A brace of seasonal songs for your merriment, featuring electronic, pop, post-punk, and alternative artists.
Alphakenny-1 – Christmas Time in the Mountains
https://on.soundcloud.com/o4HYFe4rUmBxjyjV7J
Does Sarah Blackwood’s voice get more beautiful with time? Dubstar return with an elegant seasonal single to lift spirits as the world falls apart around us, and the singer’s tones shine through the gloom.
Bring the tree goddess indoors. Adorn her in tinsel and baubles. Then turn up the volume and spin in your dressing gown under the blinking lights. Moody glamour or a glamourous mood? Either way, Chris Wilkie’s expressive instrumentation and Blackwood’s ethereal vocals will lead you to a better place.
Shot by Krichan Wihlborg
The Old Blue Last
14 December 2025
It’s the first day of Hanukkah, but the brightest light in the night is found upstairs at a Shoreditch pub. Two US-based artists, who have both appeared on the sadly-defunct Flexiwave label, are making a stop on their way back from Europe, and their presence pushes away the winter gloom.
Ortrotasce and Silent EM have shared space on vinyl (Common Loss); and, tonight, they take turns on the stage for the Reformation Club. It’s a winning combination, as two of America’s most vital dark electro acts bring their shows to London for the first time.
Dressed in black, the children of the night have emerged to absorb the rhythms. Among them is Sweden’s Aux Animaux, who performed in London the previous evening (and looks like a star even in civilian clothes). As the nights grow longer, the city’s options keep getting better.
Ortrotasce
First up is Ortrotasce, the project of Nic Hamersly. The Florida-based musician has had a number of projects, but it is under this guise (pronounced Or-tro-task, since you ask) that has taken him the furthest.
The set focusses on material from Dispatches from Solitude, which took shape during the pandemic years. “No Mortal Harmony,” “Part from Myself,” and “Falling Star’ are present and correct, with Hamersly’s doom vocals reverberating through the room. It’s a solid performance that sets the tone for the evening.
Silent EM
We tried to convince Jean Lorenzo to come over for our 2019 event with Rein and Komputer+, but the timing didn’t work. The pandemic put a stop to efforts to find new opportunities, so kudos to Reformation Club for providing the venue for the London debut of Silent EM.
One of the few American artists to produce consistently interesting material, Silent EM combines the electro of the 80s with the vocals of goth rock, drenched in reverb and deep emotions. Live, Lorenzo belts out the songs to the accompaniment of layered beats and Hamersly’s guitar. The latter lends a New Order vibe; etching out textures to contrast with the pulsing electronics.
Proceedings commence in a quality way with “Institution” from last year’s Real Life album. The song is a high-energy party-starter, and it only takes a few beats to get the room moving.
Other highlights from the set include “Europa,” which was originally recorded with Xarah Dion, and “Real Life.” The latter is the title track from last year’s album, which was put together in Montreal – Lorenzo reversing the traditional path of the Canadian Snowbirds who occupy Florida during the winter months.
An electro take on the Killing Joke classic, “Follow the Leaders,” was well-timed, given the way the world is going. It also pairs up Lorenzo and Hamersly to good effect, adding depth to the live sound.
The set closes with “Wraith” from The Absence, and Hamersly leaves the stage to allow the synths to reign. It’s brilliant, driving material that fills the room with dancing bodies. Silent EM’s first appearance in London has been a long time coming, but his appearance confirms what we have suspected all along: when it gets dark, the city needs to move.
A timely and catchy single from Sweden’s Den där killen, also known as Per Fall.
The Berlin massive assembles with The Horrorist and Cynthia Stern (Facket Strejkar) combining for a single with a message. Tobia Schmidt adds racing cars.
Dave Baker’s Lonelyklown project returns with a duo of releases to help cats in need at Christmas.
Based around different versions of a new song, “Christmas Stars,” there are both download and physical versions on offer. The “Snow Cat” version includes the “Original,” “Punk,” and “Long” takes. The “Star Cat” release comes with the “Original,” “Electro,” and” Piano” versions.
All are wonderfully in the Lonelyklown style and help London City Inner Cats (LICK), which was once the home of Baker’s late feline companion, Panda.
The late Gabi Delgado collaborated over more than a decade with Marc Hurtado on songs that combined the former’s NeoSexi vocals with the latter’s techno sensibilities.
“Ich Träume Nur” is lifted from the new album, Neue Weltumfassende Resistance, that gathers many of the tracks into one place. There is a coherence to the songs that is surprising, given the time over which they were created. For many, it will just be great to hear Gabi’s voice again.
The whirlwind that is KN/IGHTS has a new album on release and plans for a European tour starting next month.
Supernatural Lover is the second album from the Britalo act fronted by James Knights (Boytronic, Scarlet Soho). It’s weightier than its predecessor but not held down by its more mature themes. If anything, the discotheque vibes are more urgent and intense.
The opener, “Knightmares,” announces the change of tone. An immensely danceable track with more hooks than a pirate boat, it’s also an emotional rollercoaster.
The title track would have made Casablanca drool. Sparkling chords and a driving pulse lead you by the hand to the dancefloor, but there is enough nostalgic flair to raise a laugh. “Satisfaction guaranteed.”
“Bite the Night” combines the throb of “Let the Music Play” with Bobby O flourishes. From the title, we expected a take on the They Never Sleep classic, “Bite the Bullet,” but it was pure Knights.
A cover of the Yazoo disco-homage, “Goodbye 70s,” is faithful to the original. The origins of Italo and Hi-NRG are in the sound of disco, and Vince Clarke wasn’t messing around when he tapped the sound for the original version.
“I Die for This Love” was written by Bjarne Sund (CRED) and originally released as Sund feat. James Knight$. It is dripping in the sweat of the Pet Shop Boys.
With “DGD,” proceedings take a turn towards John Carpenter and even Falco. “Deutschland’s getting darker” is the pointed message; putting a finger in the eye of the Fashwave AfD fans.
The album-closer, “Can’t Cry Any Longer,” is a minor key ballad to wrench tears from the girl who has been watching the object of her affections twirling all night with a girl she used to go to school with.
Supernatural Lover is a brilliant step forward for KN/GHTS full of solid floor-fillers.
KN/GHTS ON TOUR
Fri Jan 23 – Russelsheim (DE) – Das Rind
Sat, Jan 24 – Erfurt (DE) – Stadtgarten
Thu, Jan 29 – Bochum (DE) – Matrix
Fri, Jan 30 – Hamburg (DE) – Marias Ballroom
Sat, Jan 31 – Berlin (DE) – Festsaal Kreuzberg
Thu, Feb 12 – Paris (FR) – Atomic Cat
Sat, Feb 14 – Leipzig (DE) – Darkflower
(Photo: Ekaterina Yakyamseva)
Our music book library grew this year with histories, photo books, and guides. From the detailed archeology of James Nice‘s revised Shadowplayers to the indie advice of Nash the Slash, there was a treasure-trove of information about the evolution of the music industry after punk. Dorothy Max Prior‘s second installment of her memoirs helped to bring the story up to date from the perspective of a scenester. All are recommended reading for the holidays and beyond.
Dorothy Max Prior – Sex Is No Emergency
“You’re my favourite drummer,” says Genesis P-Orridge. With that, Dorothy Prior – known universally as Max, for reasons she still isn’t clear on – joins Psychic TV.
As the drummer for Rema Rema and a personality close to the evolving punk scene, Max had a front-row seat at the birth of post-punk and industrial music. Sex Is No Emergency takes in a wide vista – shifting seamlessly between cultural anthropology and personal memoir – as Prior traces the evolution of globally important subcultures.
The book is named for a line by Monte Cazazza, the American artist and industrial ally of Genesis P-Orridge. It is the follow-up to 69 Exhibition Road, in which Prior took us through her experiences as a young woman in 1970s South Kensington and Harrow; tracking paths between The Monochrome Set and Ant-music via Club Louise in Soho, Cabaret Futura, and the ICA.
In this turn, Max’s life moves on from peeling in pubs to having children; from living in cheap digs to buying a house; from staying up in London to enjoying Brighton; and from watching Throbbing Gristle to touring with PTV.
Cazazza’s presence looms large, as Max pays respects to her former band-mate and long-distance admirer. It’s a story about adulting while being loyal to one’s friends, set against the backdrop of a country leaving the wretchedness of the 70s behind.
James Nice – Shadowplayers: The Rise and Fall of Factory Records
Expanded and updated with a new chapter, Shadowplayers operates as both institutional history and a methodical autopsy of Factory and the orbiting post-punk constellations that shaped the Manchester-based label.
James Nice has assembled an impressive body of archival detail, yet the book’s interest lies less in revelation than in its steady mapping of a scene defined by aesthetic austerity and entrepreneurial drift. Nice’s style is patient, almost forensic; tracing how idealism, mismanagement and shifting tastes produced a catalogue of singular music and persistent uncertainty.
Nash the Slash – Cut Throat: How to Succeed in the Music Business – and Survive!
Nash the Slash created music in a particular vein. He also left behind the manuscript for a book, setting out the lessons he learned in four decades as an independent artist. With the help of the SKILL imprint, it has been published as a soft-cover book to transmit the bandaged man’s knowledge to later generations.
Some of the material was becoming dated, even as Jeff Plewman (the man inside the gauze) set down his thoughts at the end of the 1990s. The internet had only just been commercialised, and it would have been difficult to see where the technology would lead. The core of the book, however, is essential reading for artists interested to establish themselves and build their audience.
Nash was a one-man band, record label, and PR agency, and his attempts to move from the margins to the mainstream brought him face-to-face (or bandages-to-face) with an industry designed to cheat the artist. Had he stayed with us, he might have added a chapter called, “Strategies Against Spotify.”
The book features interview material with Steve Hillage, Gary Numan, Bill Nelson, and photographer Paul Till. Hillage and Nelson had turns at producing Nash for his UK label, Dindisc, while Numan famously discovered Nash’s demented violin screaming from a Toronto club. Till has his own book (see below) out to coincide with the release of the documentary film, Nash the Slash Rises Again!
A rewarding book that offers new insights into one of music’s most original and enigmatic artists.
Paul Till – Nash the Slash
One of Paul Till‘s first successes as a photographer was to sell an image to Bob Dylan that became the cover of Blood on the Tracks. The Canadian snapper has gone on to document many legends of music, including Bruce Springsteen, Sting, Leonard Cohen – and Nash the Slash.
Till’s photos of Nash loom large, as the Nash the Slash Rises Again! film hits the festival circuit. To give fans a chance to reflect on Nash’s striking imagery, Till has published a book with his iconic and captivating shots.