No Songs Tomorrow is a superbly curated box set celebrating the first wave of artists who pioneered the darkwave and coldwave genres.

Release date: Available now

Label: Cherry Red Records

Format: 4 CD Box Set

No Songs Tomorrow is a 4 CD box set celebrating an edgier, more risk-taking and largely electronic strand, of the post punk movement. At various times labelled darkwave, coldwave and ethereal rock, the artists involved during the 1980s decade, embraced musical and lyrical experimentation, and an aesthetic both gothic and tundra like. This set can be seen as a companion to the 2023 Cherry Red release, Cherry Stars Collide, reviewed here, and the earlier Still In A Dream. Both thoughtfully curated compilation sets.

One of the joys of listening to this set, as with Cherry Stars Collide, is the inclusion of artists who only burned brightly for a short period and have been to some extent lost in the mists of time. Here their pioneering musical efforts can be brought back into the light and shared with new listeners. Representing the first wave of artists within this musical milieu, there is as ever a rich and diverse mix of musicians, and styles, both musically and visually. In this review we will highlight tracks from each of the 4 CDs, to provide a flavour of what this fine box set has to offer.

CD Disc 1

Let’s start with the second track in, on disc 1, Come Into Hell And Murder Hate by Babel 17. A trio formed in France in 1988, the track is taken from their 1990 album Celeano. The introduction is all about atmospheric synthesizer motifs and swirling vocals, providing the song with a lift off into an intense dance driven electro gothic trajectory. The song in the final coda breaks down into melodic and screaming voices as the music fades into the background. Its just superb and worth the price of admission on its own.

Sheffield based In The Nursery provide Lost Prayer from their 1985 EP Sonority. It is quite a strange track with its dominant marching beat and dissociating keyboards, as the haunting vocals swirl around the music. Janet Clarkson’s striking soprano vocal has an other-worldly quality.  A great listen. The band are still recording and playing live, and their music has been utilised in movie and television soundtracks, including Game of Thrones.

KaS Product, formed in France in 1980, perform Tina Town, from their 1983 album By Pass, and it’s an absolute classic combining punk, electro, and dance influences. The words sung by Mona Soyoc, evocatively convey a sense of alienation and dissociation relieved only by the imaginary world of films. Listening on headphones the electronic percussion jolts and disturbs. It is the essence of the coldwave genre, with its resonances of detachment and minimalism.   

New York underground band, Requiem In White, are blessed with a mix of very persuasive musical ingredients, which are all in place on A Prodigal Son, taken from their 1990 album Requiem In White. Distorted ringing guitars combine with a doom metal drenched rhythm section. Add in rapid changes of tempo, crashing cymbals, and an incredible operatic vocal from Lisa Hammer, and you have something very special. An atmosphere is created that conjures up a made in hell collision of black metal and post punk, with a twist of classical music. It is just superb. 

CD Disc 2

The song that gives this box set its title, No Songs Tomorrow by U.V. Pop, can be found on disc 2, in its 1983 album version.  An earlier version was released on the 1982 Just A Game single. Opening with electronic percussion, acoustic and electric guitars and a repeating bass guitar motif, it is a song with a strong pop sensibility. The floating synthesizer and John K. White’s distant vocal add the electronica element. It is a superb anthemic song that bears repeated listening to reveal new musical elements each time.

Soft Cell were very influential in the darkwave and coldwave genres, and are well represented by the track Heat, taken from their second album, The Art of Falling Apart. The intense electronic beats, inventive keyboard flourishes, and of course Marc Almonds story telling expressive vocal make for an immersive listen. The lyrics as ever explore hidden feelings, emotions and experiences, that lie just below the surface. 

Return To Clocktower Lodge by Watford based post-punk band Sad Lovers and Giants is a real gem. Taken from their 1987 album, The Mirror Test, it combines a shimmering dream pop framework with a vibrant guitar led post punk enthusiasm. The song title is intriguing and stirs the imagination to wonder what the back story might be. Novy Mir is another fine example of the eclectic range of this collection. By the duo Autumnfair, and originally released on the 1990 mini album Glaciers and Gods, it is an extraordinary slice of scything post-rock guitars anchored by a pulsating drum machine beat.

CD Disc 3

Kirlian Camera from Italy are represented by the 1985 12” single release, Blue Room. Held together by Simona Buja’s moving torch vocal, there is a complexity of musical elements overlaying the electronic foundation, which makes for a rewarding listen, as different instruments come to the fore in the mix on repeated listens. 

Danse Society, formed in Barnsley in 1980, deliver some exhilarating dance grooves on Danse/Move. It’s a track that is impossible to resist with its mix of danceable electronica and funky rhythms. The way the vocal almost instructs the listener to get up and join in the groove is joyous. It is a wonderfully quirky and definitive dance floor statement. The track is taken from the band’s 1982 album Seduction.

Hailing from Nebraska, For Against offer up Amen Yves, from the In The Marshes mini album from 1990, although the songs were originally recorded in 1985. It is a quite glorious mash up of the musical styles of the Cocteau Twins and The Cure, underpinned by syncopated drum patterns and atmospheric synthesizers. Hand On Heart by Leeds post punk favourites Red Lorry Yellow Lorry, is in contrast full of growling menace, embodied in Chris Reed’s distinctive vocal, and the metallic multitracked guitars. This post-punk classic is one to play loud.   

CD Disc 4

Soul produced only one single, Tribes, from which the B-side Love is included here on CD 4. A great pity that they weren’t around longer, as there is a lot to like about this track with its angular post-punk sound, and dub influenced bass and percussion, over which ambient instrumental phrases fade in and out. The vocal has a mesmerising tone that immediately draws you in.

Malaria! formed in 1981, in the then West Germany, with an all-female line up. Their track You You from the mini-album Beat The Distance is uniformly excellent. There is a deft use of melody in the vocals and the inventive working of the keyboards and guitars bring out some sublime punk and psychedelic flourishes. The up-tempo charge at the end of the track crashes out of the speakers.

Collection D’Arnell – Andrea with the song A L’Aurore Assassine is an interesting inclusion on CD 4, with classical motifs and moody keyboard parts providing an ethereal setting for Chloe Saint-Liphard’s remarkable vocal to quite literally soar skywards. The Pieter Nooten and Michael Brook song Clouds, from the Sleeps With The Fishes album, bookends the final CD. A collaboration between Pieter Nooten on keyboards and vocals and Michael Brook on guitar, it is an ambient, neo-classical gem. Both dreamlike and emotionally moving, it is a lovely, understated coda and fitting conclusion to this excellent box set.

As with all Cherry Red releases of this type, the accompanying booklet and overall presentation in a clamshell box with evocative artwork, really add to the music. The booklet includes an interesting and informative essay on the music by Frank Deserto, and pen pictures of all the artists, together with some great atmospheric black and white photography of some of the bands.

Watch here an official video of KaS Product playing live in 2024, the song Miracles from their 2022 EP Indoor Lyfe: 

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