Group Rhoda reflects on her latest album Phase 5:
Last month I released an album which took some time, because of the care I wanted to commit to it.
This work started from a place of confusion. I had lost my voice due to lack of practice, grief and a desire to not add to the noise of external projections.
I did not want to start with arbitrarily making sounds. I journaled a bit and then explored sounds that felt relational to the possibilities of an elemental framework, drawing influence from Wuxing (a core Chinese concept describing dynamic, interdependent elemental energy cycles). I was seeking a structure that allowed openness, without moving into a total void, in an attempt to recover and explore myself .
I have countless thoughts and ideas about musical processes. Day to day busyness often keeps this kind of introspection and development only dimly flickering in the background.
I first workshopped this material at the Katabatik Konclave in 2023, alongside my peers. I then refined and shaped it further.
Listening back, I hear things I love, I hear things I would change. It doesn’t really matter because I understand that the objective is self-cultivation. It reflects outward, so I can free myself to consider what might come next, and hope to inspire others to do anything of interest not typically expected of them.
The small acts of support from others means a great deal to me. External validation, showmanship, branding, pretending to be something within the visual centric framework we’ve been edged into seems fickle, or maybe I’m not meant for it. Nonetheless, if I needed to throw down on stage or in a parking lot and test my skill, I could.
It’s been a long path with many peaks and valleys. I learn each time and know that if something is hard it means I’m growing.
I was, and still am deeply inspired by the Bay Area music scenes - the interconnectedness, the solo artists that took chances, the wild women who were open to share their inner worlds, and so much more. The direct and indirect influences permeate into my own expression. I don’t think I fully understood how special certain aspects of those environments were until much of it was further out of reach.
In Berlin me, my boyfriend Lennard (who appears as Len.Leo on a few releases on my label) and our best friend Chris Moore throw a Sunday day time event at Paloma called Gentle Reminder. The next one is coming April 12th with a lineup of guest cuties.
https://t.co/h2VKCDFbKc
SUNSEER by GROUP RHODA 🌋
a deep plunge into electronic dark alleys exploring elemental energies through sound from the album Phase 5 out Feb 13 https://t.co/vcE0mUs32R
We’re kicking off our 2026 schedule with an album by electronic artist Group Rhoda. The album, Phase 5, is set to land on 13 February, and is the fifth full-length work by Group Rhoda, aka producer Mara Barenbaum. https://t.co/dFXE2qJtKk
Group Rhoda returns February 13 with Phase 5, a new LP of synthesizer-driven art-pop, brooding John Carpenter-esque electro & vocoder-driven space disco https://t.co/dFXE2qJtKk
It's been a few days since my set at Honcho Campout dropped. I received a lot of positive feedback. It's one of my proudest moment in my 20 years DJing. I had to unlearn some habits with alcoholism to get here--450 days dry here!
Download is enabled.
https://t.co/6dCapEcpN4
Looking back at our releases of 2025 with a huge smile and lots of gratitude. Thank you for all the support and extra love to our graphic designers Eloise Shir-Juen Leigh and Gwenaël Rattke who provided a feast for your eyes. Excited for what next year will bring, you should be too!
The Downward Spiral was the first CD I ever bought in high school. I didn't know what NIN sounded like but there was a guy I had a crush on that wore their shirts everyday. I told my parents it was for an English class project so they bought it for me.
https://t.co/VDv1IOzKd9
The video for Closer was everything I was obsessed with visually in high school, steampunk, industrial-gothic, Yoshitaka Amano/FF6, and The Crow
https://t.co/i8KKhezbeq
Enter a lushly erotic dream world: “Inner Grace” by Bézier. An ambient epic from the album Decompose @robothustle
🎥: Pink Narcissus by James Bidgood, a cornerstone of queer visual aesthetic whose influence can still be felt over 50 years since its original release. https://t.co/GNhWj8VL9m
Remembering Sylvester (September 6, 1947 – December 16, 1988) who died 37 years ago today 🕊️
Singer and entertainer Sylvester, whose famous falsetto and outrageous stage antics made him a favorite of Gay audiences, died Friday, December 16, in San Francisco of complications associated with AIDS. He was 42.
Sylvester became popular in the late 1970s when he delighted audiences with his gospel-style singing and nightclub routines.
Known as the “Queen of Disco”, Sylvester propelled himself to fame during the disco craze with songs like “Dance (Disco Heat)” in 1978, “You Make Me Feel Mighty Real” in 1979, and “Do You Wanna Funk?” in 1982. His last album, recorded in 1987, included the hit song “Someone Like You.”
Sylvester’s soulful voice garnered him five gold records selling more than 500,000 copies, and one platinum record selling more than 1 million copies.
Sylvester died at home with his mother at his side. In addition to his mother, he is survived by several brothers and sisters. - Melanie Everett
reflecting on all 2025 Dark Entries releases today @NTSlive 12pm PST featuring songs by Q Lazzarus, Coatshek, Corps Diplomatique, Brown Angel, Testpattern, Patrick Cowley, @robothustle and more 📻 https://t.co/HSqK2xzLax
Gentle Reminder are: Chris, Lennard & me (Bézier). We came together after endless nights sharing music. At some point we decided to make something happen and here we are: a Sunday tea dance at Paloma in Berlin.
https://t.co/WPkmQoaRXW
Bezier is multi-instrumentalist Robert Yang, and the Dark Entries label fittingly describes his sounds as “doomed spa music”. Decompose is his latest LP of introspective, brooding work; it spans hi-NRG disco to gritty and unhinged techno, always with a rather metallic, monochromatic edge. From the chant-like title track to cavernous, reverb-drenched pieces and spartan synth cuts, this is a hard-to-date work of electronic invention that packs a lot in. @Junorecords 🧖🏼♂️ https://t.co/GNhWj8VL9m