News editors: Mikael Kahrle & Johan Carlsson

Leading Scandinavian festivals reveal their 2004 plans
• Both the Swedish Hultsfred and Danish Roskilde festivals have revealed their 2004 plans.
Hultsfred Festival, June 17-19, has released their first wave of live acts, among them Broder Daniel and The Kid. Roskilde Festival will take place on July 1-4 and has only booked one of 150 artists but a huge one it is, David Bowie. Both festivals offer special deals for early tickets sales. /Mikael Kahrle

Covenant play at final party for club

Smoking is still permitted outdoors in Lappland.

• Covenant have agreed to play an exclusive gig at the final party for the more or less legendary Hi-Tech Muslo club in Borås, Sweden, on December 12. The first Muslo party was held ten years ago. /Mikael Kahrle

"Dirty Hits" from Primal Scream
• British rock’n’roll chameleons Primal Scream recently released their first greatest hits album. “Dirty Hits” includes material from their groundbreaking 1991 album “Screamadelica” to last year’s “Evil Heat”, and thus excludes the band’s first two albums. The focus is on singles, but some album tracks have managed to sneak in too. A limited edition of the album comes with a bonus disc with remixes by among others Two Lone Swordsmen, The Orb and Alec Empire.
To coincide with "Dirty Hits", November 17 saw the band release a new single. Rather than a brand new song, the choice fell upon the Lee Hazlewood cover “Some Velvet Morning”, a duet with supermodel Kate Moss also featured on “Evil Heat”. Apart from two new mixes of “Some Velvet Morning”, the single also includes the previously unreleased song “Country Blues #1”, a very Bob Dylan-ish affair. /Kristoffer Noheden

Breaking news: Huge Kraftwerk tour announced

Tour information arrives from Kraftwerk.

• Kraftwerk have announced their most extensive touring in many years. Dates start February 6 in Helsinki as the robots play some Scandinavian dates. Onwards to Japan later that month, and Kraftwerk are back to UK and western Europe for March and April. We expect to hear about North American dates soon after to help promote their new "Tour de France Soundtracks" release. /Alex Veronac

Marc Almond to Stockholm for spoken word festival
• December 4 to 6 sees spoken word, music, art and new media festival Information Wants to Be Free reach Stockholm. The diverse line up includes Marc Almond, Hanin Elias from the now defunct Atari Teenage Riot, experimental musician and artist C.M. von Hausswolff, Sanctum affiliate Mago and British music journalist Steven Wells, as well as Swedish hip hoppers Latin Kings and prog rock icon Mikael Wiehe.
Information Wants to Be Free events also take place in Berlin on December 5 to 7 and London on December 4 and 5. Berlin is visited by a wide array of artists, among others 2nd Gen and Audiokollektiv. The London dates will be guested by Cosey Fanni Tutti and Chris Carter (formerly Chris & Cosey), Current 93 and more. /Kristoffer Noheden

"Bleedthrough" new NIN release

• News comes to us that Nothings Records (USA) is readying the next studio release by Nine Inch Nails. Four years now since "The Fragile", the new sound is molded by Trent Reznor, Rich Costey and Rick Rubin (American Recordings). Additional sound production has been by Atticus Ross (12 Rounds), Jerome Dillon and Leo Herrera who also worked on "The Fragile". Titles include "The Line Begins To Blur," "Everyday Is Exactly the Same" and "My Dead Friend" and are said to have less focus on computer production techniques. The album is tentatively set for early 2004 through Interscope Records (USA). /Alex Veronac

Lolita Storm make noise in studio 666
• When I was in London the other week, I stumbled upon a new single from a band I almost thought I'd never hear from again - Lolita Storm. The Brighton quartet's first release since the 2001 "Sick Slits EP" came out last month on 555 Recordings. It comprises two new songs, "Studio 666 Smack Addict Commandos" and "I Am Your Enemy", both of which are up there with the band's finest. The label is apparently having distribution problems, so the single might be a bit tricky to find. Rough Trade appear to be stocking it though. /Kristoffer Noheden

More Mexican mayhem



• Mexico doesn’t only bring us Hocico and Los Fancy-Free, but also Amduscia. Placed firmly in the same roots as Hocico, they make dark and furious EBM, with a bit of trance elements. Their debut album “Melodies for the Devil” is out now on Out of Line. /Johan Carlsson

New single from Lustans Lakejer
• Loose plans for the future of Lustans Lakejer include a new single, possibly in January, called "Rid i natt". This song has been played live recently and sounds like a typical new LL piece. Frontman Johan Kinde has been doing DJ gigs at synth clubs lately and on Friday he takes care of the new, third dance floor at Gothenburg Romo Night.
Lustans Lakejer's new home page can be found here. /Mikael Kahrle

Fair Sex dates postponed
• The German and Polish joined live dates with The Fair Sex, Final Selection and Rotersand in December are moved to 2004 for "personal reasons". /Mikael Kahrle

"Machines Are Us"
• The next album with Norwegian futurepoppers Icon Of Coil is out on February 16, 2004. The title is “Machines Are Us” and it contains 15 tracks. /Johan Carlsson

Gothminister head for the continent
• "Gothic Electronic Anthems" from Norwegian industrial act Gothminister is re-issued today via Drakkar/BMG in GAS (Germany, Austria, Switzerland), BeNeLux (Belgium, The Netherlands, Luxemburg), Italy and France. The new edition comes with new artwork in a digipak and bonus tracks.
Read our review of the original edition. /Mikael Kahrle

Spanish beats on Polish label

• Madrid-based electronic group Lethargy's album "In-Macula" should be out now, courtesy of Poland's Black Flames Records. The album promises to be a heady cocktail of 303 effects and synth melodies, complimented with some confident female vocals and imbued throughout with a strong "live" feel. Lethargy is featuring the talents of Mayte Cruz (vocals, synthesizers) and Julio Tome (production, programming). /Mike Whyte

Namur ready to conquer
• The album "Conquer Me" by Stockholm’s own Namur is available now. Aimed partially at the Swedish clubbers, this is an album which should delight more than just the homeland, with its own particular brand of dirty electro noises swirling around beautiful melodies, and traditional group instrumentation. The album was preceded by the single "Complete". /Mike Whyte

Synthetic Snow festival in Moscow
• A one day synthpop festival organised by the Russian Synth Community and Russian Goth Project will be held in Moscow on December 6. It is said to be the first of its kind ever in Russia. The event is named Synthetic Snow and in order to avoid real snow the event will take place indoors. Three local Russian bands will perform and Germany's Melotron and Norwegian futurepop giants Apoptygma Berzerk will headline the festival. /Peter Takizawa

Allied Vision album finally out

• "O.S. Bandwidth" from Spanish EBM act Allied Vision is out now, after some delays. It is distributed over Europe via Novamedia, Resurrection and Audioglobe. Allied Vision's new video clip "Coaxial Hardware" is being aired on the German Onyx TV. Stand by for an interview. /Mikael Kahrle

Delayed Can DVD set out November 24
• Mute release a DVD package with German krautrock icons Can on November 24. Simply titled “Can DVD”, the package will consist of two DVD:s and one CD. DVD contents include a documentary charting the band’s career as well as the live film “Can Free Concert”, that were both featured in the 1998 “Can Box”. A new film called "Can Notes is also included. The CD comprises 13 solo recordings by the four core Can members, Holger Czukay, Irmin Schmidt, Jaki Liebezeit and the tragically deceased Michael Karoli.
At the time of this release, it is also Can’s 35th anniversary. This is celebrated with a string of three “Can DVD” events in the UK. For more information on these, check the Mute web site. /Kristoffer Noheden

Fear Factory return from hell
• After being disbanded for two years, the "cyber metal" band Fear Factory is now working on a new album called “Archetype”. The band has seemingly gone through hell, leaving their label Roadrunner and losing member Dino Cazares. Now things are looking up for the band, as they have found a new label in the form of Liquid 8, and have recruited Byron Stroud from Strapping Young Lad as bass player.
Help with programming comes from John C Bechdel, Steve Tushar and of course as usual Rhys Fulber from Front Line Assembly. No word on a release date yet. /Johan Carlsson

Late launch for Bergman Rock
• International side-project of Swedish indie-weirdos bob hund - Bergman Rock (with lyrics in English) - will release their first album after six years of existence. The 12-song album will see the light of day on December 23 (Sweden), January 5 (Norway), January 12 (Denmark) and January 19 (Finland). In at least Norway and Denmark people understand Swedish - and good old bob hund - pretty good though. /Mikael Kahrle

Conjure One starts to work on follow-up
• Rhys Fulber (also member of Front Line Assembly) says on his forum, that he’s finished building his new studio in Los Angeles, and is ready to start working on the new Conjure One album. Conjure One is his solo project with different singers, and is a bit Delerium-esque, but still different.
- The material is sounding remarkably darker and heavier, says Rhys. /Johan Carlsson

Howard Jones still going strong?



• 80’s synth icon Howard Jones is still active making music, as well as producing and writing songs for other bands like Sugababes. He recently released a piano only album called “Piano Solos (for Friends and Loved Ones)”, and has also released a live album with hyper-electronic versions of his old hits called “The Peaceful Tour Live”. Now he’s ready to sum up his career with “The Very Best of Howard Jones”, a double CD with 36 tracks; 18 of which previously unreleased on CD. The first disc includes all the hits and a new single called “Revolution of the Heart”, while the second disc contains most of his single B-sides. It’s out on his own label Dtox, and you can get it via the website, unless you live in the UK where you should be able to pick it up in stores.
According the webpage, good old Howard will release a new electronic album in 2004. /Johan Carlsson

Release party for The Dead Sexy Inc
• New French band The Dead Sexy Inc on equally new label Electroshock celebrates their debut EP "Break Me" in Stuttgart/Waldheim, Germany, on December 6. /Mikael Kahrle

Depeche Mode and Mute summit
• French scene magazine D-Side reports that the members of Depeche Mode will be meeting with Mute Records icon Daniel Miller in London later in November. All are to discuss the future of Depeche Mode and the members' current musical progress to date. Miller, the man who first signed the veteran British band will no doubt fill them in on the changes at Mute since the sale to EMI in May 2002. /Alex Veronac

Toast Hawaii à la Germany

Pornopoppers.

• A German web site for Andy Fletcher's label Toast Hawaii is being prepared. The address is www.toasthawaii.de. The slogan for the one band label is now "the home of porno pop". /Jens Krause