Gothic BC

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

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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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Dionysus
Theatre Of Dionysus
Urge Records
By Discogs and Spotify’s reckonings, there are somewhere between sixteen and nineteen acts with the name Dionysus, so it might be best to look for the new Aussie post-punk band bearing that moniker by searching for the more distinct name of their EP. Nomenclature aside, the quintet sound tight and aggressive on much of Theatre of Dionysus, with tunes like “Blue Swan” and “Silhouette” adoring thrashing hardcore with just a touch of gothic repose and a vocal style sitting somewhere between The Shop Assistants and Xmal Deutschland. The dreamier side of things comes across well, too, with the opening and closing tracks conjuring wintry plains to mind more than Bachhich debauchery. Between the band’s dialled in approach to the darker side of post-punk and their core hooks and rhythms, they’re worth keeping a tab on.
Theatre of Dionysus by Dionysus

Harsh R
I WON’T WAIT
self-released
The arc of Avi Roig’s Harsh R material has taken him from the project’s early, extremely caustic electronics that bordered on power electronics to a kind of doomy, rueful version of synthpop. It’s one of those gradual changes that you you don’t see coming simply because it happened in gradual, but entirely deliberate fashion; the material on new EP I WON’T WAIT is even more melodic in its fashion than the doomy compositions of last year’s excellent LP SEEK COMFORT. Mind you that’s not to say there’s anything bright or *gasp* uplifting to be found here, moreso that the kinds of emotions that have always fuelled Roig’s compositions – uncertainty, anxiety, general disquiet – are now being expressed in softer if no less impactful fashion. Listen to the low-key bubbling bass, and the smooth edged-synths that float over them on “CAN YOU”, or the simple atonal sequence that pushes “BURY ME” along: minus Roig’s trademark howled vocals on the former, these songs capture the same feeling of the all out assaults that precede them in the catalogue, but with the bludgeon replaced by a very sharp knife, no less damaging in its way. It’s a remarkable roadmap in a project that we’ve followed since its inception, and whose constant evolutions in miserabilism have never failed to reward even as they afflict.
I WON'T WAIT by HARSH R

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Milan’s too sexy for his hat. Laibach live in 2019. Photo by Valter Leben

We’re looking back at specific live performances which left an impression on us in this episode of the podcast. Whether it’s the humanization of icons, extremities of sound or circumstance, or performances which changed the way we think about a particular style or music in general, it’s a very rhapsodic (but hopefully not too nostalgic) Pick Five episode this week. We’re also talking a bit about the tragic passings which hit Los Angeles and the broader dark music world last week. As always, you can rate and subscribe on iTunes, Google Podcasts, download directly, or listen through the widget down below. 

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yelworC
The Ghosts I Called
Metropolis Records

The idea of a new yelworC record in 2024 came as something of a surprise for fans of the formative early 90s dark electro project; while sole member Peter Schiffmann had emerged briefly in the mid-2000s with two LPs (2004’s Trinity and 2007’s Icolation), there have been no additions to the band’s catalogue since. It’s probably not surprising then that The Ghosts I Called is comprised of about a decade’s worth of material going back to 2013, some of which has the air of being dusted off and refurbished for the purposes of release.

Like the early 2000s LPs most of the compositions eschew the band’s rough-hewn charm for a more produced sound that builds out atmospheres and grooves via synths and tasteful sampled orchestration and dialogue samples. While largely instrumental, Schiffmann’s vocals wouldn’t necessarily add a lot to these compositions; tracks like “Babylon’s Code” are structurally more soundtrack-oriented from an arrangement standpoint, locking some heavy percussion loops, processed voices and a chiming dulcimer into a deep groove for four and a half minutes. The rhythm-oriented tracks are usually backed by a sturdy bassline, and range from more distinctly electronic (there’s almost, almost a big beat vibe to “Mutated Tongues” and the breaksy “The Inner Dialogue”) to almost rock-like (“Crucified with Revolution” and “Erased Name – Blind Life” apply guitars for riffs and melody lines to varying degrees).

While all of those variations on the record’s core sound have their charms, there are some moments that make one wish that the project had dipped more into its classic playbook. “The Way the World Ends” has a burbling 16th note bassline and bitcrushed snares that pair wonderfully with the spooky wind instrument that carries its melody, recalling some of the powerfully spooky atmospherics of the band’s early 90s heyday, and “Can’t You See….?” even conjures up some EBM through its bassline and rhythmic chant sample, albeit layering it with some vibrato’d riffing that gives the song a bizarre if not unpleasant a go-go surf rock feel.

Truthfully though, at nearly 80 minutes, The Ghosts I Called suffers from an excessive length that drags down it down. A tighter runtime might have allowed some more of the songs their individuality; as it stands there’s just too many tracks that are variations on similar looping arrangements of drums, synths and snatches of recorded voices. A return to the distinctive dark electro of classics like Brainstorming was never going to be in the cards, but the fact remains that even given some quite nice production and atmospherics, it feels far more like an odds and sods compilation of what yelworC has been up to for the last decade or so rather than a focused and crafted album.

Buy it.

The Ghosts I Have Called by yelworC

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I.X.XI
Not Enough To Survive
self-released

The debut proper of John Freriks’ I.X.XI project might be bookended by some Battlestar Galactica samples and begin with some Die Sektor-styled breaks and vocals, but it soon becomes apparent that Not Enough To Survive‘s handful of motifs and styles from the past twenty or so years of post-industrial club sounds are being used for a very particular effect. That the entirety of the project, from its name on outward, is meant to memorialize Freriks’ deceased sister, frames those sounds in a specific light, but even regardless of origin the variety and execution on display in Not Enough To Survive is impressive.

Grab just about any aggrotech or futurepop record from the mid aughts and you’re likely to find an intro track featuring the sort of elegiac fanfare which begins Not Enough To Survive, but rather than taking those softer orchestral moments to a mere prelude before club bangers, Freriks inverts that formula, with the record’s moments of aggression serving as interstitial moments between its quieter pillars. The slowly unfolding “Deep”, with a plaintive piano reaching out and over a quiet base of pads and percussion, feels far more of a centerpiece in the record as a whole than any of the more abrasive moments which precede or follow it.

In addition to its unlikely album structure, Not Enough To Survive benefits from canny stylistic selection and blending. Linking a NIN-like structure to the more stately and almost chamber-music styled sounds which came out of the post-witch house period, “Gone” is a reminder of how well suited that latter moment and style was to so many listeners’ first points of contact with industrial or goth music (that Brant Showers has production credits on the record is especially instructive with tracks like this). Elsewhere, aggrotech-cum-dark-electro grinds like “Guilt” sit alongside haunted post-rock chamber pieces like “Infinity”, which shifts from an almost “All Cats Are Grey”-like sequence into Mortiis-styled excoriation across its seventeen minutes.

Bringing deeply personal pain and grief to bear on record can have mixed results. For every successful piece which produces a moment of empathy and understanding, there are dozens which fail to communicate what was intended for whatever reason, or are simply so obscure or subtle in their delivery that their significance is occluded by the time they’re heard by outsiders. Regardless of the cathartic or therapeutic ends Freriks might be pursuing with the project, the emotion and strength of the material (not to mention its more unconventional approaches) should register with listeners, whether they know of its origin or not.

Buy it.

Not Enough to Survive by I.X.XI

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Tragic and difficult news coming out of Los Angeles over this weekend, with the deaths of The Soft Moon’s Luis Vasquez, Juan Mendez, aka Silent Servant, and the latter’s partner Simone Ling. While neither of us were friends with anyone involved, many of our friends in LA and around the world were, and are dealing with a tremendous amount of shock and grief. We’ll talk a bit about it on the podcast this week, but for now, having gone through similar experiences closer to home: carry narcan, test your supply if you can, and don’t use without people not using nearby.

Dermabrasion. Photo by Shelby Wilson.

Kontravoid, “For What It Is”
The new single from modern darkwave endboss Kontravoid brings together two of our favourite things to discuss; firstly (and most saliently) the way in which Cameron Findlay’s work has evolved while maintaining its atmospheric, foggy roots, and secondly the sneaky way some of what we’d recognize as futurepop sneaking back into scene music. Regardless of whether those little trancey arps that appear in “For What It Is” are a nod to the goth/industrial club sound of the turn of the century, its just exciting to have a new Kontravoid LP in the pipeline. Detachment drops March 1st on Artoffact, that should be an instant pre-order.
Detachment by Kontravoid

Dermabrasion, “Halberdier”
Keeping things in Toronto but on a very different stylistic tip, the forthcoming debut LP from Dermabrasion looks to be ready to put a fresh spin on the intersections between goth rock, post-punk, and likely hardcore. With far more pure riffage and weighty undercarriage than we ever got from the Bay Area post-hardcore/goth nexus decades back, tracks like this still have plenty of foreboding atmosphere while carrying over some of the most immediate appeals of styles of rock in which goths (mostly) fear to tread. Throw in some songs about goblins, D&D, and medieval weaponry and count us in.
Pain Behaviour by Dermabrasion

Cyberaktif, “Broken Through Time”
If you listened to the cuts from post-industrial supergroup Cyberaktif’s forthcoming comeback LP eNdgame and found yourself wishing for a bit more of the classic sound of the project (and its component members Cevin Key, Bill Leeb and Rhys Fulber), here comes “Broken Through Time” to sort you out. While it’d be a lot to ask these artists to put all their contemporary musical ideas and inspirations on the shelf to do a throwback album, it’s nice to hear them dipping into the classic tropes like dialogue samples, rich melodic arpeggios and heavy hitting drum sounds straight from the playbook. Record drops Feb 2nd. watch this spot for our take.
eNdgame by Cyberaktif

Empusae, “Power Of The Eye God”
Between a high fashion tie-in and the reprisal of his celebrated collaboration with Shinkiro, Empusae’s been all over the map over the last few years, including Japan, as it turns out. Documenting the titular journey, Pilgrimage to Ganriki finds Nicolas Van Meirhaeghe leaning heavily towards the cinematic ambient/ritual side of his sound, though longtime listeners of his noisier fare will still find his deeply textured and evocative approach to sound design.
Pilgrimage to Ganriki by Empusae

Poison Point, “Mysteries in Fire”
Timothée Gainet’s work as Poison Point has been a strong example of how the French scene has been combining the rich history of European minimal, cold, and dark wave sounds into tight, DJ accessible but still song-oriented tracks. We were big fans of 2022’s Poison Gloves for its rich atmospherics and “Mysteries of Fire” from the forthcoming Wandering Echoes is giving us many of the same vibes; a metallic bouncy bassline and busy percussion gives it dancefloor appeal, but Gainet’s vocals and its minor key pads and leads make it gloomy and mysterious.
Wandering Echoes by Poison Point

Gallows’ Eve, “Oneirocide”
Collating and rerecording material from their initial singles and EPs plus adding some new tracks, the first LP from Swedish trad goths Gallows’ Eve gets their talents for arrangements and hooks across quickly. Avoiding the swampy morasses so many continental goth rock acts succumb to, things are kept pretty nimble on 13 Thorns with tracks like this grand and melodic but still reflective stormer. Should appeal to those still jonesing for a new record from Ikon, or for Marc McCourt to reactivate Snakedance.
13 Thorns by Gallows' Eve

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Quick refresher on this semi-regular feature here at I Die: You Die; A Game Called Echo is the thing where we recommend a more recent album you might enjoy if you’re a fan of a classic record. That’s it, basic as it gets.

Front Line Assembly’s Hard Wired (1995), and Kurs’ Muter (2021)

Look, if you’re reading this website you’ll know trying to summarize the importance of any one of the Big Four albums of Front Line Assembly in a single paragraph is a fool’s errand, so for the purposes of this particular column we’ll draw your attention to the balance and maturity held by the last of those records. Learning from some of Millennium‘s excesses, Hard Wired reigns in the chugging guitar and marshals it within Fulber’s propulsive programming, rather than allowing it to run roughshod. Between new styles of sample manipulation and ornamental programming, the record ushers in a whole new host of sounds used to conjure the cybernetic hellscape just on the horizon which FLA had been pursuing for half a decade (and which they’d never stop chasing), while still keeping the whole record’s feel within the brooding, gloomy ethos they’d had on lock for years. Your personal mileage may vary in terms of which Front Line record you feel to be their strongest, but few of them manage to reach Hard Wired in terms of equilibrium.

Hard Wired by Front Line Assembly

We come across a whole lot of records which like to tout their “cyberpunk” credentials, which sometimes amounts to little more than “we glued some old circuits to our guitars and sampled Robocop“. Thankfully, that’s not the case with the debut from Italian act Kurs. More than the narrative threaded through Muter or in the glitchy sounds which augment its classic electro-industrial programming, its the oppressive and menacing mood of the record which links it both to the origins of cyberpunk lit and to attempts to render it in aural form by the likes of FLA. It’s one thing to be influenced by the rhythmic swing of FLA’s basslines, it’s a whole other to tap into the murky grime and smog-filled nights which make up the setting of records like Hard Wired, and that’s where Muter ends up distinguishing itself from so many other cybershaded pretenders to the crown.

Muter by Kurs

Concrete Blonde’s Bloodletting (1990), and Rosegarden Funeral Party’s Martyr (2019)

Nobody really talks about Concrete Blonde’s role as a gateway band into the broader world of goth, largely because aside from the omnipresence of the title track from 1990’s Bloodletting, they didn’t release many songs that fit musically into the tradition of Our Thing. To wit, the Hollywood-based rock combo fronted by Johnette Napolitano were probably closer in spirit to bands like The Pretenders or Fleetwood Mac than Bauhaus or Siouxsie & the Banshees. That said, there’s an aesthetic argument to be made for the particular way Bloodletting‘s downcast mood and Napolitano’s powerful voice work together, taking the tropes of American hard rock and injecting them with a gravitas that is gothic if not strictly goth. And yeah, “Joey” remains a jam the world over (the chances of hearing it at any random karaoke bar you happen into remain high in 2024), but there’s some excellent deeper cuts too, like “The Beast” which isn’t dissimilar from the the rock chug of Vision Thing, or the folky “Darkening of the Light” which sounds kind of like what you’d get if Nick Cave covered REM circa Fables of the Reconstruction.

So if you’re one of the folks who holds a candelabra for that record’s particular brand of rock grandeur, good news, Rosegarden Funeral Party’s excellent 2019 LP Martyr has you covered. Sure the comparison could be made on the basis of frontwoman Leah Lane’s phenomenal singing voice and guitar playing, but there’s more to it; the Texas trio channel a specific mix of longing and ever-so-slightly theatrical angst that is a dead match for the energy that made Bloodletting resonate. Check the way Lane hits the all or nothing hooks of “Mirror’s Image” and the damnably catchy “Pills” out of the park, or how the band effortlessly jumps from the new wave bass and synths of “AMC”‘s verses to its anthemic chorus. Thats a band that knows how to walk on the gloomy side without being a downer, and who has classic rock songwriting on lock.

MARTYR by Rosegarden Funeral Party

The post A Game Called Echo: January 19th 2024 appeared first on I Die: You Die.

One goth rock record and one EBM record: not sure there’s a more down the pipe format for an episode of We Have A Technical than that! Sunshine Blind’s debut and Spark!’s most recent LP prompt discussion of production, vocal range, and all of the usual hair splitting Bruce and Alex are wont to get into. As always, you can rate and subscribe on iTunes, Google Podcasts, download directly, or listen through the widget down below. 

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Dead Voices On Air
:jamiel:spybey:
Re:Mission Entertainment

Industrial, drone, technoid, ambient, Mark Spybey’s had a turn with it all, whether through the Dead Voices On Air project which has been his primary focus since the early 90s or his innumerable collaborative projects with a sizeable percentage of any list of experimental/industrial legends one might care to scribe. In short, he’s absolutely nothing left to prove at this point, yet he’s also been on an incredible run of major latter-era releases, going back at least to 2009’s Fast Falls The Eventide (keeping up with Spybey’s interstitial and archival releases on Bandcamp is now a part-time job akin to being a Pink Dots curator). New LP :jamiel:spybey: might be the product of a relatively recent collaboration, but that only goes to show the equanimity with the broader world of experimental music in which Spybey now seems to reside.

Spybey’s work with psych-rock act The Drood’s Nathan Jamiel goes back at least to a joint Psychic TV cover a couple of years back, and is expanded upon here with both sharing compositional and vocal duties. Were Jamiel’s name not on the proverbial tin, it would be easy enough to chalk up the quavering, feathered post-rock textures of “Drought Stones” or the country-stoned strumming of “Skin Horse” to Spybey’s muse carrying him towards slightly more traditional rock instrumentation than usual, but there’s clearly an easy harmony between the two.

The unapologetically contemplative, autumnal, and dare I say sacred mood Spybey’s music’s tilted towards in the second half of the DVOA catalog remains in place here, with a sense of sanguine reflection running through :jamiel:spybey:‘s arrangements and sounds. This isn’t to say that there’s a willful naivete or desire to use ambience as a numbing narcotic; The straightforward cover of Gira’s “Blind”, presented here relatively free of ornamentation or showy transposition, just shows how well-suited the Dead Voices On Air aesthetic already is to that wounded, beautiful, and utterly haunted song.

It’s tempting to link the combination of earthiness, beauty, lamentation, and, well, basic decency and empathy which has marked the last fifteen or so years of Spybey’s work to his day job as a therapist. After all, it takes someone with a broad, unblinking, and yet ultimately hopeful view of humanity to follow a Swans cover and a piece called “Down With The World” with a straight-faced and optimistic interpretation of “We Shall Overcome”, rendered here as a medieval-styled hymnal. Regardless of the path he’s taken to arrive at it, Spybey now holds over the vast plains of sound explored by Dead Voices On Air with a canny grace and wisdom.

Buy it.

:jamiel:spybey: by Dead Voices On Air

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Varg I Veum
self-titled
SwissDarkNights

Where the last half-decade or so has seen electronic darkwave dominated by a distinctly bouncy and dancefloor oriented sound, there is still a significant number of acts plumbing the style’s icier history, especially in Europe where the cross-pollination of cold wave and minimal synth is palpable. Varg I Veum fit nicely into the latter category, and from their homebase of Naples the duo consisting of Alessandra Policella and Michele Mozzillo (ex of Hapax) have put together a solid collection of tracks for their self-titled LP, balancing both DJ-friendly programming, regal vocals, and some excellent textural and thematic ornamentation from their esoteric and historic influences.

While the promo copy for the album is quick to cite medieval folk as a touchstone, you won’t find any period instrumentation or synthetic recreations thereof here. Moreso it’s in the lyrics which are inspired by, and in some cases drawn directly from, the Norse epics where Varg I Veum explore that aspect of their sound. Whether you can detect that in a passing listen to a snappy dancefloor-ready number like “The Dim Glass” with its plucky synth hook and glassy pads, or through the hard snare hits and quantized bass of the melodramatic “Wolfsbane” is arguable – it’s more present in the stoic, deep-voiced delivery favoured by both members when singing. Those moments like the cinematic “Hoarfrost” with its tinkling synths and and deep pulsing bass contrasted against marshal sounding timpani and brassy synth horns do bring a more teutonic energy to the fore, it’s a shading more than a tangible dimension a casual listener will latch onto.

Not that that’s a detriment at all; Varg I Veum know their way around a darkwave tune, and the application of gothic melancholia and vague menace to give it some dimensionality. “The Seafarer” is an excellent example thereof; its forward momentum is brought to bear via effective rhythm programming, while its ominous electronic textures create a mood of impending disaster, never capsizing entirely, but never feeling far from doing so. That the song leads directly into the very pretty closing number “Briars” whose post-punky drum patterns and slightly more gentle vocals are no coincidence; where the former is building you up for disaster, the latter takes that tension and slowly unwinds it with a subtle but easily grasped resignation, smaller but not less catastrophic in its own sad way.

As more trad European electronic darkwave goes, Varg I Veum’s debut is an excellent example of the genre done right. No excessive drama, nor any straying too deeply into atmospheres that overwhelm effective songcraft, it’s an album that shows a deep understanding of its stylistic mother tongue, and the ways in which it can be both physically and emotionally moving by turns.

Buy it.

Varg I Veum by Varg I Veum

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Okay so it’s halfway through January already, which seems nuts but also kind of comforting? Like, the passage of time is something we’re probably overly concerned with if only because having done this here website for 12+ years we’re now deeply conscious of the ebb and flow of Our Thing, and the unexpected ways in which some aspects of it change and some stay the same. Does this read like we’re stalling because we don’t have any pressing matters to document in this space? God we hope not. On to Tracks!

Dionysus

SPARK!, “66 ton krom”
SPARK! is back, SwEBM is good again! Awoooooo (wolf howl). Jokes aside, we enjoyed the material that SPARK! produced in the years between the release of their definitive statement on quirky pop/body music Hela Din Varld, but the return of that record’s vocalist and founding member Stefan Brorsson to the fold for a new record is giving us reasons to celebrate. Why you ask? Listen to how god damn weird and perfect “66 ton krom” is and then get back to us: instantly one of our most anticipated records of 2024.
66 ton krom by Spark!

Anja Huwe, “Rabenschwarz”
Accompanying a massive Xmal Deutschland reissue campaign from Sacred Bones, we’re being treated to the unexpected reemergence of Anja Huwe; frontwoman for that legendary band and possessor of one of the most powerful voices in the history of goth. Solo LP Codes will be out in early March, and for now we have “Rabenschwarz”, a combo of thrashy goth rock and skittering darkwave electronics, with Huwe’s voice perhaps not as unhinged and careening as it once was, but still with that unmistakable tone.
Codes by Anja Huwe

Dionysus, “Blue Swan”
Speaking of Xmal, it would not shock us at all to learn that some of their records might be in the collections of Aussie newcomers Dionysus, whose debut Theatre of Dionysus dishes out swooning goth atmospheres and straight-forward stormers like this which picks up right where 80s US deathrock left off. Galloping stuff which manages to find equanimity between frenzied rhythms and the sorts of harmonics tunes like this need to add a certain je ne sais quoi.
Theatre of Dionysus by Dionysus

Zanias, “Earthborn”
Alison Lewis comes out of the gates strong in 2024 with the announcement that she’ll be following up her tremendous (and best of 2023 per our Year End coverage) Chrysalis with a new LP entitled Ecdysis. Per her social media posts, this is material drawn from the same inspiration and time period as the last LP, but more abstract in nature, and in some ways a counterpoint to the very direct self-reflection of that record. New single “Earthborn” certainly has that vibe. Mark your calendars.
Ecdysis by Zanias

Dancing Plague, “Fading Forms”
Gotta admit that despite them being a PNW act, we’ve not spent a lot of time with Portland’s Dancing Plague. The announcement of new LP Elogium seems like a good opportunity to rectify that oversight; due in March from the good folks at AVANT!, the two tracks put up as teasers are very much up our alley. Deep male vocals, interesting string programming, and some dancefloor pulse if you wanna spin it out at the club, plenty for us to latch onto here.
Elogium by DANCING PLAGUE

The Golden Age Of Wrestling, “The Chauffeur”
Are you feeling wistful and reflective as we are, dear ID:UD reader, now that we’re a scant seven weeks away from the retirement of legendary pro wrestler Sting? Jeff Cancade, aka Devours, certainly seems to be as the forthcoming Scorpion Deathlock LP from his The Golden Age Of Wrestling side project is named after the Stinger’s signature submission manoeuvre. But you don’t need to have a horse in the Scorpion Deathlock/Sharpshooter debate to enjoy the shimmering ethereal ambience of a piece like “The Chaffeur” (no, not a Duran Duran cover).
Scorpion Deathlock by The Golden Age of Wrestling

The post Tracks: January 15th, 2023 appeared first on I Die: You Die.

Celldöd
Pandoras Ask
Electronic Emergencies
Having been diving headlong into the squelchy, acid-soaked outskirts of EBM for nearly two decades, first in the latter part of The Pain Machinery’s catalog, then with his solo Celldöd project, the thudding, tweaky pulse of opening number “På Alla Sätt” on Anders Karlsson’s new Pandoras Ask EP should come as no surprise. But despite that and the classic EBM swing of follow up track “Nytt Namn” which is a strong reminder of the longstanding legacy of EBM in Sweden to which Karlsson has been no small contributor, there’s a decidedly wounded and uneasy air about the whole affair. That shouldn’t be too much of a surprise; Celldöd was created in name and in practise as a direct comment on Karlsson’s struggle with cancer, after all. That air remains throughout Pandoras Ask‘s brief run-time, from the strained, clenched vocals on the Neue Deutsche Welle-tinged “Ge Upp” to the disquieting key of the bass programming in the closing title track, as if a spider were stretching its legs towards the furthest minor key it could reach with every note.
Pandoras Ask by Celldöd

Alen Skanner
Intruder
self-released
If you’ve become familiar with Alen Skanner’s work via compilation appearances remixes (like the barnburning version of Zanias’ “Simulation” from last year), the sound of Intruder should be instantly recognizable. The Spanish producer’s trademark sound lands squarely in the zone occupied equally by late stage new beat, the harder strains of NRG and good old fashioned EBM; “Narcotic Influence” and “Tekno Syndrome” are both equally good touchstones. It’s a sound that lives and dies by how hard the 16th note basslines rock and how cleanly the percussion lands, an understanding Skanner has clearly internalized and applied across the EP’s 4 tracks. It’s to use orch hits for a big hook as he does on “Armed Police”, but any question of their effectiveness is wiped away by the track’s descending progression and in-the-pocket rhythm programming. The title track makes further use of the vocoded vocal hooks that have become something of a trademark for Skanner, and while they grab the ear with their retro-charm, the song has a sneaky amount of funk thanks to some effective use of swing and the delay-based groove of its bassline. While the 90’s techno vibes are strong throughout, there’s something especially gratifying in hearing how well Skanner has absorbed that school of production’s lessons; check the syncopation of the twin leads on “Total Recall”, or the use of atonal progressions to give “Mechnical Nightmare” a menace that matches its warped metallic pad effects. An all killer release from a producer who has seized on something we were missing, whether we collectively were aware of it or not.
Intruder by Alen Skanner

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Absolute Body Control

An oft-overlooked record by a crucial artist about to make their big move, and a reunion record which is surprisingly of a piece with the artists’ earliest work, despite everything they did in the interim. This is a needlessly wordy way of saying that we’re talking about Leæther Strip’s Science For The Satanic Citizen and Absolute Body Control’s Shattered Illusion on this week’s podcast, as well as a handful of records on the immediate 2024 docket. As always, you can rate and subscribe on iTunes, Google Podcasts, download directly, or listen through the widget down below. 

The post We Have A Technical 490: The Stinger Should Be Fun appeared first on I Die: You Die.

Caustic Grip
Beneath the Skin
Slice Records

No points for guessing the primary sonic touchpoint of Australian electro-industrial project Caustic Grip; even if they weren’t named after the seminal Front Line Assembly LP, sole member Scar Scarlett Shred isn’t shy about drawing inspiration from that bands early 90’s catalogue. Where new mini-album Beneath the Skin distinguishes itself is in how Shreds applies those genre-defining sounds to a variety of song templates, with surprisingly broad results.

Caustic Grip acquit themselves well in the record’s most FLA moments, applying many of the Leeb and Fulber production ideas in effective fashion. Listen to the use of stereo placement of drums and synthlines on “FVTVRE CORPZE”, and the use of sampled synths to create ultratight syncopation across its arrangement – the influence is palpable, but not imitative. You can hear the same kinds of programming and sampling ideas at play on the club-ready title track, where dueling bass parts from the left and right channel come together with concussive force into a snare-driven rhythm that pulses with retro-cyberpunk energy.

Where those tropes are straight from the electro-industrial playbook, it’s interesting to hear Shreds work them into purer EBM numbers, sliding the detail oriented programming and sound design into body music’s muscled structures. “GOING DOWN” has a bass lick and shouted gang vocals in the neo-old school style, the percussive intensity of its hits obscuring the clever shuffling of melodic and rhythmic synthlines across its runtime, upping the track’s depth considerably. “SUBMERGED” goes the full modern mutant EBM route (think PC World or Physical Wash) but gets mileage out of miniscule bits of synth modulation, its repeating motifs given an organic sense of growth and evolution.

Perhaps the record’s most surprising moment comes in final track “ASUNDER”, its lengthy dialogue-sample intro unfolding into a lush ballad, albeit one informed by the proggier side of modern post-industrial music. As a topper for the release, it paints a fuller portrait of the melodic and atmospheric ambitions of the project, taking Caustic Grip further afield from its foundational influences and suggesting the larger musical world it inhabits.

Buy it.

Beneath The Skin by Caustic Grip

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Gorgyra
Hecate
Detriti Records

Representing a wide diversion from Detriti’s usual beat of coldwave and lo-fi body music, the debut release from Iranian/German project Gorgyra was a cryptic and minimalist foray into classical mythology by way of neo-classical and folk instrumentation. Now officially a duo, Gorgyra’s first full length expands upon and fleshes out the project’s tantalizing promise, addressing a range of mythic and philosophical themes via a similarly wide range of musical modes.

Like its predecessor, Hecate links elements of Persian folk and broader neo-classical traditions with the moods and atmospheres (if not the instrumentation) of ritually-minded dark ambient. That in and of itself would be a sufficiently strong foundation for a record, but founding member Azin Zahedi is bringing her pedigrees in the art music and electro-acoustic spheres to full bear here, and between the weathered chorale of “Amor Fati” and the hauntological piano of “Nyx” a host of production and studio techniques add smoke and depth to Hecate.

Gorgyra’s focus remains upon dark renderings of ancient and folk music, however. “Athena”, a ruminative blend of deep drones and nimble hammered strings brings Arcana or Dead Can Dance to mind. On paper, it should feel of a kind with the ritual pulse and flute of “Mithra” (and surely there’s no figure to better represent the link between the ancient worlds of the west and middle east), but while the former has a loping and inviting slink bordering on darkwave, the latter has a stark and sober wariness as the flute casts questing light through the underworld.

While still drawing upon Greek myth and philosophy (with a little bit of Latin sprinkled on for good measure) in its titling, the variety of traditions and production styles Gorgyra trade in crack the gods and fates out of dusty historical frames and give them free and immediate movement in the mind of the listener. But at points the haunting beauty and simplicity of the music transcends production or historical reference. On “Ananke”, a mournful woodwind is recorded in isolation, at a distance, free of ornamentation or post-production. The breath, timbre, and slowly turning tones of the piece stand on their own, out of this time and the past alike.

Buy it.

Gorgyra – Hecate by Detriti Records

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Hope your new year and holidays were festive, safe, and relaxing, kids. As is our wont we used at least some of our downtime to catch our breaths and look a bit further afield at some lists, sites, and genres we don’t have much time for during the regular crush of ID:UD coverage for some off-topic listening over the holidays, but we’ve also been keeping track of material from our side of the fence that was released over the break or which initially slipped past us over the past couple months. In short, we’re well-rested and ready to bring you another year’s worth of darker alternatives, starting with the first Tracks post of 2024!

Curses looks to the sky for answers.

Curses presents Tutto Vetro, “No Mercy”
Recently on the podcast we brought up Curses as an example of one of the producers who took the potential of italo-body to places far beyond simple novelty, and damn if the Ombra International impressario didn’t put the button on that endorsement with the release of No Mercy last week. An EP of tracks that pays tribute to the Valencia sound of the 90s, the four cuts on the EP all have that sweet combination of techno-body and hot NRG sounds that hit us just so. First big instrumental banger of the year right here.
T̷U̷T̷T̷O̷ ̷V̷E̷T̷R̷O̷ : 'No Mercy' by Tutto Vetro, Curses

Varg I Veum, “The Dim Glass”
We were sad to see Italian goth rock act HAPAX pack it in last year, but a new project featuring vocalist Michele Mozzillo is carrying forward at least some of that project’s stern and sober approach. Varg I Veum cleaves in a much more explicitly darkwave direction than anything HAPAX attempted, though, with melodies and atmosphere taken directly from the most classic iterations of that genre. Getting some real Frozen Autumn feels on this bouncy number from the duo’s self-titled debut LP.
Varg I Veum by Varg I Veum

Lana Del Rabies, “Mother (MVTANT remix)”
Lana Del Rabies’ Straga Beata was our album of the year for 2023, if you haven’t heard or read our feelings on the matter you can still find our extensive write up on the first page of the site at the time of this posting. Naturally a remix album is an interesting endeavour when the subject is material this singular, but we’re pretty into the lineup assembled for Becoming Everything: Strega Beata Remixed; Tassel, Plack Blague, Bara Hari, Cruel Diagonals, Bestial Mouths and Hallows are all acts we follow and enjoy and who acquit themselves more than ably here. We’re especially into MVTANT’s body makeover of the harrowing “Mother”, fit for the club or the rave in the abandoned subway station.
Becoming Everything: STREGA BEATA Remixed by Lana Del Rabies

Years of Denial, “Sensory Box”
South Korea’s Gwi Myeon Records comes into 2024 swinging with the absolutely stacked industial techno 鬼面 : VA 01 compilation. Check the line-up: Headless Horseman, IV Horsemen, Codex Empire, Alien Skanner, Mind Matter and numerous others, firing on all mechanical engine cylinders. Peep Years of Denial’s excellent “Sensory Box” and then just snag the whole thing.
鬼面 : VA 01 by Years of Denial

Static Dancer, “In Moment”
This is something a little different than what we’ve come to expect from Pildoras Tapes, but it’s showing us that a) the Colombian label isn’t painting itself into a corner with distinctly grimy or lo-fi body music and b) the South American body music renaissance is approaching the sound from all angles. Perhaps taking a page from recent Bite and Fleisch releases, Colombian producer Static Dancer makes his debut with an EP of cuts like this which link an interest in roots EBM with current retro-rave sounds.
Einflüss by Static Dancer

Termination_800, “Ritual Of Extermination”
After releases for Crave Tapes and Wie Ein Gott, Parisian producer debuts on X-IMG with the The Flesh Is Weak EP, featuring mixes by the likes of Max Durante and Iron Court. TBM’s crossover moment in the UV spotlight might be over, but there’s still plenty of charm and aggression in pieces like this which show off Termination_800’s talents for pinched and metallic production.
The Flesh Is Weak by Termination_800

The post Tracks: January 8th, 2024 appeared first on I Die: You Die.

High-Functioning Flesh: Fresh Young Mutants in 2014.

We’re casting an eye not to the year ahead, but to the year that was a full decade ago here at I Die: You Die. We’re talking about the records which earned top marks from us in 2014, festivals, larger musical trends, and our approaches to our coverage at that time, and considering what has and hasn’t changed in the intervening years. We’re also discussing the tragic passing of Jaimz Asmundson of Ghost Twin. As always, you can rate and subscribe on iTunes, Google Podcasts, or download directly or listen through the widget down below. 

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