We have Vancouver’s own Verboden Festival coming up this weekend in our backyard, and we’re excited about seeing a slew of familiar faves like SRSQ and Male Tears as well as catching acts we’ve been tracking through studio material but have yet to catch live, like Dildox and More Ephemerol. Hope to catch up with regular readers/listeners, too – should be a great weekend. On with this week’s tracks!
Scimitar
Street Sects, “No Percentage In Caution”
The pair of LPs released by long-standing industrial punk terrorists Street Sects gave us a lot to chew on last year, and the band’s declaration that they’re moving in a “more rhythm based/song focused direction” with their new stuff is intriguing. This first sample clearly finds some of the harmonic and synth hook elements of the Full Color Eclipse second being drawn into a rhythmically tight package.
Sydney Valette, “I Fucking Love You”
We’ve come to associate Sydney Valette with a more continental and very French take on modern darkwave, avoiding many of the cliches of the style in favour of something that feels both classic, but without being beholden to the ur sources of the sound. New single “I Fucking Love You” holds with that, but sounds more strident than any of Valette’s work in recent memory. Partly it’s the tempo and push of the song, but also it’s a distinctly wounded and gothic vocal delivery, bringing out the emotion and drama here. If this is the direction of the new record, it could signal a nice shift into a new direction that would certainly be of interest to us as fans and followers of his work.
Ortrotasce, “As I See It”
Ortrotasce always keeps you on your toes; from single to single and within the run-time of the occasional longer release the one-man project deigns to release you’re never exactly sure where in the sprawling fields of synthpop, EBM, darkwave, and new beat things might land. You even have to keep your head on a pivot mid-track, as the peppy, Kraftwerkian programming of this early electro number is swiftly offset by a gloomy and resigned vocal which feels wholly separate.
Transmigration, “Understanding”
Last we checked in with the UK’s Transmigration, we noted their capacity to make the kind of gritty dark electro that benefits from obscurity and rough edges. New cut “Understanding”, the first taster from EP Living Information isn’t a huge leap away from that aesthetic, but it’s also a lot sharper and more direct, with atmosphere evolving out of the vocals, the speedy sequences and the aggression of the delivery, almost as a byproduct. The result is one of urgency, with a lot of the power stemming from how open and direct it all is, creating a sound that doesn’t need to be dressed up at all, arriving unforced, unadorned and hard-hitting.
Scimitar, “Zenith (Inhalt remix)”
Little bit of a ID:UD twofer this week with this Scimitar remix by Inhalt. We’ll be seeing the Los Angeles based band for the first time at Verboden this coming weekend, and we’re quite keen to do so; as an act we’ve tracked for a few years, they’ve consistently put out material that defies a lot of dark alt music trends, capturing sounds that are spiky, punky and uncompromising. And (spoilers) this week’s episode of We Have a Technical has Matia Simnovich of Inhalt as a guest, talking about the art of being a producer and what that entails. Tune into the latter, and then next week to hear our impressions of the performance from the former!
Nikonn feat. MeLLLo, “Lighthouse”
Lastly, something fairly off-format for us but still salient to our coverage. MeLLLo, AKA Marianthi Melitsi of the on-hiatus but never far from our playlists synthpop act Marsheaux, makes a guest vocal appearance on the new single by London producer Nikonn, and her familiar, soothing tone glides perfectly over this downtempo mix of dreampop and chillout instrumentation, making us wistful for the sorts of crepuscular ballads which complemented Marsheaux’s club numbers so very nicely.
