Under the influence of Robert Smith, Butch Vig, Jimmy Page, Trent Reznor and Brian Eno, the Toronto-based alt-electronica artist and musician R1OT released his debut EP, DIGITAL R1OT, in 2015 to introduce his glitchy industrial big beats to the airwaves. Any fans of Skinny Puppy will want to delve right into the entrancingly melodic standout single, Intermission.
Intermission hits midway through the EP to indulge you in a histrionically progressive rave track that keeps your rhythmic pulses captivated throughout the entire 5-minute duration. The preceding and subsequent tracks are slightly more caustic, but if you find yourself inclined to seek out the filthiest electronic basslines, you won’t be disappointed.
Intermission is now available to stream and download on Bandcamp.
The Deaf Institute became a welcome sanctum away from the culture-blind chaos that spilt from most venues on bank holiday Saturday in Manchester with the sublimely curated line-up featuring The Last Clouds, Woman You Stole and Mercury Machine.
The Last Clouds kicked off proceedings with their confessional lyrics, imploring vocals and dark indie electronica stylings that will be familiar with any fans of Covenant, VNV Nation and Apoptygma Berzerk. If any artist can prove there is an intrinsic beauty in vulnerability, it is the Last Clouds. Their recently released single, How to Get Up From This, was all it took to allow my curiosity to transpire into fanatic adoration. The theatrical atmosphere of the single wouldn’t be out of place on the end credits of an apocalyptic blockbuster. Yet, it was the heart-wrenching lyrics, “I tried to speak but it is hard because nobody cares/ I’ll tear the books from my shelf just to lie in the words of somebody else”, that cemented a place on my radar for the criminally underrated act.
If anything can spice up a line-up, it is the je ne sais quoi of Woman You Stole. They set themselves apart by an avant-garde mile with their lively debonair set that easily commanded the crowd into feeling what was orchestrating between them – even if it was fascinatingly unpredictable from one progression to the next.
Their capriciously experimental style is arresting on record, seeing it first-hand is something else entirely. Describing Woman You Stole as entrancing may sound hyperbolic but their sophisticated originality that emanates from their authenticity and mind-blowing talent, rather than through diehard determination to find obscurity, is something everyone should make an effort to witness at least once.
It almost seems needless to rave about Mercury Machine; the band that falls outside of the Manchester post-punk assimilative trap and find themselves in far darker territory, one that made me pretty nostalgic about the soundtrack to Cradle of Fear. The Manchester-based dark indie electronica five piece’s set instantly made it obvious why most of the room were sporting their t-shirts and why why so much hype has amassed around them since the release of their critically-acclaimed debut album in 2019.
Their lyrics are too efficacious in allowing you to explore the fucked up avenues of the human psyche while the pace of frenetic rhythms allow you to find euphoria through defiantly dancing to depictions of our mental precariousness. I couldn’t have asked for a better hit of post-lockdown catharsis.
Bands should always be judged by how much they move you emotionally and how much they can make you move; as Mercury Machine got the first post-lockdown dance from me, I can’t give them much higher praise than that.
Their inhibition-stripping histrionic sound still finds space, occasionally, for Marr-style guitars that add even more energy to their caustic industrial sound could fill stadiums. If goths felt more inclined to leave their bedrooms, that is.
Youngstown Ohio’s prodigal sons of industrial metal, Heck Vektor, have released their scathing new single, Superspreader. With the energy of garage punk, the harsh electronica stylings of Powerman 5000 and vocals that switch from Alec Empire-level slick to caustic and confrontational, it is impossible not to be drawn in by this tumultuous amalgamation of alt electronica and rock.
Even though I hit play on the covid-related track with hesitancy, the glitchy basslines, nefarious charisma and unpredictable breakdowns quickly replaced the cynicism with admiration. We can’t wait to hear what follows.
UK-based singer-songwriter Matt Black tapped into the collective sense of listlessness and despair with his scathing industrial rock debut single, Are You Afraid of the Dark.
The lyric-less soundscape uses samples of doom-mongering news broadcasts, featuring our seemingly dim, realistically catastrophic prime minister who seems determined to blather the country to ruin around heavy scuzzy metal guitars and percussion that could only be described as apocalyptic.
With a similar sonic palette to Machine Head’s Bloodstone and Diamonds and Disturbed’s Down with the Sickness, we’re sure plenty of the industrial rock and metal community will welcome his cathartically foreboding presence on the airwaves with open arms.
TUNNL19 has been making major waves in the alt-rock scene in Puerto Rico since 2013. Originally, they performed in cover bands, their latest single, ‘Voices’, proves they have just as much talent as the artists they were covering.
It’s a bitter pill that many artists have to swallow that ‘good’ instrumentalists don’t necessarily make great songwriters; the hooks and fervent energy in Voices affirm that was never going to be an issue for TUNNL19.
After a fuzzy synthesised intro, the electronic alt-grunge track starts to unfold with scuzzy, Rob Zombie-reminiscent-guitars, high-energy grunge vocals and industrial beats that come with an alt-90’s-style-psychedelic kick. They even managed to find room for some post-punk sensibilities in the low reverberant basslines that won’t fail to pull you into the heart of this fiery feat of refreshing alt-rock.
Voices officially released on July 2nd; you can check it out for yourselves by heading over to SoundCloud.
The Urban Sombreros have put a baroquely theatrical twist on industrial electronica with their latest single, BAD (Michael Jackson). As Marilyn Manson falls, The Urban Sombreros rise.
The coarse and distorted vocals, beatboxing, bluesy angular guitar riffs and trance-style interludes ensure that you’ve never heard a feat of electronica quite like this before – no matter how obscure your playlists are. It’s manic, but The Urban Sombreros’ playfully charismatic mania is one that you’ll easily get on board with.
The Cambridge, UK-residing artist is easily one of the most experimentally bold, infectiously addictive artists we have heard this year. We can’t wait to hear how they’ll follow on from BAD.
BAD released on June 9th; you can check it out for yourselves by heading over to YouTube.
South Florida’s most avant-garde art-rock artist 12 Below is back with his sophomore single, Jetsam, which pulls together as a dark and discordant mash of industrial, darkwave synth-pop and post-punk.
With an intro that shares reminiscence to Manchester post-punk outfit The Chameleons before the soundscape switches into a phantasmal feat of electro-rock that any fans of Dir En Grey or Celldweller will be familiar with, you’ll be hooked from the first haunted note to the last.
The ethereally ambient soundscape was constructed with effect-loaded guitars and glassy keys in downtempo progressions, for the visceral kick, 12 Below loaded caustic drums and a heavy serving of bass. I can’t tell you how refreshing it is to hear an artist similar to NIN, who also makes the dark electro sound their own.
Leaving aside the obvious mentioning that dolls sometimes DO cry – Tiny Tears, anyone? – DOLLSDONTCRY, from Lucedale, Mississippi, via Alaska, has created a nightmarish soundscape of grinding, driving instrumentalism in the vein of early Nine Inch Nails, Ministry, or Revco music. Think a little ‘Pretty Hate Machine’, ‘Psalm 69’, or ‘Linger Ficken Good’, without vocals, and you’ve a pretty good idea of what’s on offer here. Opening with some heavily distorted bass riffing, it’s a landscape of bleeps, machine-press crashes, sampled roars, and rising sequenced keyboard parts.
It’s always difficult for young artists to make their voices heard effectively with instrumental work, but this is an excellent track, a harsh, metallic, post-Terminator world of sound, evocative and stimulating, with a definite voice.
With their latest release, songwriter, session guitarist and electronic producer, Paul Edward Yu, proved himself to be in the tragically small minority of artists with the ability to squeeze emotion from electronic sequencing alone.
Their 2020 album, ‘the shape of sound’, is home to a plethora of electrifyingly evocative instrumental tracks, but the perfect introduction to the Boston MA-based artist’s psychedelic stance on electronica is the single, ‘T Montana’.
It’s a progressive minefield of aural curveballs, the cold ambience the prelude serves is soon stripped-back and replaced with harsh cinematically caustic industrial elements contrasted by strikingly bright tonal textures. But discernibly, Paul Edward Yu saved the best for last. After the dub-laden tremulous breakdowns, the guitars tear through to the front of the mix in a way not easily forgotten.
T Montana is available to stream and download via Bandcamp or you can check it out via SoundCloud.
Canadian artist and producer JJ Mickey has dropped their most mesmerising release to date, Razor Elegant. From carnivalesque kaleidoscopic whirlwinds to build-ups which will leave you tense with anticipation, you can expect all of that and more.
The excitement I usually reserve for bands such as Nekrogoblikon started to manifest as soon as Razor Elegant hit it’s momentously entrancing peak. With the artist’s proclivity to play around with 8-bit and 16-bit Chiptune along with their affinity for Trance, Industrial and Classical, JJ Mickey delivered an insanely (quite literally) immersive drop with Razor Elegant.
If you have a penchant for experimental producers, you’ll definitely want JJ Mickey on your radar.
You can check out the adrenalizing mix for yourselves by heading over to SoundCloud.
