Mid-October spook ’ems are in full swing, and while we don’t quite so hype at our advanced age (in fact the Blue Jays playoff run has been our focus for the last couple weeks, and may well be decided by the time you read this), we do get into the spirit in our own way. Why, just this weekend we spend a full 8 hours of our limited time of this earth watching Children of the Corn movies in the company of good friends, the sort of thing that while not traditionally productive rejuvenates the spirit shockingly well. Are we bringing some of that energy to this week’s IDUD offerings? Why not read Tracks and find out!
H.A.L.T.
MVTANT, “The Anvil”
We were not expecting anything new from San Antonia body horror music purveyor MVTANT, but boy howdy did the cover of Visage’s “The Anvil” that kicks off their new remix EP Ultra Gash Inferno hit just so. Perhaps a bit less neon-slime then we expected when we hit play, this ended up being a remarkably effective take on the original, zeroing in on its brassy uptempo style and injecting a fair bit of low-key menace in effective fashion. You get all that and some fresh remixes from the likes of QUAL, XTR Human, Choke Chain, SDH and more, what are you waiting for?
Fragrance, “Indelible”
It’s been a couple of years since we had much in the way of new material from Fragrance, but the French producer’s ear for working classic synthpop hooks into club-friendly but still surprisingly intimate tunes hasn’t left him in the interim. There’s plenty of bounce and nodding melody in this and the other teaser cuts for the Kintsugi LP, even while Matthieu Roche sounds like he’s singing from a one-man bedroom rave submerged half a mile beneath the ocean.
Sacred Skin feat. SRSQ, “Insomina”
A match made in some mythic version of the eighties that never existed finds Los Angeles’ cinematic new wavers Sacred Skin teaming up with Kennedy Ashlyn, aka SRSQ for “Insomnia”. As you might expect there’s a bit of push and pull here; SS’ electronic pulse and dynamic rock stylings sit aside Ashlyn’s show-stopping vocal presence for a song that feels both very dreamy, and somehow very immediate. Just a lovely, unexpected collab from two acts we’re fans of individually.
H.A.L.T., “Hands & Crosses”
Vancouver’s deathrock true-schoolers H.A.L.T. have just had their second LP see release, and a good amount’s changed since its predecessor. In addition to some notable lineup changes, tunes like this one, which take a dreamier and heavier approach to the band’s trad styles and influences, are given much more focus alongside the (still present) speedier and punkier numbers.
Lights of Euphoria, “Addiction”
You never quite know what you’re gonna get from a new Lights of Euphoria release; the long-running project has been everything from dark electro, to futurepop, and made plenty of stops in between (with varied results quality-wise) in their more than three decades of releasing music. Case in point is new single “Machines of Light”, the a-side is fine little bit of modern electropop, but as pointed out by friend Quarlie on our Slack, it’s the b-side “Addiction” that stands out. The use of stuttering vocal samples, the big simple lead, and some synthesized metallic percussion split the difference between the band’s history and their current incarnation in charming fashion.
Parade Ground, “A While”
The winding path of reappraisals, reissues, reunions, and archival releases which had brought about a resurgence of interest in classic Belgian coldwave
act Parade Ground has been difficult to follow. Whatever the route, though, we’re glad that the Pauly brothers’ work, at times morosely bleak and at others romantically anthemic, has been finding its way to fresh ears. New archival record Heaven With Care includes a handful of hitherto unreleased cuts, including this oddball proto-vaporwave gauzy number featuring programming from none other than Patrick Codenys and production from Wire’s Colin Newman.
