Blog

Nonpop is coming

German webzine Lichttaufe has ended its activities, but a new initiative has arisen: Nonpop. This ‘Musik- und Kulturmagazin’ can be reached at nonpop.de, starting January 1, 2007. To celebrate this occasion, a free sampler with 26 interesting artists can be downloaded from this date.

Neo-Form II

German webzine/community Neo-Form presents its second free sampler with neo-folk, industrial & avantgarde sounds. You can download 17 tracks and fitting artwork from sampler2.neo-form.de. Among the artists are Allerseelen, Der Feuerkreiner, Tribe Of Circle, Decadence and Of The Wand And The Moon.

In the blender

Blender.com has compiled a list of The 50 Worst Artists in Music History. According to me, Japan and Skinny Puppy should not be included in there. It must be possible to think of worse acts!

Zwielicht is born

Zwielicht is the name of a new German magazine for ‘Musik, Kultur, Untergrund’, published by Eislicht Verlag. The content of the first issue looks promising with articles about Martin Hannett, Woven Hand, Michael Cashmore, Alex Fergusson, Bad Sector, Forseti and more. Single issues and subscriptions can be ordered from neofolk.de.

Streetwise

Now this is what I call a lucrative auction. A unique acetate record of the first Velvet Underground album, with alternate versions and mixes, was found by a student at a New York street sale for 75 cents! Now it’s up on eBay and with four days to go it has already passed the hundred thousand dollar mark…

V23 designs

An interesting book appeared last year: Vaughan Oliver and V23 Poster Designs. Oliver is of course best known for his wonderful artwork for various $AD releases, by the likes of Cocteau Twins and Modern English.

David’s holy grail

Back in 2004, Dusted Magazine featured the favourite albums of Woven Hand’s David Eugene Edwards. Neubauten, In Gowan Ring, Arvo Part and Motorhead fight for the top spot. Browse the dusty archives for more list mania…

Faun on Sunday

This Sunday (November 19) Faun will offer an afternoon of ‘pagan medieval renaissance folk’ at Tivoli de Helling in Utrecht. Doors open at 15:00 hrs, the fitting music before and after the concert is taken care of by dj Eöl and my alter ego dj Cabal.

Dutch gallery

A massive collection of historical promo photos of Dutch bands has been gathered online at Het Geheugen van Nederland. Besides many forgotten or uninteresting names, you can find photos of Clan of Xymox, The Essence, Gotterdammerung, Mekanik Kommando, Nasmak, Spasmodique, Voltage Control and The Actor, to name but a few.

Los Iniciados

Los Iniciados was a side-project of Spain’s legendary minimal electronic project El Aviador Dro. Compared to their bigger brother, Los Iniciados has a darker and less disco-oriented sound. You can watch a nice videoclip of Marca de Anubise. A 7? single with this track and 3 other pieces taken from old cassettes has been released on Minimal […]

Nocturnal sampler

The Italian gothic label In the Nighttime released work by Thelema and more, but now also offers a free mp3 compilation. In The Night Time Sampler vol. 1 contains 17 tracks, including live tracks by Siglo XX and Ikon, as well as (known) material by Spiritual Front, Lupercalia, Spiral of Silence, Ludmila and others. Transmission Magazine offers the new sampler Awake […]

Live on video

Love Is Colder Than Death offers a live video for free download: First Light In the Dawn, performed in 2003. At the website dedicated to the Luisen Kirsche Neofolk Fest in Russia, you can find video material of Kratong, Moon Far Away and Neutral.

New Arcana song

A nice new track by Arcana (”in the same vein as Le Serpent Rouge but with vocals”) can be heard at Peter Bjärgö’s Myspace page. ‘Lost in Time’ was recorded for the Lightwave II compilation on Kalinkaland Records.

Home & Living

German DJ’s and their living rooms

Something to read

Now @ Boomkat: an interview with post-cassical composer Max Richterand the 10 life-changing records of Colleen. Some recent features @ Guardian Unlimited: the strange world of Depeche Mode fans, a top 20 of Britain’s independent record shops and a piece about the latest goth revival.

Berlin

Just returned from a short week in Berlin. I roamed around all corners of Prenzlauer Berg, Friedrichshain, Kreuzberg and Mitte, visited exhibitions in the Martin-Gropius-Bau, Märkisches Museum and Museum für Fotografie, bought records at Das Drehmoment, Dense, Hard Wax and some second-hand stores, and visited a ‘Dark Ambient Nacht’ with Karjalan Sissit, Visions and more. […]

Joshua speaks

An interesting interview (in German) with Lux Interna @alternativmusik.de. The band is working on a mini album, which could be ready this winter.

DDR tapes

This sounds interesting: a book + double cd entitled „Spannung Leistung Widerstand – Magnetbanduntergrund DDR 1979–1989“.

X-Ray recycling

Fascinating: in Eastern Europe, medical X-ray film was used as the base material for new record discs, because of a wartime lack of other materials.

Who’s who of minimal

‘The Voice Of New Music’ is an anthology of articles from the American composer Tom Johnson that originally appeared in the Village Voice.