Our DJing travails have taken one half of the Senior Staff across the Georgia Strait to run a version of our Vancouver Coffin Club parties in Victoria. It’s always fascinating to DJ in a new (to us) city or scene and see what overlaps and differences exist between towns. Something to maybe discuss off the top on this week’s podcast, but ’til then here’s this week’s tracks!
Past Self
Neuroticfish, “Skin26”
Another in the occasional series of song revisitations that Neuroticfish has undertaken in recent years, taking on the club classic “Skin” and giving it a brand new, and very 2026 coat of production paint, along with a new and typically compelling vocal from NF mastermind Sascha Mario Klein. Importantly, it’s a cut that was instrumental in bringing attention to the project’s blend of synthpop, industrial, and EBM, and was part of the original stirrings we would eventually come to recognize as futurepop. With that in mind, it’s amazing how contemporary “Skin26” sounds, still huge, still emotional and still compulsively danceable.
Past Self, “약속 / Yaksok”
Nevada’s Past Self have been trading in a clean and icy style of gothic post-punk which rates nicely alongside the likes of Drab Majesty and Twin Tribes for a number of years. Adding the occasional song (like this one) sung in Korean makes them a fairly unique quantity stateside, but this, their first new material in three years, has an elegant, speedy flow and some lovely harmonies which get over in any language.
Void Palace, “Cage”
We managed to catch Los Angeles’ Void Palace twice last year, and both times we were struck by the simmering angst and danger in the one man act’s stage performance. New cut “Cage” brings that across perfectly, letting the groove sink in deep and the moody atmosphere hold the spotlight, always threatening to boil over, with that anticipation adding to the song’s tension and release. Solid stuff from an act who seems like they’re on the cusp of breaking wider.
Mildreda, “End Of The Line”
The forthcoming new LP from Jan Dewulf’s Mildreda project seems an ambition one, being a double-length release chock-a-block with collabs. We’ll have to wait for August to hear how Realities comes together, but this lead single is right in Mildreda’s sweet spot, with some stuttering percussion belying the sort of smooth and darkly moody pads and arpeggios that make up the classic dark electro the project’s an homage to.
Profligate, “Bin Men”
It’s been a long layoff between releases from Ohio’s Profligate, and a whole lot’s changed in the interim from a quick scan of new EP Chewed Up. Gone are the smooth but moody synthpop and new wave sounds of 2020’s Too Numb To Know, and while the project’s earlier material offered some punchier beats striding across EBM and classic electro territory, the gnarly, broken machinery connoted by pieces like this is something altogether new and more menacing. Stay tuned for a closer read.
clubdrugs, “Heart 2 Break (TOBACCO remix)”
One of favourite records of 2026 has been lovesick by Chicago’s clubdrugs, a hazy mixture of shoegaze, alt. rock, synthpop and various other sounds, all arranged for headrushing bliss. Turning to Thomas Fec aka TOBACCO for a remix of one of the record’s big wins “Heart 2 Break” might seem odd, as the Black Moth Super Rainbow frontman’s style is usually either gritty and abstract or dirty and funky, neither of which seem like a perfect pairing for the track. But dang if it doesn’t end up making a weird kind of sense in execution, weird certainly but driving home the late night vibe hard and heavy, quavering from emotion and lack of sleep. Nice work all ways around.
