Morning, gang! We’re back with another half dozen tracks after the long Canadian weekend (also the name of John Turner’s memoir of the Meech Lake Accord days – true story!). We mentioned this on the Twitter but it’s worth getting into in a bit more detail. While we spend a huge amount of time hunting down new music to fire off to you folks on Tracks and get into more detail on in reviews, that hunt doesn’t happen in a vacuum. In addition to all of the various label folk, bands, and DJs firing stuff our way, we like to track what our friends are nabbing on Bandcamp. Inobtrusive in a way that no other social media platform is, Bandcamp’s accounts have quietly become one of the easiest means of finding well-curated music lists. We’d like to give a special shout-out to Mark Edwards and Marc Church, whose collections have turned us on to plenty of great new stuff, or at least hipped us to new releases by bands we already like (a necessary task given today’s signal to noise ratio). If you use Bandcamp’s collections pages, you should definitely be tracking what those cats are copping, and feel free to add our goofy profiles, too. Onward!
1000 Homo DJs, “Supernaut (Die Krupps remix)”
Okay, so I don’t think this is something any of us were expecting. The well-worn story of how T-Rez recorded the vox to 1000 Homo DJs club-classic Sabbath cover is well-known, but who amongst knew that the dudes in Die Krupps did a remix of it? Well, apparently someone at Cleopatra Records, because it’s finally surfacing, complete with EBM bassline and “Head Like a Hole” rhythm track. You’ll find it on Cleopatra’s new Occult Box, a massive 4 CD compilation featuring rad newer stuff like Bestial Mouths, Fostercare and M‡яc▲ll▲, and a bunch of the same old Psychic TV and Christian Death songs Cleo has been padding out their comps with for twenty fucking years.
Prurient, “Dragonflies To Sew You Up”
Oh, wow. Dom Fernow’s name has of course been well regarded for years by anyone with an interest in modern noise. There’s always been something for everyone across the wide spread of Fernow’s projects: from the more traditionally power electronics-slanted Prurient, to the Muslimgauze-like pulse of Vatican Shadow, to the more ambient Rainforest Spiritual Enslavement, to the depressive lo-fi black metal of Ash Pool. It’s still early going and we’ve only scratched the surface of Frozen Niagra Falls but the newest Prurient LP looks to be the man’s magnum opus, combining elements of just about every style and aesthetic he’s worked with in a firestorm of noise and murky sequencers.
Human Performance Lab, “Altitude”
Speaking of releases we’ve been pointed to by the aforementioned gents, this tape released by new Toronto label Deth came out towards the end of last year, but we’re just getting to it now thanks to Mr. Church, and damn if it doesn’t cook. Thumping stuff that’s equal parts EBM, dark electro, and just plain electro, we’d like to think this is what Gatekeeper’d be doing if they’d stuck with the hard stuff. Be sure to check the tape from labelmates Sarin while yr at it.
Purity Ring, “Dust Hymn (Comaduster remix)”
We’ve never written a thing about Edmontonian synth sensations Purity Ring here on ID:UD, mostly because they aren’t totally on format for us. That said, their friend and ours Réal Cardinal of Comaduster recently remixed their track “Dust Hymn” as a promotion for a free show in their mutual hometown and this shit is f’really real. You like deep bass, emotive strings, glitches articulated by hand instead of by some plugin’s algorithm? Click play below friend.
Zanias, “I Turn in Her Waves”
We know Zoè Zanias from her work as half of Berlin-based minimal duo Keluar and her collabs with a few artists we dig on like DSX. So far as we know this is her first totally solo material, but we’re digging on the chilly, distant vibe it’s giving off. Zoè has that distinctive confidence as a vocalist that makes her totally distinctive even when she’s playing it way back as she does here, interested to hear what the new Keluar stuff will sound like when it surfaces later this year.
Nommo Ogo, “Nameless Plateau 1”
Lastly, here’s some full-bore psychedelia from Alaskan expats Nommo Ogo. Their latest four-track LP, Nameless Plateau, is busier and more frantic than anything we’ve heard in their back catalog, welding propulsive kosmische to a melange of 90s dance and techno markers, some of which aren’t too far off from Mentallo & The Fixer at their most brapped out. Hope to see you on Leng for the annual Ayahuasca cook-off.
Altitude Music Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78yoHrz0G6o
I suspect the Die Krupps remix of ‘Supernaut’ is recent. Two dudes from Die Krupps did the remastering on the recent Ministry Trax Box, and I’ll guess they did the remix somewhere along the way.
Would stand to reason.
You guys could probably do an entire podcast on the Seven Seals of the Cleo Comp Apocalypse, because the track listing of that box set is a hell of a lot direr than just “a bunch of the same old Psychic TV and Christian Death songs Cleo has been padding out their comps with for twenty fucking years.” Let’s see, we’ve got:
1. The interesting new thing they just dug up. That 1000 Homo DJs remix, or the previously unreleased early Ministry songs from the recent Trax! Box
2. The “rad newer stuff” you mention.
3. The less rad newer stuff. Judging by the typography on display, Cleopatra has gone hellbent for leather on the witch house thang. Did they just trawl through Bandcamp to find these songs? I don’t know any of these bands, so they could all be amazing, but my Magic 8-Ball says “Don’t count on it”.
4. Psychic TV and Christian Death, as you say. Also Switchblade Symphony, Electric Hellfire Club, and early Front Line Assembly.
5. The misfires. Representing Joy Division with “Leaders of Men”…? Representing any band by any remix, for that matter. And I have no idea what that Nico vs. Apoptygma Berzerk version of “All Tomorrow’s Parties” is all about, but I’m guessing it falls into this category, too.
6. The inevitable covers pulled from the innumerable tribute albums they’ve put out. The Psychic TV track actually falls into this category. And then we have LPD’s rendition of Neu!’s “Super” and Ogre’s version of Madonna’s “Borderline”. On the other hand, I guess they decided one Pink Floyd cover was enough, so they left out Leæther Strip’s gorgeous but overplayed take on “Learning to Fly”.
And finally…
7. The one detail that shows they’re trying way too hard where it doesn’t count. In this case, the Aleister Crowley 7″. Because it’s not enough just to call it “Occult”, I suppose. And can we have a chat about the promiscuous mixing of formats that’s been going on lately? Does a CD box set need a bonus 7″? Or vice versa, while we’re at it?
Based on your description, my interest in the box set was mildly piqued, but a quick scan of the track listing was definitely enough to un-pique it again. Dammit, Cleopatra, I thought you’d have learned by now.