With the announcement of the last four bands – Unter Null, Sigsaly, Trepaneringsritualen, and TR/ST – the picture for this year’s Terminus Festival’s finally come fully into focus, and what a picture it offers up. Acts new and old, harsh and yielding, familiar and secretive, will be bringing a huge range of industrial, darkwave, synthpop, noise, techno, and post-punk to Calgary. The curation of the festival has always been incredibly progressive and adventurous, and while that’s still the case with this year’s line-up, it’s cool to see so many acts like Statiqbloom and Actors returning with a much larger fanbase and discography. Patreon supporters, keep an eye out for a Terminus-themed poll in the coming days, and check out what new tunes are featured in this week’s Tracks!
Vandalaze: getting freaky for the halibut.
Vandalaze x Chrome Corpse, “Nervous Blow”
Two of our fave mutants team up to bring you some of that new old school post-industrial. While we wouldn’t have necessarily pegged this one, Cory You of Vandalaze and Michael F. Ninethousand of Chrome Corpse certainly share a similar outlook when it comes to keeping EBM weird, which they do here without question. The maxi-single also includes a version in collaboration with Cretin Dilletante and a couple of other new tracks, some of which may appear again on forthcoming Vandalaze projects. C’mon wastoids, dive into this one, the slime’s just fine.
Rhythm Of Cruelty, “Dispossession”
Edmonton’s Rhythm Of Cruelty are likely one of the Terminus acts who’ll be less familiar to out of town attendees. Having caught the duo a couple of times in Vancouver, we can attest to the impact and quality of their swirling, effect-driven, and LOUD brand of machine-backed post-punk. Newcomers can get a taste of what to expect in Calgary this July with this new tune, a sample of the new cassette EP they’re releasing in a week’s time.
HKKP TR, “Kontrolle”
This tasty slice of technofied-body music hails from the third installment in X-IMG’s Self-Aware compilation series, due May 1st. While the label is noted for being Emad Dabiri of SARIN’s outlet for his various projects, these comps have showcased numerous other artists working in the fertile nu-EBM field, with this volume containing works from Nordstaat, Blush Response, Rhys Fulber, Rendered and others, including Dabiri’s own project Human Performance Lab. Looking for an entry point into that sweaty late night dancefloor sound? You could do a lot worse than here.
Paladin, “Mythmaker”
The archetype of the alchemist, a hermetic scientist-cum-magician ferreted away and working on the minutiae of occult formulae – isn’t just relevant to the themes and sounds Chris Gilbert explores as Paladin and Mild Peril, it also nicely sums up his approach to work. Gilbert’s released yet another version of his now-classic Matter LP, this time featuring heavily mutated versions of the original compositions, many with a synth-folk feel which matches his self-applied “wizard-disco” moniker. Check how much has changed from the original “Paladin’s Theme” to this iteration.
Harsh R, “Even Keel”
Olympia-based harsh industrial act Harsh R have announced their next cassette The Year of the Dog and the pre-order version just so happens to include the original version of “Even Keel”, a track we got to hear in remixed form on the “Bad Person” single. Avi will be making his way up to Vancouver for Verboden in just a few weeks, and we’re very excited to see him do his punky DIY thing in the flesh.
Hag Horror, “Movement”
Lastly, some chilled-out giallo/synthwave from Berlin producer Hag Horror. The Bedroom Tapes EP gracefully picks up pointers from John Carpenter and early Gatekeeper, offering up low-key but evocative tunes which set a mood and let it hold rather than going for heavy duty flash and shock.
