Minimal Wave Records

Dark Entries is honored to release, for the first time ever on vinyl, the first two cassettes by Belgium’s The Neon Judgement! Just in time to celebrate the band’s 30th anniversary, summer tour and release of the documentary Docuvision 2010A1984.

I first heard the addictive sounds of The Neon Judgement! from a compilation CD called New Wave Class-X that I picked up on South Street, Philadelphia at the age of 18. The song “TV Treated” from 1982 grabbed my attention with its blaring synthesizer jabs and repetitive chorus and made me seek out more by this prolific band that crisscrosses genres with ease. Fast forward to today, I present you with the earliest recordings by The Neon Judgement! :

DE- 007   The Neon Judgement – Early Tapes LP

Dark Entries has dug deep into the early days of the Belgian cassette scene to release two tapes by The Neon Judgement!   in the form of one vinyl LP for the first time ever! These pioneers of underground electronic music hail from the small town of Leuven near Brussels, Belgium and gave birth to the New Beat and EBM scenes worldwide in 1981/2 with the release of their first two cassettes–neatly compiled here as Early Tapes. Always a consistent duo of Dirk Da Davo (synthesizers, vocals) and TB Frank (guitar, drum machine, vocals) The Neon Judgment worked in a parallel world alongside Suicide, Cabaret Voltaire, and the Deutsche Neue Welle recording under the watchful eyes of Roland Beelen (Antler-Subway) & Ludo Camerberlin (A Blaze Colour).

Arriving just in time to celebrate the Neon Judgment’s 30th anniversary, Early Tapes showcases the band’s brash and seedy lyrics, with raw synth stabs and repetitive drum machine beats adding to this rhythmic discourse. The result is a combination of lo-fi technology and emotional sincerity to create a sound both warm yet alienating that has stood the test of time and 30 years later, still evokes the same magic. The 10 songs on this LP were remastered from the original cassette masters resulting in a cohesive, gritty, maniacal dance program that sounds more relevant today than ever. Each sleeve is hand numbered in limited edition copies of 500 with an 11×11 lyric sheet including rare photos, a mini poster and two silk screened die-cut diagrams taken from the band’s original synthesizer workbooks.

Sound samples HERE

Tracklisting:
A1 Factory Walk
A2 Sweet Revenge
A3 Harem
A4 The Machine
A5 Army Green (WOIII)
B1 Schyzophrenic Freddy
B2 TV Treated
B3 Stay Mad
B4 Sister Sue
B5 On My Own

$18.00

ORDER NOW

If you are interested in a wholesale quantity (5+ of one title), send me an email (darkentries[at]darkentries.com) requesting exact quantity and shipping location.

The next few Dark Entries Records releases are in the works!

Various Artists – BART (Bay Area Retrograde) LP
Jeff and Jane Hudson – Everything 2xLP (co-release with Captured Tracks)
Vita Noctis – Collected Works 2xLP (co-release with Daft Records)
Pesteg Dred – Years Of Struggle Against The Lies, The Stupidity And The Cowardice LP
Nagamatzu – Sacred Islands Of The Mad LP
End of Your Garden/De Må Være Belgiere – Split LP

Thank you for your support always!

And for all Belgians who missed out on the orginal tapes the first time and are in desperate need of this: it will be available at the Wool-E Shop (as are all Dark Entries releases by the way :D ) and with The Neon Judgement themselves at their tour of the Belgian (and Holland) concerthalls!!!

That should be a killer re-lease. And also the Transparent Illusion with binus trax being re-leased at the end of August by anna-logue. Lots of good stuf comeing very soon 8O

THE NEON JUDGEMENT – Early Tapes LP US 2010 DE-007 10 Tracks 43’53’’ 
THE NEON JUDGEMENT was formed around 1980/81 by Dirk Timmermans (aka Dirk Da Davo - synthesisers, vocals) and Frank Vloeberghs (aka TB Frank - guitars, drum machines, vocals) from Leuven, Belgium. Influenced by Velvet Underground and Pink Floyd they started with a minimalistic set-up comprising a Boss DR-55 drum machine, Yamaha CS-10 synthesiser and a Fender Stratocaster. In 1981, they released their debut six-track tape „Suffering“, including a first version of their classic track „Factory Walk“, of course being more rough with a pretty thin sounding guitar and less strong vocals as on later recordings. Then there’s the monotone and upbeat tracks „Sweet Revenge“ and „Schyzophrenic Freddy“ which undoubtely have drawn their inspiration from Suicide, the almost claustrophobic sounding „Harem“, and „Army Green (WOIII)“ that have more reminiscence to Cabaret Voltaire or even Throbbing Gristle (electronics paired with noisy and weird guitar parts), as well as the minimal electro pop track „The Machine“ that will appeal to any Absolute Body Control fan. The sound of those earliest tracks thus is as raw as it gets, but well that was the times in 1981! With the addition of a Korg Mono/Poly and Roland TR-808 and with no other than Ludo Camberlin as their engineer they recorded their second and already more sophisticated tape „TV Treated“ in 1982. The title track made it to much publicity, a great track for the more sinister dancefloors. „Stay mad“ almost uses the very same sounds as „TV Treated“ and is almost equally great. „Sister Sue“ and „On my own“ is preceeding Revolting Cocks’ sound by many years, and will surely appeal to fans of Luc Van Acker and Front 242. After those two tapes THE NEON JUDGEMENT started to release only vinyl records and were lucky to swim on the Belgian Electronic Body Music (EBM) hype in the mid-to-late 80’s. While they really were not part of that artificial genre their sound already changed at that time, actually, they have always been more of a rock band using electronics. Anyway, even though their early sound was so do-it-yourself and raw, it was kind of still pioneering, while their later efforts just became rather insignificant in the 90’s. Anyway, at the height of the electroclash hype, THE NEON JUDGEMENT was rediscovered and remembered of their earlier classic hits, leading to many remix projects and re-releases. Independent from that Dark Entries are now celebrating THE NEON JUDGEMENT’s 30th birthday with the re-release of their first two tapes on vinyl while the boys are going to hit the streets again.

LPs include an 11×11 lyric sheet including rare photos, a mini poster and two silk screened die-cut diagrams taken from the band’s original synthesizer workbooks, and are limited 500 hand numbered copies.