Gothic BC

Sixth June

We’re catching up with a whole slew of news and live show business off the top of this episode as your regularly scheduled ID:UD programming resumes, and we’re returning to the ever-popular Pick Five format. From powernoise to goth rock we’re each picking some especially long tracks and talking about how that length has shaped our impressions of them. As always, you can rate and subscribe on iTunes, download directly, or listen through the widget down below.

The post We Have a Technical 563: Khan and Hammer appeared first on I Die: You Die.

Pixel Grip
Percepticide: The Death of Reality
self-released

It’s been a little over four years since Pixel Grip’s breakthrough sophomore album Arena was released, a perfect record for that exact moment in time. The Chicago based-trio’s genre-bending mix of EBM, darkwave, and club music, all served with audacious confidence was the ideal soundtrack for a world just emerging from pandemic restrictions and returning to dancefloors en masse. The lengthy wait for a follow-up record and the band’s growing rep as a live act, mean that 2025’s Percepticide: The Death of Reality has some significant expectations attached to it on arrival.

Perhaps as an acknowledgement of, or in direct defiance of those expectations, the record opens with a track that couldn’t be more different from the buzzing, acerbic posture of Pixel Grip’s signature hits “ALPHAPUSSY” or “Demon Chaser”. Where those songs got over on the basis of attitude and whipsmart rhythm programming, “Crow’s Feast” is a soft, reflective cut that finds vocalist Rita Lukea at her most open, likening heartache and disappointment to being eaten alive, while a tasteful and minimal arrangement of synths plays out behind her. It’s hard not to see it as something of a power move and a statement of purpose in one; we already knew that Lukea and bandmates Tyler Ommen and Jonathon Freund can heat up dancefloors, but opening with an exploration of the emotions behind their sexually-empowered anthems changes up the context for the album significantly. Hence why the already familiar single “I Bet You Do” (originally released in 2023) feels different here, its fuckboy-kiss-off lyrics coloured by the vulnerability that preceded it, but without taking the cutting edge off of its chittering synthlines and snappy drums.

That dichotomy, although not as pronounced in its opening tracks, is at the heart of the record. For every sweaty, bass-forward dancefloor burner like “Stamina” (whose “Daddy come over/Fuck me over and over” hook is as memorable as any PG have ever recorded), there’s a slowburn joint like “Noise” where the band dial it back and rely more on atmospherics and melody as conveyed by ghostly synths and trappy cymbal programming. Most intriguing are the moments where Pixel Grip split the difference between grinding it out and confessional soul-baring; “A Moment With God” is as close to pure synthpunk as the band have ever gotten, its drums and bass guitar rolling along while Lukea flips between a wounded croon and dismissive shout.

Percepticide shows more of Pixel Grip than anticipated, and in ways that fit nicely with the bratty, sexually-liberated, nightlife image they’ve been cultivating up ’til this point. It’s got the bangers you’d expect certainly, supplemented with some emotional sincerity and some of their most developed songwriting to date; a record that explores club life, and the emotional fallout of what happens on and off the dancefloor.

Buy it.

Percepticide: The Death of Reality by Pixel Grip

The post Pixel Grip, “Percepticide: The Death of Reality” appeared first on I Die: You Die.

Youth Code
Yours, With Malice
Sumerian Records

Even leaving the general state of the world at large at the door, dark music has undergone a couple of sea changes since the last time we had a proper stand-alone release from LA industrial dynamos Youth Code. Since 2015’s Commitment To Complications Berlin-styled TBM and pop/dancefloor focused darkwave have taken up a massive amount of oxygen in clubs and online (this site included), pushing the sort of abrasive hybrid of EBM and electro-industrial which has always been Youth Code’s sound back to the margins. Perhaps their 2021 collaboration with post-hardcore noise merchant King Yosef makes even more sense in that light, as do their tours with the likes of Code Orange – crowds hardwired for punk and metal are more likely to be on Sara Taylor and Ryan George’s wavelength than those drawn in by Mareaux or Boy Harsher.

Regardless of the recent past, Youth Code’s new EP Yours, With Malice is exactly the sort of reintroduction the broader industrial world needs to Youth Code and the sort of distillation of their strengths long-term fans would hope for. The stuttering, stabbing bass which falls in and out of sync with the drums of opener “No Consequence” is classic Youth Code going right back to their demo days, and “Wishing Well” (not a Terrence Trent D’Arby cover, for what it’s worth) gets over via the sort of subtle swing and funk vintage electro-industrial camouflages within its bricolage.

The changes, such as they are, that Yours, With Malice shows are generally minor production and arrangement tweaks which bring all of the density you’d expect in Youth Code’s most cacophonic and dense tracks into clarity. The whiplash shifts between glitchy beats and more propulsive and straightforward kicks on “In Search Of Tomorrow” feels seamless, and the details in the distorted textures of “Wishing Well” (and really the entire EP) feel more clearly parsable than they might have in the past without sacrificing grit. That consideration’s carried over thematically, too, with “Make Sense” knowing when to have the shuddering drums to drop out and leave the icy disaffection of the programming to match Taylor’s exhausted desperation, or in how the slightly less aggressive, dark electro styled synths which emerge in the second half of closer “I’m Sorry” underscore Taylor seeming to aim her vitriol inward in the EP’s final minutes.

Youth Code’s arrival in 2013 crystalized a sense of dissatisfaction with stale North American legacy acts and the diminishing returns of a club and remix-focused European ecosystem and heralded a new wave of rough and uncompromising EBM and industrial. While the landscape of 2025 is quite different, Yours, With Malice feels like an equally welcome disruption. Times change, Youth Code don’t, and thank fuck for that. Recommended.

Buy it.

Yours, With Malice by Youth Code

The post Youth Code, “Yours, With Malice” appeared first on I Die: You Die.

Tributes to and thoughts about Douglas McCarthy continue to pour out in the wake of the legendary Nitzer Ebb frontman’s passing. In particular, if you haven’t already done so we’d suggest taking a look at friend of the site Ned Ragget‘s thoughts as well as a very informative Quietus pieces looking at the role McCarthy’s upbringing in Essex played in Ebb’s early days. If you’re like us, you’ve been listening to a lot of Ebb and the other music Douglas had a hand in over the past few days; we hope it’s provided you the same comfort and energy it’s always given us.

Black Magnet rolling their way into the semis.

Seeming, “Grindshow”
We are unabashed fans of Alex Reed’s Seeming; since we first heard “The Burial” the post-everything (thematically and musically) project has been close to our hearts, and a salve in uncertain times. So a new Seeming single obviously comes with a lot of expectations for us, so when we say “Grindshow” is unexpected, please understand we mean that in the best possible way: that chopped sample, that funky guitar lick, Alex half-singing, half-speaking in bizarre rhythmic cadence, that wild brass-infused climax, we couldn’t have expected any of it, and we love it.
Grindshow by Seeming

Rotersand, “Private Firmament (I Fell For You)”
Hey, there’s a new Rotersand LP coming this Summer, and we’re very interested by what we’re hearing in debut taste “Private Firmament (I Fell For You)”. The German trio have always had a pleasing way of threading the needle between European electro, synthpop and EBM, and on this single they even bring in some big beat and techno sounds to the table, making it club-worthy and musically interesting. Definitely more focused on rhythm than melody (check that funky clip-clop percussion on the outro), it’ll be real interesting to hear what the rest of the record has to offer come August.
Don't Become The Thing You Hated by Rotersand

Hypnoskull, “Underqualified Enemies”
As was detailed on this site in an analysis of Hypnoskull’s 2019 Maschinenfest performance, there can be a surprising amount of conceptual depth beneath the surface of the veteran Belgian producer’s brand of powernoise. New EP Ich Nicht is no exception, digging not just into the current horrific state of things but the hurdles and inertia those trying to fight against it are often hampered by, as well as the general shoddiness of the supervillains currently fucking our collective shit up in the case of this track. Icy and simultaneously disciplined and utterly chaotic in its rhythms, it’s just what you’d hope for out of Hypnoskull.
Ich Nicht by Hypnoskull

INVA//ID, “Messiah”
Los Angeles’ INVA//ID has been making some good moves in 2025: the release of the dark-electro project led by Christopher Rivera’s LP The Agony Index has been supported by a steady stream of singles, remixes and b-sides, brings us to “Messiah”. Included on the digital single for “Sinner”, it’s a collab between Rivera and industrial metal flamekeepers Black Magnet’s James Hammontree that splits the difference between their sounds and delivers a roiling, crushing heater of a track that recalls Ministry’s “You Know What You Are?” and Pitchshifter circa Industrial. Do a whole album of this and we wouldn’t be mad at all.
Sinner by INVA//ID

Black Magnet, “Better Than Love”
Hey, speaking of Black Magnet the Oklahoma-based outfit has their third salvo of grinding industrial metal on deck. While the cover design of Megamantra and first teaser “Endless” underline the debt the band owes to Godflesh, this new track is something altogether different. Bringing some seriously cocky strut and swagger to industrial metal chugging, it gets the sort of personality Black Magnet have been able to conjure at will right out front in stark contrast to so many of the turgid industrial metal acts still roaming the wastes who can’t shred half as hard as this to boot.
Megamantra by Black Magnet

Zack Zack Zack, “Duvar”
The first new original material we’ve had in a couple of years from Viennese duo Zack Zack Zack has one foot in the steady rockin’ mix of EBM-touched darkwave they’ve been trading in since the beginning, but this number eschews the cool, sultry grooves we normally associate with ZZZ for a much more frenetic and claustrophobic palette which perhaps brings the little hint of Neue Deutsche Welle in their style to the fore with clattering abandon.
Duvar by Zack Zack Zack

The post Tracks: June 16th, 2025 appeared first on I Die: You Die.

Gallows’ Eve
For The Black Birds
M&A Musicart

By the time their first LP, a compilation of existing singles and new material, was released Swedish trio Gallows’ Eve had their particular read on goth on lock. Stormy, anthemic, and decidedly rock, 13 Thorns was as tight and strong a debut as a band could hope for. Follow up record For The Black Birds arrives a little over a year later and doesn’t deviate from the formula it’s predecessor set forth, apart from perhaps blending its different components into a more unified and regulated sound.

Gallows’ Eve’s sturm und drang style lifts from the long tradition of continental, metal-adjacent goth rock, but is much more flexible and, frankly, memorable and hooky than nearly all of the gloom merchants in that vein one might name dating back to the Nephilim. Tunes like “The Damage”, with its seething and measured verses building to a wind-whipped half-time chorus adorned with squalling leads and Andreas Lundberg’s wounded bellow exemplify how much movement and drama Gallows’ Eve can pack into tight four-minute structures. Even when they tilt a bit more towards the Leeds style of goth on opener “Ars Corax” or straight-up butt rock on “We Chase The Dark”, the well-blended instrumentation and slick production leaves no doubt about who’s playing.

Much of the above could certainly be taken as an accurate accounting of 13 Thorns, and really it’s the fact that most of the nine tracks here contain a little bit of each of those core elements, rather than casting out into more specifically thrashing or chamber-goth directions, which distinguishes For The Black Birds from it. The epic (read: slow) balladeering of closer “The Hunger” and “Let The Storm In”, with its lithe synth-string focus, are perhaps the tracks lying the farthest afield from that core sound. Hell, even the degree to which the album’s titular corvids are repeatedly mentioned in the lyrics makes for a consistent thread. Thankfully, a fairly tight run-time and the band’s already established talent for immediate hooks keeps that sense of unity from ever feeling homogenous.

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” isn’t exactly the most compelling pitch for a record, but it’s a strategy that works for Gallows’ Eve. The audience drawn to them by their previous work was likely drawn in by their talent for a style which simply isn’t executed well very often these days, and are likely hoping they keep the hot hand going. Luckily for them, For The Black Birds sits ably beside its predecessor and helps to clarify both Gallows’ Eve’s style and their place as one of the strongest trad goth bands going today. Recommended.

Buy it.

For The Black Birds by Gallows' Eve

The post Gallows’ Eve, “For The Black Birds” appeared first on I Die: You Die.

The passing of legendary Nitzer Ebb frontman Douglas J. McCarthy is the only thing we could talk about on this week’s podcast. Forgive us if this episode is a bit more scattered than usual; news of McCarthy’s passing came out less than an hour before our recording, but we wanted to at least get some of our thoughts about his work and legacy out, as well as personal remembrances. As always, you can rate and subscribe on iTunes, download directly, or listen through the widget down below.

The post We Have a Technical 562: To The Left appeared first on I Die: You Die.

Lead Into Gold
Knife The Ally
Artoffact Records

Knife the Ally is Lead Into Gold’s third album since Paul Barker reactivated the project, and seems to be a culmination of the celebrated producer and bassist’s approach to music in this millennium. Where 2018’s The Sun Behind The Sun referred back to the classic Wax Trax sound that Barker helped define with his work as a producer and member of Ministry during that band’s imperial period, and 2023’s The Eternal Present looked forward into an abstracted version of industrial rock, 2025’s Knife The Ally finds the mid-point between its predecessors; it’s a record that features both clamorous programmed percussion and deep bass rhythms, but departs from standard industrial rock song structures in intriguing fashion.

A track like “Lionize” nicely encapsulates the current ethos of Lead Into Gold; it’s got familiar rolling drums and strategically placed samples of ghostly melodies and noisy squeals, while its bassline and Barker’s weird, keening vocal establish a much chiller and more freeform groove between the spikes of the more aggressive sounds. Elsewhere, the title track opens with a short loop of mechanical noise that becomes the basis for an escalating charge forward, never resolving its movement between verse and chorus, but adding weight with each layer of synths and noise until it all comes to a crashing halt.

Sometimes low-to-the-ground and smooth (the economical industrial dub of “It’s All a Sign”), sometimes strident and forceful (the piston-pumping mid-tempo attack of “From Tomorrow”), Knife the Ally is rarely calm, but conversely rarely chaotic. As with his best classic and modern material, Barker understands the value of centering rhythm and movement in his compositions, never derailing or getting stuck running in circles. Listen to how he turns the lope of closer “Dripping from the Hilt” into a slow motion swirl of textures, half-waltz, half atonal avant-garde modular synth workout, all joined via a simple assembly of drums and bass. Alternately, the abrasive “We Can Be Paralyzed” is all rusted out cymbals and distorted synthlines but stays in a pocket with root-note bass and simple kick-snares. There’s always a lot going on sonically, but the economy of the track times helps it all stay on course; at less than a half-hour in length, no song on the record has time to exhaust itself, or the listener.

Knife the Ally is a record that splits the difference between Barker’s work as a technician and as an artist, and nicely highlights his proficiency in both. While not strictly improvisational and never loose structurally, it does have an almost jazz-like experimentalism in its heart: it’s an exploration of possibilities within established forms that only those who have already mastered their standard shape can undertake. Paul Barker is a musician of that calibre in the world of post-industrial, and this is him showing where he can take the sounds and ideas he helped pioneer.

Buy it.

Knife The Ally by PAUL ION BARKER

The post Lead Into Gold, “Knife the Ally” appeared first on I Die: You Die.

Annnnnd we’re back. With Bruce’s return from his ancestral homeland, and Alex emerging from a sweat induced coma brought on by some unseasonably warm Vancouver weather, the mothership that is www.idieyoudie.com will resume our normal posting schedule after this slightly shortened week. We hope you didn’t miss us too much (we hope you missed us at least a little though), and while we did have plenty of podcasts during the break in written content featuring the likes of Psyched, Bootblacks, and Jason Pettigrew, there’s always something nice about doing the thing that brought us to the dance: writing about new music from the world of Our Thing. And speaking of which, we got a fresh batch of Tracks for your pleasure right below. Enjoy!

Pixel Grip at their most them

Pixel Grip, “Reason to Stay”
Chicago trio Pixel Grip have been on an absolute tear with their recent singles, between the high-key dramatic groove of “I Bet You Do” to the bump-and-ground-to-dust of “Stamina” and the almost sweet uplift of “Split”. Their most recent missive is “Reason to Stay”, a track that finds them exploring both their softer emotional side and their righteous anger in equal measure; the cut starts with a typically funky bassline and vocalist Rita Lukea showing some vulnerability before launching into a cutting attack on someone who pushed her too far. New album has been a long wait, but if the whole lives up to the songs we’ve heard so far, it’s gonna be a burner.
Reason to Stay by Pixel Grip

Rhys Fulber feat. Barkosina, “Only Love Will Save Us”
Rhys Fulber (you don’t need us to run down the man’s credits, you know who he is) has made a real career of doing industrial techno under his own name in recent years, applying much of the programming and sound design that has influenced generations of artists to a genre where he can explore his brutalist tendencies in full. The singles from his Artoffact debut Memory Impulse Autonomy has thus far dipped into some territory that Fulber hasn’t necessarily touched on in his solo productions thus far, finding a nice balance between melodics and vocals and his pounding drums and programming – check out “Only Love Will Save Us”, where the voice of Years of Denials’ Barkosina inhabits an instrumental that is both propulsive and emotive, steadfast and bold without giving up on sincerity and emotion.
Memory Impulse Autonomy by Rhys Fulber

Slighter feat. Craig Huxtable, “Stories to Tell”
The relationship between Slighter’s Colin Cameron and friend of the site Craig Huxtable of Landscape Body Machine and Ohmelectronic goes back for a few years, a case of two artists finding a commonality in philosophy and complimenting one another’s strengths. New single “Stories to Tell” has the detailed production and highly textured ambience that is synonymous with Slighter, while Huxtable’s vocals move further than ever before into emotive, melodic territory. It’s a combination that puts us in mind of Architect, an unexpected but not at all unwelcome territory for these two to explore together.
Stories To Tell (Single) by Slighter x Craig Joseph Huxtable

ESA, “Pound of Flesh”
Maybe it’s weird to use a descriptor for an act as acerbic and aggressive as ESA, but it’s hard to think of a band that has quite the same batting average when it comes to putting out records that consistently deliver, while pushing the project’s envelope. “Pound of Flesh” from the forthcoming Sounds for Your Happiness is pretty much everything we want from an ESA club track; pounding drum programming, Jamie Blacker’s powerful vocals and some deceptively clever arrangement choices that marry the project’s technoid and rhythmic noise roots to modern bass sounds. Play this loud, it’s worth it.
Sounds for your Happiness by ESA

HIDE, “DEEPER THAN DEATH (here on earth) I DESTROY”
Oh shit, HIDE is back, everyone look busy. Jokes aside, we’ve always been fans of the Chicago-based duo, from their earliest more beat oriented material to their current noisy experimentalism, not far off from power electronics but with the cheap shocks replaced with substantial politic and artistic vitriol. “DEEPER THAN DEATH (here on earth) I DESTROY” is pretty much what we’ve come to expect from HIDE, with screeching loops that are neither formless nor arranged in easy sequence, and the excoriating vocals of Heather Hannoura tearing their way through the din. Something to throw if you’re having a good day and want to ruin it a little, or a bad day and need something to scrape off the filth.
DEEPER THAN DEATH (here on earth) I DESTROY by HIDE

SOFT VEIN, “Here Comes the Rain Again”
When we wrote up the most recent album from California depressive post-punk/darkwave act SOFT VEIN, we noted that the project’s bleak outlook was balanced by mild glimmers of hope. The soon to be released EP From Another Room does a fine job building on those glimpses of a brighter light with some remixes from the likes of Twin Tribes and QUAL, and this quite lovely cover of the Eurhythmics “Here Comes the Rain Again”, a fine subject for the project to take on and that matches their melancholic outlook to a tee.
FROM ANOTHER ROOM (EP) by SOFT VEIN

The post Tracks: June 10th, 2025 appeared first on I Die: You Die.

On this week’s episode of We Have a Technical, Alex is joined by Chris Hewitt of Terminus Festival to discuss the history of our favourite annual gathering of bands and fans of Our Thing, as well as the logistics of putting on a big event, the finer points of arranging a line-up, and what acts we’re most excited for in this year’s fest! It’s a great convo with a long time friend of the site, and one that has us excited to pack our bags for Calgary seven weeks out! As always, you can rate and subscribe on iTunes, download directly, or listen through the widget down below.

The post We Have a Technical 561: A Place on Earth appeared first on I Die: You Die.

This month’s We Have a Commentary takes on a special form as Alex welcomes Jason Pettigrew to the podcast, where the longtime Ministry chronicler fills us in on his new 33 1/3 on Ministry’s immortal industrial classic The Land of Rape and Honey. Join us as the former Alt. Press Editor in Chief and alternative music writer extraordinaire outlines how the book came together, who he spoke to (and he didn’t) and his personal feelings on the legacy of one of Al Jourgensen and Paul Barker’s most enduring contributions to our shared musical history. As always, you can rate and subscribe on iTunes, download directly, or listen through the widget down below.

The post We Have a Commentary: Jason Pettigrew on his 33 1/3 for Ministry’s “The Land of Rape and Honey” appeared first on I Die: You Die.

Bootblacks come alive. Photo courtesy of Joey Chaos.

On this week’s episode of the official I Die: You Die podcast, we welcome Barrett and Panther from Bootblacks, who gave us the skinny on their excellent forthcoming LP Paradise on a windy but very scenic day in Vancouver a few weeks back. Details on their recent lineup changes, the genesis of the record and their goals in making it, as well as their philosophy on performance and what they want to get across on stage and on record are all touched on during what we think was an insightful and entertaining chat. Also, Alex gives his scorching hot review of the Ministry show he attended this week (it was good). As always, you can rate and subscribe on iTunes, download directly, or listen through the widget down below.

The post We Have a Technical 560: Bloot-A-Thon appeared first on I Die: You Die.

Psyche on stage, photo courtesy of Joey Chaos

On this week’s episode, we’re taking some time to talk with Canadian synthpop legend Darrin Huss of Psyche, in an interview recorded a few hours before his set at Veboden festival here in Vancouver just a few short weeks ago. It’s a wide-ranging discussion of the band’s origins, legacy, Darrin’s own relationship with his catalogue, Psyche’s fans, and how he approaches addressing the different generations that come to see them in how he performs live. As always, you can rate and subscribe on iTunes, download directly, or listen through the widget down below.

The post We Have a Technical 559: Sanctuary appeared first on I Die: You Die.

Psyche

With Bruce off to the highlands and Alex recovering under a pile of coats in a hall closet somewhere, this week’s episode is a hastily recorded recap of this year’s Verboden Festival from right here in Vancouver. You can hear the strain in the quality of our voices at the time of this recording, as we did plenty of chatting with artists, attendees and assorted friends and well-wishers while taking in an excellent lineup of artists across two venues, representing for the past, present and future of darkwave, EBM, industrial and several related genres. As always, you can rate and subscribe on iTunes, download directly, or listen through the widget down below.

The post We Have a Technical 558: Verboden 2025 Recap appeared first on I Die: You Die.

E.T.
Full Anarchism
self-released
ID3 tagging their latest work as Egalitarianism Today (much like early Foetus records the literal name always changes even if the brand doesn’t), Minneapolis synthpunk duo E.T.’s new LP is a direct and refreshingly irony-free statement of irritation and rage at the current state of things from, as the title not-so-subtly hints, an anarchist perspective. Putting out records since 2018’s fantastically titled Phone Homo‘s given them a sense of confidence and purpose both thematically and musically which pays off well, with their rough and tumble production style takes precedence over specific sub-genres and styles here. The scrapy programming and muffled bass of “Bow Down” feel in-line with “Larva Leaks”‘ over-caffeinated kicks, even though the former is structured far more like a modern TBM banger than the latter’s more classic approach to jumped-up synthpunk. Most of the lyrics do a solid job of framing E.T.’s critique as a matter of personal feeling and larger historical truth, while “Someone Else” interrogates the ways in which capitalism makes each of us small cogs in its larger death engine. Those themes are bracketed with a mix of samples left as voice-mail styled bumpers; in addition to the usual suspects like The Fly, Aliens, and Terminator 2, you’ve also got BLM activists, Reservation Dogs and the immortal Ursula K LeGuin popping in to drop bombs. Solid stuff from the liminal edge between all our dystopic todays and tomorrows.
Full Anarchism by Egalitarianism Today

Nuxx
Bird Brain EP
Synthicide
As noted in the bandcamp liners, NYC electronic artist Nuxx’s new EP for Synthicide Bird Brain is all about reinvention. Aside from shortening the project’s name from Nuxx Vomica, the five whipsmart tracks here are louder and more compact than they’ve ever been before, and find Nuxx stepping out from the layers of reverb and disaffection in her delivery to stand directly in the spotlight. Musically the songs find a bracingly uneasy middle ground between rapidfire half-shouted, half-rapped delivery, raw electro and chopped up rave synths and breaks with results both hypnotic and menacing. The atonal groove of “Break Me” screeches and squelches but is instantly tamed by Nuxx’s bitten-off “I don’t care/I like it” vocal chant, while opener “Bad” finds her riding a raunchy bassline into the ground, acting as her own hypeman, tossing off distorted ad libs while sirens wail around her. The songs are short and sharp by design, allowing for “Done”‘s litany of sick-of-this-shit complaints to land at high impact speeds even before the distorted screeches crash into the mix – just like the refrain on the title track lets you know, Nuxx isn’t fucking around.
Bird Brain EP by Nuxx

The post Observer: E.T. & Nuxx appeared first on I Die: You Die.

We’re talking about records by electronic pioneers who need little introduction in Gary Numan and Uwe Schmidt’s Lassigue Bendthaus, but while the latter’s Matter is an undisputed, hugely influential masterpiece, Numan’s Berserker has a more mixed legacy, hinting at the rough sledding ahead. We’re also chatting loads of festival news (real and hypothetical) on this week’s episode. As always, you can rate and subscribe on iTunes, download directly, or listen through the widget down below.

The post We Have A Technical 557: Budgie’s Over-Under appeared first on I Die: You Die.

Ships In The Night
Protection Spells
Metropolis Records

There’s a sense of warmth to the music on Ships In The Night’s Metropolis debut Protection Spells, and a pleasing familiarity in its song-driven electropop and witchy darkwave. While Alethea Leventhal’s project has existed for a decade at this point, Protection Spells represents a level-up in the Virginia native’s material; the reverie and the hopeful melancholy of the preceding records and assorted singles is still here, but the actual songcraft and production feels tighter and more considered, bringing out the strength of the material and of Leventhal’s own performance as a vocalist.

The change is apparent from lead-off track and single “Blood Harmony”, with its helixes of synth arppegios and simple drum programming, leaving the spotlight Leventhal’s understated vocals. The retiring confidence in her voice grabs the ear, making the most of small changes in tone and mood, never showy, but also never shy or obscure; when she lifts her voice to a slightly higher register during the bridge to the final chorus, the whole song blossoms into a new form without a need for dramatics or vamping. It’s a record full of those kinds of subtle but impactful moves, such as the shifts in phrasing that usher in the chorus of “Inside”, or the choice to perform the lush “Wells of Pain” in a matter-of-fact delivery that still manages sweetness and succor. The trick is in making those canny choices sound natural, which Leventhal does with admirable skill, tasteful and playful in equal measure.

The other obvious change is in the nature of the songs themselves, which feel more solid that any point in the project’s history. Ships In The Night’s preceding releases often suffered from an excess of atmosphere, where despite having some nice melodies, the instrumentation was either too sparse or too wet with reverb to latch onto. Protection Spells keeps it simple and present, adding to the record’s appealing coziness. It does feel a bit strange to call a record this dependent on soft-edged pads and multi-tracked vocals, but the economy of the arrangements and especially the presence of the drums have a grounding effect; “Some of Those Dreams” pulses where it could have laid fallow, and sleeper highlight “No One is Coming” makes a total meal of its opening bassline and kick-snare rhythm track, squeezing every ounce of life out of it before switching to a double time shuffle that brings the song home.

Protection Spells‘ strength is apparent even in one of its few missteps: the wholly unnecessary cover of Depeche Mode’s “Enjoy the Silence” isn’t unpleasant by any means, but feels like the move of a less confident, less complete artist and ends up highlighting how instantly familiar Ships In The Night’s own material is. It’s an imminently listenable record with a broad pop appeal, brimming with a likeable and unshowy charisma.

Buy it.

Protection Spells by Ships In The Night

The post Ships In The Night, “Protection Spells” appeared first on I Die: You Die.

Lana Del Rabies
Le Temps Viendra
self-released

An inscription in Anne Boleyn’s prayer book, and the figure of Boleyn herself, might sound like material suited for a meditative folk or neo-classical concept record rather than a blast of pure death industrial. But then again, Lana Del Rabies has never been a pro forma noise project. Building out from a pair of tracks released in the aftermath of 2023’s incredible Strega Beata, the Les Temps Viendra EP continues Sam An’s impressive exploration of gothic atmospheres and weighty themes of mortality which often reaches beyond the limits of familiar forms of noise.

Like the best LDR work, all five tracks here find equanimity between the sludging percussion and feedback which makes up the bulk of the instrumentation and Am’s vocals, with both halves of the equation expanding beyond the de facto extremity one might expect. “Anne Boleyn” begins things with a tremoring hesitancy, introducing the ambiguity of the queen consort as both innocent martyr and ambitious courtier. “Queen Of The Black Muses” swaddles a Swans-like machine beat in warm feedback and An’s circling vocals, praying to the deep for ascent. The wary but comparatively laidback “Incubus + Succubus” is as close as Am’s ever come to ’90s alt rock-cum-industrial territory, and acts as a breather before the slow sweep of “Tender Creatures”, which slowly builds from windswept drones to draw in churning dirges which sound as though they owe as much to the hurdy-gurdy as power electronics (not for the first time, the similarly historically minded noise of Menace Ruine seems one of the few accurate points of reference for LDR’s work). The titular closer finds Am seemingly occupying the roles of inquisitor and repentant confessor at once, with a shift from furnace blasts of noise to warm pads mirroring the resignation of one at peace with their own mortality, regardless of when the axe falls.

The phrase scrawled by Boleyn in her prayer book which gives Les Temps Viendra its name has fascinated historians, and certainly from a modern perspective can be read as either foreshadowing her sudden fall from favour and trumped-up trial and execution, or the larger historical judgment of her husband and killer, or both. That sort of morbid triple entendre is the sort of tesseract Lana Del Rabies thrives within, modulating between levels of resonance both sonic and emotional. Recommended.

Buy it.

Le Temps Viendra by Lana Del Rabies

The post Lana Del Rabies, “Le Temps Viendra” appeared first on I Die: You Die.

It’s Verboden Fest this weekend here in Vancouver, folks! As always we’re excited about seeing some festival fam we rarely get to hang out with on our home turf, see some familiar favourite acts, and to check out a few completely new to us acts, the latter of which are numerous on this year’s bill. As always, if you’re in town for Verboden, come and say hi to the two goofs introducing bands to the stage.

Our friend and yours, Caustic.

Camlann, “Worship Me”
Whoa, Camlann’s new one does the weird cross genre thing that the Indonesian darkwavers have had on lock for a while now, but this time it’s goth rock and like early 2000s pop-rock. It’s such an odd combination of sounds that aren’t actually totally disimilar (they both rely on big, broadly appealing hooks and fist pumping rhythms), done in the way that the duo only can, which is to say with a certain combination of deadpan sincerity and off-kilter weirdness. The band has had some real strong singles in the last six months or so, a new album in the not so distant future seems inevitable.
Worship Me by Camlann

Wicked Girls, “Big Dumb Banger”
A new collab between Louisahhh and kimifromtheinternet, Wicked Girls’ first teaser from their Good Dogs EP certainly does what it says on the tin in terms of offering up big doofy kicks and a slew of wormy acidic programming. But, as with all things Louisahhh has a hand in, there are certainly layers beneath the most obvious readings which we’re looking forward to gleaning once the full EP is out.
Good Dogs by Wicked Girls (Louisahhh & kimifromtheinternet)

Caustic, “Thirsty Dog”
It’s been a bunch of years since we had a new Caustic single, although Matt Fanale hasn’t ever been far from our speakers between his work as half of Klack, as Daddybear and various other musical endeavours. Enter “Thirsty Dog”, an unexpected Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds cover, remade as a manic electro body blowout, delivered in Caustic’s recognizable growl. And it’s frankly a cover that makes a lot of sense – setting aside the jump from bluesy garage howl to thudding industrial clamor, it’s the sort of self-excoriating screed that has informed some of both Cave and Fanale’s best work. With the B-side “Never Look At You Twice” going even further down the industrial punk road, it’s looking like July’s Fiend should be a real paint peeler.
Thirsty Dog by Caustic

SDH, “Lovers Wonder (Alen Skanner remix)”
Spain’s SDH team up with one of our favourite current remixers Alen Skanner for a new version of their December 2024 single “Lovers Wonder” and its absolutely tremendous. Now if you follow us, you know we’ve spent a lot of time talking about Alen Skanner’s capacity for high-speed Mortal Kombat style techno-body productions, but in this case the song is taken into a much slower, layered and triumphant direction, taking the lovely melancholy synthpop of the original and building it into an epic. For its bombast with the synth choral voices and thunderous drums, it shows a real subtle grasp of craft, ferreting out the melody of the original and recontextualizing it in big, bold, and imminently replayable fashion.
Lovers Wonder (Alen Skanner Remix) by SDH

WLDV, “Bewitched”
We mostly know Spanish producer WLDV for his uncanny ability for unlicensed remixes of dark classics which somehow dodge the jarring edits and levelling issues such projects usually fall prey to, but he’s just as adept at his own original productions. New EP Bewitched is effectively a sandwiching of this spiralling giallo number between an intro and outro, putting all the spotlight on its tightrope walking between classic, misty 70s analogue witchcraft and more modern Boy Harsher school styles.
WLDV – Bewitched EP by WLDV

Laughing Chance, “Champion’s Tear”
Uneremitting, circular, and entirely pure industrial noise. With that sort of description it should come as no surprise that new project Laughing Chance is the work of Chrondritic Sound honcho and all-around noise impresario Greh Holger. Somewhat different from his main noise project Pure Ground in terms of its use of whirring, monomaniacal loops, pieces like this are a reminder of the ear for detail Holger has in sampling and layering clattering field recordings like these (we’re also choosing to interpret the name as a reference to Ric Flair’s immortal 1992 Royal Rumble performance).
Dead Weight by Laughing Chance

The post Tracks: May 5th, 2025 appeared first on I Die: You Die.

Lahorka
Demo
self-released
Oakland/Puerto Rico synthpunk duo Lahorka certainly don’t skimp on the punk in their 5-track 2025 demo, the liner notes of which indicate that all songs were recorded live. That matches up to the rough and ready sound of the songs, which jump between mid-tempo stompers, gabber speed rave-ups and trudging analogue industrial, keeping the arrangements lean and the vocals shouted. “Silencio + Suicidio” is a hyper-speed bit of manic electro, all hissing snares and rapidly rising and ascending 16th note sequences of beeps, a contrast to “Movimientos” which uses a slowed down version of the sound to more sinister effect thanks to its echoing vox and fuzzy synth bass. There’s certainly a sense of arch attitude in the delivery of “Diversión”, where the warbling synths match up to the sarcastically intoned verses, punctuated with yelps and glitches to the kick-snare drum patterns. The band’s wildest moment comes from “Desorden”, where an 18-wheeler’s worth of hardcore kicks eventually build to a buzzing crescendo, burning out seconds before it feels like the track is about to shake itself to pieces. If this is truly a record of what the band is like live, they’ll be one you’ll want to make a point of seeing.
Demo by LAHORKA

Anatoly Grinberg and Mark Spybey
crop-dusting
Ant-Zen
It’d be tempting to say that Mark Spybey has too many irons in the fire given the plethora of collaborations he’s involved with, not to mention mainline Dead Voices On Air material both new and archival, were it not for how handily the veteran experimentalist has been able to maintain the care and quality associated with his work both classic and recent. His latest record with frequent collaborator Anatoly Grinberg touches upon a range of the ambient moods and styles one associates with their preceding works, with an added focus on topography and landscape. The tropical jungle ambiance of “them-again” slowly and beautifully shifts into uplifting, near trance-like pads as the sun filters through canopies of trees, while the otherworldly, wildly pitched vocals (?) which wind through “echoes-sri” feel like a call to prayer on Mars. Dreamy and soupy yet earthy and grounded, these are the sort of moves that seem from the outside to come easily to Grinberg and Spybey yet also reflect mastery of the details of sound design.
crop-dusting by anatoly grinberg and mark spybey

The post Observer: Lahorka & Anatoly Grinberg and Mark Spybey appeared first on I Die: You Die.

The Senior Staff: coming up on 20 years of yukking it up at North American festivals.

We love two things here at ID:UD – dark music festivals, and arbitrary competition. We’re combining those two passions with a mock draft of our own non-existent music fests, drawing from the line-ups of a handful of this year’s real-world parties. Which of our two line-ups seems the most tempting to you? Let us know here or on socials, or give us your own line-up from the same pool. As always, you can rate and subscribe on iTunes, download directly, or listen through the widget down below.

The post We Have A Technical 556: Taking Mushrooms appeared first on I Die: You Die.