Forced Nostalgia label launches to “explore dark electronic undercurrents”
There are so many labels currently reissuing music hitherto little-known music from the more electronic end of the post-punk/industrial explosion: Minimal Wave, Dark Entries, Dais, Sacred Bones, Mannequin, to name but five of the most worthy. Do we need another one? And more pertinently: is there anything left to plunder?
Into this crowded field arrives Forced Nostalgia, a new imprint distributed by Boomkat. FN immediately justifies its own existence by virtue of its unusual source: the collection of a Belgian sound archivist named Fré De Vos. De Vos’s extensive library of rare and unreleased music from the lates 70s to mid-90s is, we’re reliably informed, legendary. He already operates the Plague Recordings CD-R label, home to contemporary works of dark ambient and industrial from the likes of Wicked Messenger, and the odd archival find like Pump’s tremendous Sombrero Fallout.
According to a press release, Forced Nostalgia will seek to “explore dark electronic undercurrents from tape music to industrial, from bossa-pop to proto-techno, from drone to out and out analogue experimentation- with the vast majority of the music now being made available on vinyl for the very first time.”
The first release is a split LP from two of the best-named acts we’ve ever encountered: Cicciolina Holocaust and Sermonizer. The music is from ’83-’86 and this is the first time it’s ever appeared on vinyl. We’re particularly impressed by the Cicciolina side, Albeit Albeit – opener ‘Zigomar’ has a scuzzy yet stripped, percussive style in the vein of early Cabaret Voltaire, and even puts us in mind of Actress’s weirder moments, while ‘Silent Killing’ is dense, droning, doom-infused ambience that will appeal to fans of everything from Nurse With Wound to Raime. Over on the flip, Sermonizer’s Sibelius Spiders is at once thinner and more expansive-sounding, the heavily dubbed, strung-out guitars and eerie trickling FX on ‘Rosalita’ giving it a distinct proto-hypnagogic vibe; if someone had played this to us and told us it was by James Ferraro or Spencer Clark we wouldn’t have been surprised. ‘Mystery’ is subdued, suspenseful horror-soundtrack fare, while the three remaining tracks occupy decidedly dirtier, druggier, loop-based terrain.
This fascinating 2-for-1 LP is available now, complete with absurdly “We’re well dark, us” cover art (pictured above). More information and sound clips here.
Tracklist:
A: Cicciolina Holocaust – Albeit Albeit
1. Zigomar
2. In Tempore Non Suspecto
3. Silent Killing
B: Sermonizer – Sibelius Spiders
4. Rosalita
5. Mystery
6. Acid68 to Dica86
7. Sibelius Spiders
8. Copulator