Gothic BC

Hey, folks. As we talk about off the top, it’s both the larger global news and a much more personal tragedy that we’re both wrestling with this week. We’re trying not to let that effect the podcast too much, but given the themes and mood of our subject, the first new album from The Cure in sixteen years, a little bit of real life pain is going to sneak its way in. Listening to music we love and talking about it with the people we love has always helped us both, and if us two goofballs talking about Bobby Smith & His Cures helps you with your day in any manner, we’d be humbled and overjoyed. As always, you can rate and subscribe on iTunes, download directly, or listen through the widget down below.

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Normal Bias
Kingdom Come
Synthicide

Matt Weiner of TWINS and Chris Campion of Multiple Man’s 2022 EP as Normal Bias demonstrated a shared vision for a smooth and sultry version of body music, all without skimping on the funk that defines their main outlets. Their debut album Kingdom Come builds from that foundation, expanding on some of the electropop sounds that made their way into their first batch of tunes and showcasing Weiner’s excellent vocal work. Where the record still feels rooted in classic EBM rhythms, it’s the melodies that feel like the record’s guiding light.

The evolution of Normal Bias’ approach is emphasized by the contrast between the two songs that the band have ported over largely untouched from the EP, with both “Kingdom Come” and “Embody Control” seeming far more minimal in their construction than their neighbouring cuts. The former, now a title track, was a clear pointer towards the duo’s pop yen, but its broad, synth lead and gated snare seem far brassier in contrast to a song like “Holy”, which invokes Depeche Mode in complimentary fashion; firstly by Weiner’s wistful croon, and then through clever use of keys, pads and italo-disco claps and rimshots to create plenty of motion and energy. It’s a fine corollary to how “Falling Down” takes the slow boil menace of “Embody Control” and ramps it up to new heights, via the use of indistinct vocal samples and one of the project’s most insistent and punchy basslines.

The record’s turn towards more ornate variations of classic electronic pop composition is complimented by some lovely sound design and production choices that give the record a tasteful, high-gloss finish. A song like “Earth Dies Burning” benefits so much from how its orch hits and big fields of reverb interact with the vocals, dropping away to provide room for a slap-bass solo mid-track, one of many smile-worthy bits of popcraft. There’s just a real sense of class to the whole affair; witness how “Win Lose” invokes the classic Kraftwerk choir sound (the same one borrowed by New Order on “Blue Monday”), a move that would be crass if not for the way the song builds its pads and leads up and around it in reverential fashion, a genuine homage rather than rote imitation.

When writing about their debut, we opined that it was a proof of concept of sorts, and that Normal Bias were more than capable of taking that vision to even lusher and more polished territory. Kingdom Come is that promise realized, perhaps even more than we could have anticipated; so few acts thread the needle of electronic funk, soul and pop in such expert fashion. Recommended.

Buy it.

Kingdom Come by Normal Bias

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Leæther Strip
All Hallow’s Eve
Cleopatra Records

Covers have been a major part of Claus Larsen’s surge of productivity as Leæther Strip over the past decade. In addition to the Æppreciation series of cover releases, we’ve had a slew of artist-specific tributes, ranging from the expected (Depeche Mode, Skinny Puppy), to less immediate points of reference for Larsen’s work (Simple Minds). Pitching All Hallow’s Eve as a set of Halloween-themed covers feels like a bit of a stretch given some of the selections (Ministry’s “The Angel” or Human League’s “Being Boiled”), but that doesn’t mean that it can’t carry with it the range of atmospheres and influences that have kept Leæther Strip entrenched as a fixture in dark electronics.

Covers comps are as much about curation as actual execution, and at least on a first pass All Hallow’s Eve will likely pique or lose your interest on that basis. An overlooked classic like Tommi Stumpff’s “Massaker” or an effectively brand new track like Darkways’ “I Like The Night (And The Night Likes Me)”, which only saw its original release this past June, do more to both give a sense of Larsen’s tastes, past and present, and point his listeners to material they might’ve otherwise missed than the pro forma takes on The Cramps and Bauhaus.

But to the execution itself, John Carpenter’s theme to “Christine” is one of the better left-field choices here; long before the wave of renewed interest in Carpenter’s film scores, a kinship in terms of minimalist yet entirely atmospheric dark synthwork could be heard in early Leaether Strip material, and not just the explicitly symphonic Serenade For The Dead. Here, Larsen’s rendition sounds perfectly in harmony with one of the major musical modes which has run through Leæther Strip for decades. On paper, the approach to Siouxsie’s “Peek-A-Boo” – keeping the camp squeezebox but adding industrial stomp – shouldn’t work, but something about Larsen’s replication of the call and response verses delivered in the close, clean growl that he’s used of late cinches it.

Like I said, the Halloween theme to All Hallow’s Eve feels tenuous at times, but the flip side of that is that enjoyment of it isn’t limited to the spooky season. Its scope does a good job of touching upon sounds Larsen’s still mining in his original work, and its hit-to-miss ratio is pretty solid.

Buy it.

All Hallow's Eve by Leaether Strip

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Well, Hallowe’en is firmly in the rearview, which means it’s time for us to kick back, relax, and listen to some not-at-all-gothy music for a while. Which is what we would be doing, if not for the small complication that Bobby Smith gone and released a new Cure album and uh, yeah, we’re gonna have to listen to and talk about that. Tune in to We Have a Technical this week to hear us discuss it, presumably at length, but until then why not enjoy some selections from this week’s Tracks?

Unit 187, “Dick”
Vancouver’s American-style coldwave act Unit 187 returns unexpectedly, and we’re both surprised and very happy. The death of vocalist Tod Law in 2015 left us assuming that the band was no more, but 2024 brings us a reformed lineup, featuring founding member John Morgan, along with familiar faces Chris Peterson (Decree, Front Line Assembly), Ross Redhead (Decree), and Kerry Vink-Peterson (Stiff Valentine). New LP KillCure will feature songs written with Law before his passing along with brand new material. The first taste of the new Unit 187 is a re-recording of the classic “Dick”, from their stone-classic Loaded. Welcome back, we missed you.
Dick by Unit:187

Front Line Assembly feat. Cardinal Noire, “Heatmap”
Keeping on the Vancouver industrial tip, we’ve been lucky enough to hear some behind the scenes previews of the new Front Line Assembly remix record, featuring a slew of younger bands working with material from their AirMech soundtracks, but the first public taste of Mechviruses is here. Finnish electro-industrial heavyweights Cardinal Noire (whose new Vitriol LP will be seeing release in a month) have made no secret of their appreciation for the likes of Puppy and FLA, and they sound right at home adding some caustic stabs and growls to “Heatmap”.
Mechviruses by Front Line Assembly

Kælan Mikla, “Stjörnuljós”
Iceland’s ethereal darkwave witches Kælan Mikla return with the mournful “Stjörnuljós”, a different if no less powerful kind of song. Anybody who has seen them live or spent time listening to their records won’t be surprised by the intensity and emotion of the track, especially the deliberate way it builds from it’s minimal beginnings to a lush, funereal climax, the perfect music to listen to as Fall transitions to Winter.
Stjörnuljós by Kælan Mikla

Encephalon, “Illusions”
Encephalon is one of the bands that inspired us to start I Die: You Die, and in the time since the release of their debut LP The Transhuman Condition, they’ve never let us down. Each and every album has been a different experience, with their ambitious themes, songwriting and programming becoming more baroque and powerful, yet, when called upon they can still deliver a straight up club track. Hence “Illusions”, the second taste of what the forthcoming Automation All Along brings. Insistent and instantaneous, with hints of some of the record’s thematics, this is exactly what we want from Ottawa’s finest.
Automaton All Along by Encephalon

Mosquito, “Prince Of Immortality”
Here’s some right down the pipe continental goth rock brought to us by the fine folks at Swiss Dark Nights. Greece’s Mosquito went to ground shortly after their 2017 debut, but new LP Deep Slumber doesn’t have any rust on it, and delivers the sort of chilly and uber-dramatic goth rock that’s meant to be listened to in cold November winds. This might be a bit much for those who prefer their goth to have a bit of restraint, but if you still have your crimpers and winklepickers at hand, Mosquito will scratch an itch.
Deep Slumber by Mosquito

Strange Boutique, “The Night Birds”
With some autumnal goth in a very different vein, the slow reactivation of DC post-punk act Strange Boutique continues with this charming new single. We imagine many folks (like ourselves) were introduced to Strange Boutique after Monica Richards co-founded Faith & The Muse after the band’s mid-90s dissolution, but the space and style of Strange Boutique is a whole other world, and this tune has the sort of languid darkwave jangle that Richards’ voice suits to a tee.
The Night Birds by Strange Boutique

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Rue Oberkampf
Essenz
Young and Cold Records
Electro-darkwave has been one of the dominant sounds in Our Thing for the last several years with its greatest strength being the breadth of its appeal; its gothy enough to mope and swoon to, but uptempo enough to dance to. While plenty of acts have played with that formula, few have navigated it with the expertise of Munich’s Rue Oberkampf, whose new mini-album Essenz makes a strong case for the savviness of Julia de Juoy and Michael Mair (now a duo with member Damien De-Vir having very recently left the group). Those seeking retiring moodiness with electropop production will find it on opener “89 Degrees” where de Juoy’s vocals fill in the spacious mix with retiring poise, while those digging for big-room club fare can choose between the techno-touched rhythms of the busy “I Won’t Surrender” or the menacing funk of “Solitude (Essenz Master)”, a song built up from icy foundations to surprisingly lush heights. The previously released “Soror” and “Aeterna” (the latter being a brief but lovely bit of continental balladry) work as well here as they did in isolation, but the highlight is “Allein” where the use of French language lyrics and syncopated bass and drum programming have a sort of cabaret by way of the goth club appeal. Like all Rue Oberkampf material it’s charmingly moody, a vibe that they have completely dialed in.
Essenz by Rue Oberkampf

Crystal Geometry
Antith​è​se
BPitch
Maxime Fabre’s takes on TBM through his Crystal Geometry records have always benefited from his clear appreciation for forms of techno, EBM, and other genres well outside of the usual TBM bandwidth, and it’s in the peppering in of those other sounds that each of his releases have been imbued with their own flavour and made Crystal Geometry records stand out from the pack. New EP Antithèse is no exception, and its haunted house approach to hardcore and gabber gives its four tracks real dimension. We’ve heard Fabre tap into his appreciation for extreme metal in the past; the pentatonic guitar leads on “FCKTHNZS” are fairly distinct from the pure riffing that was used on on a number of tracks on I Stare Into Darkness, but when combined with black metal-styled vocals it makes for a great pairing with the track’s gabber style kicks. “Creepy Body” takes a similar ‘metal by inference’ approach with its ghostly arpeggios and goblin vocals which will likely connote God Destruction records for some folks and classic Lenny Dee sets for others. Whatever’s your poison, Fabre clearly still has plenty of means of refreshing and pushing the intersection of EBM and dark techno.
Antithèse by Crystal Geometry

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45 Grave

On this week’s Halloween-themed episode of the podcast, we’re simulating an experience that’ll be familiar to all DJs: fielding requests at a Halloween party. What tracks from within and without the boundaries of Our Thing might we be happy to play? Which would be anathema to us? Which might we consider if you greased our palms or plied us with liquor? We’re also discussing the passing of Winterkälte’s Eric De Vries. As always, you can rate and subscribe on iTunes, download directly, or listen through the widget down below.

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Webdriver Torso
End.
self-released

Five years is a long layoff for most bands under most circumstances, but in the case of LA’s Webdriver Torso that hiatus was amplified by it preceding the release of their first proper LP. After some intriguing EPs and singles which offered a lo-fi vision of industrial metal and mutant-styled EBM quite different from the forms those subgenres held at the time, the duo dropped off the radar a few months before the pandemic hit. Reemerging with a full LP, End. finds Webdriver Torso picking up right where they left off, albeit with broader shifts in the styles they work in now framing their sound in a new light.

Heavily processed guitar, murky programming, and alternately disaffected and coolly reflective vocals are the core elements Webdriver Torso bring and combine to produce either the gauzy minimalism of “Ravens”, or more brooding and weighty stuff like “444” (complete with synthesized shakuhachi as it ratchets up the gothic drama) and the hazy stomp of “1111”. The latter isn’t too far away from the style of much of their 2018 Listen_Die_EP, yet also sounds of a piece with much of the more driving, dancefloor focused darkwave we’ve been hearing from NA acts over the past two or three years. Again, if you caught Webdriver Torso live before their break or got a read on the sorts of influences they were drawing together for that first run, you’ll know that that’s never been their specific aim, but a lot around the band has changed during the layoff, and I imagine there are a host of younger folks just showing up to the party who’ll find their tastes sympatico with what Webdriver Torso have to offer.

The balance between End.‘s more languid and dreamy fare (the record ends with a cover of “All The Pretty Little Horses” which sounds like it’s being filtered through hospital anaesthetics) and its crunchier stuff gives it a range that belies its half hour run time and does a good job of showing off the band’s ability to link classic industrial metal to more abstract and meme-fried touchstones. If that link sounds akin to the formula HEALTH have used to such strong effect of the last years, sure, one could maybe hear a connection between that act’s recent work and the finely diced and sequenced chug and bounce of opener “Negative One”, but I’d posit that even earlier indie/noise crossover acts (NTX + Electric or even early Gang Gang Dance come to mind) are a fairer comp.

The ranging effects of the pandemic permanently sidelined plenty of bands, and I’ll admit that I’d taken Webdriver Torso for one of them. I’m glad to be proven wrong, in part because their existing work showed promise but was also clearly the work of a band who had more to offer once they got up to full speed. End. has them reemerging at that full tilt without any warmup needed, and perhaps even more suited to the current zeitgeist than they were before the layoff.

Buy it.

End. by Webdriver Torso

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Hallowed Hearts
Masquerade
Diffusion Records

Both Alex Virlios and Andrew Sega were mostly well-known for work in the world of synthpop before founding their Hallowed Hearts project; the former for his work with Provision, and the latter for doing the heavy lifting in Iris for most of that band’s existence. That the duo would turn to what is essentially goth rock for the sound of Hallowed Hearts was unexpected, but speaks to both of their artistic strengths, with Virlios’ vocal charisma and Sega’s skill as an arranger and instrumentalist really standing out on their new LP Masquerade.

There’s a pleasingly unreconstructed sound to the Hallowed Hearts material, which in turn gives it a timeless feel. Take for example the title track, which is driven by a simple kick-snare drum pattern and a nice combination of sharper riffing and spidery arpeggios on the verses, and big washy guitars on the verse, recalling any number of second wave goth rock classics of the 90s. The production is clean and modern, with the electronics mixed to allow the guitars to lead the way. To that point, Sega does a bang-up job of strumming, soloing and playing minor key hooks across the entirety of the record. He’s a tasteful player who knows when to play a support role (doubling bass and providing rhythm on “Dreams”) and letting it all hang out (check the shimmery delay on the chorus of closer “Waiting”).

Virlios has a voice built for this style of music and projects the right mix of gravitas and yearning. He makes space for himself in busier numbers like the chugging “Open Your Eyes”, and keeping sparser songs like the moody “Last Chance” lively thanks to some expert phrasing that plays well against the programmed drums and bass. The record’s best cut “Breathe” really gives him an opportunity to shine, singing in a higher register that plays off the chorus’ guitar attack, and leaning in on the the whoa-ohs that give the song its anthemic power.

With those strengths in mind, Masquerade is very much the kind of record that lives and dies by its songs, an area where it handily acquits itself. Numbers are built around getting their hooks and choruses over from the ground up, and make the most of breakdowns and changeups between sections to keep the momentum fast and fluid. Hallowed Hearts are obviously students of how to put a song together, and their expertise in doing so makes the full LP an easy, varied listen from front to back.

Buy it.

masquerade by hallowed hearts

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Halloween falls on a decidedly unfestive Thursday this year, but we imagine plenty of folks reading this are still finding plenty of methods of observance. At our end, we have a bunch of DJ gigs happening on the weekends before and after, but in general the actual Halloween ragers of our youth have been slowly replaced by binges of classic thrillers and more off-beat recent horror fare. With a recent navel-gazing discussion on the nature of goth still at hand we feel it’d be a bit indulgent to go on at length about what Halloween does and doesn’t mean to those of us within darker music cultures, but that might be something we’ll stick a pin in for next year. On with this week’s tracks!

Devours riding the Skytrain, it’s a Vancouver thing.

Linea Aspera, “Mycelium”
Linea Aspera are hands down one of the most influential acts of the millennium when it comes to darkwave and the resurgence thereof. Alison Lewis (aka Zanias) and Ryan Ambridge’s self-titlted 2012 LP opened the door to the style for countless acts, and was especially important for bridging the world of minimal wave, appealing to fans of both that austere style, and classic euro darkness. Their 2020 comeback was naturally pretty welcome and acted as proof that their initial run was no fluke, they had the goods when it came to lush, mysterious tunes that had club appeal and atmosphere aplenty. Hence our excitement at seeing the unexpected release of the mellow if sad “Mycelium”; it’s a lovely tune no doubt, but if it also signals a third album on the horizon, well, all the better.
Mycelium by Linea Aspera

Devours, “Swordswallower (Zendaya’s Fortress)”
The new era of Devours kicks off with “Swordswallower (Zendaya’s Fortress)”, a track that presages darker things for Vancouver’s synthpop gaylien. For one thing, it takes the project’s typically sticky melodies and sharp lyrics and then weds them to an especially long and ambitious arrangement that exceeds 7 minutes, with a massive breakdown and tempo change, with the dense punky rhythm of the track giving way to a big open space where a minor key melody that recalls The Fragile-era Nine Inch Nails plays out. It’s unexpected, invigorating and exactly the kind of massive artistic swing that has made Devours our favourite local act for several years running.
Swordswallower (Zendaya's Fortress) by Devours

Involucija & Le Chocolat Noir, “Mit i iluzija”
There are a lot of different things to like on the new collaborative EP from West Balkan rhythmic industrial supergroup Involucija and EBM minimalists Le Chocolat Noir. Sure, you’re getting a couple of the tight and staticky basement rave TBM numbers you might expect from all these folks coming together for a release on a+w, but you’re also getting stuttering, processed industrial rock aneurysms like this, which are a reminder of just how far off the beaten track plenty of previous innovators from the former Yugoslavia have ventured.
Želja Mašta Strah by Involucija & Le Chocolat Noir

MeLLLo, “Stories Of Ghosts”
Marianthi of our beloved, semi-dormant Marsheaux is keeping her hot streak going, with track after track of dreamy synthpop/electro-pop hitting an irresistible hot spot between pop hooks and atmosphere. This latest little treat’s no exception, finding a balance between a proximal, intimate nostalgia and a big and immediate anthemic chorus, with a few little reminders of Book Of Love’s classic “You Make Me Feel So Good”.
StoRieS Of GhoSTs by MeLLLo

Die Selektion, “Mein Fundament (Club Edit)”
Last year’s Zeuge aus Licht offered plenty of club tracks to savvy body music selectors; no surprise given the quality control self-styled masters of prosecco wave Die Selektion have had on lock for more than a decade. Still, we’re always happy to be offered a few additional club reworkings, and this take on that LP’s closing track manages to keep the dynamics of tension of the original in place while also hooking clubgoers from the first beat.
Zeuge aus Licht (Club Edits) by Die Selektion

Majestoluxe & EMMON, “Blood on the Ceiling”
Two Swedish acts we enjoy come together on “Blood on the Ceiling”, highlighting their common ground and their differences. From Majestoluxe we get the dense, DIY electronics that feel both propulsive and claustrophobic, while EMMON brings the club appeal via heavy beats and smokey vocals. Neither act could do something like this on their own, and the addition of metallic percussion sounds gives the whole affair an appropriately industrial edge. This the second collaborative track from the two producers, which begs the question, is an LP in the works?
Blood on the Ceiling by Majestoluxe, EMMON

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Die Sexual
Electric
self-released
The Los Angeles-based duo of Rosselinni and Anton Floriano have been slow-dripping their take on the now familiar electro-darkwave sound for a few years now, with a small but solid catalogue of club-ready numbers, usually themed around S&M, and more broadly submission and domination. New EP Electric feels more strident and less sultry than some of their preceding releases, although no-less concerned with sexual matters. A big part of this is in how Rosselinni attacks these songs vocally, as on “Pulse” where she spits out the song’s unsubtle come-ons in rhythmically, matching the syncopation of the rhythm track. Similarly “Darkest Hour”‘s warbling synthlines and solid kick-snare patterns, reminiscent of Anton’s other project Black Light Odyssey, similarly use her voice as a rhythmic device, both via sampled stutters and the way she slides words into the thin space between its layers of programming. The EP also features a cover of Depeche Mode’s “Dressed In Black”, cutting words out of the lyrics to recast Rosselinni as the narrator, abandoning the submissiveness of the original for a message of dominance, paired with a dark, driving beat for maximum impact. It, and the whole EP, are another step forward for Die Sexual in terms of defining their sound and identity beyond their most obvious and identifiable markers.
Electric by Die Sexual

Yeun Elez
La Croix Des Cinq Chemins
Antibody
While the “neofolk” tag could theoretically be a limitless reworking of nearly any stripe of non-program music from around the world, so often what it means in practicality is “weak Death In June tributes”. That’s what makes La Croix Des Cinq Chemins, the latest tape from Hoel Von Helvet’s Yeun Elez project so rewarding. Sure, it’s rooted in European mysticism and occult murkiness, but every element of La Croix Des Cinq Cheminsfeels designed to connote the particular French landscape for which the project is named. Smoky vocals which seem to be recorded specifically to accentuate the sonorous elements of the French language slowly drift through stoic (but at times surprisingly jiggy) hand drums on “Le mirage”, and the quavering strings of “Gwerz ar game” trade off the spotlight with eerie pads and hurdy gurdy-styled drones on the rich and fully realized title track. And when Von Helvet elects to cash in the atmospheric chits he’s earned by building tension with the full-bore icy dungeon synth of “La Lune Rouge”, it’s a move that feels earned and puts the core elements of that style in a fresh light. To be sure, La Croix Des Cinq Chemins is a record which prioritizes mood and ritual over composition – there aren’t individual tracks which stand out by virtue of a particular hook or compositional tactic – but as an exercise in conjuring a particular atmosphere and place, it absolutely hits the mark.
La croix des cinq chemins by Yeun Elez

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Worms Of The Earth: Reptilian Splendour.

Keeping the momentum going from last week we’re sticking with a decidedly industrial pair of records to discuss from Worms Of The Earth and C-Drone Defect. We’ve also got reactions to the just announced line-ups of next year’s Cruel World and Dark Forces festivals. As always, you can rate and subscribe on iTunes, download directly, or listen through the widget down below.

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genCAB
III I II (Third Eye Gemini)
Metropolis Records

The sheer volume of material that David Dutton has released since the reactivation of his genCAB project in 2020 is impressive; between EPs, singles and full-lengths, the Philadelphia based industrialist has more than made up for the decade or so where the project was largely inactive. The song oriented style that the project put forward on 2008’s II transMuter seems especially ahead of its time in retrospect, not only in terms of how it approaches grafting complex arrangements of melody to slick, highly-detailed production. Dutton’s efforts to push both his songwriting and studio skills further into new territory have had mixed results, with 2022’s Thoughts Beyond Words being one of the best records of that year, while 2023’s Signature Flaws suffered from a lack of focus if not ideas and creative energy.

III I II (Third Eye Gemini) is a collection of rerecordings drawn from the project’s pre-reactivation material, along with new songs inspired by the process of revisitation. The exercise finds a balance that the preceding LP lacked, with Dutton exploring the electro-industrial sounds that inform the project, without forgoing his ever more complex compositional ideas. Songs like “Appentence” make for excellent examples of his approach; it’s got numerous distinct sections, a chorus and a verse that morph into and out of one another, and Dutton’s own multi-tracked vocals providing something to latch onto amid the every changing musical landscape.

The record is almost proggy in its complexity, but hidden within it and numerous other songs are the basic tools of electro-industrial music; chopped and processed vocal samples, syncopated drum programming that spans four on the floor kicks to breaks (the “Self Image(s)” using both to good effect), with classic quantized synth programming at the center. The contrast between the record’s ambitious structures and its invocation of the familiar is one of its greatest strengths, lending a more straightforward number like “Perish the Thought” dimensionality without compromising its emotional core, and grounding the rapid-fire switchups on “Of Love and Death”.

The danger of a rerecording project, even when spiked with new songs, is that a newer version, no matter how improved in terms of production or performance, can lose the charm of the original. Similarly, sticking too close to the original can call the whole endeavor into question; why bother remaking your own song if you aren’t gonna do something new with it? A back to back listening exercise of these tracks shows how well Dutton walks that line; “DMT” in its original form is a fast moving bit of club fare with busy rhythm programming, while its new incarnation maintains the pace of the original while spreading out the mix, creating space for its melodic vocal hook to really take root in new ways that it couldn’t in the bricked-in original.

One gets the impression that III I II (Third Eye Gemini) is less tinkering with things that are already complete than a way of bringing older songs closer to Dutton’s original vision for them, coloured by his current sensibilities and abilities. In speaking to his past and present in the same breath, it’s a proper vision of David Dutton as a creator, the arc of his vision for genCAB as a project, and the ways both grand and subtle that he executes on it.

Buy it.

III I II (THIRD EYE GEMINI) by genCAB

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Mala Herba
Wounded Healer
White Forest Inc.

Since Polish artist Zosia Hołubowska’s first demos as Mala Herba emerged seven years ago, the work under that aegis has never lacked for confidence or consideration. Its themes of folk wisdom and practice, not to mention fluidity between modern techno/body production, acoustic experimentation, and bracing vocals, have been there since day one, with the nature of individual releases has been determined by subtler choices in focus and refinement. New LP Wounded Healer is Hołubowska’s most varied release to date, but also gets as deep into Mala Herba’s arcane forest as has yet been ventured.

As with previous Mala Herba releases, newcomers and fans will both likely focus initially onWounded Healer‘s vocals, and the increasingly fervent incantation of opening track “Siemieniec” indicates the level of drama much of it is pitched at. With each track featuring contributions from other femme Eastern European artists (there’s no indication as to whether those contributions are musical, vocal, or both), there’s a range of registers and moods, with the vocals complemented by weighted kicks and and atmospheric pads and sampling. It’s tough to always know whether the vocals (predominantly in Polish but with some Ukrainian mixed in if I don’t miss my guess) are serving as wards, banishments, excoriations, laments, or some other form, but they’re almost always arresting even free of direct linguistic context (the album’s title alluding to the wisdom of Greek centaur Chiron leaves the tracks themselves open for a wide range of allusions and interpretations).

But in the corners of Wounded Healer are many moves made by Hołubowska and their collaborators which add depth and colour beyond its more bracing elements. The gradual chopping and sampling of the initially simple sing-song vocals of “Lipa” over the course of its run time could be taken as a drift into the uncanny abstraction of the human voice, or given the decidedly organic ethos which runs through the record, simply as a reflection of natural decay and the degradation of recordings and bodies. The rising and falling harmonic rondo of “Nikt” is similarly softer than much of the record, but the shape of the pulsing kick which runs through it finds a textural contrast in both the heavily processed and naturally recorded vocals which alight through it.

Wounded Healer is a stark listen which gets Mala Herba’s appeal and power across in as strong and direct a manner as we’ve heard, but also offers depth both through its collaborators and Hołubowska’s subtle but adroit flourishes. You don’t need to speak Mala Herba’s language to know that they trade in strong medicine.

Buy it.

Wounded Healer [WFI005] by Mala Herba

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The Hallowe’en weekend is nigh, which is of course an exciting time of year for folks of our particular stripe, although as we’ve discussed a few times in the past, we have a hard time getting quite as excited for Samhain is we did when younger. It’s certainly a function of us being old, and tired, and over-committed in all aspects of our lives, but there’s also a weird amount of pressure (you know, the kind that used to be reserved for Family Christmases) surrounding the whole thing that makes opting out feel like the right option. Does that mean we won’t be costuming up and DJing various parties in the coming weeks? No it does not. Does it mean we’ll probably spend some time chewing over how our relationship with Gothsgiving has changed in recent years on the podcast at some point? PROBABLY. Tracks ahoy!

Normal Bias

Normal Bias, “Falling Down”
Sick new joint from the duo of Matt Weiner from TWINS and Chris Campion of Multiple Man in their Normal Bias guise, in advance of their first full LP, Kingdom Come which drops this week. You’re getting a lot of the same musical ideas you would associate with each act, like Weiner’s smokey, low-voiced vocals, and Campion’s body-funk, but there’s something very specific in the way these two artists collaborate that makes the sound much more than the som of its parts; wistful, groovy and above-all danceable.
Kingdom Come by Normal Bias

Red Lorry Yellow Lorry, “Driving Black”
Say, did you happen to catch our Red Lorry Yellow Lorry commentary podcast yesterday? We didn’t have time to mention it, but by complete accident that historical deep dive coincides with news of the first proper new Lorries record since 1992. While reunion gigs and a handful of new(er) tracks have come and gone over the past couple of decades, the prospect of a full EP’s worth of new tunes from Chris Reed & co. is an exciting one. Folks who recall the band heading in a ‘leather and Americana’ direction similar to that charted contemporaneously by the Mary Chain at the tail end of their original run will hear that thread being picked up again here.
Driving Black by Red Lorry Yellow Lorry

Skelesys, “The Answer”
Berlin’s Skelesys has been accruing a bit of buzz in the darkwave world with a handful of bootleg mixes and an EP on Oraculo (plus a hot take on a Zanias cut a few months back), but based on the preview tracks for its debut LP, that buzz should be heavily amplified quite soon. Tunes like this stake out a prime spot smack between the chilly minimalism which drives a lot of current darkwave and the warmer melodicism which can be found in subtler expressions of it, and are very well arranged.
Fading Echoes LP by Skelesys

Cardinal Noire, “Gun Metal”
Hell yeah, more teasers for the upcoming Cardinal Noire LP via Artoffact. We’ve written at length about the Finnish duo’s work in the classic post-industrial style (not to mention their various side-projects in adjacent styles), and the reason is simple; in a genre that has lots of bands that mine the classic Vancouver sound, very few have ever done it better or with more conviction. Just hit play on “Gun Metal” for a proper slice of acid-vocalled, orch hit beating, sample mangling excellence if you need an example, and then go pre-order Vitriol while you’re at it.
Vitriol by Cardinal Noire

Neurowulf feat. Stefan Poiss, “All This Life”
The heavily trance-driven style of Slovenia’s Neurowulf isn’t the sort of thing we find ourselves regularly reaching for, but we’ll admit it – a Stefan Poiss feature is enough to grab our attention. The mind.in.a.box main main sounds right at home riding a very futurepop friendly kick and some stabby arpeggios which should have folks of a certain vintage flashing back to mid-00s dancefloors, and Neurowulf does a bang-up job of framing his immistakable vocals in the proper light.
Kolaps by NeuroWulf

Static Ghost, “Corpse Code (Qual remix)”
Pacific Northwest underground techno-body producer Static Ghost has impressed us greatly, both via this year’s excellent Depatterened EP, and the times we’ve seen them perform live. The appropriately titled REMIXED gets added to that resume, featuring new takes on the hard-hitting cuts from the EP by the likes of Dildox, Poison the Vicar, Damascus Knives, and this thudding slice of club-bait from the ever-solid Qual. Great stuff, and an easy add to the Bandcamp wishlist in advance of its October 25th release.
REMIXED by STATIC GHOST

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The tar-black, mechanically thrashing blast of negativity and angst which is Red Lorry Yellow Lorry’s debut LP is the subject of this week’s commentary podcast. Talk About The Weather Distilled extant strains of post-punk and goth rock into one of the tightest and noisiest records of its generation, and we’re looking at how it fits into the Lorries’ own progression as well as the broader musical histories they drew upon and influenced in turn. As always, you can rate and subscribe on iTunes, download directly, or listen through the widget down below.

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Michael Idehall
Apokryphos
Ant-Zen

The net cast by Swedish experimentalist Michael Idehall is so wide – falling over rhythmic noise, neofolk, death industrial, dark ambient, and more – that any new material from him need only adjust its focus onto a certain area of his purview in order to feel like the work of an entirely new producer. New LP Apokryphos continues to hoe the hard road Idehall’s chosen, working more out of unnerving intimation than direct aggression.

Apokryphos is threaded through with muted, scraping percussion with individual beats linked by detuned acoustic samples and other organic elements warped into the uncanny valley. Idehall takes a less is more approach to arrangement after finding just the right shade of disturbance with his sound design. Dotting the woozy acoustics of “Black Void” with just the slightest punctuations of feedback from an electric guitar we never properly hear carries more menace than a sudden blast of ear-ratting chug might have. The modern Neubauten ping and pulse of “Never Tell Me” similarly connotes the real unspeakable truth being hidden just out of sight.

But to write about a Michael Idehall record without paying close attention to the vocals in unconscionable. Idehall clearly knows not only that his vocal power makes him a unique quantity in the fields he works in, but that the malleability of that instrument demands to be exploited. The weary, warbled incantations of the aforementioned “Black Void” and the devotional, guttural whisper of “Foreign The Shore” are in keeping with the hair-raising fare we’ve come to look forward to from him, but Idehall’s peppered some curveballs into the mix, too. The almost Kurt Weill-like vein tapped on “The Dark Spots” and “Three Paths Across The Back Of The Horse” puts the record’s more traditionally noisy moments into sharp relief, though the former’s fractured sing-song – “You have seen the spots on my skin / What did they whisper to you in the dark?” – is certainly no more comforting.

Like the rest of his best work, Apokryphos has just enough in common with the dark electronic genres to which Idehall’s clearly indebted (hints of late period Coil should be detectable to the veteran listener) to give the newcomer enough to hold onto, but it’s the stranger and more off-kilter paths his muse (or perhaps his own voice) leads him on which leaves a lasting and chilly impression.

Buy it.

apokryphos by michael idehall

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We have a slightly industrial metal themed two albums episode of the podcast for you this week, dear listener, as we chat a record needing no introduction in Killing Joke’s Pandemonium and the rare modern industrial metal record which gets us excited about the genre again, Black Magnet’s debut LP Hallucination Scene. We’re also talking about a surprisingly great Sisters of Mercy live show and what can be gleaned from the latest Sick New World lineup. As always, you can rate and subscribe on iTunes, download directly, or listen through the widget down below.

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Dark Chisme
self-titled
self-released

After seeing Seattle’s Dark Chisme perform this summer at Terminus Festival, two sentiments were repeated in every conversation we had about the band; firstly that they were excellent live, and secondly that it was shocking how good they are considering how long the band has existed. At the time of this writing the duo of Christine Gutierrez and E have been making music as Dark Chisme for about a year, but you’d honestly never know it listening to their self-titled debut. Fusing modern electro-darkwave sounds with latin and techno influences, the group’s music has confidence and poise that would be notable in an established act, much less one this fresh.

Much like their energizing live show, much of the music on the record is truly set off by Gutierrez’s big personality. A standout cut like “Fangs” is solid on its own, the speedy pace and snappy bass and drum programming accented with some touches of latin percussion and organ that give it a genuinely unique flavour. That said, what puts it over the top is Gutierrez’s capacity to sound both disaffected and dramatic through its repeated chorus of “Vampiro /Vampiro”. Similarly, the way she leans in on the chorus of “Yo Puedo Vivir Sin Ti” makes the song’s relatively minimal arrangement over into a anthem, the occasional yelp or shouted “Hey!” injecting some punky charm. She does both foreboding (“Beautiful Obsession Killer”) and strident (“Complicate”) equally well, finding the right mode to make each song feel different and fresh.

To that point, the band’s debut does have some issues with variety in terms of the instrumental side of things. While there are several cuts that use some unconventional ideas and sounds to good effect (“Sombras” has some touches of NRG in its octave-driven bounce, while “La Musica Oscura” goes for driving techno with its synth stabs and wails), there are a few numbers that feel a touch thin in their composition. The duo favour minimalism, letting drums and bass do a lot of heavy lifting and Gutierrez’s voice do a lot of the work when it comes to hooks, an approach which works, but leaves cuts like “Vete De Acqui” and “Cold” feeling paint-by-numbers in terms of their programming. Weirdly the album starts with one of its least impressive songs in “Move”, which would be a passable bit of atonal DJ fodder coming from most dancefloor-leaning darkwave acts, but feels subpar when compared to what you hear Dark Chisme do elsewhere on the record. None of those songs are bad per se, and Gutierrez is just as much of a force on them as she is on any other song, they’re just lesser, which sticks out when the highs here are so very high.

Still, a few exciting cuts aside, there’s something truly, immediately great about Dark Chisme, and it captures a goodly amount of the lightning in a bottle charisma that the band have on stage. No doubt some of the songs have already caught on with DJs in your town or DJ stream of choice, and listening to the record it’s easy to get excited about the project’s prospects; as a debut it sounds like a band who aren’t just ready to go to the next level, but arrived and made it their home before most of us had ever heard of them. If this was year one, can you even imagine what year two might bring? Recommended.

Buy it.

Dark Chisme by Dark Chisme

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We’re off to see the Sisters, the guttural Sisters of goth! Yep, the Senior Staff will be in attendance tonight as Doktor Avalanche’s travelling medicine show comes through Vancouver, bringing with it all of the decades-old questions about the quality of the Sisters of Mercy as a touring entity and of the troves of still unreleased new music which will likely make up the majority of the set. We’ll likely have some thoughts on this week’s podcast, but until then we’re keeping our fingers crossed for “Marian” and “Emma”.

Soft Vein, contemplating

Chameleons, “Nostalgia”
Wrestling with childhood experiences through the eyes of adulthood was a pillar of strength for The Chameleons in their original incarnation, and so the reformed band returning to some of its earliest, pre-Script Of The Bridge material for a new EP seems fitting, especially when you’ve got a reflective tune like “Nostalgia” to use as a calling card. LP of new material Arctic Moon is still on the horizon, but until then the Tomorrow Remember Yesterday is giving us some beautiful Billy Pilgrim-esque time slips.
Tomorrow Remember Yesterday by Chameleons

SDH, “Do I Look Like I’m Laughing (MVTANT remix)”
Interesting news last week as it was revealed that SDH, an act we’ve followed closely for a few years had signed to Artoffact Records. The announcement came with a fresh remix of “Do I Look Like I’m Laughing” by MVTANT, taking the original darkwave cut into some funky body music territory, but without losing its moody, continental charm. The end result, as you can hear below, has a kind of 12″ dub charm to it, like a Razormaid remix from that service’s golden era, death disco for underground dancefloors.
Do I Look Like I'm Laughing? (MVTANT Remix) by SDH

Soft Vein, “God Whispers”
Speaking of Artoffact, the label will be releasing the sophomore LP from California’s Soft Vein Through Blinds for January of 2025. Like the preceding record, there’s a lot of modern electro-darkwave going on with the teaser single “God Whispers”, requisite minimalism and all, but we’re hearing much of the EBM and electro influences at play here in the bassline and drum interplay. One notable aspect of the track is the increasingly worked up vocal as it heads towards its conclusion, giving the otherwise very structured track some dangerous, slightly unhinged energy to play off of.
THROUGH BLINDS by SOFT VEIN

Vision Video, “Dead Gods”
Big goth rock moves from Vision Video, who have remained a major touring presence in the North American scene over the last few years. A cut like “Dead Gods” really does tie them directly into the musical traditions that Dusty Gannon has become an internet face for; between his tremendous vocal performance and the cut’s excellent use of spooky keys and haunted house reverbs, there’s just a super solid core of second wave-styled goth rock under the hood of the track. Listen to that guitar arpeggio, and that busy cymbal-work on the drum track. This is the good stuff.
Dead Gods by Vision Video

Boar Alarm, “Stepping On Ants”
Between fresh Analfabetism material and a whole new death industrial/ambient collaboration it’s been a busy back half of the year for Fredrik Djurfeldt, but he’s still not done. Representing the unrelenting approach to industrial and EBM which birthed Severe Illusion, his Boar Alarm solo project’s new LP is packed with brutal, hypnotic loop and grind style material like this cut.
Automatic for the Dead People by Boar Alarm

Yeun Elez, “La croix des cinq chemins”
Linking neofolk, dungeon synth, and dark ambient together, the first tasters of the new tape from Hoel Von Helvet’s Yeun Elez project evoke the misty and marshy landscapes of rural France which the project’s title refers to, even if you didn’t spend your youth traipsing through them as Von Helvet did. His earlier work as Techno Thriller had a much more industrial cast, but this shift towards the mystic has been in the works at least since 2020’s Decameron.
La croix des cinq chemins by Yeun Elez

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Einhänder
Can’t Think Of A Title For This
self-released
The title of Michael Landscape’s new EP in his Einhänder guise is Can’t Thing Of a Title For This, which suggests the exact sort of freewheeling musical experience the mind behind Seattle body music act Chrome Corps is shooting for. In opposition to the strident FM sound of his most well known outlet, the music on the EP is a combination of acid, breaks and analogue techno, all delivered in off-the-cuff fashion that feels very much like it was sequenced live to the recording, sound system style. That rougher-edged approach is a goodly part of the appeal of a track like the squelchy “Clandestine”, the clanging percussion sounds in the mix bouncing off one another, which along with some chopped and sequenced vocal samples put rhythm and groove over its minimal melodic elements. The use of the Amen break as the basis for “Namibia” is a bit of sleight of hand; once the song really gets rolling it becomes a bit of Meat Beat Manifesto-esque electro, full of groovy menace and percussive switch-ups. The EP is capped by digital bonus track “Pulse One”, which pulls deeply from Landscape’s love for vintage video game soundtrack sounds, creating the illusion of a side-scrolling space shooter (or a Rez bonus level for if you were a Dreamcast devotee), hypnotically focusing in on forward momentum, with each new layer of programming slides inevitably into the picture. Its rugged by design, which is as a good a description of Einhänder’s sound as any, strap in for a bumpy ride.
Can't Think Of A Title For This EP by Einhänder

Sleek Teeth
self-titled
self-released
The string of individual tracks leading to LA newcomers Sleek Teeth’s formal debut pointed to the duo having a preternatural sense for beefing left-field EBM and related genres up with some disarming and at times precious melodicism. That’s a read which holds up on the duo’s self-titled EP, both in the new tracks it offers and in framing existing tracks against one another. From the opening rubbery bounce of “Operating” and the gasping pulse of “Gone” it’s easy to see links between Sleek Teeth and road-less-travelled approaches to EBM taken in the past by the likes of Forces or White Car. But those grooves and rhythms are almost always just one measure away from an understated but addictive hook. The weary, arch vocals of “Endless” recall the sour candy pop ambitions of Zeigeist and other acts formed in the wake of electroclash, but there’s more than enough personality in Sleek Teeth’s chilly croon to make each of these five tracks hit as part of a unique and united presentation. It’s one of the best debut releases we’ve heard this year regardless of length, and as an arrival statement hints at similarly strong things to come. Recommended.
Sleek Teeth by Sleek Teeth

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