Who is the dude who gets up at 5:30 a.m., serves up hot video-conferences at work all day and then comes home to write about cool new songs for you? Me, that’s who! I mean, I suppose there could be some other guy who does it also, but certainly not with this much panache. Panache is a synonym for “cat hair on your pants”, right?

VNV Nation – “Control”
I once mentally mapped the personas of the big four thrash bands on to the big four futurepop bands, because that is the sort of thing I think about when I am hungover in the shower. Ronan and Mark were Metallica in that rubric (Apop are Megadeth, Covenant are Slayer, and Icon of Coil are Anthrax, I have a whole spiel about it, buy me a drink some time and I’ll tell it to you), because much like James and the boys, folks loved VNV so much at one point that no matter how many kinda disappointing albums they put out they’re always gonna be interested and hopeful about the new one. According to the press release, the new record Automatic is *ahem* “an Opus of Retro-futurism”, on some kind of 1939 World’s Fair steez. Is that dieselpunk? Anyways, this song is classic VNV, so if you like them and what they do, you’ll probably enjoy it (I do).

Control – from the album “Automatic” by VNV Nation

Autodafeh – “Heaven Screams”
Have you heard Autodafeh? They’re pretty great, kinda derivative of Front 242 on their previous albums (listen for the little vocal ad libs a la Richard 23) but this track is less so. It’s weird, we’ve talked about how much the Anhalt bands fuckin’ love Nitzer and D.A.F., but how many folks are doing direct homages to Jean Luc, Daniel and company? Not that many I can think of, that may just be that they’re a little more difficult to pin down to one sound to lift. Anyways, the new record from these guys Act of Faith comes out September 16th, and I’m curious to hear it.
Heaven Screams by autodafeh

Severe Illusion – “The End of Flowers”
Speaking of EBM sounds not too many people are grasping at, this track from Severe Illusion’s new double-A side digital single Clear Head on Complete Control Productions sounds like the Klinik to me, which is an easy way to get my attention. Maybe a little less woozy and atmospheric than those guys, but no less nasty. I’d listen to a whole record of this in a hot second.
Severe Illusion – The End Of Flowers by CControlProductions

Gin Devo – “Twisted Heads”
Man, it’s a great week for dark as fuck EBM. Gin Devo is the frontman for Vomito Negro, and he’s been doing this sound for a long-ass time. His solo record Errata is coming out in September, and you can hear a bunch of the tracks over at his Soundcloud page. I was super choked when I got to see him perform with VN at Kinetik but their set got cut back to like 3 songs because some other bands (who shall remain nameless) ran overtime. Maybe next year in Montreal?
Twisted Heads by GIN DEVO


Jakalope – “Witness (Sin City mix by Highjacker)”
Jakalope is Dave Ogilvie’s crossover project, and to be honest most of their stuff isn’t really to my taste. I quite like this mix Jeremy Inkel (Left Spine Down/Frontline Assembly) but together in his new electronica guise as Highjacker though, it has restrained electro and dubstep touches that sound great on a big fat system. When I spoke to Jeremy about it he confirmed that the mix was at least partially intended to be played at the fetish night of the same name I used to DJ at, which is pretty cool.
Jakalope – Witness (Sin City Mix by HiJacker) by idie:youdie