Hope you got through Halloween safe, sound, and sated (by candy, booze, horror movies, clubbing, whatever’s your poison), friends. A combo of house parties, DJ sets, and classic horror (oh boy but The Innocents holds up) carried us through to today, with the year’s end and all of the ID:UD coverage that entails in sight, starting with a fresh batch of tracks for November.
Totally normal picture of Meldamor
Sleek Teeth, “Disengage”
Sleek Teeth’s quality control has been so dialed in that we’ve been able to find all manner of strange and subtle charms in the small handful of tracks they’ve released over the past three years. That makes for a big spotlight on any new material from the LA duo, and this brand new cut which appears on a new comp from Breathing Records is about as direct and forceful a statement as we’ve heard from them, with driving EBM rhythm programming lightly adorned by their icy harmonic sensibilities.
Meldamor, “Death Dealers”
We’ve thought often that American darkwavers Meldamor are at their best when they’re leaning into the heavy sounds of their personal histories with metal and punk, and the duo seem to agree; the new EP Heavy Darkwave is exactly what it says on the tin, electronic drums, basses and synths, but with plenty of howls, growls and churning textures to make it hit just so. Check out lead off track “Death Dealers”, which sits nicely in a stoner metal tempo and has guitars aplenty, it’s a pretty great proof of concept for their whole sound.
Years Of Denial, “Zero Fucks Given”
French duo Years Of Denial have stayed limber over a now decade long run, weaving different substyles in and out of their brand of darkwave, and the first single from the forthcoming Suicide Disco Vol. 3 is a reminder of why their profile’s only continued to rise since its predecessor three years back. It’s a snarling and stylish reintroduction, and the acidic punch on the synth is a welcome reminder of the pair’s ability to draw upon post-punk and wave synth traditions which long predate current darkwave’s moment in the spotlight.
Sweet Love Under Tyrrany, “Sanctuary”
Los Angeles’ Sweet Love Under Tyranny has a fine thing going with their rock solid post-punk and synthpop foundations and pleasingly ethereal textures. A lot of the appeal certainly comes from the project’s vocals, which while maintaining some mystery and intrigue, have a great deal of power, cutting through the atmospheric production of “Sanctuary” (courtesy of Matia Simovich) with ease. This could hit nicely at the end of the night at your local goth club, it’s moody, sweet and probably very fun to dance to.
Filmmaker, “Power Overturn”
Another month, another Filmmaker release. The Slammer Weapons EP is specifically curated to be a set of club focused tracks running at different BPMs, and the mid-tempo vintage techno and degraded cyber style of this cut seems like it’d work pretty well to us. Oh, incidentally, another entire Filmmaker LP’s been released in the last few days since we heard and flagged this cut. Of course.
Ultra Sunn feat Violet Chachki, “Please Come”
In thoroughly unexpected collaboration news, we’ve got a single from prolific Belgian darkwave act Ultra Sunn featuring none other than drag superstar Violet Chachki on vocals. That said, the drama in Chachki’s vocals and the rawer and more thudding production used here come together in a way that feels quite unique, not at all the smooth and cleaned up sound Ultra Sunn have been favoring of late. A great capper for the spooky season to be sure.
