It’s still super early in the year, and although there are some records we know we wanna hear coming out in the next few weeks (mind.in.a.box’s Revelations, the Stiff Valentine and Unit 187 remix disks, the re-release of the Acretongue album for North America), there’s a twinklin’ on the horizon of still other albums, presumably as yet unfinished and unnamed that have got us all worked up. We thought we’d write about ’em a little and share some other thoughts on stuff we’d like to see in the year to come. Read on: it’s the I Die: You Die 2012 Wishlist!
Icon of Coil
We’re very excited about the return of one of the Big Four futurepop bands (analogous to Anthrax in our match-ups with the Big Four of thrash metal as we mentioned before). Without taking anything away from Christian Lund, we’ve always felt that Seb and Andy’s work together is one of those creative pairings where the strengths of each artist are totally complimentary, to the point where the contribution of each is intractable from the other. All the IoC guys have been busy: Lund with Northborne, Andy with being the single biggest crossover artist Our Thing has produced in ages as Combichrist and the ultra-prolific Seb with a wide-ranging number of projects, including the industrial metal of Melt and the new school electro-EBM of Komor Kommando amongst others. This will be the first high-profile reunion album for a whole generation of clubgoers who came of age at the time when the trance-inflected leads and clean, super-hooky melodies ruled DJ playlists globally for a few years, and as one of the few major groups from that time to never release a disappointing record we’re pumped to find out what they have in store.
No More “Terror” bands
No, not “terror ebm” bands (we like some of those, or Alex does anyway), we’re specifically talking about bands that insist on using some variation on the word “terror” in their name. Terrolokaust, Terrorkode, Terrorgazm, Truppenterror, Terrornation, friggin’ T3rror 3rror for god’s sake? All those of you who aren’t NYC’s venerable Terrorfakt can leave the building. Show’s over, nothin’ to see here. This shit is unseemly.
Continues
We still get sniffly thinking about the dissolution of one of most refreshing and inspirational industrial bands of all time, Babyland. Conversely, we still get goosebumps when we think about Dan Gatto’s performance at Kinetik under the banner of his new Continues project. Although we’d heard enough to know that Dan was moving in a more classically synthpop direction, we had no inkling of how strong his “synthesizer Popular” chops would prove to be, let alone how adroitly he’d be able to blend his new path with his legendary presence and passion as a frontman. Thus far we’ve been treated to a split 7″ (both of us copped that white vinyl) featuring the addictive “Love On The Run”, and between that and what we can remember (with some help from YouTube) from that performance, we’ve no doubt that Dan’s poised to release a batch of songs as poignant and heart-rending as some of Babyland’s latter era work (“LMYA”, “Search And Rescue”) hinted at.
An End to Misogyny and Racism in Videos
We’ll be charitable and refrain from mentioning any names. As industrial culture’s long history has shown, there are plenty of legitimately thought-provoking ways to engage with the uglier and more reprehensible aspects of history and culture (see Laibach) without resorting to the cheap exploitation of misogyny and prejudice. Moreover, if people want to discuss the particulars of a record or video you put out, “Laibach did it first” and “you’re trying to censor me, who are the real Nazis here?” aren’t acceptable responses. Are you actually trying to say something? Are the imagery and connotations you’re employing in the service of something beyond cheap shock tactics? We’re not fourteen anymore, and neither are you. Own your shit, or step off.
The Klinik
Word on the street has it that ID:UD staple Dirk Ivens and his old partner Marc Verhaeghen are set to record a new album under the aegis of The Klinik. Although Verhaeghen released a series of excellent instrumental records under the name and Dirk has been doing live sets of their classic material, it’s been 20 years since the classic line-up recorded together. While we endeavor not to be tedious blowhards when it comes to what begat what in Our Thing, we’re fairly certain that whole schools of industrial wouldn’t have existed without them, the influence of The Klinik’s brand of woozy, smothering menace is apparent in everything from aggrotech to the resurrection of european coldwave. It’s actually difficult to imagine what a new record could possibly sound like considering how much work each of the band’s constituents has produced in the years since Time came out, but there’s no doubt in our minds that it could be something incredible. We’ll likely be discussing the group and their legacy in greater detail in a future post here, and rest assured we’ll be keeping our ear as close to the ground as possible for more information.
Better Live Shows
This is an age-old complaint. We can summarize pretty effectively with a quote from Eric of Everything Goes Cold: “The onus is on the musicians in this scene to make sure that the show they’re putting on is something special enough to get people to come back.” We’re not saying that everyone has to take mind.in.a.box’s approach of entirely orchestrating their catalog to suit a fully-fledged live band on stage, but there are enough acts putting on killer live performances that the “is he checking his e-mail”, two dudes and a laptop, industrial karaoke approach ain’t gonna fly. There’s no shame in being a studio project, and we understand that the road is the best way to grow your audience, but make sure that you’re giving the people who paid their money to see you something more than they could get from listening to your record at home. ‘Nuff said.
Comaduster
We met up with Edmonton’s Real Cardinal by chance through a mutual friend (love ya, Dawnie!) and quickly bonded over our shared appreciation for Daniel Myer’s work. We were bowled over by dude’s self-released tracks, and his attention to finer details has already earned him a fanbase of no small size for someone with no official releases as of yet. How many unsigned acts hailing from our neck of the woods do you know who’ve given warmly received performances at Mutek? (You think we get chin-scratchy about IDM? You ain’t seen nothin’ ’til you’ve been to Mutek.) Anyway, dude’s already in the midst of recording his official debut this year and we’re keen to toss our lot in as ground floor supporters of a young Canadian artist as talented as Real. Just listen to the unfinished demos he’s been faithfully posting in dibs and dabs on his Facebook page. This is something worth keeping your ears open for.
Comaduster – Foam Abattoir (Comaduster remix mess) by comaduster
Kinetik 5.0
We’re five beers deep into this post, and even though you’re sure to hear us wax both nostalgic and anticipatory about Canada’s (and not to mention North America’s) pre-eminent industrial festival in the months to come, we’re already loudly excited about getting to spend four days getting yelled at by Germans in Canada’s funnest city. Absolutely nothing this side of the Atlantic can hold a candle to Kinetik (as festival vets we speak from experience), and if you’re reading this, odds are you’re the sort of person who’s bound to have an ear-splitting, liver-damaging, taste-affirming good time that you’ll never forget. Hope to see you there, first Boreale’s on you.
Stromkern
Ask heads in the know who their favourite North American artists from the early 2000s, and it’s more than likely Stromkern will come up. Hell, before we could even get started writing this, we had to take a few minutes to revisit a bunch of notorious nice guy (Chris Peterson once told us he was “a paladin in the industrial scene”) Ned Kirby’s material. “Nightriders”, “Perfect Sunrise”, “Heretic”, take your pick: dude’s staccato, rap influenced vocal delivery and lean, anthemic songs carved him a niche in the waning US scene of the era. He had a track on a Dependent comp last year, but has otherwise been pretty silent since the release of 2004’s WTII release Light It Up, and it’s certainly been our loss. We liked the rockish feel on “Sub-Librarian“, and would be happy with a whole album of it. To be honest, at least half the senior staff would buy an album of Ned doing bouzouki music, so long as he’s doing something. We’re waiting patiently for this one.
More Legit Goth Rock Records
Guess which senior staffer added this to the list? Okay, we get it: the long-forestalled Sisters record ain’t ever gonna happen, the Mish ain’t what they used to be, and proper goth rock’s profile in North America is pretty damn low. That said, if we can have resurgences of minimal wave, acid house, roots EBM, and coldwave (of both the European and American varieties), then surely it isn’t too much to ask to hear some new proper trad goth. Recent records from Pretentious, Moi?, Nosferatu, and The House Of Usher were all great, but there are only so many times we can listen to our Rosetta Stone albums while going for evening constitutionals in stormy weather, and it’d be awesome to hear at least a few younger bands picking up the mantle. Sure, there’s no money in the goth rock game nowadays, but the hair and music can’t be beat. (Know a young, up-and-coming band who use crimpers and pentatonic scales? Throw Bruce a bone!)
What records are you looking forward to? What trends would you like to see continue or die a swift yet painful death? Holler at us in the comments.
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Attrition
Dark Digital
Future Perfect – Escape
YURA YURA
Bitcrush
VCMG
DIN [A] TOD
Is the Din [A] Tod confirmed? That’d be sweet.
Are there new bands involved in the “resurrection of European coldwave”, or are you referring to the recent reactivation of old school acts like the Klinik and Vomito Negro? I am genuinely curious.
There are loads of new bands who are heavily influenced by original European coldwave and minimal wave. Check Die Selektion, Lebanon Hanover, Frank Alpine, Violent Tremors… I came across a solid list of good new coldwave records from last year; will post if I can find it again.
I’d just like to point out that in terms of goth rock, Mr Porl King, he of the aforementioned Rosetta Stone, has a project known as Miserylab. (http://www.miserylab.com)
He released two albums in 2011, one of which, Void of Life, was my personal choice for album of the year, beating out iVardensphere’s Apok, and it also had my choice for single of the new era , “Last Day.” (A suggestion: bring a box of tissue.)
Yep, miserylab’s great stuff! We posted about “Fear For The Future” a month or two back. I’m really interested in the self-imposed restrictions he’s placed on the project.
The Klinik reunion is great news. I’ll definitely check that out. I also heard on a radio show recently that Don Gordon will be releasing new material as Numb.
Kinetik may be “Canada’s pre-eminent industrial festival”, but the lineups can be pretty divisive, especially the 5.0 lineup. A lot of people who are into oldschool industrial but don’t care for all of the new-school crossover dance bands don’t really bother with it. My wish for 2012 is to see some new industrial festivals in Canada that have a totally different perspective on the genre, so perhaps more oldschool/underground industrial artists will come here. The Wroclaw Industrial Festival in Poland always has good lineups of the kinds of artists I’d enjoy seeing here.
Speaking of Canadian festivals, do you guys know about the Corrosion Festival in Ottawa in July? I don’t think the whole lineup for this year as been revealed yet, but I heard Attrition might be playing.
Checked the Wroclaw festival: anything which features Clock DVA and Zoviet France is aces with us. That said, anything even a fraction of the size of Kinetik in North America is going to have to take the regional audience’s awareness of bands, new or old, into account.
Sure, there are always a few bands each year at Kinetik which I’m not that jazzed on, but there are also always a few we didn’t previously know about who blow me away, in addition to the ones I’m specifically there to see. You can’t please everybody, but I think JF does a top notch job of covering as many bases as one North American festival can.
Festivals and clubs give exposure to artists/subgenres that have high audience awareness in that region. The audience in the region is going to be most aware of whatever they’ve been exposed to at the festivals and clubs. Very cyclical, isn’t it?
I agree that festivals can’t please everybody, and I don’t think they should either. Kinetik’s scope seems to be whatever crosses over between industrial and electronic dance music, and it’s probably an awesome festival if that’s what your interests are. But for example a more organic/metallic industrial band like Militia or Sektor 304 is probably not going to fit in there, so that’s why it’d be interesting to see some completely different industrial festivals in the area too.
Oh, it’s definitely cyclical. Touring’s still one of the best ways for bands to raise their profile, etc.
Personally, I’d LOVE to see Militia tour North America. I’m not sure if the How To Destroy The Universe festival is still going, but that might be a good fit.
I was told by Mr. Kirby that there are TWO Stromkern releases on tap for 2012. I can also chime in that on the goth rock tip, LA’s Element is working on a new record (and rumors are around of a WGT performance).
New Element? Will keep my ears open for that, thanks!
A new Klinik release?
This pleases me so…
We gleefully bounced around the office in our gauze headwraps for a good hour after hearing the news.
Props for using the word “aegis.”
I’ve been urging Ned to do an album of Vietnamese pop music for about a year now. He just smiles and does that shruggy head shake thing. IT COULD STILL HAPPEN I TELL YOU.
Zoidberg: “Such a man! I’d follow him to happy hardcore and back, I would!”
Hopefully 2011 is the year that the Industrial scene does not just give up (as I think it might be coming to be sure), because it’d let us all down. All of us.
As a “mover and shaker” in the scene I have been running around trying to patch things up between bands, and one by one they seem to be deserting the scene. This makes me cry, I love industrial so much that its sad to say goodbye, I won’t tell a lie, it just hurts me.
Don’t despair. For every band that breaks up plenty more kids start mucking around with increasingly available creative tools. They won’t all be good, but they never have been. Check Matt Fanale’s rant on the subject if you want a dash of middle-finger raised hope: http://vampirefreaks.com/journal_comment.php?entry=7319864
I rather like Terrornation. Being a bit of a Doctor Who fan too, I thought it was a rather good play on Terry Nations’s name.
I’ll admit openly, I’ve never actually heard Terror Nation. No comment intended on any of the relative musical merits of those bands, we just think the naming convention is a getting a little ridiculous. 🙂
Hah, we did actually consider the sheer amount of bands with ‘Terror’ in their name when we renamed from 19ninetynine. ‘Nation’ as well for that matter! As Davros says though, it is a direct reference to Dr. Who… our singer is a big fan. It seemed right at the time 😉
Musically though, we are fairly far removed from those other bands. It wasn’t an attempt to sound ‘br00tal’ or anything like that 🙂
http://www.terrornation.co.uk
Cool, thanks for the link, we’ll check it out!
Remember Terror Against Terror? Two for the price of one!
Super excited for the First album by these guys!
BLAKOPZ
http://www.blakopz.com
Wishing for new stuff by the band that got me into this madness!
A SPLIT SECOND
Dont want to see self righteous Elitists run there ignorant mouths about my event I LOVE INDUSTRIAL i do here in Philly. But than again only 2 jerks said something on the internet.
Holy shit would I love to have some new stuff from A Split Second, hearing “Flesh” for the first time was pretty formative for me!
New Split Second? For real? Thanks for the tip, Mike!
BlakOPz Represent! 🙂
We, Vita Noctis, are having a gig together with the Klinik at the end of March in Belgium. I was wondering if Marc will be joining the band then in the live show.
http://www.beverwave.be
http://www.facebook.com/vitanoctis
Goth Rock wise I’d recommend Rhombus (from the UK). Their last CD was in 2010 but it’s a stormer and they’re going down very well in Germany. Highly recommended if you’ve not already checked them out.
I’m also looking forward to any new stuff from the Stromkern fellas.
Found Rhombus on emusic – sounds promising. Thanks!
Hey guys, Iggy from NYC After Dusk here. Not sure if you have heard of them already, but if not, I would recommend checking out Soror Dolorosa and their 2011 album Blind Scenes if you’re looking for that post-punk/goth rock sound.
Looking forward to Kinetik this year!
Just checked ’em out – sounds very Mission with (like you say) a hint of post-punk. Thanks!
there’s a bunch of great death rock acts lingering in the periphery, like alaric’s killing joke worship:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6KXBbmOJW0
or crimson scarlet, which is like a snottier skeletal family:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cF1CxGK_kgk
You’re welcome!