Almost one year and a half after the release of the "Organic" EP, Stéphane Bastien a.k.a. Deemphasis is back with a new four-track EP titled "Searching", released on digital format on his own label Ukonx Recordings. All the tracks are developed to give the listener the time to get acquainted with them, as their length is about six minutes each. The idea that I have from the atmosphere, the titles and the graphics of the cover, which has an astronaut wearing his suit and rounded by symbols, is that his on a trip, "Searching" for answers when something happened in "Sector Seven". Something went wrong with the "Harmonic Synchronization". No one is left and he's now alone with the only company of his "Pain". Musically, whatever the trip you'll imagine listening to the EP, Stéphane is mixing electro, a bit of i.d.m. and acid. The track I preferred is the first one as is the one with more variations but all of them have great rhythms/sounds and have a good cinematic feeling.
https://ukonx.bandcamp.com/album/searching-ep

Six years after their previous album "Art Plastique" and twenty years since they began their adventure, Celluloide are back with a new album titled "Futur Anterieur". The ten new tracks see the trio formed by Darkleti, Member U-0176 and Patryck Holdwem dealing with synthpop with a minimal approach to sounds and a bit of e.b.m. into the rhythmic section (mainly due to the heavy bass drum and snare sounds). On their presentation, they underlined the pop side of the new tracks which to my ears, compared to the previous album, is meaning that there's major attention to the catchy parts: Darkleti vocal style is halfway from detached to passionate and the sound is widening during the refrains, thanks to use of pads that enrich the rhythmic parts made with synth sounds as well as drum machine beats, which are building the core of the tracks. Listen to the album carefully and you'll realize that and you'll appreciate it fully: for example check the nice upbeat instrumental track titled "Modulation De Fréquence" and you'll realize the kind of work made by Member U-0176 and Patryck Holdwem. "Futur Anterieur" is a really good "pop" album, if we want to use this term, but it's a multifaceted one made of melancholic atmospheres, nice melodies and strong rhythms. It contains also the single "Quelque Chose S'Efface" but, as they used to say in the 60s: it has all killers and no fillers.

Model Citizens are an electro duo coming from UK and formed by Phil Klein (Bass Junkie) and Matt Whitehead. “Are Friends Electro?” is their debut album released by Germany’s Dominance Electricity. Their music has its roots in the 80s and sinister vocoder vocals, driving bass lines and upbeat drum rhythms also good for the dance floor are their bread. “Are Friends Electro?” is paying its tribute to the 80s electro having West Coast Hip Hop/Electro legend The Egyptian Lover as a guest into two tracks: they have a remix of his jam “Into The Future”, taken from the album “1984“ and he’s singing on “Sphinx-O-Matic”. Released on vinyl, CD and digital download, the album has eight tracks on the first format and eleven on the latter two as there are three bonus tracks ( “Drive”, “Mega Squid vs. Monster Octopus” and “Celestial Mechanics”) coming from the duo’s previous EP “The Loud Minority”. If you are into electro I’m sure you know the Bass Junkie albums “In Bass No One Can Hear You Scream” and “Bass Time Continuum” and this should make you already be curious about “Are Friends Electro” but if you’re an old Chain D.L.K. reader, you should know that I’m always honest and I’m not acting as a second used car dealer, so believe you me when I’m telling you that this is pure 80s fueled electro, but if you want to check yourself, here you can do so https://dominanceelectricity.bandcamp.com/album/are-friends-electro

The French label Ukonx is already busy into bringing us new dark electro tracks and this is the time of the second volume of the “Magnetism Compilation” series. It opens with Frank Cartell and his tribute to Kraftwerk with “Les Automates”. On this one many parts have been composed having in mind Kraftwerk’s songs but Kartell have been turned those ideas into new inputs in a really good way. Datawave‘s “Droid Lab” is sounding tense and fragmented. Maschine Brennt is kind of mixing the sound of the two previous bands by having robotic rhythms and vocals plus dark atmospheres. Kretz, from Sweden, is here with “Corporate Greed Will Proceed”, a space electro funk track with filtered vocals. “Equanimity” is the track that Commuter, another project coming from France, is bringing to the attention of dark electro lovers focusing on the alternate of arpeggios, ambient pads and bass stop and go. Deemphasis is the project of the label’s owner Stephane and with “Reactivity” is creating a mix of robotic and ambient tune with kind of middle Eastern’s melodies. Pi.XL, from Spain, with “Do It Yourself” is focusing his track on rhythm layers with few harmonies here and there. Let’s go back to France with Offset where a drum sound similar to a 80’s Linn’s drum is the core of “Framework”, a nice track in balance from electro and vapor wave. Japan is waiting for us with The Outsider’s “Noctilucent Clouds”, a track could be useful for a soundtrack thanks to its inintelligibile treated vocals, sampled breaths used as part of the rhythmic structure and horrific pads. Siak Phd, instead, like it loud and their kicks are hammers that works as counterpart to the metallic like sounds and breathing sampled vocals. Hungary is Metacomplex’s home and with “Neurosilence” we have an electro suspended in time effect thanks to the delay applied to the melodic synth parts. Jauzas The Shining is a project I know since ten years or so from the Black Montana days of which I lose tracks. With “Surveillance “, he’s bringing paranoid atmospheres which play around one arpeggio. Fleck ESC (which I also reviewed about 10 years ago) is closing the compilation with “Fantasm”, a track that plays with a rich rhythmic palette, as usual for the French project relocated in Japan lead by Frank Collin. The compilation works as a soundtrack presenting part of nowadays dark electro panorama, so check it out...

When you decide to do a release based on remixes is always a risk and if the track is one of an electro funk legend, well, it’s a really tricky business. German retro-Electro label Ground Control knows very well the stuff they’re dealing with, because it’s a sub-label of Dominance Electricity, label that already released an EP of Newcleus' "Destination Earth" remixes years ago. On this 12” we have two classics written by Maurice Ben Cenac remixed by Jackal and Hyde (“Jam On It”) and by Phil Klein aka Bass Junkie and Simon Brown aka The Dexorcist new project, Gods of Technology (“Teknology”). Both the tracks have received a radical treatment and, as I previously told you, it’s a risky business. Luckily these gentlemen know what they are doing but also the label who organized the whole operation it’s like a seal of guaranty. “Jam on it” is the track I prefer, because Scott Weiser opted to keep the original upbeat tempo and changed the song by keeping mainly the vocals plus the bass line and added different catchy synths. He also divided the track into two different parts just to play a little more with the surprise effect. “Teknology” now sounds like a mix of Miami electro (you know that nightly atmosphere) and Kraftwerk of the “Technopop” era. Check them out, the release is available on black and clear blue vinyl. The digital download is available at the usual digital stores through Jam-On Productions.