Press

Here’s a select archive of old interviews or features that still happen to be floating around online, including some newer articles from 2015 regarding the digital re-issues. A lot of the band’s activity was before social media and digital music press became more of a standard fixture so a lot of press has been lost in the backwaters of time.

RETROSPECTIVE

Rekindling; An interview with Jack Duckworth of Radio Berlin
Ghettoblaster (US) 2015

Radio Berlin Reissue Back Catalogue
Exclaim! (CA) 2015

Radio Berlin – The Selection Drone
Wilfully Obscure (US) 2014

Radio Berlin – Recorded Works 1998 – 2003
Symphony Of Ghosts (US) 2010

OLD

[Listed: Colder + Radio Berlin]
Dusted.com 2003

Radio Berlin’s style isn’t for everyone
Deseret (US) 2003

Radio Berlin show preview
River Front Times (US) 2003

Radio Berlin interview
Slip The Needle (US) 1999

Up & Coming (Show Preview)
Portland Mercury (US) 2001

Glass

“The third album from this incredible, under-rated, post-punk group, “Glass” shows the band forging their own unique and contemporary sound out of a legacy of brooding post-punk sound shared by past and present UK based guitar/synth “new wave” acts. This is Radio Berlin’s finest and most important material to date.” – original press blurb from the album’s 2003 release.

“Although they haven’t transcended their late-’70s post-punk/goth influences, Vancouver’s Radio Berlin has added some Gang of Four-style hard funk to their bleak sound. It injects a more muscular approach to their inherently dark and foreboding genre. They have nailed the Euro-trash concept, and only by reading the bio would the unsuspecting Anglophile know they hail from North America, let alone Canada. Percussion machines spar with real drums, as thumping bass and echoed guitar provide the stripped down rhythms. It’s an intentional throwback to the early Joy Division, Psychedelic Furs, Japan, Bauhaus, and Cure era, but some of these songs are strong enough for Radio Berlin to be more than just a cover band. Still, it’s the edgy bass riffs that energise tracks like “Rote Lippen,” and keep the music from being a parody of its forbearers. Certainly the haunting David Bowie/Peter Murphy vocals and goth lyrics such as “take a bite out of your lips and there’s blood on everybody” aren’t forging new territory, and the songs, while not carbon copies, are similar to others from that time period. Regardless, there aren’t many bands recreating this dated sound so realistically in 2003. Radio Berlin is comprised of talented musicians dedicated to a genre that most listeners will never get a chance to experience live. In other words, they’re preaching to their own black-clad, pale-faced, alienated choir, but anyone still listening to Joy Division will want to turn on this radio.” – Hal Horowitz, 2003

The Selection Drone

Radio Berlin revels in ominous gothic rock on their sophomore record, “The Selection Drone”. Naturally, the Cure and Joy Division emerge as obvious starting places, though the band has a contemporary resonance in their almost emo-ish intensity, with frantic machine-gun drumming and high-energy vocals delivering sentiments of world-weary disillusionment. Most songs build upon a contemplative din of clean guitars, synths, prominent basslines, and changing tempos, eventually picking up speed before breaking away to a climax of simmering agitation. Although not cloyingly accessible, Radio Berlin ultimately is shown to be very sure of themselves, establishing solid footing on their first release while holding to their vision of melodic post-punk.” – Hal Hartley, 2001

“Radio Berlin is from Vancouver, B.C., hailing from under the same skies as Skinny Puppy and Numb. The band’s sound can be best described as a combination of Faith/Pornography era Cure, mixed with early UK luminaries such as Test Department, Killing Joke, and Wire.

“With that being said, Radio Berlin is awesome and my favorite new band. Perhaps I like them so much because the music that influenced them is from an era that is often overlooked and misunderstood in many ways. Often times, Eighties music is walloped with jeers from a crowd spoon fed horrible television images of big hair and Spandex. Some of the most challenging and creative music ever offered the public stems from this decade, albeit in an underground arena.

“Listening to this album is like being in a great Archeology lecture, for the images the band conjures up are from the specters and echoes of the past. To be able to manipulate these echoes into a personal and individual sound is no easy task. Radio Berlin are not mere copycats and, like any great band, their strength is in their songwriting and musical ability. These are the necessary ingredients that assures the band’s future success.

“There is not one weak song on the album. If I had to pick my favorites, I would choose Change Your Mind – Complete with new wave synth and chorus; Eyes Like Lenses – Wire could not have done this better; Electric Halls – A great song with a smashing Robert Smith delivery; Green Teeth – The Cure morphing into the band Japan; The Selection Drone – A beautifully crafted instrumental piece that ends the album and leaves the listener yearning for more.” – Michael Casano for Electrogarden, 2001