These fabulous shots of Karin My, shot by Ola “Merchmannen” Josefsson (@merchmannen), capture the beauty and grace of Sweden’s secret weapon. Taken at a rare live appearance – this summer’s Synth i Molkom music festival – the images find the talented multi-instrumentalist and vocalist completely engaged with her audience.
Curse Mackey is currently touring his solo album, Imaginary Enemies, in the US and Canada. An established face on the industrial electronics scene, the Texas-based musician is also known for his work with Pigface, My Life with the Thrill Kill Cult, and Sine.
The album is a tour of the sounds and styles favoured by North American acts. The opener, “Doomed for Monday,” easily could be mistaken for a Skinny Puppy track with syncopated beats, samples of evangelical preachers, and processed vocals. The lyrics subvert something Shalamar once said, but the material sounds fresh and dynamic.
“Time Comes Clean” pierces a similar vein; injecting the feeling of mid-career Front Line Assembly. It crosses the blood-brain barrier with ease and easily becones a habit.
“Discoccult” inverts Luke 1:28 while channeling the feel of 1990s Wax Trax records. “Blood Like Love” continues the theme of inversions; undermining the title and narrative of Killing Joke’s best-known single.
On “Six Ghosts of Fear,” Mackey dials in the influences of Clock DVA and FLA. A pulsing bass underpins more samples and arpeggios to develop a layered dancefloor filler. Why couldn’t Tom Ellard have done more of this?
Imaginary Enemies is a love letter to the Atari- sequenced songs of the late 80s and early 1990s, before they gave birth to acid house and techno. It is also a fresh take on that hard electronica that is sorely needed in the time of Sabrina Carpenter.
Mark Stewart never said “Goodbye.” The news came out one day that he had taken his leave quietly, without notice and without explanation. He had simply put on his jean jacket and slipped away from the party.
It was the opposite of the way that the big man had communicated on record and stage. As the front man for Bristol’s The Pop Group, Stewart had played rage as an instrument. As a solo artist, there was a unique intensity to his material, fuelled by magical conspiracy theories and genuine empathy for the downtrodden.
It was good to hear, therefore, that Stewart had left a complete album in the can. Now available on Mute, The Fateful Symmetry arrives with a deliberate sense of closure. The record consolidates Stewart’s wide-ranging influences—post-punk, dub, and experimental electronics—into a reflective and often restrained body of work. It’s less a departure from his past than a reconfiguration of it; showing Stewart still engaged with the concerns and sounds that shaped his career.
Opener “Memory Of You” sets the tone: a relatively melodic track with a subdued electronic backdrop and Stewart’s vocal delivery more contemplative than confrontational. There’s a notable emphasis on clarity and structure throughout the album, with arrangements often pared down, allowing lyrics and mood to carry the weight. While Stewart’s earlier solo work often reveled in density and dissonance, The Fateful Symmetry leans into atmosphere and pacing.
Adrian Sherwood’s mix of The Korgis’ track, “Everybody’s Got To Learn Sometime,” transforms the familiar into something looser and more ambiguous than its pop origins would suggest.
Tracks like “Crypto Religion” and “Blank Town” suggest a lingering distrust of digital culture and urban decay – familiar thematic ground for Stewart. Yet, even here, the delivery feels less urgent than observational. The edges are still present, but softened. It’s an album that gestures more than it declares.
The delicate poetry of the album closer, “A Long Road” recalls the sensitivity of “Stranger than Love;” but, perhaps, is even more beautiful in its delivery. Stewart’s voice is raspy and harsh, as usual, but invested with a personal quality that is also gentle and endearing. It’s a genuine and cinematic tear-jerker, in light of events.
“We are the children of the void,” he sings on “Blank Town.” And we all commit to it, in the end.
Slovenian art-pranksters, Laibach, are back on release with a new single, “Die Kanone.” The track is a reworking of a song originally released in 1974 by Bijelo Dugme, the best-selling rock band in the former Yugoslavia. The track is available now via Mute Records on all major digital platforms.
This collaboration brings together two acts that, historically, represented very different corners of the Yugoslav cultural landscape. Bijelo Dugme, led by composer Goran Bregović, fused rock with Balkan folk and achieved massive mainstream popularity. Laibach, emerging from the Slovenian industrial and art underground in the 1980s, built their reputation on provocative performances and politically charged reinterpretations of pop culture.
Commissioned by Bregović to mark the 50th anniversary of Bijelo Dugme’s founding, “Die Kanone” functions as a hybrid rather than a straight cover. Laibach retain the bones of the original while overlaying it with their own aesthetics: martial rhythms, processed vocals, and heavy guitar textures. The result is stark and deliberate underscoring the song’s themes with added weight.
Lyrically, “Die Kanone” explores ideas tied to Balkan identity, masculinity, and militarism. The cannon, referenced in both the title and lyrics, becomes a stand-in for outdated conceptions of power and desire. Laibach’s decision to translate the lyrics into German adds another layer; invoking not only historical associations but also current European industrial and geopolitical concerns.
The artwork for the release features a Volkswagen Beetle, which was once manufactured at Tvornica Automobila Sarajevo under licence. This detail ties into the song’s broader focus on cultural memory, the legacy of industry, and the contradictions of the Yugoslav past. The reference to Kraftwerk’s iconic “Autobahn” both subverts and acts as a tribute to the original.
“Die Kanone” follows several recent reinterpretations from Laibach, including covers of Foreigner’s “I Want to Know What Love Is” and “Strange Fruit,” a song forever linked with Billie Holiday’s anti-lynching protest. It also comes in the wake of Alamut, the group’s ambitious 2024 concept album based on medieval Persian legend.
Laibach are currently preparing for a run of concerts in Slovenia beginning in August. Tour dates and additional details are available on the band’s website.
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to hit the alternative dancefloor to the new release from Mango in Euphoria and Princess Stephen (Arch Femmesis).
The collaboration brings together their rock and roll trash and electropunk influences. The surprising result of this game of genetic roulette is the love-child of Giorgio Moroder and Françoise Hardy. Pleasingly electronic, it is a queer anthem that burns like the summer heat. Melt into the Gallic vibes and European synth lines.
Mango in Euphoria is preparing her new EP, Lethal Lust, which is likely to take a different turn. The press release describes it as “a darker, cinematic work set in an apocalyptic world, blending goth rock, futuristic textures, and stories of toxic love and resilience.” In the meantime, your hips are invited to move to this Eurodance groove.
(Photo: Stefan Atkin, @badfridaypictures)
The late Swedish musician, Andreas Catjar-Danielsson, left behind a legacy of creative and sensitive material. One year after his passing from cancer, Abu Nein have released the last song they worked on with Catjar-Danielsson’s participation.
Another band that Catjar-Danielsson was known for, Covenant, have also announced an EP on his memory. The ANDREAS EP is available on pre-order.
(Photo: Abu Nein by Krichan Wihlborg)
In a world where CEOs and HR Directors step out to Coldplay, be a simple worker. Keep listening to dark electronics from Sweden’s Jonas Rasmusson and avoid the “kiss cam.” Their fate is to be uncool. Yours is to rock the alternative dancefloor.
The annual Subkult festival is an important event in the Swedish alternative music calendar. Krichan Wihlborg took his Leica along to this year’s event and returned with images from some of the scene’s biggest stars. The set includes Covenant, Spetsnaz, and Emmon.
No, this is not a report from the Northern Line. It is a Dostoyevsky reference and the new single from Fragile Self – released ahead of their new album, OCD.
The duo of Anil Aykan and Jonathan Barnbrook have day jobs as graphic designers and typographers; among other assignments, bringing to life books and record covers for artists as wide-ranging as David Bowie and Amy Winehouse. As Fragile Self, they combine modular electronics and bass guitar to create complex, intellectually-charged, dark pop.
The groove of “Notes from Underground” will get heads nodding, but this very cool video should keep your attention for longer than the trip between Archway and Angel.
Propaganda’s return in 2024 made our year-end chart as the Album of the Year. The Germans have now teamed up with Moby, Tangerine Dream, and others for a reimagining of their current album. Remix Encounters is due in September through Bureau B.
Rhys Fulber of Front Line Assembly and Delerium is first out of the gates with this stylish and dark retooling of “They Call Me Nocebo.” “Dream within a Dream” this is not – welcome to 2025.