspiring music ranging from shanties to classical orchestral works.
The sea has also been an important influence throughout electronic artist Jérôme Chassagnard's life. And being a passionate aquanaut, he devised these four lucid compositions devoted to these powerful, mystic, even sometimes terrifying waters.

On this EP the oceanic sensations Jérôme experiences are musically transcribed, both as an inspiration and through the sound itself, as many of sonic ingredients were extracted from aquatic sources. Manifold tones from sequenced variations of drips to the mighty breaking of waves have been embedded in a mesmeric vortex of ambient depth and provocative idm precision.

Deeply atmospheric and forceful at the same time, 'Sea' shows the most different facets of an element which will never forfeit its important and fascination.

Monolog - Indemnity and Oblivion

2018-06-08 (News)

The man behind the project had to suffer the passing of people who were very close to him. The pain of guilt for not being able to save them, for the sincerity and incomprehension that led to early death and downfall - even simply for still being alive himself led to a personal crisis. But where there is guilt, there is the possibility of forgiveness, and forgiveness often comes through pain - this album can be seen as the soundtrack to a new and important lesson learned.

'Indemnity and Oblivion‘ is a continuation as well as a refinement of Monolog’s musical concept. While re-discovering the joy and skill of playing electric guitar he also rediscovered his entombed metal roots and married them to his profound electronic production experience with a new deep voice. Meeting metal singer and songwriter Mathias Lodmalm (Cemetary, Sundown) by chance was a great coincidence and led to a collaboration for one track of this album, exploring a new terra in music and expression.
Another inspiring cooperation of importance for making seemingly unrealizable ideas possible was the one with Dean Rodell (Machinecode, Underhill) who inspired new practices on this album with a fascinatingly different approach.
The third significant contribution was made on the tracks 'skeletons are watching me‘ and 'agenda‘, born in synergy with film director Raphael Dingé and dancers Thaïs Lebas and Deborah Darritchon. The collective creativity between these artists and Monolog marked a special crossover of art and resulted not only in these two tracks but also in an enthralling video clip - a perfect mindset about sinister tales and dark vibes.

Metal, dub, drum and bass, breakcore are perfect types of music to use for regaining strength and force you to lift reality, therefore these styles can be examined under a certain therapeutical aspect, especially when this album’s backdrop is understood.
'Indemnity and Oblivion‘ is a gripping ride of mood and sound where brute force symbiotically join forces with fragile melodic beauty and linear dry beat punches take turns with wide reverberated spaces. A demanding, even sometimes exhausting musical conglomerate - rough and not pleasant but with the ability to trigger high bursts of energy that will grant you a new experience once you engaged with it.

This album is fuel for hard times, when atheists repent and walk the desert without the comfort of gods, carried by will and the love of brothers and sisters knowing that musical invention and creativity is a must for reaching a new safe haven of thought.