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Radio
Berlin is a four piece band from Vancouver, BC, Canada. Having been
around since 1998, they have done 3 major tours, and played countless
shows around the country. With a sound best described as rhythmic postpunk/new
wave with early 'goth' stylings, Radio Berlin's garnered many
welcome comparisons to bands like Pornography-era Cure, Joy Division,
Wire, Josef K, Gang Of Four and Siouxsie and the Banshees,
only backed by the rhythm section one would expect from a band like
Clikatat Ikatowi.
Containing current members of Jerk With A Bomb and
A Luna Red and former members of The Measure and Ex-Dead
Teenager, and having played with the likes of The Locust, I Am
Spoonbender, The Faint, Vue, and Camera Obscura, Radio
Berlin rocks out with a hypnotic live show. Radio Berlin
released the LP/CD "Sibling" (LP: REASSEMBLAGE/CD: LOVEUNDROMANCE),
a 7" on REASSEMBLAGE and a split 7" with Kid Commando
on RADIO ONE, are gaining recognition worldwide.
The release of their second full length record "The
Selection Drone", recorded at The Hive by Colin Stewart, is to
be released September 2001, on ACHE RECORDS (LP) and YOUR BEST GUESS
RECORDS (CD). As well as an LP on SWINGBEAT (Germany) of alternate tracks
and remixes by The Epidemic, Beautiful Skin, Hot Hot Heat, and
P:ano.
1999»
Pacific Northwest
DECEMBER 01-14.1999» West Coast USA
AUGUST 2000 » North America
OCTOBER/NOVEMBER
2001 » North America
Fall 2002 tour planned
RADIO
BERLIN "The Selection Drone"
taken from Five Dollar Review» February
2002.
Combine all the best parts of the Cure, Hot Hot Heat, The Red Light
Sting, Joy Division, Pet Shop Boys and (gag) The Faint and you get Canada’s
Radio Berlin. This is an amazing record, worthy of all the attention
it’s going to get. This is sure to be the next big thing.
RADIO
BERLIN "The Selection Drone"
taken from online » February 2002.
In
the vein of early the cure (the goth era) but the vocals feels more
like a singing version of Ian Curtis or something like that (and yeah,
there is some Joy Division hints in the music as well).Tthe guitar sound
is so fucking the cure in some songs. Beautiful. Radio Berlin is the
shit. Really. One of the best records so far this year.
RADIO
BERLIN "The Selection Drone"
taken from Aversion» January 2002.
Whenever
anyone mentions Goth rock these days, the eyes of millions of underground
rockers roll back in their heads and await what’s sure to be the
mention of a really, really cheesy knockoff of Marilyn Manson or whatever
passes as death rock in the halls of middle-school academia. For the
most part, such a reaction is well-deserved: It’s almost as easy
for Goth bands to fall into the same unimaginative sort of rut that
so many punk bands do these days.
Every once in a while, however, a band will emerge from the shadows
to reaffirm the validity of dark rock. Radio Berlin is one of those
sorts of bands. With a spacious, cold and murky sound that draws on
classic Goth checkpoints like The Cure’s Pornography (1982, Elektra),
and the Joy Division catalog, The Selection Drone is set to tickle your
spooky-bone with first-class style.
The Selection Drone has that sort of natural darkness
to it that so many modern acts lack: There’s never a moment when
it sounds like Radio Berlin sat down and shot for a stiff, hopeless
and atmospheric slice of dark rock – it just happened of its own
accord. A more planned-out take on Gothic tunes lacks spontaneity, which,
without it, is like Robert Smith’s face without gobs of eyeliner:
lacking something essential.
The Selection Drone is the sort of soundtrack to a
cloudy, rainy day that makes for the perfect Goth. Whether the band
squeezes out the sort of gloomy menace that takes the oppressive rhythms
and ice-cold guitars of classic Joy Division and Cure tunes and puts
its own twist on them ("Eyes Like Lenses"), or opens up with
atmospheric keyboards that hauntingly drone as if they possess some
icy secret of the next world ("Twelve Fingers"), Radio Berlin
makes Goth rock like it should be: unflinchingly distressing, dark and
gritty. There’s no moping around to candles, gossamer-decked canopy
beds or goofy renaissance-festival clothes; it’s just cold murk
from end to end.
How great it feels to feel so bad.
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EYES
LIKE LENSES
5.7 MB | 160 kps
ELECTRIC
HALLS
5.7 MB | 160 kps
TWELVE
FINGERS
5.8 MB | 160 kps
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