Dark Entries Rock & Indie 11 Items

Nervous Gender’s legendary synthpunk LP Music From Hell burbles up from infernal depths to resurface on Dark Entries! Confrontational, unhinged, and unabashedly queer, Music from Hell is an unholy grail for fans of the strangest underbellies of post-punk, minimal synth, and early industrial music, and is presented here newly remastered and on expanded double LP. Nervous Gender (de)formed in LA in 1978 at the hands of Phranc, Gerardo Velaquez, Edward Stapleton, and Michael Ochoa. Phranc, the androgynous embodiment of the band’s name, left in 1980. Following her departure, a wide cast of LA freaks would find themselves drawn into the band’s orbit, including Alice Bag of the Bags, Paul Roessler of the Screamers, the Germs’ Don Bolles, and an 8-year old drummer named Sven Pfeiffer. In 1980, Nervous Gender appeared on the seminal Live at Target compilation alongside Factrix, uns, and Flipper. With the band’s notoriety cemented, Music from Hell followed in 1981 on Subterranean Records (as no LA label would touch this material). Side A, dubbed “Martyr Complex”, presents a more punk-forward sound with live drum salvos and slabs of aggressive synth. These twitchy, unsettling shockers ooze with the kind of snotty misanthropy that will endear them to fans of the Screamers or Crass. Side B, known as “Beelzebub Youth”, is a live performance the band labeled "an electronic bruto-canto dissertation on the banality of spiritual transcendence." Mutant melodies cede way to synthesized clangs, whirs, bleeps, manipulated tapes, and howls of despair. In addition to all the material from the original LP, we’re treated to a full disc of the band’s demos, the material from the Live at Target compilation, and early live recordings. Included are unrecognizable covers of Carly Simon and Lou Reed, and the Sex Pistols that are so despairingly skewed they fall into the void. This reissue of Music From Hell includes a 36 page lyric booklet, foldout poster, and gatefold sleeve with photos, flyers, and news-clippings designed by Eloise Leigh. Tackling taboo issues like sexual kinks, mental illness, drug use, and childhood molestation, Music From Hell is still surprising – even shocking - over 40 years after the album’s release. Nervous Gender stand as one of the most genuinely anti-establishment outfits in underground music, a colossal fuck you to social norms from religious strictures to gender essentialism.

Dark Entries is proud to present the debut album of contemporary British band LINEA ASPERA. Linea Aspera is the London duo of RYAN AMBRIDGE (Synths/Programming) and ALISON LEWIS (Vocals/Synths). They began the project in November 2011, technically drawing inspiration from electronic music from the early 1980s. Within the duo, Alison writes and performs all vocal elements, while Ryan is responsible for the writing and performing of the electronics, as well as recording and mixing of the final recordings. For their debut album they utilized small, simple analog synthesizer set up: Roland SH-09, Roland Juno 6, Vermona DRM MKiii, Korg Poly 800 and Analogue Solutions Semblance. Linea Aspera's sound includes clear influences from early electronic body music, classic synth-pop and, in some instances, industrial and noise. Lyrically the band incorporates the sciences of osteology, neuroscience, and anthropology weaving a new medical language around themes of desire, despair and renewal. Linea Aspera serve up an icebox of dark doom riding on Alison's powerful vocals with a soft but sharp touch. All songs have been mastered for vinyl by GEORGE HORN at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. Each LP is housed in a specially designed jacket by DOVILE SHURPO and includes a full sized insert of all lyrics.

Zru Vogue is a two man post punk avant-pop group from Palo Alto, California, combining the talents of Andrew Finkle and Rick Cuevas. The band began in 1980 as a four member group: Rick, Andy, Tom Sanders and Nancy Miller. Tom and Nancy left the group shortly after the first single, "Nakweda Dream", was released by independent San Francisco label Adolescent Records in February 1981. Inspired by rave reviews and heavy airplay on alternative radio stations, Andy and Rick went back into the studio, now as a duo, to record some new ZRU tracks. The self-tilted LP was released on the band's Zero Risk Records in 1982. It contains eight compositions blending African tribal and Middle Eastern rhythms, avant-garde rock, minimal electronics, and funk-rock guitars. The duo's sound is inspired by the art and anti-art movements of Dada and Surrealism. All songs have been remastered by George Horn at Fantasy Studios. Each copy is housed in a replica of the original jacket, which features artwork by the group members, and includes the original 2-sided lyric sheet.

Dark Entries and Sacred Bones team up to release the early discography of UK synth-punk and Deathrock label Outer Himmalayan Records. Between 1979 and 1982, Nick Blinko and Martin Cooper’s Outer Himmalayan Records released 7-inches by three short-lived bands – The Magits, Soft Drinks, and S-Haters – who would nonetheless cast a massive shadow on the UK’s burgeoning post-punk/anarcho punk scene. Outer Himmalayan Presents collects all of the music found on those original records, along with rare and unreleased tracks by all three bands. It’s a snapshot of a period of frenzied creativity by some of the UK’s most thrilling experimental punks.


Before Blinko went on to found the essential anarcho band Rudimentary Peni, whose storied body of work also appeared on Outer Himmalayan, he and label co-founder Cooper were The Magits. The lone release by the minimal synth-and-vocals duo, Fully Coherent, was the inaugural release on Outer Himmalayan — and, in fact, Blinko and Cooper’s impetus for starting the label. The four tracks on Fully Coherent are short, sharp bursts, comprising a total of four minutes. Here, they’re presented alongside the five-and-a-half minute “A Pawn in the Game,” a song that sees Blinko and Cooper get truly weird with the extra space the longer runtime afforded them.


The next release on Outer Himmalayan was S-Haters’ Death of a Vampire 7", which the quartet quickly followed with Stories as Cold as the Irish Sea. The band was recognizably a deathrock act, their gothic punk in the same lineage as Joy Division and PIL’s Metal Box, but it showed the same sonic adventurousness that characterized the rest of Outer Himalayan’s output. “1980,” an oddity taken from the rare Another Bouquet on the Grave of Free Enterprise cassette comp, shows the most experimental flourish, with dueling male/female vocals and a prominent acoustic guitar.


The final Outer Himmalayan release before it became strictly a Rudimentary Peni label was Soft Drinks’ Popstars in Their Pyjamas 7". Popstars ended up being the tongue-in-cheek synth-punk trio’s only release before their breakup, though they would also record “Dangers of Drink,” for the Bouquet of Barbed Wire comp and included here, as well as the one-off track “Misconception,” previously unreleased but now available exclusively on Outer Himmalayan Presents.


All songs have been mastered for vinyl by George Horn at Fantasy Studios. Cover artwork features a collage by Eloise Leigh and each copy includes a 20-page zine featuring liner notes and ephemera associated with the original pressings plus never before seen photos.

Kitchen and the Plastic spoons formed at a basement rehearsal studio in Stockholm, Sweden during the spring of 1980. This collection includes their first two EP's, two compilation tracks as well as three demos from 1980 never before released on vinyl. Their sound echoes the speedy chaotic energy with the synthesizer as it's driving pulse. The band didn't sound like any other band in Sweden at the time, mostly dounded like american bands such as DEVO, The Screamers, and Pere Ubu. Remastered by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. The vinyl comes housed in a full color spot gloss jacket with an insert full of liner notes, song description and photos.

Bay Area post-punk outfit Topographies deliver their sophomore LP, Interior Spring, via Dark Entries. Formed in 2018 in San Francisco by Justin Oronos, Jeremie Ruest, and Gray Tolhurst, Topographies link the icy riffs and gloomy atmosphere of early coldwave with the textural depth and warmth of classic shoegaze, emerging with a style that’s both contemporary and timeless. On Interior Spring, Topographies explore themes of guilt, inherited trauma, and recovery. The meaning of its title is triplicate: a submerged river carrying hope, an anxiously wound clock, and a season where wildflowers bloom on the graves of the past. While the work of Tolhurst’s father - Laurence Tolhurst from The Cure - provides a clear influence, Topographies expertly channel acts like Asylum Party or The Chameleons on anthemic pearls like “Night Sea” and “Chain of Days”. Tolhurst’s lyrics draw on his own experience in recovery from substance abuse to examine the cycle of use and hopelessness that characterizes addiction. Through these ten songs, the group hopes to present the idea that freedom is not an escape but an embrace of the quotidian beauty of human life.

Oakland band Blues Lawyer joins Dark Entries for their third full-length, All in Good Time, a record of pop-rock songs about living in a world that wants to put your existence on the clock. Blues Lawyer was formed in 2017 as an outlet for guitarist/vocalist Rob I. Miller and drummer Elyse Schrock to write pop songs outside of the strictures of their other groups. Following 2018’s Guess Work and 2019’s Something Different, Blues Lawyer had “graduated from being a side project band, a sort of throwaway project, to actually being a legitimate band,” according to Miller. Under the backdrop of global pandemic and existential crisis, they set about recording their new record. Says Miller, “I have always been really attracted to the way we measure time, especially in relationship to our concepts of what we are supposed to have achieved. There’s a lot of different moments on the record where we’re interrogating this whole value system that comes along with it—determining my worth because of where I’m at in my life in relation to my age, in my love life, in my career.” All in Good Time finds Blues Lawyer moving away from the Flying Nun-influenced jangle pop of their earlier work towards a 90’s alternative rock sound imbued with melancholy of the Lemonheads and Teenage Fanclub. Miller and Schrock agree that this is their first record approached with intentionality, each member having spent their time in pandemic-enforced isolation, honing their songcraft and penning sharp hooks. With the addition of bassist Alejandra Alcala and guitarist Ellen Matthews, Blues Lawyer has become more unabashedly riff-centric, bringing a controlled wildness to the new songs, as evidenced by Matthews’ single-take guitar solo on album closer “Tangled Mess”. This is also the first record on which Schrock and Miller share songwriting duties, with Schrock’s earnest contributions balancing out Miller’s more sardonic approach. Schrock’s optimism particularly shines on the Heavenly-esque “Late Bloomer” as she sings “A late bloom is worth the wait.”. All in Good Time reveals Blues Lawyer as a band ready to stake a meaningful claim in a world that rewards insincerity. The vinyl record includes an insert with liner notes and lyrics.

Cold Beat is a San Francisco-based quartet fronted by Hannah Lew (synths, vocals) with Kyle King (synths, guitar), Luciano Talpini Aita (synths) and Sean Monaghan (guitar). Formed in 2013 the band has released three albums and two EPs. A Simple Reflection is a 7-song collection of Eurythmics covers, yet feels just as personal as any of their original material. While digging through a collection of 12"s for her record shop Contact Records, Lew stumbled across the earliest Eurythmics B-sides and was floored. This lead to the discovery of their debut album In The Garden. Annie Lennox’s abstract and poetic lyrics really struck a chord with Hannah. What had started out as a single cover quickly snowballed into a full blown obsession. The synth and drum programming resonated with her songwriting process, so reimagining them was very creatively fulfilling. The covers on this EP are simultaneously dynamic and atmospheric post-punk that plays to Lew's ethereal vocals and King’s crystalline guitar. All songs have been mixed by Mikey Young (Total Control) and mastered by George Horn at Fantasy Studios. The record is housed in a jacket designed by Eloise Leigh, which features pink and purple clouds that evoke a dreamy softness and DIY playfulness and photos Lew in her best Lennox-inspired drag. Each copy includes a postcard with photos and notes.

Dark Entries Is Proud To Present The Debut 7" Of Figure Study, A Contemporary Band From New York. Figure Study Is The Manhattan Duo Of Nathan Antolik And April Chalpara, Who Share Writing And Production Duties, While April Handles The Vocals. They Began The Project In 2009, After Meeting One Another Through The Wierd Records Weekly Party, Where They Would Play Their First Concert Soon After. For Their Debut Single "Lesson One" They Utilized Small, Simple Analog Synthesizer Set Up Of All Vintage Roland Analog Synths And Drum Machine. Figure Study's Sound Includes Influences From Early Minimal Synth Music Such As Kirlian Camera, Nine Circles, And The Actor. All Songs Have Been Mastered For Vinyl By George Horn At Fantasy Studios In Berkeley. Each 7" Is Housed In A Specially Designed Jacket By N. Antolik And Includes A Postcard Sized Insert Of All Lyrics.

Dark Entires is honored to reissue the long out of print debut album Elevator to Eden by LIVES OF ANGELS. Lives of Angels was the brainchild of GERALD O'CONNELL from London, England. In 1974 he worked at CBS studios mastering recordings from tape to disc. By 1977 he joined his first band MYSTERY PLANE, led by school mate Mark Harvey and later joined by his soon-to-be wife Catherine. Gerald branched off in 1980 forming Lives of Angels as an outlet for his own compositions. He recorded, produced and played all of the instruments on "Elevator to Eden" between 1981 and 1983, using a primitive set up of drum machines, one keyboard, guitar and a tape echo. Influenced by the Krautrock sounds of Neu! and Amon Duul II as well as US psychedelic rock, Lives of Angles crafted their own unique post-punk sound. Elevator to Eden was originally released in 1983 on cassette by Color Tape Records, the label started by Gary Ramon of Modern Art. Then in 1986 Fire Records remixed and re-released the album on vinyl but the band was not happy with the mixes. This reissue features the original 4-track cassette mixes of Elevator To Eden on vinyl for the first time ever. The LP includes 9 songs featured on the original Color Tapes release. All songs have been remastered for vinyl by GEORGE HORN at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley directly from the original master tapes. Each LP comes with unreleased photos, original artwork and a lyrics for all songs.

Dark Entries and Papi Juice Records team up for No Jack Swing, the solo electronic debut of multi-hype man Brontez Purnell. The Southern-raised, Oakland-based musician and writer has centered his queerness and Blackness in projects Gravy Train and Younger Lovers as well as in his award-winning books 100 Boyfriends and Since I Laid My Burden Down. On No Jack Swing, Purnell gives us a love letter to the most beloved (and secularized) of drum patterns - that is, the electronic 808 “Amen Break”. Beginning recording in 2020, Purnell conceived of No Jack Swing as an audio zine of found sound materials: chain letters of instrumentals recorded in bedrooms, poems from boys in France, found gospel tapes from his childhood family Baptist Choir, and the sound of records skipping on his bedroom turntable. No Jack Swing is as much a homage to No Wave and New Jack Swing as it is an answering to the gods of Indie, Electroclash, Disco, and Gospel. Amidst all this background noise, the unexpected occurs: all the niche pretensions collapse to a singularity - the sound of High Pop! No Jack Swing was produced by Nightfeelings. Each copy of includes a lyric sheet with a photo of Brontez.