Vancouver is buried under a layer of snow at the time of this writing, although that’s not much of an issue for us; we’ve got plenty of music to catch up on while we’re holed up in the HQ. We mentioned in this space that 2025 seems to be shaping up nicely already in terms of new releases and news of forthcoming albums from artists we dig, and indeed, there’s been a few nice surprises already. If you don’t check out our reviews, or just look at the names you recognize, we’d encourage you to check the Friday Observer posts, where a lot of fresh shorter form releases get covered, it’s often where some of the most interesting new stuff we end up following makes its first appearance on the site. Not to take away from the institution that is Tracks though, one of our oldest and most favourite things to put together on a weekly basis. See below!
General Dynamics
Kite, “Heaven n Hell”
We praised the turn away from the lovely but admittedly sad-bastard sound of recent singles when they put out “Heartless Places” a few weeks ago, so hearing another cut that matches that song’s more upbeat delivery. Make no mistake, this is still that very unique melancholy the Swedish duo have had on lock since their debut way back in 2008, but the with the tempo behind it and some notably scrapy sounds in the mix, it fits nicely into the band’s catalogue of down-to-mope anthems, and has earned them enough of a following that they’ve been able to mount huge concept shows like the figure skating business they put together this past weekend. Forever one of our favourites.
Nightcrawler, “Course Navette Part II”
The second of Berlin label Kindcrime’s Cage Of Flesh tapes comes with an absolutely stacked list of modern EBM producers: Cyan ID, Statiqbloom, Unconscious, T_error 404, etc. Picking up where the previous tape left off, you’re getting a nice representation of how dark electro textures and less monochrome palettes are chipping away at the austere, monochromatic edifice of TBM. This reworking of Spanish producer Nighcrawler’s 2024 single, lending it some new beat styled atmospherics, is a nice example therein.
Twin Tribes, “Monolith (Tobias Bernstrup remix)”
Texas goth and darkwave phenoms Twin Tribes put out our favourite record of 2025 in Pendulum, a record that had no shortage of great tunes, along with a nice dose of club-ready cuts and singalong hooks. 2025 brings a suite of remixes of the single “Monolith” from names as notable as QUAL, Ultra Sunn and Tobias Bernstrup, whose version of the moody cut brings out an unlikely stripe of futurepop appeal. Listen to that rapidfire gating and synth bass and how it interacts with the grave vocals of the original to hear what we’re talking about.
General Dynamics, “Creepin’ In”
WIlliam Maybelline (Qual, Lebanon Hanover) teaming up with Emad Dabiri (Sarin, Human Performance Lab, and umpteen other projects connected to his X-IMG label) for a 2022 LP under the General Dynamics handle was an unexpected surprise which made all the sense in the world as soon as you heard about it, and the record delivered on that promise. A forthcoming follow-up is good news for all those who appreciate both producers’ abilities to work classically grimy and lo-fi EBM and dark electro sounds into the modern dark club template, and this teaser track looks to be continuing on in that tradition ably. We’ll definitely have a full review of Where Animals Play when it sees release in April.
Empusae & Onasander, “Astronyx”
Speaking of collabs which make sense, the highly prolific run Nicolas Van Meirhaeghe has been on of late as Empusae continues apace with one of two new team ups (the other with Pilgrimage To Pleroma). Produced alongside longtime ambient/experimental producer Maurizio Landini’s current sound-design focused Onasander project, the Umbrosyne record is an impressively sculpted piece of work, much of which fits squarely in the cosmic side of dark ambient, but with occasional flickers of some of the cinematic bombast both producers are known for, as this track shows.
Bigod 20, “Body to Body (DSTRTD SGNL Mix)”
DSTRD SGNL is the production duo of Stephan Kessler (Aircrash Burear) and Torben Schmidt of Infacted Recordings, a couple of EBM OGs if there ever were any. While a lot of their previous releases have leaned a little further into the EDM style than we’d generally be interested in covering, we can’t front on this remix of the Bigod 20 classic “Body to Body”, which doesn’t skimp on the distorted, gritty vocals of the original while pumping up some of the production in a style that feels pretty of a piece with millennial and early 2000s club oriented electro. Be curious to hear them take on some other cuts of comparable vintage in the future, see if they can strike the same balance of DJ appeal and classic recognizability.
