And here it is friends, the last Tracks post of 2015! Yes, we realize December just started t’other day. But with the beginnings of our Year End coverage nipping at our heels and the annual break we schedule to try and catch up with the goings on in literally every other genre of music, this’ll be the end of the road for your weekly dose of hot single and teaser drops ’til January. These posts are the closest thing we usually have to a livestream of our interests (and the part of the site that is always guaranteed to be the most current reflection of the scope of our coverage) and as such we place a lot of importance on making sure they run nice and regular. So don’t fret, they’ll be back in 2016, bloated with all of all the tasty stuff that is yet to come before midnight on the 31st no doubt. Let’s see what we have rounded up this week.

Shad Shadows

Alter Der Ruine, “Escape”
We don’t even know if folks understand how lucky we are to have bands like ADR in our midst. Think on it: they have deep scene roots, have displayed immeasurable stylistic growth from where they began from, and are consistently producing material that is actively better than what they have produced before. Their amazing 2014 album I Will Remember It All Differently was a high point, but what we’ve heard from their brand new EP Gravity Hunts Us All is making us feel like their peak hasn’t yet been reached, not by a long shot. God knows what you call the melodic electronic music they make now, but it’s undeniably ours, and that’s something to celebrate.

Kindest Cuts, “Cold Eyes”
Look like things are starting to heat up once again chez Kindest Cuts. After a relocation to Toronto and a nifty split cassette of covers, we finally have new original material following up on 2013’s excellent EP. You’ve got just about everything about the synth act that won us over in the first place on “Cold Eyes”: immediacy which is never cloying, a savvy sense of swing and melody, and another fantastic vocal turn from Patrick Edward. This apparently is the teaser for a second EP, and you can bet your sweet bippy we’ll give you the rundown on that once its out.

Memorex, “Hierarchy”
What’s this, more cool new synth stuff from Toronto? Yeah, but Memorex work in a far colder and sparser vein than Kindest Cuts. Straight up dreamy cold wave which delivers the goods overtop of stuttering beats, and manages to shift through an impressive range of motifs in the first half of this track…and then does the whole thing in reverse in the home stretch. Refreshingly trippy.

Hot Guts, “Fires (Statiqbloom remix)”
We’re pretty much blueballed over here waiting for a new drop from Fade Kainer’s Statiqbloom, especially since seeing his incredibly visceral live performance this past summer. I guess while we’re passing the time we can hear the gritty electro-industrialist put his mark on other artists, like on this remix for Philly Darkwavers Hot Guts. Less of an all out attack and more gripped by the ascending tension of the original, we’re totally on board with this dynamic iteration of Kainer’s production style. Hoping for some news of a sophomore LP in 2016!

Forma Tadre, “Bars”
And another track from the pre-history of Forma Tadre surfaces, complete with video. We’d be lying if we weren’t a little disappointment that there wasn’t news regarding an album of all new material from Andreas Meyer, but hey, hearing the dude we know for his atmospheric electro-industrial work do some funky late eighties cold wave is pretty cool too. Check the brief morsel that is “Bars” and marvel at another side of an artist we (like you hopefully) have spent a lot of time contemplating.

Shad Shadows, “Dreaming Over”
We only just got on board with Italy’s Schonwald, who’s latest LP offers a pleasant fusion of coldwave and shoegaze. Turns out they’ve also got a side project in Shad Shadows whose LP is following hot on the heels of the second Schonwald full-length. You wouldn’t have a hard time convincing anyone that Minor Blues was created by the same folks as Between Parallel Lights, but this stuff almost seems to zoom in on their shimmering coldwave sounds, making them feel far more immediate and smothering even as it guides you more pointedly to the floor.