It’s Cold Waves week here at ID:UD HQ, with Alex having checked out the Seattle satellite show featuring Test Dept, Kaelan Mikla, and Street Sects, and Bruce prepping to head out for the four course Chicaco Cold Waves experience in a couple of days. The loss of Pop Will Eat Itself from some of the early shows has been a blow, but there’s still an incredible amount of impressive live gigs being put on by the CW crew across the continent. We’ll have full reportage in the days to come, but as always we’re starting the week off with six new tracks!
S Y Z Y G Y X
Cyanotic, “Information Overload (Same As Always)”
Hey, speaking of Cold Waves, though they’re not playing the fest this year, few contemporary bands rep the classic aesthetic the fest initially set out to honour than Chicago’s own Cyanotic, and we’ve got a fresh batch of noise from Sean Payne and co. in the form of the new The Trigger Effect EP (or mini LP?). Pummeling kicks and general machine thrash remind us of just how excellently Cyanotic work this style, and dammit if it doesn’t get any more perfectly throwback cyberpunk than Rollins’ Johnny Mnemonic rant.
dISHARMONY, “Polyspace”
Slovakian duo dISHARMONY have been steadly developing their own take on the middle ground between classic dark electro and technoid and IDM sounds for a while now. Latching onto the vibe of similar acts like Individual Totem, dISHARMONY take it one further, creating music that suggests vast spaces and the astral esoteric. New EP Subdivided is another in a string of solid releases from them, showcasing a very specific niche evolution of electro-industrial that we’re happy to have them continue to map.
Xibling, “Reflection”
Portland’s Xibling have a new EP, and from first glance Yesbody looks to have a slightly more aggressive tone, adding some extra anxiety and squall to the duo’s darkwave shaded synthpunk. There’s more than a little of our beloved Kas Product in a tune like this one, restlessly kicking through metal meshwork synths but also knowing how to feather the gas and brakes.
S Y Z Y G Y X, “Ultra Doll”
The Negative Gain Productions gang weren’t at Terminus this year, meaning we were a bit more in the dark as to their wishlist of bands than we normally fancy ourselves. However, the impending release of the next LP by Washington DC’s S Y Z Y G Y X on the label makes sense: the pair’s style of electro-driven darkwave has been earning them a growing fanbase, and tunes like this, the forthcoming Fading Bodies‘ first teaser, show off a solid blend of approachability and charisma.
A Culture of Killing, “I Wonder Why”
Hella peace-punk styles from Italians A Culture of Killing, whose debut cassette release is seeing the light of day for a second time via the good folks at Detriti records. Sounding straight out of 1984, with livewire guitars, a solid rhythm section and subtle keyboard touches, this is the kind of throwback sound that very few acts have taken on, and the scant amount of info we’ve been able to gather about ACoK has us wondering where these cats came from and whether there’s an entire of scene of similar acts we’ve managed to overlook.
Alex Reed, “A Catalogue of Miracles”
Finally, a song from friend of the site Alex Reed. Written as he was nursing his companion cat Pie May, it’s music that finds the cracks in sadness that joy can leak through. It’s hard not to be moved by the track; a loving tribute that speaks less to loss than it does the depth of feeling that a relationship can inspire.
