It’s very difficult to know what to say in this post, as we are still reeling from the awful events that transpired in Vancouver this weekend. It’s a tragedy, and comes in a year that has not been short of those, and we are greatly saddened for our friends and neighbours in the Filipino community. Aside from making direct contributions to organizations that are providing aid to the community and those directly affected, we would encourage everyone in the city reading this to donate blood, as there are many injured people still undergoing treatment for serious injuries.
Aurat
Rhys Fulber, “The Abyss (feat. Qual)”
An absolute stormer from Rhys Fulber, who has been exercising his brutalist techno chops for a bunch of recent releases, but heads back towards more song-oriented composition on this collab with William Maybelline. It’s a solid match, as the latter’s solo work has always had a strong current of the kind of electro-industrial that Fulber helped pioneer, with Maybelline’s grave vocal delivery fitting in nicely with the thudding concrete kicks and the 16th note synthlines that wend their way through the song. A great taste of things to come in the hopefully near future.
Aurat, “Kismet”
It’s been nearly four years since we had new music from California’s Aurat, but the cacaphonic and haunting post-punk/goth act’s stock has risen drastically in that interim with a slew of well received shows. If we’re to take this new track as a statement of things to come, they’re beginning to work a lot more industrial clatter into their already dense sound, while still keeping Azeka Kamal’s fantastic vocals at the centre.
House of Harm, “Fight the Feeling”
Bostonian post-punk act House of Harm have always had a knack for sad, dreamy melodies, and for positioning them within rock solid arrangements that display a lot of songwriting saavy. New cut “Fight the Feeling” shows the same maturity and compulsive listenability of their last full record Playground from 2023, and with still more smooth production, especially on the vocals of Michael Rocheford which have really become something special and distinctive. A really nice cut from a band who rarely deliver anything other than really nice cuts.
Invalid User, “Cyber Baiting”
We’ve long been touting the releases of Bogotá’s Pildoras Tapes for the label’s presentation of grimy yet utterly modern body music with a South American focus, offering a valuable aesthetic counterpoint to the near stranglehold on modern dancefloor focused EBM Berlin seemed to be tightening for several years. This track, from their recent comp celebrating five years of work, allows label honcho Jose Marulanda to show off a thudding but pleasantly dense and nuanced club smasher under his longstanding Invalid User handle.
Empusae, “Invocation (The Fractured Self)”
Boy howdy but Nicolas Van Meirhaeghe of Empusae’s been on a tear. Factoring in the forthcoming The Alchemist’s Rift LP on Arcane Dirge, we’re counting at least six LPs, collabs, and EPs released by Empusae since the beginning of last year, and we’re likely missing a couple of oddities here and there. Thankfully that release schedule hasn’t led to a drop in quality, and the massive, bombastically cinematic take on neo-classical and dark ambient we’ve come to associate with his latter era work is on full display on this sweeping album opener.
Pain Magazine, “Violent God”
Pain Magazine is a new band from some familiar names; the project is made up of Louisahhh and frequent collaborator Maelstrom, and French hardcore act Birds in a Row. Apparently the principles decided to randomly try to do something together, and then ended up recording a whole-ass record of some pretty gnarly industrialized electro, with some real nice lush guitars, are used much differently than you might be expecting given the harsh nature of the synths and drum programing. “Violent God” also features one of Louisahhh’s most tortured vocal performances to date, a match for the tormented sound of the instrumental for sure. The forthcoming LP is now right at the top of our hotly anticipated releases for 2025.
