Whoo doggies, was I in need of a weekend off after all that Halloween nonsense. Between spinning records, tossing together costumes and consuming my own weight in fun-size Snickers bars and peanut butter cups I’ve barely had time to goof off and read comics. The life of a jet-setting international DJ/blogger is rough, but I persevere, if not for the pleasure of sharing good music with anyone who will listen, then at least to protect my own fragile ego from the slings and arrows of everyday life. Enjoy some new songs below!
Worms of the Earth would like to palpate the region.
Worms of the Earth, “18 Hands of Cundi”
Washington DC’s Worms of the Earth are dropping a record on Tympanik on Tuesday (the follow up to a couple of strong releases on Canada’s Bugs Crawling Out of People), and have offered up this cut as a free download. Good stuff in the tribal electronic vein, if you like the most recent iVardensphere and Distorted Memory output I’d say there’s a strong chance you’ll be intrigued. Hate when I feel like I’ve forgotten to mention a band who’s stuff seems promising, so help me make it up to Worms of the Earth by going to check out some of the material they have on Bandcamp, ‘kay?
Autodafeh, “Exercise Your Brain”
Since the beginning of the year Autodafeh have been previewing tracks from the follow-up to their enjoyable 2011 album Act of Faith, the latest of which is “Exercise Your Brain”. Not sure if the new record will see daylight in 2012, but I’ll certainly be paying attention regardless of whenever it actually makes it to my ears, I love how these Swedes have spun their 242 worship into a specific form of slow to mid-tempo body mover, robo-grooves aplenty as you can hear below.
Ronobe X V▲LH▲LL, “The Death of You”
Two groups we love to give shine to team up for a collaborative song that highlights the strengths of each product. From Ronobe we get the arty electronica and female vocals, and from V▲LH▲LL we get the icy nordic textures. Not exactly the old “peanut butter and chocolate” metaphor, more like a lovely island vista with a dusting of totally incongruous snow, slightly surreal but no less pretty for it. This is a free download, speaking of which both groups have put out some great music for nothing (or pay what you want, HINT HINT) this year, go check ’em out yeah?
Dryft, “Like Falling”
Mike Cadoo put out a very relaxing record this year in the guise of his shoegaze project bitcrush, a pleasant listen I should probably pen something about at some point. Some of that album’s slow moving textures and emphasis on mood seem to have leaked over to Cadoo’s Dryft project in the case of this song, a lovely wall of ambient sound with uncharacteristically restrained percussion. I quite like everything MC has done in recent years (insert the obligatory reference to the legacy of Gridlock here), no reason to think this’ll buck that trend. Toss this on and just like, ooze out of your chair into thoughtspace.
The Pain Machinery, “Liquid Silver (Extended Mix)”
I love that the Pain Machinery have been feeding us a steady stream of remixes, dubs and extended versions of the songs on their fantastic Restart album, basically since it made it over the Atlantic. As an aside, I feel like despite having a ton in common with many of the acts in the EBM tradition getting interest outside Our Thing like White Car and //TENSE//, The Pain Machinery don’t get nearly the amount of attention they deserve. Peep this, if you’re feeling it then snag the download and then go dig the record. It’s an ID:UD HQ fave.
How to Destroy Angels, “Keep it Together (Factory Floor mix)”
You know, I liked the HTDA EP. It’s quite samey all the way through, but the production is just so lush and perfect that it’s hard not to enjoy it. The new one is coming out on November 13th, which I’m sure most of you are already aware of. Stuff Trent does gets attention still and say what you will about the guy, he’s always given due to other artists via remix work, like this here bit of machined funk courtesy of the UK’s Factory Floor, a group who have rightly been tapped as heirs to the legacy of the trad-industrial scene. This is good bleepy fun, all minimal and robotic as a contrast to the full-bodied and organic original.
Super Bonus Track:
Death Grips X Distorted Memory X C/∆/T, “Beware the Temple of the Black Star”
ID:UD loves rap, ID:UD loves weird, witchy ass music and perhaps unsurprisingly ID:UD loves it when those two things get grafted together. Ol’ Ben Arp gets hella love for this little bootleg mix that finds Cali’s new alt rap elite Death Grips bathed in the waters of Distorted Memory’s “Temple of the Black Star”. Mash-ups are usually obvious, cheap thrills sorts of affairs but I’ll be damned if this isn’t one of the best things I heard all week, any genre or style. How much to get C/∆/T to put together a whole record of similarly styled matches?
