Bleep

LTM Recordings collects a beautiful selection of cuts from Belgium’s cold wave scene from 1979-1983. Originally released in 1981 through Sandwich Records, the compilation adds a further 10 tracks from the likes of Front 242, The Names, and Berntholer to the original line-up, which includes tracks from Digital Dance, Polyphonic Size, Pseudo Code and more. Pseudo Code’s ‘Around Midnight’ is a brilliantly bleak slice of nocturnal dread, where a Belgian relation of Mark E Smith intones cryptic spoken word over a trudging pulse and minimal synths. Satin Walls’ ‘Dans Les Profondeurs’ impresses through similar introversion, with obsessive rudimentary guitar adding to a mix which sounds like a raw prototype for many modern imitators.