Systems of Romance

As promised, here’s Abracax, the über-rare  debut 1984 studio cassette release from French coldwave/synth-punk band Réseau d’Ombres.

This is one of three cassettes the band released in 1984 to kick off their explosive career. Live cassette Ireos has been reissued by ειρκτή in 2013, while the other live cassette Eliotropium (sung primarily in English) remains to be heard, minus a track or two on Youtube. This, however, is their debut through and through – the seeds of what the band would become are already flowering into something dark and caustic. All seven tracks on this cassette were part of the band’s repertoire and appear in live form on Ireos, but it’s nice to have these studio recordings to add to the mix.

This cassette taps into early 80s cassette culture in every way – the design of the cover and additional artwork is exquisite. The tape comes housed in a plastic sleeve and comes with seven hand-printed tarot card slivers and a 7”-sized stamped orange insert. You can see additional photos of this one on Discogs.

That all said, hope y’all enjoy the music!

Réseau d’Ombres – Abracax K7
1. Mercenary
2. Passé
3. Natural Gesture
4. The Meal
5. Happy Song
6. External Life
7. Just For Fun

*download it here*

This entry was posted on April 24, 2025 at 1:24 pm and is filed under 1980s, 1984, coldwave, france, french, post-punk, Réseau d’Ombres, synthpunk . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.