Martial Canterel

Updating the icy synths and alienation of the '70s cold wave movement, Martial Canterel is the post-wave project of Xeno & Oaklander's Sean McBride. The Brooklyn, New York resident keeps his approach close to the original style, eschewing sampling and overdubbing and favoring analog synths and multiple-step sequencers. McBride was also among the earliest of the cold wave revivalists, performing his first gig in 2002 and issuing his first cassette, Sister Age, in 2004. Labels such as Xanten, Chondritic Sound, Genetic Music, and Tarantulla Productions released albums including 2005’s Confusing Outsides, 2006’s Drilling Backwards, 2007’s Austerton, and 2008’s Cruelty Reigns Through the Ages, but for 2010’s singles You Today and Occupy These Terms, McBride moved Martial Canterel to Wierd Records, one of the most prominent post-wave imprints. The full-length You Today, which explored the symbiotic relationship between isolation and technology, arrived in early 2011. Navigations, an album of "forgotten tracks, sketches, and unfinished work," appeared on Electric Voice Records in 2013, and Dais released Gyors, Lassú in 2014. In 2017, Medical Records released two additional Navigations albums, as well as a box set containing all three volumes. Later in the year, full-length Lost at Sea was released by Dais. ~ Heather Phares, Rovi