Cold Cave, live @ Death Disco (Athens, January 21, 2014)

A glimpse into Cold Cave's darkness: the latest incarnation of Wesley Eisold's solo music project, comprising of himself, mainly on vocal duties, and Amy Lee on synthesizers, made a stop at the fittingly named Death Disco club for the band's Athens live debut.

As we're waiting for Cold Cave's third album, we had the opportunity to enjoy some of the band's older material from "Love Comes Close" ("Heaven Was Full", "Youth and Lust") and "Cherish the Light Years" ("Confetti", "Underworld USA"), as well as some of their newer singles ("A Little Death to Laugh", "God Made The World", "Black Boots").

Eisold gave a compelling performance, roaming around the stage, dancing with his mike stand and only occasionally adding a touch to the synthesizer as it was Amy Lee's duty to handle the controls of the Cold Cave spaceship. Its 70-minute journey through the cold, dark void of electro-space turned out to be a highly enjoyable one. Credit has to go also to Mechanimal who opened the show with a strong 30-minute set of like-minded electronic menace that began with their latest single, "Obscure", which you can check out here.

Mechanimal, live @ Death Disco

Here's "Youth and Lust" from Cold Cave's performance at Death Disco:

Cold Cave - Youth and Lust, live in Athens (January 21, 2014)

CMC Radio: Shadow World

Sicko Electronica - that's how I would describe the music contained in this week's playlist. Others use labels like Witch House, Haunted House, Drag, Cold Wave, Minimal Wave and so many other waves and/or houses. Rough Trade Shops are about to release a compilation that contains a few of the artists in here and they are going with the more inclusive term Synth Wave.

No matter how you want to call it, though, one thing is certain; in the last few years electronic music has been offering a very impressive array of wildly experimental sounds that bring together disparate influences from the last four decades. The late '70s to early '80s, the era of the first synth pioneers, is understandably a major source of inspiration, but there is truly no limit to what goes into the mix of these modern techno-freaks! Hip-hop crunk beats and Horrorcore rap - check! Slow motion Miami bass - check! All sorts of House, check! Trip-hop, check! New Wave, Punk, Noise, Death Metal, Goth (plenty) - you got it! The end result may remind you of plenty of other things, but this is undeniably music that couldn't have been made in any other time than Now. New music with an old soul...and as dark and haunting as your black heart desires...

Click here to listen: CMC Radio: Playlist 5 - Shadow World

The twelve-track, 45:58-minute mixtape contains:

1. Not in Love (ft. Robert Smith) - Crystal Castles

Kick-off with the big hit of the moment. The single is out in December, just in time for the year-end lists.

2. Knights and Weekends - Light Asylum

According to Telepathe's MySpace profile, this is their favorite band in the world! You can get this track, along with those from Xeno and Oaklander and Led Er Est from a Wierd Records mix here.

3. Chrome's On It - Telepathe

My favorite band in the world last year.

4. Frost - Salem

Many people's favorite new band this year. "King Night" is a seriously f*cked-up record, but in a good way! On IAMSOUND Records, home of Telepathe as well.

5. gOth - †‡†

Three from Disaro, the LA-via-Houston house of witch-house. No idea how this lot is supposed to be pronounced (or written with a keyboard), but I am convinced their hobbies include virgin sacrifices!

6. IxC999 - White Ring

One of the best tracks I've heard from this whole sicko-electronica scene (get it here). From the new and very limited "Black Earth That Made Me" EP on Disaro.

7. EGYPTYNLVR - oOoOO

Another hilariously named haunted-house act from Disaro. This is one of the funkiest tracks in the mix, offering a fresh new perspective to hip-hop.

8. Shadow World - Xeno and Oaklander

From last year's "Sentinelle" LP on Wierd Records. I thought this track's title was the perfect choice for naming this playlist.

9.  Port Isabel - Led Er Est

Another Wierd release, from the 2009 album "Dust On Common".

10. The Laurels of Erotomania - Cold Cave

One of the hits of "Love Comes Close". I couldn't resist using here the image from the single's cover!

11. Dirty 08 - Hard Corps

A recent remix of the 1984 underground classic. It hasn't aged a bit and sounds perfect next to all the young guns of our playlist. You can read more about it in our Vintage Tracks feature.

12. Hit and Run - Berlin Brides

Chicks On Speed meet Salt-N-Pepa. From the Athens-Berlin duo's debut album "Modern Celibacy" on Inner Ear.

Bonus track: See, hear and be afraid, be very afraid of Salem's "Asia":