Gothic BC

French Police
Bully
self-released

Chicago act French Police have their sound nailed down tight on new LP Bully. While superficially comparable to any number of other bands in the current darkwave scene thanks to their programmed drums, bass guitar forward arrangements and chiming guitar lines, the band apply a lo-fi, smokey vibe to their material, obscuring the edges of individual musical elements in the mix, and capping them with vocals that vacillate between disaffected and longing as the song requires.

While that gives the band an identity and sonic calling card, there’s a lack of dynanism inherent in their approach that makes the songs all blend together. The material on Bully has its moments certainly, but there’s also a lack of hooks and readily identifiable moments track to track. Where there’s a very nice combination of bass and quickly strummed guitar on “Quiero Olvidar”, the song doesn’t have a real chorus or gear shift to hang your hat on – it feels like a collection of similar sections placed one after the other. And sadly that’s a description that could apply to almost every song on the record; “Stress Test”, “Espejo”, “Crush” all just whiz by, a blur of tightly wound bass and drums and reverbed guitar, difficult to describe in detail after the fact.

Which isn’t to say that Bully is entirely without merit. There are a lot of smaller moments which show the band have some ideas and different tools at their disposal; see the funky cymbal pattern and kicks which make their way into “Her”, giving the track a bit of disco drama that buoys its icy synths. “Dance to Play” displays some real songcraft in how it deploys a half-time breakdown that gives its more straight-ahead sections more juice when they return by way of contrast.

How much you’re able to enjoy Bully will likely boil down to how much their particular aesthetic appeals to you; if you like this specific combination of foggy textures and meat-and-potatoes rhythm and movement, you may be able to overlook the dearth of catchy songs and moments to sink your teeth into. Otherwise, its a largely passable but unengaging release from a band who clearly know their identity and how to get it across, but need some stronger material to apply it to.

Buy it.

BULLY by French Police

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Twin Tribes in the garden of earthly delights. Photo: Valeria Rodriguez – @plaguepop

Hot on the heels of their new album Pendulum and some touring for it, Twin Tribes join us on this week’s episode. Luis and Joel offer their thoughts on the band’s cross-generational appeal, getting the balance of synths right, and Latino representation. As always, you can rate and subscribe on iTunes, Google Podcasts, download directly, or listen through the widget down below. 

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Zanias
Ecdysis
Fleisch Records / Metropolis Records

Last year’s Chrysalis marked as big of a musical shift as we’ve ever heard from Alison Lewis across her various projects; on Chrysalis a combination of throwback rave sounds and pop ease was added to Zanias’ already broad purview, while lyrically Lewis was more confessional and optimistic than ever before. Recorded concurrently with Chrysalis, Ecdysis zeroes in on the trippier and more abstract elements of that record, expanding them out to suit the scope and ambition of an entire LP while losing none of their emotional resonance.

Viewing the new LP as a companion to Chrysalis isn’t just a matter of recording schedule, Ecdysis being the molting of the sort of pupa referred to in that preceding LP. Between that etymology and the cover art, seeming to depict nothing less than the astral projection of a kraken, one might begin to wonder if Lewis is taking Zanias into psytrance territory. That’s certainly not the case from a genre perspective, but melodically and thematically the wistful, nostalgic, and emancipatory elements of Chrysalis are compounded here, with the downtempo liquidity of “Swim” (not a Madge cover despite Lewis citing Ray Of Light as an influence on Chrysalis) and the slow-burn, earthy harmonies which build up across “Acacia”.

The emotional effect of the record will likely be open to listeners’ interpretations, in part because of its near total use of non-lexical vocals. Even without clear words to identify its difficult to not subconsciously ascribe linguistic intent to “Mara” given how its vocal melodies utlize the dissonance and resolution which make up verse/chorus structures as it rolls through a loping darkwave progression. The sampled and stabbed approach to vocals taken on “Bloodwood” perhaps recalling stone rave classics like “Halcyon + On + On”, while on “Duneskipper”, Lewis’ vocals are tweaked far beyond the uncanny and into the terrain of birdsong as windy breaks cruise along beneath the multi-planar vocals.

The alternately bright and moody impressionism which guides Ecdysis is a rare thing in darker music these days, let alone music with serious club ambitions, which this LP still has in spades. In an era in which much darkwave is hard-bodied and beat focused, Lewis’ ability to hearken back to a gauzier and more mysterious version of the style while maintaining her rep for razor-sharp sound design and continuing to link of the moment Berlin club sounds back to 90s rave motifs is no mean feat. Recommended.

Buy it.

Ecdysis by Zanias

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Back after a Canadian long weekend, we’re starting off a four-day week of coverage with six new tracks. If you’ve noticed the episode number on recent episodes of We Have A Technical ticking closer to 500, well, so have we. What might be happening on that arbitrary landmark? We have a couple of irons in the fire but want to keep our cards close to the chest, to absolutely mix some metaphors. In any event, thanks for being on board for as much or as little of that journey as you have been, folks.

Hot with the kids right now: Orange Sector?

Orange Sector, “Farben (DSTRTD SGNL TAK TIK Mix)”
Of all the acts to get a sudden boost of popularity by going viral on Tik Tok, who would have guessed long-running German EBM traditionalists Orange Sector? And yet here we are, as their track “Farben” has blown up on the youth-oriented platform, with their Spotify streams going through the roof. That said, the version used in the popular Tik Tok vid that kicked off the craze was slowed, and so taking a book from A Split Second’s playbook (you know, the one that birthed New Beat), here’s an official single release of a version of “Farben” to capitalize on the craze. We’re too old to even pretend to understand how this stuff works, but if it gets folks checking out an act like Orange Sector and maybe some related artists, we can’t complain.
Farben (Single) by Orange Sector

MeLLLo, “You AnD Me”
Marsheaux still seems to effectively be on hiatus, but that hasn’t stopped Marianthi Melitsi, one half of our favourite Greek synthpop duo, from keeping her hand in. The latest track from her solo Melllo project brings all of the heavy-duty, expansive production as well as ear for intoxicating synth hooks which first drew us into Marsheux’s orbit fifteen years ago. Does it bear a striking resemblance to both Donna Lewis’ “I Love You Always Forever” and Marsheaux’s take on “Eyes Without A Face”? Absolutely, but that’s in no way a knock.
You AnD Me by MeLLLo

KYMAVR, “Scorched”
For those missing the glory days of seriously dense, mind-fucking electro-industial, the new EP from Martin Sax’s solo KYMAVR project has you covered. A far cry from the foggy intrigue Sax brings to his work as half of V▲LH▲LL, pieces from Sleep like this thrash through thickets of claustrophobic programming and distorted beats with gnarled aggression and malice. Seriously mean, uncompromising, and satisfying stuff.
SLEEP by KYMAVR

Male Tears, “Sex on Drugs”
Our favourite Los Angeles electronic darkwavers Male Tears come through with some big italo by way of the Pet Shop Boys vibes on new single “Sex on Drugs”. That kind of pop omnivorism shouldn’t be a surprise to those folks who have been tracking the duo; exploring sounds that originate within and without the scene, and is a huge ingredient in their unique recipe for club music. We loved the last LP, and the singles since its release certainly suggest we’ll be into whatever the next big release turns out to be.
Sex on Drugs by MALE TEARS

Assassun, “Hell Here”
The line between Alexander Leonard Donat’s main body of work as Vlimmer and his Assassun side project is often blurred, but a quick pass at Post-Climax, the new LP from the latter, brings it into clearer focus. While Vlimmer’s austere take on post-punk and darkwave is often abrasively sharp and stoic, the fuzz and distortion around the synths and drum machines which make up numbers like this one recall both the roots of synthpunk and the long history of folks from well beyond the usual scope of “dark” synth taking up that mantle over the past couple of decades. Shout out Michelle Pfeiffer!
Post-Climax by ASSASSUN

B. West, “Ex-Fantasy”
You may know Brittany West from numerous projects we’ve covered over the years, including Lié, Koban and Sigsaly. New solo material under the B. West moniker is distinct from anything we’ve heard previously from the Vancouver ex-pat; drawing on the punk, darkwave and techno sounds we’ve heard from them previously, “Ex-Fantasy” lands in synthpunk territory, working some hard-edged melodies to an unrelenting drum beat and some manic synthwork. Very keen to hear the debut LP, due in March.
Ex-Fantasy (single) by B. WEST

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Red Devill
Vida Bandida
Synthicide
Mexican techno-body act Red Deviil have been busy; their new EP for Synthicide follows hot on the heels of their late 2023 LP for X-IMG Tendencias Ocultas and a wide assortment of shorter releases for labels around the globe, all in the last 12 months. While the music on Vida Bandida doesn’t depart significantly from the rough-edged sound that is the hallmark of their productions, it is an excellent primer for duo Guni Ca and BlakG’s vision of aggressive modern body music. Largely instrumental and hard-nosed, the emphasis in tracks like “Beliko” is on impact, with drums and bass programming that hammer their way through the smokey atmospheres that adorn their work, where their minimal arrangements still fill out a mix through increasing rhythmic pressure. That approach can lead to monotony in places, but on cuts like “Rush” new percussive variations and breaks allow for some of the less immediate sounds in the mix, be they pads, samples or reverb tails to move and breathe around the drum hits – the track’s late addition of a rave-ready synthline taking the track to altogether different rhythmic territory. The title track takes their production philosophy to its effective extreme; while the sampled moans, chittering synths and machinegun snare-fills aren’t unique in the Red Deviil toolset, its their assembly and relation to one another that give the track its unique flavour.
Vida Bandida by Red Deviil

Sam Rosenthal
Before The Buildings Fell
Projekt
Dating back to 1986 but receiving a physical repackaging just now, Before The Buildings Fell makes for an intriguing point of contrast with Sam Rosenthal’s most well-known project, Black Tape For A Blue Girl, which was releasing its first material concurrently with this LP of deep and spacey synth experimentation. More imagistic and less confessional than Black Tape, and clearly drawing influence from the work of Schulze, Froese, and other synth pioneers of the preceding decade, it’s an interesting chapter in Rosenthal’s musical development (and certainly a more ambitious one than the slightly better-known and earlier Tanzmusik), but also serves as a snapshot of how the analog ambitions of those earlier masters sat in relation to consumer synth. Oddly, the combination of Rosenthal’s gear and his gauzier interests and ambitions makes Before The Buildings Fell feel oddly prescient of the softer sides of hyperpop and hypnagogic pop; if presented to me blind, I might presume that “Jane” could be something from the most recent The Gold Age Of Wrestling record, for instance. Elsewhere, the journey to the record’s effect is a bit easier to parse; bedroom synth takes on kosmische is effectively the mission statement of the first handful of Pink Dots releases, and closing lullaby (or elegy) “The Amber Girl” in particular seems sympatico with Ka-Spel & co., alighting upon the same combination of hushed intimacy and starry vision.
Before the buildings fell by Sam Rosenthal

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On this week’s podcast we’re using the occasion of Meat Beat Manifesto and Merzbow’s new collaborative record as an opportunity to talk about each project as well as that new record. Both Jack Dangers and Masami Akita’s respective paths and discographies have brought them into proximity with industrial music, but both reach far beyond it, and we’re interested in taking a broader view of each (hopefully with an awareness of the limits of our expertise). As always, you can rate and subscribe on iTunes, Google Podcasts, download directly, or listen through the widget down below. 

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Dermabrasion
Pain Behaviour
Hand Drawn Dracula

Toronto duo Dermabrasion do a solid job of reinvigorating common understandings of post-punk, goth, and the intersections theirin on their debut LP. Simultaneously dishing out seriously heavy and brooding tunes while tossing about all manner of D&D and related imagery, Pain Behaviour is a solid and distinct statement of arrival.

Pleasantly, for a post-punk band interested in exploring gothier territory, Dermabrasion aren’t trying to rehash the Joy Division formula for the umpteenth time, nor is the well picked-over corpse of The Birthday Party being dragged out. Instead, they’re working with a less explored and more muscular form of dark rock which prioritizes heavy bass and thudding machine rock grooves a la Big Black (there’s a kinship with Germany’s Noj in this regard). The level-up that’s happened between the duo’s demo work and Pain Behaviour accentuates this sound. While the preceding material is enjoyable enough, the sheer thudding weight of Pain Behaviour‘s sound makes for a much stronger formal introduction.

Things can be a bit more nimble at times, with “Grim Sister” skipping along a high-wire separating the always contentious dance punk sound and the post-hardcore approach to goth taken up at the turn of the millennium by Heart Of Snow and Antioch Arrow. While heaviness and an overbearing sene of doom are Dermabrasion’s watchwords, they’re smart enough to find ways keep the energy going and not fall into dour spaciousness. Kat McGouran’s vocals are a versatile weapon here, shifting from a husky, forlorn croon on excellent opener “Halberdier” to a frothing-at-the-mouth shriek on “Proving Grounds”.

Terming themselves a “death rock and roll band” makes for a nice squaring of Dermabrasion’s circle. Beholden neither to the more restrictive elements of goth nor the austerity of post-punk (again, we’re talking about a band with tracks named “Magic Missile” and “Goblin Dance” here), the thrashing grooves which make up Pain Behaviour can be parsed by the listener in accordance with their own taste and moods. Recommended.

Buy it.

Pain Behaviour by Dermabrasion

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KMFDM
Let Go
Metropolis Records

How do you even assess the quality of a KMFDM album in 2024? The long-running industrial rock band have remained active for the entirety of their 40 year history (their brief dissolution in the late nineties notwithstanding), and have amassed an audience who are happy to have a new album from them every two or three years regardless of any questions of musical or critical relevance. Really, KMFDM have the freedom to do whatever they want creatively and it’s not going to impact their ability to tour or put out records so long as they stick to the same tongue in cheek, self-effacing attitude that they’ve been working since the late eighties.

With that in mind, new album Let Go is mostly notable for the contrast between the times when Sascha Konietzko and company are playing it safe and those times where they genuinely take a creative swing, successful or not. And admittedly, it’s mostly the former; if what you come to KMFDM for is some chunky guitar riffs, meat and potatoes programming and lyrics that vaguely hint at some broad but not especially substantial sloganeering, the record has you covered. “Push!”, “Erlkonig” and “Totem E. Eggs” (?) are boilerplate KMFDM through and through, uninspired but competent.

Still, there are just enough interesting moments to feel slightly frustrated that a band of their prominence doesn’t try a little harder. Single “Airhead” in which Lucia Cifarelli (a presence in the band now almost as synonymous with their identity as her husband Konietzko) delivers a personal reminiscence of her life tied to a “keep on keepin’ on” inspirational message isn’t a great song, but its overt alternative rock styling makes it stand out. It and “Touch” are moments where the band more closely resemble Garbage, or closer to home The Birthday Massacre, and that’s something different and therefore notable.

Even in some of the more standard types of track you get ideas which could be taken in genuinely interesting directions. The title track mostly plays as a rewrite of any number of cuts from the catalogue, but tosses in a bridge with synth horns and Chic-style guitar that has some genuine disco funk to it. “Next Move” is aimless from an arrangement standpoint, but the vocodered voices, little hints of big beat electro and twinned guitar and bassline are all fun musical elements in search of a better song to be a part of.

Then again, KMFDM’s ubiquity makes Let Go being what it is unsurprising; any band that has declared that they suck so often that it’s become a cheeky point of pride is inured from the slings and arrows of ex-fans, critics, and the like. If you’re someone who has stuck with them for this long, it’s hard to imagine you’ll have much to complain about, while those who jumped ship any time this millennium won’t find a compelling reason to reactivate their fandom. It’s KMFDM, doing it again. And again. And again.

Buy it.

LET GO by KMFDM

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As we enter late winter here in Vancouver, aka the Rainy Season (/jk, every time of year is the rainy season) it kind of feels like the calm before the proverbial storm. With tons of upcoming shows we’ll be attending, the onset of festival announcements for the summer and fall, and the ramp up of the release calendar, it’s important to take a few moments and enjoy how chill things are before everything goes bananas. Then we get a week like this in Tracks and it all hits home, things are gonna get going sooner rather than later.

Cam Findlay fixin’ to Akira Slide his jet-ski through the apocalypse.

Kontravoid, “Reckoning”
Cam Findlay aka Kontravoid is the endboss of modern electronic darkwave, and the announcement of the forthcoming LP Detachment via Artoffact already had us pretty amped. Then the video for “Reckoning” dropped last week and things got real wild. Even before you get to the visual aspect of the clip, the vocal distortion and processing, hard body music bass and rhythm programming has the song earmarked for club play, but when you add in the video… well, just click play below and take it in. Get ready y’all, this is gonna be a big one.

LEATHERS, “Crash”
Shannon Hemmett of ACTORS’ LEATHERS project has been due for an LP for some time, and new single “Crash” has us further anticipating that eventual announcement. Having followed the project since its inception, its notable to us how much Hemmett’s songwriting and performance style has evolved – yes, LEATHERS invokes some of the neon eighties markers of synthwave, but eschews the style-over-substance approach that plagues so much of that genre via the application of solid hooks and melodies. Low-key one of the projects we’re most excited to hear new music from as 2024 rolls on.
Crash by LEATHERS

Kanka Bodewell, “Believe”
Hey, did you folks know that Orange Sector’s streaming has blown up thanks to one of their tracks going viral on TikTok a la Molchat Doma? Us neither, and it’s a fool’s errand to try to make sense of this sort of thing in our opinion. In any case, the timing’s good as one half of the anhalt stalwarts, Martin Bodewell has teamed up with Uwe Kanka of Armageddon Dildos for a bouncy, synthpop-styled electro record. It’s not the first collaboration between the two groups, nor is it Bodewell’s first foray into poppier territory, but there’s nostalgic charm to an upbeat track like this.
Stroboscope by Kanka Bodewell

Meta Meat, “Hue”
Hanging out firmly in the left field of Ant-Zen’s broad experimental purview, French duo Meta Meat offer up their first new cuts since 2021’s Infrasupra on the Voices EP. Pieces like this are a display of Meta Meat’s sharp sense for production and sound design, applying downtempo and technoid structures and methods to decidedly more acoustic and earthy timbres, resulting in a sound which is proximal to but still decidedly different from the always thorny “tribal industrial” tag.
voices by Meta Meat

Imminent, “Mythrality”
Let’s make it an Ant-Zen two-fer! It’s been seven years since we had new music from Olivier Moreau, and even longer since there was non-collaborative material straight from one of the pioneers of power noise. The dropping of “Starvation” from Imminent’s moniker did mark a shift away from some of Moreau’s more aggressive and violent soundscapes, but the title track from forthcoming 7″ Mythrality has the frantic kinetic energy we associate with all of his work, regardless of titling, and the counterpoint between the skittering rhythm programming and the spacey arps on this number picks up right where Cask Strength left off.
mythrality by imminent

Front Line Assembly feat. Bootblacks, “Force Carrier (remix)”
Okay, something is afoot here; a few months ago Front Line Assembly randomly released a remix of one of the instrumental tracks from 2012’s excellent Airmech, the soundtrack to the video game of the same name. That track featuring Ayria, was followed by another featuring labelmates Ultra Sunn, and now a remix of “Force Carrier” by Bootblacks, also of Artoffact. It’s a nice take on the sound of the original figuring in some guitar and modern darkwave texture, and makes us wonder: is some kind of 12th anniversary Airmech release in the works? We’ll be keeping our eyes peeled.
Force Carrier (Remix) feat. Bootblacks by Front Line Assembly

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Psycho Weazel
Mains D’Argile
Iptamenos Discos
The most interesting thing about the explosion of italo-body (that’s the fusion of italo disco and ebm if you haven’t been keeping tabs) for the last few years has been the rapid way that the sound has branched out into other electronic styles, frequently those that were shaped directly by those genres in the late eighties and early nineties. Swiss act Psycho Weazel’s double A-Side single Mains D’Argent embodies that via both its two originals, and their accompanying remixes. If you listen to the title track (on which the duo are ably assisted by genre impressario Curses), you can hear the echoes of italo’s moodier vibe and how it became integrated into synthpop and freestyle, while the remix by Martin & Guy draws the line from those genres into 12″ fuelled dance club culture in the style of Razormaid. Meanwhile, Local Suicide collab “Matra Murena” recalls the ways that retro sounds were rebranded as electroclash in the early 2000s, its dispassionate male and female vocals, big kicks and gated snares settting up some sneaky references to the early stirrings of trance via a big choral melody that contrasts the otherwise sterile mix. No surprise then that the Motor Solo mix and Rafael Cerato mixes follow that trail of breadcrumbs, tossing off builds and breakdowns for maximum DJ mix appeal.
Mains d'Argile (IDI017) by Psycho Weazel

Tati au Miel
Carousel
self-released
A free-roving producer who moves across noise, field recordings, and pure experimentalism for its own sake, one can never anticipate what the sound of a new record by Montreal’s Tati au Miel will be, but a certain emotionally uncanny pull is almost guaranteed. That’s certainly the case with the new Carousel EP, which gets under the skin with chilly ease in less than fifteen minutes. Opener “La Berceuse” is made up of mild chimes, strings, and dreamily cooed vocals, and while those seem quite different from the circuit bending trippiness which makes up follow-up track “Stuck In A Reverie”, both disarm and unsettle. Based on au Miel’s previous work one is almost waiting for the other shoe to drop in the form of some squalling noise wipeout which never arrives. The reedy, hushed breaks and Satie-like piano through which the vocals wind on closing track (and focal point) “My Heart” finish the Carousel ride with a flurry of emotion, though it never rises above a whisper.
Carousel by Tati au Miel

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Skeletal Family

This week’s two albums-formatted episode of the podcast takes up Psyche’s 2001 return to dark dancefloors with the futurepop-flavoured The Hiding Place and Skeletal Family’s stone classic 1985 statement of how tightly dialed in but also expressive and creative early goth could be, Futile Combat. We’re also talking about upcoming shows from Lords Of Acid and Images In Vogue. As always, you can rate and subscribe on iTunes, Google Podcasts, download directly, or listen through the widget down below. 

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Cyberaktif
eNdgame
Artoffact Records

The parallels between Cyberaktif’s sole pre-existing LP Tenebrae Vision from 1991 and the industrial supergroup’s 2024 reunion eNdgame are pretty easy to draw. Like its predecessor, the new LP finds Cevin Key and Bill Leeb reuniting creatively for the first time in years (Leeb having been an early member of Skinny Puppy with Key before the foundation of Front Line Assembly), and like that record it reflects the contemporary musical modes of its creators.

If it’s been a few years since you revisited Tenebrae Vision, it’s an album that feels alternately like the FLA material of the time, and the music that Key and musical partner in Puppy and beyond Dwayne Goettel were exploring in their trippy instrumental industrial project Doubting Thomas. And you get the same vibe from eNdgame: there’s a strong sense of the melodic, highly produced sound Leeb and his long-running collaborator Rhys Fulber have been working in their recent FLA albums, and a healthy dose of the psychedelic, textural dub that has informed Key’s production and compositions in recent years.

It’s a combination of musical ideas that is complimentary, and while very few songs on the record stick out in terms of hooks or composition, it is a pleasurable listen. A cut like “Bitter End” takes the laidback and smoked out sound of Key’s bouncier modern programming and welds it to the sleek cybernetic sound design that has been informing the last decade or so of Front Line’s work, resulting in a pleasing organic groove. Opener “A Single Trace” swings in a different direction, riding the sort of solid bassline and drum programming that have been a hallmark of Leeb and Fulber’s catalogue, the atonal blips of its synth lead and vocodered chorus accented by some subtle bits of stereo sound design which feel very Key-like in their application. It’s all very nicely put together and the songs feel like they have a deliberate construction without succumbing to the sometimes jammy nature of Key’s muse or the formulaic approach that has plagued some of the more recent Front Line albums. On the topic of Leeb’s vocals and lyrics – well, they’re fairly on brand, with Bill tossing off non-sequitur couplets like “Poison Gas/Midnight Mass” and “Path of Doom/Poisonous Moon” in his signature processed growl. That’s basically a feature and not a bug at this point; a line like “Clowns are dancing everywhere/Throwing knives like they just don’t care” is more charming than eye-rolling if you’re a devotee.

There are two standout moments in terms of songs, ones that suggest a bit of a different direction the record might have taken. “The Freight” takes the sort of cinematic vibe that Front Line’s video game soundtracks Airmech and Warmech and molds them into a slow rolling ballad that blossoms with some synthwave flourish, distinct for its gradual build and musical payoff. It feels like something neither Leeb and Fulber nor Key might have done on their own, which is what makes the other truly notable track “Broken Through Time” even more interesting for its reach back to the sound of the project’s immortal club classic “Nothing Stays”. The emotional melody carried via the sort of hard PCM drums and the soft-edged synthlines that informed the golden era of both FLA and Skinny Puppy respectively, its reverie more potent simply because the artists so rarely mine that kind of nostalgia in their own contemporary work.

As it stands, eNdgame is neither a throwback to the early nineties, nor a bold new exploration of the potential of the pairing of musicians that made it. Rarely more than pleasant, but never less either, it speaks to the musical evolution of its creators and the ways in which their artistic trajectories both align and deviate after all these years.

Buy it.

eNdgame by Cyberaktif

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Filmmaker
Hollywood Cult
VEYL

Look, at this point beginning a discussion of the latest Filmmaker record with a comment about how prolific Fauntes Efe’s primary project is has become a cliche, one we’d fall victim to with more frequency if we were able to cover more than a fraction of that work. Hell, production delays have resulted in one pressing of the last Filmmaker record we wrote up only being shipped now, and in the interim at least two full lengths, six EPs, and a couple of compilations have been released, not including new LP Hollywood Cult.

Still ostensibly rooted within Efe’s home turf of throwback techno and EBM, Hollywood Cult is proof positive of just how much grey area there is between the theoretically distinct worlds of techno bosy music and “mutant” EBM. Specific sounds can be picked out belonging to either camp, but the lo-fi delivery and chaotic if not downright arbitrary arrangement and construction of the tracks ends up taking precedence. Like Bryn Jones or Richard D James, one gets the sense that Efe locks onto a groove or intersection of programming which strikes his fancy, rides it for all its worth, and then moves on.

“Shocking Therapy” finely grates acid squelches into such tiny fragments and jams them into such tight spaces between thudding techno kicks that the listener experiences a sensation closer to panicky itching than the expected builds and falls of classic acid. In fact, that sense that the tracks exist to communicate a certain low-fi, smoggy texture rather than a particular genre or rhythmic register, is the overarching sense communicated by Hollywood Cult. The queasy undertow suggested by the echoing synth flutters beneath the surface patina of percussion on “Peacekeeper Ritual” and the red-lined drum loops and heavily-flanged synth sprains of “Criminal Rite” cinch that impression.

As I alluded to off the top, keeping up with Filmmaker’s releases is no small task, and even dedicated listeners may find it difficult to ferret out substantive distinctions from one release to the next. While that can make exercises like this write-up a bit challenging, it also means that just about anything can serve as an entry-point to the catalog. The counterpoint of of holo-tinted, heavily-phased programming and lo-fi kicks and snares (which could either connote 90s EBM or breakbeats, depending on your personal history) on opener “Secrecy” is as good an introduction to Efe’s aesthetic as one is likely to get at this point. Wide-screen ambition, grainy Super-8 charm; that’s Filmmaker.

Buy it.

Hollywood Cult by Filmmaker

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We both had a fun time this weekend playing sets at Coffin Club, part of the broader Restricted Entertainment crew we’ve been rolling with for twenty-plus years now. Would you even believe that happenstance pitted the Senior Staff against one another, with Bruce playing the goth room at the same time Alex was spinning in the industrial room? Kismet. Anyway, as we often talk about on the podcast, having the impetus of writing for ID:UD has immeasurably helped our DJ games, making sure that we’re never falling back too heavily on nostalgia and that we’re constantly field testing brand new tracks for Vancouver floors. Speaking of new tracks…

Houses of Heaven in the house

Soft Crash feat. Ready in LED, “Free Yourself”
What do you get when techno industrial maven Phase Fatale and italo-body king Pablo Bozzi team up? Pure 90’s NRG it turns out. We certainly were getting big nineties vibes from the duo’s preceding release Your Last Everything, but new release (appropriately titled) NRG is basically exactly what it says on the tin; balearic beats, gated pads, and soulful female vocals abound. The connection to Our Thing is getting pretty strained here(although the Alen Skanner remix of “Your Last Everything” on the EP will probs work on your dark disco dancefloor), but we’re not gonna lie, this still hits with us.
NRG by Soft Crash ft. Ready In LED

Rosegarden Funeral Party, “Doorway Ghost”
Between various reviews and podcasts we’ve been discussing the ways in which new crops of bands are linking classic goth tropes with more broadly accessible styles, and few bands remain as skilled yet also unpredictable at that as Rosegarden Funeral Party. The flashy, speedy glam of new cut “Doorway Ghost” has more in common with The Associates than The Virgin Prunes, and the deployment of sax here feels more in keeping with the long-lost “new pop” movement of the early 80s than saxgoth as we commonly understand it.
Doorway Ghost by Rosegarden Funeral Party

Ultra Sunn, “Shake Your Demons”
Poised for a big 2024, Belgium’s Ultra Sunn will have plenty of folks tuning into US, technically their first LP, when it drops in a couple of months. We’ve enjoyed the slinky grooves we’ve come to expect from the band on the first couple of pre-release singles, but the harder and stricter EBM foundation of “Shake Your Demons” doesn’t just show that US might find the duo casting a bit further afield, but also serves as a great counterpoint to the unexpected big beat/breaks sounds which close this one out.
US by ULTRA SUNN

Black Asteroid feat. Actors, “Ashes and Dust”
Sounds like Bryan Black is bringing his venerable Black Asteroid project to Artoffact Records, with a new LP Infinite Darkness due in May. The electro project has made a habit of working with artists we enjoy, from Zola Jesus to Wes Eisold, and the track listing for the new record suggests that’s a trend that will continue, with collabs and contributions from the likes of Front Line Assembly, LOUISAHHH, Speedy J(!!), Ian Astbury (?!), and our very own ACTORS, who bring some of their trademark polished darkwave sheen to single “Ashes and Dust”. Very keen to hear what this record is gonna sound like.
Infinite Darkness by Black Asteroid

Houses of Heaven, “Within/Without”
We got a tiny taste of the new Houses of Heaven a few months back when producer Matia Simovich played some cuts at a DJ set a few months back, and have been waiting for the record announcement since. Unsure how Within/Without will follow from the tense, dubby sound of the California project’s debut Silent Places, but if the title track is an indicator, we’re gonna get lots of percussion, rich synthwork and some of the same slick melodies that caught out ears a few years back. Keep tabs on this one, we have it earmarked for special attention when it hits.
Within/Without by Houses of Heaven

Trauma Phase, “Challange”
Bozzi & co. aren’t the only ones drawing upon brighter retro Euro sounds. Having woven a fair amount of speedy trance and futurepop sounds into their approach to TBM over the past couple of EPs, Poland’s Trauma Phase continue to expand, drawing on some 80s space disco and maybe just a little bit of 90s Eurodance in order to add colour and drama to this stabby number. They were perhaps hampered by their club-friendly debut being released just when the pandemic was breaking out, but as we’ve said before, Trauma Phase remains one of the most overlooked acts consistently putting out great club numbers.
IV by Trauma Phase

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Twin Tribes
Pendulum
Beso De Muerte Records

It’s hard to believe that Twin Tribes’ previous LP of originals Ceremony came out in 2019, if only because the Texas-based duo of Luis Navarro and Joel Niño Jr. have stayed so close at hand during the intervening years thanks to their aggressive touring schedule. One might expect that given what road warriors they’ve proven themselves to be, and the deep dig into formative goth influences that their work has displayed, that new album Pendulum would favor the rock side of the melodic darkwave movement. Somewhat contrarily, it’s a record that delves further into their synth-based work in a fashion that both eschews the current (and some might argue derivative) electro-darkwave sound, and maintains their focus on snappy songwriting.

The latter factor is especially important to Pendulum‘s success; Navarro and Niño Jr. have never been far from a solid hook or a catchy riff, but one of the LP’s particular strengths is the way that those elements are delivered effectively without forgoing the atmospherics that are so central to Twin Tribes’ sound. That means that early cuts like “Another Life” and single “Monolith” come out of the gate hard, establishing their mood with synth bass, pads and leads, their icy tension filled out quickly by guitar filigree and tastefully melodramatic vocals. The clip at which the material moves and the pace it maintains without becoming monotonous is impressive; while there’s not a lot of variation in the drum programming and tempos, Twin Tribes use instrumental variation to keep things distinct – see the strummy rhythm guitar on “Sangre de Oro”, or the washy reverbs and overlapping vocals that fill out the excellent “Eternal”.

That rhythmic consistency matches the bounce and punch of the heavy use of synths (which, again, sit far more in line with the earliest forms of new wave and darkwave than modern dark dancefloors) which distinguish Pendulum from Ceremony. If that record doubled down on the pure goth rock genome in their debut tape Shadows, Pendulum swings (no pun intended) in the opposite direction, expanding on Shadows‘ interest in crystalline synth chimes. This shift in instrumentation is admittedly subtle, and doesn’t ever break from the expectations set by Pendulum‘s predecessors. Note how “Temperance” is almost entirely comprised of synths and programming, save for exactly the sort of spiralling guitar lead we’ve come to expect from the duo, yet feels entirely sympatico with the thudding rock of “Sanctuary”.

With those synths keeping things bright and uptempo (well, at least by Twin Tribes’ standards: this is still goth and darkwave we’re talking about), Pendulum maintains the band’s rep as one of the most immediate and enjoyable acts in their field. Three albums in, Navarro and Niño have their aesthetic on lock, and their broad fanbase will be overjoyed to have a new iteration of it after a hiatus from recording. Recommended.

Buy it.

Pendulum by Twin Tribes

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Lustmord thieving the fire of the gods at Maschinenfest.

Cosmic, stygian, abyssal, impassive, call dark ambient what you will, just don’t call it late for dinner. On this week’s episode we’re discussing how this unique and often deliberately occluded genre emerged out of industrial and has taken on a life of its own. As always, you can rate and subscribe on iTunes, Google Podcasts, download directly, or listen through the widget down below. 

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Gallows’ Eve
13 Thorns
self-released

Even within the relatively narrowly defined world of trad goth rock, there are still subdivisions to be found. The question of whether one swears fealty to the nimble Leeds sound of Sisters, Mish, and March Violets, or to the bellicose sturm und drang of Fields Of The Nephilim can end up splitting hairs to a degree Emo Philips would be proud of. Personally I’m on record as never really getting on board with the Nephilim or their disciples (mostly German, looking in your direction Dronning Maud Land),.but the hooks, polish, and range of influences including the Nephilim brought to bear by Sweden’s Gallows’ Eve on their debut LP has more than overcome those prejudices.

It’s tough to overstate just how direct Gallows’ Eve are in their approach to goth rock. There’s no beating around the bush with darkwave ambiance or post-punk austerity; you’re getting smoke-machine riffs, doubled-up drum machine fills and Djarum-stained bellows from the outset. Thankfully, unlike so many continental acts who take the Nephs’ brooding compositional style to heart, Gallows’ Eve are arriving with plenty of immediate riffs and instantly memorable anthems. That songcraft could be a product of band members’ previous tenures in various metal acts (though the chug of “Just Like Us” owes more to Vision Thing than King Diamond or, god forbid, gothic metal), but regardless of origin, they’re working an impeccable set of sub-styles and markers into those tracks, from the crooning harmonics of Ikon (“Oneirocide”) to the sort of thunderous rhythmic propulsion so many second wave bands attempted but often fell short of (“The Rivers Will”).

The Malmö trio have had a string of singles and EPs over the past couple of years, with 13 Thorns being made up of rerecorded and remastered versions of their extant catalog, plus a handful of new tracks. That slightly prolonged gestation means that by the time tracks like “Born To Die” or “Reign Of Ash” appear here, the band doesn’t just sound tightly dialed in, but has had time to make minor adjustments in instrumentation and focus, allowing elements like the haunted ballroom piano which waltzes through the latter track to have a full and lush body, serving as a nice counterpoint to the speedy riffs. That attention to detail isn’t a substitute for core songwriting, but works to justify 13 Thorns‘ near hour long run-time; sure, three or four tracks in you have a solid sense of the ethos the band’s going to hold to for the rest of the record, but there’s just enough subtleties in the production and ornamentation to keep things from ever getting too repetitive.

I’m not sure that I’ve encountered a debut LP by a trad goth band that felt as bracing, well-assembled, and memorable as 13 Thorns since 2010, which saw the full-length arrivals of both Pretentious, Moi? and Solemn Novena. Make no mistake, this isn’t a record for casuals or the uninitiated; if you can’t handle non-stop pentatonic fretwork or lyrics about drowned loves and blood spilt upon graves there is absolutely nothing for you here. But if, like me, those things are catnip to you (and I’m guessing they might be if you’ve read this far), I’m already confident in saying on the last day of January that no other band will give you them in spades this year the way Gallows’ Eve will. Recommended.

Buy it.

13 Thorns by Gallows' Eve

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Weever
M​é​moires de Guerre
Khoinix

Rennes, France-based producer Weever has about as conceptual a remit for his music as any we’ve encountered in the modern techno industrial landscape. Latest LP M​é​moires de Guerre specifically references 13th century warfare as an inspiration, as portentous a backdrop as any for a genre release that draws from dark ambient, neo-folk and rhythmic noise as part of its sonic makeup. Less concept than context, the project’s medieval framework goes beyond invoking the cost of conflicts (presumably the Hundred Years war given the time frame) as a marker of brutality, and dips into the use of some period instrumentation to fill out its compositions.

This sort of thing is hardly new in the broader scope of Our Thing, with records by projects like Will and countless sketchy martial industrial releases treading comparable ground. Where Weever makes a good job of distinguishing itself on this release is in how it positions itself within the current instrumental industrial-techno sound. The title track has a clanging snare sound that given the low, whirring synths and sickly horn fanfare of the song can read as the clash of swords or hammer striking anvil, but also wouldn’t sound out of place on a more raved-up noisy cyber cut. “L’Escalade de la Violence”‘s mid-track breakdown uses drawn-out synth strings and bits of organic drums as textural devices, colouration that gives the track’s stormcloud grim synth pads the air of the calm before a battle.

If you have your doubts about whether any of this fits with the DJ-oriented end of the sound, the host of remixes that fill out side B of the EP draw some connections that might not otherwise be obvious. Oliver’s remix of “Eclat De Noirceur” adds some rhythmic gating, chirpy synths and a slightly more syncopated rhythm to the song, ever so subtly suggesting the current classic trance revival. CVSUMED goes one better and dips into the sort of rhythmic workout mixed with folk instrumentation that has become the bread and butter of The Devil & the Universe, letting the kick drum eat up a significant amount of musical real estate with ghostly choirs and snatches of hurdy gurdy and strings that occasionally rise above the fray.

Inasmuch as we’ve seen a boom and bust in the number of producers trying their hand at the various strains of techno that border Our Thing, the juxtaposition of electronic music and the medieval that fuels M​é​moires de Guerre is a motif that continues to appear across the history of industrial as a genre. With that understanding, Weever’s exploration of that niche within a niche yields some notable and interesting examples of the formula and its potential for the grandiose and the ominous.

Buy it.

Mémoires de Guerre by Weever

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Hey friends, January is basically over and we’re already in the thick of new 2024 releases. Its weird how some years sneak up on you in terms of bands you like putting out new stuff, by our count there’s about a half a dozen LPs pending (that we know of) by bands we’ve followed religiously on this site over the next 11 months, and probably a whole lot more that we haven’t caught wind of yet. Do you have something you’re particularly keen on coming down the Our Thing pipeline? Let us know in the comments!

Blacklist are back(list)

Urban Heat, “Sanitizer”
We’re bullish on Urban Heat for 2024, and new single for Artoffact should give you an idea why; “Sanitizer” highlights the Texas trio’s combination of club-ready darkwave instrumentation, front man Jonathan Horstmann’s tremendous vocal charisma and the band’s knack for easy to hum hooks. In short, even before you get to their live show (which we are very excited to take in again in the not too distant future) the band have all the ingredients to break out as a crossover act. You’ll be hearing this on playlists and in clubs pretty soon if not already.
Sanitizer by Urban Heat

Autumns, “Your Stream Numbers Don’t Mean Much”
Looks like we have another slab of killer hardware-driven body music to look forward to from Irish producer Autumns this coming weekend. Fluttering pings and electro-styled glitches don’t do anything to soften the absolutely locked in groove on this number. If you haven’t gotten on board with the likes of releases like I Didn’t Mean To Send It Twice and Still In The Thick Of It, there’s no time like the present to catch up with one of the best in the game today.
Take The Bait by Autumns

Chrome Corps, “Body Attestation”
Been a while since we’ve had a new track from Chrome Corps, but it’s very cool to see them return with a cut on Curses’ addendum to his excellent Next Wave Acid Punx DEUX compilation. “Body Attestation” has all the things we dig about the Seattle based project’s take on classic EBM; big fam basslines, some excellent funky rhythm programming, and distinctive punkish vocals that put a bit of a sneer on the package. Great cut, hopefully more will soon follow.
Next Wave Acid Punx DEUX – Secret Cuts by Chrome Corps

Bestial Mouths, “Slitskin (Orphx Remix)”
An act like Bestial Mouths is perfectly suited for a full-length remix release – Lynette Cerezo’s voice and the haunted demeanour which permeates everything about Bestial Mouths can’t be lost even in the most extreme reworkings. Witness Orphx taking their dense, powernoise-inflected style to “Slitskin” on the forthcoming Backbone comp (also featuring mixes by Curses, Lana Del Rabies, IV Horsemen, and a slew of other major names). Cerezo’s anxious fretting over the abject nature of embodiment weaves through the concrete jungle perfectly.
BACKBONE by Bestial Mouths

Blacklist, “The Witching Hour”
Some very snappy goth rock courtesy of the ever impressive aufnahme + wiedergabe. We have to admit we weren’t following Blacklist during their original run back in the early 2010s, and missed out on their Profound Lore released 2022 LP, but we did and do follow singer and guitarist Joshua Strahan’s work both solo and as a part of Azar Swan. And given how toe-tapping and fun this cut is, we’re probably gonna have to go back and rectify our oversight – we’re never gonna turn down new examples of a classically styled goth rock that actually nail the production and songwriting thereof.
The Witching Hour by Blacklist

Uncanny Valley, “Puppet (Wants Remix)”
The deathrock/synthpop nexus isn’t just limited to the likes of Riki or Nuovo Testamento. Attend to the distinctly Canadian synthpop flavour (it’s undefinable but once you learn to recognize it you’ll never miss it) brought by Wants to a tune from fellow Albertans’ Uncanny Valley’s Fevering Stare. Packed with citric brightness and bounce, it’s over far too soon.
Uncanny Valley – Puppet (Wants Remix) by Uncanny Valley

The post Tracks: January 29th, 2024 appeared first on I Die: You Die.

Coming hot on the heels of the dissolution of Throbbing Gristle, Chris And Cosey’s debut LP Heartbeat doesn’t just function as a bridge between their work as experimental enfants terrible and the dreamier, trance-like synthesis their work as a duo would explore, but also between major eras in experimental music. In this month’s commentary podcast we’re examining how the record links the origins of industrial noise to the emerging eras of synthpop and post-industrial music. As always, you can rate and subscribe on iTunes, Google Podcasts, download directly, or listen through the widget down below. 

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