The light at the end of the tunnel is visible friends, and with November officially well underway we feel pretty comfortable starting to plan our escape from 2015. Of course there’s still plenty of music still to be released before the door slams shut on December 31st, and we’re anticipating that something will still come out and blow apart the slowly forming best of we’ve been subconsciously assembling these past few weeks. Such is the way of these things, and with well over four years under our belt we’re far past the point of not expecting the unexpected. Still, let’s focus on what we have directly in front of us, for the bounty of Our Thing is vast and varied, and a Tracks post is just the place to partake.

Human Traffic. Photo Courtesy of Jill Grant @takeitforgranted

Human Traffic, “Identity Control Test”
When we spoke to Jason Novak of Acumen Nation and Cocksure about what acts he was excited to see at the then upcoming Cold Waves festival, he made a point of mentioning how exciting he thought Human Traffic are. After seeing them open up night 2 with a bananas performance we were inclined to agree. Raw and beholden to no one but themselves when it comes to stylistic and genre markers, the Kansas trio jump easily between digital hardcore, rhythmic noise and electro industrial markers on new song “Identity Control Test”. Potent stuff from a project that is gaining ground and seems set to bust wide any day now.

HUMAN TRAFFIC // IDENTITY CONTROL TEST from HUMAN TRAFFIC on Vimeo.

Caustic, “Fuck in a Suit”
The hotly anticipated Industrial Music drops tomorrow, and if folks are wondering which direction cult-artist Matt Fanale has taken the ever-evolving Caustic, than the video for “Fuck in a Suit” has a few hints. Pay close attention to the stripped down production, emphasis on groovy rhythm programming and inflammatory rhetoric, and you’ll have a decent blueprint of the record as a whole. Tune in tomorrow for our take on the LP, but in the interim you can enjoy the video clip’s DIY execution as many times as you’d like.

Corrections House, “SupergluedTooth (Statiqbloom remix)”
Considering their own predilection for electronics, it seems only natural that experimental metal supergroup Corrections House (which features members of Eyehategod, Neurosis, and Yakuza) would commission a few remixes for their new joint Know How to Carry a Whip. And who better than intense one-man industrial outfit Statiqbloom, especially with that outfit’s own history with more outré metal. As you might expect this is some sludgy, harsh, rhythmically oriented stuff akin to much of Fade Kainer of Statiqbloom’s own work with Theologian.

Schonwald, “Inland”
Italian duo Schonwald offer up a pummeling brand of coldwave on their third album Between Parallel Lights which draws from the heavier side of shoegaze as much as it does the French classics. We find “when X meets Y” analogies as hacky as anyone, but when a band makes us think of A Place To Bury Strangers as much as they do Asylum Party, they’re well worth digging into.

Dead Voices On Air, “Nord​+​L^”
Mark Spybey’s taken to Bandcamp like a fish to water. Using our favourite distribution platform to release heaps of old loops and field recordings, record an improv drone set whenever he gets the itch, or prepare recordings for upcoming shows (as is the case here), Spybey’s giving DVOA fans regular missives from the incredibly prolific run he’s been on for the past five or six years. Big and noisy drones happening on this new release, with a hint of motorik.

Golden l’Air, “A New Tomorrow”
Lo-fi, looping mutant noise weirdness coming from out of Belgium (we think). Info is scarce, but it’s coming out on XOS, the same nutbars who’ve brought us Cyborgs On Crack and Mind Teardown, and apparently no less a legit head than Pieter David had a hand in mastering it. Insert obligatory “do not operate heavy machinery whilst under the influence of” warning here.