Golden Donna

Mighty Force, the Exeter based record label run by Mark Darby in the 90s and then revived in 2019 has had strong 2022. The latest release is an expanded edition of The Truth About Love, an album by Golden Donna. The album is eleven tracks long (plus remixes) starting out with Date Night and concluding an hour later with Face Yourself and Blue Spirit Calling. It builds on the sounds, textures and atmospheres of 90s ambient techno, a futuristic world of exploration and perfect motion. The Truth About Love was mixed down onto cassette, the tape hiss clearly audible at the start and end of tracks, giving the feel of something taped off late night radio or bought at a boutique shop selling bootleg tapes, poppers and clothes and a table by the door littered with flyers for upcoming club nights. 

The whole album is superb, perfect headphones music for getting lost in while walking or travelling. This one, By A Thread, is eight minutes of squelchy bass, gliding synth melodies and rattling percussion. 

Submerged is seven minutes of ambient techno bliss, knife edge drums and hi hats and long synth chords. The tension increases, synths become more insistent, the drum machine keeps rattling away...

You can buy The Truth About Love at Mighty Force's Bandcamp page, CD or download. The two previous releases on Mighty Force this year are also worth some of your hard earned cash. I've written about Boxheater Jackson's brilliant We Are One album before and that was followed by Pro- Oxidant by Long Range Desert Group (which I haven't written about yet and really should).