Hey friends! Alex here, just home from a wonderful music-filled weekend at Terminus Festival, filled up with lots of fun stories and fond memories of another industrial summer camp. Bruce is away for three weeks, which means I’m minding the shop solo for a week or two, which means a slightly reduced posting schedule, although we will still have weekly episodes of We Have a Technical, as well as Bombers and We Have a Commentary for y’all to enjoy. I’m gonna crack a beer and get to work on this overdue edition of Tracks.
Paul Barker is OG, always
Blush Response, “Live in Fear of Conflict”
Fresh illness from Joey Blush via aufnahme + wiedergarbe in the form of “Live in Fear of Conflict”. Taken from forthcoming 12″ Abuse Your Freedom, the track is pretty much straight EBM but also bridges some of the sounds Joey was working with on his work with Ant-Zen and Sonic Groove, misty textures forming in and around the rapidfire bassline and snappy drum track. More goodness from a producer who has been firing on all cylinders of late.
Lead Into Gold, “We’ll Take Tomorrow”
Feels like Paul Barker has been everywhere over the last couple of years, touring with The Cocks and A Perfect Circle, not to mention reactivating his Wax Trax-era project Lead Into Gold. Dropping just as he hits the road with LiG on an opening stint for ohGr, new album The Sun Behind the Sun draws on the bass grooves Barker has laid down on countless classic jams, throws in some of that classic Hermes Pan drum programming and some heavy brass-styled synth pads for a properly epic feel. Great stuff and a record that has shot to the top of our “must-listen” pile.
Cyanotic, “Time to Move”
Brand new release from Chicago’s industrial rock traditionalists Cyanotic T2 is actually an expanded (by almost 100%) version of their enjoyable 2017 release Tech Noir. This track Time to Move is a slight rejig of that record’s “Deadweight”, pushing the electronics to the forefront and highlighting the synthetic and mechanical aspect of Cyanotic’s game. T2 comes to us courtesy of Armalyte Industries in collaboration with Glitch Mode Recordings, a little trans-Atlantic partnership by labels that keep the machine-rock fires burning apocalypse bright in dark times.
Molchat Doma, “Tancevat”
We don’t know a damn thing about Belarus-based act Molchat Doma, but the fact that their new album is being released by the excellent folks at Detriti Records was all the co-sign we needed to check ’em out. Turns out the band trade in a peppy, drum-machine driven wave sound with plenty of twang and tremolo for the folks who like that sort of thing. And yes, by “the folks who like that sort of thing” we mean us here at I Die: You Die, meaning we’re gonna be keeping a close eye on this release.
Freak Dream, “Into the Sun”
Finally, we’re getting some weird rock fumes off Vancouver-based new Artoffact signees Freak Dream, whose debut LP Into the Sun will be released on September 21st. Elliot Langford is drawing from his punk and hardcore background and love for visionary producer-artists like Prince and Trent Reznor to create some seriously twisty synthpunk, replete with dreamy melodic breakdowns, full on grind-assaults and alternately reedy and snarled vocals that don’t seem like they should be in the same postal-code much less the same song. Kind of reminscent of Genghis Tron, which is a pretty good thing in our book.
