And so, as summer draws to a close and we enter the ever-popular fall season (which affords us the use of the word “autumnal”, which you fucking bet we’ll be working in wherever possible), we also enter the final third of 2026. Of course, needing to get our Year End coverage done and dusted by mid-December means we’ve got roughly three months left of coverage, and the actual determination of what records we liked the most still to come. As always, suggestions of things we’ve overlooked are always welcome, as are your own picks, feel free to toss ’em in the comments below. But of course, this is all a preamble for our most venerable tradition, ye olde Tracks post. Join us won’t you?
Creux Lies
Pig, “An American Ideal of Beauty”
Raymond Watts sure is a busy guy these days. Aside from a massive tour he’s kicking off across North America, the Pig mastermind is following up this year’s enjoyable Hurt People Hurt with a smattering of follow-up EPs. The first of those, from which the track embedded below is taken, is Dirt Box, featuring four new tracks with accompanying remixes by the likes of Stabbing Westward, Combichrist, Cyanotic and Rabbit Junk. Then we’ve got Merciless coming down the pike, a remix EP with cuts by Clock DVA (!!) and Pitchshifter amongst others. I guess you can’t keep a good hog down.
Creux Lies, “Jubilate”
Man, but Sacramento’s Creux Lies are keeping us on our toes. The depth and richness of sophomore LP Goodbye Divine has us waiting on a follow-up with bated breath, but the third original track they’ve released over the past couple of years sounds very distinct from its predecessors. Here, they’re in an easily approachable synth dancefloor mode, but the real sauce is in the slowburn approach Ean Elliot Clevenger takes to the vocals which build across its runtime.
UNTER STRØM, “Stumbling”
UNTER STRØM is the side-project of Alex from LA’s post-punkers Matte Blvck, and while it is a more down the pipe electronic project than its parent band, it’s a far cry from the defacto sound of modern electro-darkwave. Indeed, while the sound of their material is certainly of a more shadowy cast, you’re getting programming and arrangements that refer to more aboveground sounds in the world of progressive house and melodic techno, splitting the difference between those bright club nights and dark underground dancefloors in fine fashion.
alarm!systemen, “Burn”
Don’t let the apparent compositional simplicity of Belgian newcomers alarm!systemen’s approach to melancholy coldwave on this track fool you; there’s a real consideration of colour and harmony here which makes a virtue of modern gear and technique rather than eschewing it for the sage of nostalgia, while shooting a style familiar to fans of any number of early 80s continental acts with a bright and fresh strain of dreampop.
Evil Dust, “Sadistic”
Some good n’ gnarly lo-fi business from London body music act Evil Dust, whose new LP I Just Want to Fit In is due shortly on the 11th of September. If’n you like some of the stuff that the whole industrialized techno sound was doing, but wish it was, well, more industrial, this might fit the bill; heavily percussive, lots of sample work, and an unruly groove that never quite settles in where you think it will.
Einhänder Aus Stahl, “4 Meter Punch To The Face (Visitor remix)”
Speaking of lo-fi body music, the new maxi EP from Einhänder Aus Stahl, the side project of Micheal of Chrome Corps, offers a slew of minimal tracks which strip throwback techno and EBM to their barest skeleton. Throw in a little bit of left-field synth-funk courtesy of Visitor (you probably don’t need us to ID the samples for you) and you have a twitchy, burpy blast of fun.
