UPDATE
Cold Connection has signed with a new label, Denmark’s Town And Towers Records, and their debut album is back online.
You can find Seconds of Solitude on Bandcamp, Spotify, and other digital platforms.
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I stumbled across a new band over the weekend called Cold Connection that I warmly recommend. Cold Connection is aptly named—they make the kind of cold, mechanical synthpop that I can’t get enough of.
Cold Connection is a Swedish band formed in 2011 by vocalist Daniel Billqvist and musicians Pontus Olsson and Jonas Lindelof though Lindelof has since left the band to pursue his own projects. They released a couple of early tracks on compilations like Foundry Records’ We Love Synthpop series, but it’s taken them quite a while to finish their debut album, Seconds of Solitude, which just arrived on digital platforms.
It was well worth the wait. Seconds of Solitude is beautiful, emotional synthpop that will draw many comparisons to mid-career Depeche Mode before Alan Wilder left the band and Dave Gahan decided he wanted to be a rock star.
Cold Connection clearly embrace the DM influence, particularly in the dark tones and in Billqvist’s vocal cadences. But they infuse the sound with modern futurepop and electro touches like laser blasts, lots of reverb, and whispery vocal effects. Instrumental track “Heatwave” reminds me of recent X Marks the Pedwalk albums.
I have a hard time picking a favorite song. “Strange Kind of Paradise” has a bouncy synthline and lyrics about the world slowly dying. “Trocadero,” which sounds like a Pet Shop Boys title, makes an incredible impact as different vocal styles pulse in and out of the chorus. “Memories” might be the catchiest track on the album and the one that sounds most like something from Violator.
