Ex-Sneaker Pimps singer Chris Corner’s alter-ego IAMX is back with his dark electronic fusion of music genres. After releasing his eighth album “Alive in a New Light”, Chris is hopeful after some dark years and his personal battle against clinical depression and chronic insomnia. Release met up with the brainchild of IAMX before his show in Hamburg and had a chat about being difficult to work with, a brighter future and having ”a Skinny Puppy”, Cevin Key, to look after his puppy while being on tour. [more...]
Amphi Festival is soon upon us for its 14th edition, at Tanzbrunnen in the center of the fair area in Cologne. They invite fans and supporters of the dark scenes to a massive “family gathering” on the flood banks of the river Rhine. [more...]
Disappointing main acts but great shows by up-and-coming bands, lovely interviews with bands as Mogwai, jam sessions, sore feet, sauna-hot weather, amazing Roskilde volunteers, and dust, lots of D.U.S.T. – that’s what my 27th Roskilde Festival was about.
The profile has changed over the years. In the nineties you could see Release bands like Front 242, Front Line Assembly, Covenant and Apoptygma Berzerk, but the last ten years have seen a shift in musical direction with more focus on bands and artists appealing to the younger generations. Still, we had Chelsea Wolfe, Massive Attack, Mogwai, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Myrkur, Four Tet and above all Nine Inch Nails. [more...]
Only a year and a half year after their critically acclaimed album “Nyctophilian”, Stcokholm post-punk/goth rock four-piece Then Comes Silence released their fourth album “Blood”. It came out in October 2017 on Nuclear Blast, thus they changed label from Gotland based Novoton. Extending the “Blood” tour into 2018, Then Comes Silence returned to Hamburg supporting ChameleonsVox (formerly The Chameleons). Release met up the band members just after their arrival at the venue to have a chat about the return of the post-punk/goth scene and why it’s easier to play in Germany than on home turf in Sweden. [more...]
1981 was a remarkable synthpop year with releases like Depeche Mode’s ”Speak and Spell”, Soft Cell’s “Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret” and The Human League’s “Dare”. And then we have Midge Ure’s Ultravox, with the classic single ”Vienna” (taken from the 1980 album with the same name) and the album ”Rage in Eden”.
Release’s Fredrik ”Schlatta” Wik focused on the Ultravox album ”Brilliant” and its tour in his 2012 Midge Ure interview. Now, Midge sat down with Release again, at the Amphi Festival in Cologne, for an interesting chat about his overall career and how working as a musician, songwriter and singer has changed since the 80:s.
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Two releases into their career, Stockholm’s post-punk and darkwave outfit A Projection have provided listeners with a widely-varying palette from which to draw. After being signed by Hamburg based Tapete Records even before there was a full band setup, A Projection have seen a massive increase in popularity and already played the major festivals on the scene.
We caught up with the band in Cologne, to discuss how they have evolved since their debut album, the difference between synth and post-punk and what they have in store for their increasing pool of fans in the future. [more...]
The sheer number of acts arising on the German goth rock scene is almost unrivaled and the scene is fraught with competition between a never-ending stream of new bands entering the scene. To stand out is quite a challenge. One of these bands that recently have started to catch some attention in Germany is far from being a newcomer and have been on the scene in different constellations since 2006, and they also have a special connection to Finland.
Release Magazine sat down with singer Florian and drummer Yannick of Florian Grey at the Finnish church café in Hamburg and had a chat about their latest album “Ritus”, the German goth rock scene and why Finland is such a great country. [more...]
Fourteen years after their debut EP and three albums later, making them household names and ushered a generation of indie kids onto the dancefloor, Digitalism still continues to produce a never-ending stream of electronic club hits. The last three years have even seen a much more focused work ethos by taking control of their career and starting their own label, Magnetism.
Release sat down with Jens “Jence” Moelle and Ismail “Isi” Tüfekci in their studio, squeezed into an old World War II bunker in Hamburg to discuss the ever-changing music industry, their signature sound and walking down the road to creative freedom by starting their own label.
It’s getting cold and dark here in Sweden. Sounds like the perfect time to rewind two months back to July and one of our favorite festivals, this year heated up to 35º C. The Release team reports from the 14th edition of the Cologne based festival Amphi, where we met and watched artists such as Midge Ure, And One, Priest, OMD, Oomph!, Aesthetic Perfection, A Projection – and drank gallons of water. [more...]
Music media often focus on the legends, icons and pioneers that we love to celebrate and pay tribute to from a very young age, when we pin their posters on the wall in our childhood rooms. In Release, we also focus on the musical heroes working in the background, producing, programming or even singing on the icons’ albums. Now it’s time for another of those hard working heroes, who has a resume that few studio musicians can dream of. After working with Depeche Mode, Moby, A-ha and The Kills, just to mention a few, Kurt Uenala finally took the step and released his debut album under the moniker Null + Void.
Release sat down with Uenala and HFN Music’s Philipp Brüning a few hours before the show at the Reeperbahn Festival and discussed how it is to take the role of the frontman, collaborative work and (not) letting go in the creative process. We also shot some exclusive pictures. [more...]