Empirion - ADSR

2019-11-04 (News)

Empirion carefully load the second round into the chamber of their electronic muzzle-loader. The second Single from their album "Resume" is called "ADSR", an abbreviation for "Attack, Decay, Sustain, Release". These are the four components that determine the rise and fall of a musical impulse from pressing the key to Silence:

Attack is the time required for the initial rise in level from zero to peak, starting with pressing the key.
Decay is the time it takes to pass from the attack level to the intended sustain level.
Sustain is the level during the main sequence of the duration of the sound until the button is released.
Release is the time it takes for the level to drop from sustain level to zero when the button is released.
These four parameters can be used to individually compose and modify sounds, especially in the field of electronic music. It is one of the essential creative playgrounds for anyone involved in electronic sound design.

This design philosophy culminates with the second single A-side "ADSR", an EBM/Techno grenade of the first rank, for which Empirion have also brought some great remixers to the start: Cubanate, Leeroy Thornhill (SmashHifi, Ex-The Prodigy), Seething Akira are some of the remixers who tried their hand at "ADSR" on the single. Together with Xavier Morel, who delivered a great rework of the albums "Too Many Masters", two of their own mixes and an exclusive B-side called "I Just Like The Noise", Empirion are once again shooting an excellent package at their crowd.

First Aid 4 Souls - Keep This World Empty

2019-10-25 (News)

Veteran Hungarian artist István Gazdag has been active in the avant-garde electronic / industrial scene since the late 80’s with numerous and quite diversified releases on various labels under his belt and some amazing remix work for legendary bands like Coil, Soft Cell, Test. Dept., Cabaret Voltaire and Einstürzende Neubauten. In the last few years, he joined hands with US-based singer Mortum who brought a darker dimension through his harsher vocals and darker lyrics to their now common project First Aid 4 Souls.

Their new album "Keep This World Empty" is their most striking and achieved production to date. First of all, the entire album conception is based on the Russian contemporary novel "Ice" written by Vladimir Sorokin. Song after song, we follow the book’s awakening process, the emotional evolution shifting the mental levels of the human mind eventually influencing sensory perceptions and physical conditions. The album reflects the unavoidable collapse of our faulty human society that gets caught by an icy blast abruptly plunging the Earth into a frozen and rigid state where arts and values fade into oblivion, where the human snake ends up biting its own tail…

FA4S stands out as unique in their genre by always building strong conceptual musical art with no compromise and in constant relation with intellectual sources of influence. They design unpredictable and highly addictive electronic art for hearts & brains… They enjoy taking their audience by surprise, challenging ears and minds by mixing dense atmospheres and vicious dark melodies with powerful vocals, harder upbeat moments with a brutal edge and a hypnotic coldness. And it's no surprise that they are compared to such diverse bands as Skinny Puppy, Laibach, Clock Dva, Front Line Assembly, X-Marks The Pedwalk, Project Pitchfork!

Open your senses and let the ever-evolving project of First Aid 4 Souls feed you with icy old school Electronic Body Music with occult science behind. Uplifting! 

In The Nursery - The Seashell & the Clergyman

2019-10-22 (News)

In The Nursery announce the release of a new soundtrack album - 'The Seashell & the Clergyman' - the 9th in their Optical Music series. Widely recognised as the first surrealist film, 'The Seashell and the Clergyman' is a complex, controversial and multi-layered film directed by Germaine Dulac, from an original scenario by Antonin Artaud. Back in days it was banned, stated as "If there is a meaning, it is doubtless objectionable".

Listed as one of the great Feminist Films, the movie is described as "a visually imaginative critique of patriarchy – state and church – and of male sexuality."

In The Nursery’s new score sonically reinterprets the inherent symbolism of the film, utilising sound design and experimental recording approaches.

ELM - Extreme Unspoken Tension

2019-10-18 (News)

With his new 13-track "Extreme Unspoken Tension" album, Swedish veteran and one-man assault squad Peter Elm sets the bar of top notch old-school EBM with attitude one level higher and signs here a true classic Electronic Body Music album to be classified just between Nitzer Ebb’s "That Total Age" and DAF’s "Alles Ist Gut"!

3… 2… 1… GO! The new ELM is here! Go grab it before it grabs you!

The opening "Redemption" directly sets the mood and plunges you in a tense, weird and menacing atmosphere à la "Clockwork Orange" lead by Laibach-ish martial beats and narrative vocals. Paranoia then sets in a bit deeper in your flashing mind with "Apocalypse 20160703", an even slower and almost decadent trip hop electro cut, that sucks you up like a hidden merciless dark worm. And that’s exactly at that very uncomfortable moment of doubt that ELM grabs you by the throat and shakes your ass with the stomping straightforward EBM hit "Death Of The North"!

Our favourite unstoppable EBM-hit machine is back: harder, darker and stronger! And the fireworks simply continue with the powerful "Cut You Down", the very Nitzer Ebb-ish "Deathbed Love" and its heavy baseline or yet the relentless explosion of rage of the turbo cut "Mindgame".

And it’s when you are reaching that poignant breathtaking climax that leaves us wondering what could still come next, that this roller coaster album throws you, half-suffocating, in an unexpected vertiginous fall from "Altitude 100", an intimate and viciously addictive melodic synth pop song. But the dancefloor assaults rapidly take over with the raw "Distracted", the hypnotic aggressive new club hit "Thoughtcrime" or the amazing "Switching Addictions" that is bound to become a true classic electro tune with its refreshing tone.

"Extreme Unspoken Tension" then makes another unpredictable u-turn and trashes you the straight and unpolished old-school EBM "War Machine" scud in the face, followed by the extremely powerful "Violent Heart" and the closing uncompromising anthemic "Smother Box" that eventually punches you knockout once for all.

And once you regained consciousness from that sonic blackout, your brain obsessively orders you: Repeat – Repeat - Repeat… And you just play it again… and again… and the roller coaster brings you up and down on that ever-looping ultimate journey into Electronic Body Music realms.

Consume without moderation and at maximum volume. Brace for impact!
 

Inkubus Sukkubus - Lilith Rising

2019-10-15 (News)

Once more and again Inkubus Sukkubus release an album, and once more and again it is the kiss of the dark divine. ‘Lilith Rising' is the 25 th album by the band, and 2019 marks 30 years since their formation, way back in the summer of 1989.

The new album delivers the promise of the dark supernatural world of Inkubus Sukkubus. From gentler moments of acoustic Horror Folk to the Electric Hellfire of the title track, Inkubus Sukkubus shine relentlessly. The album is a dark voyage through love, lust, cruelty, fear, revenge, agony, joy, cruelty and ecstasy, taking the listener to a shadowy world of exquisite gothic beauty, unbridled sensuality and gloomy melancholia.

‘Lilith Rising' is again proof that Inkubus Sukkubus, after three decades, are still burning brightly.

Psy’Aviah - Soul Searching

2019-10-11 (News)

One of Belgium’s finest electronica trademarks over the last decade, Antwerp-based Psy’Aviah aka Yves Schelpe returns with "Soul Searching", by far his best album concept ever for a unique experience in sound, story-telling and emotions…

Through some 12 brand new songs, Psy’Aviah transports us to the most remote unexplored places of his dreamscapes.
A virtual otherworld where we can enter a state of mind allowing us to question our nostalgic or depressive thoughts, our insomniac behavior, our self-centered existence, humanity as a whole… Some kind of meditative trance triggered by pulsating electronic sequences, wrapped by highly melodic synth melodies, augmented by a wide palette of ethnic instruments facilitating the exotic traveling experience and topped by bewitching blissful male and female vocals reinforcing the hypnotic sensation.

Personal stories told with passion and interpreted by highly skilled singers in the likes of Mari Kattman, Kyoko Baertsoen, Lis van den Akker, Ellia Bisker, Addie Nicole, Saydi Driggers, Alicia May, Roeland van der Velde, Marieke Lightband, Mark Bebb as well as psychiatrist Prof Dr. Dirk De Wachter speaking on the intro track "Becoming Human". Poignant lyrics we can easily relate to and which evoke intimate moments of the listener or awake personal demons.

As always, Psy’Aviah knows no boundaries and crafts music ranging from atmospheric floating ethereal songs to harder pumping industrial/EBM tracks through sensual trip hop, nostalgic synthwave and other catchy dance pop tunes. It’s electronic music without limits for your ultimate pleasure!

May this reflective soul-searching experience help you find your way in this tormented world!

Faithful supporters of the band will enjoy the limited edition of "Soul Searching" and its 16-track bonus CD presenting carefully selected upbeat dancefloor oriented versions of album songs that will guide us to tomorrow land and further thanks to successful collaborations.