Half of the Senior Staff was on the decks at our regular residency in Vancouver’s Coffin Club over the weekend, and as we discussed on last week’s podcast it was a no-brainer that a number of the new Nine Inch Noize tracks went off on the floor, with our crew of residents already discussing and testing the club merits of particular tracks. Even in a niche subculture like industrial it’s hard to find much in the way of consensus or monoculture, but it was obvious that a huge majority of the club had already spent a good deal of time with the record and was keen to hear it on a proper club system. On with this week’s tracks!
C Z A R I N A
Spike Hellis, “By God”
Spike Hellis are back and they sound fuckin’ furious. It’s been a few years since we heard anything new from the Los Angeles based duo, but the sheer power of their live show and the strength of their debut LP have kept the home fires burning. Out of the blue comes “By God”, the first single from the second album Successor, a righteous assembly of classic EBM bass, drums that thump and crack, and their trademark vocals, which are arranged in intriguingly musical fashion. This hits incredibly hard, which is appropriate because the band sound like they’re ready to throw down. Killer stuff.
C Z A R I N A, “Holy Water”
Spain-based artist C Z A R I N A’s work has long since earned our interest, and with clear cause: she’s a producer comfortable with a range of dark styles and approaches each release with a clear and intriguing theme. This new single’s no exception, blending classic 90s club darkwave with a modern synthpop read on medieval romance and adventure. Instantly hooky music for speedrunning Blasphemous or Sundered to.
KMFDM, “YOÜ (Inhalt Kunst ’93 remix)”
Whatever reservations we personally have about modern KMFDM, there’s no denying how great the band’s early 90’s output was, and the particular way they integrated sampled guitars, programmed bass and drums into groovy, catchy tracks that were perfect for the dancefloor and the moshpit alike. And it’s that energy that Inhalt, aka super producer Matia Simovich brings to modern KMFDM track “YOÜ”. Specifically referencing the sound of “Light” the sound of the remix is timeless and full of all the stuff that made the band so addictively listenable in the first place; orch hits, swinging hit hats and cymbal programming and synths the cut or slam as required. Just a total banger of a remix that feels absolutely unique to the original artist.
<1979>, “Rotations”
HANDS Productions dropping a mind-boggling nine full-length releases on a single Friday feels like some sort of violation of the Geneva Convention – it’s just far too much rhythmic industrial and related chaos for a beleaguered industrial blog to handle. We’ll weather the assault as best as we can, starting by skimming the latest from long-running German project <1979>. Much of Underrated mines lo-fi hardware for wide-reaching blankets of low-end and crunching squelches, resulting in a mood which owes as much to first wave industrial and outre bass music as strightforward rhythmic industrial.
Krupps and Morze, “Bottle of Vodka”
Russian artists Krupps and Morze come together with this cover of cult soviet act Zvuki Mu. We have to admit we aren’t even vaguely familiar with the original artist or song, but if this version is anything to go by, there’s some stoic, vodka fuelled-moping afoot. Which really makes it a perfect mix for these Oberwave mainstays; the track is rhythmic and danceable but in the way where you stare at your shoes while you do it.
yttriphie, “Plurals”
Lastly, some deep and spacey, yet granular and busy soundscaping from Michael Plaster’s new(ish) project yttriphie. Longtime ethereal listeners will be familiar with Plaster’s 90s work on Projekt as Soul Whirling Somewhere, and while you’re still getting the gauzy gossamer drift through the astral associated with those records, there’s a tactility (and at times even crunch and earthiness) in Plaster’s compositions like this one on new LP Solipsis. Should likely appeal to those with a yen for post-millennial Pink Dots records.
