Aidan Casserly never gets some rest and by the results he achieves, I think he's right to do what he does. This times he's back with a new project called Kubo. Formed by Aidan and Brian O'Malley (PolyDROID), who already played together in 1986 as ManSeries when they were at school, Kubo just released for Vocoder Tapes their first release, a tape single containing two tracks: "I Dream Electric" and "The Light That Blinds". Musically, the duo plays minimal syntwave music, inspired as much by themes of alienation and science fiction, as it is by the exploration of pure electronic sound. Brian is taking care of the sounds and his influences goes from the electronic music of the seventies (do you remember Vangelis early albums "Heaven And Hell" or the following "Albedo 0.39" and their pulsating sounds and ambient dark atmospheres?), to late seventies/early eighties electronic wave heroes of the likes of Gary Numan. These tense atmospheres find their counterpart into Aidan's vocals: influenced by passionate singers like David Bowie or Jacques Brel his voice gives a twist to the cold beats of the drum machine. Thumbs up for their first release and you can make your own idea by checking them at http://vocodertapes.bandcamp.com/album/i-dream-electric

This intriguing self-named debut release by Vulgar Fashion is one of the most interesting proposal by dynamic label Handmade Birds, who shed chrism on their amazingly contaminated style, which some lucky listeners already tasted during their somehow quirky live exhibition where frontwoman Kubic Zirconia sings and dances on a mist-shrouded (by a portable artifical smoke machine) stage while she smears herself with fake blood and keyboardist Slush numbly maneuvers (seemingly analog) machines in the dark. The initial "Krystal Liez" could let listener imagine that kind of sexy female vampire, who could easily gain liters of blood and a plenty of juicy necks with no efforts due to her allure, so that they immediately respect expectation which could rise from the reading of the official introduction (according to Handmade Birds, "Vulgar Fashion uncovers what heterosexual men think about when they see sexually provocative advertising and stokes the flames of public panic and profit on paranoia over global contagions, extreme weather events, and food contamination scares, while mining our digital footprints to target us with ads and offers that appeal to our psychological profiles"!), which got invigorated by the plastic prurience of the following "Golden Showers". While "Nite Yacht" hovers around that sound which has been succesfully reprised by so-called witch-house, Miss Zircnoia turns into a sort of bad girl who nurtures the hobby of black art on the rabidly riveting "Pact With The Devil", which precedes "Krystal tearz", the most romantic and nostalgic peak of this release, where some mysterious hints made me thought about some stuff by The Electronic Circus, Visage or Crystal Castles. Promising debut!

I'll take upon myself the risk to sound repetitive, but I have to say French drum'n'bass label IM:Ltd is building a climbing frame to reach the empyrean realms of the genre by a series of releases this year, which are really remarkable on a quality level. This new record comes from Ukrainian talent Vladimir Prituliak aka Hibea, who emulates the explorative flight of the mysteriously charming long-eared bird, which gives the name to the track "White Owl", its hushed hunt in the dark, by means of clear-cut jungle-oriented breaks, icy puffs, a recurring sound which could vaguely resemble the call of a owl and a 3-note theme which engagingly emphasizes this imaginary night-flight, while compatriot producer Eugene Fade accentuates the jungle core of the original track by samples which resembles some proper jungle classics and a rising absorbing tone which evokes some stuff by Aphrodite on his remix, which is only available on the digital version as well as the original version of "The Form", an amazing 6-minutes lasting swirl of percussive popping, guided missiles, blasts of wind, shaking basslines and palpitating hums. On vinyl, you will find its hovering remix by Phil Tangent, which is maybe the plumiest track (not so different from some good uplifters on Hospital) of this appealing release by Hibea. Take wing and peer into darkest nights.

Three years ago Distel released, always for Enfant Terrible, their first 7" containing two songs. Now, three years after and after a couple of tracks released on some compilations, they bring to the attention of industrial electronic lovers their first album titled "Puur". The release contains ten new tracks and it will have a second edition out in May which will come along with an extra two tracks 7", as this first one is limited to only 50 copies! Back to the album, I can say that it totally confirm the good impression I had with their single: it sounds powerful, desperate, sometimes melodic and well arranged. It sounds rich and cold at the same time thanks to the warmth of synth sounds and to the way the noises have been used. Music wise, listening to songs like "Hale" I recalled the early Coil, "Amne", instead, sounds like Depeche Mode covering early Cabaret Voltaire. Electro, industrial and cold wave are all mixed creating a fresh take on... despair. Check the sound excerpts at the label's website and I assure you that you'll reserve a copy of this one!

The last time I reviewed Adern X, it was about the release "Ink spots called words", a collection of tracks recorded during the 2007/2012 time span. With "Cinema Show", Andrea Piran, is back with a new album recorded in collaboration with a well known sound tweaker called Tiziano Milani. The concept behind this album deals with the dependence of images and sounds on a movie and the way to enjoy it in different environments. They recorded their sound sources at the movies and then edited it to make it sound, as they say, like a "soundtrack of an imaginary expressionist movie or as an experimental form of synphonic poem". The release is divided into five different movements where noises we are kinda used to, morph into a disturbing sound collage that sometimes turn into a dreamy reversed orchestra, then into a pulsating signal from a distant galaxy and then into a cacophonic wall that melts into tiny melodies now and then. This isn't exactly my cup of tea but I appreciated the feeling and the concept of the release and I think that this is what these sounds were made for...