Hey, gang! I know folks like to talk about February as though it’s a grind, but I find it’s easy enough to stay busy. Over here it’s been X-Files marathons, stocking up on seasonal barley wines and imperial stouts for long-term cellar storage, and endlessly chewing over what small pieces of baseball news trickle out at this point in the offseason. Okay, maybe I am a bit anxious for spring this year (especially with a new Klinik album officially on the docket!), but there’s plenty of new tunes to get us through the cruellest month (nuts to Eliot).

Entertainment, “Bound (test mix)”
It’s been five years since a proper release from the Athens, Georgia deathrock/post-punk act formerly known as eNTERTAINME.nt, and their catalog has held up fantastically in the interim. Capable of winning over Cinema Strange fans in New York and disaffected Bay Area post-hardcore refugees alike, they’ve been gigging regularly for the past few years, though I haven’t been lucky enough to catch them. Their long-awaited sophomore LP is set for an April release (on Houston’s famed Disaro, no less), and demos like this bode very well indeed. Watch this space for a full review.

Laibach, “See That My Grave Is Kept Clean”
Ah, Europe. A land where public funding of the arts isn’t only not used as a wedge issue by reactionary right wingers, but the likes of Laibach can be contracted to provide scores for productions of Tolstoy dramas. Bit of a WAT-era feel to this. Here’s hoping this’ll piss off Dylan purists who are too dumb to know that Dylan was covering Blind Lemon Jefferson when he recorded the song.

Alter Der Ruine, “Sweaty Hands On A Cold Head”
A brief dissolution has proven to be arguably the most busy period in the career of electro shit-disturbers Alter Der Ruine. There was the posthumous release of last year’s There’s Always One More Son Of A Bitch, then the announcement of a reunion gig at this year’s edition of Resitanz, and now there’s an eight-track EP of outtakes from the marathon sessions which produced their last two records. Like most releases on ADR’s Bandcamp, I Told You Not To Listen Tonight Didn’t I? can be had for a pittance, so toss ’em a couple bucks and bump some boozetacular late-night electro, why not?

FUNERALS, “Boo Sra (Deathface Remix)”
A little slice of bucolic, breathy bounce from Columbus’ FUNERALS is getting the full meal remix deal over at Mishka, with five tracks up for free. Deathface takes the original’s joie de vivre and drags it through some French gutters, leaving it with greasy hair and a newfound taste for Gauloises. Utterly skeezy.

StykFaktor, “Revelation 2.0”
Had you played this for me blindfolded I’d have guessed it was pulled right from a Nightbreed comp circa 1996, but nope, it’s new, and from the US, no less! If you’ve got a yen for darkwave of the speedy synths and drum machines variety, give this a gander.