Just a quick note here folks that due to the extreme amount of Verboden shenanigans we have on the docket next weekend, we’ll likely be taking off next Monday and posting Tuesday thru Friday, so as to accommodate our aged and decrepit bodies. However, we will be here all week with reviews, a podcast and the usual docket of reviews. Oh and Tracks, can’t forget about Tracks! See below.
Kris Baha
House of Harm, “Taste the Light”
One of our favourite modern melodic post-punk acts of the last couple of years has been Boston’s House of Harm, for both their mastery of how to work the bright, wistful angle of the style and for knowing their way around a good tune. So suffice to say hearing their new cut “Taste the Light” reaffirmed our affection them, especially when it’s the first music we’ve heard from them since last July’s equally great single “Feel My Heartbeat”, a fave in these offices still. Hopefully a new LP is in the offing, we’ll be on the lookout.
Sturm Café, “Zeitgeist”
After all the curveballs thrown by 2021’s Fernes Land, we’re keen to hear what Sweden’s most arch EBM act have in store for us when their new LP Zeigest drops in about a month. Based on the title track, the third bit of Zeigest we’ve been able to hear thus far, Sturm Café will be digging back into their synthpop roots to promising returns.
Kris Baha + GHOSTS IN THE MACHIИE, “Nothing Is Real”
Aussie EBM wunderkind Kris Baha returns with new project Kris Baha + GHOSTS IN THE MACHIИE, a concept-driven science fiction narrative told through some sleek high-tech body music. If you’ve been a fan of either Kris’ darkwave styled cuts in recent years, or his pure body tracks, this won’t put you off of him but is distinct enough to warrant being an endeavour unto itself – for one thing it’s very driven by the lyrics, which outline a time-travel scenario cut with some dark future aesthetics, and a sleeker, more cybered-out production style to match. We’re suckers for this sort of thing, so we’ll be keen to hear more of this yarn as it develops.
Monolith, “The Hunter”
Lord knows we’ve talked a lot about how current TBM can lift pretty explicitly from classic powernoise, often making nary a variation in the original template. Few acts can prove this as directly and bluntly as Monolith, AKA Eric Van Wonterghem, one half of Sonar and Absolute Body Control and your favourite band’s favourite mastering engineer. Tracks like this from new Monolith LP Concrete Playground show how the sort of sound Van Wonterghem was with on the ground floor has slowly circled back into focus.
Daniel Myer, “Tactics Dub w/ Hypnoskull”
Speaking of scene legends coming back into style, we’re very excited to dig into the double slab of vinyl Daniel Myer has just released on Sonic Groove. It’s weird to think about someone as prolific as Myer only releasing a solo record under his own name now, but it perhaps suits the dark techno rep Myer has been carving out for nearly a decade now, finding links between that genre’s increasingly abstract and harrowing sounds and his own longstanding interests.
Total Chroma, “Such Filth”
On the Bandcamp page for new single “Such Filth”, Isku Katerwol describes it as his version of a “Belgian club hit, written 30 years too late”. We can get with that, one the great pleasures of following the producer/performer’s career from Weird Candle through the still active Wire Spine and into pure solo stuff with Total Chroma has been watching how styles are invoked, connected to other sounds, rearranged, and made over in mutant fashion. If you’re a fan of any of Katerwol’s previous work, or the mutant body style as a whole you should find lots to enjoy in this busy, slightly off-kilter cut, a fine reminder that the next LP L A P L A N D is coming.
