Directed by Thomas Landrein and art director Jonas Genevaz, ‘Gone’ follows an armed resistance group through a number of apocalyptic views of the French capital being torn asunder by armed forces. Visceral and grandiose, Sierra’s tribute to France’s brilliant animators serves as yet another urgent reminder to dive back into the artist’s stellar back catalogue.

As for you European Synth-heads out there, be on the lookout for upcoming tour dates, as Sierra will be resuming the Leather Terror tour with Carpenter Brut next week for a series of European shows.

Tour date tickets are available here.

Check out Sierra on Spotify, Bandcamp and all major Streaming platforms.

Sierra is currently on Carpenter Brut’s ‘Leather Terror Tour’ on his across the US and Europe. 

Last Breath is out now via Spotify.

The EP sets off with a violent, crashing groove set against pulsating sirens, immediately pulling you into the producers’ cavernous, claustrophobic world on ‘See Me now’ and ‘Trust’. Chaos and violence recede and the ambience swells into a thick, slightly suffocating fog on ‘All or Nothing’, your racing heartrate hitting every backbeat as you catch your breath in time for the punished reprise that is  ‘Control’. Finally, the record closes on an epic downtempo track that will leave you scarred with images of utter desolation and ruin.

See Me Now is not a record for the faint-hearted and leaves little room for cute, twinkly synth sounds. Clocking just under the 20-minute mark, the EP will keep your senses locked in. For those fueled by the occasional lycanthropic urge to feel boiling blood shooting through their veins, Sierra’s See Me Now is the be-all and end-all fix you need.

Sierra ‘See Me Now’  is out on all streaming platforms

10. Occams Laser – Halls of the Damned

9. Starfarer – Highrider

8. Burial Grid – Caput Mortuum

7. Acryl Madness – Kill _Em All

6. Microchip terror – Circuitry of Doom

5. Hollywood burns – Abomination from Planet X

4. Perturbator – Death of the Soul

3. Sierra X Matteo Tura – Inner Speech

2. Abstract Void – Forward to the Past

1. Gost – Bound by the Horror

10. Dynatron – Origins

9. Hollywood Burns – Saturday Night Screamer

8. Eagle Eyed Tiger – Untether, Unravel

7. Starcadian – Culture

6. Waveshaper – Client

5. Gost – A fleeting Whisper

4. Kavinsky – Renegade

3. Quixotic – Highway violence

2. Sierra – All about love

1. Waveshaper – The Phantom Machine

Honorable Mentions

• Perturbator – Death of the Soul

• Danger – Haven Virtual concert

• LAU – True

Check out ‘Inner Speech’ on Bandcamp, Spotify and other streaming platforms

The music video for ‘All About Love’ is a suspenseful, bloody tale about the search for identity, love and bloody murder.

Strap in, dim the lights and hit that full-screen button, you’re in for a ravenous joyride!

2021 is off to a terrific start with what will most likely be one of Retrowave’s most ambitious indie videos to drop this year.

Warning: This video contains scenes of graphic violence. Viewer discretion is advised.

‘All About Love’ was directed by Parker Ryan and stars Whitney L.Rio, David James Slama & Parker Gaan.

Sierra’s All About Love is out now on Bandcamp and Spotify.

The Gothenburg Synthwaver takes us on a night cruise through a majestic technopolis.

Listen to The Disk Hunter

9. Powernerd – Destroy to Create

Powernerd suits up in chrome battlegear and delivers an action-packed EDM-meets-Synthwave EP full of electrifying basslines and punchy beats.

Listen to Destroy to Create

8. Sierra – All About Love

Sierra’s existential angst reaches meets new depths of violence, lust and depravity.

Listen to All About Love

7. Gress –  MMXX

Pure industrial dark synth Armaggedon made in Russia. The soundtrack to your neighbour’s moving out.

Listen to MMXX 

6. Nightstop – Stalking Danger

Night driving music full of scintillating synths and funky beats. Old tropes shine anew through brilliant execution.

Listen to Stalking Danger

5. Makeup and Vanity Set – Tesseract

The masked Synthlord teams up with cyberpunk artist Liam Wong for a short trip down the murky back-alleys of NeoTokyo.

Listen to Tesseract

4. Florida Skyline – Machinekore. (Demos)

A collection of tracks by a young prodigy from Russia, who tragically passed last December.
Blending Vaporwave, Synthwave and EDM, Sophia’s posthumous demo EP is an unrivalled display of sophistication and raw talent.

RIP Sophia

Note:  100% of proceeds collected from Florida Skyline’s Bandcamp are donated to Transgender Equality Related Organisations.

Listen to Machinekore. (Demos)

3. Mitch Murder – Artifact

A fantastic set of leftover tracks from the Swedish producers’ Cyberpunk 2077 sessions, compiled into an EP. Perfect to fuel up your shootouts across Night City.

Listen to Artifact

2. STRNGR – Bumping Uglies

A filthy couple of dark electro tracks by Cincinnati’s bloodthirsty STRNGR.
For those who like their Synthwave black and unsweetened.

Listen to Bumping Uglies

1. Sellorekt/LA Dreams – Back at the Office

A brilliant throwback to Office life in the 80s’ at the crossroads between Synthwave and Vaporwave.

Listen to Back at the Office

List Compiled with help from Andrew Zistler.

All about love by SIERRA

Paris-based producer Sierra has just dropped her third EP All About Love as an early holiday gift to set your senses ablaze. Following up on her cinematic and introspective Gone EP released last year,  All About Love and its two tracks sink deeper still, pushing the sonic violence and chaos beyond the threshold of sanity into a fever dream-like experience of unbound animosity and bloodlust. Let loose, release your inhibitions and let catharsis wash over your senses in the cavernous depths of depravity.

Be sure to check out Sierra on Facebook, Instagram and Bandcamp for the latest news updates.

Sierra made her debut in 2017 with her Strange Valley (Lazerdiscs Records), establishing herself as one of the scenes most promising newcomers with her slick, hard-hitting tracks melding sounds of cavernous darkwave ambiences and tribal EBM aggression with a twist of Synth melancholy. Her second EP Gone doubled down on her fierce debut through a gripping dive into inner depths of longing and anguish.

Wanderers beware, for what lies ahead holds no promise of mercy…

Be sure to check out Sierra on Facebook, Instagram and Bandcamp for the latest news updates.

All about Love is now available for pre-order on Bandcamp.

What’ve you got to share and recommend to your fans and readers?

I picked First Man (2018) by Damien Chazelle. It’s a film that really touched me and that actually inspired me when I was writing my second EP Gone. I feel like it was really overlooked and it slipped under the radar despite it being a big-budget movie. Most people I mention it to haven’t seen it, so I figured it this would be the right occasion to get it out there. It didn’t stay very long in theatres either, it’s a shame.

It’s a really touching movie that really focuses on emotion and character psychology as opposed to flamboyant cinematography. It illustrates fear in all of its different aspects: fear of the unknown, fear of losing a loved one… There’s this one scene revolving around the missions that preceded Apollo 11. We learn about all of the people that lost their lives before we finally made it to the moon. It’s got this really gripping scene depicting the failed Gemini 8 mission.

The music is gorgeous and really touching. Again, it’s fairly subdued compared to many other blockbuster movies. It’s got a lot of themes played on the harp, which is fairly unusual but also really ethereal and smooth-sounding. There’s also some Theremin in there too, to tie in with the more traditional sounds of space. I though it worked really well; it always comes in during really emotional scenes. It made me want to write a melody a Theremin, which is how I ended up writing the main melody for ‘She’. I originally wanted to write an ethereal, spatial-sounding track without drums. I ended up with a two-part track; the first part being the ethereal section and the second part dropping the heavier sounds. I wrote the first part a few days after watching First Man. I was filled with the movies’ sense of melancholy and nostalgia.

It also ties into your musical world of escapism and voyages into the unknown.

I like the idea of having a cinematic feel to my tracks. I’m a big fan of Sci-fi and Thrillers, so there’s naturally a bit of these two genres that bleed into my tracks. I’d love to compose a score for a thriller or sci-fi movie. That would be a dream!

Do you remember what first opened you up to these worlds?

For thrillers, I’d say all of David Fincher’s movies. I’ve been a massive fan of his for the longest time. When I was little, I’d watch loads of films that weren’t for my age, and I remember that Se7en really shocked me [laughs], it really left an impression on me. I also used to read a lot of books by Jean-Christophe Grangé, like Blood Red Rivers. My interest in thrillers gradually grew over time.

Your music is pretty dark, even hostile at times, which sets you apart from a number of artists on the Lazerdiscs Records roster, who generally showcase a more overtly ‘nostalgic’ retro sound. Does nostalgia play a role in your creative vision for Sierra? Are you more inspired by the future or the past?

I always turn to the past when I write. I struggle to label myself as ‘Synthwave’, because I don’t exactly fit the criteria, but I love the movement and its relationship to analog sound. I love grain, I love pads and Blade Runner inspired sounds. I love the strong sense of melancholy and the fact that it’s turning to the past. It takes you back to the Eighties and early Nineties. My music isn’t exactly like that, but I always write with a nostalgic mindset. It’s probably why my melodies don’t always sound so happy. Writing music is this super psychological trip where I feel the need to dive back into things. 

To what extent does this sense of melancholy tie into the sounds of Synths? Having written Folk music before, did you feel a shift in your songwriting mood when moving from acoustic arrangements to electronic music?

When I was writing folk, I’d used all sorts of instruments like my guitar, ukuleles and other things, but I feel like there weren’t that many possibilities to add new elements. The cool thing about electronic music is that you can work with Synths or with samples. I love working with samples. You can create an entire world with the simplest sound you’ve dug up. The possibilities are endless and you can add tinges to your sound with the addition of the tiniest of sounds. It’s a lot harder to do this with acoustic instruments. I’d like to work more with samples on my next releases. I’ve been toying with the idea of including my mother’s voice in there, or recordings of my sister playing an instrument; sounds that will trigger flashbacks whenever you listen back.

You mean like aural memorabilia.

Yes, like a memory box. I haven’t done that enough yet, but it’s something I really want to do. I’ve been doing lots of field recordings in the street and during my travels, and I’ve been using this time in quarantine to organize everything into a soundbank. The people listening to the music probably won’t even notice these things, it’s more of a personal thing.

Finishing off, have you any announcements to make or updates to share?

I’ve been working on my live shows and on quite a few remixes. I released a remix of Alex and Tokyo Rose last month, a Lazerpunk remix, and I’ve got a couple more on the way. I’ve started writing again, too. I’m not sure what it’s going to turn into, but it’s in development.

I’m not the super productive type that writes one track after the other. Whenever I dive into the songwriting process, there’s usually a month or two where I basically take inspiration from loads of different things and test new things out, like plug-ins, new synths, new samples… I basically go on a scavenger hunt for ideas. These can be sounds but I mainly work with images. I create mood boards, too. Then, I start developing loops of song ideas. I start looking at which ones I like; which ones I feel like expanding on. I write all of my songs at the same time. That’s basically where I’m at right now. I’m taking my time, no pressure.

Interview translated from French.

Be sure to catch the latest on Sierra via social media:

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This set of absolutely killer producers is enough to turn heads, and we at NRW are honored that they were awesome enough to reimagine Akuma II!

Akuma II (The Remixes) features Lucy In Disguise, Kick Puncher, Straplocked, Power Glove, Grimlin, Tonebox, STRNGR, MAKESHFT, Sierra, and Scattle.

Each artist has brought their own particular flavor and intensity to Akuma II (The Remixes) – however they also manage to stay true to the source material and mix well together in the overall master. The end result is a listening experience unique from other remix albums which can tend to feel disjointed.

We’re absolutely stoked to release this album into the wild – we hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

Grab a listen here!