News

Side-Line Raises Funds for PTSD in Ukraine

by coldwarnightlife October 30, 2025

written by coldwarnightlife

Bernard Van Isaker

(Via RedSandPr)

Based in Belgium, Side-Line has been active since 1989 and is one of the most popular websites worldwide for electro/industrial music. They also regularly release “name your price” compilations of darkwave, post-punk, electropop, synthpop and industrial music via Bandcamp to give a platform to new bands and also fund their charity work.

An 88 song collection, entitled Electronic Bodies, was released on 1st September that immediately hit the no. 1 spot on the Bandcamp Industrial chart, while it currently sits at no. 3 on the Alternative chart and no. 5 on the overall chart.

The compilation dives deep into the rhythms of 1980s EBM (Electronic Body Music), New Beat and their contemporary offshoots, while featuring artists from territories that span Germany to Australia, USA to Estonia, and many more. In doing so, it proves that these styles still resonate worldwide after being established four decades ago. Electronic Bodies is also in some ways a tale of two halves, with the first immersing listeners in old-school vibes and the latter offering participating artists additional freedom in their sonic manipulation.

The commitment of Side-Line in showcasing a blend of emerging talents and seasoned acts remains unwavering, with chief editor Bernard Van Isacker providing “a special shoutout to Erlend Eilertsen [Lights A.M, Essence Of Mind] for masterfully enhancing some of the tracks, as not every artist boasts high-end studio equipment.”

All proceeds from this compilation support licensed, trauma-informed PTSD care in Ukraine. In preparing the release, Side-Line consulted sustainability expert Figen Sekin, who told us:

PTSD treatment relies on continuity of care. Donations fund the clinical intake, the scheduled therapy sessions, the supervised group support, and the follow-up appointments. Music communities mobilize quickly; that momentum helps people enter care while engagement is high.

The Bandcamp offering also includes an exclusive Electronic Bodies T-shirt and – in true EBM spirit – a combo package that includes a strictly limited edition hand-numbered stainless steel flask. Each of these orders include a medallion and badge plus a download of the entire compilation, ensuring that the beats never stop.

The T-shirt can be purchased HERE and the T-Shirt/flask HERE. Shipping will take place in early October.

All proceeds from sales of Electronic Bodies will be donated to psychological support for Ukrainian soldiers and citizens suffering from PTSD.

<a href="https://sidelinemag.bandcamp.com/album/electronic-bodies-session-1" data-penci-link="external" target="_blank">Electronic Bodies – Session 1 by Various Artists</a>

October 30, 2025

Any Second Now: Vince Clarke Goes Solo

by coldwarnightlife September 7, 2023

written by coldwarnightlife

(Via Mute)

Vince Clarke has announced details of his debut solo album, Songs of Silence, a 10-track lyric-less album of uncategorisable ambient beauty. The album will be available on vinyl, CD and digitally via Mute on 17 November 2023, and launches today with ‘The Lamentations of Jeremiah’, the first piece of music to be shared from the project.

Listen to the track and watch the moving video – one of the first to be directed by Turkish-born NY-based portrait photographer Ebru Yildiz (Laurie Anderson, Mitski, A Place to Bury Strangers, Algiers) – which finds Clarke in a liminal space:

Ebru Yildiz explains, “When I first heard the song, I felt like it contained a whole lifetime within itself. All of the drama and peace, anxiousness and calmness, tension and hope, and everything in between. I wanted the visuals to feel like all those extremes as well.”

As the Ivor Novello winning songwriter behind countless chart-topping pop songs as co-founder of Erasure, Yazoo and Depeche Mode, Clarke has – unbelievably – waited until now to embark on a solo release.

Recorded in his home studio in New York, and featuring photography and artwork by the award-winning Magnum photojournalist Eugene Richards, work on the album began as a distraction during lockdown, a chance to finally get his head around the possibilities of Eurorack, a modular synthesiser format famed for its addictive and limitless configurations. “I could have gone on forever, I could have not stopped,” explains Vince, “I was enjoying the process so much and wasn’t thinking about anyone else hearing it. But hearing it develop in my studio, in my head, learning new tricks – that’s been the best thing about this. I was in a state of shock, actually, when Mute said they wanted to release this album.”

Alone in the studio, Clarke set himself two rules: first, that the sounds he generated for the album would come solely from Eurorack, and second, that each track would be based around one note, maintaining a single key throughout. “Nobody in my household is particularly interested in what I get up to in the studio” says Vince. “Even the cat used to leave after an hour or so of listening to drones.”

The resultant album’s mood of synth-generated, cosmic remoteness is interrupted by stark interventions, reminders of the human hand at work amid this machinery – a scrambled sample like a distressed transmission from a fighter pilot, the wordless operatic contributions of Caroline Joy, the sawing brimstone of composer Reed Hays’ cello on ‘The Lamentations of Jeremiah’, and the album’s centrepiece which builds around the 1844 anti-scab folk song ‘Blackleg Miner’, glowing with resonance and relevance. Elsewhere on the album Clarke manifests relentless sequencer patterns, gradual accelerations, Moog-style drones, glistening droplets of synth, and burgeoning swells of processed guitars, with Clarke describing the tracks as “having a sense of sadness, of things going bad, things crumbling”.

Not content to rest on his considerable pop legacy, Vince Clarke has instead opened up exciting new electronic vistas for himself, and for the rest of us, in which the permutations and possibilities are limitless, Clarke declaring “The infinite shades of sounds you can create with just the tiniest tweak of a knob or slider continues to fascinate me.”

September 7, 2023

Page Add Numan Collaborators to New Album

by coldwarnightlife August 29, 2023

written by coldwarnightlife

Page (Photo: Simon Helm)

Page, the Swedish poptronica pioneers, have announced a new album. En ny våg [EN: A New Wave] features contributions from Chris Payne and Rrussell Bell, two icons of Synth Britannia who accompanied Gary Numan through his early successes and were members of Dramatis. Payne, of course, is also known as the co-writer of “Fade to Grey,” which Midge Ure made into a hit for Visage.

En ny våg further refines the sound that Eddie Bengtsson has been distilling with his Moogs; concentrating the feel of 1978-1980 into serious but melodic poptronica. Ever since he traded in his drum kit for two synthesisers, inspired by Silicon Teens, Bengtsson has been crafting exceptional pop material. Together with Marina Schiptjenko, the duo has carved a path that keeps the flame of that period alive and in tune with the times.

The first song to be revealed from the album is “Vi kommer tillbaka” [EN: “We Are Coming Back”]. The album is released in CD and vinyl formats on 29 September 2023.

August 29, 2023

Bolding Returns with HCA Suite

by coldwarnightlife August 11, 2023

written by coldwarnightlife

The Danish artist, Ras Bolding, is back with his popular HCA Suite, which celebrates The Snow Queen, The Shadow, The Fir Tree, The Story of a Mother, The Little Mermaid, and The Little Match Girl. The next performances are scheduled to take place at 1700 and 2000 on 25 August 2023 at Kulturmaskinen Odense, and admission is free.

Drawing on the source material by Hans Christian Andersen, the HCA Suite interprets the stories through electronic music combined with goth, punk, classical music, folk music, 8-bit, and Asian sounds. The line-up features Bolding (vocals, synthesizers and Commodore 64), Olivia Obskur (extra vocals and synthesizer), and Alex Anarki (synthesizer). Together with the music, American Max Kaos will perform live hologram graphics specifically designed and updated for the shows, while screens with illustrations created for the performances by Italian Penelope Ramon add to the multimedia experience.

Bolding says, “The musical project is an enduring attempt to delve into Hans Christian Andersen as the writer rather than the tourist icon. It is an attempt at highlighting the dark aspects that are also central to Andersen’s storytelling and are very much part of many of his classic fairy tales we believe we know so well.”

August 11, 2023

The Second Coming of John Came

by coldwarnightlife August 11, 2023

written by coldwarnightlife

(Via Mute)

Mute have announced the release of John Came’s Rhythmicon album, out on 8 September 2023. The album – a concept album using computer software and synthesisers – was shrouded in mystery on its original release in July 1995. Who was John Came (theories included Alan Wilder, Vince Clarke and Daniel Miller), and what exactly was the Radiophonic wizardry concealed in the Rhythmicon? At a time before the world wide web would proport to answer any question we could possibly think of, and in a world before fake news would become so every day, listeners could only guess…

John Came’s detailed biography pointed to an artist born in London, one of the “ten-pound pommies” who emigrated to Australia in search of a better life, returning to the UK, then seeking inspiration in the islands of Northern Scotland before cycling from Skye to London.

And what of the mysterious rhythmicon? Came was introduced to the instrument by Nick Cope of the electronic group Pnin. The Rhythmicon was a machine co-designed by the American composer Henry Dixon Cowell (1897-1965) and Leon Theremin (inventor of the Theremin). The instrument aimed to realise one of Cowell’s musical theories, in which intervallic and rhythmic relationships could be reduced to common mathematical ratios; in effect, a “harmonic” approach to rhythmic organisation. Having the Rhythmicon as a ‘given’, Nick decided to invert the logic and derive harmonic and melodic information from rhythmic information, and vice versa.

Using sound and theory, John Came introduced their ideas to the world via a series of instructive films showing Came playing his compositions (arhythmically) into a simulacrum of the Rhythmicon thereby generating the rhythmic data of the pieces. From there the rhythmic information of the pieces was turned into notes; and then the two separate strands of transformed data are overlaid and entered into a music notating/playing computer.

The wild theory and deadpan delivery gave rise to a suspicion that John Came was a pseudonym and his rhythmicon the result of the fertile imagination of an artist knowledgeable in the fields of electronic experimentation. Happily we can now answer: ‘yes’ and ‘sorry, we still don’t know’. John Came was indeed a pseudonym, the masterminds behind the concept were Simon Leonard and David Baker (aka Komputer / Fortran 5 / I Start Counting), but the exact details of the instrumentation and how this unusual album came about is still the subject of some conjecture.

Listen for yourself to a long-lost album of classic electronic experimentation. Its composer’s deep immersion in the worlds of electronic pop are evident, as is their long history with Mute. The artists, who started working together in 1982, released their first music on Mute in 1984 [I Start Counting’s ‘Letter to a Friend’, produced by Daniel Miller], before segueing into the more dance / techno focussed Fortran 5 [notable tracks include the Midnight Cowboy sampling ‘Time To Dream’ and the club hit of ‘Heart on the Line’]. The John Came album arrived at a time when Leonard and Baker were transitioning from Fortran 5 to Komputer, who would go on to record their wonderful paean to Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space [‘Valentina’, 1997]. David Baker is currently working on his solo project, lonelyklown.

Rhythmicon tracklisting

Root

Heavenly Clean

Yellow

Transit Authority

Hapsburg Chin

Mosaic

Ink Tank

Coffin Filler

On The Reef

Nitrogen Narcosis

August 11, 2023

He Takes Pictures: Brian Griffin Announces Depeche Mode Book

by coldwarnightlife May 25, 2023

written by coldwarnightlife

Brian Griffin, the world-famous photographer, has announced a crowdfunding campaign for his new book, MODE. Gathering his pictures from the band’s first five albums and promotional materials — including some versions that have never been published before — MODE promises to be the definitive collection of the band’s early images.

Appearing together with his collaborator, Vaughn George, Griffin recently announced the book and Kickstarter on Youtube. Fans, who have been waiting for decades for Griffin to focus on the boys from Basildon, were invited to commit to buy a signed copy of the book, which will include a list of supporters. Other options include premium prints of Griffin’s images and a boxed edition with a gelatin print.

Griffin’s cover shot for A Broken Frame appeared on the front cover of Life magazine’s special issue, The World’s Best Photographs, 1980-1990. One of the most iconic images associated with Depeche Mode, it was shot in a grain field in rural England during a break from a storm. It could be put down to luck, had Griffin not gone on to shoot the magic, mountainous cover of Construction Time Again with just as much artistry.

Griffin’s last album cover for Depeche Mode was Black Celebration. He went on to have a career in video, and the promotional video for “Only When I Lost Myself” was one of the most unique for the band.

The cut-off for the Kickstarter is 16 June 2023.

We asked Griffin a few questions, on the back of the announcement:

What is your favourite Depeche Mode song?

Only When I Lose Myself.

What inspires you about Depeche Mode?

Freedom.

What is your favourite moment in the book?

The story about the making of “Only When I Lose Myself.”

May 25, 2023

Lau Nau Reveals 5×4

by coldwarnightlife April 15, 2023

written by coldwarnightlife

Lau Nau, the award-winning Finnish composer and performer, has revealed her latest album, 5×4. Named for the characteristic five-note, four-track playback of the Buchla synthesiser, it represents five years of periodic experimentation with the series 200 machine housed by Elektronmusikstudion (EMS) in Stockholm.

Released by Fonal for Europe and Beacon Sound in the US, the album features eight tracks developed by Lau Nau using only the Buchla, a spring reverb, and her voice. The vinyl release comes packaged in a cover featuring fluorescent inks, and Fonal have a limited edition signed by Laura Naukkarinen with a UV-sensitive pen.

Naukkarinen says of the album:

I’ve been composing for five years at Elektronmusikstudion’s Buchla. When I started the project, I wanted to compose about the change in the living conditions of plankton in the Baltic Sea and the variation in their biomass, but soon the logic and sound of the instrument took me with it. I started composing music for marine life, forgetting all the strict boundaries of the subject. The world of crustaceans and zooplankton opens up in the music: darkness and the light filtered by the eutrophicated sea alternate under the surface, the salinity of the sea varies and the turbidity of the water makes the observations soft and without contours.

April 15, 2023

BEF Music for Portable Cassette Players on Reissue

by coldwarnightlife February 8, 2023

written by coldwarnightlife

The departure of Ian Craig Marsh and Martin Ware from the Human League was engineered by their record company and manager to allow the act to develop in more commercial directions. The first two albums from the Sheffield-based electro pioneers had been received with enthusiasm by the cool crowd, but they weren’t paying the bills back at Virgin HQ by themselves. A plan was cooked up, therefore, to kick Ware out of the band he had created and have it continue based around the singer he had brought in.

To his credit, Marsh was prepared to follow Ware out of the door. Instead of creating a new version of the League, they diversified. First, they went into music production, setting up the British Electric Foundation as a vehicle for working with other artists. They also founded their first “client.” Heaven 17, with a mate of theirs who was working as a snapper in London, but that is a story for another day. For our purposes, what matters is that the BEF production team released a cassette of electronic music that continued the lineage that had started with The Future, moved into the Human League, and emerged with the ambition to take synth music into the mainstream.

Music for Stowaways was specifically created for the compact cassette tape. Sony had given their portable music players the name, Stowaway, before settling on the genre-defining Walkman. Ware and Marsh loved the idea of the device, and they went into the studio with some friends – including Adi Newton and Glenn Gregory – to create a single-format release with early adopters in mind. With eight tracks, the original March 1981 release was a glimpse into the future.

In 2023, Music for Stowaways is getting an expanded edition release on two other formats: vinyl and CD. The track listing is set out below.

<a href="https://coldspring.bandcamp.com/album/music-for-stowaways-csr310cd-lp" data-penci-link="external" target="_blank">Music For Stowaways (CSR310CD/LP) by B.E.F.</a>

February 8, 2023

Fantastique! Chris & Cosey Announce Vinyl Releases

by coldwarnightlife January 26, 2023

written by coldwarnightlife

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Norfolk’s best-loved industrial musicians have announced a series of remastered limited edition vinyl releases. Chris & Cosey, the influential duo who split from Throbbing Gristle, have revealed that Elemental 7 will appear on green vinyl. It will be accompanied by Muzik Fantastique! on pink vinyl and Feral Vapours of the Silver Ether on yellow vinyl. Their own CTI label will handle the releases, which are marked for 24 March 2023.

With its grid of video monitors on the cover, Elemental 7 is instantly recognisable as the soundtrack for the film by John Lacy and CTI. It was originally released on the Doublevision, the label set up by Cabaret Voltaire. Truth be told, the visuals were of their time, but the extraordinary soundtrack had more life on the LP. “Dancing Ghosts” is particularly notable for its combination of the Roland TB303 bass sequencer and TR808 drum machine in combination – one of the first tracks to use the gear and one of Chris & Cosey’s best loved songs.

Muzik Fantastique! is an extraordinary album. First released in 1992, it put to shame the acid house pretenders of the day with their newly discovered synth tools. The lead track, “Fantastique,” features one of Cosey’s most iconic vocal performances, while Chris Carter’s instrumentation is in top form. Songs like “Afrakira” and “Apocalypso” venture into world music, while sounding innovative throughout.

The last release in this series, Feral Vapours of the Silver Ether, was the second studio album by Carter Tutti, the act that followed Chris & Cosey. The Carter Tutti material is typically more ambient and down-tempo, compared to the duo’s previous work, and Feral Vapours… marks a step change from the other two albums being pressed by CTI. Not previously available on vinyl, it weaves filigree electro-acoustic sounds with thoroughly sensitive – organic – compositions.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

January 26, 2023

Page Reissue Glad

by coldwarnightlife November 3, 2022

written by coldwarnightlife

Page, the Swedish poptronica pioneers, have reissued their 1995 album, Glad [EN: Happy]. Originally released exclusively on CD, the new version of Glad comes in both vinyl and CD formats; the latter including two bonus tracks from singles released around the time of the original album.

Loaded with fan favourites, Glad was the last album that Marina Schiptjenko took part in before leaving to join the ultrapop band, Vacuum. It took some time; but, thankfully, she rejoined Eddie Bengtsson after a hiatus to record new music and breathe new life into these songs on stage. Today, tracks like “Förlåt” [EM: “Sorry”] and “Står i din väg” [EN: “Stand in Your Way”] are sing-along classics that still get audiences swaying.

The expected release date is 11 November 2022 via Energy Rekords.

November 3, 2022

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