By Ryan Smith

Regular readers and passersby, it is my distinct pleasure to share with you a recent single release by accomplished electronic musician Andy SHINE. Whether you recognise it or not, SHINE presents us with a brilliant remix of a song from Budapest’s brilliant dark wave/art-pop duo Koldush. The wondrous dark wave revisit was released on the band’s EP, Space Rose, released last year.

SHINE has reconstructed the single in a far more upbeat fashion, creating new backing music and speeding up the arrangement — his ministrations injecting the fantastic tune with an energy that helps lift it to even more incredible heights. The gloriously clean vocals, by Koldush’s Tius and special guest Alexandra, are entirely preserved and are made all the more incredible by SHINE’s beautifully soaring synth-pop re-imagining.

Andy SHINE.

In the mold of the brilliant Depeche Mode, “Only The Rain,” in both of its forms, represents everything I love about dark wave music. The production is nicely modern, yet magically reminiscent of the 1980s, when the genre was in full swing, and the emotion is ironically conveyed through a very calm and smooth deadpan.

“Only The Rain,” the Andy SHINE version can be downloaded via major online outlets, and I also suggest you check out Koldush and their smart and refreshing EP Space Rose as well.

RYAN SMITH spends a great deal of his time under troll bridges shaking his fist and hollering obscenities at the mainstream, but occasionally finds himself on the side of a pop act that the underground has disowned. A schizoid fan for the 21st century? Although he has a diverse musical taste that runs the gamut from black metal to country to most forms of jazz, Ryan’s first love will always be progressive music.