Love is Colder than Death perform Sundance live.
Tag: darkwave Page 4 of 5
The new release, titled Highlights, is available for digital download from Projekt Records on Bandcamp. This is a name-your-price (including free) release. Of course the right thing to do is pay something if you can.
From the album’s description:
Ethereal, evocative, powerful and introspective, Black Tape For A Blue Girl’s recent studio albums expand upon the sweeping darkwave / art rock aesthetic they’ve developed over the past 34 years. Their eclectic, modernist approach refreshes BlackTape’s pioneering musical sentiments while maintaining the unique originality of their sound.
HIGHLIGHTS collects 10-tracks in a 50 minute overview of their last four years, ranging from ethereal dream pop to brooding darkwave, to atmospheric ambient drone. Three non-album cuts include a re-recording of 1989’s “Through sky blue rooms,” while on the 2020 exclusive-to-this-collection version of 1987’s “Scream, my shallow” vocalist Danielle Herrera recreates this harrowing story of obsession and denial.
Discovery 2 from Projekt Records is now available at Bandcamp.
From the album’s description:
The Discovery series introduces you to unsigned and underground artists you might not otherwise hear. The styles cover a wide spectrum from shoegaze to dreampop to synth pop — from post-punk to new wave to dark synthgaze. Lots of great music on this collection for fans of the darker, song-oriented side of the Projekt label.
The album is pay-what-you-want – including free – and the songs can all be previewed. So, grab a download, make a donation if you can, and enjoy a good listen to music you won’t otherwise find.
Please note: Discovery 1 is still available, also for pay-what-you-want, on Bandcamp. It has some great songs!
Witche’s Rune by Unto Ashes
Mike VanPortfleet performs Lycia’s The Ruins
Name-your-price offer on Bandcamp.
Sam’s 1984 album of minimal-synth / synthwave is #free on Bandcamp for a limited time.
| Originally released on vinyl in March 1984, Tanzmusik is one of minimal synth’s top Holy Grails. Recorded in the electronic style now known as synthwave, it was the first LP from Sam Rosenthal, founder of the iconic Projekt Records label and mind behind one of the most influential darkwave acts out of the US, Black Tape For A Blue Girl. A historic work that deserves to be torn from oblivion, Tanzmusik was completely recorded at home on a four-track TEAC-2340 with a super minimal setup (Korg Poly-61, Moog Realistic Concertmate MG-1, Boss Dr-110 and some effects). The ’84 vinyl release was limited to 250 copies with a tannish card glued to a white LP jacket; the re-release in 2012 was an edition of 500 on Italy’s Mannequin label. All physical formats are once again sold out, but the album lives on in the digital world, with a name-your-price-download at Bandcamp. In 2012, The Big Takeover wrote: “Released at a time shortly before the forming of his band, Black Tape for a Blue Girl, the listener might well be stunned by what they hear. Instead of the dark — some may call it ‘goth’ — sounds that he would soon become famous for, Tanzmusik is a record that is oddly upbeat, somewhat poppy in nature, yet with a prog-rock heart that’s equally undeniable. It’s not quite New Wave, it’s not quite progressive, it’s not quite darkwave — but it is an interesting compilation of the ideas of a talented young man with numerous ideas in his head about directions he could go. “ Recorded when Sam was 19, the album continued in the “electronic mood-music” tradition established on three earlier cassette-only releases. With the added intrigues of the drum-computer, Tanzmusik explored the realms of electronic music that critics at the time compared to Tangerine Dream, O.M.D., Brian Eno and these days also compare to Cluster and the first Human League. Sam writes, “When contacted about a re-issue in 2010 by Alessandro Adriani at Mannequin, I decided to remaster the album for them. After getting the digitized recordings back from my mastering guy in Canada, I discovered it wasn’t the stereo 2-track mix at all but the actual 4-track recording. Wow! I thought the multis were long gone, but here they were in pristine digital form! I remixed the album in my studio, staying true to the original – while bringing back a few instruments that were buried in the ’84 mix. Sonically, the current version sounds even more incredible than it did back in 1984!” “Before I remixed the album, I had not listened to it in probably 15 years. In my memories of the album, I thought the ambient songs were the good ones, and the synth-pop ones were the weak link. But now I think I like the synth-pop ones — like “Alone” and “We Return” — more. On the other hand, I really like that sequencer at the beginning of “The Coming Fall.” If my Korg Poly-61 wasn’t dead, I would set up that patch again and write something new around it; I still have all the notes for my synth settings for the songs. Scary. Overall, I am a lot happier with the album than I expected to be. When Alessandro got in touch with me about releasing it, I was sort of skeptical, and procrastinated a whole bunch. But when I started actually working on it, I liked it. It’s quite a nice album. Schizophrenic, but that’s OK.” Sam Rosenthal is an American artist. He is the founder and leader of the band Black Tape For a Blue Girl and the record label Projekt Records (35th anniversary in 2018). He lives in Portland Oregon with his son and cat. Black Tape For a Blue Girl — begun in 1986 after his move from Florida to California — serves as a vehicle for Rosenthal’s musical vision. Its signature combination of gothic, ethereal, ambient and neo-classical elements explores existential themes of loves lost and passions yet to come. After releasing 9 cassettes and the LP of his early electronic work prior to 1986, he developed a full-fledged band whose members revolve around Rosenthal’s subtle electronic foundation. In the last few years he has also been releasing electronic solo work under the names As Lonely As Dave Bowman and Sam Rosenthal, as well as collaborations with other artists. Click Here for the history of Projekt’s out-of-print releases, and Sam’s early electronic releases. |
More new Music! Yay!
Today I am mentioning the new album pre-release by Portland, Oregon’s Devoured By Flowers. (Kudos to the band for coming up with a name that sounds like something that could actually happen to me.) Their new album, Moonscape Hotel, releases on March 16, 2018. But they have 4 tracks available now on Bandcamp. Pre-order the album now, have access to the 4 tracks, get the rest when it releases in March. There is also a CD coming.
In March, Devoured By Flowers will be appearing live for 3 dates with Mercury’s Antennae. I sure wish I could catch one or more of those shows, both bands will be playing new music.
Today’s treat is Mirabilis’ official video for their song The City, which is the second track on their album Here and the Hereafter.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NB3Agb5xNs4]
Here is a track from German/French band Dark Orange, dead! – the witch
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2Jx48LDhxI&w=560&h=315]
Projekt Records, via Bandcamp, has a free digital download of Area’s Agate Lines, a best of/retrospective album with material from all five albums and previously unreleased songs. Area is a darkwave/dreampop band and this album is available at name your price (including free). Of course the nice thing to do would be to pay something, think of it as a tip. All the tracks can be previewed at the Bandcamp page. Go for it!
