Repress!
We are honored to announce the next 12" in Dark Entries Editions is one of the all time Italo Disco club classics: My Mine - ‘Hypnotic Tango’. My Mine were the trio of Stefano Micheli (vocals, keyboards), Carlo Malatesta (vocals, keyboards), and Danilo Rosati (drums, keyboards) formed from the ashes of Italian New Wave group Ipnotico Tango in 1982. They shifted focus from the experimental post punk sounds towards something more commercial with which to try and enter the market, namely to make a record. At that time Carlo was studying in Bologna and he had heard about producer and arranger Mauro Malavasi famous at that time for the many hits produced for Macho, Peter Jacques Band, Change, Luther Vandross, Ritchie Family. The group handed Malavasi a demo tape and four days later they were invited to Fonoprint Studios to record their first single, “Hypnotic Tango”.

Utilizing new electronic instruments like the now legendary Roland TB-303, Danilo improvised a simple but effective synthesizer bass line and passed it through the Roland Echo until something magical came out. “Hypnotic Tango” was released on Progress Record in 1983 and became an international hit across Europe and US dance clubs in New York, Detroit and Chicago, capturing the imagination of House and Techno producers. In 1987 the legendary Frankie Knuckles remixed “Hypnotic Tango” at Seagrape Studios in Chicago, with assistance from studio engineers Tommy White and Brett Wilcotts. Originally released on Danica Records as the “Powerhouse Mix” paying tribute to the Windy City club atmosphere and adding his own "sighs" in the track as well. The Hypnotic Remix This reissue presents 4 mixes of “Hypnotic Tango” including the “Hypnotic Mix” only appearing together once before in 1990 on Rams Horn Records. All songs are remastered for vinyl by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. The vinyl comes housed in a jacket with original artwork and includes an insert with photos and liner notes by Stefano Micheli. “Look on the floor and all is spinning round, Someone told me this was just a dance And take a chance I ain't met before..Do you think I really have a chance??"

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Dark Entries has raided the bathhouse to bring us Deep Entries: Gay Electronic Excursions 1979-1985, 10 tracks of obscure queer synth bliss. One of Dark Entries' most important missions has been illuminating neglected facets of gay musical history, with crucial archival works by legends like Patrick Cowley, Sylvester, and Man Parrish. On Deep Entries, the label spans 6 years of gay electronics - from sultry to angsty to camp, these songs are overflowing with snappy 808 snares and sinewy analog synth leads. The '80s were a difficult period for many in the gay community as they grappled with the horrors of the HIV/AIDS crisis. The 10 tracks on Deep Entries, varied in genre and vibe, are united in their portraiture of 1980s gay life, and the hope for love or fleeting romance. Previously unreleased cruising soundtracks come courtesy of Patrick Cowley’s “Love Me Hot” featuring vocalist Paul Parker and Boytronic’s “Tonight (Alternate Mix)” set on Hamburg’s famous “Mile of Sin.” Brisbane-based Megamen deliver the proto-electroclash number “Designed for Living,” which prefigures Madonna’s Marlene Dietrich rap in “Vogue.” Trans vocalist Paula "Ula" Villagrá declares, “Everyone is gay!” on Muzak’s “Happy Song,” a skittering tecnopop anthem. Dereck Higgins' “This Was Something” rings like a lost Joy Division cut draped in bizarre effects, and Polar Praxis’ “(I Want) To Be Different” is a seething ode to alterity. Nightmoves’ “Nightdrive,” is best known as the brooding instrumental B-side to their epochal “Transdance.” Transistor Jet’s “Master Of The Universe (BW's f-w)”, Maxx Mann’s “Just Like a Razor” and Bachelor’s Anonymous’ “A Stranger’s Bed” are mood music for the pleasures of BDSM and one-night stands. The record comes housed in a retro bathhouse fantasy sleeve designed by Gwenaël Rattke and includes a double-sided poster with photographs and lyrics. Deep Entries arrives on December 1st in honor of World AIDS day, and proceeds will go to the San Francisco AIDS Foundation.

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Borusiade lands on Dark Entries with their triumphant third LP, THE FALL: A Series of Documented Experiences. The Romanian producer and DJ Miruna Boruzescu aka Borusiade has a track record of genre-bending releases on tastemaking outlets like Cómeme, Pinkman, Cititrax, and of course Dark Entries, who unleashed their stunning 2020 sophomore album Fortunate Isolation. THE FALL builds on Borusiade’s mythos with its 9 brooding and sophisticated tracks investigating the contours of memory and embodiment - the “fragile bridge between body and mind” in Borusiade’s words. Moody basslines and melancholy synths wrestle with muscular rhythms; this is electronic body music for the heart and head. This is their most diaristic work to date, as well, chronicling love and loss through the gauze of reflection. Tracks like “Save Me”, “Recovery and Redemption”, and “The Fall” sprung from painful breakups, periods which Borusiade identifies as some of their most creatively fruitful, finding themselves “making the best music when I was brokenhearted.” There are odes to musical titans we’ve lost: the minimal electro producer Porn Darsteller is comemorated on “Darsteller”, while industrial legends Genesis P-Orrige and Lady Jaye are honored on “Pandrogyne.” THE FALL comes housed in a sleeve using Gautier D'Agoty’s “Essai d'Anatomie,” an anatomical work from 1745, and also includes a lyric sheet. Trauma, from lost love to pandemic isolation, informs THE FALL, situating itself as a gap that can only be accessed through sound and the creation of art. “What can I add? When life gives you drama, make music.”

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Robert Rental takes up residence with Dark Entries again for an expanded double vinyl reissue of Mental Detentions. Robert Rental was a Scottish pioneer of DIY electronic music. Along with his illustrious collaborators like Thomas Leer and Daniel Miller, Rental helped shape the countercultural sound of the UK with his timely melding of Krautrock, dub, and punk. Originally from Port Glasgow, he moved to the south of England with Thomas Leer in the late 1970s, and became involved with the local music scene. Robert Rental however released very little of his solo music - the only solo recording from The 1970s is the 7" single "Paralysis" first released on the homemade Regular Records in 1978, and re-released on Dark Entries in 2020.

Mental Detentions was released as a cassette in 1979, the same year as his masterpiece The Bridge, a collaboration with Thomas Leer. Using an assortment of budget electronics - a Roland drum machine, a kid’s Stylophone keyboard, and an Electroharmonix DrQ - Robert takes us on a gauzy, trip, at once expansive and intimate, minimalist and maximalist. “Stuck” is mangled motorik, like Neu! run through a meat grinder, while “Vox” meanders like an 18 minute ambient fever dream. Robert spoke to friends of his frustration at being unable to replicate his sound in a commercial studio - it was these demos' sound that he wanted to create. Sometimes having only access to the most rudimentary of equipment can sharpen one’s craft - necessity is the mother of invention, indeed. This ethic shines in his work, providing a throughline to the now, as the world feels bigger and smaller than ever.

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LTD Repress
Severed Heads are one of the longest standing bands to have emerged from the Australian post-punk and experimental scene. They began in Sydney in 1979, and were an early outfit to incorporate elements of 'industrial' noise-generation, tape cutting & looping and electronic sound synthesis. As the project developed, song-structures and vocals were employed in a more-or-less recognizable mutant electro pop style. After many line-up changes featuring Gary Bradbury and psychedelic guitarist Simon Knuckey, Severed Heads became the solo vehicle for composer Tom Ellard.

In 1983 they released a C-60 cassette called “Since The Accident” that grabbed the attention of Ink Records, a subsidiary of Virgin in the UK. Ellard added a throwaway track at the last minute to fill out the cassette, not wanting to leave an unseemly gap on a C60 tape. This track, “Dead Eyes Opened” was catchy enough to get a lot of airplay on the main non-commercial radio station in Sydney. The band was asked to make this song into a 12” single. For this extended version, Tom Ellard and producer Patrick Gibson went to M Squared studio and passed the multitracked recordings through various EQ's and delays. “Dead Eyes Opened” features samples from a radio program narrated by Edgar Lustgarten, a crime journalist from England, referencing a double murder case that occurred in 1924. The rhythms are made by a TR-808 drum machine and an SH-1 synthesizer. A KORG PolySix was used for strings and additional atmospheric elements. The lead solo was a Casiotone run through an Octaver foot pedal. On the B-side are two solo compositions “Bullet” and “Mount” that Ellard recorded at Terse Tapes in 1982.

All songs are remastered for vinyl by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. Housed in the original jacket featuring the iconic photograph of a girl with a painted face wrapped in some cloth by Juilee Pryor. Each copy includes a fold-out newsprint poster with a large photo of the band wearing Art Unit skull shirts on one side and liner notes and press clippings on the other. 30 years later Severed Heads are still paving the way for powerful, imaginative, and challenging music.

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Dark Entries summons Philadelphia synthesizer scribes The Ghostwriters to rouse their ambient masterwork Remote Dreaming. The late Buchla maestro Charles Cohen and multi-instrumentalist Jeff Cain joined up in 1971 to craft electroacoustic chaos as Anomali, later renaming themselves The Ghostwriters. Their collaborations with choreographers and visual media artists led to their singular style, straddling improvisation and composition, the oneiric and the immediate. Following their debut album, Objects in Mirrors Are Closer Than They Appear, they were approached by ambient outlet Mu-Pysch. Remote Dreaming would take shape in various studios over nine months. Jeff Cain's instruments on this project included electric and acoustic pianos, the Juno 106 synthesizer, and a Mirage sampler, while Charles Cohen used his signature Buchla 200 Series Electronic Musical Instrument. A stark departure from the tightly wound first LP, Remote Dreaming shows the duo unfurling with soothing pianos and psychoacoustic textures, its somnambulant drones just skirting the edges of the uncanny. Although ignored in its time, Remote Dreaming is now heralded as a landmark in 80s experimental ambient music. It is here released for the first time on vinyl, spread across a double LP with five additional tracks, four of which were previously unreleased. Remote Dreaming has been freshly remastered and includes an insert with photos and liner notes. Proceeds will be donated to SOSA (Safe from Online Sex Abuse), a nonprofit that combats online child sex abuse and trafficking.

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Cybernetic disco maestro Patrick Cowley returns to Dark Entries with From Behind, a collection of grooving and ecstatic covers of 60s garage and soul cuts. Best known for his chart-topping disco anthems, Cowley left us with an incredible body of work before his tragic death in 1982 due to AIDS-related illness. Since 2009, Dark Entries has been working with Cowley’s friends and family to uncover the singular artist’s lesser-known sides, including his soundtracks for films on compilation albums School Daze, Muscle Up, and Afternooners. From Behind reveals yet another facet of Cowley’s myriad influences; garage and soul. As a tripped-out teenage music freak who arrived in 60’s San Francisco, it should come as no surprise that these psychedelic sounds, both heady and visceral, infuse Cowley’s oeuvre. Recorded during Cowley’s most productive period, ‘80-’82, these tracks show the master flexing his virtuosity while paying loving tribute to the songs that shaped him. A rough draft of Loverde’s “Iko Iko” contorts the jaunty Dixie Cups classic into a slithering, monstrous bathhouse groover, the song’s signature claps draped in cavernous reverb. An unexpected hi-NRG cover of The Doors’ “20th Century Fox” has Paul Parker on vocals, ironically twisting the original’s overt heterosexuality. Via Cowley’s vocoder, The Who’s “Shakin’ All Over” is transformed into a haunting meditation on the loss of bodily autonomy that AIDS inflicts, while the Moody Blues’ “Ride My See Saw” appears in instrumental, amped up and synthesized for dancefloor impact. We’re also graced with instrumental demo versions of The Seeds’ “Pushin’ Too Hard” and The Electric Prunes’ “Too Much To Dream (Last Night),” which later appeared on Paul Parker releases. Things close out with a swinging version of the Four Tops’ Motown classic “Baby I Need Your Loving”, Cowley later reimagined for R&B artist Carl Carlton. The record comes housed in a sleeve designed by Gwenaël Rattke and includes an insert with photos and liner notes written by Louis Niebur. Arriving on October 19th in celebration of what would have been Cowley’s 74th birthday, From Behind gives us yet another glimpse into Cowley’s world: iconic, erotic, and more than a little cheeky.

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Repress!

On Back Up: Mexican Tecno Pop, Dark Entries brings us 10 divergent tracks of Mexican electronics from 1980-1989, full of skittering analog drum boxes and saucy synthesizer hooks. 8 of these songs were culled from the 2005 CD-only compilation Backup: Expediente Tecno Pop on AT-AT records. Also included are two previously unreleased cuts. This release marks the first time many of these songs will have appeared on vinyl; it is also the first ever vinyl compilation of Mexican New Wave and post-punk.

While synth pop and obscure electronics from Europe and the United States have been extensively documented, much less attention has been paid to such offerings from the periphery. Back Up serves as a vital document of Mexico’s flourishing DIY scene in the 1980’s, surveying a wide range of styles and moods. By using home recording techniques, the bands featured here were able to circumvent relying on the expensive studios of the era. Tracks by Avant Garde, Vandana, and Silueta Pálida mine the kind of dreary-but-infectious wave that long-time Dark Entries fans will celebrate. Meanwhile, Volti and Artefacto offer a floor-ready pop sound that has echoes of NY freestyle, with Latin percussion and boxy beats. But darker turns are present as well, with Década 2’s New Beat-inflections and electro experiments of Syntoma and their side project Escuadrón Del Ritmo.

Back Up: Mexican Tecno Pop was remastered by George Horn at Fantasy Studios. The sleeve is a neon retro-futurist design by Gwenaël Rattke. Also included is a 12-page booklet printed on neon green, pink, and orange paper, which features photographs, band biographies, lyrics, and liner notes.

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Dark Entries returns to Mexico with Back Up Dos: Mexican Tecno Pop 1982-1989. Following 2021’s Back Up compilation, Back Up Dos delivers 10 more tracks of synth-pop and New Beat, 7 of which have never before appeared on vinyl. From mutant drum machine beats to irresistible synthesizer hooks, fans of the fringes of the 80s will find songs to stir their cold, dark hearts. But Back Up Dos does more than mine retro kitsch; it documents the development of a rich DIY music scene that is still underexplored. As affordable samplers and digital synths spread throughout the decade, post-punk and new wave gave way to more aggressive EBM and cyberpunk sounds. The scene also developed in opposition to the political climate of the times: the rise of the drug cartels and a reactionary turn in national politics. Using home recording techniques, these bands took cues from the electronic wizardry of the Human League and Wax Trax Records while reflecting the vibrant and chaotic Mexican cultural landscape of the era. On Back Up Dos, impeccable pop anthems from Casino Shanghai and Los Agentes Secretos sit alongside gnarled obscurities from Ford Proco and María Bonita, showcasing a decade of sly deviance and enthusiastic experimentation. This album comes housed in an 80s-inflected neon sleeve designed by Gwenael Rattke and includes a 12-page booklet with photographs, lyrics, and notes. Back Up Dos compiles synthetic music produced in Mexico at the crossroads from Tecno Pop to Post-Industrial, nourished by culture shock and stories of dystopian worlds.

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Dark Entries picks up Severed Heads yet again for Ear Bitten, a double LP reissue of some of the band’s earliest material. As originary Aussie industrial legends - although founder Tom Ellard would balk at being branded as such - Severed Heads shaped the continental subcultural sound with their kitchen electronics, chaotic tape loops, and quietly infectious nursery-rhyme-esque melodies. In 1979 Ellard, Richard Fielding, and Andrew Wright abandoned the moniker Mr. and Mrs. No Smoking Sign and adopted the edgier name Severed Heads “to pretend to be an industrial band such as Surgical Penis Klinik & Throbbing Gristle.” Noise-rockers Rhythmx Chymx had placed an advertisement in a local shop looking for a band to share the costs of pressing an LP. The Heads set about recording a Dadaist racket on a pair of open reel dictaphones and a cassette deck using a TRS-80 computer, Kawai Synthesizer 100F and Korg Mini Pops drum machine. Ear Bitten was released in 1980; original copies now fetch obscene sums, in part due to most of Severed Heads’ copies perishing in a fire at Richard’s home. The band’s next endeavor was a cassette titled Side 2, a collection of free-form experiments fashioned as Ear Bitten’s second side. For this reissue, Dark Entries has collected both Ear Bitten and Side 2 on the first disc, presenting the album in its full form. Disc two includes the original first version of Ear Bitten, which was only unreleased because it was recorded in a format not suitable for pressing. The album comes in a gatefold sleeve designed by Eloise Leigh and includes photos, liner notes, and reproductions of the original Xerox inserts from the 1980 issue. Ear Bitten delivers 22 tracks of pain you can dance to!

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Dark Entries Collected Music Graphics Compiled by Josh Cheon and Eloise Shir-Juen Leigh To celebrate 15 years of Dark Entries, this zine showcases the label’s visual aesthetic, bringing together some of the most iconic designs that we’ve released. While Dark Entries’ sonic mission has included sounds as diverse as synth-pop, Italo disco, darkwave, house, and techno, it is equally staggering to see the breadth of visuals the label has encountered and collected over the years. Included here are selected typography, logos, and illustrations from the label’s extensive catalog — well over 300 releases to date. Designs have been created using DIY analogue techniques as well as more contemporary digital approaches. A full discography is included at the end for reference and an essay by Shawn O’Sullivan (Led Er Est, Further Reductions). This zine serves as a source of inspiration for artists as well as a means of preserving and documenting these distinct graphics. DARK ENTRIES RECORDS is a San Francisco-based record label that was born in July 2009. Helmed by Josh Cheon, a vinyl-focused DJ and collector, the label has focused largely on excavating the 1980s underground era – but releases have spanned from sultry vintage disco to bleeding-edge contemporary techno. Graphic designer Eloise Shir-Juen Leigh has been responsible for most of the label’s artwork, whether reproducing original designs accurately for reissues or creating exciting new ones. Much care and attention is given to each release to represent the music in a memorable way as well as tell the stories behind these projects. Hand-stamped and limited to 200 numbered copies. 64 pages with neon cardstock covers. Measures 5×7 inches.

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Dark Entries again shines a spotlight on bathhouse disco don Patrick Cowley with a newly remastered release of Kickin’ In. Although Cowley tragically passed from AIDS-related illness in 1982, he left an extensive archive of unreleased tapes, many of which Dark Entries has had the honor of releasing. While working as a lighting technician at The City, SF’s disco cabaret, Cowley saw rising star Frank Loverde perform. Cowley asked Loverde to contribute vocals to some material in progress, and Frank, Linda Imperial, and Peggy Gibbons joined Cowley in the studio. The resulting songs included “Kickin’ In,” a 9-minute cybernetic disco stormer that taps into the essence of Cowley’s hi-NRG sound: equal parts spaced out and zoned in on the dancefloor. In May 1978 Cowley joined Loverde on stage at The City to perform “Kickin’ In” as they opened for disco diva Sylvester.

“Kickin’ In” was initially released in 2015 via Honey Soundsystem who found the tapes in the basement of Megatone Records owner John Hedges. This newly remastered version was made possible due to the discovery of the original multi-track recordings of "Kickin’ In," allowing for a fresh mixdown by Jim Hopkins as well as the creation of a new instrumental version. Also included are two impeccably sleazy Cowley jams recorded in 1980, “Thief of Love” and “Make It Come Loose.” Cowley narrates excerpts from his erotic journals on these raunchy slow-burners, capturing the vibe of SF’s leather bars and backrooms. “Thief of Love” features frequent Cowley collaborator Paul Parker on background vocals. This reissue of Kickin’ In includes features an illustration by Gwenaël Rattke that originally appeared Cowley’s erotic journal, Mechanical Fantasy Box, as well as a postcard with lyrics. “Patrick parted the veil and entered a dark world of forbidden vices, wondrous musical panoramas and bold, strident, hopeful possibilities. Patrick brought the future to us and laid it at our feet.” – David Diebold, Tribal Rites

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Dark Entries again shines a spotlight on bathhouse disco don Patrick Cowley with a newly remastered release of Kickin’ In. Although Cowley tragically passed from AIDS-related illness in 1982, he left an extensive archive of unreleased tapes, many of which Dark Entries has had the honor of releasing. While working as a lighting technician at The City, SF’s disco cabaret, Cowley saw rising star Frank Loverde perform. Cowley asked Loverde to contribute vocals to some material in progress, and Frank, Linda Imperial, and Peggy Gibbons joined Cowley in the studio. The resulting songs included “Kickin’ In,” a 9-minute cybernetic disco stormer that taps into the essence of Cowley’s hi-NRG sound: equal parts spaced out and zoned in on the dancefloor. In May 1978 Cowley joined Loverde on stage at The City to perform “Kickin’ In” as they opened for disco diva Sylvester.

“Kickin’ In” was initially released in 2015 via Honey Soundsystem who found the tapes in the basement of Megatone Records owner John Hedges. This newly remastered version was made possible due to the discovery of the original multi-track recordings of "Kickin’ In," allowing for a fresh mixdown by Jim Hopkins as well as the creation of a new instrumental version. Also included are two impeccably sleazy Cowley jams recorded in 1980, “Thief of Love” and “Make It Come Loose.” Cowley narrates excerpts from his erotic journals on these raunchy slow-burners, capturing the vibe of SF’s leather bars and backrooms. “Thief of Love” features frequent Cowley collaborator Paul Parker on background vocals. This reissue of Kickin’ In includes features an illustration by Gwenaël Rattke that originally appeared Cowley’s erotic journal, Mechanical Fantasy Box, as well as a postcard with lyrics. “Patrick parted the veil and entered a dark world of forbidden vices, wondrous musical panoramas and bold, strident, hopeful possibilities. Patrick brought the future to us and laid it at our feet.” – David Diebold, Tribal Rites

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Dark Entries celebrates its 15th anniversary by returning to where it all started, our initial darkest entry: Eleven Pond’s masterpiece Bas Relief, an ultra-obscure album from 1986 that would become a definitive dark pop holy grail. Eleven Pond was James Tabbi (vocals, acoustic guitar), Jeff Gallea (drum machine, synthesizer, vocals), Jack Schaeffer (guitar) and Dan Brumley (synthesizer, samples, vocoder, melodica). They met in Rochester, NY, while attending art school, brought together by their shared love of 4AD and Factory Records. Taking cues from acts like Joy Division, Fad Gadget, and For Against, Eleven Pond’s infectious basslines, churning guitar riffs, and atmospheric synths will charm all fans of moody music. But what really makes Bas Relief shine is the timeless songwriting on classics like “Tear and Cinnamon”, “Portugal”, and the anthemic “Watching Trees.”

With only 500 copies in it’s initial release, Bas Relief resurfaces with a fresh remaster that corrects a pitch shift from previous reissues. Each copy is housed in a screen printed jacket, like the 1986 edition, and includes a lyric sheet, two postcards and a bookmark. Bas Relief is a true lost relic of the cold 80’s and an essential piece Dark Entries history.

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The seductive sounds of Portugal swing to Dark Entries on Rock Rendez Vous: Música Moderna Portuguesa 1985-1986, a compilation of vintage Iberian synth, wave, and postpunk gems. The legendary club Rock Rendez Vous (RRV) opened its doors in Lisbon in 1980, heralding a new era in the Portuguese underground. Although touring acts like Killing Joke, Danse Society, or Echo & the Bunnymen graced its stage, RRV more vitally served as ground zero for a new generation of Portuguese bands, one simultaneously in touch with broader international musical movements while being invested in establishing a national sonic identity. Rock Rendez Vous culls 9 tracks of prime Portuguese indie tunes from the Música Moderna Portuguesa compilations released in 1985 and 1986, documenting the heyday of this movement. Jangly and brooding postpunk gems like “Levante” from Jovem Guarda, Projecto Azul’s “New Sides,” and Essa Entente’s “Festa Final” are well-represented here. Meanwhile, quirky Balearic-laced synthpop gems like D. W. Art’s “Mate” or Zona Proibida’s “Musak” add a subtly regional flare. Rock Rendez Vous: Música Moderna Portuguesa comes housed in a sleeve designed by Eloise Leigh featuring a photo of the club RRV, and also includes a double-sided insert with lyrics, photos, and liner notes.

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LA goddess Angelyne’s neon-draped sophomore LP Driven to Fantasy steers its way to Dark Entries as part of the ongoing celebration of our 15th anniversary! "Who is Angelyne? Angelyne is a voluptuous, blonde, self-made star who drives a hot pink Corvette; wears her clothes short and tight, and is influenced by Barbie and Marilyn Monroe.” In 1984, a series of billboards popped up in the LA area featuring the lone word “Angelyne” along with a mysterious woman posing provocatively. The campaign created an instant stir, making her one of the first icons who was "famous for being famous", and it led to the recording of her second solo LP. Released in 1986, Driven to Fantasy features 8 tracks of bubblegum-hued new wave with a distinctly LA flavor. On sassy titles like “Sex Goddess”, “Skin Tight”, and “Flirt”, Angelyne fused the glam and grit of southern Californian punk with flashy synth-pop style. This will be the first time that this cult record will be in print since its original release, and comes on pink Corvette-colored vinyl with a 2-sided poster featuring lyrics. Angelyne is more than just a billboard or a rock star; she’s been an actress, a visual artist, and even a political candidate. Celebrate a true Hollywood legend with this historic reissue.

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Ortrotasce comes to Dark Entries with Dispatches From Solitude, their latest LP. For over a decade, Nic Hamersly has been using the Ortotrasce (pronounced: or-tro-task) moniker to unleash brooding-yet-propulsive darkwave anthems upon the world. Hamersly’s work explores the intersection between industrial and synth pop, drawing a line from the sounds of the past to the present. Recorded during the Covid and post-Covid era, Dispatches from Solitude brings 8 tracks of tightly wrought synth-pop exploring grief, romance, and our strange world - which just keeps getting stranger. The cover art was designed by Hamersly, and the record includes a postcard with notes. Dispatches From Solitude will thrill fans of classic industrial-laced wave bands like Hard Corps, Fad Gadget, and SPK

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Released on 2xLP cut at 45RPM in gatefold sleeve with 6 panel fold-out poster.

Some albums are game-changers in a genre. Take OutKast's Speakerboxxx / The Love Below or Primal Scream's Screamadelica, they observe, study, and then flip what an album can mean to a genre or moment in time.

From the very first listen of Rubel’s Latin Grammy-nominated third album As Palavras, Vol. 1 & 2, you can feel its transformative force for the MPB genre. Here we see one of Rio’s brightest stars, fusing the contemporary with the classic, soaking up the richness of Brazil’s musical heritage. The result is a marauding 20-track epic, incorporating traditional styles such as forró, MPB, pagode and samba with modern baile funk, rasteirinha and hip-hop.

The album exudes a sense of freedom and creativity, playfully and provocatively juggling the familiar with the forward-thinking. The tracks are divided across two records, navigating feelings of love, heartbreak and discovery, whilst balancing themes of violence, passion, irony and affection. Collaborating with some of the country’s most esteemed artists such as Gabriel do Borel, Liniker, Luedji Luna, Tim Bernardes and Ana Caetano, Rubel takes this fusion of styles, subjects and flavours to the global stage.

The grand, forró-blending, choral opener, ‘Forró Violento (Instrumental)’ sets the tone for the album, with references and links between tradition and modernity everywhere to be seen. From the Ana Frango Elétrico produced, funk flexing, samba-soul brilliance of ‘Não Vou Reclamar de Deus’, to the album’s title cut ‘As Palavras’, in collaboration with Tim Bernardes, that melds MPB influences with electronic elements and hip-hop touches.

Across both sides of the album, Rubel’s story-telling gift is given space to shine. ‘Torto Arado’ featuring Liniker and Luedji Luna, beautifully references the racial injustice, tragedy, hope and ambition found in one the most celebrated Brazilian novels of recent times by Itamar Vieira Júnior. Elsewhere, ‘Na Mão do Palhaço’ manifests a satirical march about a suicidal conservative middle-aged man, who is rescued by the miracle of the carnival.

At times the album is gentle and intimate with tracks like ‘Toda Beleza’ featuring Bala Desejo, or the ode to friendship ‘Lua de Garrafa’, composed with the legendary Milton Nascimento. At others, the grooves hit harder, with sounds from the favelas laced within. ‘Put@ria!’, explores the universe of baile funk, with BK’ and MC Carol trading off on the mic, as ‘Rubelía’ moves between reggaeton, funk, and hip hop. The latter is a tribute to a key influence of the album, Spanish star Rosalía and her parallel mix of current with classic.

Ultimately though the beauty of this album lies in its concept. In the midst of a country divided, ‘As Palavras Vol. 1 & 2’ sets out to bring together genres and generations, grounded in rhythms and words that have helped define Brazil through the ages.

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Coloured Vinyl Repress!

A four-piece band based in Tokyo.

Initially playing reggae/dub music, the band gradually developed into an innovative fusion of diverse musical influences, such as jazz, soul, psyche pop, new age, and exotica. A sound is based on groove and euphoria, with nostalgic melodies.

They have performed at iconic events in Japan such as Fuji Rock Festival, and also have been looking overseas since they performed in Canada(Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver) in 2019. The new EP "Ramble In The Rainbow"(2024) is their first international release on the US label Peoples Potential Unlimited.

The work shows their musical maturity, drawing inspiration from Sun Ra, Lee "Scratch" Perry, and Yasuaki Shimizu.

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Kosh continues to move at his own pace with his label Convergence. Musically, that’s fast, but output wise, careful and considered, with over a year or more apart between each installment. That’s because creating complex worlds within worlds, which the Moroccan artist has a knack for, certainly takes time. Now a trifecta of releases in, the Enslaved EP serves as his most fine-tuned and liberated project for the label yet.

On the title track, split between a vocal mix and bonus beat version, Kosh delivers a cosmic and introspective electro demonstration at its core, with flares of psychedelic and trance inducing sonic fusions. Its lyrical content is trademark Kosh, with its cautiously optimistic reflections on the world intuitively tapping into the current zeitgeist, yet through a universal futurist lens, leaving the listener with a sentiment that’s timeless and expansive.

The flip side sees the filtered house foundation of “Supernova” burst into scorching Detroit style techno stabs before the EP enters into uncharted territory with the interplanetary escape soundtrack on acid that is “Above & Beyond.”

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Repress shipping in september!
1991 Timeless Classic is back on vinyl, first time reissue via the Orange Wedge label.


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Next batch coming in on the 14th of july.

The Aztecs return. UR receives the message. The Aztecs and the Hermanos make the transition from the guitar player. Natives didn’t take the robbery of Mother Earth’s land or her culture lightly. A new warrior culture, the Electronics did not back down when a war broke out with the programmers over this production. Those who know were avenged for the transgression. Strong beautiful music with a stronger beautiful spirit. A first in the history of music: big can lose. Hear it and feel the power of the cats that still prowl the streets of Detroit.

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Tracklisting
A1 Serge Geyzel - Memorize
A2 Serge Geyzel - Take Your Time
B1 Serge Geyzel - Oskolki
B2 Serge Geyzel - Memorize (Dagga remix)

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Emmanuel Top's Attack Records stands as a milestone in the 1990s techno-acid scene.
The French producer pioneered a unique sound that continues to resonate today. Tracks like "Turkish Bazar" and "Acid Phase" remain iconic, even considered among the best techno productions of the 90s.
Thirty years after their original release, all the key tracks by Emmanuel Top on his own Attack Records return to vinyl, remastered in a 5 x 12" boxset.

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Matching his signature melodic futurism with enduring club music structures, Pev brings the Pulse series to a natural conclusion with the Pulse Phase EP. On this third release he underlines the broader approach to tempos and styles he's taken across this latest period of his output, soon to be coalesced into a new live set.

If there's been a nostalgic streak detectable amongst the crisp modernism of the Pulse series, it comes through clearer than ever in the looped-up house jack and starry-eyed techno synth hooks of 'Pulse IX'. 'Pulse TEN' pares back for a lean soundsystem workout driven by a strafing arp and fractured drums while 'Pulse XI' revisits 90s bleep techno with a deep, dubby intention. 'Pulse XII' completes the picture capturing the skeletal pressure of 2-step at its most slender and deadly.

There's never a sense of over-familiarity - the exacting angles of the drums and alien hue of the synths maintain Pev's distinctive sound first and foremost. But this series has also been an opportunity to hear some of his musical DNA more explicitly than before, cast in universal rave motifs propelled by the unrelenting pursuit of new forms for the dance.

Livity Sound is a label set up by Peverelist in 2011 as a vehicle for a raw and exploratory strain of UK techno, rooted in the heritage of UK dance music and sound system culture. It has since become one of the UK's foremost protagonists for cutting edge underground electronic music.


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Acclaimed UK electronic music producer, DMX Krewhas announced a brand new album, 'UnlikelySeeming', on the Byrd Out label out on 3rd May. The8-track album showcases his blend of joyous,melodic synth hooks, textured pads and analoguedrum machine rhythms. Leaving to one sidepummeling sounds, the focus of this album is onsonic fun, mining the 80s pop vibe DMX Krew doesso well. BBC 6 Music's Tom Ravenscroft describesthe trailing single 'Wednesday Memory' as "thefunkiest thing ever ... it's almost too joyous". Fromthe first 'A New Story', through to 'UncertainCalculation', DMX Krew delivers densely layered andsatisfying tracks, demonstrating the more imaginativeside of his output. The slight outlier is 'Continuation'which offers the most forceful 303 workout, bestsuited to a sweaty dance floor in the early hours.Overall the feel is playful, intelligent, melodic andwonderfully fun - best exemplified by multi-synthmasterpiece 'Data Cruncha' and Megadrive-esquetitle track 'Unlikely Seeming'. To finish the album,'Unlikely Seeming' is given a rework by Portland-based artist Break Mode, managing to achieve aremix that is at once ethereal and uplifting - it has4am written all over it. DMX Krew, aka EdwardUpton, has been crafting innovative electronic musicfor nearly 30 years, releasing on the likes of Rephlex,Central Processing Unit, and Gudu. With a soundrooted in synth-pop, electro, and Italo disco, DMXKrew's music evokes nostalgia for pop melodies andthe early days of rave culture


A1. A NEW STORY
A2. DATA CRUNCHA
A3. UNLIKELY SEEMING
B1
. CONTINUATION
B2. WEDNESDAY MEMORY
B3. IT'S TOMORROW


Stream: http://tinyurl.com/UnlikelySeemingSC

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“‘A La Sala,’ I used to scream it around my house when I was a little girl, to get everybody in the living room; to get my family together. That’s kind of what recording the new album felt like. Emotionally there was a desire to get back to square-one between the three of us, to where we came from–in sonics and in feeling. Let’s get back there.” - Laura Lee Ochoa

The title makes it clear. A La Sala (“To the Room” in Spanish), the fourth studio album by Khruangbin, is an exercise in returning in order to go further, and do so on your own terms. It extends the air of mystery and sanctity that’s key to how bassist Laura Lee Ochoa, drummer Donald “DJ” Johnson, Jr. and guitarist Mark “Marko” Speer approach music. Yet if 2020’s Mordechai, the last studio album Khruangbin made without collaborators, was a party record whose ensuing post-lockdown tour enhanced the band’s musical reputation far and wide, A La Sala is the measured morning after. It’s a gorgeously airy album made only in the company of the group’s longtime engineer Steve Christensen, with minimal overdubs. It is a porthole onto the bounties powering Khruangbin’s vision, a reimagining and refueling for the long haul ahead. A La Sala scales Khruangbin down to scale up, a creative strategy with the future in mind.

It is also a response to the unique moment Khruangbin finds itself in now: following a decade spent cultivating extraordinary music paths, beginning a year when they'll perform for more people, in more iconic spaces, staging a live show that pushes a creative envelope peculiar to them alone. (Look for the band at major festivals and venues near you.) 2024 feels like both marker and pivot, cementing Khruangbin’s stature as a commercially and critically successful group that continues to be guided by creative possibilities.

Such crossroads are familiar for iconic artists throughout the rock era — your Dylans, Stevies and Bowies, up thru turn-of-the-century Radiohead, all have navigated these straits. On A La Sala, Khruangbin also pulls exploration inward, spurning the din of the crowd’s expectations, mapping a personal direction home. The trio’s collective musical DNA and the years spent constructing it in Houston’s local-meets-global cultural stew ensure the band carries on sounding like no one but itself. A La Sala may in fact be Khruangbin’s purest distillation. A cascade of crisp melodies still emanates from Marko’s reverb-heavy electric, dancing gently around Laura Lee’s minimalist almost-dub bass triangles, while DJ’s drums serve as the tightened-up pocket and unwavering dance-floor on which all this movement takes place.

Where prior album-by-album growth seemed to point the narratives towards music’s polyglot edges, such inquiries now sound like known intimacies. What once seemed like sonic invocations — spaghetti-western film scores, found-sounds, dancing moments more living room than rooftop disco — are ingrained characteristics. This is who they are! And there’s a freshness to the instrumental interactivity on A La Sala that’s less concerned with getting further out than going deeper in. That depth is not about therapeutic self-reflection, but a profound desire to celebrate the world’s external wonders.
A La Sala invites intimate intercontinental partying. The first single is, after all, called “A Love International.” “Pon Pón” holds the band’s table at the West African discotheque; yet the joy now moves to the corner left of the dancefloor, where the back-and-forth between Laura Lee’s bass, DJ’s hi-hat, and Marko’s tuneful rhythm scratches, is a marvel of knowing head-nods. There’s “Hold Me Up (Thank You),” a familial sweetness in its spare lyrics, feeding off the rhythm section’s sturdy funk shuffle, and a chorus on which Marko’s guitar evokes both sides of the Atlantic in confident unshowy rhythms. They’re on “Todavía Viva” too, next to DJ’s noir-soul rim-shots, synth strings and a pregnant pause that is Laura Lee’s favorite moment on the album, the mood kin to the band’s glorious live interpretations of G-funk fantasias. And the rocked-up miniature, “Juegos y Nubes,” demonstrates Khruangbin’s Houston-born superpower to culture-mix, a dancing mood less concerned with worldly glamor than communal grooving.

“I read something long ago, attributed to Miles Davis. He said, ‘When they play fast, you play slow. When they play slow, you play fast.’ And it's definitely how I've approached looking at music: Don't follow the trends. And if the trend is this, then do something else.” - Marko

From the get-go, Khruangbin’s journey has been emphatically its own: a sound and visual representation with few precedents, ignoring pop expectations, relying only on internal inspirations, and a multitude of visions. It’s a mindset of penetrating the self, connecting to the surrounding world, modeling your own life experiences. This ethos is threaded throughout A La Sala, audible in the album’s form and function. (It’s even visible in the vinyl version’s physical package, which will be released as a set of seven distinctive covers and color-sets — more on which in a sec.)

The building blocks for the album’s 12 songs were jigsaw pieces found in Khruangbin’s creative past. Having stockpiled ideas originally set down as off-the-cuff recordings (voice-memos made at sound-checks, on long voyages, as absentminded epiphanies), they began fitting those pieces together in the studio. Which parts were apt? Which could be massaged and stretched out? Which inspired new sections or rhythms or musical interactions? Once more, Khruangbin’s familial DNA kicked in. Layer-by-layer, the intimate work, rework and re-rework bore new fruit. They also brought back a strategy once foundational to their records: seeding an album with field recordings.

Some results fold directly into A La Sala’s down-home feel. “Three From Two” and “May Ninth” are wistful mid-tempo numbers, with guitar melodies that reside somewhere between Bakersfield and by-the-riverside, cues that, for all its borderless inclusivity, another core Khruangbin value is being steeped in American roots. And in the landscape that music comes from. Like all albums prior to Mordechai, Marko made sure environmental sounds — natural and man-made — appeared as textures. (At times philosophically: the group recorded while cricket chirps played in their headphones, presumably for terroir.) It’s how A La Sala achieves such interconnected set-and-setting-ness.

Other results are more metaphorical, especially in Khruangbin’s flirtation with ambient spaces. The dramatically beatless “Farolim de Felgueiras” and “Caja de la Sala” both feature only Marko’s unmistakable guitar dueting with Laura Lee’s Moog, lightly layered with sounds of shoes on stone steps, and cicadas in an open field. The closing “Les Petits Gris” more fully reduces and fleshes out the ambiance, with a piano and a simple single-note bass pattern, Marko’s plaintive spare guitar echoing the melody of a ballerina-turning music box. It feels an apt way of ending — as a passing of this particular moment, preparation for the next one, soon-come.

Even the seven different covers that adorn A La Sala’s various vinyl editions offer a throughline from the music into Khruangbin’s current frame. Designed by the band using Marko’s multitude of travelog photos, they are windows from the band’s living room onto a set of daydreams, scenes of impossible skies, external glances illuminating what is going on inside. These are also directly related to David Black’s images of DJ, Laura Lee and Marko which accompany A La Sala, and to Khruangbin’s live staging reinvention. It’s all about looking out and looking back, in order to better look ahead.

“All the little moments you capture. You don't see how impactful they are until you hear what eventually comes of them. A lot of those scraps end up being the thing — and you don't realize it until it's ‘The Thing.’” - DJ
credits
releases April 5, 2024

Produced by Mark Speer & Steve Christensen
Written, Arranged & Performed by Khruangbin
Art Direction: Tiny Frees
Mixing: Steve Christensen
Mastering: Chris Longwood

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