Various - Rock Rendez Vous: Musica Moderna Portuguesa 1985 – 1986

Typically great collection pieced together from the wider series of Musica Moderna Portuguesa parent compilations issued during the mid-80s to document the thriving post-punk and minimal wave scene that emerged around Lisbon club, Rock Rendez Vous. This is very much Dark Entries Specialist Subject country and make no mistake, below-the-radar, off-brand greyscale 80s alterno-pop that favours the eternal wallflower. You may well have heard of none of these nine acts, but you know the feelings they express very well: children of the night, eyes without a face, dancing with a broken heart. And it also explains why The Cure remain so incredibly popular in the Latin parts of the world - their influence is writ large here. Given the 85-86 timestamp, there's inevitably a little lovelorn indie influence seeping in through the cracks, as with the Sarah-goes-to-Dusseldorf feyness of Presce-Oposto, The Cure meets Felt bounce of Essa Entente or the uptight Orange Juice funk of Jovem Guarda. At some point we're going to run out of 80s to mine, but for now the precious metals keep turning up. And of all the Iberian-themed post-punk compilations I've heard this past year, Dark Entries come out on top once again.