[engl] The Flaming Sideburn’s first proof of life in 2005. And what a great one! Our favourite rock’n’roll band presents the best track of their actual album “Sky Pilots” “Since the Beginning” with 2 very special songs: Here they got “Submarine Sensation” in a whole new version and this will blow you away! Its rawer, it’s more rock’n’roll and it’s peppered with their own style. You gonna enjoy it! + you will get on the b-side the great psychedelic Lou Reed-cover “Leave me Alone”. So I would say: Value for money. The best about this whole single is: It’s limited to only 666 copies, so be fast and get yourself a copy of this soon to be collector’s item!

[engl] Flat Worms really belt-sanded us with their 7” on Volar, and we are proud as new papas to present their debut LP. They continue their ride on a buzzsaw wave of feedback-tipped riffs into the middle distance, smog choked sunset receding in the rearview, a thousand yard dead-pan surgically pinned to a high octane set of boredom energized punk pistons. Flat Worms - an ears-a-ringing missive from the end of the cul-de-sac, the mirage of direction wavering above a mid-sized American suburb at dusk, constellations bleached black by the sprawl. A little Wipers, a little Wire, and a lot of late-capitalist era anxious energy - Flat Worms scratch the itch quite nicely, we think. Colored vinyl limited to 2 per customer. "Undreams" comes seven years after the debut album "Cradle of Snake". These seven years have done the band more than good. The dark sound of their songs has nothing in common with the adolescent melancholy of some contemporaries. It is not egocentric or even narcissistic, but rather, and forgive me for using this word because it is equally uncommon in this context, caring. He wraps you gently like your favourite blanket on a grey autumn day, gives you soft, flickering light on a nightly path, he comforts quietly, knowing full well that danger is not banished by a hum, he says the world is not a good place, but we have it in our hands, as long as we stick together, to change that. It may sound presumptuous, but "Undreams" showcases all the skills Mia, Tess and Frankie have acquired over the years in their bands and solo projects. It is an album marked by life experience, dark, but also powerful, thunderous, energetic. "Undreams" is an album of three women facing life in all its facets. It was recorded, like the previous one, by Stefan Brändström at The Dustward Studio in Stockholm. Snake wanted to get as close as possible to the atmosphere of the rehearsal room and make the album a reflection of what the band heard and felt during rehearsals. "With the power of 'Me Too' in our hearts, we've been working through the album process since the wave in 2017. We think it's a darker album, but also with a glimmer of hope. We've found that together we can be strong, share difficult experiences and make our voices heard. We address teenage angst, the fear of getting older, love, grief and the struggle to put the shame and guilt where it belongs."

[engl] Do you go through life too successfully? Is your mood always too cheerful? No matter what you tackle, everything always works out perfectly? Then you need the Flop Machine! Flop Machine declares war on monotony and fires the whole arsenal of pleasure-seeking missiles straight into the ice-cold hearts of the masses. After numerous party track singles and a tape full of aggressive 80s euphoria, here comes the very first vinyl release from the dystopian electro-synth punkers from Bergen, Norway. Bønny says the record sounds like a pure slab of petroleum laced ecstasy and dirty as fuck. I couldn't have descri- bed it better.... Having already shared the stage with CUIR, we are very happy and proud to welcome FLOP MACHINE on our label. Synth-Punk FTW!

[engl] We used to know Émile Sornin as the son, the pupil, who saw fathers of his among the pioneers of baroque, progressive and psychedelic pop; who found big brothers by heart and aesthetics in Aquaserge; the (nearly) solitary creator of the “fine retro-maniac piece of work” (The Drone), Rhapsode, in 2014. After experiences in metal, garage, hip hop, he had spent a lot of time exploring, mixing together, digging, getting to the roots with the seriousness of a young man on a quest for territories to occupy. An insatiable jack-of-all-trades, he directed delirious videos for Dizzee Rascal or Disclosure when he wasn’t combing the countryside to discover new instruments (the movie Le Bon Coin Forever). Here is Émile Sornin the (new) father, the dubbed artist, the one-man-studio fully aware of his essential influences (French 70s movie soundtracks – Philippe Sarde, François De Roubaix, Francis Lai – rather than Italian giallo soundtracks, synth pioneers such as Wendy Carlos or Mort Garson, library music à la Camille Sauvage, Claude Vasori and Roger Roger); the captain of a dense, tight live band. The man called by producer Sebastian to the bedside of – scoop – Charlotte Gainsbourg’s next album. The man who just gave birth to La Pantoufle. From shore to shore, Émile Sornin incorporated into his music the humor and self-mockery he didn’t dare to embrace in the past. He dropped English to explore sideways his mother tongue, the tongue that says “ça lance”, “ça m’est égal”, and “c’est pas si dégueu”. He unleashed his instrumental eloquence – more obsessive than ever arrangement-wise, more jazz and nervous execution-wise, not balking at any dramatic effect to seize our perceptions. Most importantly, he drew on his own memories and blanks (“La pantoufle dans le puits”, “La soupe à la grolle”, “Les groseilles au fond du jardin”) to give rise to suspense, fiction and interpretations. Built as an imaginary movie in which genres collide from one scene to the next (crime film, romance, comedy, erotica, slasher – you name it), La Pantoufle draws on childhood joys and terrors, only to reenchant them. This is how Forever Pavot takes on its role as a “Father”, laying the foundations for a bright future.

[engl] The pop world is divided into two categories. On the one hand, groups that create new things out of old ones. We know them, we have the names. Yawn, yawn. On the other, those who create old things with old ones, left behind by the wars they have not lived, in search of times they have not known and consoles on eBay in the hope of sounding like Velvet Underground. Just as pathetic as the first, the whole thing coupled with an obsession for imitation which gives their future a taste of an old biscuit dipped in formalin. “Fashion is what goes out of fashion”, used to say Cocteau. Although he died without having been able to listen to the first Forever Pavot’s album, we must grant the poet the gift of prophecy: the classical opposition between past and future is completely stupid. On these grounds, Forever Pavot has done honourably. Create new things with old ones, or rather make something beautiful with the old, it is the ambition of “Rhapsode”, record where Ennio Morricone, Francis Lai and other film music composers from the 60′s find at last the singer they were missing. But beware, under the cobblestones of these 68′s composers, no plagiarism. In the same way that old stone is a long term investment, one is tempted to describe Emile Sornin, Forever Pavot’s leader, as a maker of things solid, expert in both messing around and demolishing walls. His got his trainingwithin a first group – defunct Arun Tazieff – where the desire to be the conductor is already being felt. Emile is already developing techniques dear to François de Roubaix: dreaming his songs, fiddling them solo track by track to eventually produce them in his closest buddies studio, the Aquaserge from Toulouse. The result is worth all these sleepless nights: where others merely copy the past, Emile stacks up sound, rehabilitates the harpsichord in this narrow world that has become pop music. He composes arranged pieces (Electric Mami) that give the impression of hearing Strawberry Fields Forever sung by Zombies. After an initial 45 rpm, “Christophe Columb”, which he produced in the spring of 2013, and which was”distributed free with chocolates” and then repressed by Frantic City, the story of Forever Pavot begins to take shape around a new group. Then will come two EPs (the first with the English from Sound of Salvation in January 2014, the second in April in Requiem for a Twister), all released in such limited numbers that already the word CULT writes itself in large letters on this long-haired Emile’s forehead. So there is a new tenant in the Jean-Claude Vannier residence. The discreet type, but rather noisy. Fuzz guitars, wild farfisa, bass lines mixed well ahead in the Burgalat tradition, flutes playing, horse cavalcades on Miguel El Salam, “Rhapsode” is such a huge indoor Western shot by the ORTF ( 64′s to 74′s French Broadcasting Authority TV) that sometimes we expect to see Jean-Christophe Averty spring out from an enclosure, holding both a camera and a joint. But again, clothes don’t make the man. The name Forever Pavot was not born of an apology of drugs: “It started as a joke. One day I read too fast a “flower power” poorly written on a school pencil case. It made me laugh“, said Emile. Fan of Jazz programming and of Turkish psyche, he is also shooting video clip for others (Disclosure’s videos or Dizzee Rascal’s) and proves at every moment that appearances are often misleading. “I feel a bit like Stereolab or Broadcast, artists who draw from the past to make something new (…) Ten years ago or so, I was doing hardcore punk, then I did chiptune, pop, compos garage / folk recorded on K7, and now things inspired from the 60′s movie music … the only guideline are my desires. Nobody will be able to get in my way if I want to make a reggae album in three years or an album of French songs. Because I’m the one who decides.” Being modern is being master of one’s time. As for Emile’s paradise, it is obviously paved with good intentions.

[engl] Swedish Garage maestros joined forces with Bonn's (Germany that is) own The X-Ray Harpoons for a - what I call - fuzz-a-tastic split7". The Swedes contribute a moody/folky ballad ”Storm” written by Jens Lindberg known from the 80's pioneers Crimson Shadows and The Stomachmouths. The X-Ray Harpoons throw in their fuzz- & farfisa-drenched “Snake Woman”.

[engl] How much longer can we (LIVE)…if we’re only an (IMAGE)? That’s the question Freak Genes (FG) pose in their new album Hologram. Put down your electric scriber. Answers on wax only. Discover the difference between manifest and (MIRAGE), solid and (SHAPELESS), real and (INFORMATION_REDACTED). But here is what we actually know: Freak Genes are Charlie Murphy (LIFE_FORMS, GAMMA, FRESH_SPECIMEN, ISOLATION) and Andrew Anderson (PROTO_IDIOT, KAKE?). Hologram is their (FIFTH) album. The (LABEL) is Feel It Records. The playing length is (INFORMATION_REDACTED). There are (THIRTEEN) tracks.

[engl] 3rd LP from Freak Genes, they make cleverly deranged punk music for freaks, by freaks. Whether it's in their genes or acquired from years of dysfunctional ideas gone awry playing in bands, this album is a synth in your face. For their third LP, Freak Genes have unearthed 12 more sort-of-pop sort-of-not songs for your ears to enjoy. Making use of a synthesiser found in a skip and a guitar that won’t stay in tune, III is garage rock meets Gary Numan. There are some hit tracks, weird stuff and almost intentional accidents. If you like making functional use of dysfunctional ideas, this is for you…and if you love DAF, The Units, Lodger-era Bowie, 154-style Wire or The Flying Lizards then so much the better. Freak Genes III was made by Charlie Murphy (Red Cords) and Andrew Anderson (Hipshakes / Proto Idiot) and mixed/mastered/made good by Mikey Young. Strictly not for norms. "The always wonderful Freak Genes are back with what is already their third album in 20 months. On Qwak Qwak, you could hear Andrew and Charlie flirting with electronic instrumentation. III (out on Drunken Sailor Records) finds them all-in on synth-pop. Think more 154 era Wire, less Pink Flag. That's quite a leap for inside of two years, but in my business we call that a "natural progression" (Wire themselves did the same thing!). Everything that was charming, wonderfully weird, playfully non-conforming, and non-conventionally hooky about the duo's first two albums remains fully in tact. Perhaps the more cohesive synth-pop sound makes this particular album feel less all over the place. But I can assure you that it is still somewhat all over the place! The one-sheet promises "garage rock meets Gary Numan", and tracks like "Get Ready To Go" and "Strange Light" deliver exactly that. You can pick up the influences immediately yet still recognize distinct qualities of these guys' other bands. They are never afraid to experiment, but they always come back to writing memorable tunes with hooks. Meanwhile songs such as "Breach" and "Now It's Done" demonstrate that even synth pop era Freak Genes have not totally left post-punk behind. And if your favorite part of every Freak Genes album is coming across a song that makes you go "I don't know what the hell this is, but I sure like it!", "Stitches" and "Close Up" are oddball tracks that you will surely enjoy. There will never be such a thing as two Freak Genes songs that sound the same. Is it just me, or could "Nothing In Between Us" pass for one of The Cure's "poppy" songs?! I can't fully put my finger on what delights me so much about Freak Genes. I think it's that they've made me fall in love with post-punk and new wave again. This was music I grew up on, yet I've been mostly lukewarm on its modern adherents. Charlie and Andrew take those influences and actually have fun with them. Even if there's a dark turn or two on III, it remains a joyful musical creation that's an absolute pleasure to listen to. Originally inspired by the idea of recording misfit songs, Freak Genes have become a misfit band (and that's a lower case "misfit"....these guys are probably 20 albums away from attempting horror punk). And I hope that's what they continue to be forever." Fast and Louder blog.

[engl] England's FREAK GENES are Andrew Anderson (HIPSHAKES, PROTO IDIOT) and Charlie Murphy (RED CORDS, HOLIDAY GHOSTS). With a crazy six-teeeen songs this could almost have been a double LP, but instead you get two A-Sides full of witty-gritty power pop, savage bar rock that has the distinctive flavour of musicians gone thru the class of LoFi with no false pretences. Sharp, cohesive songs that are so good you doubt they're all originals. The next debut album on ALIEN SNATCH! in 2017, your true purveyor of new bands with low predictability and almost *** listening pleasure. "Playtime" has tons of attitude, adrenaline and pop sensibility, sitting on the end-of-the-70´s borderline between punk and pop that we love to death here. Some insistent WIRE tempos, some intense post-punk rockers, always clocking in at two minutes or less. Imagine if ELVIS COSTELLO had only an hour of studio time to boil up an album and he wants the middle seat between SWELL MAPS "New York" and NICK LOWE "Heart of the City". Nuff said, chew on this. Sun-soaked mastering by Mikey Young (EDDY CURRENT SUPPRESSION RING).

[engl] Freak Genes continue their descent into angular electronics with Power Station. Musicians are replaced by machines, natural sounds are swapped for noises. The result is synthetic pop for problem times. Charlie Murphy (Internal Credit / Isolation) and Andrew Anderson (Proto Idiot / KAKE?) orchestrate affairs, wrangling synths, drum machines, guitars and found sounds. Think 154-era Wire but with a reduced budget, or DAF minus the disco. The album was recorded in bedrooms and borrowed spaces from 2018 to 2020. It was mixed and mastered by Mikey Young. Formed in 2016, Freak Genes previous albums are Playtime, Qwak Qwak and III. They’ve performed in both shitty and swanky venues across Europe. They’ll be on stage again in 2021, pandemics and other global catastrophes depending.

[engl] If you distilled the late-’70s explosion of punk rock into a single mixtape that incorporated the pop side, the garage side, and the experimental noise side, Freak Genes would be that mixtape made flesh. Freak Genes is the child of Andrew Anderson and Charlie Murphy, brought into this world to make fun music. Charlie has survived bands like Red Cords, Holiday Ghost and M.Rutt, while Andrew is a veteran of Proto Idiot, the Marble Vanity and the Hipshakes. The idea behind Freak Genes is to take all the weird ideas deemed too dysfunctional for their other outlets and create something interesting. Their original inspiration was the Raincoats LP Odyshape. So far, they sound nothing like that. In 2017 Freak Genes released their first 12” LP Playtime on Alien Snatch records. That album has 16 tracks, and throws together all kinds of garage rock crappola to make quick, catchy songs. Live shows followed in the UK and Mainland Europe, featuring an all-star band of best pals from the Black Tambourines, the Hipshakes and the Be Positives. Since then, Charlie and Andrew have discovered synthesisers and drum machines. The result is Qwak Qwak, a bumper collection of 17 songs, which, if we’ve done our maths right, makes it 6.25% better than their debut. Its angrier and more awkward but still has hooks. They hope you like it.

[engl] Debut LP from The Fresh & Onlys, featuring the ultra jam Fog Machine. Artwork by Joe Roberts.

[engl] We were young enough to put our bodies to the test every night on the 7 x 7 mile patch of the bay. The endless wars seemed less at home. Songs were hanging off the branches heavy, plump and threatening to rot on the vine if they weren’t polished and put to tape. The band was on their 3rd live drummer but the line up in The Fresh & Onlys recording tower was a consistent group of pop soldiers writing, working, and whiling away the hours. A beeramid of cheap cans, endless dope smokery and a pretty strong vibe of dudes who would play together into oblivion. 388 rolling Tape spilling over itself, drum kit covered in mufflers, a chest of shitty percussion toys, lots of ideas, and multiple secret weapons at their disposal: Shayde Sartin: the beast from out east, the thud of a heavy slow bomb…the best bass player in the bay Unaccredited infinite times on records that were made better by his finely crafted skills. I can pick him out on records instantly. Wymond “the count”: you can almost smell his hair on his hooks. If there was a stage monitor in your living room his fence-climber boot would be on it. Wymond always had the riff that made the jets of the song take off. Listen and you’ll see what I mean. Tim Cohen: the man behind the beard. Some would say the leader. In the game as long as Bette Midler. Cohen writes great songs in his sleep I think. Once referred to by a buddy as “like 3 weirdos in one”. Think of these as basement tapes, a companion to the first F+Os castle face release (which itself deserves another listen) I remember watching some of these tunes get banged out live in a sweat pit in Oakland. The sound guy so gacked out that there was no sound guy basically...ah memories…” John Dwyer, Feb 16th 2015 Colored vinyl is Lemon Lollipop Yellow and comes with an exclusive track on a flexi - "Every Saturday Night It Rains" and is only available here and from the band. Limit two per customer.

[engl] SUPER A production team casted spandex bubblegum glam, jeans rocknroll, black leather lust all for the FRUIT TONES! Expect a truck load of fun rolling from Manchester, UK into the ALIEN SNATCH! Waffle factory of garage-rock-good-times! It´s a 70s rock`n`roll chocolate marshmellow death match, the album is a dance party blue print, and your beatle boots will be soaken wet in no time!

[engl] Introducing the wild sounds of The Future Primitives, a psychedelic garage rock three-piece from Cape Town, South Africa. Formed in late 2011, they set out to experiment with sounds from the past and the present. Drawing influence from early rock n roll, 60s garage and first era psychedelic groups, The Future Primitives are inspired by the pioneers, misfits and unknowns alike. Their name hints at a contradiction that can be heard in their sound as the recordings are stripped of all technological advances, using beaten analogue gear and minimal microphone setups to record live to tape. If Satan had a pool party, The Future Primitives would be playing loudly in the background while everyone dropped acid and danced like it was 1969. This might be the best garage record you hear this year and it's from Cape Town, South Africa of all places. Don't miss out on this one.

[engl] Fuzzstainz are back with their second single, the first came out at the same time as the corona virus broke out and had a passing title, (Sick, Sick, Sick). Hopefully nothing will happen this time around. The Fuzzstainz feat Lee Tea, Harri Kolari plus Marian Barbarian, who rumble thru a nice set of crashing garage-punk, stripped down to the minimum, childish punkrock!!!

[engl] After releasing a demo back in 2020 and then heading into hibernation for a few years, only to pop their head out briefly for the occasional show, Perth’s Gaffer drop their debut LP. And it doesn’t disappoint! They’ve churned out twelve tracks of hard-edged punk, post-punk harking back to the scenes of the UK (the mother-land) in the 80s. Bricks, mortar, boots, rain, factory lines, and the pub. However, not a whole lot has changed and so the content of this record is also remarkably modern. It addresses the current crushing stagnation surrounding life, work, and wages today. It’s undeniable: life is tough. We’re all tired, and we’re unsure of the future. But at least we can put back a few drinks and chuck on a record like this. It’s hard to keep up in the modern world, but you get through by the skin of your teeth. “Piles of ear popping punk rock from inside a locked vault where former members of DiE and Cold Meat have been stewing in their own juices and listening to nothing but The Zeros, Blitz, and Chron Gen. This musical escape is a pummelling bop, dragging all and any good graces through a glorious puddle of fuzz, grit, saturation, and agitation. Of all the possible musical notes you can choose on a song, you’re not gonna wanna miss THESE three chords.”

[engl] Fuck, yes: This is Aachen, Bay Area, California! Die GEE STRINGS nach 8-Jahrespause mit Longplayer # 6. Better than ever: Ging der 2016er Vorgänger „I’m so gee“ noch mit einer massiven Dosis Punk’n’Roll Sleaze durch die Kurve, tendiert „Speed soul racer“ deutlich gen 70’s NorCal Punk. 8 knackig-druckvolle Nummern mit souveräner AVENGERS/VKTMS-Schnittmenge auf 18 Minuten. Catchy, drivin’, tight…die „Popgun“ ist unterhaltsam geladen, Langeweile kommt nicht auf. Délices françaises inklusive: Das französisch besungene „Rock’n’rolls“ bringt NO-TALENTS/SPLASH 4-Großartigkeit ins Gedächtnis, der ultra-coole Classic Punk’n’Roll lauert stets salopp im Background. Voilà, Razorblade on full swing!