Orphx, “Theikos”

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Orphx
Theikos
KR3

Techno and industrial have been musical bedfellows for close to forty years at this point, and during that time few acts have achieved the level of credibility in both scenes as Ontario stalwarts Orphx. The music of duo Christina Sealey and Rich Oddie has always embodied the noisy experimentalism at the heart of each genre, and in the more than three decades they’ve been releasing music they’ve carved themselves a reputation that had them as a key act on foundational rhythmic noise label Hands Productions, tastemaker techno imprint Sonic Groove, and on bills with acts as diverse as Surgeon, Speedy J, Front Line Assembly and Iszoloscope.

New EP Theikos serves as something of a primer for them, encapsulating the variety of sounds and approaches that have informed Orphx’s heavy, ominous clamour. As noted in the Bandcamp liners, the title track was original conceived in 1998 and eventually completed just last year, although it would be hard to pinpoint that in listening; the thick, undulating bass groan and shredded metallic percussion that form a crushingly menacing groove is the kind of song that Orphx have always excelled at since their earliest tapes. Similarly, the way follow-up track “Intercession” foregoes a standard dance music arrangement is very characteristic form them, instead placing its kicks at odd intervals and allowing its layers of synthetic beeps, short blasts of processed static and unintelligible vocal samples.

Interestingly the release also features some retakes of older songs made over in intriguing fashion: “First Light (Remix)” takes the 12″ original from 2009 and pulls apart the pressurized rhythm and noise programming of the original to allow more space in and around its drum hits, giving the song a far more haunting, if no less uneasy mood. Alternately, “Undying (NS Version)” crushes the wiry, articulated synthwork of the original into a dubby, distorted slowboil, all its various sounds eventually merging into one ascending tone before disappearing into the blackness.

Orphx are basically in the victory lap era of their career at this point, and as with much of their contemporary catalogue Theikos is a comment of sorts on the band’s own work, revisiting, revising and reinventing, without ever settling in one pocket for too long. If you’ve never spent much time with them, it should give you a fair idea of their depth and power, while initiates will find those same strengths presented in ways both familiar and new.

Buy it.

Theikos (KR3 Records, 2025) by Orphx

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Tracks: July 21st, 2025

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Hola friends, thanks for swinging by for the traditional Monday Tracks post. As you may be aware, Terminus Festival is upon us, and we will be picking up stakes, taking a jaunt over the Rockies, and enjoying a few days of music, friends and interviews, the latter of which will of course make their appearance on this website in the weeks to come. Because it is not possible for us to post while we are either watching bands, drinking beers, both, or recovering from the same, we will be posting Monday-Thursday this week, and returning Thursday next week with our festival wrap-up podcast, as is traditional. If you see us at Terminus make sure to say hi, otherwise, please excuse this temporary interruption to our schedule.

Hide

Chicago’s Hide. You can’t take them anywhere, can you?

The Tear Garden, “A Return”
We were pretty excited about the teased return of The Tear Garden, the long-running side-project of Cevin Key and Edward Ka-Spel, it having been some 8 years since their last release The Brown Acid Caveat. Even still, our anticipation did not prepare us for the flood of endorphins we got from hearing the appropriately titled “A Return”, the first single from what will apparently be a double LP, release in October on Artoffact Records. It’s got everything you want from the TG’s; electro-psychedelia, obscure poetics, warbling vocals, and most of all, vague sadness of the kind that all their best songs have traded in. The Summer is nice, but this has us looking forward to the Fall.
A Return by The Tear Garden

Corpus Delicti, “Room 36”
This being just the third track from French goth rock legends Corpus Delicti to see release since their reunion gigs began to coalesce into a full comeback several years ago, it’s still tricky to get a full picture of what’s changed with the band on the other side of more than two decades and the Press Gang Metropol project, but between first single “Chaos” and this new number, comeback LP Liminal is shaping up to be a decidedly rough and muscly affair, perhaps taking a slight cue from stateside deathrock while retaining their original flair for drama and panache.

Hide, Grief Party Guest List
Until we live in a world much better than this, we’ll have to content with Hide rolling through town every few years like a plague of judgment brought against us for our sins. It’s been four years since last full release Interior Terror, and while the forthcoming Spit Or Swallow Every Soul Will Taste Death looks like it’ll be a shorter listen released on 7″, there’s no reason to think it’ll pull any punches on the basis of a clattering piece like this which robs the Chicago duo’s bleak approach to percussive punishment of all familiar rhythmic frames and pulls it back into the most cacophonic of industrial’s roots.
SPIT OR SWALLOW EVERY SOUL WILL TASTE DEATH by HIDE

Madeline Goldstein, “Apogee”
We’re gonna be seeing Madeline Goldstein take the stage at Terminus in just a few short days, so it’s real nice to have a brand new track to listen as a warm-up for her set. This particular track features ID:UD fave Matia Simovich not only as a producer, a chair he has filled for Goldstein for some time now, but as a co-writer, so it has all the warmth and smooth sound design you’d expect, as well as the classic synthpop songwriting that has defined much of Goldstein’s oeuvre. Another fine song from an artist who we’re anticipating a hot record from at some point, hopefully soon.
Apogee by Madeline Goldstein

Panic Priest, “To Live Another Day”
Jack Armando’s work as Panic Priest has really moved forward in recent years; the exacting post-punkisms of the first LP giving way to the storming gothic rockers of the sophomore LP Second Seduction, to the grand guignol drama of Psychogoria. What will new album Once Wild have in store? Well, if we’re to take “To Live Another Day” as an example, it’s gonna have some slick new wave in the mix – seriously this has the vibe of any number of classics by acts as varied as the Psychedelic Furs, Images in Vogue, and Glass Apple Bonzai, whose Daniel X Belasco contributed to the album, and this song in particular.
Once Wild by Panic Priest

Dr. Oso, “Total”
The stuttering, lo-fi approach to EBM taken by Argentina’s Dr. Oso – part new beat presets, part football ultras on acid house – first came across our desk with the thoroughly enjoyable Hooligan Beat EP last year. The A-side of his new single keeps that style going with burpy synths kicking off off-kilter drums and an oddly menacing mood despite the simplicity of the whole affair.
Total Control by Dr. Oso

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Observer: Centrifugal Force Machine & SО̄ON

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Centrifugal Force Machine
Object Permanence
X-IMG
Object Permanence is the debut from DJ Court Knight’s Centrifugal Force Machine project, and deals in a vocally driven form of techno-body music. As with a lot of the acts on X-IMG, the 7 tracks on the record are club-ready in terms of tempo, but it’s Knight’s voice that sets them apart in the often instrumental style. A song like “Passing Torment” certainly has the vocal samples, rubbery bass and layers of metallic percussion that you might expect, but its Knight’s processed, sharp-tongued delivery that gives it extra juice, an added touch of acidic texture that makes the whole feel more song-like. In spots that approach hearkens back to classic dark electro, such as on “Despise Inside” where a more minimal arrangement of clacky electronic percussion and FM bass slowly builds to a full gallop, accompanied by grunts, hisses, and hard-bitten syllables. That commitment to hitting hard is such that the release comes close to the border of rhythmic noise in spots; while not drenched in distortion, you can’t deny that “Open/Release” has some of the latter genre’s runaway bulldozer momentum, crashing through barriers on a tightly quantized bassline and thudding kicks until it’s abrupt conclusion. As a debut its a clear statement of intent: move or get run over.
OBJECT PERMANENCE by CENTRIFUGAL FORCE MACHINE

SŌON - Actions Made Audible
SО̄ON
Actions Made Audible
Electronic Sound
Depending on when it occurred, a collab between Jack Dangers and Adi Newton could end up taking on just about any permutation of electronic experimentation given both men’s pedigrees, but emerging now the second release from the SО̄ON project finds both producers in analog psychedelia. Those who’ve tracked Newton’s gradual shift away from the angular deconstruction of classic Clock DVA material and into warmer ambient climes on his own solo releases will be on familiar ground as tremoring tones languidly roll over drones, almost like harmonious windchimes while Alan Watts rhapsodizes on wholeness and separation. While nowhere near as brutally noisy as Dangers’ recent work with Merzbow, he sounds at home in the pure trippiness of Actions Made Audible; the cosmic pings kicking about the soupy mix of “Pharmacopei Of Consciousness” could be traced back to Dangers’ work with dub, but could also just as easily be the result of a shared interest in the earliest of electronic film scoring and mid-century pure experimentation with theremins and other pieces of gear upon their creation. By the time the Eno-cum-Neu! gossamer pulse of closer “Seriatim” heads up towards the astral, there’s been something comforting in hearing these two vets of abrasive noise opt for a more sanguine head-trip.
Actions Made Audible by SО̄ON

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We Have A Technical 567: Never Make Eye Contact

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SARIN

SARIN

This week’s two albums format has us discussing two records separated by a number of years but both abutting upon dark electro even as both artists work to define their own separate aesthetic: Moral Cleansing, the first full-length from TBM producer SARIN, and Contempt, the debut of Tom Shear’s Assemblage 23. We’re also talking the Pixel Grip/Travis Scott debacle, a forthcoming Coil tome, and some rumblings in The Tear Garden. As always, you can rate and subscribe on iTunes, download directly, or listen through the widget down below.

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Lebanon Hanover, “Asylum Lullabies”

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Lebanon Hanover
Asylum Lullabies
Fabrika Records

In the roughly dozen years since Lebanon Hanover’s breakout hit “Gallowsdance” became a goth club and streaming playlist staple, the duo of Larissa Iceglass and William Maybelline have indulged in both the depressive but still danceable version of modern darkwave, and full-on dirges suitable for staring into the middle distance, unblinking. While their last LP Sci-Fi Skies saw them skewing towards the former sound, new album Asylum Lullabies heavily favours the latter; even in its most upbeat moments it’s unnervingly dark and discordant, and to be frank, kind of a downer.

Music to mope to is of course an area in which Iceglass and Maybelline excel, and as always they walk the line between opaque and emotionless and howling despair ably. Where a track like “Sleep”, with its breathy pads and minimally spaced percussion is certainly spiked with the group’s signature graven-voiced affect and wry lyrical outlook (how many acts can get away with a couplet like “No more shame and no more pain / Being up to me just feels so very lame”?), it’s positively jubilant sitting next to “Torture Rack”, a shambling assembly of phased guitar, muted strumming and stop-start bass, never more than an inch from falling apart entirely from the sheer exhaustion of ennui.

Which is not to say that the album is without energy or movement. “Waiting List” hums with tension, its orch hits, synth bass and snappy electronic drums providing some forward momentum, even as a particularly croaky Iceglass wanders through a lyrical wilderness, incapable of resting even in the face of emotional exhaustion. “My Love” finds Maybelline taking the opposite tack, delivering a lighter vocal performance that more suits the bounce of the synth instrumental, although that respite is completely annihilated by companion follow-up “I’m Doing This For You”, where he howls and moans with such conviction that the song’s “Love can build a better path” refrain becomes a desperate plea.

Make no mistake, Asylum Lullabies is Lebanon Hanover at their most convincingly dismal, and it’s by design. If you have any doubt of that, just listen to the album’s concluding track “Parrots”, an atonal screed that ends with an abrupt screech, as ugly and confrontational as they’ve ever sounded. The twist is that it’s also the band at their most vital and genuine, tunneling through surface layers of melancholy into a rich substrata of misery, with just enough pockets of respite to keep it from collapsing from the hopelessness of it all. In short, if you’re up (or down) for some of the most potent gloom going, Lebanon Hanover have you covered.

Buy it.

Asylum Lullabies by Lebanon Hanover

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Sally Dige, “Holding The Sun”

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Sally Dige - Holding The Sun

Sally Dige
Holding The Sun
Dige Records

Berlin by way of Vancouver songwriter Sally Dige’s 2017 LP Holding On stood apart from both the pulsing minimalism of her solo debut and her previous work in Cult Club alongside Laslo Antal of Sixth June. Taking synthpop and darkwave into a jangling, echoing hall of mirrors, Holding On made for a marked contrast from the increasingly club-focused approach which has dominated darkwave, for better or for worse, now for nearly a decade. Coming a full eight years after that record, Holding The Sun offers a brighter read on the styles and sounds in Dige’s orbits, and one which perhaps frames her talents as both a songwriter and singer in an even better light.

There’s no sense beating about the bush; Holding The Sun is a decidedly lighter record than anything we’ve yet heard from Dige, both in its extended forays into dreampop, folk, and the most radio-friendly alternative rock of the 90s. None of these sounds, like the mandolin-like guitar strum which begins opener “It’s You I’m Thinking Of”, or the new age spaciness of “Strength In Me”, would have seemed too far out of reach for Dige at an earlier moment in her discography, but Holding The Sun indulges in those softer shades for almost all of its well-edited half hour, bringing to mind the likes of R.E.M. and the lush hybrid of dreampop and darkwave crafted by Tamaryn.

This shift in style might have only proven to be a lateral aesthetic step were it not for the fact that the clutch of songs on Holding The Sun are almost uniformly the best yet released by Dige, regardless of vulnerability or influence. Immediate but still full of subtle appeal, the sober declaration of “It’s You I’m Thinking Of” and the crafty rise and fall of “I Will Be The Sun For You” measure up to whichever of a number of pop vocal powerhouses one might care to compare them to. The stripped-down nod of “Sow The Path”, with its strums and strings staying low in the mix even as they gather and crest, eschews traditional pop hooks, but that restraint puts all of the focus where it belongs: on Dige’s vocals, which build in power even as they seem to bob and weave through the strings.

It’s rare that we find ourselves writing about music as bright and accessible as Holding The Sun here at ID:UD, but that’s as much a product of the aesthetic paths cleaved by artists after we’ve gotten on board with them as it is our editorial mandate. Dige’s path’s taken her away from many of her peers who’ve prioritized dark club success for the sake of terrain in which, frankly, stronger talents as a songwriter are needed to stand out, and that road less traveled has paid off wonderfully here. It sometimes takes courage to be as vulnerable as this. Recommended.

Buy it.

Holding the Sun by Sally Dige

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Tracks: July 14th, 2025

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We’re getting into the dog days of summer, even out here on the temperate west coast, but that also means the time’s just about nigh for our annual trip over the Rockies to enjoy Terminus Festival, a tradition that’s become as integral to this site as our Year End coverage. As always, we’re looking forward to hanging with festival fam old and new – come say hi if you’re also making the pilgrimage! On with this week’s tracks…

S Y Z Y G Y X

S Y Z Y G Y X

Lebanon Hanover, “Torture Rack”
Between Pixel Grip and now veteran darkwave duo Lebanon Hanouver, we’ve had two prominent bands drop full LPs without much (if any) pre-release hype. Is this a new trend, directly countering the waterfall strategy we’ve seen over the past few years? In any case, a quick skim of Asylum Lullabies points to a sludgier and less polished side of Larissa Iceglass and William Maybelline’s work, suggesting dalliances with no wave and the likes of Lycia and mid-period Swans.
Asylum Lullabies by Lebanon Hanover

Comaduster, “The Less You Know (feat. Seeming)”
What if we were to tell you that two of our favourite acts, both of whom have forthcoming LPs this year did a track together? And that it’s a nice distillation of both of their styles, in a way that contrasts and highlights each of their strengths? Well, we’d obviously be talking about “The Less You Know”, the companion track to Comaduster’s recent single “Way With Me”, featuring none other than Alex Reed, aka Seeming. From the former you get the broken beat, hyper-detailed sound design and arrangement, the latter brings the beautiful lyricism and clarion vocal style, all of which comes together with a lovely sense of offbeat melodics that suits them both well. Check that rocking climax!
WAY WITH ME + THE LESS YOU KNOW by Comaduster

Fractions, “Light”
A slight turn away from the purely monochrome vision of techno showcased on the last few releases we heard from them, this new single from Fractions is far more colourful, while still holding to the same exacting, granular production style which made the Czech duo’s work so immediately appealing on their 2018 debut with Fleisch. Picking up on some cyber-themed sounds in current techno, while also calling back to the use of those sounds on industrial floors of decades past, and even peppering in some post-punk guitar, there’s a lot of dimension in this jumpy cut.
LIGHT [MGX001] by Fractions

Die Sexual, “Desire”
Die Sexual have kept a steady stream of new material coming basically since their first tracks were released back in 2023. Hot on the heels of “Magic Never Dies” comes “Desire”, taken from a three track EP of the same name and it does exactly what the husband and wife Los Angeles duo have always been good at: it’s club-ready, sits nicely at the nexus of modern EBM and darkwave, and has strong sexual elements that are fun and not excessively cartoonish. We’re getting to see them next week here in Vancouver, and are looking forward to catching their live show which we’ve heard good stuff about.
Desire by Die Sexual

INVA//ID, “Dogma”
The particular sub-style of heated and compressed Wax Trax industrial which LA’s INVA//ID have honed in on of late continues to pay dividends. We’ve heard the group shift through a whole slew of iterations of industrial metal across their career, but their solid cover of “Show Me Your Spine” seems to have foresaged a plunge into furious and expertly abraded fusions of synthesis and heavily processed and sampled guitar, like this one from new EP The Path.
The Path by INVA//ID

S Y Z Y G Y X, “Stranger”
We dropped the ball not catching S Y Z Y G Y X’s two spring singles “Climax” and “Sylph”, both of which are part of a very slick style of modern club music that draws from modern club sounds, hyperpop, darkwave and body music in equal measure. The Washington D.C. based artist has a new record Sinner coming August 1st, and we’re def feeling the aforementioned songs, as well as the slightly murkier and more opaque sound of “Stranger”. Adding this to the review-on-release queue immediately.
SINNER by S Y Z Y G Y X

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Observer: Ghosts for Comfort & Mjöldryga

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Ghosts for Comfort
Serpent
self-released
You could absolutely be forgiven for thinking that the music from UK duo Ghosts for Comfort’s new EP was some recently unearthed and polished up dark electro demo from roughly 30 years ago. Everything, from the straightforward bass programming, to the plinky melodies and digital pads, to the pinched vocals (which are particularly reminiscent of early X Marks the Pedwalk) to the thudding, reverbed drums, screams 90s dark electro. That’s not a criticism mind you; Serpent is a refreshingly straight take on the style made popular by Zoth Ommog and Celtic Circle, delivered with a heaping dose of antipathy. While tracks like “Murder” and “The Seed” trade in the rough, rattling sounds of dark electro’s earliest evolutionary steps forward from EBM, the EP features hints of the baroque sound of later acts in the genre; the lo-fi funky bass and drums of “Prey” are accented by a twinkling lead that calls to mind Leaether Strip, and there’s a dash of Rudy Ratzinger’s imperial period evident in the ornate arrangement of instrumental “Dead on Arrival”. Still, the EP is at its best at its most immediate, as evidenced by opener “Detonate”, whose drums and springy lead are formed into a skeletal arrangement that doesn’t roll forward so much as it lurches towards the listener with ill intent. It’s an acquired taste no doubt, but those with yen for it will find it appropriately caustic and unpleasant.
Serpent by Ghosts For Comfort

Mjöldryga - Pulvis Ad Mortem
Mjöldryga
Pulvis Ad Mortem
Fluttering Dragon Records
The latest project from Fredrik Djurfeldt is of a piece with the gasping, unrelenting death industrial the Swedish artist has produced under the Analfabetism handle and most recently in collaborative project Hexophthalma. Mjöldryga’s debut finds him teaming up with Tomas Östergårds, whose work has tilted in a more dark ambient direction, but Pulvis Ad Mortem has precious little in common with that genre save for its steely and unyielding commitment to cold, impassive hostility. Refluxive waves of guttural feedback and distorted yowls make up the bulk of Pulvis Ad Mortem, from the circling static blasts of opener “Armar Ramlar Av” to the shuddering stutter of closer “Claviceps Purpurea” which blurs vocals and noise into a smeary grey morass. The tremoring radio pulses and samples perched atop the ebb and flow of sine waves on “Antoniuseld” or the almost naturally windswept stormy churn of “Bockahorn” are a reminder that the ur sources of this sort of noise are never too far from our day to day, regardless of whether we’re tossing a record like this on or not.
Mjöldryga – Pulvis Ad Mortem by Fluttering Dragon Records

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We Have A Technical 566: My Boo

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Laibach - Alamut

As is our custom when there’s a new record from industrial legends Laibach, we’re taking to the podcast to discuss it rather than simply knocking out a review. A deeply collaborative record between Slovenian and Iranian musicians, Alamut is a record steeped in history and which draws together diverse strands of Laibach’s own musical past and future as well as contemporary art music composition from around the world. As always, you can rate and subscribe on iTunes, download directly, or listen through the widget down below.

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ESA, “Sounds For Your Happiness”

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ESA - Sounds For Your Happiness

ESA
Sounds For Your Happiness
Negative Gain Productions

With a steady release schedule and having recently crossed its two decade tenure, Jamie Blacker’s ESA project’s long been an established quantity for rivetheads and DJs on both sides of the pond, and with good reason. Blacker’s long had his heavily stylized (and elevated) form of modern rhythmic noise down to a science; cue up any of the last handful of ESA LPs and you know you’re getting punishing beats and minimalist yet hi-def programming with some flourishes lifted from neighbouring genres like gabber and aggrotech, with a personal tour of hell offered by Blacker’s unmistakable vocals, an experience less like tagging along with Charon or Virgil and more like being dragged on a chain by a rampaging Cerberus. The latest ESA LP, arriving with the eerily prosaic title Sounds For Your Happiness, keeps that hot hand going with a dense and lengthy barrage.

Built upon metallic programming and flitting between classic industrial club kicks and blast beats, Blacker sounds at home venting bile atop cuts like “Pound Of Flesh” and lengthy closer “The Gallows You Built For Yourself”. The immediacy of an oontzy banger like “Caligula” belies a deceptively complex arrangement, with chopped samples sidechained to beats and later being filleted into thin digital stutters for dramatic effect. It’s not all technical flourish, though, with the swinging chug of “It Will Never Be Enough” evoking death metal, or at least Ministry in their more downcast modes, and Blacker’s road warrior swagger in full effect on “Something For The Horsemen”.

The lengthy run time of the majority of the twelve tracks allows for a lot of shifts; the effect is marked when acidic washes of trance-cum-electro-industrial pads break through the thudding edifice of “Ratchet” at the six-minute mark (replete with some acid-house styled gospel samples). The same goes for the first appearance of truly ‘clean’ vocals from Blacker mid-album on “Rats Come Together”. The samples, breakdowns, and other tics and quirks peppered into the spaces between assaulting measures help to keep you on your toes through these epics, and occasionally add some levity (like the whinnying which punctuates “Something For The Horsemen”).

If there’s a weakness in Sounds For Your Happiness it might just be that there can be simply too much of its merciless assault, even with the aforementioned shifts and variances, over the course of its sprawling 75 minutes. It’s hard to cite that as much of a fault when none of the tracks feel repetitive or superfluous and each holds up well as a standalone piece, and may just be a question of endurance. As always with ESA, the beatings will continue until morale improves.

Buy it.

Sounds for your Happiness by ESA

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