We Have A Technical

As voted on from a selection of early/mid-period Killing Joke LPs, we're talking about 1985's Night Time on this month's commentary podcast. We're discussing Jaz Coleman's pet lyrical themes, the role played by Paul Raven's bass playing at this juncture in the band's development, and how their maximalist, excessive tendencies at times clashed with their moves towards a more commercially marketable sound.

Prompted by the prospect of finally getting to see Ashbury Heights, we're each picking five bucket list "yet to see" acts we've always hoped to catch live, be they legacy acts or idosyncratic Euro groups which are unlikely to cross the Atlantic.

Deep scene records which perhaps bracket a certain history of dark electro are on the docket for this week, as we consider records by Controlled Fusion and vProjekt. From the dry double kicks of the German act's mid 90s workman dark electro to the Aussie solo act's attempts to find baroque paths out of the corner intro which aggrotech had painted itself, this is an episode illustrating our recurring comment about genres being cemented by lesser known acts. We're also talking about Skinny Puppy's tour thus far, catching Debby Friday live, and the just announced second iteration of Chicago's Sanctum fest.

The experience of listening to a new record by a longstanding legacy act is the subject of this week's episode of the podcast. We're looking at how we perhaps grade records by bands we love on a curve, our mistaking of subjective experience for objective fact, and our shifting allegiances to bands, genres, and eras amongst other things, plus some discussion of this year's Substance festival in LA.

We have something of a news grab-bag episode for you this week, folks, as the list of items we wanted to talk about off the top of the show just kept growing until we had to give the full hour to it. We're discussing the revealing of the Terminus Fest lineup and the Cold Waves LA showcase, the passing of the legendary Ryuchi Sakamoto, Tina Root returning to music, and the labour dispute brewing at Bandcamp.

It’s a very 90s two-fer episode of the podcast, as we look at Swamp Terrorists’ Combat Shock and Perfume Tree’s A Lifetime Away this week. 

This month's commentary podcast revisits 2015's Remain, the central work of Them Are Us Too. It's a beautiful record which ably fits into darkwave and dreampop traditions, but more importantly showcases the incredible talents and special personalities of Kennedy Ashlyn and Cash Askew. From its alternately delicate and crushing sounds to its radical demands for a peaceful existence, it was a pleasure to revisit this masterpiece. 

We try to make these landmark numbered episodes of the podcast something special, and we think we've come through on that account. This week, we're happy to be joined by bass player, Wax Trax legend, and all around thoughtful guy Paul Barker as the release of The Eternal Present, the new Lead Into Gold album, draws close. Paul spoke with us about the particular mood and sound of the new record, how his approaches to LIG and other projects have shifted over the years, and plenty of other topics both musical and philosophical. We're also talking a bit off the top about the recent Ticketmaster vs. The Cure business, and catching The Residents live.

After a week missed due to scheduling mishaps, we’re back with another instalment of our ever popular Pick Five format on this week’s podcast. This time, we’re each picking tracks from our respective 20+ year DJing careers which we just could not turn into dancefloor hits, despite our best efforts. Rather than pointing out “failures” in the songs themselves, we’re using this as an opportunity to reflect on what we’ve learned from our mistakes as DJs over the years. All that plus the announcement of the Cold Waves lineup plus some Cure chat on this week’s episode of We Have A Technical. 

Due to circumstances beyond our control, a new episode of We Have a Technical was not possible this week. In place of the planned episode (which we still hope to record), we are re-presenting episode 40, "The :Wumpscast:", our commentary on :Wumpscut:'s seminal Bunkertor 7. 

We're joined this week by two of our Patreon backers, Stuart White and Richard Gould, to talk about albums they've each chosen: Bloodline, the reunion LP from formative UK goth-punk act 1919 which found them tackling resurgent political and economic crises, and the self-titled record from France's Les Clopes, which puts a bemused indie spin on some classic French coldwave and minimal wave sounds. We're also talking recent Laibach and festival news, plus some talk about a recent Moor Mother and Saul Williams show.

As selected by our Patreon backers from the slate of the four "classic" Front Line Assembly records, 1991's Tactical Neural Implant is the subject of this month's commentary podcast. It's viewed as the high watermark for the band and arguably for electro-industrial itself for a number of reasons, and we find ourselves discussing how it and FLA overall have been shaped by grooves and constant refinement as the distinct character and mood of the band comes into crystal clear focus on TNI.

While both of the records we’re talking about are from nominal side-projects, you couldn’t get much further from one another in sound (and perhaps quality?) on the industrial spectrum than Santa Hates You’s Crucifix Powerbomb and Anima Nostra’s Atraments. We’re also talking about the cost of live shows, Laibach’s just-announced show in Kyiv, and a solid “goth for metalheads” list. 

The new LP by industrial legends Laibach is the subject of this week’s podcast. The band has perhaps never been more active, releasing a slew of soundtracks and other releases, but Sketches Of The Red Districts finds the band returning to both tWe’re also talking about the new single from (occasional labelmates of Laibach) Depeche Mode.

We're joined on the podcast this week by journalist Konstantina Buhalis, for a conversation emerging out of her recent article on the role of social media in shaping contemporary goth culture. While being a participant within our scenes, Buhalis is often writing for more mainstream readerships, and so we were keen to speak with her about the ins and outs of writing for broader publications, and trying to inform and educate neophytes about the particulars of goth. We're also addressing the staggering amount of live news to have come out in the past few days, as we look at the just announced tours from The Sisters Of Mercy, Ministry, and Skinny Puppy.

Deep scene records from the 80s and 90s make up this episode of the podcast, with the politically savvy EBM of Borghesia's No Hope No Fear and the turn of the millennium trance/coldwave experimentation of Kevorkian Death Cycle's A​+​0​(​m). We've also been playing along with the latest EBM-flavoured Electronic Beats Blind Test. 

The subject of this month's commentary podcast blends post-punk with exotica, and tranquility with brutality. Yes, we're taking a look back at Feast, the first LP from Siouxsie & The Banshees side-project The Creatures. We're talking about the record's experimental song structures, its literary and cultural influences, and its handling of the themes and music adopted from Hawaii, where Siouxsie and Budgie wrote and recorded the record in early 1983. 

Now is the winter of our discontent, as the Senior Staff are each picking five tracks which scratch a particularly misanthropic itch for them. We're also talking about the upcoming Cruel World and Fixation festivals, along with some general observations about DJing in dark(ish) clubs in 2023. 

We're joined by longtime friend of the site Rexx Arkana to discuss the release of his new 4-CD compilation, Passing Strangers. Partially a tribute to the legendary There Is No Time Comp, partially an attempt to triangulate and link all manner of industrial and related sounds from the past decades, it's an ambitious project and we were happy to discuss its aesthetic and historical goals with Rexx. We also have some brief thoughts about the passing of electronic pioneer Yukihiro Takahashi of YMO.

After last week's odd couple pairing, there's at least a spiritual link between the two solo/side project records we've chosen for this week's podcast: the sculpted technoid of Daniel Myer's S'Apex project, and the anxious looping mania of Angelo Bergamini's Uranium USSR 1972. We're also discussing the first news about this year's instalment of the Mechanismus festival in Seattle.