Have you ever heard of the British singer-songwriter Bill Pritchard? No? Neither did I, until I recently came across his name through an obscure 80s playlist on YouTube. The list was rather mediocre, one or the other ear-worm amongst them, but nothing special. The very last song was Bill Pritchard’s ‘Invisible State’. “Wow”, I said to myself, “let’s find out more about this guy”! Read More →
Now that was an awesome weekend in Ljubljana! I met some old friends, drank coffee with my favourite professor from whom I have learned many many interesting things about anthropology of popular music and culture during my studies back then, and attended two amazing concerts. On Friday there was a concert by the highly acclaimed post-punk revival band The Soft Moon and the day after – finally! – I saw the legendary Morrissey live.
Many tried to understand Morrissey, the perhaps most enigmatic personality of our time. Humanoid, yet a specimen on its own, Steven Patrick Morrissey managed to polarise throughout his musical career, since he gained fame as the front-man of The Smiths (1982-87). After several fights with band colleague Johnny Marr The Smiths disbanded in 1987, but Morrissey came immediately back, starting a solo career only eight months after the split-up.
Founded in 2013, it didn’t take the Argentinian duo Vólkova a long time to become part of the peak in alternative electronic music. Also in Europe they gained foot easily, proven by a successful tour in 2014. In 2015 the duo will have concerts all around Europe again. On the ridge between minimal wave, industrial and electroclash Vólkova are critically acclaimed throughout the continent – which they very well deserve!
Vólkova are Paula Lazzarino (vocals and lyrics) and Cesar Canali (music). During a nice little talk Paula and Cesar revealed some facts of their band’s history, why they have a connection to Slovenia and how they like it in Europe. Read More →
A week ago I have been to L’viv, Ukraine, to visit my dear friends, who I did not see for a long time then. When I saw people gathering on the Shevchenko square lighting candles, I thought it had something to do with the war in the east of the country. Only later I found out that the legendary musician Andriy Kuzmenko, founding member and front-man of the band Skryabin, had died on February 2nd in a car accident in Dnipropetrovs’k. Wanting to contribute to the condolences I am going to introduce you to one of the best musical groups of Eastern Europe. Read More →
Almost exactly two years ago this page went online. To be honest, I didn’t know in which direction this whole thing would go, but shortly after it turned out that there IS an interest in what I am writing about. My readership is growing steadily and many musicians are writing to me to introduce and discuss their music. I want to thank you very much for your attention! 🙂
While Central Europe is covered with snow these days I fled the cold and am sitting now at a sunny beach in Bodrum, Turkey. Before enjoying the dolce vita too much I am compiling a musical review of 2014 for you.
For alternative/dark music 2014 was another great year. Instead of the usual 10 songs I will present you 11 (because I couldn’t decide), which were released in 2014 – in no particular order. Read More →
Remember my last year’s alternative Christmas playlist? If you don’t, you can look it up here. The idea of this playlist was born out of the necessity to escape the so-called “Christmas songs”. They ambush the unaware and innocent individual, to manifest themselves in the brains of their hosts. Let’s see if I am able to find another ten songs which serve as an enjoyable and appropriate alternative to the generic Christmas songs. Read More →
After an endless car ride we eventually arrived in Wrocław, the capital of Lower Silesia, Poland. Uncountable times I have spent here, made some dear friends and it appears that behind every street corner, below every tree I can find pieces of memories and stories of my personal history with this city. This time I came here because of the Wrocław Industrial Festival, organized this year already for the 13th time. Read More →
Now that’s a thing: I finally got in contact with one of my most favourite musicians, Times from Venus in Furs. Although being one of the pioneers of new wave music, there was hardly an evidence of his existence on the Internet. The mysterious man is back and finally I got the chance to ask him all the questions that came up over the years.
Lately I have been quite busy and didn’t find much time to write some articles on theses pages. This shall change now. Finally, I owe you some news on music.
Firstly, Hungarian minimal wave artist Ádám Bérces, Slovakian goth-punks Hysteric Helen finally released their debut albums. I am already quite busy writing some reviews and will keep you, of course, informed, when they will be published.
Minimal artist ZX Electric released his second album Fixed Unknown, a review on this you can find here. Italian darkwavers Christine Plays Viola were also busy and revealed to us their new masterpiece Vacua.
In the following I will present you some new singles and bands, which you might enjoy. Read More →
When synthesizers became a good available for the average man in the the early 80s, it suddenly was so easy to make music without a band. It was the prime time of one-man-projects. Since the punk movement D.I.Y. was in trend. New wave brought us some interesting music, which only got its name 20 years later: Minimal wave. You just needed a synth, a drum machine and a nuance of creativity.
A very mysterious project from the mid-80s is called Dark White. Only one release we have got from them, The Grey Area, self-released in 1985 (Dark White Music) with not more than 500 copies. Also an intensive internet research didn’t reveal much about Dark White. Read More →
