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.
Track of the Day
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.
“The decade that made me,” sings Ivan Doroschuk, whistfully. The 1980s were the beginning of his career as an international pop star. His band, Men Without Hats, had mega-success with a song about pogo dancing, accompanied by a video shot on an English farm. Fast forward forty years, and “The Safety Dance” has been repurposed with another Hats hit, “Pop Goes the World,” for a notalgic romp.
On the back of last month’s stunning “Cataclysm,” Zanias reveals the next single from her forthcoming album and an entrancing new video.
With a desert backdrop, “Dawn” gives Dune or Wheel of Time vibes. The material surges and flows like the shifting of the sands, while Zanias’ voice has the ethereal quality of a mirage.
The title track from the excellent new Llynks album, “Time Reborn” is a classy and uplifting dance track with EBM and EDM influences. Coproduced with Chyld, it is the result of half a decade of work. Based on sci-fi themes (Hey, S.P.O.C.K, you need to catch up! – Ed.), the song is about new love in a time of planetary takeover.
The Boston-based songstress has long been a favourite of ours, and the wait has been worth it.
(Photo: Heather McGrath)
Lifted from Päiväkahvit, this track sits in the playlist somewhere between Sigur Ros and Virginia Astley.
The PR from Beacon Sound notes: “When the trio of Sontag Shogun gathered at Laura Naukkarinen’s home on the Finnish island of Kimitoön in the summer of 2019, they had not the slightest inkling that the world was about to change irretrievably with the onset of a long-predicted pandemic the following year.”
The material on Päiväkahvit draws on material from that visit. It is full of artefacts of a pre-Covid world and the ambience of the North in bloom. “The Vala River” has been reworked by Post-Dukes.
The Korgis’ best song gets an industrial dub makeover, courtesy of the team of Mark Stewart and Adrian Sherwood. Stewart, who died two years ago, left an album in the vault. While we wait for The Fateful Symmetry (released by Mute on 11 July 2025), this will keep us consciously bopping against the New World Order.
Fans of Stewart’s work will be interested to learn about two events timed to the album’s release.
“Taste Is a Form of Censorship” is an exhibition featuring the work of BombArt – Stewart’s collaboration with Peter Harris – and other related material. It takes place at London’s Farsight Gallery, 4 Flitcroft St, London WC2H 8DJ, from 16-18 July 2025. The 16th is a private view, but free tickets are available through eventbrite.co.uk.
“Mad Max Meets Rockaway Park” follows, from 25-27 July 2025, with events at Bristol’s Rockaway Park. The artists taking part include Peter Harris, DJ Milo, Smith & Mighty, Tessa Pollitt, and Janine Rainforth. A screening of the documentary about Stewart, On/Off, is also planned. See rockawaypark.co.uk for details.