It was a weekend jam-packed with a host of Halloween DJ duties, and as we talked about on yesterday’s edition of Bombers, that comes with a whole host of questions as to who you’re playing for, how much cheese is acceptable in a Halloween playlist, and trying to balance the need to rep hard for the dark side with the reality that for many of us, well, insert classic Ministry single title here. To paraphrase Return Of The Living Dead, this isn’t a costume, this is a way of life, and whether on Halloween night or on a June afternoon you won’t catch us without a fresh batch of tunes we’re itching to spin. Speaking of which…

More like Urbane Heat, damn

Urban Heat, “Like This”
If you listen to the podcast you may remember Alex’s enthusiasm for Urban Heat after catching them live a few months back. We had an inkling at that time that the Texas-based trio would be signing with Artoffact, but it wasn’t til this week that the announcement was made, coinciding with the release of “Like This”, a track that shows a lot of what the project has to offer. You get a big charismatic vocal from Jonathan Horstmann, a nice pulsing backbeat at a medium tempo and boatloads of pop appeal in the best way. We said it before and we’ll say it again, they’re gonna be a thing and you should buy in now.

STCLVR, “Plowed”
New York’s STCLVR (also written as Streetcleaver) flits back and forth between a range of violent electronic styles on new LP Post Self Abandonment. While there are plenty of viscously dripping tracks which should appeal to fans of death industrial, there are also just as many numbers like this one, which drags dark electro into such a harsh roots direction that parallels with black metal become apparent, as does the record’s release on Phage Tapes, the same fine folks who’ve been serving up similarly mean stuff from Choke Chain of late.

Echoberyl, “The White Lady”
Here’s one for your seasonal playlist courtesy of French darkwavers Echoberyl. Like a lot of their material, the song pairs the duo’s penchant for classic electro-darkwave with some modern production touches, although “The White Lady” adds some spookier melodies and sound design to the mix. Not a bad club cut from an act who usually fare pretty well working to that milieu.

Analog 80, “Angel Of Death”
If you’re looking at a record which includes a track titled “Tragic Error 242”, you likely know exactly what you’re in store for. And on the whole the new record from Belgium’s Analog 80 delivers exactly the sort of retro tribute to new beat, EBM, and acid it suggests, but there’s also a decent amount of dark electro to be found on Atomium which scratches some related nostalgia itches.

MVQX, “No More (Evil Dub Mix)”
We enjoyed the raved-up clatter Lisbon-based producer MVQX brought to the table on their Social Disaster EP a few years ago, and were keen to check out his forthcoming Dub Cuts release. As the title suggests, it’s a less overtly noisy and deeper style being plied on these mixes, but his talent for rock-solid basslines ports over to a rolling half time nodder like this just fine.

Absurd Minds, “A Million Miles”
We cover so few acts like Absurd Minds in our general coverage these days, partly because we don’t follow the trad-euro scene as much as did at the time we launched the site, and partly because our own tastes have changed. We do make time for some acts thought and Absurd Minds is one of them. Probably because despite the oft-repeated comparisons to Project Pitchfork, we do have a soft spot for emotional electro of the style the German act has been plying for some 8 albums at this point. “A Million Miles” does the job, and does it well, and we’ll certainly be giving the forthcoming Gravitas some spins when it drops on Scanner in late November.