Hidden Souls, the synthpop/futurepop band from Buenos Aires, Argentina are back with an album called 'All That We Destroy,' that seems appropriate title for this day and age. The last we heard from Hidden Souls was their pre-pandemic debut album, 'The Incorruptible Dream' in 2018. So a lot of what they hinted at then has come to pass, and the new material is both an acknowledgement of humanity's failings, and a plea for sanity. While most synthpop bands use lighter subject material as song inspiration (love relationships, social situations, slice-of-life) etc., Hidden Souls tackles weightier subjects, but aren't immune to the occasional love song.

Individual members Leo Carden (vocals, guitar), Guillermo "William" Pardo Neira (keyboards, songwriting, programming), and Alejandro Visona (keyboards, composer) should be mentioned again now that I know what they do. No matter what though, Leo's voice is going to remind you of Ronan Harris and Tom Shear, although I think he's a better vocalist than either of those guys. Once you get past the VNV Nation and Assemblage 23 comparisons, Hidden Souls really stand on their own merits. With 11 tracks that cut to the core of the human condition, this band has not been idle since their European tour. Opening strong with "I Was There," the song is more of a story about a near death experience, which could be as easily about catching Covid as it could be about being wounded in a field in the Ukraine or getting shot in a gay club in Colorado. "Sinking In Despair" requires no explanation, but there is still a positive message in it. "Loreley" (based on the German myth, "Lorelei") is the album's sole love song, competently done. "Dive Into My Dreams" is like a private conversation with a close friend or lover, encouraging the best while enduring the worst. "Something" has nothing to do with the Beatles or Abbey Road, but a lot to do with liars, deceivers, haters and baiters. "Is there something I should feel?" That's a question I wonder about every day.

The title track, "All That We Destroy" was somewhat inspired by William walking through Berlin and spotting a hole in some remains of the Berlin Wall. Looking inside the hole, he saw another wall on the other side, so he said to his wife, "It doesn't matter how many years we've tried to make the world better. Finally, we always come back to the same sad point. Because something happens and we destroy everything we did...everything we build, everything we wrote." It's metaphoric, but not without a heaping does of truth. There's a gothic bleakness to "Know Your Fears" which opens with the line "Why everything is going down while someone is bleeding out for all the intensive blackness and all the tears we've shared..." may seem a bit nihilistic, but there is a positive message in it. If that wasn't Nietzsche enough for you, try "The Song Of The Unbelievers" as the ultimate avowal of organized religion. "Nobody" is one of the best-done songs on the album (and somewhat atypical of the rest), but lyrically, it's just so personal that it's hard to grok. Guest vocalist Lorena Kassabchi shines on that track. "We Are All Escapists" seemed a bit formulaic but sill suitable within the scheme of the album. It all ends with "The Void," a 7:36 opus that just seems like more of a fitting end to everything that went before, with the appropriate closing line "...We are in this together now..."

I think that it's difficult, but not impossible to cover consequential themes in synthpop, but Hidden Souls have done it admirably on 'All That We Destroy.' Even though the beat is strong, the album is more food for thought than dancefloor nirvana.

Jeff Danos and his pretty much under the radar flying Testube-project has always had the ability to come out with a blast with well received reactions and reputation by press media, fans and supporters – and to vanish unfortunately soon afterwards into obscurity. It happens often that music-projects seem to be misunderstood or get at least ignored because they tend to express their musically style too ambitious for the listener. Testube has never been the same-sounding band project like your beloved daily burger for a dinner, as diversity and style-breaking changes of Jeff's musically outfit have always been occurred. To mix it all up out of multiple Electronic music styles like Ambient, Trance, Industrial, Synthpop, Glitch, IDM and/or EBM, Jeff is a manic-possessed explorer of new and undiscovered sound ideas and Testube has always been a hodgepodge providing a surplus of unpredictable and innovative ideas on the hunt for stylistic reinvention.

Already established in 1994, Testube has had its most recognized output with the 12-tracker release“Bioplaza”, a highly successful album out in 1999 and the addition to the DSBP Records roster to the end of the same year. “Bioplaza” was kind of Jeff's career buzzer which consequently continued with the release of the full-length remix album entitled “Reconstructive Surgery” in 2000, which featured several diverse remix contributions by among others Pain Station, Biopsy, Thine Eyes, Oneiroid Psychosis or Austria's Trylok. The buzz around this project was vital, as “Reconstructive Surgery” received clubs and radio stations across the globe and remained in the CMJ national RPM top-20 charts for six weeks, peaking at the No. 4 chart position in September 2000 side by side with such global players like Juno Reactor or A Guy Called Gerald. Also a further limited edition of the “Bioplaza” album (“Bioplaza Revisited”) out in late 2000 with additional remix works and previously unreleased tracks got released.

Three years later Jeff returned with his all new follow-up studio album “Corporation”, which couldn't follow the same successful course which “Bioplaza” pursued before. “Corporation” wasn't at all a weak album – actually with Jeff's well-known meticulously programming skills and a controversial idea to reflect an inside look at the dysfunctional clockwork of the "American Dream" and its dependence on corporate anti-justice, brought him a lot of well-balanced reviews while the club-goers almost went their ears and faces off regarding Jeff's ongoing attempt to hunt for innovation and to push Testube towards to lesser accessible areas of sound-design and programming skills.

It took some years with relocations, soundtrack works, and a few remixes until Jeff returned in 2008 with the establishing of his own label Glim Records and a handful of releases like Type001's last album “Finished Business”, a few Lowhero.dll releases (featuring Jeff's Glim Records co-label founder Jonathan Chalker) and his very own Testube-project with the “Covert” EP and later on in 2010 with the full-length album “Off Purpose”. Accompanied by a remix-album soon afterwards (“Unintentional”), Jeff decided to take a radical break and to live his life in a simpler environment. He constructed his own off-grid cabin the Ozark mountains, where he experimented without running water and electricity. During this time, Testube's output was limited due to the difficult conditions but Jeff continued to write new music. A handful of these new tracks appeared on the “Atavistic” EP in 2015.

At least in 2019 and the hit of the COVID-19 pandemic, Jeff decided that he had gained enough perspective from his simpler living and returned. With a filled storage of many raw tracks conducted during his abstinence from electricity, he has chosen 17 of them to release them under this new “Backwater” album. Alex Stilts, known for his involvement musically in Rekt / also label co-founder of Point Source Electronic Arts, of Orbit Room Audio has provided the mastering process in all brilliance.

Be assured that Testube in the year 2022 won't stop his hunt for diversity when it comes to get an overview on these 17 tracks of “Backwater”. The title track kicks the album relatively straight off with a breathtaking quality. “Backwater” impresses with it's Glitch-laden percussion elements and the overall futuristic, Industrial-like outfit with multiple usage of vocal samples and layered synth-textures. Jeff's vocal performance additionally avoids pseudo-aggressive outbreaks and comes out relatively laid-back. If one of the new tracks reminds at closest to the “Bioplaza” era, then this one would it be.

In a relative comparable style we have with “Backyard Burner” another favorite with it well-thought rhythmic straightness woven in a smooth and catchy, almost Synthpop-like melodic construction. The track “Themself” differs with its nightly bass guitar loop leading the musically spectrum and seems to be a kind of a tribute to the rather “organic” sounding era out of the Glim Records years. Deeply impressed I am personally also with the dark and ominous sounding, voice-sample driven Ambient-tunes like “Big White Lies (at Standing Rock)” or “Arkanstayed”.

All in all, Testube's latest album impresses once again with a widely installed diversity out of all thinkable Electronic music styles and the indispensable will to provide the listener music to expand ones horizon. Jeff's programming skills often result in multi-layered textures and unique sound experiences which can be hardly compared to any other artist. Even if a few of the tracks have been in the works for longer than 10 years under limited circumstances, there's no limitation noticeable when it belongs on the quality of Jeff music expression. This is purest art of sound design, futuristic and ground-breaking to the same time.

17 tracks are included plus a hidden, rather improvisational tune live recorded under the circumstances of the COVID lock-down. In addition to a digital release available at multiple streaming services, a limited edition cassette release can be ordered too (25 exemplars) via Jeff's Bandcamp account with handmade hydro-dipped cases. Surely soon this cassette release will be a collector's item.

Seven years have passed since "A Perfect Picture", the latest Dekad album. Three years ago, J.B.Lacassagne along with XY (Foretaste) released an album under the Overlookers moniker and we could also see that one as anticipation of what was coming with Dekad as the new album is co-produced with XY. Anyway, the new album is here with eleven new tracks and it's titled "Nowhere Lines". The collaboration didn't change Dekad's sound, you have tracks that are well rooted into the synthpop genre with e.b.m. rhythmic influences, but XY helped redefine the arrangement, which now is a bit richer and as with The Overlookers, influenced by the Depeche Mode of the "Black Celebration" period. With "Nowhere Lines" J.B. is painting a picture of a world that is running to its end... fast! Stories of impossible loves with plastic girls or framed pictures, stalkers, rebels, and insanity are what J.B. turned into danceable and catchy melodies. This album contains many highlights and I suggest you check these tracks first and you won't be disappointed: "Your World", "Artificial World", the instrumental "Last Chance", "Stay" and "A Deadly Show". The release of the album has been postponed because of what is going on in the world in these crazy times but now you have the chance to check it.

The last I heard of Ulf Muller's Project Ich was the 2019 release, 'By Train Through Counties,' which I really didn't much care for. I'm happy to say that 'Freedom For All' is a whole lot better. On the previous release Project Ich incorporated a bunch of guest artists to vocalize his compositions, and again utilizes numerous others in the vocal department, but this time they're given more freedom and flexibility to compose their own melodies, which works great this go-round. The cast includes: Catrine Christensen (DK), Marcus Mokuso (DE), Michael Draw (RU), René Mußbach (DE) and Oleg Degtiarev (CZ), all of them having taken part in the debut album. Marcus Mokuso (Mindmodvl, Rename) wrote the bilingual lyrics (German, English) and composed the hymnic vocal melody. Also aboard are Martin Johanssson, David B. Roundsley, Magdalena Herfurtner, Aidan Casserly, Dasha Larks, Thierry Noritop, Marcelo Andrea, Anna from ELL WATERS, Ralf Lorenze, Richard Pustina, Ade Stocks Skins, and of course, Ulf Muller. There is also the fantastic sax playing by George Kallenbach on no less than six tracks which really adds a lot.

'Freedom For All' is about the right of ALL living beings to exist and to live in freedom and peace. Mankind is supposed to be the most intelligent species on our planet, but most often does not behave like it. We cannot keep turning the wheel of time endlessly including the destructions, the plunder of natural resources and the devastation of the environment, the pointless wars without having to pay a merciless price.

I cannot agree more with the above statement from Project Ich. It is difficult to believe that in the 21st century that humanity still tolerates war, injustice, racial and ethnic hatred, religious intolerance, bigotry, political corruption, environmental ruination, etc., etc. For fuck's sake! We're on the brink of climate change annihilation, and nobody in charge wants to do ANYTHING about it. (Don't get me started on Putin's war, or decades of pointless U.S. military conflicts.) The world needs this album more than ever now, and no country is more guilty the aforementioned bullshit than the one I live in.

In keeping with the international flavor of the album, songs are sung in English, French, German, Russian, and Spanish, sometimes with more than a single language in a song. The top language is English though. The opener and title track ("Freedom For All") is a powerful plea for unity, sung by multiple guest artists. It's a bit dour but poignant, and certainly sets the tone. Some songs are socio-politically themed, while others offer more conventional pop themes. That fosters a good mix in my opinion. The best of these are the poppy "We Are The First" (featuring Electric City Cowboys); the mildly forceful "Mit dir" (featuring Madil Hardis) sounding like a Deutsche Freezepop; the simple but effective "Sexy Silly Girl" (featuring Stereo in Solo) with cool sax and guitar solos; the subtle but intriguing "The Stranger" (featuring Faltenhall); and finally, the wacky but dead-on "Society Class" (spoken more than sung, but thankfully, not rapped) featuring Stocksnskins. More than likely others will find value in some of the tracks I didn't mention, but everyone has their own opinion. Given that, we all have to find a way to live, work, play and love together or we are truly doomed, and ultimately, that's what 'Freedom For All' is all about.

Although picked-up with a license deal directly from the Oklahoma-based label Re:Mission Entertainment, this one is a TAPE release provided to us by the young German tape label Single Speed Tapes. This label founded by Sören Otto has – you'll get it – specialized itself to bring out some hard-to-find or re-releases of one or another treasure from (among others) Amnistia, Wermut or Terminal State.

As we know out of the early days of EBM, Electronica, Synthpop, Wave, Dark Electro and/or Industrial – however you like to call it – tapes have been the to-go-medium for young and unrecognized band projects to present their first recordings to their small audience and to grab some attention of the underground record labels. It has been the days when no one was able to afford a vinyl production, or CD writers have been a far too expensive investment. With the beginning of the PC technology and so the rise of CDR writers, tapes have lost their meaning in almost all style of electronic-drive music, maybe with the exception of a very few Powernoise- / Rhythmic Noise productions which have been always used this medium as a possible, special packaging item. Then “life” came back into tapes with the often proclaimed retro orientation to the 80s not only in music production but also in art and technology. It's still a satisfying impression to hold a piece of hardware in your hands instead to search for digital mp3 files in various areas of your PC-driven home entertainment or mobile phones.

Same here and limited to only 60 hand-numbered exemplars, but with Kitty Kosmonaut we have prominent band members with Dwayne Dassing of Mentallo & the Fixer and John Bustamante of Fektion Fekler. Re:Mission Entertainment has released this album already in 2015 with a limited run of CD's as well as digitally via their Bandcamp web resource, but nevertheless this release went completely under the radar of the audience. Regarding the stardom of the protagonists behind, this surprises negatively.

Both Dwayne and John are providing the music with synth programming, sequencing, etc., while it is John who supplies also his vocals on the tracks. For both elaborated musicians this new project seems to be an ideal playing field for experiments and to test out diverse forms of synthesis. You shouldn't expect an international rising top-notch album production in vein of the heydays of both musician under their Mentallo / Fekler - pseudonyms. Instead you'll get a dark-minded form of experimental Electronica which avoids it to be sorted into genre-boundaries.

Tracks like “Sum it Up” can entertain with it's clear Dark Electro structures, while such tunes like “Zero Age” with its noisy bells-like archaic sound outbursts are drifting away from any conventional path. Also don't expect a release driven by adrenaline, sweat and muscles formulated with dancefloor-compatibility, mostly the featured tracks here remain slow to mid-tempo and concentrate rather to focus on the Electronica elements. It's a bit like Mainesthai in psychosis, not that release to find immediately entrance to.

This 12 tracks do need some spins in your old Walkman or tape-deck, but its worth it to discover the talent behind the both musicians. Globally a fine addition to the growing discography of this young and promising tape-label. This one shouldn't be sold out yet, also via Bandcamp under the Re:Mission Entertainment resource it should be still possible to purchase this collectors item. Make sure to contact Single Speed Tapes through their Bigcartel store above in the links.