It was an fine but busy weekend of pro-wrestling and birthday celebrations (you can wish Bruce a happy one in the comments if you’re so inclined), not to mention shipping out 12th anniversary shirts to all those who ordered. Thus we don’t have a lot left in the tank for this Tracks intro, beyond saying a quick thanks for stopping by and seeing us at the start of your week. As always, we appreciate you reading our foolishness, your patronage of this website is what makes writing it worthwhile. Cheers, and on to Tracks!

PC World: beats as hard as their name is to Google search

PC World, “At Heaven’s Gate”
Hell yeah, something new from Anglo-Austrian body music duo PC World. Of the acts doing stuff in this loping, old school EBM style, they’ve distinguished themselves by keeping their drums nice and hard and keeping the funky sequences the beating heart behind their compositions. We’ll never get tired of having songs like “At Heaven’s Gate” close at hand when we need a lil’ fix, we’re quite sure the forthcoming Infinite Dream Weapon on DKA will have more goodness in store.

Sad Madona, “Witch Coast”
Is it just the power of suggestion, or is there a hint of the ol’ witch house in this new single from Parisians Sad Madona? We liked the previous stuff we heard from them, and like those tracks this one works a less-jumped up electro darkwave style with a lot of melancholic european flair. But the difference here is in the pallette of sounds; something in the dry cymbals and saturated lead synth is making us think of the best of the triangle-unicode bands of yesteryear. Its not just us, right?

Cyanotic, “Crash Override”
We imagine many folks reading this are aware of the tragedy which befell Sean Payne and the larger Glitch Mode community earlier this year (which we discussed it on the podcast), and so it’s especially heartening to hear Sean back in the saddle and doing what he does best: constructing churning storms of cyberpunk noise, like this number from new LP The After Effect. There is no right and wrong. There’s only fun and boring.

WLDV, “Cult Liturgy”
We’ve been fans of WLDV’s remixes edits for a while, but the Spanish producers originals have slowly been worming their way into our hearts for a while now as well. Like the werewolf themed EP we wrote up the other week, new single “Cult Liturgy” works the giallo disco angle with atmosphere thick enough to paint your wall (blood red presumably), although the fantastically spooky lead on this cut is fit for a Carpenter soundtrack or a forgotten eighties italo cut, or both.

VOITH, “On The Night Of Halloween”
Sitting on the lighter side of current darkwave, this new tune from one-man Swedish act VOITH’s new A Dreamers Kiss EP seems directly calculated to hit all of the points modern gothy dancefloors are looking for. Watery Seventeen Seconds guitar? Check. Moody harmonic synths? Check. Easily danceable beats? Check. Still, as a genre exercise it holds together nicely and gets the job done.

The Operative, “SPLNTR (SHFT)”
Picking up more or less where Marching Dynamics left off, The Operative is the latest project from LA noise honcho Shane Talada, showcasing his dubby bass and glitch-minded approach to rhythmic industrial. New EPs Quorum Decorum and Stitches feature plenty of tracks like this, which offer rubbery weight and foundation beneath some classic powernoise kicks.