It’s Skinny Puppy week here in Vancouver, and with tix to both of their final hometown shows in hand, we’re feeling a lot of feelings. Obviously as residents of the Greater Vancouver Regional District the band means a tremendous amount to us, and is intrinsically tied to our own histories with the music we cover here on I Die: You Die, but there’s also always been some distance involved in that – the band’s return to the city came many years after the initial reunion in the early 2000s, and despite having seen them perform here numerous times, we rarely get the feeling that this place holds much nostalgia for the members. The finality of this particular set of shows makes it all seem more proximal though, more real in some very strange ways; we’ll likely be going over those in a podcast soon afterwards. More discussion can wait ’til then, here’s your weekly Tracks post in the interim.
Things get out of hand when Special Interest’s Alli Logout goes to karaoke.
Maelstrom & Louisahhh, “I’m a Whip feat. Brodinski”
Some more new business from the duo of Maelstrom & Louisahhh, who gave us this year’s excellent Sustained Resistance. In this case they’re working with noted DJ and producer Brodinski, who originally brought the two together some ten years ago. “I’m a Whip” works a very vocal forward strain of minimal electro, placing the focus on Louisahhh’s voice and keeping the electronics spacious and hard hitting. This is the opening salvo for their next record May the Rage Burn a Path For Joy, which given the track record of those involved, we are anticipating greatly.
Corpus Delicti, “Chaos”
Like plenty of acts, Corpus Delicti’s reunion shows were curtailed by the pandemic. The fact that one of the most creative and best-remembered goth bands of the 90s just seemed to be building some steam behind their reunion made that delay all the more bitter, though. At the end of it all, though, we finally have the first new music from the French legends since a handful of late 90s covers, and like recent reactivations by 1919 and The Wake, the band aren’t totally breaking from their pure goth roots, but neither are they trying to recreate the past. There’s a great live-wire meanness and weight behind this rollicking and, well, chaotic number.
Crystal Geometry, “Runaways”
Say, weren’t we talking just last week about the ways in which the original wave of powernoise occasionally lifted from the broader electronic world’s louder and more extreme niches like breakcore and gabber? Crystal Geometry’s revisiting of powernoise and related genres through a modern lens has made for fascinating and invigorating listening over the past few years, and with their new single seem to be underscoring some lines between it and gabber with their characteristically high-gloss touch. Anyway, crank this while you’re getting pumped up for that Dutch hardcore movie.
IV Horsemen, “Desert Birds (Machino Remix)”
We rather enjoyed Timothee Gainet’s IV Horsemen LP from last year, a record that deals in the brutalist aesthetics of industrialized techno while eschewing (mostly) its straightforward DJ-friendly arrangements. Stands to reason then that we might hear a few remixes of the material that lean back in that direction, and hey, here comes Parade Nocturne Remixed to do just that. Peep this little slice of hotness from Machino, taking the more darkwave leanings of the original straight to your local basement dark rave.
Absurd Minds, “The Moral Men”
We posted a track from the forthcoming Absurd Minds record Gravitas and noted at the time that of the acts still plying classic euro electro (you know, the sound that isn’t quite electro-industrial, isn’t quite synthpop, isn’t quite EBM, but has been a staple of g/i club formats for decades), they remain one we check in on regularly. Maybe it’s because we’re given to nostalgia, but there’s something deeply soothing about hearing new music that invokes the sonics of our club-going youths, but with nice clean production and catchy danceable melodies. New single “The Moral Men” delivers on that, complete with a slightly hyped remix by INTENT:OUTTAKE. Probs gonna take the time to review this one when it hits in a couple days.
Special Interest, “LA Blues (Marie Davidson Remix)”
You might remember we had a lot of praise for Special Interest’s Endure last year, though we noted that the synthpunk outfit were heading in directions that had very little to do with our beat here at ID:UD. While Endure is still very much in rotation around the HQ, we’re happy that the new Endure (Remixed) EP features Marie Davidson’s reworking of “LA Blues”, taking the reflective slice of life observations of the original right into the heat of modern darkwave dancefloors.
