Everybody, it’s December (okay not quite, but like, so close we can act like it is)! That means one thing: year end lists, and lots of ’em. We always try to wait until we’ve finished listening to and writing about records to actually start compiling all are EOY stuff, but with the amount of records we have on the docket as we head into the 12th month, we’re already strategizing on how to get finished in a timely fashion before that X-Mas break. And hey, what better way to remind ourselves that there’s a lot of records still to be heard than a stroll through a selection of new Tracks?

Red Cell is all like "T'is some fine synthpop English".

Protectorate, “Clean Break”
Kalle Lindberg’s certainly made a name for himself in Our Thing if the reception the debut LP from Cardinal Noire received is any indication. His solo act, Protectorate, technically predates his work in CN with Lasse Alander, but it’s only now that we’re hearing a full LP from the project. Bit more of Lindberg’s metal pedigree in the mix here, with a slightly more stripped down style of electro-industrial. Stay tuned for a full review.

Red Cell, “The Ladder”
Progress Productions has sneakily become one of the best synthpop labels going, putting out a variety of acts both classic and new from their native Sweden. Red Cell themselves are a band whose evolution matches the moves their label has been making; where much of their earlier material favoured EBM and futurepop sounds, this new one is pretty much pure synthpop in that Sverige style we like so well. New album drops December 9th, hopefully we get a chance to check in before year-end deliberations commence.

Zguba, “Die Heilige Messe”
Some seriously oddball, sample-heavy martial industrial from Bulgaria. Pitched orchestral phrases, film noir, and record scrapes place things in the inter-war period, and should appeal to fans of Rome’s early work.

Noire Antidote, “Slow Macabre”
Benjamin Schoones self-applies the dreaded witch house label to his work as Noire Antidote, although with the benefit of a few years distance that tag seems to be more indicative of mood than style. Sure you can hear the smoke machine whirring and see the strobe lights flashing in your mind’s eye when the title track of the project’s debut for audiotrauma kicks in, but there’s a lot more depth to these orchestrally tinged instrumentals than those surface level signifiers.

Xorcist, “Lesion”
I don’t think anyone here at I Die: You Die woke up today expecting to hear a new song by Xorcist, but here we are. Taken from the No Devotion records debut compilation Document 01, we’re unclear if this is new or unearthed. Considering our yen for American dark electro of any vintage though, we won’t complain either way. Check out the comp (mastered by Erie Loch of Luxt fame of all people!) and maybe can someone ask Bat about a new LP some time? That’d hit the spot.

Atomine Elektrine, “Sepharial’s Lilith”
Peter Andersson’s been using the Atomine Elektrine handle to distinguish his more cosmically minded work from his legendary dark ambient output as Raison d’être. The project’s new LP, The Second Moon, takes the hypothetical titular satellite as an opportunity to dig into some classic kosmische synth sounds executed with the flair for the mysterious and occluded we’ve come to expect from Andersson.