This weekend offered a brief respite from the non-stop live show and record listening sessions that make up the majority of our lives. As we hurtle towards the annual test of strength that is our Year End Coverage, the unending game of catch-up we engage in becomes less and less manageable, which is where you come in faithful reader: we need to know what we haven’t covered yet that is in Year End contention. Sooner is better than later as we’ll be trying to wrap everything up by mid-December this year, so go on and leave us a comment down below! …After you check out this week’s Tracks of course.
Textbeak feat. Bestial Mouths, “Blood Storm”
Another Tracks premiere, this brief but ravenous mass of unpleasantness comes to us courtesy of Textbeak, aided and abetted by Lynette of Bestial Mouths as we just discussed on the podcast. Lynette was telling us about the extremities she went to in this video, and well, she wasn’t foolin’. We’ve mostly covered Mike Textbeak’s work in remixing other artists here on the site, but he’ll have a full length record of originals such as this coming out on Cleopatra sometime early next year. Bestial Mouths isn’t the only point of collaboration; expect appearances from the likes of Roland H. Kirk collaborator Peter Hope and The Pop Group’s Mark Stewart among others.
Siamgda, “Yoga”
Living in the land of Lulu Lemon as we do, it’s hard not to get a little cynical about the cultural and commercial state of Yoga, in spite of its many health benefits. But what if you could do a hot class while listening to rhythmic noise? It’s unlikely any local studios will be putting that one on any time soon, but at least we’ve got the new video (directed by friend of the site Dominic Marceau!) from Ant-Zen act Siamgda to help us imagine what it might be like. The appropriately titled Noise Yoga dropped a few weeks ago, so why not pick it up and have it blasting next time you toss that DDP DVD into the player?
The Operative, “Nothing To Bare”
Shane Talada’s name might be most familiar to regular ID:UD readers through Marching Dynamics, the one-man rhythmic noise project through which Talada’s been releasing records on the likes of Hymen and Squarwav. Heads in the know are aware that Talada’s a student of plenty of dark genres, and while his classic goth rock chops aren’t on display in his new project, The Operative, you can tell that he’s been tracking the close proximity between new techno artists and classic noise merchants like himself. The Operative’s full-length, Weird Grief, just dropped this past weekend on Crunch Pod.
Soho Rezanejad, “Greed Wears a Disarming Face”
God damn. Wasn’t sure what to expect when this turned up in the inbox recently, but we’re genuinely taken aback by this eight minute opus from Danish artist Soho Rezanejad. Taken from her debut album Six Archetypes (due in January from Silicone Records) “Greed Wears a Disarming Face” is a slowburn, ascending from foggy minimalism into lush and forested darkwave complete with some of the most compelling vocals we’ve heard in a while. Apparently Soho is now a member of Cult of Youth, which is a pretty hot co-sign for an artist gearing up for their first album to be released. This goes on the watchlist immediately.
Dead Husband, “Vertex”
Speaking of mailbox surprises, the debut EP from Boston’s Dead Husband is another welcome one. Hanging out at the bouncier and softer intersections of EBM and synthpop, Dead Husband bring plenty of the same fun which made FORCES such an immediate favourite around the HQ, although with some more classic, almost Moroder-like synth passages. Don’t worry, though, there are plenty of early rave signifiers tucked into the EP as well, which we recommend cracking the tin on.
Priest, “Vaudeville”
Once again It’s a Trap! has shown us the way: we have no idea how Priest escaped our notice before now. Like, if you had approached us on the street and said “Hey guys, there’s a band from Sweden who sound like a cross between modern synthpop and D.A.F. and also their singer wears a spikey bondage mask” we would actually have cancelled whatever plans we had made previously to go look such a band up. Better late than never though, as the band’s first album is due shortly from Lovely Records and this song “Vaudeville” has us excited enough to put it into our overstuffed “listen before year’e end” queue.
I didn’t know of Priest either. A bit surprising since I’m Swedish and into EBM but even more surprising is that it’s apparently ex-members of Ghost!
http://www.metalsucks.net/2017/11/02/video-premiere-priest-vaudeville-ex-members-of-ghost/
That is surprising! And cool!
Alex, the vocals from Priest don’t half sound similar to Anders from Ashbury Heights, too… (or maybe it’s just me)
Holy cow – that Soho song…. I am so stoked for the album now. It’s jaw-dropping.