Gothic BC

Delays as we approach the 500th episode of We Have a Technical. We’re hoping it’ll happen this week, but if not it’ll be another fill-in of some kind as we try to make this schedule work, but we assure you, it’s gonna be something special when it does drop. In the meantime, we’re looking forward to the HEALTH show (with Pixel Grip opening!) this week in Vancouver, and for the long weekend affording us some time to catch up on all these new-releases. Have a listen to some of this week’s selections and let us know what you’re feeling in the comments.

Give My Remains To Broadway

ACTORS, “In Real Life”
Hometown heroes ACTORS return with the first single for their forthcoming 2024 album, and man is it smooth. The post-punk quartet have dabbled in these sorts of airy synth-driven tracks in the past, but there’s a rare power in the way “In Real Life” channels melancholy via Joason Corbett’s vocal delivery, production and arrangement to give us something snappy and emotional in equal measure. Always a pleasure to get new music from these cats, and to know it won’t be long before we get to see them perform a good new tune on stage.
In Real Life by ACTORS

Einstürzende Neubauten, “Ist Ist”
You’re just going about your day, minding your own business and god damn Einstürzende Neubauten comes around and puts out a new song. “Ist Ist” (not to be confused with the similarly titled “Was Ist Ist” from a ways back) is an interesting cut in a lot of ways – it feels very classic Neubauten in terms of its use of cacophonous metallic percussion, Blixa’s vocalizations and that characteristic uncoiled bass sound, but it also has the earmarks of the bands mellow latter years in the mix, reminding us of the fusion of sounds and ideas we got circa Perpetuum Mobile. Never a bad time with these legends. A North American tour wouldn’t be unwelcome fellas.

Edgecase Development Corporation, “Euphrosyne”
Edgecase Development Corporation is the techno project of Eric Oehler, who you’re likely familiar with via Null Device and Klack. In the case of new EP
ECEP II: Belt Objects, it’s an outlet for Oehler to indulge his interest in global music and instrumental electronics and do kind of a Juno Reactor thing, albeit with his own production sensibility at its heart; you get some very cool use of sampled instruments and voices melded with the programmed drums and synths in ways that make a very organic kind of sense. Well executed stuff from an artist who just consistently hits with us.
ECEP II: Belt Objects by Edgecase Development Corporation

Zalvox, “Zalmoxis”
Longtime Haujobb associate Rinaldo Bite, whose work folks will know from Liebknecht and DSTR, has a new project on the go. The first track from Zalvox draws a line between the cold, motorik-influenced approach to electro we’d expect from Bite, and some icy current darkwave via vocalist Dorain a la Black Nail Cabaret or recent X Marks. Gotta dig those little Predator-styled creaks in the corners. Sounds like a debut EP is in the hopper.
zalmoxis by zalvox

Analytica, “Anyone We Know”
Look, the rest of Canada gives Toronto a lot of stick for imagining itself to be the sum total of the country, but if there’s one thing those of us in Vancouver hold in solidarity with Hogtown, it’s everyone short of hedge fund shitheads being priced out of their neighbourhoods. The “utopian” construction of a city beyond the reach of its own inhabitants is a theme befitting the roots synthpop of Analytica, which links Neu!-esque kosmische daydreams with the Ballardesque alienation of early Mute.
Strategy Of Tension by Analytica

Give My Remains To Broadway, “Rend My Flesh”
Lastly, let’s stay in Toronto for some weighty and monochrome goth/post-punk from Give My Remains To Broadway. In addition to a legitimately witty name, they’re bringing lots of atmosphere and a decent balance between hooks and sheer misery which is a bit beyond their years. Should appeal if you like Fearing or MOLT.
Rend My Flesh by Give My Remains to Broadway

The post Tracks: March 25th, 2024 appeared first on I Die: You Die.

Our special two-part We Have A Commentary concludes with the second disc of the Gothic Rock compilation. While there are still some cuts by foundational acts to work through, we’re also looking at some refinements and elaborations on original templates through a handful of second wave acts, some ten years after the genre first coalesced. As always, you can rate and subscribe on iTunes, Google Podcasts, download directly, or listen through the widget down below. 

The post We Have A Commentary: “Gothic Rock” (Disc 2) appeared first on I Die: You Die.

Quick refresher on this semi-regular feature here at I Die: You Die; A Game Called Echo is the thing where we recommend a more recent album you might enjoy if you’re a fan of a classic record. That’s it, basic as it gets.

Bel Canto’s Birds of Passage (1995), and Hada’s In The Heart Of An Endless Winter (2022)

Bel Canto’s sophomore record is a masterpiece which straddles many genres, darkwave amongst them. Its blend of tasteful acoustics, immediate yet atmospheric synths, and elegant vocals can easily be claimed as dream pop, ethereal, and possibly even new age, but those same elements combine to form top shelf darkwave on Birds Of Passage as well, be it the sober and fateful bombast of “Dewy Fields” or the slow-burn perfection of “A Shoulder To The Wheel”, its ever building synth strings and harmonics making it an enduring classic on goth dancefloors, perfect for your own version of the “I’m a shrub/I’m a tree” or “picking the apple” dances. Birds Of Passage‘s power comes as much from its understatement as its hooks, with pieces like “Intravenous” and “Time Without End” lighting their own little candles and waiting for passers-by to be drawn in by their grace, and that’s often the mark of maturity many darkwave also-rans miss out on, separating those who overplay their hand with garish programming from those capable of leaving something left unsaid, or at least nestling it mysteriously in the mix.

An interest in chilly atmospheres is certainly something Greek duo Hada have in common with Bel Canto, and at least in terms of titling with their debut White Out Conditions. But In The Heart Of An Endless Winter feels closer to Birds Of Passage‘s mix of pop melody and ambient minimalism than the latter’s folktronic experimentation. From the hammered strings of opener “White Sister” through the almost sacred piano of “Mon Ami de la Planète Bleue”, that sense of a gracious and inviting space from which to mull over the passing of seasons and mortality is created, but with hooks to boot. The speedy ease with which post-punk guitars skate along ice on “Neurons” has a laid back charm, and the kosmische arpegios of “Ascent Of The Blessed” are quite similar to the worldbeat pulse of “Birds Of Passage”. But as with Bel Canto, it’s in knowing when to lay back in the cut and allow the world that they’ve designed to turn of its own accord that In The Heart Of An Endless Winter truly excels.

In The Heart Of An Endless Winter by Hada

Information Society’s self-titled (1988), and Klack’s Catching Up With Klack (2020)

Information Society’s self-titled debut LP is an important touchstone in the transition from eighties synthpop to broader worlds of electronic music. While the record is largely remembered for the damnably funky singalong “”What’s on Your Mind (Pure Energy)” and it’s distincting use of Star Trek vocal samples, the nearly 8 minute long “Running” was already a hit in New York dance clubs before the album’s release, a track that can be read as classic electro, new wave, or freestyle depedning on context. The secret to the album’s Gold sales at a time when synthpop was broadly on the decline was that while it maintained the genre’s focus on big melodies, it integrated b-boyisms, nods to house and techno (presaging the sounds that would rocket EMF and Jesus Jones to chart success), and the classic electro-pop of Kraftwerk, the sweat of DAF, and Art of Noise’s mix of humour and the avant-garde. The album doesn’t sound particularly dated despite being squarely planted at its exact moment of release simply because it kept danceability and good-old fashioned songcraft at its heart.

Madison Wisconsin’s Klack started off as a fun one-off by friends Eric Oehler and Matt Fanale of Null Device and Caustic respectively, an avenue for them to explore an interest in New Beat and body music sounds that didn’t necessarily fit into the synthpop and industrial of their respective main projects. A listen to 2020’s Catching up with Klack, a collection of basically everything they had released up til that point, should allow anyone to draw the line from Insoc to their work; early cuts like “DMF” have the same mix of samples and body-moving rhythm programming, while a number like “With Precision” gets across their knack of instantly hummable hooks that don’t skimp on dancefloor appeal. Listen to how “The Games We Play” weaves Oehler’s voice with touches of acid and disembodied voices from classic education videos, or how “Time 1.1” works its message of unity against an arrangement of swelling synths and rolling kicks – no matter the cut, Klack keep their focus on keeping songs easy and fun on the first listen to the fiftieth. Like Information Society they touch on any number of now-retro genres (check the classic house piano on “Check the Spreadsheet” and the NRG fit for a mastermix that flows through “Synthesizer (v2​.​0)”), but it’s the songs that matter.
Catching Up With Klack by klack

The post A Game Called Echo: March 22nd 2024 appeared first on I Die: You Die.

We have a special two-part version of We Have A Commentary for you this week, as we’re tackling both discs of the Mick Mercer-curated Gothic Rock compilation, a companion record to Mercer’s book of the same name. In the first instalment, we’re discussing some absolutely foundational tracks by the likes of Bauhaus, X-Mal Deutschland, Virgin Prunes, and plenty of others, noting both the variety of sounds and the emergence of unifying tropes across the genre’s early years. Stay tuned for our discussion of the second disc this weekend! As always, you can rate and subscribe on iTunes, Google Podcasts, download directly, or listen through the widget down below. 

The post We Have A Commentary: “Gothic Rock” (Disc 1) appeared first on I Die: You Die.

B. West
Ex-Fantasy
self-released

The music on B. West’s debut solo LP is distinct from anything we’ve heard from the Vancouver ex-pat in any previous musical incarnation. While the music on Ex-Fantasy is not entirely removed from the sound of West’s work in techno-body project Sigsaly, it’s still a distinct musical entity unto itself, and a still further cry from the material put out as part of dark punk trio lié or the darkwave of Koban. Still, the attitudes and ideas of those projects work their way into the banging synthpunk LP in ways that provide grit and dimension that takes it beyond the dancefloor.

Unlike some of the latter Sigsaly material, the songs on Ex-Fantasy are vocally driven, the manic high-speed synth and drum programming arranged around West’s commanding vocal presence. There’s almost a fast-forward house feeling the bubbly synths and kick-clap percussion of “Cakes”, but once you hear the half-sneering, half-defiant delivery of the song’s climax it becomes something far more foreboding and visceral, the spotlight on West’s voice presaging a messy spray of sharp-edged synths that take over the song in its final third. Alternately, the far-off approach taken with the vocals on opener “Beginnings” are surgical, puncturing the mix in ways that allow its charging bassline and chattering lead to guide the track to its inevitable feeling conclusion, where stereo splash cymbals go off like fireworks.

The rough and ready production and arrangements of the album are good and effective in providing a platform for West’s considerable charisma and personality; rarely anything less than strident, the producer and performer leans in hard and carves out space for their voice in the kind of chaos that might have overwhelmed lesser voices. The title track has such dense interplay between synth and percussion that West’s short punky ad libs and big ‘whooaas’ feel extra powerful for having the presence to punch through them. If you’re familiar with West’s previous work you can hear that history brought to bear as the poised venom of lié comes through on the chewed-off syllables of the anxiety inducing “HEDONE”, and the regal bearing of Koban in how chorus of “Dance It Off” is delivered, splitting the difference between its bouncy bass and its icy melody.

Inasmuch as our experience with Ex-Fantasy is shaped by familiarity with the catalogue that preceded it, the record is a lot more than just drawing the lines between it and West’s extant catalogue. There’s a pure and visceral quality to cuts like “Slices”, informed by modern techno, but stripped down and hammered into forms that emphasize impact from first beat to last. It’s not what we were expecting, but is undeniably a better experience for its livewire energy and unrelenting momentum.

Buy it.

Ex-Fantasy by B. WEST

The post B. West, “Ex-Fantasy” appeared first on I Die: You Die.

Lustmord
Much Unseen Is Also Here
Pelagic Records

As we discussed on a recent podcast on the subject of dark ambient, it’s tough to think of a more foundational figure in the emergence and codification of that genre, not to mention someone with a stronger catalog within it forty years on than Brian Williams of Lustmord. A slew of recent live, collaborative, and archival releases have served as a reminder of how far Williams has taken the moods and atmospheres he pioneered from their often willfully obscure origins and into the realms of video game and film soundtracking, as well as into a degree of critical acceptance far beyond the reach of even the most ambitious initiates who followed the trail he blazed. That recent work schedule has also occluded the fact that, depending on one’s definition of the format, Much Unseen Is Also Here could be taken as the first standalone LP of original, solo Lustmord work since 2016’s Dark Matter. It feels like a sojourn into the caves and abysses only Lustmord can map is long overdue, then, though as Much Unseen Is Also Here reminds us, Lustmord is an entity which operates on its own scope and scale.

Clocking in at a full 80 minutes, Much Unseen certainly isn’t cutting corners in giving each of its eight pieces as much time and space as is needed to unfurl. Yet, even by the already minimalist standards of the genre and the artist, it’s a decidedly stripped-down affair from a compositional standpoint. Opener “Behold A Voice As Thunder” communicates the aesthetic in immediate fashion (well, as immediate as a ten minute piece with no discernible rhythm can be), with deep drones, string pads so low as to be indistinct from choral ones, winter wind, and the occasional swell of brass or beat of some stygian timpani. However, no more than two of those elements are ever truly present in the mix for more than a few seconds, with each slowly cycling in and out of the speakers, not only putting the razor sharp command of sound design which has been Williams’ calling card in the spotlight, but also his ability to hold each moment and sound for all its worth.

The cornets on “Invocation Of The Nameless One” don’t break from this minimalism, but also show how Williams’ foray into soundtracking has been a two way street; it would be easy to take the piece for part of a Jóhann Jóhannsson or Jocelyn Pook score were it to be heard free of context. More difficult to place are the strings which guide “Hence Shall They Be Devoured All Of Them”, recorded with so much echo and space around them that their timbre almost curves into a brass sound. This isn’t just about the links between Lustmord and film, which were noted long before Williams actually started scoring, but also about Williams’ abilities with neo-classical instrumentation. Album centrepiece “An Angel Dissected” is a rare exception to the aforementioned minimalism, with its recurring piano refrain suggesting puzzled unease more than abject misery or the pure dread and terror associated with early Lustmord works (the latter is left to a slowly encroaching string section).

When we saw Lustmord’s fantastic set at Cold Waves in 2015, a fight nearly broke out in the crowd with one inebriated member of the audience taking umbrage at some perceived slight and insisting that he was a bigger Lustmord fan than any of the rest of us. In addition to being an irritation (though thankfully a momentary one), the petty outburst was at odds with the entire space and spirit Lustmord was invoking. The painting used as Much Unseen‘s cover art, demonic fantasy artist Wayne Barlowe’s “Sargatanas Before The Behemoths”, is indicative of this – rather than brash and noisome arrogance of needless confrontation, Lustmord holds to a lumbering and impassive malevolence which achieves its inscrutable ends on its own ponderous timeline. Recommended.

Buy it.

Much Unseen Is Also Here by Lustmord

The post Lustmord, “Much Unseen Is Also Here” appeared first on I Die: You Die.

We’re coming in fast and furious on the quincentenary mark on the podcast (yes, we had to look that one up – most of those anniversary terms haven’t been immortalized in a Strong Bad e-mail). Are we maybe going to be playing a little fast and loose with the numbering to make sure the timing’s just right? No, we’d never do such a thing, but one way or the other we can tell you that we think folks are gonna dig the audio we’ll have for you this Thursday. On with Tracks!

Arabian Panther on the rise

CIERŃ, “Disposable”
Berlin quartet CIERŃ’s take on dark post-punk works in a range of formats. The sharp hooks and vocal yelps which introduced them on their debut EP got them over quickly, but on their 2022 full-length the earthy and organic delivery of their sound got them over the finish line. Their new Flawless EP’ll be out in a couple of weeks, and this teaser gets both that immediacy and that more subtle atmosphere across.
Flawless by CIERŃ

Mind|Matter – Les Trompettes De L’enfer
It feels as though Parisian producer Mind|Matter has been laying low for the past couple of years, at least in comparison to the release schedule he was on with the likes of Detriti and Area Z a couple of years back. One way or the other, this cut from a forthcoming Intervision comp is a nice reminder of what first drew us towards his work: tight, rubbery beats with solid industrial bolstering and a goodly hazy of heavy, foreboding atmospherics.
REGARDE LE MONDE BRÛLER vol.1 by Mind I Matter

Arabian Panther, “Hafla for our Dead”
We’ve enjoyed the previous EPs from Arabian Panther a great deal; the French-Lebanese producer’s material integrates EBM, italo, and traditional Middle Eastern instrumentation and musical modes to body moving effect. The first taste of new EP Death of the Panther is “Hafla for Our Dead”, a cut dripping with big dancefloor potential, relying on both vocal samples and anthemic synth leads to convey the warrior spirit the defines the project.
The Death Of The Panther by Arabian Panther

Zanias, “Lovelife (Skelesys Remix)”
Last month saw the release of the chill, new age-styled follow-up to last year’s incredible Chrysalis LP from Zanias, but that doesn’t mean the latter isn’t still paying dividends. A pair of club-focused mixes of “Lovelife” from that record just dropped, with the whispers of classic trance and Balearic beat in the original brought right to the fore on this immediate but still moody version.
Lovelife Remixes by Zanias

Unmut, “Hammer and Anvil”
Okay so Detriti has put out a lot of different kinds of music over the years, but we can’t recall them doing the sort of ambient, blackened death industrial type sound found on Unmut’s Flesh-Imprisoned Spirit. Feels weird to call something as bleak, harsh and nihilistic as this ‘a pleasant surprise’, but that is kind of the story here – this hits a lot of sounds we’re into, and they come together into a pretty all-encompassing whole.
UNMUT – Flesh-Imprisoned Spirit by Detriti Records

Alien Skin, “Come and See Me When I’m In My Head Alone”
There’s definitely a lot of fun choices on the new single from long-running Australian darkwave act Alien Skin; the trippy synth horns that pop up way through, the glammy vocals that get some glitchy manipulation, and the warbly bass programming all serve to set the track apart from many more standard issue cuts in the genre, and also give it a very singular and intriguingly unique charm.
Come And See Me When I'm In My Head Alone by Alien Skin

The post Tracks: March 18th, 2024 appeared first on I Die: You Die.

Prodigy – Firestarter
Frontline Assembly – Headhunter
MSI – Faggot
Repo! The Genetic Opera – Zydrate Anatomy
Rob Zombie – Living Dead Girl
Razed in Black – I Worship You
Die Form – Nature Destruction
Royskopp – What Else is There?
Eurthymics – Here Comes the Rain Again
Depeche Mode – People are People
Stacey Q – Two of Hearts
Scissor Sisters – Filthy/Gorgeous
VNV Nation – Honour
Faderhead – Dirtygrrls Dirtybois

The post DJ Surreal – March 17, 2024 appeared first on Vancouver Descent.

Isaac Howlett – House of Cards
Spahn Ranch – Vortex
Urban Heat – Right Time of Night
Ultra Sunn – Broken Monsters
Alex Braun – Der Gedankensammler
Rotersand – 16 Devils
Ringfinger – Chamber of Roses (Joey Chaos Remix)
Revolting Cocks – No Devotion
Severed Heads – Dead Eyes Opened
Logic & Olivia – I Wish
Solitary Experiments – The Great Unknown feat. Elena Fossi
*Electric Callboy – Tekkno Train
*Echo & The Bunnymen – The Killing Moon
*Goldfrapp – Strict Machine

The post DJ MissBDeath – March 17, 2024 appeared first on Vancouver Descent.

Joshy Neurotic – Masters and Servants
3Teeth – Blackout
Front 242 – Until Death (us do part)
Gary Neuman – Voix
Concrete Blonde – True to this
Depeche Mode – Everything Counts
Skinny Puppy – Glass Houses
Cellar Graves – Omen
Aesthetic Perfection – Save Myself
Bigod 20 – The Bog
Blaqk Audio – Boys and Girls
Combichrist – Slave to Machine
Rob Zombie – Dragula (Matrix OST)
I’m Just Ken

The post DJ Joshy Neurotic – March 17, 2024 appeared first on Vancouver Descent.

Helix
Unimaginable Place
self-released
Mari Kattman and Tom Shear’s collaborative project Helix is notable for the ways in which each of the artist’s own catalogues have remained distinct since their creative partnership formed. If you come to Helix for Shear’s well-established and thoughtful Assemblage 23 writing and production, or for Kattman’s distinctive vocal presence and sensibility, you’ll find them, but releases like Unimaginable Place are more than the sum of those parts. The title track is probably the easiest sell for fans of both artists – it’s got the bounce and clubbability of an A23 cut, and Kattman brings her tasteful diva-isms to bear – it sounds like what you would expect it to sound like based on their individual work. More interesting is what follows though; hear how “Lie to Herself” uses a slowly unrolling arrangement of synths, piano and electronic adornment as a backdrop for layers of vocals that ramp from ethereal to weighty with ease, or how “Grey” has a studied minimalism in terms of its electronics, mostly relying on a few synth arpeggios and simple drum patterns to get itself across. When the duo return to club fare on “Hurt Like Me” it feels distinct from the opener, with Kattman using her most forceful delivery on the chorus against snappy snares and guitar like synthlines that add to the song’s big rock operatics.
Unimaginable Place by Helix

Anaerobic
Sincerely
self-released
Somewhat surprisingly, Alex Reed’s Anaerobic releases have coalesced into a stable aesthetic form, rather than just being a clearing house for whatever wild ideas the man being Seeming had which didn’t fit into the decidedly irreverent Kibble project. Nope, flying against whatever presumptions we might have had about the project when it started up a few years back, an EP like Sincerely cinches in the take on powernoise found on preceding releases Hope You’re Hungry and Frequently Asked Questions about The Pelican Brief (1993). The unifying thread of the EP is that each blast of noise functions as a piece of correspondence written under quite particular circumstances or to a very specific character, which might not be immediately palpable via the chewy engine-turnover wubs of “A Letter To The Hometown Football Star” or the cascades of radio pulses and feedback which score the recitation of vivid and paranoid nightmares on “A Letter You Should Not Read”. Short and varied enough to keep each texture and rhythmic impulse distinct from one another (much like Hope You’re Hungry, Sincerely finds Reed honing in on incidental rhythms and then repeating and underlining them with monomaniacal fury), some curveballs are thrown via pure gabber punctuated with flashcard facts about octopi, 90s chill-out replete with Glaswegian voice emulation, and as previously covered here, a neo folk meditation on notions of time, statehood, and post-humanism via sub rosa post. Relaxing tunes to spin as you await silent Tristero’s empire.
Sincerely, by Anaerobic

The post Observer: Helix & Anaerobic appeared first on I Die: You Die.

We ain’t getting any younger, and neither are the formative records which turned us into the sort of sick bastards who’d end up running a website for a dozen years and a podcast for nearly 500 episodes dealing with industrial music. To wit, on the occasion of Trent Reznor and so many other people’s comments on the thirtieth anniversary of The Downward Spiral, we’re dusting off our scratched CDs, getting our hand-dubbed tapes out of storage, and reconsidering one of the records which shaped our understanding of music in general, let alone industrial, lo those many years ago. Regular listeners will know that we barely ever talk NIN on this podcast simply because it’s well-worn territory by outlets much larger and broader than us, but this felt like the right time to do so. All that, plus some Of The Wand & The Moon and Gridlock talk. As always, you can rate and subscribe on iTunes, Google Podcasts, download directly, or listen through the widget down below. 

The post We Have A Technical 499: We’re Not Here To Talk About Trent’s Neck appeared first on I Die: You Die.

Kanka Bodewell
Stroboscope
Infected Recordings

Orange Sector having a bit of a Tiktok moment thanks to the capricious algorithm gods descending upon their 2016 single “Farben” wasn’t something any of us had on our 2024 bingo cards. Whether that converts into broader sustained success for the German EBM vets is anyone’s guess, but that this crossover moment is happening at the same time that Orange Sector’s Martin Bodewell is releasing a collaborative album with Armageddon Dildos’ Uwe Kanka feels ironic. Despite being a good deal poppier and theoretically more accessible than most work by either parent band, Stroboscope is very much a product of sounds and styles which Kanka and Bodewell have been working in proximity to for years before the majority of kids streaming “Farben” were even born.

Stroboscope is something of a record out of time – apart from some very subtle production tics, there’s very little in the influences or instrumentation of the record which would prohibit it from being released at any point from the mid 90s to the present. This is a record formed by and aimed for the European dark club milieu of the past few decades (it seems fitting that in a recent interview with Synthpop Fanatic the duo recently stated that the prospect of the collaboration has existed for more than a decade), and by that measure it’s a real treat. The pure 90s synthpop of “Believe” (which is crying out for a remix EP) with its crooning vocal harmonies stands alongside the stomp-and-oomph of “Marathon”‘s Nitzer-styled EBM and tunes like “Sisters & Brothers” which sits square in the middle of the hybrid style we’ve simply defaulted to terming European electro.

It’s that peanut butter and chocolate combo of EBM aggression and synthpop sweetness which gives the record its identity. Again, nothing on the record is a quantum leap away from Orange Sector’s or especially Armageddon Dildos’ bouncier tracks, but hearing roots body music by veteran craftsmen like these two thrown into relief by bubbling melodies is decidedly addictive. The way that the monotone and stridently anhalt “Bleib Nicht Stehen” suddenly blooms into a lush and melodic synthpop-adjacent delivery on its chorus is a perfect summation of the charms of Stroboscope.

In their previous projects, both Kanka and Bodewell have experimented with the softer sides of the EBM scene they helped cement, and with this project they’re able to fully indulge in that area. Will anyone from the Tiktok generation make their way over to Stroboscope during the fifteen minutes of fame “Farben” has been afforded? Who’s to say, and who’s to say how they’d triangulate it against their own tastes, but for those of who’ve been tracking each man’s work since the Napster or mp3.com days, the bright melodic streak which runs through Stroboscope is a welcome refreshing of classic sounds. Recommended.

Buy it.

Stroboscope by Kanka Bodewell

The post Kanka Bodewell, “Stroboscope” appeared first on I Die: You Die.

Data Void
Strategies of Dissent
Metropolis Records

The return of Don Gordon’s storied industrial project Numb in 2019 was certainly a surprise, albeit not an unwelcome one; Mortal Geometry reasserted the classic electro-industrial style that defined the peak Numb years and illustrated that despite the two decade hiatus, Gordon was still capable of hitting the balance between considered programming and production and the project’s trademark rancor. 2024 finds Gordon collaborating with James Mendez of cult US act Jihad, an artist who had a similarly period of relative inactivity before returning to the industrial genre in 2020. It’s probably not a surprise then that their collaborative work as Data Void cleaves close to the 90s electro-industrial template as practiced by both acts in their heyday; Strategies of Dissent is something a of a stylistic throwback, but thankfully a rather enjoyable one.

There’s a definite priority on momentum and energy in the Data Void material, with atmospherics kept largely to supporting the layers of bass, leads and drum programming that make up the LP. A cut like “So Alien” has plenty of texture and mood to be certain, but so much of its desolate feeling comes from the contrast between its alternating 16th note and half-time bass and evolving drum parts that the pads that accent the chorus are more punctuation than anything else. Similarly the manic energy of opener “Nothing Changes” charges straight ahead with breaksy kick-snare patterns and huge droning synths that get cut to the quick by spiky leads for a maximally tense atmosphere that emerges from arrangement and structure.

None of which is to suggest the record is without nuance; for all of its emphasis on hitting hard, there are plenty of production details and creative choices that add depth and complexity to the proceedings. “Seven Seconds”‘ most notable element might be a chugging chords and dramatic strings, but the little glitches that dart around the edges of the stereo spectrum fill out its mid-tempo groove without ever fully emerging into the spotlight. The way in which Mendez’ vocals are kept entirely comprehensible and clear despite their processing (classic pitch shifting, doubling, and reverse reverbs are all in effect at various points) is one of Data Void’s smartest moves; a track like “Crash, Burn & Resurrect” works each bitten-off syllable’s placement against the song’s rhythm in a way that prioritizes the lyrics without needing to bump Mendez up in the mix.

The appeal of a record like Strategies of Dissent is obviously rooted in hearing two standard-bearers for gritty electro-industrial work together, although that also opens it up to potentially unfavourable comparisons to Gordon and Mendez’ individual catalogues. That it can withstand those expectations and still come across as something new and fresh while staying true to the legacy of its creators is impressive. Best-in-class material that reminds us of what made those caustic, unnerving and exhilarating sounds so appealing in the first place. Recommended.

Buy it.

Strategies of Dissent by Data Void

The post Data Void, “Strategies of Dissent” appeared first on I Die: You Die.