PREVIEWING SCANDROID'S FORTHCOMING 2-ALBUM CYCLE

LATEST NEWS FROM FIXT

FROM THE PRESS RELEASE: The highly anticipated follow-up to Scandroid’s first two albums is here! The Darkness is Scandroid like you’ve never heard him before, as the artist unleashes his dark side across six brand new tracks. Never content to rest on what he’s already accomplished, Klayton, the mastermind behind the project, has driven his music into uncharted territory on The Darkness and given every song its own distinctive identity. From the old school heavy metal riffs of "Phoenix" to the ominous cybersynth tone of "Red Planet" and "Out of the Darkness," each entry will pull you deeper into Scandroid’s darkly cybernetic world.

In addition to the six original tracks, Scandroid has packed The Darkness with electrifying remixes from some of the most talented and innovative artists in and around synthwave today. Even better, this new release is just the start of Scandroid’s latest creative opus, The Darkness and The Light. Fans will be able to immerse themselves in the second half, The Light, in 2019, with a complete full-length release to follow.

The journey through The Darkness and The Light begins right here.  

NEW ZARDONIC!! - 'REVELATION'

VENEZUELA'S FINEST RETURNS WITH ANOTHER ANTI-AUTHORITARIAN STOMPER

CLICK BELOW FOR:

THE NEW ALBUM BECOME

See our past FUTURE-ROCKER interview with Zardonic

Future-Rocker's DJ chat with Zardonic

DEADMAU5 & ARMIN VAN BUREN: MASTERCLASS TRAILERS

REWINDING 1987's MODERN VAMPIRE WESTERN 'NEAR DARK'

Kathryn Bigelow's cult movie never gets old

Below: Vampire gangleaders ( played by Lance Henrikson and Jenette Goldstein ).

''PRAY FOR DAYLIGHT''

It's typical of Hollywood's unfortunate gender bias that a clearly gifted director such as Kathryn Bigelow had to sit on the sidelines for most of the 80s, a full six years having elapsed between her low budget debut feature, The Loveless ( starring Willem Defoe ) to her stylish and assured follow-up, Near Dark.

Through its stark, dusty visuals, and featuring the blue-lit backwaters of night-time America, Near Dark's conception was rooted in the idea that Bigelow, alongside co-writer Eric Red, had originally wanted to do a movie reviving and updating the western genre. Finding difficulty obtaining the backing to do so, they decided to combine western elements with the more popular horror genre to successfully create a 'vampire western' whose critical and fan longevity has far outlasted its more successful mainstream rivals. 

Cont'd...

Below: Jesse and Mae, played by Adrian Pasdar and Jenny Wright.

A synthesis of late-80s genre ideas, Near Dark was also a great visualisation of Cyberpunk, a hot contemporary science fiction movement spearheaded by Canadian author William Gibson. The film's retro-future outlaw vibe, plus the pulsating electronic score by Tangerine Dream, heavily suggests that the writers were aware of what was going on in the realm of speculative fiction, and added a dash of that to the mix, too. The result is that Near Dark serves as a high-water mark in an era of great cult cinema. 

In terms of box office, Bigelow's film compared unfavourably with hit MTV-friendly vampire movie The Lost Boys, of that same year. Directed by Joel Schumacher, The Lost Boys had the advantage of a summer release preceding Near Dark by three months. That, plus an easy-on-the-eye teen cast whose audience had already been primed with numerous 'Brat Pack' ensemble movies featuring their favourite teen heart-throbs, ( such as movie lead Keifer Sutherland ) meant that Near Dark's marketing department had its work cut out to get the movie across. Bigelow's film, while featuring many fan-pleasing moments and great effects, was perhaps too dark and intense when compared to its lighter contemporaries. In fact, 1987 was a year positively stuffed with high-performing movies of varying budgets and genres ( Hellraiser, Predator, Witches of Eastwick, Lethal Weapon, etc. ) so it is possible that Near Dark simply failed to make itself heard above the noise.

Interestingly, the movie featured a prominent portion of the Aliens cast from the preceding year: Jenette Goldstein, Lance Henriksen and Bill Paxton all played members of Near Dark's band of undead drifters living off the margins of society. As the film's leads, unknown actors Adrian Pasdar played farmhand Caleb, and the luminous Jenny Wright put in a star turn as Mae, the vampire ingenue who wants to induct Caleb into their group.
( Aliens director James Cameron even has a cameo in the film. He and Bigelow were dating at the time, and later married ). 

Perhaps due to the film's lack of box office impact, it took a while for Pasdar to surface again ( most notably in 2006's hit TV show Heroes ), while Wright dropped off the radar entirely, maintaining zero internet presence throughout the nineties and beyond. Apart from a rare guest character spot on NYPD Blue and a couple of other minor TV roles, it's readily apparent that she must have decided to leave screen acting behind. Luckily, in recent years Wright has come out of seclusion to attend fan conventions, acknowledging the film's growing stature among cinephiles. 

Below: Mae, played by Jenny Wright.

Of the Cameron regulars, both Lance Henriksen and Bill Paxton went on to have long careers in movie and TV, although Paxton sadly died unexpectedly of complications during a routine operation in 2017. You can read his Sight & Sound obituary here, but keep scrolling for a great interview by Dean Delray on Soundcloud.

Below: In the ensemble cast, Bill Paxton played the anarchic Severin.

Director Kathryn Bigelow's story does have a neat ending, however: She and Cameron separated and he then went on to cement his reputation as Hollywood's premiere director, with blockbusters such as Terminator 2, True Lies, and record breakers Titanic and Avatar. However, in 2010 she staged the mother of all comebacks with The Hurt Locker beating her ex-husband's Avatar at the 2010 Oscars, winning six awards to Avatar's three. She then went on to direct acclaimed movies Zero Dark Thirty ( 2012 ), and Detroit ( 2017 ).

There was talk around 2006 of a Near Dark remake, but Bigelow was not attached and luckily the idea was shelved because apparently it bore a resemblance to schmaltzy  noughties franchise Twilight.

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Dean Delray interviews Bill Paxton

You can hear this fantastic chat with Near Dark / Aliens / Apollo 13 actor Bill Paxton just a few weeks before his untimely death, on comedian Dean Delray's podcast series Let There Be Talk:

Follow Dean's interviews with luminaries from the music, movie and comedy worlds on iTunes and elsewhere via his website.

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TANGERINE DREAM: NEAR DARK SOUNDTRACK

'Bus Terminal / Mae's Theme'

Many thanks to Dean Delray. Podcast link used with permission.

BENJAMIN NOMINET - THE VOICE OF SYBREED - RETURNS!

Finally the awesome pipes of Benjamin Nominet can be heard again, now in SHADOW DOMAIN! Alongside noted metalcore guitarist Kris Norris ( Darkest Hour ), and Static-X drummer Nick Oshiro, it's clear that the band has an impeccable pedigree. We at FUTURE-ROCKER can't wait to hear the new album, entitled DIGITAL DIVIDE out on December 21st, 2018.

BRAND NEW VIDEO FROM OBSYDIANS - 'ASCENSION' ( feat. Steve Fari )

A more downtempo and contemplative - but still heavy - track from cyber-metal mastermind Thomas 'Drop' Betrisey. It showcases Steve Fari, the third and final of his three vocalists for the studio-only project known as OBSYDIANS.

Click here to check out our interview with Thomas from earlier this year.

FLICK IT UP: SCANDROID GOES FULL-ON 80's HAIR METAL

It was inevitable really - Klayton asserts his musical supremacy by not resting on his bleepy faux-soundtrack laurels, and instead parties like it's 1986 with this all-out melodic metal assault. 

Complete with choppy riffs and tons of shredding, expect Tom Cruise to use this in the aerial dogfight sequences in Maverick: Top Gun II.

MORE HOLIDAY TUNES ON NEW 'SUMMER ROCKERZ' TAB

If you love the MALA RODRIGUEZ track that we posted a few weeks ago ( scroll down and you'll see it ), then you'll also love the current video playlist on the 'Summer Rockerz' tab ( above )...or just click here!

MALA RODRIGUEZ' HYPNOTIC LATIN HIP HOP: 'GITANAS'

Spanish rapper Mala Rodriguez visits her Andalusian roots in this eerie and elegiac song about scorned but powerful gypsy women. Cool flows over pulsing electronic beats.

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NEW TRACK FROM SANTIGOLD!

Check out this catchy slice of electro-reggae. We'll post a video as soon as they upload one!

THE ANIX - LATEST VIDEOS FROM FIXT'S NEWEST ELECTRONIC ROCKER!

...and for those 90s goths who want to experience real chills, check out this eerie Cure cover-teaser, complete with its corresponding scene from the classic comicbook movie The Crow!

NEW OBSYDIANS! - AXIOM FALLACY ( feat. Guillaume Bideau )

The latest single definitely has echoes of the classic SYBREED album Antares. Check it out!

OBSYDIANS DEBUT SINGLE FINALLY ARRIVES - MUSIC AND INTERVIEW

SYBREED'S THOMAS 'DROP' BETRISEY RETURNS WITH HIS NEW PROJECT!

Above: Obsydians art by Erik Kirchner

Since Future-Rocker discovered Sybreed, we've been a fan of everything former bandleader Thomas 'Drop' Betrisey puts his hand to. Whether it's his production side-projects, or his crushing Celldweller remixes, or appearing onstage with veteran cyber-black metallers Samael, everything he touches is notable for its mark of quality.

This week finally saw the release of the first song from Thomas's oft-talked about new project, OBSYDIANS. As he mentioned in Future-Rocker last year, where we revealed the three vocalists that will be featured on the project ( click on this link ), the Obsydians sound will be closer in spirit to Sybreed's great masterpiece 'Antares', and is therefore ideal for easing his die-hard fans through this transition period. However, Obsydians must currently defer to the main priority in Thomas' life, namely his job as bassist for veteran Swiss band Samael.

Luckily, Drop made time in his busy schedule to chat with Future-Rocker about how this all fits together, so let's start with Samael...

Future-Rocker: Hegemony was your first album with Samael. A while back you told Future-Rocker that they were a big influence on you as a young metal-head. Describe entering the studio with the band for the first time.

Thomas: Yeah, Samael has been a huge influence for me in my teenage years, and I still think there is no other band out there that sound similar to them. In the case of "Hegemony" the album was already recorded when I joined the band, so I just basically learned the songs for the live shows.

The album reminds me of Samael from the late 90s, only heavier. Do you know if this evolved spontaneously in the studio, and as a fan, what’s your opinion of what came out of the recording sessions?

I know they wanted a more "live" approach of the songs, with a bit of experimenting too. I think almost all the songs on the album are shaped for live shows, we are already playing three new songs, and they work perfectly.

How do they craft the songs? Does Vorph ( Samael's vocalist and leader ) do all the song-writing, or do the other members contribute too?

It's Xy, Vorph's brother who takes care of all the music, Vorph writes the lyrics. As I said before, the album was already recorded when I came in, so I didn't add anything. I do play bass during the live shows with some of my grooves, but I don't think this changes much for the listener, hehe.

Is there a difference between how Samael records an album, and how you would approach the process with your own band?

Actually not that much. Xy is writing all the music so he basically records the demos using DI's that he can reamp afterwards during the mixing process. DI means "direct injection" - you record it in parallel of your amp signal, but it’s only the sound of the instrument coming straight from it. With it you just route this clean signal into the amp, as if the dude was in the studio. It’s easier to work through the internet like this.

I know he records some of the music during the last step before the mix, but I also know that he uses a lot of these demo DI's. Samael has a drum machine so all the fills and stuff don't change much.

For my projects, for example, I record demos with a drum-machine, and after the demo is finished, Kevin ( Obsydians’ drummer ) records it with his own style. So I can't re-use my demos, I need to record again following his new fills and grooves. Nevertheless, I do reamp the DI's of the "lead" guitars, and all the melodies behind, etc, which are often coming from the demos.

It looks like Samael will shortly be busy doing the summer festival circuit.

Yeah, the album was released in October, and got a pretty good response. We are touring for it at the moment, only shows here and there. We also have this project called W.A.R. in which Samael’s members plays the first two albums, and Xy is back on drums for this. It’s very old school, very true, hahaha.

So where will Obsydians fit in?

Obsydians is a studio project that is not making any live appearances for the moment. I want to focus on single songs at first. Everything sounds very promising. 

We've just seen the lyric video for Obsydians' debut single False Light Constructs...it's  very much like classic Sybreed, but with something new added. Have you completed working with all three vocalists now, or just Jon Howard so far?

All of the three songs are fully recorded, the vocals are done, and I just need to make some more arrangements and mix and send these to ( much sought-after metal producer ) Jens Bogren for the mastering.

So they'll be released as three singles over time, or will there be a completed EP or album when all the tracks are finished?

We’ll release them one after another with a lyric video, as well as on our Bandcamp page. The other streaming platform such as Spotify, Apple, Deezer etc will come shortly after the lyric video. There is absolutely no album, nor EP planned. We are currently working on a 4th song with a cool guest..!

I would think Klayton's label, ( electronic rock label FIXT ), would be a good home for these songs. Or maybe something more traditional, like Nuclear Blast? Have you got a label yet? 

We’d like to stay on our own, social media, streaming platform, Bandcamp. We don’t want to be affiliated to a label for now.

Seeing as how good the new Obsydians track is, we can’t wait to hear the others!

Thanks ! Glad you like it :)

//// BUY IT FROM BANDCAMP - CLICK HERE! ////

NEW FIXT SIGNING - THE ANIX !

Augmenting an already strong list of Electronic Rock acts such as The Qemists, I Will Never Be The Same, and The Algorithm, Fixtmusic starts their newest round of signings with LA's THE ANIX. Sounding like a stadium-chewing cyber-U2, this epic track already has us massively looking forward to the forthcoming album ( to be released in the fall ). Check it out!

PRE-ORDER THE SINGLE HERE, FOR AN APRIL 20th RELEASE!

NEW! MOSCOW DEATH BRIGADE - 'BOLTCUTTER'