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Daniel Miller to Headline Soho Electronic

by coldwarnightlife
written by coldwarnightlife

Mute supremo, Daniel Miller, is set to headline the inaugural Soho Electronic festival.

The one-day event takes place on Saturday, 27 September 2025, from 2pm to 11pm, across four venues: All is Joy, Below Stone Nest, Farsight Gallery and SchneidersKeller.

Best known as the founder of Mute Records and for pioneering projects such as The Normal and Silicon Teens, Miller appears here in a rare UK solo set centred on evolving modular systems. As half of Sunroof, with Gareth Jones, Miller has demonstrated his expertise with modular kit in live shows across Europe.

More than twenty artists are scheduled, spanning performance, live A/V and talks. The programme threads together different strands of leftfield practice: Mieko Shimizu brings orchestrated electronics and voice; Hawksmoor revisits kosmische-informed instrumentals; Bobby Barry focuses on acousmatic composition; and Luminous Foundation—Neil Mortimer and Mark Pilkington—improvise polyrhythmic electronics that fold krautrock pulse into ambient drift. Bristol- and London-rooted scenes are both represented, with sets from Flywheel, Klahrk and Silkarmour sitting alongside Agnes Haus’s multi-disciplinary A/V work.

Noise and texture have a strong presence. Dhangsha’s bass-and-distortion frameworks, Bjørn Hatleskog’s feedback-driven constructions and the performance collaboration Noise Warfare push into harsher territory, while Felt Trip uses field recordings as the basis for modular narratives. Further bookings include Atom Truck, Elephant House, MFU, MM’99, SIEL, Smelliot, Storyteller, Tullis Rennie and Turnspit, plus a SchneidersKeller takeover spotlighting the Denmark Street modular community.

Agnes Haus

The four-venue format places the festival inside Soho’s newer arts spaces, emphasising short walks and frequent set changes rather than a single headline hall. Audiences can move between contrasting approaches—from deep listening and sound sculpture to club-leaning hardware jams—without leaving the neighbourhood.

Mieko Shimizu

Framed by Miller’s appearance and a programme that favours process-led electronics over spectacle, Soho Electronic’s opening edition reads as a compact survey of current UK experimental practice, with enough stylistic range to reward venue-hopping throughout the afternoon and evening.

Tickets available now from UNIVERSE / DICE / RA.

(Main photo: Diane Zillmer)

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White Souls in Black Suits: Clock DVA on Reissue

by coldwarnightlife
written by coldwarnightlife

They were the heroin-infused, black leather renegades of industrial music. Before they discovered Atari computers and dance music, Clock DVA emerged as Sheffield’s dark counterpoint to funk.

Mute have now announced the remastered reissue of the classic Clock DVA album, White Souls in Black Suits. Out on 7 November 2025 via The Grey Area, the release marks the album’s first availability in 35 years.

Originally issued in 1980 as a limited-run cassette on Throbbing Gristle’s Industrial Records, White Souls in Black Suits has long been regarded as a crucial document in the development of industrial, electronic and experimental music. The forthcoming edition arrives on grey vinyl and CD. It features four additional tracks from the same sessions; bringing a new perspective to the group’s earliest explorations.

The announcement coincides with Clock DVA’s return to live performance in North America. The band will embark on a U.S. tour this September and October, with stops in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and beyond.

Clock DVA

The reissue not only restores the album’s place in the industrial canon but also sheds new light on its experimental edge. “There’s a restlessness that defines this record,” drummer Roger Quail recently reflected. “Listening back to the new master, I was struck by how contemporary parts of it still sound.”

U.S. Tour Dates 2025

11 Sep – DNA Lounge, San Francisco, CA

12 Sep – The Mayan, Los Angeles, CA

13 Sep – Music Box, San Diego, CA

14 Sep – Star Theater, Portland, OR

16 Sep – El Corazon, Seattle, WA

18 Sep – Granada Theater, Dallas, TX

19 Sep – Cold Waves Austin, Austin, TX

21 Sep – The Orpheum, Tampa, FL

23 Sep – Baltimore Soundstage, Baltimore, MD

24 Sep – The Masquerade, Atlanta, GA

26 Sep – Metro Chicago, Chicago, IL

27 Sep – Oriental Theater, Denver, CO

1 Oct – Le Poisson Rouge, New York, NY

2 Oct – Sonia, Boston, MA

3 Oct – Water Street Music Hall, Rochester, NY

4 Oct – Mercury Music Lounge, Cleveland, OH

5 Oct – The Magic Bag, Ferndale, MI

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Lurk Hard, Play Hard: Microcorps on Screen, Speaker and Stage

by coldwarnightlife
written by coldwarnightlife

Alexander Tucker, the artist known as Microcorps, is busy with a new video, an album, and live dates in Brussels and Brighton.

The video accompanies “Zona,” a collaboration with British producer Regis (Sandwell District, British Murder Boys, Eros). The track is taken from the forthcoming album, Clear Vortex Chamber, which will be released on Downwards Records on 19 September 2025.

Directed by Brighton-based Agnes Haus, the video was filmed using old-school formats, including Hi-8 and Mini DV, combined with lo-fi digital processes. Haus says her intention was to resist AI-generated graphics in favour of “tangible, real and mostly-analogue” imagery. A recurring Microcorps character, the Lurker, emerged during filming as a shadowy on-screen presence.

“Zona” reflects the collaborative nature of the new album. Tucker credits Regis with going beyond vocal contributions to advise on production and structure. The producer, in return, praised the album; highlighting Tucker’s balance of “urgency and intimacy.”

Across eight tracks, Tucker combines modular electronics with samples of his cello and bass guitar, producing dense layers of sound that shift between techno, drone, and experimental composition.

(Image: Agnes Haus)

The recordings feature contributions from a diverse group of experimental musicians. Justin K Broadrick (Godflesh, Jesu) adds guitar and voice. Japanese artist Phew brings vocals and organ drones to “Sansu.” Karl D’Silva appears on saxophone, while Elvin Brandhi delivers improvised vocals.

Microcorps will support the release with selected live dates. He performs at La Botanique in Brussels on 2 September 2025,  alongside Merzbow, Iggor Cavalera, and Eraldo Bernocchi. A show at Brighton’s Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts, opening for Cabaret Voltaire, follows on 22 November 2025.

(Main photo: Agnes Haus)

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Try Walking in His Slippers: Jean-Marc Lederman Returns

by coldwarnightlife
written by coldwarnightlife

The Jean-Marc Lederman Experience returns with a new set of material. The theme, this time, is a throwback to the synthetic sounds of Lederman’s formative years.

Lederman escaped Brussels and Digital Dance at the beginning of the 1980s with Phil Wauquaire. The two met up with Frank Tovey, at Daniel Miller‘s suggestion, and became the original backing band for Fad Gadget. That freed up Tovey to get more physical on stage, which often led to broken bones and bruises while the Belgians took refuge behind their synths. After a short European tour and a period of recovery, Fad moved to his next stage with a new band.

Lederman, in turn, moved on to Kid Montana; combining trendy shirts and solid beats with a persistent sense of humour. More commercial material followed, using a similar formula: The Weathermen, a collaboration with Bruce Geduldig of Tuxedomoon, skewered alternative pop with tongues firmly planted in cheeks. Across all of his projects, Lederman has maintained a distinct sense of levity, no matter how heavy the grooves.

Which brings us to Electronic Slipper Music. With lyrics written by Emileigh Rohn (Chiasm) and Jacques Duvall (of “Banana Split” fame), the album maintains Lederman’s penchant for collaboration. With its retro-electronic feel, it is a nostalgic trip into the modular and single-oscillator sounds of Lederman’s early forays into music.

“Last night, I saw the ghost of Alan Vega,” he intones over a track infused with the style of Suicide. Lederman doesn’t often sing on his own songs; but that is a pity, as he conveys a subtly comedic element that carries the theme.

On “False Start,” the beats are wrought from iron, but there is no let-up in the hints at levity. Electronic Slipper Music sounds ridiculous as a title, but Lederman’s humour is entirely self-depracating.

Overall, the album succeeds in its references to the late 70s and early 80s, despite being made using very modern equipment (Ed: Now that is ironic, Alanis Morrissette). It is also hugely entertaining.

The full album is out in physical and digital formats on 31 August 2025.

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William Orbit Announces New London Date

by coldwarnightlife
written by coldwarnightlife

William Orbit, the legendary musician and producer, has announced a new London show. “William Orbit: The Journey Continues” will take place at his favourite venue, the Notting Hill Arts Club, on Friday, 26 September 2025.

Orbit, who rescued the careers of both Madonna and Britney Spears, recently took to the stage at the same venue to relive some career highlights.

(Photo: Simon Helm)

Tickets go on sale on Friday, 15 August 2025, through ARD.

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Laibach and Think of Cannons

by coldwarnightlife
written by coldwarnightlife

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.

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RIP Douglas McCarthy

by coldwarnightlife
written by coldwarnightlife

Douglas McCarthy, the lead singer of Nitzer Ebb, has passed away. The band has confirmed that their founder member and legendary front man died on 11 June 2025.

Raised in Chelmsford, Essex, McCarthy was the cousin of Perry McCarthy, the first race driver known as The Stig on BBC’s Top Gear.

Nitzer Ebb was discovered by Phil Harding, the PWL engineer. Harding took the band to Daniel Miller at Mute Records, and the group established a long relationship with the indie label.

McCarthy maintained side projects, including Fixmer/McCarthy and DJM/REX. He also contributed vocals to a number of other projects, including tracks by Client, Die Krupps, Recoil and ADULT.

McCarthy withdrew from touring in 2024 to address progressively burdensome health issues.

He is reported to have passed away in London, aged 58.

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Thermostatic Reunite in Gothenburg

by coldwarnightlife
written by coldwarnightlife

One of Sweden’s most legendary poptronica acts, Thermostatic, reunited recently to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of their debut album, Joy-Toy.

Founded in Gothenburg in 2003, Thermostatic reflected everything that is dynamic about Nordic synthpop. In 2025, they have lost none of their passion for the alternative dancefloor. Krichan Wihlborg was at their recent show, and he captured the scenes with his Leica.

Thermostatic (Photos: Krichan Wihlborg)
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Old Designs for Living

by coldwarnightlife
written by coldwarnightlife

The 1980s were kind to some. If you had big hair, a double-breasted shirt, and a penchant for eye makeup, then there was every possibility that you could have rode the crest of the New Wave.

The Ottawa-based act, Design, almost had their moment. They had a run of bad luck with different record companies, despite the backing of their indie label. As a result, it took four decades for their eponymous debut album to be released.

Held in the vaults by Montreal’s YUL Records until Record Store Day 2025, the album is a lost classic. It has missed the end of the Cold War, the commercialisation of the internet, Crocs, and Covid-19. Produced by Dee Long (who also worked with another YUL act, Rational Youth), Design is a living artefact of Canada’s New Wave movement.

There is something of the Psychedelic Furs in the vocals, a little Strange Advance in the melodies, and maybe even some Spoons in the groove. Fans of the sound will find plenty to enjoy in tracks like “Half the Battle” and “The Act.” It is out now through Return to Analog.

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