Die Ärzte is getting ready to release their next maxi single in support of their latest album Jazz Ist Anders. It will be the song “Lasse Redn” and will be out on Friday, April 11th. This will already be their 3rd single for this album, following “Junge” and “Lied vom Scheitern“, but don’t expect it to be their last. Die Ärzte has typically been releasing 4 or 5 singles per album lately, so I would bet there will be at least one more. I have no idea what song it will be, though. Any guesses?

The “Lasse Redn” single will be released as both a CD in a digipack and as a 7″ vinyl record. As far as I can tell, they both have the same basic tracklisting which includes the B-side “Komm zu Papa” and 2 alternate “economy version” tracks , along with the title track. The “Lasse Redn” music video is also on the CD version so you can play it on your computer, but sadly they haven’t come up with the technology to put videos on records yet.

You can hear “Lasse Redn” along with several other recent Die Ärtze songs on the band’s Myspace page.

Die Ärzte - Lasse Redn maxi single tracklisting:
01. Lasse redn
02. Komm zu Papa
03. Nichts gesehen (Economy Version)
04. Wir waren die Besten (Economy Version)
05. Lasse redn (Video)

Sub Dub Micromachine (or more easily abbreviated as SDMM) is a metal band from Berlin that was getting a lot of attention online a few years ago, especially from our friends at DeutschMusikLand.com who not only have a band bio, but also an interview and a review of their first album Rabautz! They were supposed to be working on a followup called Pump Up The Blast, but it was never released as far as I can tell. Fortunately, it looks like the band has regrouped from whatever problems delayed that album and are now approaching the release of their next album Auferstanden.

This new album, which I have been told will be released on April 12th, sounds heavier (and significantly more awesome) than I remember Rabautz sounding. If I had to make comparisons, I would say Auferstanden is somewhere between Rob Zombie and the Korn I was listening to in 6th grade when they were still young. And despite the fact that there’s a certain detuned depth to both the guitars and the vocal style that takes me back about 10 years, the music is definitely not a copy of either of those bands. I would say it’s probably better. If there’s any bit of you that longs for the mid-90s before mainstream music started going completely downhill, you need to give this album a listen. Sub Dub Micromachine has 6 great full-length songs streaming on their MySpace page including “Road To Nowhere”, the song they turned into this badass video:

Amazon.de has Auferstanden listed as a hybrid SACD, but they don’t have a price or tracklisting yet. Neither does any other website I have found, including the band’s own site. So, in the absence of any extra information, I’ll give you another video. This one is for the song “Fly.” Just follow the link to watch it.
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Üebermutter’s first album Unheil! will see the sunlight in just a couple of days on April 4th. Üebermutter is a metal project led by the multi-talented actress, writer, radio presenter and of course musician Luci van Org. The band’s tough and massive style has a certain gothic, very German feel to it, I guess someone might say this is what Rammstein could sound like if most of them happened to be of the fairer sex.

Listen and Watch
There’s four rather generous samples of the songs on the album on Üebermutter’s Myspace site, and below you can also find a video for their song Heim und Herd.

Where to find Unheil
Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find Unheil! at any other retailer than EMP.de, which I believe doesn’t ship to the States.

Tracklisting for Üebermutter - Unheil!:
01. Mädchen (TeilZwo)
02. Mutterherz
03. Heim und Herd
04. Am Anfang war das Weib
05. Meer
06. Brenne!
07. Gebärmaschine
08. Liebe ist Schmerz
09. Krieg
10. Ruhe Sanft
11. Unheil

Me? I’ll definitely be grabbing this one if I get the chance.

Heim und Herd video

Chandeen was a fairly successful electro-wave band during the ’90s and continued on up until 2004 when the band split up after releasing their last album Echoes and the retrospective Pandora’s Box. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, the band reunited just last year with Harald Löwy who was the primary musician from the original lineup, their other musician Mike Brown, and a new singer named Julia Beyer. The band spent the next few months working on their comeback album Teenage Poetry and will be releasing it this Friday, March 28th. The album will have 11 songs sung by Julia plus an additional hidden track with vocals performed by Lovespirals singer Anji Bee.

Listen to and buy Teenage Poetry
Chandeen’s MySpace page has a nice 8-minute medley of music from the new album. I also included their video to the song “Welcome The Still” below the tracklisting. If you like Chandeen’s music, you can find it online in Europe on AlphaMusic.de for 13.99 Euros, among plenty of other sites. The album will also be sold over here in North America thanks to Projekt Records. The best prices here are from Projekt’s own webshop where it’s currently on sale for $13.98 or on Isotank.com for a penny more.

Chandeen - Teenage Poetry tracklisting
01. Teenage Poetry
02. Welcome The Still
03. New Colouring Horizon
04. At The End Of All Days
05. From The Inside
06. A Last Goodbye
07. Looking Forward, Looking Back
08. Clean The Traces
09. The Coming Dawn
10. The Sentiments Of An Old Love Story
11. Dreaming A Thousand Dreams
12. Tomorrow (hidden track)

Chandeen - “Welcome The Still” music video

Source from Chandeen’s page on MySpace video

It has been a while since I talked about the Swiss-based band Fanoe, and it’s time to mention them again now that their long-awaited second album Down To Heaven has finally been released. It has actually been available since the beginning of February, but only from a limited number of sources so far and promotion has largely been underground and by word-of-mouth. This electronic rock album has 10 songs and comes in a very nice digipack featuring stunning artwork that was designed by the band’s singer himself. It’s almost as good as the music.

Mini-review / Listen to Down To Heaven
Down To Heaven is a fantastic album and a very fitting followup to Fanoe’s first album Empire Dirt, which has been one of my favorites lately. It’s grungier and the electronics seem to be more thinly scattered than their debut, but the music is still well within the bounds of industrial rock and sounds great. I think “Lover Undercover” is my favorite so far. While German music purists may not like the fact that the lyrics are in English, they are still performed very well and certainly don’t detract from the musical style. I urge you to listen to some of the very generous 2-minute MP3 samples of every song on the album from CD Baby’s Down To Heaven page. You can listen to each track individually or click the “Play All Songs” button to hear them all in order. I also posted the music video for “I Am” below for you.

Where to find the album
In Europe, Down To Heaven is available from Cede.ch. In the USA, CD Baby and CD Connection both have the album in stock. Naturally, you can download the album on iTunes as well. And finally, if you really like the band and want to order a shirt or a special art print from the band, you should visit Fanoe’s webshop. Just choose your preferred currency at the left to enter and see all the items.

Fanoe - Down To Heaven tracklisting
01. Down to Heaven
02. I Am
03. Sweet Nothing
04. Skin & Bones
05. Passion
06. Medicine Man
07. Burn in Hell
08. Lover Undercover
09. One More Day
10. Innocent

Fanoe - “I Am” video

From: youtube.com/watch?v=09-XzyfwIMA. Be sure to check out Fanoe’s YouTube page for more videos from the band, too.

ASP just released a new compilation called Horror Vacui yesterday. It’s a best-of album and includes 33 songs spanning the band’s entire history on 2 discs. Some are just copies of the original songs, but most are either remastered or totally rerecorded. You’ll also find several remixes, live versions, and even a few previously unreleased tracks as you listen. I’ve been listening to ASP for years, and I think they did a great job with this selection.

If you like electronic influenced gothic rock but you don’t know ASP’s music, this would surely be a good place to start. You’ll probably want to go for the regular version of Horror Vacui which just has the 2 CDs and all the music. But if you’re already a big fan of ASP and a collector, maybe you would prefer the limited edition which comes with a 40 page booklet. There’s also a bonus DVD with photo galleries, a short film, and an original frame from the 35mm film reel.

More info about ASP and Horror Vacui
Be sure to check out the ASP interview on DeutschMusikLand.com that Joki performed with the members of ASP before their concert in Köln back in November. It is incredibly informative and reveals a lot about the band’s history as well as Horror Vacui.

Don’t forget to read all about some of ASP’s other recent releases, too.

ASP - Horror Vacui tracklist

Disc 1:
01. How far would you go? (single version)
02. Hunger (re-recorded)
03. Coming Home
04. Schwarzer Schmetterling (re-mastered)
05. Ich will brennen (re-recorded)
06. Dancing (re-recorded)
07. Weltunter (re-recorded)
08. Demon Love (re-recorded)
09. De Profundis
10. Sing Child (re-mastered)
11. Panik (Horror Vacui mix)
12. Die kleine Ballade vom Schwarzen Schmetterling (re-mastered)
13. Raserei
14. Stille der Nacht (re-recorded)
15. Once in a Lifetime (re-mastered)
16. Die Ruhe vor dem Sturm (re-mastered)

Disc 2:
01. Ich bin ein wahrer Satan (single version)
02. Me (video edit 2.0)
03. Schwarzes Blut (club version)
04. Kokon (Horror Vacui mix)
05. Biotopia
06. Werben (re-recorded)
07. Ballade von der Erweckung (re-mastered)
08. Sanctus Benedictus (End of Virginity-version)
09. Krabat (club version)
10. Lykantropie (re-recorded)
11. Finger Weg! Finger!
12. Schwarz (re-recorded)
13. Tiefenrausch-LIVE (previously unreleased)
14. Und wir tanzten - Ungeschickte Liebesbriefe (re-mastered)
15. Nie Mehr (Horror Vacui mix)
16. Duett - Minnelied der Incubi
17. So viel tiefer (previously unreleased)

Horror Vacui video trailer

Source: youtube.com/watch?v=5Sv2Cq8ZGDM

Alec Empire, famed leader of the now defunct band Atari Teenage Riot, will release his latest solo album The Golden Foretaste of Heaven in europe this coming Monday, January 21st. (It has already been out in Japan since November 28th, 2007.) And for the first time ever, his music will be under his own label, Eat Your Heart Out. His digital hardcore roots have melded with rock to create a sound that makes the album’s music really difficult to pin down. Should I try to describe it? It sounds like Daft Punk collaborated with some breakbeat-experimental artist, perhaps Venetian Snares. Or imagine if Nine Inch Nails were originally more influenced by punk, instead of industrial, and then followed along the same historical path to one day produce Year Zero with that same kind of depressing futurist motif. That doesn’t make any sense, you say? I told you it wasn’t going to be easy.

Trying to describe the music on The Golden Foretaste of Heaven is like one of those tricky word problems they give students on standardized tests. The answer can’t be A, his style has evolved way beyond punk by now. It could be B, rock, but it’s not rock like his older solo albums were. Maybe C? It’s a little closer to techno perhaps, but I’m still not sure. It’s worded funny. Let’s just pick D, “all of the above.” I hope that’s the right answer. Except this time, they finally tell you after the test is over that there was no correct answer. It was open to your own interpretation, after all. Have a listen. What do you think Alec Empire’s new album sounds like?

There have already been 2 singles released for this album, “Robot L.O.V.E.” which was released back on June 11th, 2007, and “On Fire” which came out more recently on December 7th. Whatever you call this kind of music, I like it, personally. It doesn’t have quite the same effect of insanity that you got with ATR’s “Speed,” but it’s still really good. If you liked those singles or what you heard on Alec’s MySpace page, be sure to check out the “New Man” single which will be coming out sometime soon, as well.

Alec Empire - The Golden Foretaste of Heaven tracklist
01. New Man
02. If You Live Or Die
03. ICE (As If She Could Steal A Piece Of My Glamour)
04. 1000 Eyes
05. Down Satan Down (Dub)
06. On Fire (The Hellish Vortex Sessions)
07. Robot L.O.V.E.
08. Death Trap In 3D
09. Bug On My Windshield
10. No/Why/New York

Video for “On Fire”

Source: youtube.com/watch?v=59sp56-TiZ8

Mantus was a fabulous gothic metal band that sadly disbanded after their last album Zeit Muss Enden was released in 2005. Shortly thereafter, the remains of Mantus were sorted out and rejoined to form the new band Sepia. They released their debut album Goodbye Tristesse on October 19th on Rough Trade Records, and I feel obligated to tell you just how awesome it is.

The music is really great, I love the deep guitars and the dark gothic electronic overtones. But the thing that surprised me the most was the vocals. Normally, I’m not a big fan of female singers, but Tina has a really wonderful voice that fits the music so perfectly. Plus, the way the songs are mixed allows her vocals to blend in beautifully with the music, rather than stand out above it like most female-fronted bands tend to do.

You can listen to 2 full length songs and 2 longish samples on Sepia’s MySpace page. Amazon.de also has short samples of every song on the Goodbye Tristesse album. But I recommend watching the “Keine Worte” music video right here, as your first introduction to this fantastic band. The video is a bit trippy, but I like it. And the music is just great!

Sepia - “Keine Worte” video:

SEPIA - Keine Worte

Sepia - Goodbye Tristesse tracklist:
01. Ich Lebe
02. Keine Worte
03. Kalt
04. Moloch
05. Himmel
06. Goodbye Tristesse
07. Königin
08. Paradies
09. Melancholie
10. Allein
11. Kein Morgen
12. Was Bleibt

The latest news from b.o.s.c.h. is that they are getting ready to launch a new music video. It’s for the song “Mehr” and it will be posted online on Halloween (which happens to be tomorrow, if you’ve been on another planet). They’ve had a mysterious teaser video online for a while now which looks pretty cool, so I can’t wait to see the full version. I have a feeling it’s going to be really awesome.

Here’s the “Mehr” teaser, for your viewing pleasure:

Teaser b.o.s.c.h. - mEhR

When you’re done watching the video, be sure to check out Das Modul. That’s a neat little flash program where you can mix different instruments from the b.o.s.c.h. song “Zeit” to create your own remix.

Zombie Joe released their first album Vegas in 2002 and it soon became one of my favorite albums from that year. It’s incredibly diverse, light and calm one moment and brutally hard the next. Soft vocals suddenly erupt into menacing guitar riffs. Every time I listen to Vegas, it leaves me wanting more. Zombie Joe’s second album Schlachthaus Baby turned out to be a bit more docile. While some songs aren’t as heavy as I’d like, I think it’s slightly more refined than their debut and still very much worth listening to.

Ideally, I would like to have shown you a video from both albums here, but it seems that Zombie Joe’s videos are not very pleniful on Youtube. So instead, I am showing just one video, “Mit dem Kopf Zuerst” from their second album Schlachthaus Baby. I would still urge you to visit the band’s website (go to the Media section) and watch the 2 videos for “Wunder” and “Sukkubus” from Vegas. “Mit dem Kopf Zuerst” is cool, especially with the crazy video angles and “sideways” theme, but I like the earlier ones better, personally.

Source: youtube.com/watch?v=Rga1Up2oJpg