Silver Ghost Shimmer, the collaboration between John Fryer and Pinky Turzo, has released one of the contenders for Album of the Year. Soft Landing is a lush, sensuous package, and “Suffocated” is one of its stand-out tracks. It has now been given the video treatment, and it’s all Cool Americana with abandoned housing and desert scenery. Turzo doesn’t break a sweat, although the guitar lines and her glances at the camera are hotter than a Nevada nuclear test.
If you want to immerse yourself in cold war counterculture, ground zero on Thursday, 9 July 2015 is the Sage Club in Berlin. Under the rubric, “Cold War Night Life,” a full evening of film and music is planned. B-movie, the tale of underground Berlin as told by Mark Reeder, provides the focus, and it will be followed by DJs across the multi-level club’s rooms. The event will examine the situations in both East and West Berlin, including the allure of the West for creative tourists like David Bowie and Brian Eno.
Before the party begins, a panel discussion will take place, moderated by Anja Caspary of Radio Eins. The panelists include Reeder (MFS), Dr. Motte (Loveparade founder and DJ), Ronald Galenza (East German club promoter) and others, providing a range of perspectives from key figures in the alternative music scene during the 1980s and 1990s.
See the event page for details (which include free admission before 22:00 hours).
Slovenian art-subversives, Laibach, have announced that they will play two dates in the capital of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea on August 19 and 20, 2015. We’ll believe it when it has happened, but in the meantime the group has revealed their poster for the shows (right).
The band, which has established a reputation for subverting propaganda imagery, is an unlikely choice for a performance on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Korean peninsula from Japanese militarism.
Here’s a clip from their Spectre tour:
The UK’s leading poptronica act, Vile Electrodes, have announced a special edition of their debut album, The Future Through a Lens. With new cover artwork and a different digipac design, the new version will be essential for collectors. The band offer a discount for fans who already own a copy of the album with the original, black artwork. Details here.
Hannah’s Peel‘s original Rebox release featured the red-headed beauty’s ethereal voice accompanied by the sounds of a hand-cranked music box. For that EP, along with OMD’s “Electricity,” Peel covered tracks by New Order, Soft Cell and Cocteau Twins. Half a decade later, she’s ready to share Rebox 2 (Static Caravan), which updates the concept with covers of tracks by East India Youth and Perfume Genius, among other, more recent, artists. Pre-orders can be submitted here.
What does it cost to run a Laibach tour of North America? No need to look further than Laibach’s fundraising site for the answer! The band have opened the kimono to fans, so that they can see why the band needs support for their tour. Normally, this is information that tour accountants keep in expandable file folders, but Laibach have put it on the Web. Click on the graphic to enlarge it.
Slovenian art activists, Laibach, are invading North America with a new video in their arsenal. “See That My Grave Is Kept Clean,” a cover of the Blind Lemon Jefferson song popularised by Bob Dylan, is the latest missive from the trenchcoat-clad dissidents. It comes as the black-cross spreads from East to West across the continent, fuelled by funds raised through an Indiegogo campaign initiated by the group. See here for the announced dates and links to ticket sites.
The recent disaster in Nepal has brought together a growing group of artists to raise funds for relief and reconstruction. At the initiative of Anni Hogan and Cathy O’Dowd, an impressive collection of artists has agreed to provide music for a compilation album, under the banner of MITRA (the Nepalese word for “friend”). So far, the contributing artists include Dave Ball (The Grid, Soft Cell), Wolfgang Flur (ex-Kraftwerk), Scanner, Ursula 1000, Thomas Gandey, Rupert Lally, Espen J Jourgensen, Richard Strange, Laurie Spiegel, Billie Ray Martin (Electribe 101), Cronos Titan, Bright Light Bright Light, Kid Congo and The Pink Monkey Birds, Katie Marne, Waterson, Joe Cang, Farmacia, Nostudio, Caeser Gergess, Jarboe, Ashley Slater, Simon Fisher Turner, David Coulter, Sebastian Rochford, Marcella Detroit, Sarah Jane Morris, Ginger Light, Martin Bowes (Attrition) and others. The graphics for the album will be provided by Abby Helasdottir.
You can follow the project through its Facebook page.
Parralox are back with a storming new video for “Aeronaut.” Shot in a seemingly deserted Paris, it shows off the darker side of John von Ahlen’s pop imaginarium. Clad in a black coat, von Ahlen stalks Parisian landmarks to the hypnotic pop of “Aeronaut,” a track he originally wrote for a solo project. Quite what he’s done with the city’s residents and thronging tourists is a mystery, but after Parralox’s high-profile work with Erasure, chances are that they are down at the club dancing to the song.
The single is available in a special remix package, featuring versions from Vile Electrodes and Your Silent Face.
It would be hard for an ezine called Cold War Night Life to let pass a film about the nightlife of West Berlin during the 1970s and 80s, particularly when it tells the story from the standpoint of Mancunian exile, Mark Reeder. Under the shadow of medium-range nuclear missiles and surrounded by tanks, West Berlin was an island of Western decadence in a sea of fake socialism; an outpost for the dollar and the mark which could neither expand nor contract. Few wanted to live there, but punks willing to squat in the walled city were able to survive on social assistance and by selling contraband. Some of them formed bands that exploded with energy. Some of them became addicts. Some did both. None of them slept normal hours.
Reeder found himself in the position of Factory Records’ sales representative for Germany, helping to promote Joy Division and A Certain Ratio. Circumstances also led him to co-manage Malaria! – the girl group that was all woman – and organise punk shows in East Berlin. He also made music in Die Unbekannten, which became Shark Vegas and toured with New Order. If you wanted to know anything about the creatures of Berlin’s night, Reeder was your contact – and you didn’t need Harry Palmer glasses to find him.
We’re excited about the trailer for B-Movie, a documentary of that time directed by Jörg A. Hoppe, Klaus Maeck und Heiko Lange. The tagline is “Lust & Sound in West Berlin, 1979-1989,” and it has a soundtrack that includes Malaria!, Neubauten, Tangerine Dream and Tödliche Doris. It is touring the festivals now.
B-Movie: Lust & Sound in West-Berlin (1979-1989) – Official Trailer from scenes from on Vimeo.