The ID:UD Senior Staff will spare no expense and forsake no opportunity to check out shows related to Our Thing and report back to you, the concerned and engaged reader and listener. Alex headed out to Toronto for the weekend in order to finally see the oft-promised, never delivered (until now) miracle of a live Tear Garden set, while Bruce stayed closer to home and checked out the Vancouver instalment of the Immortalis tour, featuring Past Self, Pink Stiletto, ET, Ringinger, and Covert Forces. We’ll have a full discussion of both nights on this week’s podcast. Okay, admittedly these are shows we’d still be going to even if we didn’t run a website and podcast dedicated to this biz, but we might as well make a meal of it, no? On with this week’s tracks.
The Sick Man Of Europe
Statiqbloom, “A Grief Observed”
Votive, the latest three-track release from now veteran electro-industrial cum dark techno project Statiqbloom does a nice job of triangulating most of the sounds Fade Kainer’s employed under that name over the past decade, from murky half-time power electronics on “Cut The Vine” to more straightforward distorted kicks on “Erased”. But despite its very brief run-time, it’s the sickly acidic programming of “A Grief Observed”, crawling beneath Kainer’s mutters which is reminding us of why we’ve loved his psychedelic approach to vintage post-industrial for so long.
The Sick Man of Europe, “Apathy”
Some pleasingly minimal but still melodic synth action from the UK’s Sick Man of Europe sure is hitting the spot right now. Maybe it’s the insistent drum programming, or the beleeping bass and synthwork, or the punky feedback on the lead, but the contrast between those elements and the frustration and anger of the lyrics certainly gives this one some juice.
Nick Viola, “Soft Brutalism”
Nick Viola’s name should ring a bell to regular readers, either for his excellent work as Fractured Transmission or his role in the defunct Death Camp Audio clique releases from about a decade back (or his role in US supergroup HexRx, going back further), but a new EP under his own name functions as a good reintroduction to the read on dark techno he’s been working on in recent years. Dense and icy washes of distortion keep the kicks from ever running riot and pushing the subtler cyber programming out of the frame.
ᚾᛟᚢ, “Break Like Frost”
Nothing Nordvargr finds while digging into his archives is likely to be “pleasant” in any traditional sense of the word. But it’s interesting to hear something like this pulled from the vaults, the first (so far as we can determine) release under the “ᚾᛟᚢ” name, clarifying the nominative distinction between Nordvargr and Trepaneringsritualen’s Thomas Martin Ekelund in their collaborative ᚾᛟᚢ II // ᚦᛟᚦ ᚷᛁᚷ project. Regardless of name or origin the icy mood of this piece’s drifts of death industrial and dark ambient soundscapes are apparent from the moment it begins even without looking at its title, with some classic lo-fi cassette style recording.
Then Comes Silence, “Remaker Redeemer”
Sweden’s Then Comes Silence make the kind of muscly, synth-inflected goth rock that has never truly gone out of style in Europe. And to their credit, they do it well; where so many acts who attempt the style have neither the vocal charisma nor the hooks to pull it off, TCS has plenty of both to spare. “Remaker Redeemer” has all kinds of mood and atmosphere, but doesn’t skimp on a big jump up chorus, accented by some grindy basswork and syncopated drums that make it fit for the club or the headphones.
Ye Gods, “Outlier (single edit)”
Oh, to live in a world where songs like Ye Gods’ “Outlier” could be actual radio play singles. Kidding aside, we’re obviously huge fans of Antoni Maiovvi’s work, especially in the sprawling and conceptual esoteric canvas that the producer has made of Ye Gods (hear our interview from last year here), and this cut is no exception. It’s rhythmic, weird, lovely and unnerving, and often both at the same time. New EP Los comes out mid-October, mark it on your halloween calendars.
