We’re just a couple of days shy of the fifth anniversary of I Die: You Die, and to be quite honest we’re terrified at how quickly the time’s gone by. High school only lasted a few years and that took fucking forever, but it really doesn’t feel like it’s been that long since we decided to make a third (!) attempt, this time a serious one, at putting together the sort of website we’d want to read about the sort of music we’d want to hear. There’ll probably be plenty of sentimental reflection on this week’s episode of the podcast, but if you’re into the whole brevity thing: thank you. Thank you for reading, listening, commenting, contributing, submitting, and everything else you’ve done to make the last five years fly by. Enough navel-gazing, here are your tracks for this week.

The Operating Tracks: Cats and Body Body Body

Konkurs, “Face The Target”
Here’s a hot premiere from an act from whom we’ve been keen to hear some official work from. Toronto’s SΛRIN and New York by way of Berlin’s Blush Response have been getting no short number of spins ’round the HQ for their recent grimy takes on body music, so the pitch of them teaming up for a collaborative project was welcome news here. This ID:UD exclusive first taste of what Emad Dabiri and Joey Gonzalez have been cooking up together hits all of the dark and squelchy spots you’d hope it would. Keep your ears open for Konkurs’ first 12″, available thru Veleno Viola via Ready Made Distribution in August.

Body of Light, “Tremble”
Holy Christ, the transformation Body of Light has gone through. The first recordings we heard from the act were on some very rough and tumble styles, still melodic but more subdued than what brothers Jarson are up to now. We liked the former stuff plenty, but this new track “Tremble” feels very in line with the impression we got hearing Body of Light live in Vancouver this year, an act that have emerged into a brighter, forthright presentation from a production standpoint. If you hear some modern synthpop and darkwave (and dare we say futurepop?) in this song, know that we do to. Can’t wait for the LP.

Double Echo, “Entropy”
Liverpool’s Double Echo very swiftly tilted away from some of the dreamy and shoegaze elements in their earliest work, and and are now fully in the throes of classic, doomed-out goth with all of the filigree and mist one could hope for on their new EP, Ancient Youth. Tunes to pass out in the snow to, or at least for fans of Mephisto Walz, Corpus Delicti, et al.

Vierance, “Black Water”
We normally associate Toronto’s Deth Records with techno-ebm styles by the likes of SΛRIN, but the label also dabbles in some darkwave and minimal territory. Witness this slinky piece of business from TO’s Vierance, whose third EP Deth will be releasing in July; calm and collected but spiritually and atmospherically aligned with many of the more bombastic acts the label deals with. Still more evidence of Toronto’s strong showing in the new Canadian darkness sweepstakes.

The Operating Tracks, “Subculture”
Some new instrumental hotness straight from Stockholm, courtesy of neo-oldschool body act The Operating Tracks. The duo’s material has generally favoured the sinister side of EBM in tone and execution, but they seem to be letting it hang out a lil’ more freely hear, not quite into techno-crossover territory but certainly nodding it that direction. It’s nice to hear an act with a relatively small discography playing with different interpretations of their style, showing what could be possible on future releases.

Leaether Strip, “Here Comes The Rain Again”
Uncle Claus is back with another in his recent spate of 80s synthpop covers. Maybe more than any of the others, this seems to have been constructed with the lower, cleaner register his vocals have been gravitating towards in recent years. The naked emotion which Claus has been putting front and center in LS releases of late (which we recently discussed) grafts perfectly overtop of Lennox’s words.