We Have A Technical

With some assistance from Uatu the Watcher, we're using this Pick Five-styled episode of the podcast to speculate about, er, peer into the Multiverse and perceive possible alternate histories of industrial music. What records, genres, or trends might we have lost or gained had the capriciousness of the Fates led us elsewhere? And would we still be able to argue about "real" industrial music on the Internet? It's a jam-packed, jumbo-sized edition of the podcast (along with some Coil reissue talk), so prepare to have your consciousness blown to smithereens by the infinitide of possibility on this week's We Have A Technical!

We're delivering a bit of a twist on the classic two albums format this week, with the podcast taking up both the first and the most recent LP by that pioneering and chameleonic dark electro project, X Marks The Pedwalk. 1991's Freaks and 2017's Secrets bookend André Schmechta's oeuvre (at least for now) and point to just how varied it's been. Differences between the records in ambition, aim, and sound are discussed by the Senior Staff in this episode, alongside some initial thoughts on the announcement of a new Cabaret Voltaire LP.

Back to the classic two albums format this week, the Senior Staff are discussing a pair of morbidly-minded concept records: Pain Station's Cold and Bernard Szajner's Some Deaths Take Forever. What similarities (if any) can be found between the most minimal and pared down of dark electro and the weird intersection of prog and early electronic programming? Find out, won't you?

Bruce and Alex do one of their semi-regular jaw sessions with a selection of Patreon Supporters about albums of their choosing! In this batch we discuss Winterkälte, The Echoing Green, Zebra Katz and Iszoloscope, and what the specific album selection means to the friend of the site who chose it. Lotsa chatter, all this week on We Have a Technical! 

We've said this before, but you'd be hard-pressed to explain to your Skynard-loving uncle what the two records up for discussion on this week's episode of We Have A Technical have in common. Katscan's 2005 Weapons Of Crass Dysfunction and Sad Lovers And Giants' E-Mail From Eternity are a yobbing electrogoth kiss-off and a fan-curated trove of deep cut post-punk gems, respectively, but Bruce and Alex have plenty to say about each of them. All that plus Terminus reverie and Manson reflection on this week's episode of the idieyoudie.com podcast.

The dreamy, high-camp Edwardian gothic of The Damned's Phantasmagoria is the subject of this month's podcast. What happens when one of the UK's most beloved punk acts steers itself right towards the gloomier sounds which they've always skirted? How many baby-bats experienced a sexual awakening to the "Shadow Of Love" video? Does lamping around with The Young Ones make you more like The Cramps or The Beatles? All these questions and more are taken up by the Senior Staff in this month's Patreon-supported bonus podcast!

In an age in which music is digital and albums are increasingly ephemeral, surely record art doesn't matter anymore, right? Dead frigging wrong. The Senior Staff discuss the changing role and value of album art in the digital age on this week's episode of the podcast, tracking how artists and labels continue to tap into symbolic codes and create their own micro-scenes via visual aesthetics.

It's a cosmic dyad of a podcast episode this week, as the Senior Staff go space trucking with Kangarot and Negative Format for their respective Nursery Of New Stars and Distant Pulses LPs. Both records address space as a theme, but as is discussed the execution of Kangarot's lo-fi kosmische electro-industrial and Negative Format's smooth combo of trance and breaks are quite distinct. All that plus live stream reviews (and the Senior Staff's reactions to dill pickle beers and Japanese wrestling shockers) on the latest episode of We Have A Technical!

We're joined by renaissance woman Andi Harriman to talk about DJing during quarantine and her new EP for aufnahme + wiedergabe, Corpse To Corpus. How do you heat the floor when it's spread across multiple time zones? What might a more feminine approach to EBM sound like? And do real goths love freestyle? All of these questions and so many more are discussed on the latest episode of We Have A Technical.

As an incidental observation of Canada Day, the Senior Staff are selecting a pair of albums from above the 49th to discuss: Volt 9000's Mutronix and Decree's Fateless. Representing some of the lesser celebrated sides of Canuckistan industrial, we have Cory Gorski's satirical journey through bio-punk dystopias and Chris Peterson & co.'s absolutely churning and punishing demonstration of fully textured noise rock. Plus discussion of recent streams from Mr.Kitty and Harsh R! All that and some other grabassery on the latest episode of We Have A Technical!

The absolute stone classic that is Leaether Strip's Solitary Confinement is given the commentary treatment in this month's installment of the Patreon-back We Have A Commentary series. The sound of 90s dark electro was established with this LP, but there's so much more to love and discuss about Claus Larsen's exploration of spiritual and psychological alienation and the horrors of war. The Senior Staff consider the record's lasting influence, its themes, and its undeniable charm and intensity.

It's turned into an accidentally synthpunk-themed week here at I Die: You Die, and in keeping with that we're looking at two albums proximal to the sounds we normally discuss on the podcast, but that made inroads into goth/industrial club play in the early '00s: The Faint's Danse Macabre and The Vanishing's Still Lifes Are Failing. All that plus catch-up on the third Telekompilation release and some news about a new book detailing the history of LA deathrock on this week's episode of We Have A Technical!

With the 'teens in the rearview, the Senior Staff are reflecting on the club tracks which defined the past decade. We're each picking five great club tracks from 2011-2020. Not our faves or personal go-tos, mind you, but the nigh-ubiquitous tracks that shaped the last ten years of life in dark clubs. In addition, we're introducing the third volume of our Telekompilation series of releases featuring tracks by members of our Slack community, which will be available tomorrow on Bandcamp to coincide with Bandcamp's NAACP fundraiser

Bruce and Alex are talking about records by Light Asylum and The Final Cut on this week's episode of the podcast. Topics include Shannon Funchess' ability to move between countless moods and genres and the pioneering techno-industrial programming of Jeff Mills. All that plus some continuing discussion of Black artists within Our Thing in light of ongoing events, on the latest edition of We Have A Technical!

We're taking a break from our usual episode formats to speak with Danesha Artis of Standard Issue Citizen and Jairus Khan of Ad·ver·sary and Antigen Shift. We wanted to hear their thoughts on race and anti-racist work as it relates to industrial culture and music at this particular point in history, and thank them for joining us on short notice to speak on what can be difficult and painful topics.

For this month's Patreon-backed commentary podcast, the Senior Staff are looking 2015's Night Maze. Glass Apple Bonzai's sophomore record simultaneously demonstrates Daniel Belasco's talents for precise and minimal synthpop arrangements and melodies and his ability to flesh out and enlarge the scope of his music with his vocal talents. Add in a well-executed theme throughout the record and you have a modern Canadian synthpop classic.

Long-time pal and frequent guest Brian Graupner is dropping by ID:UD HQ this week...although he's not here to talk about The Gothsicles. Nope, the man behind the scene's premiere industrial comedy act has a lot of other irons in the fire, including his Gasoline Invertebrate project, the eerily prescient Space Couch streaming show, and his label endeavours via Tigersquawk Records. We're talking about all of those projects along with all of the horseplay and grab-assery which occurs whenever we're hanging with Graups, plus the past weekend's Terminus Isolation streams on this week's episode of We Have A Technical.

A new record by Einsturzende Neubauten is always cause for celebration and discussion, and so the Senior Staff are using this week's podcast to examine "Alles In Allem". A record that's approachable even by the standards of contemporary Neubauten releases, it has its pros and cons but ultimately reminds us of why the German godfathers of industrial remain so compelling to us.

There's very little that binds the two albums we're discussing on the latest podcast. The downtempo dark ambient slash rhythmic industrial of Tzolk'in's "Haab" and Cure-indebted post-punk act Veil Veil Vanish's sole LP "Change In The Neon Light" have likely never been mentioned in the same breath, but the Senior Staff are noting some of the subtle shading that comes with deep genre work in both records. All that plus some discussion of recent drama related to a certain German synthpop band on this week's episode of We Have A Technical.

Few acts have been as aesthetically or technologically prepared for the weird new era of streaming concerts as Panther Modern. After an incredibly immersive and groundbreaking livestream performance, we got on the line with Brady of Panther Modern to discuss the future of altered reality performances, the project's roots in cyberpunk, and how to make a virtue of virtuality.