Before writing anything about Dekad’s new album, I would like to express my solidarity with BOREDOMproduct, which had to suspend its label activities for a year after being affected by the wildfire that struck a vast area of Marseille in the summer of 2025. That said, let’s turn to J.B. Lacassagne’s project, here assisted by Member U-0176 on production. The new album A Distorted View arrives four years after Nowhere Lines and three years after Videodrama, the album by The Overlookers, a project formed by J.B. together with Creature XY of Foretaste. A Distorted View finds its strength in the instrumental department, where E.B.M. and synth-pop blend as if it were a collaboration between Depeche Mode’s Black Celebration era and early And One (I’m not sure why, but the track “I Should Have” particularly brought this comparison to mind). The sounds are never banal, and the rhythmic sections are meticulously crafted: instead of standard kick and snare patterns, you’ll often hear processed and modified percussive elements. This richness intertwines beautifully with the synth textures, creating a never-dull sonic tapestry that shifts with each track. In my opinion, this is the album’s greatest asset, along with its consistently catchy and inventive melodies. Lyrically, rather than depicting specific situations, the songs explore emotional states that highlight the fragility and uncertainty of the human psyche during personal crises triggered by relationships or social circumstances. To give you an idea, here’s an excerpt from “Crystal”: “Reality’s collapsing / My mind slowly fracturing / Shadows in the corner of my eyes / Whispers linger in my ears / Fading illusion / Broken confusion / In a distorted state / Nothing is ever straight". The only "weak" point lies in the vocal delivery, which remains within a fairly narrow harmonic range throughout the album. This makes the voice sound somewhat uniform from track to track. This is the reason why I’m deducting half a point from my overall score. Nevertheless, A Distorted View is undoubtedly an album that deserves your attention.

It may seem rhetorical to start a review by talking about the charm and difficulty of decoding certain dynamics of Japanese culture for those who, despite decades of reading manga and books on Zen spirituality, engage with it. For me, the Japanese music scene has always been difficult to map: apart from the bands that are also released by foreign labels (Yellow Magic Orchestra and its members, Zeni Geva, Teengenerate, The 5.6.7.8's, and Shonen Knife are the first that come to mind), the other myriad bands are unknown to me. Spittle, with their new sub-label Spittle Made In Japan, will try to give prominence to the post-punk and wave scene of the Land of the Rising Sun with vinyl reissues, focusing on the 80s. The first release arrives these days and is the reissue of the first LP by the Schedars. Printed in 2023, the self-titled album by the Schedars was self-produced by them in LP and is now reissued with an extra track. The band is active in the Tokyo scene and consists of singer and keyboardist Sio, guitarist Enrike Kkai ji, saxophonist KMDR, bassist TAN, and drummer Ktr. Listening to the only tracks from the new version of their debut, the first thing that catches the "ear" are their sound references, namely the entire New York scene of the late '70s centered around the groups included in the compilation "No New York" (James Chance's The Contortions, Mars, Arto Lindsay's DNA, and Lydia Lunch's Teenage Jesus And The Jerks). The Tokyo band blends all four groups with their characteristic edginess and experimental expressiveness (see the dissonant use of guitar and sax), including here and there moments where those edges are smoothed out (as in "Shameless Display," an almost easy listening track with funky bass and flute interventions). The tracks rarely reach three minutes and highlight the energy and freshness of their sound. Despite the decidedly derivative sound, I liked the album, and since the last two tracks that close the album (the aforementioned track and the unreleased "Stroll") show a softer side, but always with a certain transversal attitude, who knows if these may indicate a new side of the future sound of the Schedars.

Almost a year after the release of the "W454" EP, the album that should have been released instead is finally out!
"Contrôle Total," the first album by the French duo La Machine, is finally available on CD and LP from Boredomproduct.
It contains ten tracks, six of which we had the chance to become familiar with previously, as they were included in the three EPs released over the last two and a half years: "La Machine (Qui Ne Sert À Rien)" and "F.F.P.2" were on the "La Machine (Qui Ne Sert À Rien)" EP, the cover of Righeira's "Vamos A La Playa" and "Réacteur 4" were on the EP of the same title, and "W454" plus "Invasion Humanoïde" were on the "W454" EP.
The album confirms the initial impression I had with the EPs: the duo formed by Pierre Pi (Komplex, Position Parallèle, Communication Zéro...) and Éric U0 (Celluloide, Thee Hyphen, Signal~Bruit...) has successfully created their narrative, reminiscent of mid-1950s sci-fi/horror movies, built as a dystopian view that criticizes our future from the perspective of the past.
Their videos feature science laboratories, hospital operating rooms, colliding comets, etc.
The lyrics, intelligently expose all human failures and vices: "Every day she dreams of being more beautiful through a scalpel's reflex / with sure and restrained gestures, he sculpts his naked body," or "On my screen your body moves / The sky turns red / The crash is scheduled for midnight / Will I be finished soon / There's still an hour to kill / The film has to be edited / Quick! Quick! expose ourselves / We have to get a million views / Quick! Quick! expose ourselves / Before we've all disappeared."
Musically, if you've already checked out the EPs, we have the same solid retro analog electronic sound (like Kraftwerk on steroids), full of catchy melodies.
"Contrôle Total" convinced me on every level, and I hope you'll allow them to abduct you...

Describing the career of John Joseph Wardle, better known as Jah Wobble, is not easy, as it mixed post-punk, dub, jazz, world music, and spoken word. It all began when, with college friends Johnny Rotten and Sid Vicious (two fairly prominent names, I'd say...), he started listening to the original dub from Kingston (among other things, I remember that Rotten acted as a consultant to Richard Branson, head of Virgin, because he was looking for records to release on the sub-label Front Line, which was dedicated to reggae music). These sounds influenced many young people and forcefully entered the alternative music scene in England, thanks to bands like the Clash, the Slits, and Public Image Limited, just to name a few. Let's focus for a moment on the last name on this brief list: in 1978, after Johnny Rotten's venture with the Sex Pistols ended disastrously with American concerts and he returned to the UK alone after leaving them, he decided to change direction completely and, along with Jah Wobble, Keith Levene, and Jim Walker, formed Public Image Limited. There everyone was free to express their creativity, creating something that had not existed before: an unpolished and experimental hybrid of post-punk and dub that pushed the limits of accessibility for an audience that was mostly used to the rock of the 70s like Queen, T-Rex, Pink Floyd, etc.
Jah Wobble's adventure with PiL lasted through two studio albums, where especially in "Metal Box" his contribution was fundamental (an album he reinterpreted in 2021). Due to a restless spirit and a personality clash with Rotten, Wobble left the group, followed shortly after by the others, leaving Rotten free to refresh the ranks with contributions from Martin Atkins and other members who often changed (among whom was also John McGeoch, who arrived after leaving the Banshees and various subsequent collaborations). Jah Wobble thus began his solo career in 1980 with the album "The Legend Lives On... Jah Wobble In Betrayal." The album in my review, his third, came after a collaboration with Holger Czukay and Jaki Liebezeit. Recorded at home, hence the title "Jah Wobble's Bedroom Album," it was released in 1983 by his own label, Lago Records, and was never reissued on vinyl since. It was only reissued on CD in 2001 along with some EPs released in the early '80s.
The album contains eleven tracks, that move easily from introspective post-punk with Middle Eastern influences, to dark, ramshackle ballads that seem suitable for a Current 93 album (who started being active at this time, among other things), reminiscent of a certain psychedelic folk from the UK in the '60s/'70s, passing through organ instrumentals or near-drone experiments. The rhythm of all the tracks, except "City," is provided by a drum machine or percussion, which accentuates the dark atmosphere even more. The album closes with "Heart Of The Jungle," a recording of a rosary filled with guitar noise, and other improvisations. A track that would have suited a Psychic TV album, for example (the Italian band Rosemary's Baby did something similar). A rediscoverable album that carries with it the charm of the alternative records produced in the UK in those years.

Spittle Records has long dedicated a large part of its catalog to reissues of material from 1980s Italy, also adding unreleased tracks: the “391” series, focused on the underground scene of various regions, is a good example of this approach. The same goes for the compilations curated by Fred Ventura, such as "Milano Undiscovered 1988-1992" or "Italia Synthetica 1981-1985". Fortunately, after years of looking predominantly to the past, the present has begun to be represented with compilations like "Milano Undiscovered 2023 – Modern Italo Disco, Synth Pop & House Experiments From Milan’s Underground" or the one I want to talk about today: "Fred Ventura Presents Italia Synthetica 2025". First of all, it should be noted that the people involved are by no means novices; rather, I would say they are seasoned veterans: people like Danilo Carnevale (see Jeunesse D’Ivoire, Other Side, Ivories…), the Piatto brothers (N.O.I.A., Rebels Without A Cause), Fred Ventura himself, Livio Fogli (La Maison), etc… These ten tracks are a testament to their latest projects, several of which have been released recently. Just to give an example, two and a half years ago I did a special on my radio show Musick To Play In The Dark during which I interviewed N.O.I.A. Records and played several tracks from their catalog: there was stuff from Mono Han, who appear here with “Stardust Blooms,” taken from their second album "Things Change And Friends Leave" and from TenGrams, who are present on "Italia Synthetica 2025" with “A Lesson To Learn,” one of their few tracks with vocals, a beautiful, very catchy mix of wave and italo disco (not to mention their remix of Italoconnection’s track “Sleeping,” with references to Kraftwerk’s melodies and sounds, which reminds me of what Afrika Bambaataa & The Soul Sonic Force did for “Planet Rock” using the sample from “Trans Europe Express”). The other half of Italoconnection, Paolo Gozzetti, opens the record with “Spleen Selecter” by his Rimini Metafisica, again mixing italo disco with more nocturnal atmospheres. Sandiego has been active in the Milan scene for about twenty years and has absorbed the atmospheres of the 1980s: his “Suburban Winter” has the right mix of melancholic and robotic atmospheres, perfect for this compilation that winks at an era but presents it fresh. Body System (a collaboration between Fred Ventura and Enrico Colombo of Art Boulevard, Orange Party, Bedroom Rockers) with “Insane” instead nods to EBM, though quieting the angry vocals of that genre. This is a compilation worth buying, and I’m curious to check out the other releases from the groups I didn’t know well. If forty years ago we were able to export italo disco all over the world, I don’t see why we can’t dream again and hope that these sounds will once again make dance floors and bars around the world vibrate!