There’s a lot of recently released records that we still have to catch up on at the HQ, and while that remains our current focus, we did want to draw your attention to the 525th episode of our podcast We Have a Technical last week. We’ve debated and discussed the topic of what constitutes “goth music” a lot over the years, and in many ways we felt like this conversation was the culmination of our various exchanges on the topic; it’s not quite an argument since we agree upon some pretty fundamental ideas about the subculture and music’s place in it, but it does get a bit spicy in ways that we hope were fun to listen to. Give it a download if you’re so inclined, and hey, we’ve even got some new tracks below for you to check out as well.
Carrellee
Sleek Teeth, “Operating”
It’s not often we get this invested in an act with so little material released, but Sleek Teeth have our rapt attention. The notification that the LA-based melodic EBM/electro act had released a third (!) song on Bandcamp was certainly good news, and as with their previous cuts, “Operating” finds a very happy medium between classic body music sounds and sweet synthpop style vocals and probably their strongest chorus to date. We’re wondering when we’ll get some kind of EP or LP to really sink our (not so sleek) teeth into, but this cut will get plenty of spins in the interim.
Beborn Beton, “American Girls”
The reactivation of Beborn Beton for 2015’s A Worthy Compensation has had us (and plenty of other North American listeners) reconsidering the larger legacy and discography of the German synthpop outfit. A line from one of The Cure’s most depressing and decadent tracks and a Beach Boys reference aren’t what we might have expected to inspire the first single from the forthcoming To The Stars – consisting of a handful of new tracks plus a swath of remixes of material from last year’s Darkness Falls Again – but here we are.
Ortotrasce, “External World”
Man, it’s been a real good couple of years for American synth act Ortotrasce. If you enjoyed the material on the excellent Dispatches from Solitude earlier this year, then you should be pretty pleased with the sound of new cut “External World”; the pure classic Kraftwerkian-electropop that the project has been mining for a minute is extremely strong here, enhanced by clean, classy production and a lovely bit of vocoder action that gives the tune a little something extra.
Carrellee, “Like A Ghost”
The almost folky approach to melodic darkwave brought by Carrellee was a left-field surprise to us at last year’s Verboden Festival, but since then the Madison-based artist’s honed in on the sound and scene, collaborating with Total Chroma and now set with an LP featuring the likes of Matia Simovich and Josh Bonati behind the boards. Production aside, Carrellee does well by her own strengths on this lead single, imbuing it with a spirit that’s half breathless wonder, half pensive concern.
Duophonic Noise Construction, “Always”
We’ve been closely tracking latter-era X-Marks The Pedwalk’s charting of a course through alternately lush and austere electro/darkwave which has shown a very different side of Sevren Ni-Arb’s work than the pioneering high-def dark electro and electro-industrial the project’s name was built upon. While conceptually out of left field, the first material from Duophonic Noise Construction, a collaboration between Ni-Arb and his son who’s been releasing electro under the LMX moniker for the past few years, sounds exactly what you might expect from the father/son duo given the breadth of both members’ entire catalogs. With a bit more punch than recent X-Marks but still holding the icy and smooth production we’d expect, it’s a promising start.
Lana Del Rabies, “Paranoid”
Our album of the year 2023 honoree Lana Del Rabies has released a cover of Garbage’s “I Think I’m Paranoid” and god damn. While not necessarily as fraught or shiver inducing as the material that made Strega Beata such a powerhouse of a record, there’s something pretty bracing in hearing the slick alt-rock crossover sound of the original buried under noise, dark reverbs and churning, spitting guitars, half-noise rock and half power electronics. If you’ve never heard Del Rabies before this should serve as a good introduction to the ugly catharsis of their work.
