We Have A Commentary: Test Dept., “The Unacceptable Face Of Freedom”

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Test Dept - The Unacceptable Face Of Freedom

On this month’s commentary we look at a nearly 40 year old classic which feels as though it could have been released in response to the world at large today: Test Dept.’s The Unacceptable Face Of Freedom. In addition to the record’s searing indictment of the intertwining of capitalism and fascism at the expense of the working class, it marks a turning point for the band, with their classic industrial percussive sound now being tempered with an increased focus on sampling and programming, pointing the way forward for post-industrial music. As always, you can rate and subscribe on iTunes, download directly, or listen through the widget down below.

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Observer: LIMINID & Covert Forces

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LIMINID - Collapsed Wave Function
LIMINID
Collapsed Wave Function
self-released
The current project of Morgan Mayer, previously working in a more electro-industrial guise as INEXORA, LIMINID brings a decidedly cinematic approach to dark ambient, doom jazz, and downtempo sounds on its latest EP. Ethereal whispers weave through “Weeping Willow” over ruminating bass, while half-time breaks clatter over echoing orchestral stabs on “The Ghost It’s In The…” Certainly some of Mayer’s long-standing interests in Vancouver industrial can still be ferreted out on Collapsed Wave Function, but despite its sharp drum programming the languid, dreamy pace of “I Like The Dark” is much more Doubting Thomas than Puppy. For all of its measured pacing there’s a real sense of drama throughout these five tracks; like a properly executed film score, Collapsed Wave Function knows when to erupt into kinetic noise and motion and when to recline and descend into deep, murky depths.
Collapsed Wave Function by LIMINID


Covert Forces
self-titled
self-released
There’s very little information out there regarding lo-fi British Columbia-based industrial/EBM project Covert Forces. In fact, the only real information that accompanies the self-titled 5 track EP on Bandcamp is a list of influences, handily reflected in the music itself. Opener “Listen and Obey” is an atmospheric track that leverages a simple bassline and busy cymbals to move it forward, with atmospherics provided by its samples and pads; the trick being that the whole track is dipped in grime and smashed with cassette style compression, with obscures and renders it queasy in equal measure. “Browbeat” (and in fact the rest of the release) is just as opaque, although it’s bassline and cracking snare emerge more audibly from the fog in contrast to the unintelligible vocals and are reduced to pure desperation under layers of reverb and delay. Finding the songs in the seemingly deliberate fog of the mix is fairly difficult, although it does have the effect of making it all feel pretty ominous; the bass and grinding synthwork of “Flesh Covered Machinery” and crushed together and blasted out at the listener, forgoing the convenience of modern recording for undiluted menace and disquieting uncertainty.
COVERT FORCES by Covert Forces

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We Have A Technical 551: An Oubliette Of Electronics

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Clipping

We’re reaching just across some borders this week, talking about a pair of records which abut upon the industrial and goth worlds but aren’t entirely part and parcel of them. First up is the latest and very cyperpunk-themed record from the industrial-tinged hip-hop trio Clipping. Next, we’re talking about Chicago experimentalist Circuit Des Yeux’s new dark art rock opus, which lifts from the same ur-sources as goth. As always, you can rate and subscribe on iTunes, download directly, or listen through the widget down below.

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Devours, “Sports Car Era”

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Devours - Sports Car Era

Devours
Sports Car Era
Surviving The Game

Now five LPs into the game, both the musical style Jeff Cancade has been plying as Devours as well as his recurring themes and lyrical poignancy have become familiar to those who’ve been tracking the manically omnivorous electro-pop project. New record Sports Car Era is Devours through and through; any fragment of its chiptune bleeps or a single one of its biting quips is sure to bear Cancade’s stamp. While Sports Car Era doesn’t reinvent or revolutionize Devours’ remit, it does recapitulate many of the successes of its precedents in a strongly distilled, hooky, and at times downright aggressive form.

All the hallmarks of classic Devours material make their presence felt within the first couple of Sports Car Era‘s tracks: chopped up throwback rave pastiche, caffeinated hyperpop, and breathy ethereal chimes. But pay attention to their arrangement and delivery and you’ll notice more abrupt gear shifts and on-a-dime drops, not to mention a subtle but constant feeling of rhythmic pressure and intensity, even when Cancade’s still painting in brighter pastels. The descending, sing-song lilt of the chorus of “Swordswallower” belies just how driving and dark the verses are. “Quite Possessed” feels equally muscular and menacing. Even on an ostensibly softer song like the fragile “November”, there’s a stripped-down and dialed in focus on the pulsing bass, part Jan Hammer, part Berlin.

The social themes taken up in Homecoming Queen crop up again – the title cut laments being “squeezed out of the city and priced out of existence” – as well as the darkly confessional break-up/kiss off tracks Cancade’s become known for. Sometimes it’s pure poison pen vitriol, but there’s often a melancholy streak running through those sorts of tunes, either pining for a romance more idyllic than the stumbling and awkward failings of reality, as on the incredibly catchy “Loudmouth”, or in touching upon the complexities of beauty standards and expectations regarding the performance of gender in dating on “XY” (“I catch myself every time I start to deepen my voice during sex”).

This isn’t to say that Sports Car Era feels especially dark or harrowing throughout – we’re still talking about someone capable of singing “I promised you once I would never write / About our failed relationship, baby I lied” with wit and verve on a track called “Canada’s Next Top Fat Otter”. But Cancade’s charm and humour’s always been rooted in an unyielding honesty in his songwriting, no matter how artful. When the title track closes with the refrain “Somedays I just wanna help you burn it down”, there’s no artifice or poise, just raw disillusionment. Recommended.

Buy it.

Sports Car Era by Devours

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Vague Lanes, “Divergence & Declaration”

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Vague Lanes
Divergence & Declaration
Viasonde

Bay Area duo Vague Lanes is made up of Mike Cadoo (of celebrated industrial act Gridlock, and boss of abstract electronic label n5md) and Badger McInnes, and features both members on bass, with the former playing melodic six-string, and the latter on 4-string rhythm duties. Their sophomore LP Divergence & Declaration favours a pensive, atmospheric sound that recalls both the ethereal movement of the 90s and the post-rock inflected sounds of mid-2000s acts like I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness and These New Puritans. It’s a record of very precise moods, that finds a balance between regimented rhythms and more fluid sounds.

One aspect of Vague Lanes’ approach that is both a benefit and a hindrance is the strong uniformity of its musical palette. The density of its textures and the consistency of its design make it an enveloping listen and creates some geniunely intense moments; the climax of “Weight of Days” is as heavy as its title suggests, and arrives in such natural fashion that arrangement of synth pads, vocals and crashing electronic drums that feel inevitable, like something that had to happen. Alternately there are moments where the songs get lost in the production, like on closer “Exo”, where the melody in its pads, vocals and lead bass part is hard to separate from many of the earlier songs of a similar tempo. That said, there’s some cannily placed combo-breakers that give the album some flow, such as the loose shoegazey sway of “Cellophane” and the fluttering synthlines that accent “At the Edge”, providing some dynamics in the early and late portions of the record respectively.

One especially notable aspect of the LP is the compelling nature of Cadoo’s vocal work, which provides much of the record’s character. Followers of his work will know that his work as Dryft and bitcrush was instrumental, and while he certainly acquitted himself on Vague Lanes’ 2022 debut Foundation and Divergence, he sings here with a reassuring evenness that compliments the sound design’s constancy. On tracks like opener “Heptahedron” (which also features some drumwork from industrial man-about-town Martin Atkins) he leans in and pulls back during the transition between sections, staying grounded even as the song’s other waves of reverb and cracking snares rush around him. Elsewhere, on the propulsive “Unraveling” his baritone sets the table for the ascending emotion of its back half, establishing its yearning desperation and then laying back as the song drifts ever upwards.

A record like Divergence & Declaration is always going to be one whose appeal lies in how well its tenor matches the listener’s own feelings. The steady pacing and the melancholic (if not elegiac) tone is so much a part of it that you’d be hard-pressed to want to throw it on in casually; wanting to hear it is a deliberate choice, a quality that mirrors the records own intentionality. It’s a well-made and admirably considered effort that presents Vague Lanes’ musical vision in complete fashion.

Buy it.

Divergence & Declaration by Vague Lanes

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Tracks: March 24th, 2025

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Given the relatively niche state of much of the music we cover, we sometimes run the risk of mistaking a handful of coincidences for a larger trend. The italo-EBM crossover had its relatively brief moment in the sun, and while Boy Harsher-styled darkwave and pure TBM have certainly crested as larger forces, they’ve both had a long tail. What we haven’t seen is any particular newer trend in new releases or club sets that seems to be on the rise. Sure, plenty of individual acts are exploring new territory or revisiting old stomping grounds, but it feels like it’s been a minute since the needle shifted in one particular direction in Our Thing…or maybe that’s just our own biases speaking. Anything happening in your corner of the world which you think points to the shape of things to come, dear reader? Let us know in the comments after checking out this week’s tracks.

H.A.L.T.

Vancouver Brutalism: H.A.L.T.

Youth Code, “No Consequence”
We first wrote about Youth Code in a Tracks post in December of 2012, before their first tape release dropped. Since that time they’ve been a fixture of our coverage, releasing EPs and albums (including record of the year honoree Commitment to Complications) that have continuously made us excited, energized and spoke to the post-industrial sounds that mean so much to us, while forging their own legacy in the genre. The duo have been relatively quiet since the release of their King Yosef collab LP back in 2021, so the simultaneous arrival of the news that they would be dropping a new EP Yours, With Malice and their new single “No Consequence” was well received here at the HQ to put it mildly. Youth Code are back, they sound as angry as ever, and we’re here for it. Missed y’all, and glad to see you again.

Ghost Twin, “Rockin’ Back Inside My Heart”
The news that the sad passing of Jaimz Asmundson in 2024 did not signal the end of his darkwave project Ghost Twin with wife Karen Asmundson was both surprising and heartening, and to find out that there was new music from the Winnipeg band so soon is equally so. Industrial Symphony No. 1 features selections from recordings Jaimz and Karen did for a live tribute to the David Lynch helmed avant-garde concert film of the same name, a match made in heaven (where everything is fine) as the Ghost Twin sound so perfectly matches the dreamy, vaguely sinister and emotionally real vibe of the film and its director and it’s music. “Rockin’ Back Inside My Heart” is a true pleasure to hear, and we eagerly anticipate the rest of the EP in April.
Industrial Symphony No. 1 by Ghost Twin

Sixth June, “Memories Of God”
We have a new EP from Sixth June to look forward to next month, and the first single from it is a reminder of just how smooth and capable the Berlin-based duo sound when operating in their wheelhouse. An elegant and tasteful combo of new wave, synthpop, and darkwave, it walks that fine and uncanny line between being intimate and aloof which Sixth June have been treading for over a decade now.
AFTER THE WAR by SIXTH JUNE

Autodafeh, “Fastlane”
There hasn’t been an LP of new music from German EBM act Autodafeh since 2015, surprising given how prolific the 242-indebted act were for a few years around the beginning of the 2010’s. “Fastlane” is a pleasing update to their sound, keeping some of the neo-old school body music sounds that grabbed us way back when, but bringing in some modern production – this will work for club play with a general industrial night just as well as it would at Familientreffen. Curious to hear the rest of the new record Greed to see how it shakes out.
Fastlane by Autodafeh

Phil Western, “Asleep/Awake (Vuemorph collage)”
Phil Western’s 2019 passing still feels palpable here in Vancouver, between visiting venues he played and worked at and seeing any number of the countless local artists he collaborated with. It’s nice, then, that the forthcoming remix tribute compilation speaks both to that local legacy and its worldwide reach, with everyone from Robert Shea of Graceland fame to Mark Spybey to Tim Hill to Ivan Winke pitching in. Frequent collaborator Dan Handrabur’s reworking of sounds from the often overlooked World’s End LP is a deep and pleasant reworking of that record’s dreamy ambience.
Afterflash: A Remixed Tribute by Phil Western

H.A.L.T., “Forever Dead”
Speaking of Vancouver, here’s the latest from our local goth true-schoolers, H.A.L.T. Lithe and nimble, it does a solid job of getting their rhythm-driven approach to the genre across, with a stripped-down arrangement and delivery which feels right out of 1983. Feeling burnt out on just about all new goth fare bearing a heavy amount of darkwave influence? This’ll serve as an excellent combo breaker.
Forever Dead (Video Version) by H.Ä.L.T.

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Observer: At the Heart of the World & Zirkular Dion

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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
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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