Between this week’s Mechanismus Festival, Verboden, Cold Waves, Terminus, and all of the other festival biz we try to talk about on the podcast, it’s easy to forget about other touring concerns. Hell, fresh off our trip to see Front 242 we have upcoming shows from Poptone, Alice Glass & Zola Jesus, The Body & Lingua Ignota, Fever Ray, and the Canadian double-whammy of Rational Youth & Psyche passing our way in the next couple of months. As much as festivals have proven to be a great strategy for some of the scene bands we cover, the day in, day out grind of regular touring continues unabated for plenty of acts across the dark spectrum. What summer tours are you excited to see coming through your neck of the woods? Get at us in the comments after checking out this week’s Tracks.
Ash Code: coiffed for success.
Caustic, “Stoma (HAEX Mix)”
Never one to let a project lay fallow, Matt Fanale has just released the first volume of remixes from his politically charged 2018 album as Caustic American Carrion. Dead Meat Vol. 1 features mixes from GoFight, 7th Victim, Coldkill, Seeming, Chrome Corpse, The Rain Within and more, not to mention this bit of sexy slow grind industrial from Los Angeles’ raining witchdustrial champs HAEX. Apparently a volume 2 is on the horizon, so probs best to get with this one now and get ahead of the ol’ Caustic curve.
Ash Code, “Perspektive”
We enjoyed “Icy Cold”, last year’s single from Italy’s coldwave act Ash Code, and the coldwave trio are following up on the (understandably) chilly impact of that single with their third LP, Perspektive, in a couple of weeks. The title track has all of the dour drive of “Icy Cold”, but the oddball time signatures and drum programming keep the listener from ever getting too comfortable, even as it turns towards the anthemic in its second half.
Pure Ground & Luminance, “Last Stand”
Having just completed a tour together, Los Angeles minimal body act Pure Ground and Brussels-born synthesists Luminance have put out a split 12″. We mostly know the latter act from their other collabs with Psyche and ex-Agent Side Grinder vocalist Kristoffer Grip, but the former band are ID:UD faves and it’s always exciting to get something from them. And hey, on top of two collabs, you also get three originals from each band, making this a pretty solid get any way you wanna slice it.
Blackcell, “Remote Viewers”
Colorado’s Blackcell have been around for a donkey’s age and their stripped-down, analogue sound has a history far longer than we could chart here. However, we like the theory behind their recent trio of “Phase 6” releases: brief cassettes featuring live tracks hitherto unrecorded. They’re pitching the series’ art as being “inspired by the original Industrial Records cassettes from the late 70s”, and if that wasn’t enough of a tip off as to their influences, surely the title of this minimal and tense track is.
Nevada Hardware, “DMCF”
Info about newcomers Nevada Hardware is scarce right now, but the sounds referenced on their debut EP No FutureM are as good a calling card as any. Classic cyber-rave samples and passages meet modern club programming, plus a large amount of vintage Wax Trax sneering befitting the project’s home in Chicago. Retro futurism’s nothing new in the post-industrial world, but we dig how of the grebo-cum-rivethead style of the past Nevada Hardware are able to mine.
The Gothsicles, “Merry Christmas Mechanismus”
Did you peep our interview with DJ Savak about the upcoming Mechanismus Festival in Seattle on We Have a Technical this week? Go listen to that for some context. Anyways, as you might be aware, The Gothsicles have a habit of releasing songs to commemorate festival appearances, hence “Merry Christmas Mechanismus”, an ode to the fest, the bands playing, Seattle itself, and of course the dope vegan food at The Highline. If ya’ll want more fest info you can find it here, the ‘Sicles play Night 1, if you’re gonna be there please send us any photos of Brian playing Street Fighter II and high-fiving Grendel. We’d like to see those.
