It’s been a crazy few days round the HQ, marked by Japanese wrestling, Westside Connection rivet vegan hangouts with Youth Code…and the air over much of our province basically catching fire. Smoke from dozens of wildfires in BC is blanketing Vancouver and surrounding regions, and between that and the record setting summer heat, we’re getting pretty ornery. Anyone still waiting for climate change data is invited to hang out in any Vancouver Special basement flat without air con (we didn’t need it before). To more pleasant matters, we’ll be announcing the winner of the t-shirt giveaway this week on the podcast. For folks who missed out on entering or buying the shirt in the first place, it looks like a few people have put their names down for a reprint, and if a few more do so then Teespring’ll do another run. Onto the week’s Tracks!

Vancouver under Martian Skies. Photo courtesy of Shannon Byrne.

Seeming, “Holy Fire”
Speaking of the total incineration of our habitat, Seeming’s forthcoming EP Worldburners is beginning to smolder. First taster “Holy Fire” revisits the apocalyptic themes of Madness & Extinction (our favourite record of last year, as cagey readers will recall), but focuses on a purely personal immolation. Alex Reed’s ear for less is more melody and subtle key shifts is in full effect at both the quiet and noisy ends of this tune. Of course, stay tuned for more Worldburners info.

5th of July & M‡яc▲ll▲, “Lorelei”
In case you never peeped their first EP, the 5th of July project is the cinematic electronic project of techno-industrialist Jason Snell and vocalist Jessie Schoen. More atmospheric and raw emotionally than the crispy rhythmic flavour of Snell’s main project, this tribute to a long-departed friend is set off by some pretty twinkling synth work courtesy of the ever-evolving post-post-post-witches M‡яc△ll△. A pretty collab from two projects we wouldn’t necessarily have slotted together.

Vire, “One After The Other”
Fresh acid from emerging Toronto producer Vire. Nice builds with some classic electro stabbing. Between this and the Sarin/Human Performance Lab crew, it’s clear that 90s kids in Ontario have been eating their Wheaties (or Pro Stars). Also, if the continental sounds here have you question Vire’s CanCon cred, check him covering Nash The Slash.

D/SIR, “Quiet Life”
Okay pretty much everything on Unknown Pleasures’ new Neo Romantix Years comp is pretty rad. We’re posting this particular selection due to our predilection for Japan, but we could have just as easily selected DSX’s cover of “Memorabilia” or Black Egg doing “Back to Nature” or Kord feat. Annie teeing off on “Being Boiled”, they’re all good. Just go and download the thing on Bandcamp already, and get ready for some chilly synth goodness, me-decade style.

ELMS, “Cottage Bride (2015 Electro)”
Ontario’s ELMS keep their binary approach to releases intact, oscillating between utterly bleak compositions of heartache and desolation, and later reworking Alex Unger’s vocals around slightly more yielding, if no less affecting, synthpop arrangements. There’s something very middle Canada about this; not just the still-active cottaging tradition, but the slow seeping of chthonic wilderness into the self and relationships.

The Psychic Force, “Still Walking 2015”
We’re gonna have to plead ignorance on the topic of German EBM project The Psychic Force; the promo from Alfa Matrix is positions them as contemporaries of Yelworc and Placebo Effect, but until we saw their new EP pop up on Bandcamp we hadn’t heard of them. Might need to go back and have a listen, as the new version of their track “Still Walking” has a pretty nice modern dark electro vibe to it. The two new tracks on Relapse ain’t too shabby neither, but certainly feel more modern in execution. Looks like some research is in order.