Hallowe’en already? Inasmuch as we still enjoy plenty of things about Our Thing’s trad holiday of choice (pumpkin beers aplenty, a wealth of autmnal darkwave LPs,etc) we find ourselves neck deep in catch-up this year with the now traditional massive wave of late year releases that fall into our wheelhouse. If you’re wondering when we’re covering a specific LP, hopefully soon is the answer, we’ve got basically six weeks or so of normal coverage before Year End begins, so we’ll do our level best to get to it all. That in mind, here’s your weekly Tracks post!

Echoberyl

Echoberyl

Echoberyl, “Rising from the Dead”
France’s Echoberyl have always had a strong connection to the goth (and the gothic in the classic sense) in their tunes, but the french darkwavers are going full Hallowe’en with their new single release Rising From the Dead. As if the spooky narrative of a 19th century woman seeking revenge from beyond the grave on her murdering husband wasn’t enough to clue you in to the seasonal nature of the release, there’s a goodly amount of Haunted House synths in this minor key club number to get your Samhain dancefloor hopping.

JE T’AIME, “Kiss the Boys (And Make them DIE feat. Alex Svenson from Then Comes Silence)”
Speaking of spooky French music, Parisians JE T’AIME have a new LP on the horizon via Icy Cold Records. “Kiss the Boys (and Make them DIE)” is the kind of camp thing we could do with more of in the current wave of self-serious post-punky new wave. Check that quavering falsetto on the chorus and the chimy guitars that back up the burbling rhythm track, all geared for maximum club appeal, and that’s before you get to that hook on the fadeout. Solid stuff!

Bean Sí, “Disco Fever”
Here’s some bracing and fiesty darkwave from Dublin newcomers Bean Sí. While there’s immediate dancefloor appeal, we appreciate how this steers clear of a lot of the common tropes in current club-focused darkwave and gives plenty of focus to some efficient guitar work and the half-cracked vocal.

Rendered, “Notdeadyet”
Have some more solid state TBM courtesy of Daniel Myer and Clément Perez. The Rendered project has always presented itself as a direct outgrowth of both producers’ tenures in techno DJing, and invariably produces expertly crafted beat delivery systems. The title track from the new EP (which features a more electro-focused mix by David Caretta) has a wonderfully frenetic gallop.

Caldon Glover, “Summoning The Cartographer”
Between Caldon Glover’s yen for field recordings and ability to cast a unique eye on the often overlooked elements of daily life, their approach to ambient and experimental composition has won us over in the past couple of years. That’s why we’re very interested in how their first LP for noted dark ambient outlet Cyclic Law will turn out. A quick pass at this suggests that Glover’s more than capable of bringing their acoustic elements to bear on more traditionally grand and sweeping dark ambient. Expect a full review in the weeks to come.

No More, “Sleepers and Trains”
We’ll 100% cop to not keeping up with the contemporary output of cult coldwave act No More (of “Suicide Commando” fame, natch), but this new single “Sleepers and Trains” happened to hit us just so. It has everything we’re looking for in a cut like this from an act of this vintage: tasteful programming and guitar that feels of a piece with their OG material, smooth modern production and nicely weathered vocals that speak to the long road the band is on, and the fact that their journey isn’t over. New album Kissin’ in the Blue Dark dropped the other week, we’ll have to give it a few spins.