Author: electricityclub (Page 16 of 434)

“I don’t like country & western, I don’t like rock music… I don’t like rockabilly! I don’t like much really do I? But what I do like, I love passionately!!”: CHRIS LOWE

“Good taste is exclusive”: NICK RHODES

ICE MACHINES II Live in Dublin featuring EMPIRE STATE HUMAN, 100 POEMS, PolyDROID, CIRCUIT 3 + AMALGAMATED WONDERS OF THE WORLD

11 August 2025 /

The Racket Space in the hip Bernard Shaw pub on the canal near Glasnevin does what its name suggests and provides a location for creative expression and artistic exploration.

With electronic music still being a comparatively niche pastime compared with say Berlin, Paris or London, Ice Machines is a Dublin-based collective founded by Brian Christopher (AMALGAMATED WONDERS OF THE WORLD), Peter Fitzpatrick (CIRCUIT3), Brian O’Malley (PolyDROID), Mike Wilson (100 POEMS) and Aidan Casserly (EMPIRE STATE HUMAN) to further the cause with free events aimed at the committed and the curious.

For the joy of synth and friendship, the fivesome have even released an ‘Ice Machines’ compilation album with each artist contributing one original and one cover version in aid of the Musical Youth Foundation, a charity supporting access to music education and instrument learning for children across Ireland. This second Ice Machines event was to launch that collection with live performances from all participants in a gathering of like-minds.

Photo by John Keenan

The day began with electronic instrument demos, the most interesting of which was the SOMA Terra, a wooden cased synth without a conventional keyboard but instead touch sensitive fingertip sensors to control it. There were also live improv performances from various local artists using devices as varied as portastudios, Akai keyboard controllers, digi-analog sequencers and Prophet 800 boutique-modules. This provided an artful audio backdrop for a small record stall that included an oddball collection of second hand releases including ‘Sing Lofty’ by Don Estelle & Windsor Davies, David Essex’s debut LP and Jean Michel Jarre’s ‘Oxygène’ alongside local independently released drum ‘n’ bass 12 inchers!

For the main musical section of the evening, having 5 electronic acts on a small stage was always going to be an interesting challenge logistically so as anticipated, the opening DJ set was occasionally interrupted by line checks although amusingly, one of the acts appeared to forget it was line check as extended bursts of gliding synth wobbled off and on, very loud and very clear!

Photo by John Keenan

AMALGAMATED WONDERS OF THE WORLD opened proceedings with a continuous mix of abstract constructions that was at times ambient and at times techno with many generative possibilities in between. Brian Christopher is also part of Bloop Groop, an inclusive Dublin digital hub established to encourage local modular enthusiasts to “Jam, Hang, Play” and many of their number were present at Ice Machines II to show their support by cheering and / or dancing.

Despite feedback issues, CIRCUIT3 soldiered on through his disco excursion ‘Louder Than Words’, an unexpected rock tinged adventure ‘Major Tom’s Helter Zeppelin’ that included a number of familiar vocal passages and a reimagination of the DEPECHE MODE B-side ‘Ice Machine’ using Dave Gahan’s original vocals that prompted an audience singalong.

Photo by Chi Ming Lai

Having spent over 10 years in hiatus, PolyDROID presented a largely melodic instrumental set which included the excellent ‘Six Of One’ inspired by cult TV drama ‘The Prisoner’, but those present were stopped in their tracks by a vocoder interpretation of Simon & Garfunkel’s ‘The Sound Of Silence’ which was transformed into a stark tone poem.

In contrast, 100 POEMS offered something much nosier and esoteric with (Shock! Horror!) a guitar and a surprising burst of THE WHITE STRIPES’ ‘7 Nation Army’ although a cover of THE NORMAL’s ‘Warm Leatherette’ using a well-spoken computer–generated female announcer kept things on track with the ethos of the evening.

Photo by John Keenan

14 stories high at least, EMPIRE STATE HUMAN finished with a high energetic pop performance that would delight ERASURE fans by opening with ‘Leap Of Faith’ from 2009’s ‘Audio Gothic’ album; however the tempo was later slighted to allow room for a synth cover of ‘Superstar’, the rather dark tale of a groupie which was incongruously made famous by THE CARPENTERS but later given a much more sinister treatment by SONIC YOUTH in 1992.

While there were occasional technical glitches, the time flew by and then like in ‘Mr Benn’, as if by magic, the shopkeeper appeared and it was time to for the Ice Machines posse to vacate The Racket Space for the Saturday club nite DJs to bring their sound system in.

Photo by John Keenan

Dublin has steadily morphed into a wonderful multicultural melting pot and Ice Machine II was a warm friendly gathering of generations. It was particularly lovely see the Philpott triplets from EMBRACE THE CRISIS who are among the longest standing synthpop enthusiasts in The Emerald Isle and are still keeping the faith and passion alive.

While most of those of a maturer disposition went home after an enjoyable evening, the comparative youngsters from Bloop Groop stayed on at the Bernard Shaw, probably plotting how electronic music will mutate in the future… because it will!

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK DJ set at Ice Machines II:

KITE Up For Life
CAMOUFLAGE The Great Commandment
PAUL HAIG The Only Truth (12” Version)
RHEINGOLD Computerbeat
PLASTIC BERTRAND Tout Petit La Planète
AU REVOIR SIMONE Tell Me (Un Autre Monde mix by MIRRORS)
MIRRORS Hide & Seek
PHIL LYNOTT Yellow Pearl
SPARKS When Do I Get To Sing ‘My Way’? (THE GRID Radio Edit)
GIORGIO MORODER Chase
KLEIN & MBO Dirty Talk (USA Connection)
CERRONE Supernature (12” Version)
JOHN FOXX & THE MATHS Summerland
ALPHAVILLE x SCHILLER Summer in Berlin
AMANDA LEAR Follow Me
KRAFTWERK Computerwelt (12” remix)
BERLIN Now It’s My Turn
FOX Electro People
DONNA SUMMER I Feel Love (Patrick Cowley 7” remix)

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its warmest thanks to all at Ice Machines

‘Ice Machines: The Album – For the Joy of Synths & Friendship’ is available digitally on Bandcamp at https://icemachines.bandcamp.com/album/ice-machines-the-album

https://www.facebook.com/AMALGAMATEDWONDERS

http://www.circuit3.com/

https://www.facebook.com/polydroid

https://100poems.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/empirestatehumanofficial

Text by Chi Ming Lai
11th August 2025

DLINA VOLNY In Between

8 August 2025 /

DLINA VOLNY’s Eastern European roots and modern darkwave edge achieved a wider breakthrough on 2021’s ‘Dazed’, their first album entirely in English released through Italians Do It Better.

Speaking out against the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Belarusian trio of Masha Zinevitch (lead vocals), Vad Mikutski (bass + guitar) and Ales Shishlo (keyboards) went into exile. With the conflict seemingly not ending and the unbelievable scenario of a Republican US president visibly acting as the puppet of a former KGB officer, DLINA VOLNY go from red to grey as ‘In Between’ delves into the turmoil of transformation, the sting of disillusionment, and the pull between the familiar and the unknown.

“Do your thing, don’t be afraid” was the message from DLINA VOLNY on their Radio Plato documentary. Playing with the physics of sound while exploring a variety of introspective themes, DLINA VOLNY understandably now sound heavier than they ever have before, but have retained their all-important melodic contrasts to counter any possibilities of proceedings becoming too dirgey.

Celebrating the escapist joy of sound, ‘Bliss’ is a fabulous concoction where synth arpeggios brighten the sombre skyline for a surprisingly optimistic opener. With cascading electronic riffs and synthbrass stabs, ‘Now & Again’ also lets light and air in. But “Through the city in the night alone”, the more gothic ‘Never The Same’ twists with a deeper shifted vocal register, skeletal guitar and icy string machine; it somehow manages to be danceable despite exploring the themes of loneliness, isolation, and self-reflection.

“Take us deep into your crypt” gestures Masha moodily as ‘Follow Me’ recalls fellow exiles MOLCHAT DOMA with washes of six string and solid bass for a plunge into the abyss. Meanwhile with an industrialised backbone, ‘Dance Me Away’ seduces into its foreboding incompatible otherworld, highlighting that danger often comes hand-in-hand with desire.

With the unsettling air of BOY HARSHER looming and under the threat of industrial torture, ‘Flair’ is boosted with a Cold War resonance by Masha’s haunting vocals and the chilling atmospheres that are encompassed. But almost straight out of the ‘Disintegration’ songbook, the ‘In Between’ title song tells not of days but a black forest awakening of reverberant synthbass and echoing guitar while ‘Dopplegänger’ is also reminiscent musically of THE CURE.

The exuberant if still sombre ‘Chant’ imagines Siouxsie gone Motorik and the excellent ‘Midnight’ recalls NEW ORDER’s similarly nocturnal ‘This Time Of Night’ in its rhythmic centre before ‘Burning Slow’ provides a short filmic instrumental set piece to close.

With ‘In Between’, DLINA VOLNY’s dark contralto ’brut-pop’ has developed their commentary on the continuing tensions around the world into something even bleaker and downcast in places as their art reflects life everywhere, but there are still moments of relief from the greater gloom to give hope to all.

‘In Between’ is released by Italians Do It Better, available from https://dlinavolny.bandcamp.com/

DLINA VOLNY 2025 UK live dates include: London Black Heart (14th August), Preston Ferret (15th August), Liverpool FrogFest (16th August), Coventry The Tin (17th August), Bristol Moor Beer (19th August), Brighton Prince Albert (20th August)

https://dlinavolny.com/

https://www.facebook.com/dlinavolny

https://www.instagram.com/dlina_volny/

https://www.threads.com/@dlina_volny

Text by Chi Ming Lai
8th August 2025

LOULA YORKE Time is a Succession of Such Shapes

5 August 2025 /

Following up 2024’s ‘Volta’, modular synthesist Loula Yorke is happy to declare ‘Time is a Succession of Such Shapes’.

While its predecessor was born out of composed sequences, ‘Time is a Succession of Such Shapes’ is an ambitious double opus that documents the Suffolk-based artist’s year of sonic journaling to record her daily life in rural England.

The end result is that Loula Yorke has presented a set of recordings that hum with soft voltage and modular shimmer for a peaceful aural glow with gentle looping melodies and field recordings fusing electronics and nature.

After the feeling of overwhelm exuded on ‘It’s been decided that if you lay down no-one will die’ from ‘Volta’, ‘Never Be Nervous Again’ makes a statement of focus and determination in its sonic collage. ‘Beautiful Things in Humble Places’ is just that, swathed in gorgeous sound design while ‘Everything Beating at the Same Brittle Pulse’ is appropriately named as well, fragile tones outlining things could break at any moment if not treated with care.

There are three variations of ‘Kenning’ with “Part I” comprising of abstract bleeps; however “Part II” livens up and brings in percussive elements while “Part III” gets much more rhythmic and swoopier before going a bit TANGERINE DREAM… like ‘Sparrowfall’ on Brian Eno’s ‘Music For Films’, this trilogy may have been better tracklisted together as a kind of “Kenning Suite”.

‘Time is a Succession of Such Shapes I’ uses pretty hypnotic arpeggios that drift into meditative resonances while ‘Barely Aware of the Cup in My Hands’ expresses Erik Satie desire to make music that could “mingle with the sound of the knives and forks at dinner” by using a variety of kitchen utensils to accompany a soothing passage of electronics and subtle beats.

‘Let a Sound Complete Its Life II’ takes a diversion by playing around with drum ‘n’ bass while remaining cool and atmospheric, but not at all gentle or melodic is the generative swarm of ‘Spork’. ‘Sorry I Threw Away All Your Nails’ starts with a sweeping edge but withdraws as it apologises as ‘An Ironic Yet Devastating Demand’ explores the darker moodier side of cottage life.

In most of the pieces, there are subtle tunes and in the way that the melodies stretch and the systems loop, ‘Time is a Succession of Such Shapes’ is an accessible yet simultaneously cerebral record that possesses a giddy joy which can savoured as a set moment away from the noise of modern life.

“This isn’t an escape, but a quiet slipstream running alongside. A dream half-recalled, still happening in another room.”

‘Time is a Succession of Such Shapes’ is released as a double CD with bonus mixtape album ‘The Book Of Commonplace’ and download by Truxalis on 6th August 2025, available from https://loulayorke.bandcamp.com/album/time-is-a-succession-of-such-shapes

https://loulayorke.com/

https://www.facebook.com/loulayorke

https://instagram.com/iamloula

https://bsky.app/profile/loulayorke.bsky.social

Text by Chi Ming Lai
5th August 2025

COVENANT Andreas EP

2 August 2025 /

The ‘Andreas’ EP is a special release by COVENANT dedicated to the memory of the Swedish band’s former member Andreas Catjar-Danielsson who sadly passed away from cancer on 29th July 2024 aged 51.

Featuring artwork poignantly depicting a missing band member, all proceeds of ‘Andreas’ from all platforms will go to charity in benefit of his wife and children with Dependent Records waiving all profits from the vinyl edition in contribution.

As well as working with COVENANT, Andreas Catjar-Danielsson was closely associated with ABU NEIN and had remixed THE CARDIGANS ‘Hanging Around’ in 1999. He began his association with COVENANT in 2013, co-writing the appropriately -titled ‘Slowdance’ on the ‘Last Dance’ EP and the vibrant futurepop of ‘I Walk Slow’ on the album ‘Leaving Babylon’; both feature on ‘Andreas’ along with the lengthy spoken word ‘Das Nibelungenlied’ from 2019’s ‘Fieldworks Exkursion’ EP.

In 2016, he recorded, mixed and performed on a stark drone-laden cover of ‘A Rider On A White Horse’ for the COVENANT album ‘The Blinding Dark’. It is fittingly the lead track on ‘Andreas’ with the foreboding duality of founding vocalist Eskil Simonsson and ABU NEIN leader Erica Li Lundqvist transforming the Lee Hazelwood’s original acoustic flavoured country ballad into a gothic funereal set piece.

Featuring additional vocals from Andriana Seecker who had worked Andreas Catjar-Danielsson on his various theatre and dance commissions, the ‘Andreas’ EP closes with an even gloomier cover of YAZOO’s ‘Winter Kills’ which he helmed; written by Alison Moyet, it was one of the highlights of ‘Upstairs At Eric’s’ and saw her accompanying herself on piano while Vince Clarke provided subtle synthetic rumbles as the rhythmic backdrop.

“’Winter Kills’ is my all-time favourite YAZOO song. It’s just magic” Andreas Catjar-Danielsson had said via COVENANT’s social media at the time of its original digital release in 2020, “How do you make something so minimalistic so bombastic? Like Eric Satie. And even though the piano (and of course Alison’s voice) is the dominant instrument, it still sounds very synthetic. As if the cold winds of winter, the loss and the longing is hidden in the space between the notes. Or compressed in the wonder of the single drum hit.”

‘Andreas’ is released by Dependent Records on 17th October 2025, pre-order via http://lnk.spkr.media/covenant-andreas

https://www.covenant.se/

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100044425239763

https://www.instagram.com/covenant_sweden

https://spkr.store/collections/covenant

Text by Chi Ming Lai
2nd August 2025

TOBIAS BERNSTRUP Shadow Dancer

31 July 2025 /

Swedish multimedia artist Tobias Bernstrup is back with his seventh studio album ‘Shadow Dancer’.

Issued by the German-based independent Nadanna Records, ‘Shadow Dancer’, it according to Bernstrup “explores the tension between appearance and reality—how we perform identity, desire, and memory in a world flooded with simulation”. No stranger to these themes having released ‘Technophobic’ in 2018, the follow-up to 2021’s ‘Petrichor’ is “both a personal and cultural reflection, rooted in the shadowy edges of nightlife, surveillance, and performance.”

With possible spiritual connotations, the instrumental ‘The Sign Of The Cross’ sets the scene but this segues straight into the uptempo single ‘Chiaroscuro’; named after the art technique using strong contrasts between light and dark like on Johannes Vermeer’s painting ‘Girl With A Pearl Earring’, it is classic Tobias Bernstrup, with “the voice that tells the truth you don’t wanna hear” over bright synth pulses and immersive beats.

‘Under Heavy Strobe Light’, the beats pump harder and the voice is deeper but as the title suggests, this throbbing excursion is made for “creatures of the night” who love the dancefloor. Taking a more steadfast synthwave pace, the ‘Shadow Dancer’ title song comes with an anxious resigned vocal that lets the darkness in while retaining that all important melody.

Playing on the album’s inherent nocturnal atmospheres where the body is strong, ‘Jackie 60’ offers reverberant twists to the bleeps and sweeps in this celebration of the New York night spot although it is a touch repetitive. But stuttering rhythms shape ‘Legend’ while ‘And The Smile’ adopts a much more speedy pulse in its midnight drive “playing ‘Crockett’s Theme’ on the radio”.

Taking a diversion away from the straight fours, ‘Piranesian Dream’ ushers in stark drum loops as well as guitar and piano pointing towards Bernstrup’s more gothic rock side project O+HER with Erica Li Lundqvist while still retaining an electronic base. With chunky squelches, ‘Breakout’ is given space to sparkle in its call to action as the melancholic technostalgia takes hold. The short instrumental ‘Estuarium’ acts as a fitting closer symbolising how all his disco, goth, post-punk and electronic styles meet in his music.

Reflecting on themes of identity and transformation as borne out by his striking gender fluid persona, this collection of intelligent political and historical observations will ensure Tobias Bernstrup fans will be very happy with ‘Shadow Dancer’. Retaining his established “Italo Noir” formula with a sharp edge of darkness, this is a logical and worthy follow-up to ‘Petrichor’.

‘Shadow Dancer’ is released by Nadanna Records on 1st August 2025 as a CD with 4 bonus tracks as well as a limited edition black or clear vinyl LP, available from https://nadanna.bandcamp.com/

http://www.bernstrup.com/

https://www.facebook.com/TOBIASBERNSTRUPOfficial/

https://www.instagram.com/tobiasbernstrup/

Text by Chi Ming Lai
31st July 2025

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