Throughout the 90s, a major player in the German synthpop movement was Beborn Beton. I highly recommend Tales from Another World, their "greatest hits" 2-cd Collection, which is available for free as an mp3 download if you're an Amazon Prime member, I just noticed (I actually bought it from Amazon earlier, but even if you're not a prime member, this is a good deal as a double album for only $8.99.) Some of their great tracks like "Another World," "Mantrap - The Seduction" and their best song ever (in my never humble opinion) "Mantrap - A Wish Come True" are just absolutely great dark, energetic synthpop. And check out that Ephemeral Rage remix of "Another World."
Anyway, Beborn Beton have gotten the band back together and have a new CD coming out a little later this year. You can hear "24/7 Mystery" on their Youtube channel, and the amazing song "Daisy Cutter" is on their Soundcloud. I think it sounds pretty much brilliant.
One challenge for bands who run for a long time, or who take a lengthy hiatus and then come back, is that they have to evolve their sound a bit, to not sound repetitive and deja vu to listeners, but they can't do so too radically, lest they alienate the fans of their prior material. Long-running bands and kings of the synthpop scene during the 80s Erasure and Depeche Mode are, in my opinion, victims of these problems respectively: Erasure albums all start to sound too much like each other, making the release of another one an item of little excitement or interest at this point, and Depeche Mode sounds like a totally different band that has only a few vague connections to the Depeche Mode I used to love (with the exception a few years ago of Playing the Angel, a brilliant album that recaptured much of the glory of their golden years.)
Anyway, I think Beborn Beton manages to straddle the line well; this should certainly appeal to fans of their earlier material without sounding like it's merely rehashing their earlier material over again.
What was the name of that Argentine band that sang that weird version of "Lollipop"?
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