Hey pals. We normally like to keep things pretty upbeat at the beginning of the week, but we thought we’d take a moment here to acknowledge a couple of really important fundraisers that are going on right now. Don Hill of Industrial/IDM project Millipede is currently battling stage 4 renal cancer, and several entities within the community have taken up arms to help him and his family out in whatever way they can. Aside from straight donations via GoFundme, there’s also a benefit show with a killer line-up happening in Chicago in January, and a massive digital compilation being assembled by CRL Studios to be released on December 15th. Whether you know Don and his music or not, we encourage you to give some thought to helping out in whatever way you can. Even small donations can have a big impact if enough people come together as a community. Thanks for checking it out friends.

Agent Side Grinder, “This is Us”
We were big ol’ fans of Swedish post-punk/analogue synth outfit Agent Side Grinder’s last album Hardware back in 2012, their songwriting chops and hypnotic rhythms easily raising them above the mess of similarly minded genre acts cluttering up your local record store. Their new EP’s two originals indicate they haven’t strayed too far from that template, while maybe amping up the melancholy a bit; Kite collaboration “Beloved Fool” is long on that smiling sadness, while the title track embedded below is all about that pensive feeling that maybe things aren’t really going the way they should be. Great stuff from an excellent project you should be familiarizing yourself with if you haven’t already had the pleasure.

D/SIR, “Blink”
Moody nighttime drag reigns on new EP This Begins In The Dark from LA’s D/SIR. The use and manipulation of vocals, sampled and original (we think) gives this stuff plenty of drama and character. The band’s intimated that these are in fact older tunes, but if you enjoyed their last single or their solid remix work you’ll dig this release.

Thyx, “Waiting For You (2nd Civillization remix)”
Stefan Poiss’s Thyx project has been dropping albums left and right over the last couple of years, the most recent being this year’s Super Vision. Nominally a side-thing to Poiss’ main gig mind.in.a.box, Thyx has allowed the electro maestro some room to expand his ideas and really follow through on some of the quirkier and more bouncy elements that have been peppering his work for a while. Apparently he’s collecting remixes for a possible future release. Kits are available at their website if’n you’re interested. Here’s a nice upbeat one from Belgian EBM act 2nd Civillization.

M‡яc▲ll▲, “A Nighŧ Øf Crүsŧal Masks”
Nothin’ but love for bloodwavers M‡яc▲ll▲ in the ID:UD HQ. Along with other local favourites ∆AIMON and V▲LH▲LL, the New York based project has been one of the best touchstones for cool music to come out of the great witch house implosion. Those expecting WH’s loagy beats and fog machine aesthetics may be a little surprised to find that M‡яc▲ll▲ is making giallo music with a bit of electro and italo flavour, especially on new EP Diviŋaŧiøns, which you can peep on Bandcamp right now. It’s their third EP of the year: make a point of checking out the rest of their stuff if this appeals to you, as it’s all of a similarly spooky grain.

Cosmic Angst, “Chess”
A week after we mentioned the newest Mild Peril single, and Chris Gilbert’s already dropped two new releases…sort of. Cosmic Angst and Stratus are collections of material written over the past two years (some of which under the Mild Peril name), but are now being reissued to match Gilber shifting focus away from Mild Peril and the pop/italo direction it’s been moving in, and returning to his kosmische roots under the Cosmic Angst moniker…we think. Regardless of its name or release date, Gilbert’s stuff is always great for getting lost in, so cop both of these releases, whydoncha.

Weeping Rat, “Coil”
Finally, some intriguing stuff from the oddball side of deathrock via Australia. Weeping Rat are definitely not entirely removed from the new dark stuff we’ve been getting from, say, Night Sins or Soft Kill, but they have a far looser and formally experimental feel than most of what’s been coming down the pipe. Maybe a less manic iteration of Turn Pale is a fair point of reference? Regardless, we’ll be giving Tar, their first full length, a close listen.