Continuing our annual tradition of completely forgetting I Die: You Die’s anniversary, we spent the momentous occasion in Seattle day-drinking, with nary a social media post to mark the occasion (well, one anyway). Can you believe it’s been seven years already? We can’t, and we spend a lot of time thinking about this website. If you’ve been a long time reader, or listener to the podcast you know we have a tendency to get a lil’ sentimental on arbitrary occasions, so we’ll spare you any sappy reminiscences and just say thanks to you for your support these past few years, we hope that our coverage of the music in Our Thing has been of value to you and that you’ll indulge us in continuing with it ’til we run out of things to say about these genres (unlikely) or until we decide to turn this into a puro wrestling fansite, whichever comes first. Cheers to you!

Child of Night fear no saturation

Schwefelgelb, “Obwohl Es So Aussieht”
A new Schwefelgelb EP is cause for just about everyone we know to prick up their ears at this point. Their appeal is so broad and instantaneous it’s tough to find anyone who hasn’t been won over by the German duo’s techno-EBM fusion, as the success of last year’s Den Umgekehrten Atem shows. The first sample of the Aus Den Falten EP (back on a+w, they seem to be trading off releases with them and Fleisch) has a slightly stretched out construction, resulting in more builds and releases than their tunes usually cram in, and an abnormal amount of high hat, possibly hollering back to turn of the millennium electro.

Syrian, “Distance”
We here at I Die: You Die have a ton of affection for Syrian’s 2013 album Death of a Sun. Something about that record’s unapologetic move towards italo disco piqued us just so, and we’ve listened to pretty consistently in the last five years. We’re unsure if forthcoming album Sirius Interstellar will have the same style, but the first song we’ve heard from it “Distance” seems to suggest a blend of their classic futurepop sound and italo to make something new. Whatever it is, it’ll sound like Syrian, and hence be very appealing to us here at the HQ.

Leaether Strip, “Erdbeermund”
There’s just no stopping a force like Claus Larsen. Even with plenty of collaborative projects and his side-work with Klutae still going strong, he’s still releasing Leaether Strip material at a phenomenal clip. The landmark EBM/dark electro act is celebrating its thirtieth anniversary right now, and Claus is ensuring that we’ll have new tunes to mark the occasion. Our first taste of the World Molæster comes in the form of a stripped-down and stomping iteration of the oh-so sensual German poem “Der Erdbeermund”, which has been set to music by acts ranging from Culture Beat to In Extremo.

2nd Face, “Nihilum (Essential)”
We’ll cop to having slept on 2nd Face’s 2017 LP Nemesis, but hope to make it up by talking up new single “Nihilum” which is pretty nifty. If you’re a fan of the emotional, compositionally-minded electro-industrial purveyed by projects like Interlace or Encephalon, this one should be right up your alley. Despite having a relatively simple opening passage, the song goes to some unusual and unexpected places, emphasizing crafting a musical narrative over club appeal. Good stuff to be sure: guess we’re gonna have to make a point of getting caught up with this one-person German act.

Body Break, “Nine”
More demo instrumentals from the union of Robert Katerwol (Wire Spine/Weird Candle) and Void Mirror, who you may recall dropped a whole slew of tracks in the same vein back in April. Word we got from our source at that time was that these collections were of sketches of tracks that would be developed further into a full LP, which is not to say they aren’t plenty enjoyable on their own if you’re a fan of DIY EBM and new beat. Good chance we’ll be hearing more from these cats before too long.

Child Of Night, “Sirens”
Columbus’ Child Of Night trade in very classically-minded darkwave, delivered both with speedy dancefloor ambitions and lo-fi murk. That might seem like a conflict of interests, but there’s a good amount of charm in the ease with which the duo roll off atmosphere-heavy burners like “Sirens”. Should appeal if, like us, you still miss Edmonton’s The Floor, think that The Wake (Scots, not American) were the bees knees, or are still loving the Twin Tribes LP from earlier this year. Incidentally, the band’s first two EPs are getting a tape reissue from the fine folks at Detriti.