Mark Reeder relocated from Manchester to Berlin in the late 1970’s and began to promote his friends Joy Division in Germany, becoming the local rep for Factory Records throughout the 1980’s. He also managed the post-punk outfit Malaria!, started MFS Records (discovering future superstar DJ Paul van Dyk in the process), and remains a beloved producer and remixer. He recently worked with New Order on Singularity. The accompanying music video includes footage from Reeder’s film B-Movie (Lust & Sound in West-Berlin 1979-89), a documentary about his life in 1980s West Berlin.

Like all good Capricorns, Reeder is most at home when he is working. He has been writing, conceiving designs for his next album, and was recently involved in Dave Haslam’s memorial podcast for Ian Curtis. Reeder has been making music since the mid-70s, describing his sound as RetroModernSynthetikRockPopDisco.

“I draw my inspiration from all over, films, books, childhood, my youth, the immediate past and present, or the news,” says Reeder. “I have always been interested in how past events can have a profound effect upon our present and future. I like to make melancholic songs that stir the emotions, but also there’s always a glimmer of hope at the end, because I am an eternal optimist and believe that even if today might be shite, tomorrow will be better.”

Reeder’s collaboration with Alanas Chosnau began at the Lithuanian International Film Festival, where Reeder presented his film B-Movie (Lust & Sound in West-Berlin 1979-89) and perform as a DJ at the opening party. Due to time constraints, plans shifted and Reeder was asked to perform a brief song instead of the expected set. “Luckily, I had just finished reworking a song called The Game for New Order the day before for my album Mauerstadt…The festival had set up a mixing desk and two turntables for me, which was dwarfed by the huge, expansive stage and I was thinking, what’s the point of two decks? ..how can I get out of this??? When it was my turn to go on stage, I looked up beyond the stage lights into this massive auditorium and realised, there were about 2000 very posh looking people staring at me in some kind of curious anticipation…I just stood there like a showroom dummy grimacing with fear at my inescapable plight.”

The emcee then turned and asked Reeder with great expectation, “so Mark, what are you going to do?”

“I simply raised my forefinger and cheekily said “I’m going to just press, PLAY!” Reeder laughs. “Almost as soon as I got off stage, I was introduced to Alanas and he revealed that behind me, a huge projection screen was showing excerpts from B-Movie. Something I was completely unaware of. Ahhh so… that’s why they all gawked.”

The next day proved even more surreal for the producer. “I went for breakfast and people everywhere were smiling and offering free coffee. I was thinking, wow! Lithuanians are so über-friendly to foreigners. Then someone in a café told me the ceremony had been broadcast live on National Television and in the main town square, they had set up a massive LED TV screen and that thousands had actually watched it.”

Reeder met up with his new friend. Chosnau, originally a Kurdish Iraqi from Baghdad, emigrated to Soviet Lithuania in his youth to be raised by his maternal grandparents. He  dodged a life in factories after the fall of Communism, joined a band, and eventually became the biggest selling Lithuanian artist with his pop group Naktinės Personos. It was a good run, but eventually Chosnau wanted a change of pace; to make music closer to his own heart. He asked Reeder if his English was good enough to record.

“I realised that as a kid growing up in the Soviet Union, they didn’t learn English at school. With the fall of communism in the early 90s, people were finally able to listen to all kinds of previously forbidden music from the West, but the lyrics were always a sticking point. That’s why techno became so internationally successful, because it was mainly instrumental,” says Reeder.

As a fan of 80s-sounding synthpop, Chosnau wanted to make an album of music that had inspired him. Being familiar with Reeder’s synthpop style, Chosnau proposed a collaboration. Reeder heartily agreed.

“His own Lithuanian music sounded very contemporary and so I wanted to push his boundaries a bit. Give him something he wouldn’t normally do himself. My music is reminiscent. It doesn’t really have a date stamp on it, as it already sounds like it could be from a past era. Eventually, we made Losing My Mind, which was then chosen to be the love song in the contemporary cold war thriller “Le Chant du Loup” (The Wolf’s Call) and after that, we decided to make an album together.”

The Children of Nature album came about after pooling thoughts and ideas together with Chosnau. The album touches on themes of relationships and love, climate change, the present and future political situation, ruthless totalitarian regimes, police brutality, and human legacy.

“Strangely, some of the themes on Children of Nature have become unintentionally prophetic,” Reeder muses. “All Alone was actually intended for lovers left stranded, but as we were preparing the album, we were suddenly hit with the corona crisis, and the song took on an entirely different meaning, and this was further enhanced by Alanas having to make the video for it, in lockdown.

Reeder thinks that the pandemic has also changed the way many people listen to music. With shuttered clubs and abandoned gigs, he explains the music normally consumed during the usual work commute is no longer the soundtrack to our lives. “Techno has become music to clean the floor to, because listening to some bangin’ DJ set on your shitty laptop speakers isn’t quite the same without all the trappings of a club,” says Reeder. “Most people are looking for something that reminds them of the good old days, when everything was possible, or something that contains a glimmer of hope.”

The Children of Nature video was created by award-winning film producer and director Aleksandras Brokas, cinematographer Julius Zalnierukynas and art director Vitalis Cepkauskas.

The post Legendary Producer Mark Reeder Talks New Collaborations, World History, and Quarantine In Exclusive Interview appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

Like they said Trojan horse would be forgotten

But we represent a different platform

Dispossessed pinko middle classes

Who have very dirty glasses

The Cool Greenhouse are no hothouse flowers, but they’re certainly about to hurl a few stones with their self-titled debut LP. Blissfully instinctive, The Cool Greenhouse deftly embodies the agitation of a relentless internal monologue with the maddening monotony of a repetitive earworm….let’s just call a spade a spade. This is The Cool Greenhouse Effect.

The voice and mastermind behind the band, the delightfully monikered Tom Greenhouse, explodes on the scene with a spectacularly poetic, post-punk, psychedelic narration style. Inspired by magazine articles and conversations, each song in the collection delights in drolly digging at the gamin classes, scoffing at the stupidity of society, and popping punches at female harassment.  In short, Tom Greenhouse is a brilliantly witty lyricist, and The Cool Greenhouse is about to be your next favourite band if you are a fan of the minimalist stylings of Tom Vek, spilling the wine with Eric Burdon/War, the bizarre verbal journeys of early Beck, and the wordplay of Patti Smith. Patti herself is namechecked in 2019’s Pets: “I hear Patti Smith’s favourite pet…is an earring.”

“A lot of punk is on the nose like “fuck the Tories” but I’m not that hardcore,” says Greenhouse. “Humour is good for talking about serious things without getting too sentimental.”

Greenhouse’s proclivity for penning poetry struck early. “At school I wrote a story about a whale that fell in love with a submarine and tried to have sex with it which almost caused a serious nuclear meltdown; it won a prize. As a teenager I thought I was Arthur Rimbaud so I moved to Paris and wrote terrible poetry.” Ah, the folly of youth!

Down and out in Paris (and later, in London), Greenhouse found his finances in dire straits, so the fledgling poet fled to the sticks of Norwich, England. Sitting in his garden, the muse stuck and Greenhouse was determined to turn scripture into song with a friend’s tape recorder. He then set to writing the album between cranking out clickbait articles for his bread and butter. Greenhouse then contacted Graham Lambkin (The Shadow Ring) asking whether the whole effort was worth the bother. “He sent a really nice reply. He probably doesn’t remember, but it spurred me on.”

From there, Greenhouse took to the live circuit, but his solo backing track performances needed a fuller sound and turned to the talent of guitarist Tom O Driscoll, bassist Thom Mason, drummer/percussionist Kevin Barthelemy and Merlin Nova on keys and synths, harmonium, melodica, violin and backing vocals.  The result was so impressive they got signed by Melodic. “Those guys are crazy,” says Greenhouse.

“I wanted to hear repetitive music that wasn’t pretentious,” Greenhouse says of his personal agenda to inject pop sentimentality into the rock’n’roll textbook. “The mission was to make long, repetitive pop music that wasn’t boring. I soon realised I could do that through focusing on the lyrics.” The result is a dizzying onslaught of languidly-delivered verbiage that demands your attention and slices through the bullshit with rapier-sharp wit.

Producer, sound engineer and mixer Phil Booth (Sleaford Mods, Jake Bugg) discovered the 7″ masterpiece and invited the group to his JT Soar studio in Nottingham. The old potato-packing warehouse offered an idiosyncratic working method for the band, which recorded the album over 7 days between kipping on studio couches, 4am whiskey-soaked sessions, and Mario Kart ’64 on demand. “There were weird little synchronistic miracles,” says Greenhouse: “discussing a song then seeing its title on a shop window, finding things in pubs straight out of our songs… these zapped me onto some sort of Jungian plane where I didn’t need sleep and knew just what to do.” After sculpting the final cuts, the ambitious effort was mastered by Mikey Young (Bodega, Amyl and the Sniffers). “We added a tympani and clarinet, but ended up taking it all off again.” One hopes they’re revived in another incarnation.

The efforts paid off: The Cool Greenhouse caught the attention of Henry Rollins, who declared them as “my new favourite post-everything existential music happening. Hooray!”

Praise from Sir Henry is praise indeed. Give this gem a spin.

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Eve Minor is ready for musical revolution. She has zero patience for the PR machine of branding, artificiality, or personality control. In fact, she’s actively fighting it. Minor made headlines for her recent PASTE Magazine performance, where she appeared in a mesh mask and a dress made of a garbage bag to protest the abusive treatment from record producers and the disposable nature of pop music. She was accompanied by a trans interpretive dancer, a looming figure in a monk cowl, and her faithful companion “Jack,” a skeleton operating her laptop.

3:33 is a performance art record combining machinima overlay imagery and unique soundsets in an aural collage, intended for the listener to take a spiritual journey to waking up, as she manifests her mysterious, elusive twin flame.

Minor is fiercely independent and proficient in a vast array of instruments. She uses her skills to push boundaries and blur lines between artistic mediums by relentlessly researching, tinkering, and sonically carving out her signature sound that her fans have termed “screwgaze.” Minor is authentic punk through and through; a true survivor and hellraiser.

Her previous release, RedRedRed, landed Minor a spot on the charts and received praise from Sammy Pierre Duet from Goatwhore/Acid Bath, Tom Vishnes of Abbath/Gorgoroth, and Trap Pop Artist Saint JHN. Equal parts genius and insanity, as well as a true romantic, Eve Minor writes about her crushes and lovers openly and honestly. More often Greek tragedy than Grimm’s fairy tale, she dives deep into childhood trauma, depression and the sense of displacement in a world she doesn’t identify with. 3:33 is no different thematically, as there is a heavy sense of sorrow draped over the art piece.

Minor’s Instagram is both parts entertaining and reality TV, as you get to witness an artist in throes of creation and madness. Her gothic pinup look is often compared to a “darker Marilyn Monroe,” Barbie, and real life Harley Quinn, juxtaposing dark romanticism and classic beauty. (Having created a virtual game known as “Doll House,” Eve Minor may very well break the mold of traditional dolls; working with a Mattel toy designer on creating the first Eve Minor doll expected Summer 2020 as part of her artist merch drop.)

Minor creates art to manifest her destiny. By the rapid success of its charts, it’s very clear that the love Minor projects to the universe is being returned to her with the release of 3:33.

The post Eve Minor Manifests Her Destiny With “Ashes” appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

London punk label La Vida Es Un Mus is releasing the new record in cooperation with Sealed Records. The song “Wilfred Owen The Chances” itself is essentially a sprechstimme-style recitation by Blinko of the World War I poem “The Chances” by British WWI soldier and poet Wilfred Owen. The growling, talk-singing recitation of the poem is set to a slow, minimalist, dirgey punk-guitar-and-drums backing song. In the 2010s British label Southern Records briefly announced a new Rudimentary Peni EP, “The Great War,” but to date that EP hasn’t been released. The “Wilfred Owen The Chances” track here (which can be streamed here below) might have served as a track from that new EP, as this song is indeed about the “Great War” (i.e. WWI). “Wilfred Owen the Chances” can be bought as a standalone mp3 from Sealed Records, too.

The new Rudimentary Peni 7″ features new cover art by singer and outsider artist Nick Blinko

For those wishing to dig deeper into the backstory of this release, you can read the original 1916 Wilfred Owen poem “The Chances” here. (Owen was himself tragically killed near the end of World War I, in 1918.) The poem is essentially the lyrics of Rudimentary Peni’s song. Putting others’ poems to punk music marks a recent change of tack for Rudimentary Peni; the band’s last multi-song release, 2008’s excellent No More Pain EP, starts off with the track “Handful of Dust” whose lyrics are also cribbed from TS Eliot’s “The Waste Land.” Usually, Rudimentary Peni’s trademark sardonic, bleak, and pun-heavy lyrics are penned directly by Nick Blinko and bassist Grant Matthews.

Rudimentary Peni have popped up now and again in goth and postpunk music consciousness over the past decade. The British trio received some attention from the modern goth scene in the 2010s when Chelsea Wolfe released her A Tribute to Rudimentary Peni EP in 2012, which featured Wolfe’s covers or re-workings of several Rudimentary Peni songs. “I recorded five covers, or interpretations, of Rudimentary Peni songs based on only reading the lyrics or only hearing the song once, so the covers are very loose,” Wolfe stated in an interview. “I love Rudimentary Peni‘s lyrics—very frantic and poetic.” In fact, the band have always exerted a fascination, if not viral influence, over the goth, and especially the deathrock, scenes since their doomy Death Church LP debuted in 1983.

The reclusive band—who still have no official web presence, anywhere (the closest is Southern Records’ label page)—started in 1980 just north of London after singer and guitarist Nick Blinko spent time in the early experimental industrial act Magits. He was also in the proto-gothic rock act the S-Haters (who I interviewed in 2012 here ). Around 1980, Blinko formed his own label, Outer Himalayan Records, with Magits bandmate Martin Cooper; under this label’s aegis Blinko intended to release local bands in the punk and early postpunk scenes. In fact, an excellent compilation of early 80s postpunk, dark punk, and gothic rock bands from this milieu can be found on The Thing From the Crypt comp, released in 1981 with major contributions from Blinko’s Outer Himalayan Records. This important document of underground UK postpunk was reissued by Dark Entries Records in 2013. As well, Dark Entries and Sacred Bones collaborated to reissue other dark bands on Outer Himalayan’s roster with the excellent 2018 Outer Himalayan Presents comp. Southern Records themselves began reissuing Rudimentary Peni vinyl and CDs throughout the 2010s, along with the first-ever officially licensed t-shirts of the band, featuring Nick Blinko’s surreal-macabre artwork.

Rudimentary Peni’s first two, early 80s EPs—a self-titled EP and its follow-up, “Farce”—are dark political thrashers, characterized by a blistering, frenetic energy and by Blinko’s wailing, maniacal vocals. (The Crass-produced “Farce” EP actually hit #7 on the UK Indie charts.) Drummer Jon Greville, who was also in the early gothic rock band Snake Corps (a band that formed from the ashes of Sad Lovers and Giants), plays tempos on Peni’s first two EPs that perhaps have more in common with US hardcore acts of the time than with contemporaries in the UK underground. In fact, across the pond in the DC hardcore scene of the early 80s a young Guy Picciotto, later of Rites of Spring and Fugazi, was so taken aback by the emotional intensity of the early Rudimentary Peni EPs that he wrote to the band in England and considered them an influence on Rites of Spring’s early material as well as the development of his own career in punk.

Nick Blinko with the original “Wilfred Owen the Chances” CD-single from 2009. Photo courtesy Jennifer Lauren Gallery.

Rudimentary Peni made an immediate impression on Crass’s Penny Rimbaud, too; he quickly enlisted the threesome into the Crass Records roster. The band thusly became affiliated with the early 80s UK anarcho-punk scene that centered around Crass, Poison Girls, and the Wapping Autonomy Centre anarchist venue. (For a while, Rudimentary Peni even had a kind of sister band, the perhaps-even-more-morbid, uber-cult, Lovecraftian deathrock act Part 1). In 1983, Rudimentary Peni debuted their seminal Death Church LP on Corpus Christi Records, a side-imprint of Crass Records that also included acts like UK Decay and The Very Things. The morbid atmosphere, creepy artwork, and overall nightmarish vibe of Death Church attracted listeners in the American deathrock scene as well as the early goth scene (or so-called positive punk scene) in England. “There’s so much suffering encapsulated into it,” Nick Blinko confessed about Death Church in a rare interview with Carlos A. Nunez for Flipside fanzine in the 1990s. “I tried to be as original [with Death Church] as I could.”

Amazingly, Death Church briefly reached No. 3 (!) in the UK Indie Charts, according to Barry Lazell’s Indie Hits 1980-1999. Of the LP’s power, Trouser Press wrote:  “[Death Church features] venomous lyrics ripping through loud and clear (as they should, given song titles like ‘Vampire State Building’ and ‘Alice Crucifies the Paedophiles’). While the songs are not exactly hook-laden, this is quite melodic for the genre. Tempos run from moderate metal through Pistolian thrash to hyperdrive blur. An intelligent, exciting, and highly recommended album.” Death Church continues to be many fans’ favorite Rudimentary Peni release, and it remains a landmark in the deathrock and anarcho-punk genres. “[Rudimentary Peni’s] innate ability to disturb and provoke the listener on some deep and primal level was almost unrivaled in the punk scene,” Ian Glasper later wrote. “They were demented visionaries towering above a sea of all-too-often shallow and generic peers.” (Full disclosure: I moonlight as a DJ myself, and “Death Church” is my DJ name for a reason.) The LP would even later gain a following among black metal fans. After the success of Death Church, Rudimentary Peni’s future seemed bright.

An audio rip of the original 2009 “Wilfred Owen the Chances” CD-Single

But Rudimentary Peni’s follow-up LP did not come until half a decade later—a massive, 30-track tribute to HP Lovecraft: 1988’s sprawling Cacophony. By this time, Crass Records and Corpus Christi had gone dormant, so the band released the LP back on their own, smaller Outer Himalayan imprint. By the time Cacophony hit store shelves in 1988, Rudimentary Peni’s personnel had run into an incredibly bad string of luck. Bassist, co-founder, and co-lyricist Grant Matthews—the most accessible of the band’s three members for interviews—was diagnosed with cancer. (Thankfully, Matthews fought the cancer and survived.) Singer Nick Blinko’s chronic mental illness also spiraled out of control. Blinko suffers from schizoaffective disorder, the same mental illness endured by fellow singer and creative type Adrian Borland of The Sound, and which, it is generally surmised, contributed to Borland’s tragic suicide in 1999. (Some sources report Blinko suffers from schizophrenia.) Experiencing hallucinations, in 1992 Blinko was committed to a mental hospital under Section 3 of England’s 1983 Mental Health Act, which allows patients to be committed against their will. It was in the psych unit under these circumstances that Nick Blinko wrote Rudimentary Peni’s third full-length LP, the certifiably bizarre Pope Adrian 37th Psychristiatric, not released until 1995.

The 1990s were a strange time for Rudimentary Peni overall. Many thought the band had broken up. After Blinko was released from his mental hospital confinement, the band were convinced to play a sort of “comeback” concert at London’s The Venue on December 20, 1992. This surprisingly large affair was filmed, and it’s the best-quality recorded live moment of the stubbornly camera-shy trio. The band are shaky on the video, and Blinko seems especially ill-at-ease in his frontman role, especially with drunken stage divers hanging around him. The 1992 Venue gig is the only filmed performance of Rudimentary Peni, and indeed to this date, it has been one of their last live efforts at all. (“Playing live is a pain in the ass,” Nick Blinko said in a rare interview with Graeme Wood’s IQ32 zine. “Who needs it?”) US tours were rumored but never occurred throughout the 1990s; optimistic flyers for US shows in the 1990s can be found on the web today, leading many to falsely believe Rudimentary Peni have played in the US. In fact, the bulk of Rudimentary Peni’s live performances were in the early 1980s, and those appearances only number about 25 or so, mostly at very small DIY and anarchist venues or squats. There are some rough audio bootlegs of varying quality of some of these shows.

The punk power trio’s two releases in the 1990s—1995’s Pope Adrian 37th Psychristiatric LP and the artsy 1998 “Echoes of Anguish” EP—although solid—are the weakest releases in the band’s nearly 40-year catalog. During the 90s, singer Nick Blinko’s career began developing along varied paths: He wrote and published a quasi-autobiographical horror novel, Primal Screamer, in 1995. This novel’s reputation has grown over the years, and it was reprinted by PM Press in 2011 after original editions began to fetch over $1,000 on eBay and elsewhere. As well, Blinko’s career as an outsider visual artist began to come into its own. The Henry Boxer Gallery in London, England took on Blinko as a client and began exhibiting his meticulously detailed and macabre artwork. “[Blinko’s] images are constructed of microscopically detailed elements, sometimes consisting of literally hundreds of interconnecting figures and faces, which he draws without the aid of magnifying lenses and which contain an iconography that places him in the company of the likes of Bosch, Bruegel, and the late Goya,” academic Colin Rhodes wrote in his authoritative 2000 work Outsider Art: Spontaneous Alternatives in its section profiling Blinko’s work. “His pictures produced in periods when he was not taking medication bring no respite from the psychic torment and delusions from which he suffers. In order to make art, Blinko risks total psychological exposure.”

As the new millennium dawned, Rudimentary Peni went back into the studio and released the 12-song “Underclass” EP, in many ways a return to form for the band after 1998’s experimental (and, to me, frankly lackluster) “Echoes of Anguish” effort. The band’s new lyrics showed the group going in a new lyrical direction, exploring more broadly, existentially nihilistic—if not downright fatalist—themes as opposed to the socio-political focus of the early 80s. “No other truth but power alone,” Blinko sings in the chorus of a track on “Underclass.” The short, mid-tempo, almost metal-y tracks on 2000’s “Underclass” serve as the general template for the two other EPs that came out of the aughts. Those EPs, “Archaic” and “No More Pain,” are the band’s strongest material since the days of Death Church. In some ways, the material on these EPs warrants comparison to Pink Flag-era Wire—short, driving punk as minimalist art form. Bassist and co-lyricist Grant Matthews even made himself available for interviews at the time of the 2000s EPs; Grant and drummer Jon gave perhaps their most in-depth interview ever for Ian Glasper’s exhaustive 2007 book on anarcho-punk, The Day the Country Died. Grant stated that Rudimentary Peni were back in business and would be releasing an EP of new material every four years: “Underclass” came out in 2000; “Archaic” came out around 2004; “No More Pain” came out in 2008. In 2012, fans eagerly awaited a new EP. It never materialized.

David Tibet of experimental/apocalyptic folk act Current 93, long an admirer of Nick Blinko’s artwork and lyrics, also began to work with Nick Blinko in the aughts, culminating with the publication of 2009’s The Haunted Head, Blinko’s second book. Around 375 copies were printed, and each came with a one-track CD-single featuring the song “Wilfred Owen the Chances,” the song whose upcoming vinyl version instigated this article. A couple of years later, Tibet also published Blinko’s third book, Visions of Pope Adrian the 37th. Information on that book can be found here.

Nick Blinko of Rudimentary Peni and David Tibet of Current 93, partners in arms.

Rudimentary Peni’s new 7″ single comes out May 29th.

You can pre-order Rudimentary Peni’s “Wilfred Owen the Chances” 7″ from La Vida Es un Mus HERE.

You can listen to or buy the “Wilfred Owen The Chances” 7″ digitally on Bandcamp HERE.

The post Cult band Rudimentary Peni announces first new 7″ in over a decade appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

“Smoke and Mirrors,” below, is a classic, powerful deathrocker of a track. Some sonic points of reference may be helpful: The song recalls the innovative strength of 80s UK groups like Blood and Roses or Brigandage, pioneers of the old British “positive punk” movement that led to the creation of gothic rock. As well, “Smoke and Mirrors” brings to mind the style of music played by Northern California colleagues in Crimson Scarlet: Driving and to-the-point, but with enough unsettling atmosphere to please fans of classic/trad gothic rock. Mystic Priestess announce that “Smoke and Mirrors” is a timely meditation on “facing the shadows of chaos in the world and revealing the facade of inauthenticity that creates self-doubt and division that keeps us following the herdsman and our own demise.” It’s a great song.

Mystic Priestess’ professed influences include the anarcho-punk of Crass Records bands as well as the classic deathrock of groups like early Christian Death, and those predecessors’ influences are indeed very in evidence on this new offering. Mystic Priestess’s spectral, guitar-driven sounds also incorporate some of the political feelings of the zeitgeist, giving voice to LGBTQ and feminist issues that instill the band’s music with a compelling and modern urgency, marrying the gothic-punk tradition to political concerns sometimes not commonly found in the darkwave scene. “Smoke and Mirrors” is a great example of Mystic Priestess’s top-shelf, witchy gothic punk rock.

Listen to Mystic Priestess’s “Smoke and Mirrors” below (or click here)

The post Oakland Deathrockers Mystic Priestess Unveil Powerful New Single – “Smoke and Mirrors” appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

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Friday, May 27 in Los Angeles at Das Bunker with REDREDRED and Silent Servant (DJ Set)

Sunday, May 29 in New York City at Rough Trade, Brooklyn

With a catalogue that spans well over three decades, Esplendor Geométrico has had a diverse and interesting musical story with roots firmly set in the early industrial genre. Original members Arturo Lanz, Gabriel Riaza, and Juan Carlos Sastre released their first LP in 1982 titled El Acero Del Partido on Tic Tac before forming their own label in 1985 called Esplendor Geométrico Discos. Under their label, EG put out three more LPs during the mid-80s, refining their rhythmic industrial soundscapes. Notably, the landmark album, Mekano-Turbo from 1988, established more danceable rhythms in their power noise tracks.

By 1990, Esplendor Geométrico had recruited Saverio Evangelista to join the band alongside original member Arturo Lanz. The duo released the heavily Arabic influenced album Sheikh Aljama in 1991 on the label Geometrik generating the overseas hit “Sinaya.” In the coming years, EG would replace their harsher sounds for softer ones, still maintaining their industrial foundation while mixing in Eastern influences. EN-CO-D-Esplendor, a remix album, sealed their fate in the history of industrial music when it was released in 1998, containing contributions by the likes of heavy-hitters Coil and Chris & Cosey.

In 2015, the band found its way back into DJ setlists thanks to the new industrial/techno label Contort Yourself. Featured on the Shark Story of the Century EP with the re-release of their 1988 track “Rotor”, Esplendor Geométrico remains to be a relevant facet of electronic music. Underground favorites, Broken English Club also remixed the song on the EP, bringing it a lighter and more techno-influenced revamp for dance floors.

The post Esplendor Geométrico to play first ever U.S. shows in May appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

One influence that is frequently mentioned above all is Wire, one of the key players of the early Post-Punk underground, a band that created much of the sound of New Order before New Order were New Order. Hell, Wire even have their own “Drill” Festival, with bands like Swans, and Savages on the bill.

Given their prolific influence, we at Post-Punk.com are particularly honored to be presenting Wire’s Berlin Gig on November 22nd (2 days after your humble Editors birthday) at the Postbahnhof club.  This gig is in support of the band’s 13th studio album, the self titled “Wire”.

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The video above is from the band Marching Girls, a band that was originally from New Zealand called The Scavengers—who would later relocate to Melbourne after recruiting Singer/Bassist “Ronnie Recent” aka Mr. Lovegrove himself, Brendan Perry. Check out The Scavengers’ biting punk anthem “Mysterex” below.

After the name change over to Marching Girls, and a string of crooning Pop-Punk tracks  (such as “True Love”, later featured on the Dogs in Space soundtrack) Perry would later take fellow Marching Girls drummer Simon Monroe, and his domestic partner Lisa Gerard of the band Microfilm to form Dead Can Dance—but before we get to that, it’s worth listening to a track from Microfilm, as they are actually really really good (and warrant a special vinyl reissue at the very least).

Here is the title track “Centrefold” off of the band’s only release (the b-side being the track “Window” which you can listen to here.)

The result of the merging of the two bands Marching Girls and Microfilm was the track “A Means of Escape”—the very first professional studio recording by Dead Can Dance which featured the line-up of Perry (Vocals & Electric Guitar), Gerrard (Pearl Syncussion),  Monroe (Drums) and Paul Erikson (Bass Guitar), who’s bassline on the track clearly has echoes of Joy Division (similar in sound to songs such as “Dead Souls”, or “Insight”).  An evolved version of this bassline also appears on the track “Threshold” off of Dead Can Dance’s self titled debut LP. One could speculate that this influence was the result of Joy Division’s Australian influence at the time. Regardless, take a listen to “A Means of Escape” which is indeed quite a treasure.

The post The Secret Origin of Dead Can Dance appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

Recently—during a rainy afternoon in Friedrichshain, I had a coffee in with Laslo and Lidija, discussing the music scene, labels, and touring:

Post-Punk: My philosophy on interviews is that it’s not suppose to be the press release. It’s suppose to build a relationship between the people who make the music and the audience. It should be more personal than going through a checklist of questions; every time the same interview but with a different cast.

Lidija: Exactly, that’s the reason why sometimes I say I don’t like interviews if all I’m doing is repeating the same thing over and over again.

Laslo: It should be what people want to talk about anyways. It’s more interesting to hear a real conversation.. ya know?

Post-Punk: Have you done a ton of interviews?

Laslo: We are always going them when we go to play somewhere. At the venue you’ll do an interview for a magazine or radio show.

Lidija: It’s always like a laundry list of questions, maybe 5..6..7 interviews when we play somewhere.

Post-Punk: It seems like that would be the worst place to have an interview if your mind is focused on getting everything ready for the show.

Lidija: I have to be honest. I like doing the interviews after the show because there’s a real flow.. you are continuing what you did onstage.

Post-Punk: Oh I see. My friend Hilllary, a producer back in NY, once told me that artists sometimes want to continue the high of performing by either doing drugs, drinking, or having sex after the show…something extreme to capture the same high.

Laslo: Yea, interviews are a bit different (laughs). Hopefully you have an interview that is as good as sex.. otherwise you might be thinking “this interview better be worth it” (Laslo and Lidija laugh)

Lidija: Yea, if I’m not doing the other things..

Post-Punk: .Ah, an interview as good as sex. So how do I make an interview that won’t be boring  for you.

Lidija: Just keep going.. this is good. This is being natural.

Post-Punk: So you had a wonderful performance at Modern Movement. That was the last show I saw of yours’, but I know that wasn’t tha last show you did in Berlin.

Laslo: Oh yes, I remember that felt like the hottest day of the year. The last show we had here was  at the Berghain Cantina.

Post-Punk: Is that a different crowd over at the Cantina? I think you typically see kids there that you don’t necessarily see at other gigs.. “hipster” crowd I guess?

Laslo: At concert type venues, so people are there for the show. As for other places, people are there for the party.

Lidija: More hipsters there.

Post-Punk: Yea definitely more hipsters.

Lidija: Which could be cool.. it’s nice to have people there from the scene, but its also nice to have new people to be in the audience. There were hipsters, Berliners, people who were just curious, and then Soft Metals fans.

Post-Punk: How were Soft Metals?

Lidija: Nice guys, and great music.

Lidija continues: We changed the set at the Cantina. We changed it in Leipzig and decided to do the same there to make it a bit different.. more interesting for us and for the audience…adding in new songs.

Post-Punk: Do you have any recordings of the performance. I don’t think anyone does it there, which is a shame.

Lidija: Not sure. But it will be similar or better in Urban Spree on Sept 11^th.

Post-Punk: So you have been putting out releases through Mannequin. How’s it been? Getting a bigger audience..?

Laslo: We had the last two releases for Mannequin.

Post-Punk: Was that two e.p’s? I thought one might have been a full album?

Laslo: The first of the two was an e.p . That was for Genetic. The newest one was also and e.p. We liked how it functions with Mannequin. Everything was smooth and organized.

Lidija: We were quite satisfied with working with Alessandro. It’s not about how to get a much bigger fan base, press, interviews… But that’s how the scene is.

Post-Punk: I’ve noticed this trend of how things are very boutique. That every release is like a limited release.  There’s only so many copies that you can physically go out and buy, the rest only being digital.

Laslo: Like some limited number might have different album artwork before it’s actually released..

Laslo continues: It seems like these normal releases are only like 500 to 1,000, that’s already not very many.

Lidija: Those that release only 100..

Post-Punk: Would that even cover the cost of recording and pressing?

Lidija: It’s expensive.

Laslo: And there are so many different labels out now.

Post-Punk: These small boutique labels, a lot of them are doing re-releases.   But in your case,  are their no new plans to record. You’re just working on some other projects now?

Lidija: We were booked to play with Clan of Xymox and then they canceled it a day after.

Post-Punk: Oh, where was this?

Laslo: Spain

Lidija: Yea it was supposed to be two gigs in Spain. But things fell through, that’s how it works sometimes. So much work setting things up and communicating back and forth.. and then it’s gone.

Laslo: We are going to work on something together pretty soon because the previous release was last December and it sold out from the label already.

Lidija: The plan is to do it definitely before the end of the year. What we miss is to have a tour. But considering we do not have a manager and we are working alone, we have played a lot of great shows and festivals in a lot of different cities. We are quite satisfied.

Laslo: Maybe we go back and play some of the same venues..

Post-Punk: Why not play in San Francisco, Los Angeles..?

Lidija: That would be so great and we are getting requests for us to go to the US, but it has come from all different organizers. We just need one to cover all it all and it’s a lot of work.

Laslo: We have to find the time outside the other work we are doing as well.

Post-Punk: I think eventually you will play Part-Time Punks in Los Angeles.

Post-Punk: So here’s the trademark interview question… What were your influences or what is the source of inspiration the electronic music that you guys make?

Laslo: Well we never really planned it. But it was obvious what kind of music we were listening to and I had already played in Post-Punk: style bands before. It was kind of an unsaid agreement. And even when I listen to our early album four years ago, I notice our style has changed. What we are interested in doing now, at least for us, feels really different. This is why it is very important for us to change the sets in concert, to play the songs (including old) how we want to today.

Lidija: Yea, it was not a conscious decision “oh we are going to play electronic music”.. We grew up in Yugoslavia and things we were listening to there were, like Borghesia and Laibach.

Post-Punk: I missed Borgasia at WGT… I was at another show and wished I could’ve been at two places at once.

Laslo: Oh yea, They played at WGT.

Lidija: So there were many different things we were influenced by and as ex-Yugoslavian, things that are electric, dark… we just added elements we liked playing. That’s how we captured our sound.

Laslo: We don’t really like to stick to one style.

Post-Punk: What I got from your music is it didn’t sound like something lazily thrown together, or easily programmed, or that the synths were predictable sequenced arpeggio.. You make a more complicated melody that I appreciate. It doesn’t just become that boring progressive beat that makes you fall asleep.

Lidija: The uniform formats just bore us and until it truly moves us completely, we are not finished with the song. We don’t stop. So it’s not so important which instruments we are using.. it just has to create the right sound and melody that captures you and feels powerful.

Laslo: It has to create the right atmosphere. It’s just something somehow that we both feel at that moment

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