Gothic BC

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

The post Tracks: October 21st, 2024 appeared first on I Die: You Die.

Night Club – Scary World
Die Selektion – Zeuge aus Licht
Male Tears – Regret 4 Nothing
Black Light Smoke – CRIMES 1
Dark Chisme – Sombras
Ringfinger – Chamber of Roses (Joey Chaos Remix)
Actors – In Real Life
Health – Hateful
Screamin’ Lord Byron (feat. Thomas Dolby & Timothy Spall) – The Devil Is an Englishman
The Gruesome Twosome – Hallucination Generation
Beborn Beton – American Girls
Isaac Howlett – House of Cards
Urban Heat – Right Time of Night
Revolting Cocks – Big Sexy Land
Apoptygma Berzerk – Kathy’s Song
Alex Braun – Der Gedankensammler

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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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Cobalt 60: If you go into the woods today you’re in for a radioactive surprise.

The return of the Pick Five format has us telling on ourselves, revealing some of our own apathies, and possibly taking some contentious positions as we talk about records which we haven’t got around to yet. We’re also talking about Ministry reformation news, and a video essay about goth and race making the rounds. As always, you can rate and subscribe on iTunes, download directly, or listen through the widget down below.

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Wingtips
On Trial
Artoffact Records

If you’ve been following Wingtips since the release of their exceptional LP of goth-pop Exposure Therapy, the electronics forward sound of their latest album probably won’t be a huge surprise. After all, 2021’s Cutting Room Floor was very much a synth-driven affair, albeit one where Vincent Segretario’s guitar still played a major role in service of more overtly dance and pop oriented songwriting. On Trial feels like a natural progression in Segretario and Hannah Avalon’s work as Wingtips (especially in light of their industrial side-project Visceral Anatomy), with their typically strong songwriting keeping their various stylistic diversions on course.

Given how much the record feels like Wingtips trying on some new musical ideas for size, it’s fitting that they come out of the gate with “Hit and Run”, a track that starts with a surprisingly straightforward bit of bouncy electro-house type programming, a course it maintains until its big singalong chorus breaks out, followed closely by some uncharacteristic but not unwelcome blasts of guitar chug. Those little musical feints aren’t necessarily the rule here, although they do provide a lot of the record’s best moments; Tim Capello (yes, the guy from The Lost Boys) busts out a tremendous sax solo on “The Verdict” as a euphoric accompaniment to the song’s laidback vocal take from Avalon, while “Confess” and “Escape Plan” flirt with italo-disco and NRG sounds.

Importantly, every track is built around a solid melody or hook, many of which hearken back to their earlier, more explicitly goth and darkwave-styled material. Yes, “The Trial” is a nice minimal bit of bubbly synth bass and drums, but you can hear their rock ambitions come out in how Segretario’s vocal lines fill out the sparse arrangement. Similarly it’s not hard to imagine “Let Go” or “The Break” as more explicitly goth-pop type songs, especially the latter, which leverages a guest vocal from Ronnie Stone for extra oomph, giving the track a bit of futurepop gravitas.

For its variety, there’s a nice thread that runs through On Trial, a unity of concepts and ideas (one bolstered by the judiciary track titles and their specific sequencing). Leaving aside the specific aesthetics of this record, you can hear the characteristics that have become Wingtips’ calling cards, namely that they know their way around a hook, and how to get it across. To wit, whatever Segretario and Avalon do, it comes out sounding like Wingtips, allowing them to expand their identity without ever compromising their core appeal; good songs, well performed.

Buy it.

On Trial by WINGTIPS

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Kurs
Dreamer
Swiss Dark Nights

With its sophomore record, Italy’s Kurs has confirmed much of the optimistic speculation their 2021 debut Muter prompted. Firstly, sole member Valerio Rivieccio is someone with a deep understanding of the histories, techniques, and most importantly the potential of dark electro and electro-industrial as sub genres. Secondly, he’s someone with a clear and distinct vision of the sort of mood and experience he wants to conjure via those forms. The result is a dark, heavy, and evenly flowing record which should reward long-time rivetheads.

Kurs’ visual aesthetic up until now has pointed to a biomechanic phantasia not just in cover art but in full-blown graphic novels appended to records: half Giger, half Shadowrun. It’s a look which is reflected in the misty ambiance which enshrouds the entirety of Dreamer, with tight kernels of rhythmic programming strung atop classic dark electro basslines and percussion. While there’s plenty of swing and kick to tracks like “Air” and “Archivist”, there’s not much in the way of traditional leading melody, and by design. Instead, the pads and drones which at times hover in the background as pure ambiance shift forward to add harmonic depth to the roll of the rhythm. It’s a tactic which scratches the itch for the aggressive side of the genres Rivieccio is working with while also maintaining the eerie soundtracking vibe which is clearly of import to his vision for Kurs in particular.

Like I said, Dreamer has one foot clearly planted in post-industrial classics; you can hear some vocal nods to classic Hardwired era FLA on the rollicking “Blindcorner”, for example. But Kurs is not making such callbacks out of an appeal to myths of old-school purity. Check out the subtle strings which add some harmonic depth to the back half of “Portal”, or the utilization of the clean and sleek programming which dominated the now maligned club records of the late-00’s on Omen (albeit completely shrouded in the sort of acidic miasma which is Dreamer‘s larger raison d’être). A record like this is the product of someone who’s studied the breadth and depth of the industrial genre; heads should appreciate similarities between opener “Dream Domain” and the icy minimalism and precise sound design of Covenant’s Europa and the wailing portent of Interlace on “Mechanism” in equal measure.

While making such comparisons could be part of the appeal of Dreamer for some, it’s far from its primary strength. That biomechanic feel mentioned earlier is reflected in the record’s slinky unity; rather than flagging individual songs I found myself latching on to individual grooves and atmospheres as part of a gestalt whole. The hypnotic nod that any number of the synthlines or idiosyncratic squalls could produce is recapitulated in the moody yet satisfyingly mean air which unites the record, and has prompted me to keep it on loop over the past week in order to stay within its sphere of influence. Recommended.

Buy it.

Dreamer by Kurs

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October is in full swing, which means that we’re now within reasonable range of year end to start thinking about our lists. Yeah, there’s still a lot of records to come, and plenty we need to revisit, but honestly we find that starting to casually think about what our favourites are mid-Fall helps when the hammer comes down a couple weeks before year end. Will there be a dark horse number #1, or a surprising rise from the early spring to the top honours? Who even knows at this point, but we’d love to know what you think the best of the year thus far is in the comments below. On to Tracks!

Rue Oberkampf, practiced in the Weirding Way.

ACTORS, “Object of Desire”
As much as the rock and live band feeling of the ACTORS catalogue is an important of the band’s identity, there’s always been a strong synthetic pulse beneath the surface of the Vancouver quartet’s material. New single “Object of Desire” brings that way up to the front, not only through some very strong programming, but through the way that voices, drums and guitars are processed and reconstituted, making the band’s grand pop sensibilities all the more menacing and discomfiting in the process.
Object of Desire by ACTORS

Ultra Sunn, “Stories”
Steady gigging has helped to cement how strong a statement of arrival Ultra Sunn’s US was earlier this year, and the Belgian duo is continuing to play the hot hand with a new single. Some italo flourishes atop classically chunky and rubbery body music rhythm programming will likely be the first thing folks notice on the dancefloor, but there’s also a solidly structured tune and structure guiding the whole thing, pointing to the band’s obvious facility with classic 80s pop.
Stories by ULTRA SUNN

Cardinal Noire, “Diatribe”
We’ve been pretty excited to hear more from Finnish electro-industrialists Cardinal Noire, especially as it comes in the form of a new album via Artoffact Records. Like all of their best work, the songs we’ve heard from the duo have been indebted to the Vancouver school, but spiked with a specifically rough edged version and European take on the sound, reflective of their side-projects like W424 and Protectorate. “Diatribe” absolutely slams, and has us very keen on the forthcoming “Vitriol” for late year honours.
Vitriol by Cardinal Noire

Rue Oberkampf, “Solitude (Buzz Kull Remix)”
Icy German darkwavers Rue Oberkampf have been releasing a string of singles in anticipation of new EP Essenz, “Solitude” being the latest of which. The tight and shuddering programming of the original itself already has plenty in common with the most recent material we’ve heard from Aussie expat Buzz Kull, and so tapping him for a remix must have been a no-brainer. Relaxing the tenser muscles in the original into a chiller, trance-styled state offers a nice inversion of the drama baked into Julia de Jouy’s vocals, and should appeal to fans of recent Bite releases.
Solitude (Essenz Version) by Rue Oberkampf

Harsh Symmetry, “Stained Glass”
This new cut from Harsh Symmetry finds the LA project cashing in some of the chits its earned via the austere style of coldwave it’s plied over the past few years. When the minimal synth structures which have been the project’s bread and butter are built up with some chilly new wave guitar and a real grab the brass ring composition, the time Julian Sharwarko’s spent playing it cooler pay off wonderfully.
Stained Glass by Harsh Symmetry

modebionics, “Flesh Hardware (demo)”
We’re unabashedly into the classic electro-industrial stylings of San Antonio’s modebionics, and the steady flow of material has been really bracing of late. The roots sound is one that has come in and out of style in recent years, but the stripped down way that Rolan Vega approaches the sound cuts right through to its core appeal; mechanical cybernetic noise, complete with samples, processed vocals and those drums that hit just so.
Flesh Hardware (demo) by MODEBIONICS

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The March Violets
Crocodile Promises
Metropolis Records

Crocodile Promises is a record arriving with no small amount of history and baggage. Not only tasked with maintaining the warm reception original Leeds legends The March Violets received in 2013 with Made Glorious, their first formally presented new material in nearly 30 years (though by happenstance their first LP), it also faces the difficult proposition of being the band’s first work to not feature the signature voice of Simon Denbigh, who has stepped back from the band since suffering a stroke in 2016 (though it should be noted that Denbigh contributed lyrics to Crocodile Promises). Whether through conscious intent or organic process, the resulting LP is a decidedly understated on, eschewing both the bombast of the band’s early incarnation and the filigreed, vaudeville excess of Made Glorious for an even, slow burn of mature, autumnal goth rock.

In many cases, that savvy approach reflects the Violets’ tenure and its ins and outs pays off, as on the less-is-more, up and down riffing and sing-song style of “Mortality”. Elsewhere it leaves the band lacking, as on “World Away From Kind” which never rises above the station of its mid-tempo plod. But those misfires are the exception rather than the rule, and while they’re playing it cool for much of the record, it has its frantic moments as well. The dead simple drum programming and skittering post-punk guitar on “Virgin Sheep” is right in the same pocket as any number of classic Violets singles.

It’s a record, then, where the subtleties of production and songwriting are often the difference markers. The chimes which ornament nodding pre-release single “Hammer The Last Nail” are reflected in Rosie Garland’s task on that track and the rest of the album in handling all vocal duties, that of carrying the punky directness that still lies at the foundation of the March Violets’ sound, yet lending the proceedings just enough otherworldly gothic mystique. Sometimes that balancing act is accomplished lyrically, as on the linking of family trauma and gaslighting to mythic imagery on “Kraken Wakes”.

Despite the nostalgic kick the prospect of a new March Violets record still carries for goth greybeards, the band are doing a solid job of putting out material which speaks to their here and now, with enough organic connection to their roots to still feel like the same band despite line-up adjustments. And hey, speaking of line-up adjustments, getting none other than William Faith to pinch hit on some songwriting is as good a way as any to link the past to the present. Whether this incarnation holds or morphs into yet another era, Crocodile Promises brings more than retro kicks for their own sake.

Buy it.

Crocodile Promises by The March Violets

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Shadowy folk on a shadowy screen: Ars Moriendi.

After dalliances with the meaning of goth and post-punk royalty, we’re back to what brought us to the dance on this episode: obscure industrial releases scant few people are aware of. We’re talking about Jean-Luc De Meyer’s science fiction odysseys with 32Crash, and the strange path German collective Ars Moriendi took in linking classic industrial to powernoise. All that, plus some Cure (sorry, more post-punk royalty) and Pixel Grip talk. As always, you can rate and subscribe on iTunes, download directly, or listen through the widget down below.

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