Morning, folks! The first band announcements for Terminus are out, and between Pig, Bella Morte, and Glass Apple Bonzai it looks like we’re in for another wonderfully eclectic July weekend out in Calgary. Cold Waves also just confirmed its dates for this year (September 29-October 1), and it sounds as though some firm news about another big to-do in the US is impending as well. In short, yes, Industrial Summer Camp season is drawing close once again! Start saving your pennies, fantasy book your dream line-ups, and get ready to make tough decisions as you count down the days. Let’s get to this week’s tracks!
Sixth June riding the gothic pastoral. Photo by Juliane Liebert.
Cyborgs on Crack, “Cleaning Jihad”
Things we love about Cyborgs on Crack: the meeting of post-industrial pop sensibilities a la Acid-era Psychic TV with modern internet weirdness. Things we like about CoC’s recent Demur EP for X.O.S music: see the aforementioned. How music can be this weird and this fun in equal measures without getting gummed up in irony is a mystery to us, but it’s rapidly become Domagoj Krsic’s calling card, whether as Cyborgs on Crack, Mind Teardown or any of the other projects the young Croat producer is responsible for.
Flint Glass, “Undulating Shadows”
Speaking of festivals, the crew at Audiotrauma recently celebrated their fifteenth anniversary with a big swingin’ do in fair old Prague, and have released a comp celebrating its line-up. Of note is this track from Flint Glass. It’s been a while since we heard a stand-alone release from Gwenn Trémorin’s excellent project which hybridizes rhythmic noise and dark ambient; collabs and splits have been the focus since 2008’s fantastic Nyarlathotep. Whether Trémorin’s appearance at the fest portends more work with the Audiotrauma camp remains to be seen, but it’d be a very nice match.
Sixth June, “Call Me”
Berlin (by way of Belgrade) act Sixth June seem to have tapped into darkwave’s most preciously guarded and powerful secret; that many of the genre’s classic releases didn’t sit too far removed from contemporary AM pop stylings. This jam from the duo’s new sophomore record, Virgo Rising, has all of the icy appeal and foggy atmosphere you could want, but with plenty of snappy immediacy and smooth vocals. Hell, elsewhere on the record some classic sax solo bridges crop up. Definitely merits further investigation…
Vore Aurora, “Null Plus Void (Blood of Others remix)”
You don’t see a lot of classic max-singles where a bunch of artists take on one song these days. California darkwavers Vore Aurora have delivered just that though, with this monster pay-what-you-want remix single for their track “Null Plus Void”, featuring mixes from (deep breath) Fractured Transmission, Ego Likeness, Gentleman Junkie, Verin, Jean-Marc Lederman and like a dozen others. Peep this version by our dogg Micheal Kurt aka The Blood of Others, and the whole release why not.
BL▼И† †R▲▼M▲, “OPOEFTH (Wychdoktor Remix)”
So, with the actual heyday of the genre like eight years in the rearview, is it time for a revival of OG witch house? Maybe not, but BL▼И† †R▲▼M▲ are serving up some of those queasy lo-fi sounds, and invoking the spooky spirit on the recent remix single for “OPOEFTH”. You got your V▲LH▲LL, your BLVCK CEILING, your Ca†hedra all putting their mark on the song, along with this tribal industrial flavoured number from Wychdoktor.
Slimy Member, “Harsh Reality”
Dallas’ Slimy Member are here to scratch your itch for classic SoCal deathrock. The previews of their first proper LP, Ugly Songs For Ugly People, point to a swirly and almost romantic sound which you might think impossible from an act with that moniker, but there’s also plenty of the Rudimentary Peni-style aggression which marked their early demo tracks.
