Oh dudes, I got way raw at the Comaduster gig at Sanctuary last night. We like to big-up our pal Réal whenever possible, but take this serious… that was one of the best sets of electronic music I’ve seen in ages. Dudes put on a clinic on how to play synthetic music live, with vocals, drumming, guitar and synth all being put to good use. Take notes folks, these guys are doing it right.
That aside, this hangover is just the worst, so I’m gonna drink some water and go hide under a blanket for a few hours. Wake me up when we don’t live in a world where a Beastie Boy can die of cancer. Or dinner time, whichever. Peace!
How’s a band gonna look more German than Die Krupps?
Die Krupps, “Industrie-Mädchen”
Apparently the DK crew are gonna have a new album out this year. Their newest material certainly seems to have embraced the EBM OG legacy they largely disregarded for the latter era of their career, and this is no exception. I quite like the use of guitar riffage on what is otherwise an unreconstructed slice of trad body music. It’s a free download from Soundcloud by the way!
GHXST, “Dragula (Rob Zombie cover)”
We have just the biggest crush on GHXST. Their trashy distortion and drum machine grooves are indebted to the Mary Chain and the Sisters for sure, although arguably the biggest thing these NYC deth-rockers inherited from those groups was how to be effortlessly bastard cool. How cool? So cool they can make a cover of Rob Zombie’s most overplayed jam seem unforced. Not one band in a hundred could do that this good.
Sharon Next, “Der Hase (Sebastian Komor’s Vancouver remix)”
Recent Van City transplant Seb Komor has gotta be one of the busiest dudes in industrial. Between recording and releasing music with like, 50 bands and a touring schedule that takes him all over the damn place he’s also got a docket of remixes a mile long, all of which have a characteristic bounce to them. I’ve mentioned this before, but I really dig that if Seb is doing, say, an Icon of Coil mix, it sounds different than if he’s doing a Komor Kommando mix. He keep the sound of his projects nicely defined, right down to his remix work. Enjoy this edit he did for Viennese group Sharon Next, about whom I know nothing but who apparently have been around since ’95.
Suicide Inside, “Call Girl (Memmaker remix)”
I like Suicide Inside’s new record. Ostensibly an electro-industrial project from the folks in Ambassador 21, it’s a pretty far cry from the digital hardcore sounds of their main project while not really sounding like anything else coming out right now both rhythmically and melodically. And hey, the remixes on it are pretty hot, ‘specially this one from Memmaker who are on a bit of a roll right now. Look for a record review soon, and enjoy this slice of bass heavy dancefloor action in the meantime.
Die Sektor, “Archetype”
As you may have gathered, we’re real picky about terror EBM around here, almost to the point of excluding it from most of our coverage. That said, we quite liked Applied Structure in a Void, the last album from Atlanta’s Die Sektor. They tweak the grr-bang-distorto vox template just right, making what would normally be pretty unappealing to us work. And hey, this pleasingly creepy cut from the forthcoming album The Final Electro Solution (*cringe*) seems to be going even further afield, drawing in some glitchy sample work and just a hint of ye olde dubstep. More like this please.
