I’m not gonna lie, I think this might be the strongest week for new tunes of the year so far, at least within the confines of this blog. As much as I love writing about records in long form, it’s these weekly Tracks postings that I often get the most satisfaction from. Part of that is purely in the enjoyment I get digging through my various feeds searching songs from artists familiar and not, it appeals to my nerdy and obsessive tendencies and channels what some might say is an unhealthy fixation into something I can frame as “productive”. Another part of it is that it’s one of the few times weekly I’m not listening exclusively to one specific recent album so I can write it up later, which means I can just sort of enjoy some songs with no intellectual strings attached. It’s the small things, friends. Enjoy!

3 Teeth, “Pearls 2 Swine”
An absolutely stunning cut from Los Angeles’ 3 Teeth, a collab between producers BITES and H3X3N with singer Alexis Van Ess Mincolla. Describing it is a little difficult, as much as it falls into the clean tightly sequenced electro-industrial of it’s component artists, there’s a nasty turn involving some processed guitar midway through that brings things to a tense and gritty boil. You can nab this one for free from Soundcloud, rumour has it more songs will be following in short order. Yet another in the seemingly endless list of reasons that LA is the city to watch for industrial right now.

XP8, “Information”
We’ve been rocking the new album Adrenachrome from the now entirely London based XP8 for a minute now, and it’s good. Real good. Expect our review shortly, but in the meantime you can enjoy this speedy cut, another recent number to emerge from Our Thing that openly references the sounds of dubstep while not being entirely beholden to them.

Covenant, “Last Dance”
Wasn’t entirely sure what to expect from a new Covenant album. While their stately vibe has remained pretty consistent since Sequencer, recent albums have found them in spacier mood than their classic 90s output, still good and quite enjoyable, but less immediate to my ears. This new single is pointing to interesting things though, channeling some of the minimalism of Europa in the arrangement (and in Eskil’s vocal delivery), bringing to mind classic numbers like “Go Film”. Perhaps the exit of Daniel Myer and an increased level of creative input from live member Daniel Jonasson of Dupont has shaken things up somewhat, this is as tense and vital as they’ve sounded in years.
Edit: Looks like the vid of the song we had embedded has been removed, so here’s a live version to replace it.

Mr. Kitty, “Heaven”
Another fabulously dark and sparkly gem from Dallas’ Mr. Kitty, a precursor to the forthcoming album on Engraved Ritual. As I’ve mentioned before people mention Mr. K to us pretty constantly, for an artist who has been self-releasing up ’til this point and with little to no club play his pleasingly modern take on synthpop that straddles the approaches of indie darlings like TRUST and genre stalwarts like OMD alike. If you’re wondering what all the fuss has been about, this should provide a solid answer.

ESA, “Breathing Through You”
A little over a year after the release of Lust, Jamie Blacker continues his “Themes of Carnal Empowerment” series, with Deceit dropping next week. It was impressive to see how Blacker was able to weave the record’s concept through the instrumental and vocal compositions alike, and I’m keen to hear how he’ll do the same with a new variation on the theme. In the meantime, dig this slice of what’s in store.