Hola friends, thanks for swinging by for the traditional Monday Tracks post. As you may be aware, Terminus Festival is upon us, and we will be picking up stakes, taking a jaunt over the Rockies, and enjoying a few days of music, friends and interviews, the latter of which will of course make their appearance on this website in the weeks to come. Because it is not possible for us to post while we are either watching bands, drinking beers, both, or recovering from the same, we will be posting Monday-Thursday this week, and returning Thursday next week with our festival wrap-up podcast, as is traditional. If you see us at Terminus make sure to say hi, otherwise, please excuse this temporary interruption to our schedule.
Chicago’s Hide. You can’t take them anywhere, can you?
The Tear Garden, “A Return”
We were pretty excited about the teased return of The Tear Garden, the long-running side-project of Cevin Key and Edward Ka-Spel, it having been some 8 years since their last release The Brown Acid Caveat. Even still, our anticipation did not prepare us for the flood of endorphins we got from hearing the appropriately titled “A Return”, the first single from what will apparently be a double LP, release in October on Artoffact Records. It’s got everything you want from the TG’s; electro-psychedelia, obscure poetics, warbling vocals, and most of all, vague sadness of the kind that all their best songs have traded in. The Summer is nice, but this has us looking forward to the Fall.
Corpus Delicti, “Room 36”
This being just the third track from French goth rock legends Corpus Delicti to see release since their reunion gigs began to coalesce into a full comeback several years ago, it’s still tricky to get a full picture of what’s changed with the band on the other side of more than two decades and the Press Gang Metropol project, but between first single “Chaos” and this new number, comeback LP Liminal is shaping up to be a decidedly rough and muscly affair, perhaps taking a slight cue from stateside deathrock while retaining their original flair for drama and panache.
Hide, Grief Party Guest List
Until we live in a world much better than this, we’ll have to content with Hide rolling through town every few years like a plague of judgment brought against us for our sins. It’s been four years since last full release Interior Terror, and while the forthcoming Spit Or Swallow Every Soul Will Taste Death looks like it’ll be a shorter listen released on 7″, there’s no reason to think it’ll pull any punches on the basis of a clattering piece like this which robs the Chicago duo’s bleak approach to percussive punishment of all familiar rhythmic frames and pulls it back into the most cacophonic of industrial’s roots.
Madeline Goldstein, “Apogee”
We’re gonna be seeing Madeline Goldstein take the stage at Terminus in just a few short days, so it’s real nice to have a brand new track to listen as a warm-up for her set. This particular track features ID:UD fave Matia Simovich not only as a producer, a chair he has filled for Goldstein for some time now, but as a co-writer, so it has all the warmth and smooth sound design you’d expect, as well as the classic synthpop songwriting that has defined much of Goldstein’s oeuvre. Another fine song from an artist who we’re anticipating a hot record from at some point, hopefully soon.
Panic Priest, “To Live Another Day”
Jack Armando’s work as Panic Priest has really moved forward in recent years; the exacting post-punkisms of the first LP giving way to the storming gothic rockers of the sophomore LP Second Seduction, to the grand guignol drama of Psychogoria. What will new album Once Wild have in store? Well, if we’re to take “To Live Another Day” as an example, it’s gonna have some slick new wave in the mix – seriously this has the vibe of any number of classics by acts as varied as the Psychedelic Furs, Images in Vogue, and Glass Apple Bonzai, whose Daniel X Belasco contributed to the album, and this song in particular.
Dr. Oso, “Total”
The stuttering, lo-fi approach to EBM taken by Argentina’s Dr. Oso – part new beat presets, part football ultras on acid house – first came across our desk with the thoroughly enjoyable Hooligan Beat EP last year. The A-side of his new single keeps that style going with burpy synths kicking off off-kilter drums and an oddly menacing mood despite the simplicity of the whole affair.
