Gothic BC

At the Heart of the World
Quaquaversal
self-released
Portland electro-industrialists At The Heart of the World have a short but potent discography; we were so taken with grit and vigor of their 2022 releases Inosculate and Paroxysm (handily compiled on the All Torments Are Just LP) that they immediately became a watchlist band. The long wait for a follow-up is finally over with the release of 3-track EP Quaquaversal, which takes the classic drippy, horror-infused post-industrial template and runs hard with it into still meaner territory. Opener “Not Worth Having” is all crashing drum hits and mixed clean and distorted vocals, but the track’s real impact lies in the way its wormy lead snakes its way through its cascade of percussion and waves of distorted reverb, eventually melting down in its final moments. “Lick the Face of God” is ambitious in its chaotic arrangement, forgoing any symmetry in how its various sections and breakdowns fit together, eventually fusing them into one final burst of mechanical ire, venting smoke and bile before falling apart. Their most ambitious moment comes on “Heaven is No More”, which starts with a slow-rolling melodic section, accented with distorted breaks before transforming into a swaying, rolling lurch whose intensity threatens to burn itself out launching one final volley. For their dedication to wrath and ruin, At the Heart of the World keep building upwards, even as it all falls apart around them.
Quaquaversal by At The Heart Of The World

Zirkular Dion
Hole
self-released
With a number of releases on the celebrated (and on hiatus?) Detriti label, Ukrainian act Zirkular Dion has certainly passed over the desks of in the know tastemakers in the past, but new EP Hole also makes for a perfectly suitable jumping on point for those just catching up. The analog style of EBM plied by Zirkular Dion is as muscular as ever on these six tracks, without losing the lo-fi grit that’s defined it from the beginning. Even working with the somewhat limited and limiting toolkit of stripped-down DAF worship, with minor chord changes and twiddling of phase and filter being the only structural ‘progression’ within these numbers, there’s just enough variety on tape here to keep Hole from wearing out its welcome. The pinchy, almost snooty upturn on the programming of “Дыра” and the more anhalt trudge of “Жестокость” clearly spring from the same ur-source but with different expressions and moods. It’s not the most complex or dynamic fare, to be certain, but that’s kind of the appeal. If you’re the sort of listener with a craving for throwback EBM and find even the monochrome delivery thereof from the likes of Jager 90 to be a bit too showy, Zirkular Dion have the sort of disciplined workout you’re looking for.
Hole by Zirkular Dion

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Orgy. We’d say you had to be there, but…you really didn’t.

It’s our sesexacentennial anniversary here at We Have A Technical, and no, that’s not a mispronunciation of some oddly named aggrotech album, but cod-Latin for our 550th episode. We like to do something special every fifty episodes, and this is no different, with the Senior Staff casting their eyes and ears back to some club hits which didn’t exactly curry favour with them upon release, and reappraising them. Has the music changed, or have we? We’re also giving some immediate reactions to the newly rerecorded “Every Day Is Halloween” (just be thankful we’re not really on Youtube with soyjak reaction faces). As always, you can rate and subscribe on iTunes, download directly, or listen through the widget down below.

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Another Cold Summer
Everything is Gone Now
self-released

Existing in parallel to the last several decades of melodic post-punk, there’s been a gritty, industrialized strain of the genre that feels more descended from the ugliness of Big Black than it does the pop-friendly sounds of New Order or the like. While never quite as popular a stylistic offshoot, records by The Soft Moon, Odonis Odonis and their ilk have found a lot of power in the dark, mechanized version of the sound, and it’s that tradition that France’s Another Cold Summer inhabits on the compellingly unpleasant Everything Is Gone Now.

The sound ANC plies is rough and ready by nature; as noted on the Bandcamp liners, the record was recorded with a guitar, a few cheap synths, a $5 mic and a lot of valium, and was birthed in the 18 month wake of a stay at a psychiatric institution. That DIY approach and fraught personal circumstance don’t just inform the record but add to it. The desperate and distorted vocals that show up on “Sewer Princess” have an energy that unsettles, running alongside the simple synth lead and bassline, making their hypnotic progress a manic gallop to an uncertain finish. Elsewhere, the dirgey “Ice Grave Revisited” makes the most of tinny reverb and crushed sound design, all the more unnerving for not just a lack of polish, but its outright contempt for the very notion.

Of course wretchedness for its own sake doesn’t make for much of a listen – thankfully Another Cold Summer has some compelling instrumental grooves underneath those layers of grime. “Desecrate” is a hellish death-drive disco number, whose queasy guitar tone stands in contrast to its rock-solid mechanical rhythm. Elsewhere, the thrumming synthesizers that bounce along the kick-snare drums of “Worry” give the song an elastic quality that only serves to ratchet up the tension and acidic cynicism of its samples.

For all the harshness and disagreeability, there’s something deeply compelling about the album, a sense of genuine honesty that informs it, from the lurching desperation of “Fed Stalking” to the disintegrating trudge that closes it out on “Gangrenous Watchtowers”. Far from being a turn-off, the woefulness becomes something of an emotional base to experience (one hesitates to say “enjoy”) the album from, a vantage into dark and disturbing territory. Simply put, is no walk in the park, unless the park in question is adjacent to a waste treatment plant and inhabited by feral wildlife.