Due to increasing public demand, all APOP albums prior to "Exit Popularity Contest" will be available on Spotify and other streaming services starting April 28th.
We will always be a band that favors physical formats over digital ones, but we understand that streaming will help fans access harder to find releases such as "Rocket Science", "Sonic Diary" and "APBL98". "808 Bit" from the APOP side-project Fairlight Children will also be among the albums now available for streaming.
In keeping with the retro spirit of its creation, "Exit Popularity Contest" will remain a physical-only release.
Stephan Groth of Apoptygma Berzerk on Spotify vs. vinyl, his inspirations and the new alter ego. Read it here!
The Best Overlooked Records of 2016
"There are many reasons why an album might not get much press, and most of them don’t have anything to do with whether or not the album’s actually any good. The most common culprit is poor timing—like coveted movie release dates, it’s often a “when it rains, it pours” situation where all the great albums seem to come out on the same day. This forces the cultural media outlets, already pressured by declining ad-sales and declining attention spans, to go with the press release boasting the highest number of streams, downloads or followers."
Read the full article here!
Finally the opus is done!
And there is nothing more to add, please enjoy our brand new web page!
This is for our Norwegian speaking friends: Great review and front cover story in our newspaper Sarpsborg Arbeiderblad!
Exit Popularity Contest will be out on double gatefold vinyl on Oct. 29th – get your hands on this beautiful edition of the album in one of these shops (of course the also have the CD, and some of them even the cassette tape!):
Austria: www.emp.at
Belgium: www.large.be, www.emp-online.be
Czech Republic: www.emp-shop.cz
Denmark: www.cdon.dk, www.emp-shop.dk, www.imusic.dk
Finland: www.cdon.fi, www.recordshopx.com, www.emp.fi
France: www.emp-online.fr
Germany: www.poponaut.de, www.amazon.de, www.outoflineshop.de, www.emp.de, www.infrarot.de, www.mediamarkt.de, www.saturn.de, www.schallhandel.de, www.grooves-inc.de
Ireland: www.emp.ie
Italy: www.emp-online.it, www.audioglobe.it, www.ibs.it
Japan: www.amazon.co.jp, www.tower.jp, www.hmv.co.jp, www.cdandlp.jp
Mexico: www.mecanica.com.mx
Netherlands: www.large.nl, www.shinybeast.nl
New Zealand: www.wowhd.co.nz
Norway: www.platekompaniet.no, www.cdon.no, www.retrovinyl.no, www.bigdipper.no, www.thegarden.no, www.emp-shop.no
Poland: www.emp-shop.pl
Portugal: www.emp.com.pt
Russia: ru.recordshopx.com, www.popmarket.ru
Slovenia: www.emp-shop.sk
Spain: www.emp-online.es
Sweden: www.cdon.se, www.ginza.se, www.bengans.se, www.emp-shop.se
Switzerland: www.emp-online.ch
UK: www.amazon.co.uk, www.emp.co.uk, www.whatrecords.co.uk, www.picclick.co.uk
USA/Canada: www.stormingthebase.com, www.amazon.com, www.amoeba.com, www.vvinyl.com, www.target.com, www.picclick.ca, www.shugarecords.com, www.oldies.com, www.barnesandnoble.com, www.bestbuy.com
"It's Apoptygma Berzerk, Jim - but not as we know it."
APOP reinvents itself - again - with an exciting new sound; different from, but complimentary to, the electro rock future pop stylings of previous releases.
On Exit Popularity Contest (a fix-up of the 12" EPs Stop Feeding The Beast, Videodrome and Xenogenesis), APOP founder Stephan Groth distils the essence of carefully selected pioneers to construct a classic yet refreshingly contemporary sound. Varied and vital, it brings instrumental music back into the spotlight, and after the wildly enthusiastic audience reaction to the sold-out performance in Norway last year, it appears he has tapped into a rich seam of electronic pleasure for a new generation as well as older aficionados.
Always a musical chameleon, Groth pays homage to his roots through emulating the analogue soundscapes of innovators like Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream, Jean-Michel Jarre, Vangelis and Klaus Schulze, and the driving motorik Krautrock rhythms of Neu!, Cluster and La Duesseldorf, all filtered through his own unique Scandinavian sensibility. In doing so he has created a vibrant, colourful 21st century palette on which to blend these classic influences from the Golden Age of electronic music.
Exit Popularity Contest demonstrates an admirable musical purity and sincerity, channeling the best of the past to forge a path into the future.
