So, we sat down this weekend to prep the launch of the long-promised site redesign, and lo and behold, we still had some not inconsiderable work to do before we could cut over to the new site. Seeing as our highest priorities were not to have any ID:UD downtime, and to ensure that all of our old content was ported over, we find ourselves in the position of having to do some work between now and next Saturday to get things ready for prime time. Take this as our promise then; come next Monday, hell or high water you’ll be reading Tracks on a brand new site. In the meantime, why not indulge in the classic design by checking out this week’s selections?

Soft Riot: punch in, punch out.

Weird Candle, “The Alchemist”
Been a while since we’ve heard new material from Vancouver’s Weird Candle, the weirdo synthpunk act that first introduced us to Robert Katerwol of Wire Spine and Body Break fame. If you’re not familiar with them, you could do much worse than to check out their two LPs Regeneration and Alter Ego, or just skip directly to squelchy goodness in the form of new single “The Alchemist”, where the spastic energy of the project’s past is remade with quirky focus. Does this mean a new release is on the horizon? You’ll be the first to know, dear reader.

Statiqbloom, “Thin Hidden Hand”
We’re very excited to check out Statiqbloom live in concert at Terminus Festival this year; despite having seen Fade Kainer numerous times in the past, the project’s mystique and uncomfortable energy remain very real and vital to us as time goes by. A large portion of that must stem from how measured each new music release is, showing an evolution of the band’s classic post-industrial sound with new elements. Newish track “Thin Hidden Hand” suggests dark electro and even some body music, while never straying far from the misty atmospheres that have defined the project’s sound thus far. New EP Infinite Spectre hits July 27th via Translation Loss Records.

“Soft Riot, “Waiting For Something Terrible To Happen”
Our old pal Jack Duckworth never half-steps anything, and he’s always happy to go the extra mile with video production. Such is the case with the “Waiting For Something Terrible To Happen” vid, taken from Soft Riot’s latest mash-up of vintage-synth jams and screwball new wave oddities, The Outsider In The Mirrors. Duckworth buffets a platter of warm, gurgling synths with regional TV befitting a tale of 4am anxiety, down to Milgram-esque experimentation and adverts which face the void head on. Lord knows it’s tough finding an honest TV pitchman, but Duckworth tells you no lies: nothing is going to be okay.

Wind Atlas, “En La Cruz (Blind Delon Remix)”
Attentive readers might recall that the people behind >Semiotics Department Of Heteronyms’ debut, one of 2018’s many great darkwave releases, also put in time as Wind Atlas. That longer running project is much more fluid in terms of sounds and genres, and a tune from this year’s An Edible Body, which already mashed up post-punk, EBM, and ethereal, is getting a vinyl-only maxi. We’re particularly fond of the dancefloor-attuned yet still ghostly take offered up by France’s always crisp yet thoughtful Blind Delon.

Thegn, “Mind Over Body”
Friend of the site Matthew Gunn just released a teaser for his new EP as Thegn Kani, and it embodies a lot of what makes the multi-disiciplanry musical project interesting. Where previous releases were a showcase for the experimentalism and improvisational elements of Gunn’s work, “Mind Over Body” speaks to the project’s rhythm and performance aspects, translating much of the live energy that fuels Thegn’s work into a digestible percussion led track with nervy vigor. If you didn’t know before, now you do: no excuses.

Dmitry Distant & Gestalt, “Victim”
As we’ve written about in these pages, Poland’s Mecanica label has been doing a great job of reissuing material by Lassigue Bendthaus, Dive, and Flash Zero, but they are also keeping well abreast of newer developments. The follow-up to their tasteful and well-curated Some Have To Dance.​.​.​Some Have To Kill comp is on deck, featuring plenty of familiar names – Blac Kolor, Rendered, Viktor Kalima – and some new. We have to cop to ignorance of both Russia’s Gestalt and Dmitry Distant from Latvia (by way of Russia), but this tune’s a nice melding of classically chirping minimal wave with newer and smoother techno motifs.