Various Artists- Systems of Romance Vol. 5

I was going to hold off on posting this for a few more weeks, but after completing it in the late hours last night, I can’t help but share it immediately. Here we have the fifth installment of the Systems of Romance series, volume FIVE to be exact, and debatably my favorite of the bunch. You can expect a nice mix of guitar and synth tracks here. The only difference is this mix features 4-5 new artists that are all worth checking out, alongside several rare and unreleased tracks. Running time is a minute or so over a full length cd-r, so feel free to trim one of these for your own personal burnnn. Here’s the tracklisting:

Various Artists- Systems of Romance Vol. 5
1. After the Snow Melts- Clever Lines
2. Genetics- Final Sound
3. Epitaph- A Haunted Sawmill
4. New Year- Days Are Nights
5. Chanson D’Amour- WCH
6. In The Future- Split Level
7. Strange Days- Immunity
8. A Color- Tropic of Cancer
9. Run Run- Avantgarde De Luxe
10. Shadow Walk- Negatives in Colour
11. When Thunder Comes- Mission
12. What Goes On?- The Radiance
13. Desperate Rhymes- Piece De Resistance
14. Cover Girl- Dengon
15. Silly Earth- Scatterbrains
16. Eden- Sofia Run
17. On the Moon- Beyond Words
18. Shoot Me Down- P.S. Personal
19. Geraldine- Cha Boom Cha
20. Blind Me- Winter Severity Index
21. Sweet Cliché- The First Loves

*download it here*

Here’s a few words on the tracks:
1. Plucked from the 8 Essential Attitudes compilation. Picked it up cheap and while there are some gems, it’s mostly a mixed bag.
2. From the No Surrender! compilation, an otherwise rough and tumble collection of skinhead/oi tracks from Rock-O-Rama records.
3. Very rare single release, one of this band’s only tracks. Saw a release on The Trance Compilation.
4. Brazilian darkwave band who released a killer album in 2010, where this track hails from.
5. French synth from 1984…Stay tuned for a full post on this 12”.
6. B-side of a 1984 minimal synth single from the UK. If you have the a-side, holler!
7. Plucked from a 1985 compilation entitled Sounds from the Southern Scene Vol. 1. This band appears twice on the comp as the bookends. Their other track isn’t nearly as good, but still worth hearing.
8. Brand new coldwave sounds from LA, can’t get enough of this track!
9. Denmark band, from their first LP, released in 1982. Another track appears on SOR vol. 3.
10. An unreleased track from the UK band featured here.
11. Also from the 8 Essential Attitudes comp. Guitar-driven smash, and not the same post-Sisters band!
12. 1990s darkwave, released on a compilation of excellent like minded souls (Derrière Le Miroir, Lucie Cries, Frozen Autumn, all great bands)
13. Grabbed this 1985 12” from the US in a dollar bin. Decent new wave throughout, but this track is a standout.
14. Another US band who issued two singles in 1985 on ESYNC records (Velvascurge!). Mostly power-pop sounds, but this track has a nice guitar-driven edge to it. If anyone insists, I have both singles uploaded for a future post, but this one is the real treat of the lot.
15. Scarce minimal synth from the Netherlands. Would love to hear this full LP!
16. 1990s darkwave band who issued two records before splitting up.
17. 8 Essential Attitudes.
18. 1983 synthpop single from the UK.
19. The standout track from this 1988 12”. Also from the UK.
20. Brand new (all female) post-punk/coldwave band from Italy. A new favorite, really tremendous stuff. Keyboardist also doubles as Mushy, who just issued a full length solo LP on Mannequin Records!
21. I belive this track is a demo from a new post-punk band from London. Certainly sounds timeless!

18 Responses to “Various Artists- Systems of Romance Vol. 5”

  1. Looks like it's homemade comp fever in NY!

  2. Jenny White Says:

    Sweet! Thank you for these!

  3. Good job! Certainly looking forward to listening to this. Have a great weekend!

  4. Nice!
    Can't wait to listen. Thx Frankie.
    Guillaume

  5. chris sessions Says:

    Looking forward to checking this out Frankie. Thanks for all the great stuff you share with us!

    Happy Labor Day!

    Chris

  6. Hi there and thanx a lot for all the great stuff you uploaded here! – but I think you mixed something up this time; Track 11 "The Radiance" is left out and instead you provided Negatives In Colour "Shadow Walk", which I already downloaded a couple of weeks ago. Numbers are also mixed up a bit. However just wanted to let you and so you could change it when you find some time… Maybe you already did, as I downloaded it just after it's been released 🙂
    Cheers from Germany

  7. frankie teardrop Says:

    Just a brief mix up on the printed tracklist here. 'Shadow Walk' is indeed part of the compilation, just forgot to list it in the writeup. Download should be fine, writeup adjusted!

  8. Sorry mate, "12. What Goes On?- The Radiance" is missing. I downloaded only 20 songs (just tried again). Easily add this and it's all perfect! 🙂
    Thx Silvio

  9. frankie teardrop Says:

    i'm not quite sure what to tell you, silvio. i just tried redownloading and i get all 21 in my fresh zip file. my guess is your unzipping program has a problem processing the question mark?

    well, that being said, here's a solo upload of the track, minus the question mark, for anyone else who has a problem with this song:

    http://www.mediafire.com/?9barov5ss5sax9b

  10. Ahh thank you Frankie, your the man! That's really strange, as I never had problems with Mediafire before and actually Windows 7's just unzipping it all automatically – however I do like the song a lot and on the other side it would really drive me nuts not having it complete… 🙂 So thanks again for your efforts!
    Silvio from Germany aka "some folks" haha

  11. This one has got me chompin at the bit waiting on the download.

    Thanks for sharing! I always find somethin amazing that ive yet to hear!

    Pan

  12. Some very interesting tracks here. Mostly "growers" that need a couple of spins. Do you have the full album by Avantgarde De Luxe? Seems impossible to find. Thank you!

  13. Wow, these are some great compilations, thanks!

    Coincidentally, my first hunger for more! more! came to mind with Avantgarde De Luxe as well, so I'd love to hear the full album too. Searched around a bit, hard to get without paying big bucks…

  14. Wow, great compiled. 5 stars

  15. […] for those interested in acquiring a copy. I recently included the title track from this LP on Systems of Romance vol. 5, plucked from the 8 Essential Attitudes compilation, but I’ve since tracked down the LP of […]

  16. Hi Frankie! Is possible for you to post the side b of the fab “Shoot me down” by P.S. Personal?
    All the best! Claudio from Milano, Italy!

  17. Hey Frankie – do you know anything at all about ‘The Radiance’ is he/they German? Having a bugger of a time finding out anything about them.

  18. EJ Neenan, the writer and singer of The Clever Lines After The Snow Melts is still around! He still writes, records and performs under the moniker E.Joseph and has music on digital outlets as a solo artist and with his projects E.Joseph and The Phantom Heart and his latest band, E.Joseph and The Sparrows. His first solo CD in 2005-06 called “Absinthe Minded”. ◦https://www.facebook.com/EJoseph-800497293314916/
    Some background info I got from him:

    Clever Lines did 4-track demos, but “After the Snow Melts” was the only multi-track semi-professional recording we did, and very soon afterwards we changed our name to Fiction Bridge. Same members–just a different name in anticipation of a 4-song EP that did fairly well in 1986-87.

    Fiction Bridge opened for some notable artists…
    •The Church
    •The 3 O’Clock
    •Tommy Keene
    •Vigil

    Members:
    •Edward J. Neenan (me) – Songs, vocals, guitar
    •Joe Klompus – bass
    •Chris Dyas – Guitar
    •David Buckner – Drums
    •Paul Hond – Keyboards

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