Next Exit

The man who wrote the book on R&B/fusion returns with yet another set of what he does best. Washington's sax shares time with vocal tracks featuring the likes of Nancy Wilson, Lalah Hathaway, and the Four Tops. A solid, if predictible outing.

When Clémentine Delauney (Visions of Atlantis), Anna Brunner (League of Distortion), Marina La Torraca (Phantom Elite) and Amanda Somerville came together to form Exit Eden, topped by the release of their first album, Rhapsodies in Black, in summer 2017, it became immediately clear that this combination would be powerful and magical alike! With their debut entering the German album charts at #15 and rocking the stage at the legendary Wacken Open Air, these four outstanding and independent female vocalists proved how symphonic heaviness can go hand in hand with pop music - dressing well-known classics in a yet unheard soundscape, evoking more than just a cover album! Now, more than six years later, Exit Eden are back to mesmerize audiences with their second offering, illustrating strength and female empowerment while appropriately entitled Femmes Fatales, set for release on January 12, 2024 via Napalm Records…

When Clémentine Delauney (Visions of Atlantis), Anna Brunner (League of Distortion), Marina La Torraca (Phantom Elite) and Amanda Somerville came together to form Exit Eden, topped by the release of their first album, Rhapsodies in Black, in summer 2017, it became immediately clear that this combination would be powerful and magical alike! With their debut entering the German album charts at #15 and rocking the stage at the legendary Wacken Open Air, these four outstanding and independent female vocalists proved how symphonic heaviness can go hand in hand with pop music - dressing well-known classics in a yet unheard soundscape, evoking more than just a cover album! Now, more than six years later, Exit Eden are back to mesmerize audiences with their second offering, illustrating strength and female empowerment while appropriately entitled Femmes Fatales, set for release on January 12, 2024 via Napalm Records…

On their 2002 debut, Turn On The Bright Lights, Interpol proved that their uncanny resemblance to the heavy-hearted post-punk guitar groups of the early Eighties was both a blessing and a curse. On its follow-up, the New York quartet moves forward. Continuous touring has clearly improved each member’s chops: Antics is a far more refined and finessed record than its predecessor. More remarkable is the well-dressed foursome’s improved songwriting. Whereas Bright Lights made its mark with bleak moods and Paul Banks’ vocal anguish, Antics achieves a tunefulness that warms and broadens Interpol’s music, and helps them establish an identity distinct from their dolorous influences. On “Evil,” the guitars pulsate, pause as if for breath and then surge as the melody soars and Banks offers hard-won optimism: “It took a life span with no cellmate/The long way back/Sandy, why can’t we look the other way?” What was once forced for Interpol now comes naturally: Antics chooses light over darkness without denying gray areas between.

Kohei Matsunaga aka NHK yx Koyxen will release his next album on DFA Records in October. Exit Entrance is the Japanese techno artist’s first record for the veteran New York label. According to a press release, the album’s eight tracks cover “elegant arrangements and crisp drum breaks”. The album closes with ‘Outset’, a “somber hushed techno tune” dedicated to the late Mika Vainio, who collaborated with Matsunaga on several records over the years.

Exit marks the beginning of a new phase in Tangerine Dream's music: Gone were the side-long, sequencer-led journeys, replaced by topical pieces that were more self-contained in scope, more contemporary in sound. Johannes Schmoelling's influence is really felt for the first time here; Tangram, for all its crispness and melody, was simply a refinement of Force Majeure's principles, and the soundtrack to Thief not an album proper. On Exit, listeners are introduced to electronic music's next generation, notably on "Choronzon" and "Network 23," which brought the sound of the dancefloor into the mix (it hasn't left since). That's not to suggest that Tangerine Dream has stopped creating eerie, evocative music…