SOFT RIOT “Alter” EP

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Available in Digipak CD and digital/streaming on Possession Records.

Alter is an extended EP — or a full-length unto itself, depending on how you look at it — acting as a companion piece to the 2026 full-length album Crux by Soft Riot. Not being an entirely stand-alone release in its own right, Alter contains a collection of extended and alternate versions of tracks from Crux, unreleased material from that album’s sessions and other odds and ends.

Opening Alter is the track “Dreamer Dreamer”, which was developed out of a collection of close to twenty sketches that were recorded as demos for the writing process of Crux but ultimately never developed any further. With the completion of that album, further inspiration came to shape out this new track into a fully released composition.

Also included are extended and expanded versions of three tracks from Crux which include “Moving Out Of The Black (Extended Version)”, “Getting To Know You (Extended Version)” and “Ghostwriter (Extended Version)”. More so than previous albums, a number of tracks from Crux were composed over a number of extended freestyle jam sessions which in the end resulted in the final versions of those tracks on that album. These three versions on Alter have more emphasis for the dance floor and for DJs, pulling in un-used elements and alternate arrangements that were explored while honing the tracks down for their album versions on Crux.

“Everything Sounds The Same (Iv/An Vox Version)” offers some different instrumentation and pulls entirely from the recorded vocals of guest singer and underground synth artist Iv/An, a Croatian electronic musician who has had a long history of collaborating with Soft Riot amongst others. His voice can be heard in the choruses of the Crux album version, but is the feature voice in this version.

“You Think You Have Time (You Have No Time — Shadow Version)” is completely stripped down to its core ambience, bringing out the sentimental and reflective atmosphere of the original into a dreamier focus.

Closing out Alter — yet only in some formats of this release — is the lengthy collage piece titled “Off The Cutting Room Floor” which sprawls out at a length of over 25 minutes. For those who are familiar with Soft Riot live shows, this track was assembled as an homage to the incidental film samples and musical interludes used in Soft Riot live shows from the beginning of the artist’s live performance history.

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SOFT RIOT “Crux” LP

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Available in standard edition vinyl LP (orange/black splatter vinyl), Digipak CD and digital/streaming on Possession Records. The original limited edition vinyl LP versions on Minimalkombinat are SOLD OUT.

After the release of the previous album No., a personal decision was made after the exhaustive release promotion and gig schedule — to stop writing for a while and wait for the next creative wave that was sure to come. And after a fifteen month gap that wave came and the result is a collection of songs where many of the tracks just flowed out subconsciously without over-thinking or over-labouring any of the tracks. After a few years of trying to tap into this rich headspace, it could be said he finally found it.

On the surface Crux is a continuation of Soft Riot‘s evolution — a singular and intriguing take on elements of classic synthesizer music that seems familiar on the surface, pulling in elements of synth pop, minimal wave, darkwave, new wave, italo, EBM and post-punk by an artist who has been active in many different guises of the ongoing “post-punk revival” since the eve of the turn of the millenium. With that much time involved in an over-arching sub-genre and seeing many trends and styles come and go, it has allowed the artist to fine-tune his craft with an emphasis on creating a unique sound, especially in a day and age when many peers in the scene tailor their music to be appealing for the dance floor, or to tap into existing fanbases.

Overall the songs on Crux are given space to cruise more, and dip into more minimalism than previous albums — an aspect of the music the artist had struggled with in the past but was crafted into place after years of experience. The whole album works out a strategic balance of space, rhythm, sound design, subtle humour, lyrical interplay, mild psychedelia and an enhancement of the aspects of the music that makes Soft Riot unique within the current underground synth scene.

Starting with the angular and driving rhythmic workout of “Moving Out Of The Black” and closing with the expansive and layered “Ghostwriter” that could end up on any given number of dancefloors, as mentioned before the tracks came about naturally based on intuition. Five tracks in we have the sinister yet sensual “Getting To Know You” — a track the artist would say came about from a dream one night and a subconscious feeling. Some might better know this as magic.

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Finally, there are merch packages for Crux where you can by a physical copy of the record or CD plus an additional SOFT RIOT release at a discounted price.