Tracks: November 25th, 2024

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As alluded to on last week’s podcast, like half of the Internet we’re up and running over at Bluesky. Not to belabour points which countless others have made, but even beyond the more immediate arguments against skulking around the smouldering remains of Twitter, at a selfish level we’re seeing much more engagement with our work over on Bluesky despite only having a fraction of the followers. That’ll change as more folks migrate and feeds begin to fill up, but for now the vibes are good. We’ll still cross-post to Twitter for the time being, but will probably sundown our account within a month or two. Enough of that, on with this week’s Tracks!

Minuit Machine

Minuit Machine, “Hold Me”
The future of Minuit Machine has been interesting to contemplate for the last couple of years; tragically, Hélène de Thoury was forced to retire from music due to health issues relating to covid, which left vocalist Amandine Stioui as the sole member of half of the French darkwave duo. New track “Hold Me” is reassuring, in that it continues the evolution of the project from its coldwave inspired earlist releases to the sleek modern dancefloor sound of their most recent albums, with Stioui bringing her distinctive vocal style to a track with an addictive bass lick co-produced with RAUMM’s Lloyd Philippon. A good track that offers reassurance that Minuit Machine’s run is far from over.
HOLD ME by Minuit Machine

SIIE, “Grand Virage”
We don’t know much about German darkwave act SIIE, but boy is this cut of modern dancefloor action up our alley. Rejecting the minimalism of many comparable acts for a more grandiose and thick swell of electronics, there’s just something very different and very impactful about this song, especially the French-language vocals which give it the right bit of continental charm. Gonna have to go back and look into more by these cats and keep a lookout for their future releases as well, there’s something here.
Grand Virage by SIIE

MVQX feat. SPÆCIALISTA, “Break The Chains”
One of the roughest and rawest diamonds from the surge of South American body music of a few years back, Brazil’s MVQX has effectively maintained radio silence for three-plus years save for one brief archival release. Reemerging with a new single featuring some work from Columbia’s always excellent SPÆCIALISTA, MVQX has lost none of his edge with this cavernous but still lo-fi trek through acid-EBM and solid state hardware programming.
Break The Chains [ARCHIVE] by MVQX, SPÆCIALISTA

Amrou Kithkin, “Pleasures & Atrocities”
Polish duo Amrou Kithkin have been at it for long enough to see periods of interest in various forms of post-punk and darkwave come and go, but they haven’t let faddishness deter them from their thoughtful, understated, and in this case downright vulnerable style. The b-side of a new single (released in the ever-popular 3.5″ floppy format, in case you were wondering), this track slowly draws a sober line of severance with slow-burn restraint which sits in quiet opposition to the flashier paths taken by many current acts in this milieu.
A Lamb at Nightfall / Pleasures & Atrocities by Amrou Kithkin

Rhombus, “Running From My Shadow”
Few bands as deeply steeped in trad goth rock can make it sound as lithe and innervating as Huddersfield’s Rhombus. Balancing vocal harmonies with the proper guitar workouts and atmosphere you’d want in the style, this new single also communicates the effortless energy and sunset glory which first drew us into their orbit more than twelve years ago. It’s been a little bit since their last full length, and if there’s another in the works this is a strong and shiny first statement of it.
Running From My Shadow by Rhombus

Sturm Diesel Hands, “Castle Freak”
What happens when American beefy beef boys Diesel Dudes/Morning Hands meet Swedish body blood brothers Sturm Café in their studio? They write a song about Castle Freak of course. While the track may not resolve the immortal question of whether the titular character from the Stuart Gordon classic did in fact rip his own ding dong off (some say no, others aren’t so sure), it sure does end up being a lot of fun, combining the synthpop chops of the SC camp with the lo-fi charisma of the Dudes in that two great tastes that taste great together way. Also the other song on the EP “Silent Abyss” is sneaky great vocally in a way we’d never have expected.
Sturm Diesel Hands: Svensk-Amerikansk Vänskap by Sturm Café, Diesel Dudes, Morning Hands

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We Have A Commentary: My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult, “I See Good Spirits And I See Bad Spirits”

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My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult - I See Good Spirits And I See Bad Spirits

The debut LP of Wax Trax sleaze peddlers extraordinaire, My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult, is the subject of this month’s commentary podcast. Between the duo of Buzz McCoy and Groovie Mann getting in on the ‘darkened 60s psychedelia’ angle years before it went mainstream, to their placement within Wax Trax and industrial music overall in the late 80s, to the more restrained (and dare we say tasteful?) sounds which crop up in the band’s early work, there’s plenty to discuss. As always, you can rate and subscribe on iTunes, download directly, or listen through the widget down below.

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Observer: Faith In Flesh & Mascarpone

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Faith In Flesh - Body Is Language
Faith In Flesh
Body Is Language
self-released
LA duo Faith In Flesh are cutting right to the chase, having released two EPs this year which spread across a wide range of electro-industrial and EBM terrain. Cronenberg samples, Leaether Strip atmospheres, and icy programming stabs get the mission statement across within the first few minutes of “Faith In Flesh”. The dense and spastic flailing of “Showreel” finds them capable of keeping a core rhythm swinging at a decent gait even as vocals and programming seem to collapse in upon their own mutated flesh. It’s not always the most compositionally immediate or hooky stuff, but the same could be said of a good portion of the acts Faith In Flesh are drawing inspiration from, and with the shifts Body Is Language makes from the grimmest of dark electro to funkier kicks, often within the same track, much of the fun comes from influence spotting. It’s not all throwback styles, though: the crooning vocal and sleek programming which skirt atop the rubbery breaks foundation of Body Is Language points more to recent acts with one foot in the past like Multiple Man or Kontravoid than Mentallo-styled ur-sources.
Body Is Language by Faith In Flesh


Mascarpone
Chronology of the Universe
Nocturbulous Records
The broader techno world’s dalliance with body music sounds has largely receded, and while many of the acts associated with that moment in time have also faded from view, several have stuck around, and are exploring sounds both closely related and further afield. The UK’s Mascarpone falls into the latter category, with a surprising but quite pleasing new EP of ghostly electro – and by electro, we mean like classic Detroit-styled electro, complete with fit-for-breaking noisy snares, rimshots, vocoders, cowbells and squirmy bass. Of course the genre isn’t all that far off from the darker electronic genres, ancestry in the teutonic menace and pulse of krautrock, but a joint like “Code Injection” makes the link abundantly clear: Kraftwerkian sequences and woops fly through the stereo field in foreboding fashion, while the simple analogue bassline is pumped by the syncopated kicks that give the sound its distinctive rhythm. Similarly, the robotic voices that haunt both “Antiscience” and “Heliocentric” bring a healthy dose of mechanized dread to their skeletal construction, recalling similarly dread-filled cuts from the turn of the Millennium by acts like Dopplereffekt. Functioning as a pure expression of classic electro and as a bridge to modern dark dance sounds (check the ghostly sounds that give structure and melody to “Spherical Mechanism”), it should serve as a reminder of the underlying DNA of electronic dance music of all genres we often take for granted.
Chronology Of The Universe by Mascarpone

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We Have A Technical 534: You Put Me On The Spot

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Potochkine

Potochkine

In an episode dedicated to splitting the finest of hairs and analyzing the specific dance steps of angels on pinheads, we’re each picking five micro-genres for discussion. Do they exist? Are they distinct from neighbouring styles? What can be learn or take from them? We’re also discussing Metropolis Records’ recently announced charity initiative and corresponding compilation series. As always, you can rate and subscribe on iTunes, download directly, or listen through the widget down below.

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Silent EM, “Real Life”

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Silent EM
Real Life
DKA Records

We last heard from NYC darkwave act Silent EM (aka Jean Lorenzo) in 2019, when their album The Absence impressed us with its strident and hard hitting take on darker-flavoured electronic dance music. In the intervening years we’ve heard more mingling of the electro-darkwave genre with body music and techno, but what new Silent EM LP Real Life brings to the table is the same feeling of desperation and uneasiness that defined its predecessor, albeit with some broader changes in approach.

The chief amongst these is the addition of more melodic and groovy compositions, providing some respite from the starker and more anxious songs that defined previous releases. That the album opens up with “Heart Sinking”, with its speedy, ascending bassline, peels of guitar and crystalline pad sounds feels appropriate; it’s not so far off from what you’d expect from a new Silent EM song, but its mood and instrumentation come across as more fluid, and less fraught than the funk by force of the past. Indeed, it’s almost a bit strange to hear Lorenzo sing a song like “Institution”, forgoing his stern and anguished vocals for a more matter of fact delivery that suits the song’s new wavey bounce, complete with stereo-panned grunts and rolling drums. With studio assists from Automelodi’s Xavier Paradis, it’s not entirely surprising to hear a bit more variety in textures and atmospheres here (Xarah Dion collab “Europa” certainly has their fingerprints on it), but it’s not at the expense of Silent EM’s established identity.

To that end, there’s a healthy dollop of the fast-moving, densely programmed sounds that are the band’s stock and trade here. “World of Sin” has the band’s signature combination of impactful drums, high-strung synthlines and relentless momentum, tightly assembled with care taken to allow space for Lorenzo’s wounded yowl. “Survive” slows things down, but its shrill synth trills and ghostly progression as layers of reverb and throbbing bass intermingle transforms the project’s stress and tumult into a more subtle if no less effective disquiet. Old and new meet on cuts like “My Versions of Hell” where sturm and drang are supported by inhuman choral sounds and speedy guitar riffs, familiar and novel in equal measures.

Real Life is something new from an act who had their aesthetics well-established, and with a move like that there’s always the danger that changing what worked could lead to a dilution of that identity. Thankfully Lorenzo has a good grasp of his project’s main appeal, supplementing his stormy ennui with fresh and invigorating ideas and approaches.

Buy it.

Real Life by Silent EM

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Skelesys, “Fading Echoes”

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Skelesys - Fading Echoes

Skelesys
Fading Echoes
Pinkman

Berlin-based one-man project Skelesys has been plying solid and engaging club-focused darkwave for a few years via singles and remixes, but for Damian Shilman’s first proper LP the formula’s been changed into something notably different, and dare I say earthier. Fading Echoes is still a beat-driven listen with plenty of dancefloor appeal, but rather than filling itself to the brim with heavy leads or atmospherics, a minimalist strain of rock featuring twangy summer sunset guitar and crooning vocals instead carries the LP into a hazy but also decidedly grounded minimalism.

Lead single “Pictures In My Mind”, featuring some tag team work with Curses’ Luca Venezia (with whom Shilman’s worked previously), is as solid a mission statement as any, buttressing immediate chiming synths with roaming guitar and rock vocal harmonies. Turkey’s Affet Robot is perhaps as close of a current comparison as could be made, but that still doesn’t point to the dusty warmth that emerges over “Pictures In My Mind”. That rock-focused but sparse aesthetic is held over the rest of the record: Shilman’s vocals and a rueful, listless guitar slowly rotate in and out of the spotlight over a minimal lope on the languid “In The Dark”, while the stoic and weary “Digital Ghosts” suggests both airy dreampop and sullen neofolk.

Not all such gambits pay off on Fading Echoes, though. “Grey Days”‘ homage to classic French coldwave is spot on, and there’s some solid punch to the drums, but the atmosphere isn’t enough to account for a lack of a hook or direction, and at least one or two other tracks feel similarly underwritten. But I have something of a feeling that these misfires in restraint are the sort of tradeoff a project like Skelesys is willing to make in order to absolutely nail the overarching sound and mood they’re clearly aiming for. And when everything comes together, as on “Golden Eyes”, one can see why. Its laid back groove, suggesting The Jesus And Mary Chain tackling “The Boys Of Summer”, is charming enough, but all of the tiny tics and flourishes which ornament it – Shilman dropping his baritone an octave at just the right time, a guitar line that shimmers like a Mann film, what might be a couple of muted sax skronks in the background – carry it into a slowburn majesty unlike anything else you’ll hear in darkwave this year.

It’s no secret that the broader dark music world is positively awash in darkwave right now, for better and for worse. Between the established giants and the mediocre dregs, it can be difficult for an emerging project to establish itself, but Fading Echoes does just that for Skelesys, giving it a sound and identity fairly distinct from much else happening in the field. It makes for an unexpected and welcome statement of arrival for a project that’s been waiting in the wings for a while.

Buy it.

Fading Echoes LP by Skelesys

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Tracks: November 18th, 2024

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Okay we make this plea every year, but it’s only out of some neurotic fear of missing out: if you have albums that you think would fit well in our Year End coverage, but that we haven’t reviewed or mentioned on the site, speak now. We try to keep up, and have a pretty good grip on what we need to get done between now and mid-December when our Top 25 needs to be solidified, but there’s always a few late contenders in the mix, and the field feels pretty open for some new entries as of this writing. Drop ’em in the comments below!

Menthüll, “Jargon”
Regular readers of these Tracks columns might be getting fairly accustomed to us featuring a Menthüll cut here every three or so months, but as long as the Quebec duo keep infusing their combo of synthpop, new wave, and cold wave with as much thought and originality as this number has, not to mention their ear for harmonies, that ain’t gonna change. This prose poem-driven piece maybe isn’t quite as direct as some of their more dancefloor focused stuff, but still finds a bevy of corners into which grooves and baubles can be stashed. Somewhat reminiscent of Severed Heads side project Coklacoma.
Jargon by Menthüll

Camlann, “Ronny (Burn in Hell)”
Our favourite indonesian darkwavers Camlann get real intense on new single “Ronny (Burn in Hell)”, and yeah, this rules. Their LP last year DISMANTLE! was one of our favourites from last year, largely for the number of ideas and styles it touched on while remaining very much its own thing. That record had some good growls and shouts on it, but nothing like this new cut, feels pretty pointed at someone in specific, who no doubt knows what they did to bring this out of the otherwise quite composed duo.
Ronny (Burn in Hell) by Camlann

Lights of Euphoria, “Surrender”
Infacted house band Lights of Euphoria have dabbled in a lot of styles over the years; they’ve been dark electro, ebm, synthpop, and most recently broadly an electropop act. New single “Surrender” has some of the charm of their best singles over the years, due in part to the smooth vocals of Jimmy McMahon and Torben Schmidt’s tastefully modern production. Just a pleasant little slice of something from an act who have persisted for some decades now.
Surrender by Lights Of Euphoria

Schwefelgelb, “IO”
It’s been a year since the last missive from German techno-body act Schwefelgelb, although we’ll admit to not tracking them super closely for a while there. It seemed that just as the new-school body music sound they helped pioneer was kicking off, they turned to more purely techno style production, which while quite nice were not totally our cup of tea. Not sure if “IO” is a return to form per se, but the vocals from Sid Lamar and the bassline make it feel like the sort of thing that drew us to them in the first place. Check that sick break mid-track, this slams.
Trigger by Schwefelgelb

No Filter, “Sauvages”
Here’s something well off the beaten path via AVANT! Records. France’s No Filter combine early synthpunk bounce with the stormy chants of classic oi. It’s a combination which doesn’t end up in the same oiBM territory as EkoBrottsMyndigheten or Container 90, despite some shared component parts, but instead conjures a strange hybrid of early 80s NDW or French coldwave being carried into Mad Max wastelands.
Sans Filtre by NO FILTER

Vacíos Cuerpos, “Vit​í​ligo”
Mexico’s Vacíos Cuerpos jumped onto our radar late last year with the project’s Hoy Solo Quiero Odiar EP, which added some speed and bounce to contemporary darkwave gloom. A string of stand-alone tracks this year have kept that delivery going, and the latest is no exception. Vocals and a hazy guitar line drift with hypnotic langour while tight and frenetic rhythmic programming whizzes past at double time, creating an uncanny speedball effect.
Vitíligo by Vacíos Cuerpos

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Pøltergeist, “Nachtmusik”

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Nachtmusik - Pøltergeist

Pøltergeist
Nachtmusik
Bad Omen Records

A year can make a big difference. When I saw Calgary’s Pøltergeist play a hometown show at Terminus in the summer of 2023, I saw a band whose reach exceeded their grasp. They were a clearly impassioned act and had a vision for an anthemic and melodic style of post-punk, but there wasn’t just enough cohesion to the material or delivery to cinch things. They were much stronger earlier this year at Verboden Festival, and now their first LP Nachtmusik not only captures a band beginning to coalesce around strong instincts, but one bringing some welcome cross-genre pollination.

What is surprisingly easy to miss about Pøltergeist when you see them live is much more apparent on record: they’re metalheads. Metalheads who love and are self-admittedly inspired by The Chameleons, but metalheads nonetheless. In its early days, the idea of corrupting the pure and austere experimentalism of post-punk with boorish metal would have been unthinkable, but decades on with swathes of younger bands finding themselves enchanted with new darkwave and casting an eye backwards, such divisions seem petty and academic. The speedy drive of “Ethereal Nightmare” could easily be linked back to the earliest Twin Tribes material, but when it sits alongside the galloping triplets and shredding of “Yesterday Fades” (or songs called “Burning Sword” for crying out loud), the metal influence in its drum rolls and bellowed vocals can’t be ignored.

Thankfully, this combination isn’t just coasting on its novelty (Gallows’ Eve and Unto Others are the only other two bands who readily come to mind in terms of crossing these streams, but their specific interests in metal, goth, and post-punk are clearly distinct from Pøltergeist’s influences), but brings some proper tunes with it. The brooding “Cold In September” has a melancholy weight which belies its speed and immediate hooks, part modern Spectres, part Lovelife played at double speed. Ironically, the gloom of that cut sits a large distance from the spritely and crisp “Children Of The Dark”. Adjusting the ratio of power metal to NWOBHM, of pure goth rock to dancefloor darkwave, Pøltergeist pack a great amount of variety into a tight forty minutes, and are rarely found wanting in whatever build they settle upon.

Nachtmusik isn’t entirely without its faults. Some of the shredding is lost in a rough mix and a few harmonies and sections lose their way by trying to stand astride both of the band’s major genres. But those are the sorts of rough patches Pøltergeist have already begun smoothing out in their live delivery and seem more than capable of taking on in the future. Nachtmusik is a great proof of concept in terms of its chocolate and peanut butter blending of genres, but it’s also a damn catchy and satisfying record in the here and now which should make for some great late autumnal midnight skulking for metalheads and goths alike. Recommended.

Buy it.

Nachtmusik by Pøltergeist

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