Rumours are a part of life. They can be informative and entertaining, but they can also be negative and misleading. This section contains local scene rumours, insider tips and short infos. All from a constructive, informative perspective, therefore our SDS Fact Checker will focus on positive and constructive infos.
◉ Apropos insider tips… one of the scene’s best-kept secrets – an Italian-Swiss goth band from the Lombardy Ticino region.
> Exactly 40 years ago The Dead Relatives recorded their first production: Commentarius In Apocalipsin – a cassette recording from 4 decades ago with a gothic and post-punk sound, but also with elements of deathrock.
◉ Apropos decades… an English synthpop band with over 30 years of experience will play in Switzerland this year.
> We will reveal the name of the band in 48 hours…
◉ Apropos 30 years… apparently, at the end of the year the singer of a local band will be celebrating his birthday in Zürich.
> The plan is for the band to perform live, followed by an after-show party. The program has yet to be finalized. We will be on the lookout…
◉ Apropos birthday… DJ TOM-I (The Bat Scene) celebrates his 50th birthday.
> On June 27 at X-TRA Zurich, Tom will be celebrating his birthday with a concert and party. Live on stage: Joy Disaster + Djane Medusa.
◉ Apropos X-TRA… Genève band Haneke Twins to play Der Schwarze Ball on November 11.
> Confirmed! The Swiss-Greek band will play in Zürich for the first time this year. Haneke Twins is made up of colleagues from CERN Genève (each member of the band holds a doctorate degree in physics).
◉ Apropos Greek ancestry… Larissa Georgiou (Larissa Iceglass) is coming home.
> After 10 years, Lebanon Hanover to play in Larissa’s hometown St. Gallen (10.5). They will also perform in Genève (8.10).
◉ Apropos Swiss singer with Greek ancestry… the enigmatic singer of SIIE is also Swiss and she has also Greek ancestry.
> That’s true, but as long as the duo don’t reveal their names officially, we won’t either. When it is known many people in the Swiss scene will be pleasantly surprised.
> Btw, on May 2 SIIE will release the deut album “ACMÉ” through Cold Transmission.
◉ Apropos masked artists... the singer and drummer of Blackbook are Albert Den Dekker and Matthias Kräutli.
> Well, that’s already known (although maybe not by everyone). Both musicians are the former singer and drummer of the band My Name is Georg.
> Btw, Blackbook has released a new single: “Suffer in Silence”. The duo will perform at Super Schwarzes Dortmund alongside Diary of Dreams.
◉ Apropos Diary of Dreams… apparently (and this is more than a rumour) the German band will return to Switzerland after a couple of years to perform live at the end of the year…
> We will be on the lookout…
◉ Apropos German bands… Wolfgang Flür of Kraftwerk, along with Peter Hook (Joy Division / New Order) and Boris Blank (Yello), will release a cookbook.
> Ok, ok :). The truth is that Wolfgang Flür has released (28.3) his latest album: “Times”. He produced one of the songs with Peter Hook, and another: “Global Youth” with Boris Blank.
◉ Apropos legendary bands… Grauzone will play in the Netherlands this 2025.
> Nope, that’s not true. The Dutch festival Grauzone posted on its social media accounts that Grauzone would be performing at the festival this year. In reality, it was an April fool’s joke.
> What many don’t know is that Martin Eicher has written new songs for a new Grauzone album, so sooner or later it will be released.
◉ Apropos April… last Saturday, April 12, the first Schwarzlicht Radio show aired.
> Every 2nd and 4th Saturday of the month from 21h to 23h on Radio RaBe (Bern). The Schwarzlicht Radio show will air with dark music (classics and current tracks) and also interviews. The show is hosted by DJ Hecura, R.O.X.Y. MonoXyd and AbraXas. You can listen to the first show online, and the second show will be next week (26.4).
◉ Apropos dark radio and Grauzone… Marco Repetto, experimental musician (ambient electronica…) and also founder and former drummer of Grauzone – the interview.
> Vinylirium is the radio show hosted by Roman Tschopp that constantly features topics and interviews about the local scene. So Marco will be one of the next guests on Radio Kanal K.
> Btw, Roman is also looking into the possibility of organizing events with bands and DJs in front of an audience live at Radio Kanal K.
◉ Apropos Repettos… Marco’s son Angelo Repetto has a new project.
> Six months ago, Angelo, under his latest project Konstant (with Nicolas Balmer) released “Unbändiger Kinder”. The album features an electro sound with elements of New Wave, Post-Punk, and Krautrock.
◉ Apropos sons… Adrian Marin (DJ Dustform) son of our late friend Jesus Marin (DJ Jesus 66) has started his own label.
> ExAnima Prjct is Adrian’s new party label (based in Luzern and Zürich).
◉ Apropos new projects based in Luzern… the DarkAppeal label is working on a new project.
> Apparently it seems to be a festival in Luzern. Meanwhile, DarkAppeal will be holding a party every month until the end of the year at Wunderbox in Zürich. Next party (25.4).
◉ Apropos labels… Gothic Romandie successfully organized Gothic Romandie 2 in Lausanne.
> The event consisted of a retrospective exhibition, roundtable debate, live shows, party and dark market. Several guests participated including Mona Soyoc (KaS Product), Matt Baumann (Future Faces), DJ SpiderB, DJ Antz, Miguel Angel, Sandrine Pelletier, Yann Courtiau, MXD, and Tomorrow’s Ghost as local hero.
> No doubt the followers will wait for the part 3. Hopefully, the events will be more frequent.
◉ Apropos Tomorrow’s Ghost… the Lausanne band will play next month their first concert in Aargau.
> The concert will be on May 10 in Musigburg. The Romand band will open the night for This Eternal Decay.
> In our opinion, Tomorrow’s Ghost was the revelation band of 2024. We saw them at their first gig in Zürich in a cold basement in front of 20 people (that’s how those stories begin…) Don’t miss it.
◉ Apropos first time… a well-known DJ in Zürich will be behind the turntables for the first time at More than Mode.
> Next month (May 28) is der legendäre Mittwoch vor Auffahrt. So as usual there will be around a thousand people spread across three floors, but this time with a special guest DJ spinning on the Post-Punk Division & Batcave Sounds floor. The line-up will be announced soon.
◉ Apropos May… next month will see a record break for the number of dark events in a single month in all of Switzerland.
> So far there are 34 events scheduled – 22 concerts with 32 bands (11 local bands / 23 international bands) and 17 parties with 42 local DJs.
◉ Apropos local DJs… DJ jYGi (Death by Unicorn) and DJ Subton (More than Mode) have threatened to play a tennis match.
> We had already heard about that match, but the DJs say the necessary conditions aren’t right yet (the weather and also because they still can’t find any black tennis clothes :). Anyway, it seems that the match will be this spring, so there will be signs, and there will certainly be videos to see our friends cute white legs :).
> By the way, DJ Subton also has a tennis match on standby with Minu-Schirin, the singer of Delta Komplex. We’ll be on the lookout.
◉ Apropos black clothes… everyone knows some stores and brands where you can buy dark clothing and accessories, but there are also local brands from people in the scene who design their own creations.
> We’re talking about Mephista (Bern), Twisted Ego (Vaud) and Blaubluth (Zürich). Not all of them serve in stores, but you can find their catalogs online.
◉ Apropos stores… for record lovers, we recommend one record store in particular.
> It’s 16 Tons in Zurich. There you can find all kinds of music, but it’s also one of the few stores where you can find records by local scene bands from the ’80s.
◉ Apropos records… and what about records and virtual albums by current local bands?
> In that case, we recommend the labels Swiss Dark Nights, Roosevelt Records, Cold Transmission, Young & Cold, and Manic Depression. Obviously, many bands sell their music independently, so check out also their own Linktrees.
◉ Apropos local bands’ records… what is the next record to be released by a local band?
> Next week (April 25) Karl Kave, this time in a duo with Julia Toggenburger, will release the album “Blauer Planet.” A recommended production for fans of minimal wave and synthpop. More information on his social media.
◉ Apropos social media… follow us on our new Instagram account: swissdarkscene – and don’t miss a glimpse of what’s about yet to come…!!!
◉ Ok, that’s all for now. But we’ll be adding more content constantly…
