Geheimnis Records




Geheimnis Records’ 13th release is the result of one year’s research in a highly emotionally charged state of affairs. It’s the first compilation on vinyl of the past 20 years, that depicts many of the tendencies of the Greek dark underground genre, which flourished during the 1980’s and that still has much to offer. This compilation along with its follow up “No Radar (Voices from the Contemporary Greek Underground)”, will attempt to demonstrate the ties between the sound of the 80’s Greek bands and the Greek bands of today, and how highly active music genres emerge during difficult and highly polarized periods of modern Greek history. The beginning of wild consumerism, artificial happiness and human alienation during the 80’s resulted in the current social and financial crises. The first track of this compilation is the melodramatic new wave style “No Trust” by “Fade”, the project of Lakis Halkiopoulos in the period after the split of his first band “Headleaders”. Chris “Snake” is none other than the invisible, almost famous, Chris Manolitsis, the sound engineer and sometimes producer, responsible for many of the great LPs of that era. He wrote this song the day John Lennon was murdered (8.12.1980) during a two-month stay in Athens, and recorded it in 1982 while a student at Institute Of Audio Research in New York. “The Winter Watercolors” was a band with a long musical past, although due to bad luck, they left behind no discography. They started out in 1981 under the name “Ends With The Sea”, when they wrote this particular song (“La Morte”), and which they eventually recorded in 1987. “Art Of Parties” need no introduction. They released their famous 7” “Central Room/Last Time” on Creep Records. Thereafter, their music changed to a more funk-pop style, before finally releasing an album in 1990 which bore very little resemblance to their initial style. This compilation features one of their tracks (“In My Heart”) that was recorded in 1983, at the time when they were trying to fuse their new wave sound with funk/pop influences. “The Anti-Troppau Council” are well-known due to their 1986 garage-punk influenced LP “A Way Out”. In 1985, their sound leaned towards dark/new wave. This track (“How Many Times”) comes from the vaults of the studio sessions of that era. “Headleaders” were famous for their unique sound that combined elements from new wave, rock and garage. They released their 7” single “Voices” and “What It Means To Me” LP under Creep Records’ label. “It's All Right” was written after the 7” single and the LP releases, and was preserved only on cassette tape, due to the band’s split up. “Moist Device” have only released one 7” single, on the Enigma Records label in 1985. “Try Not To Lose Yourself” was recorded the same day along with the other 2 tracks that were included on this 7”, but has remained in their archives for all these years. “Square Roots” were due to record their first LP for EMI, but never did. “Precious City” has remained on cassette tape until this release. It was one of the demo tracks sent to the owner of Creep Records, Babis Dallidis, to see if they fitted the label’s profile. Another very active band during that era was “Teenage Dolls”. Strangely they didn’t release anything back then, even though they performed constantly and quite successfully. “Melting Sky”, from 1984, demonstrates the band’s dark/new wave sound. “Isolated Figures” was the original name of the band, which they then changed to “Insomnia”. A pure dark wave band with a sound quite similar to that of “Insomnia”(same band members), but more primitive and harsh, introducing a sound, that some years later would become their trade mark and can be heard on our 11th release, Insomnia’s “Days Of Alcyone”. Thessaloniki is represented in this compilation by “International Comedy”. The band had contributed to numerous compilation albums between 1984 and 1989. The track included here was thought lost, but recently discovered on a cassette tape and brought to light almost 30 years later. Finally, “Venericna Bolest” (“sexually transmissible disease” in English) appeared on 2 compilation albums in 1985 and 1986, but didn't manage to release an album or even a 7” single. The track included in this compilation was the only one that had been officially released on the cassette tape compilation “Never Trash… A Pretty Face”. All tracks have been remastered and restored from the original analogue master tapes or cassette recordings, by Chris “Φact/Snake” Manolitsis at “Snakefarm Studios”, using the best possible solutions, modern technology has provided us. The result is not the same on all of the tracks, because of the multiple music formats and the various audio conditions. We managed, though, to clean and revitalize all tracks, in comparison to their original sound. The compilation (release date 22.12.2013) comes in 516 hand-numbered black vinyl copies and in 3 different colour-variation sleeves (173 copies in beige, 173 copies in grey and 170 copies in orange), each one for every different taste. Includes a full-size insert with photos and details about the tracks and the bands.

Release Date: 2013-12-22
Available at 15 €	SOLD OUT


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