Billy Fulmer

With Beak> seemingly on hiatus, as a live band at least, the prog trio's Billy Fulmer is setting off for a solo adventure with his upcoming album "Fragments."  Our first taste is the wonderful mix of electronics and krautrock on "Rummer."  Listen to the track below and pre-order the album here from Invada.

TVAM

Here's some cool new music from Manchester band TVAM.  "Powder Blue" feels like a breezy mix of darkwave synth pop, shoegaze, and industrial alt-rock with some hints of gothic death rock.  Good stuff.  Listen to the track below and pre-order the band's upcoming "Ruins" LP here from Invada.

Mark Jenkin, Cornish Sound Unit, & Dion Star

Here's some lovely, airy, and spacey new ambient drone from a collaborative project between Mark Jenkin, Cornish Sound Unit, and Dion Star.  "I Saw the Face of God in the Jet Wash" sounds like staring into eternity.  Give it a listen below and grab the EP of same name here from Invada.

ØXN Remixed by DROKK

Irish doom folk band ØXN released their "CYRM" LP back in 2023.  This month, we're getting two excellent remixes of the track "Cruel Mother" from the album, mixed by the Geoff Barrow/Ben Salisbury project DROKK and Ben Frost.  Check out the mix of folk and electronica on the DROKK remix below and get the 12" here from Invada.  100% of the money goes to the charity War Child UK.

BEAK>

I didn't know we were getting new music from BEAK> today.  This is excellent news.  The Bristol trio has been doing it for 15 years now, and i am always down for some of their particular brand of prog, krautrock, and other weirdness.  Check out "Strawberry Line" below, download the ">>>>" album here from the band, or get the LP here from Invada Records.

The KVB

Manchester duo The KVB have a new album of shoegaze and darkwave-tinged alt-rock heading our way later this year with the upcoming "Tremors" LP.  To tide us over until then, the band just dropped new single "Labyrinths."  Check it out below and download it here from Invada.

The KVB

UK shoegaze duo The KVB have a new album heading our way next month, and our latest taste finds the band channeling darkwave and cold wave sounds into their dreamy mix.  Check out "Unité" below and pre-order the "Unity" LP here via Invada.

Clint Mansell - In the Earth OST

Last night i watched Ben Wheatley's new film "In the Earth," a slow-burning, psychedelic folk horror movie for an emerging post-pandemic world.  It was great and probably one that will garner a couple of re-watches down the road this year.  The music is the film is solid too, and actually plays a narrative role through parts of it.  Clint Mansell, as usual, is up to the task.  Check out "Parnag Fegg" below, and download the whole soundtrack here from Invada.

Divide and Dissolve

Australian Experimental drone metal duo Divide and Dissolve just released their latest album "Gas Lit," a collection of tracks both eerie and seething.  Album opener "Oblique" captures this sonic template perfectly, a haunting mix of orchestral instruments slowly moving and floating us to a cacophony of angry, wailing noise.  Sounds of the times.  Check it out below and pre-order the vinyl from the band here on Invada.

Beak> - Life Goes On

Cool, the fuzzy, proggy band Beak> have a new EP heading our way in June called "Life Goes On."  Check out the grooving title track below and look for the record on Invada this summer.

The KVB

UK band The KVB have been making their particular brand of moody, dreamy, shoegaze-indebted synth pop for the better part of a decade now, and the duo only seems to get better and better with each subsequent release.  Their latest, "Only Now Forever," continues the trend, with splashes of gothy darkwave throughout their musical ether.  Listen to "Afterglow" below and get the record here from Invada.

Mandy Soundtrack

So..."Mandy."  Wow.  The film is everything you've heard, a beautiful, violent, and trippy fever dream of a movie.  It wades lovingly through a heavy metal aesthetic, drawing powerful and rage-fueled performances from its leads, all while a deep, pervading sadness underscores each and every scene.  I LOVE this movie.  And like many a great film, its score/soundtrack is just as important as any performance or shot or edit.  This is the final film score from the late, great Jóhann Jóhannsson, and it's such a wonderful swan song.  Listen to "Children of The New Dawn" below and look for the full score soon via Invada and Lakeshore.

Beak> - Brean Down

A new album from Geoff Barrow's Krautrock band Beak> is headed our way in September on the artist's Invada label.  The ">>>" LP continues the band's penchant for crafting woozy little bits of fuzz and rhythm.  Listen to "Brean Down" below.

BEAK> - Sex Music

New music is on the horizon in June from Geoff Barrow's band BEAK>  "Sex Music" is a groovy, synthy little piece of krautrock, and a hint at what may be coming on a new full length.  Listen below and get the 7" on Invada.

The KVB

Cold War iciness abounds on the latest album from the now Berlin-located shoegaze/darkwave/synth duo The KVB.  There's a swirling, haunted moodiness in every nook and cranny, and a combination of sonic elements that i've been seeking out in the music i listen to for the last 20 years.  Listen to "In Deep" below and get the "Of Desire" LP from Geoff Barrow's Invada Records.

Anika covers Nena

I first heard Bristol by way of Berlin artist Anika a few years ago, her mix of post-punk, dub, krautrock, and noise being the perfect sounds for a dark evening.  Being a chanteuse of sorts for Portishead's Geoff Barrow, there's an almost Nico feel to everything she does...and that's a wonderful and delightful thing.  She had kind of dropped off my radar, her last LP coming out in 2010, but here she resurfaces, covering Nena's "99 Red Balloons" of all things.  Cool and detached, Anika's take on the song, featuring an assist from the Invada Allstars (whom i'm assuming is just Barrow), feels like the cold war revisited, tensions rising behind an invisible iron curtain.  Listen below, download it here, and be on the lookout for music from Anika's new band, Exploded View.

College

French synthesizer champion David Grellier, otherwise known as College, has a new album out in August, "Heritage," on Invada Records.  It's the first follow up to 2009's "A Real Hero" EP which featured that title track that garnered much acclaim on the soundtrack to "Drive."  Take a listen to "Un Long Sommeil" below. At times there's kind of more bubblegummy Gary Numan thing going on.