If doing this website for the last couple of years has taught us anything, it’s that the last third of the year tends to be the busiest for new music, and usually ends up being where we fall behind on hearing everything we’re interested in. It’s been a solid year already, but the next three or four months promises to have a ton of new releases (just off the top of the head, new Youth Code, Valis, Blush Response and V▲LH▲LL to name a few) all before we take into account the stuff that comes at us out of left field we had no idea existed. Of course too much new music is a pretty amazing luxury problem to have, so we’ll soldier through it somehow. Thank god for scotch whiskey and decent headphones, without whom none of this would be possible. Lets get to some new songs shall we?

Rhymes with "friend", photo courtesy of Take it For Granted.

MEND, “1750”
How many IDM tracks you know get written out in notation before the DAW even gets warmed up? One thing you probably oughtta know about the peeps in MEND is that unlike some electronic music artists who use ideas of abstraction or experimentation to cover up their musical shortcomings, the Chicago based duo are rock solid when it comes to theory and execution both. Check the crazy baroque breakdown in this number, the first new track we’ve heard from them since their debut album dropped, a record that is fixing to be a strong contender for end of year honours.

iVardensphere, “Roots Bloody Roots (Sepultura cover)”
Scott Fox and company release a fun cover of Selputura’s classic “Roots Bloody Roots”, the latter band’s tribute to the music of their native Brazil. We got a taste of this one way back at Aftermath in May, but damn if we didn’t forget all about how wild the percussion and Jamie Blacker’s vocals got on it. You can nab the free download over at Soundcloud, do so and crank it up, fuckers.

W.A.S.T.E., “Gone Away feat. Jamie Blacker”
Speaking of Jamie Blacker’s vocals, I don’t think anyone was expecting the US’ most notorious unreconstructed power noise project W.A.S.T.E. to team up with Jamie so they could cover the Offspring. Let that sink in for a sec, and then hit play on the song in question, one of three streaming to announce the forthcoming album Warlord Mentality. This sort of curve is kind of what we expect from Shane and company, but you might also be interested to hear the texturally complex “Kill Something” or “We Carry These Things Inside Us”, showing some added tools to the distorted beat assault that is the project’s usual M.O.

Caustic, “Why Because (Cassette Deck version)”
On the off-chance you missed our podcast last week (do a couple our fathers and a hail mary and go listen now, it’s cool), here’s the new track from friend of the site Matt Fanale, channeling some classic Wax Trax flavours for his contribution to the Cold Waves compilation. Dirty grooves and vocals are a pretty common element to a lot of Caustic’s tracks, although we’re feeling that hard-ass snare and rusty cymbal on this one, should make it’s way to the stage at the Metro with little to no difficulty.

ѦPѺLLYѺN’S ▼ISѦGE, “Psychic Body (Chant Remix By [product​]​)”
Hecka spooky Albertan project Apollyon’s Visage have a monster new release out, 25 tracks and name your price on Bandcamp if you can believe that. On top of a couple new originals in that witchhaus-der-luge stylee we’ve also got remixes from a real spooktown murderer’s row, including ∆AIMON, Wychdoktor, reakt[ion], Polar Fields, Textbeak and this one from Portland-based poltergeist pals [product]. Feel them chills come over you.