But it is “Wet Abyss” that introduces an aggressive, monumental EBM-fueled riot: the track traverses over its pounding kick and sharp percussive elements. Made solely for the dance floor, “Wet Abyss” will surely be a DJ’s secret weapon during peak club hours. Extase Urbaine’s final track, “Hide in the Light,” returns to the chugging groove of “Sacred Winds” with its steady pace and sinewy bass. The Alpha Sect remix of “Hide in the Light” speeds up the track and injects a ferocity that the Greek producer is becoming known for.

With the energy of the 1980s new beat genre but the EBM-infused production style of Soft Crash, Velvet May and Nasdrowie, Extase Urbaine’s EP is dark dance perfection. Listen to Sacred Winds below:

Buy it here.

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Ye Gods, the alias of prolific producer and composer Antoni Maiovvi, is a study in the subtle complexities of dark sound design alongside conceptual themes of the occult. With his new album on L.I.E.S. Records titled No Albion, the artist embraces aspects of visceral horror—a soundtrack to the deep, vast abyss—by way of minimalism and slow modulations.

No Albion focuses on the pursuit of serpentine modulations and tenuous phrasings—and the single, “Total Eclipse,” is just that. Much in the vein of industrialist greats, Coil, the track paces itself as it swells and undulates. The slow-building tension boils to the brim before it dissipates and concludes with a mysterious spoken word statement. The listener is left to wonder what spirits have been roused from their sleep.

And just like the track itself, the music video mirrors the steadiness of “Total Eclipse” as it depicts Maiovvi walking down an empty corridor towards an unseen something—or someone. Masked and stoic, the artist in his priest-like robe recalls a ceremonial ritual that’s about to unfold.

Watch below:

Buy No Albion here. Follow Antoni Maiovvi on IG.

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“Curating Next Wave Acid Punx DEUX was a big puzzle,” explains Curses. “Figuring out how to fit all these tracks across 6 different 12″s required a lot of calculations and, to be quite frank, I was never that great at maths. Unfortunately, this meant we had to cut some real heaters off of DEUX. But Eskimo and I decided that we couldn’t let these gems go to dust. I’ve been DJing them loads in my sets, so it was only fair to share them with y’all to DJ and rage to yourselves. So, here it is… the final blast of bonus tracks for Next Wave Acid Punx DEUX: Secret Cuts.”

Secret Cuts is jammed with names both familar and new: the revivalist EBM of Chrome Corps, Ghost Cop‘s sultry horror disco, and the spindly industrial beats of Notausgang are all primed for the DJ’s secret weapon folder. Out on February 7th, the entire release will be available via Bandcamp but, for now, three tracks are available.

Nuovo Testamento – “In My Dreams (Powerhouse Mix)” is an Italo-house stomper. Complete with lead piano, the remix is pure energy.

Unconscious feat. Carnuntum – “Carnivora (LivEvil Version)” seethes in the refined EBM the Italian artist, Unconscious, is known for with a rumbling bassline and mysterious vocals by Carnuntum.

Curses – “The Deep End (Redux)” is a Carpenter-esque gem that would fit nicely with the theme to Christine. Its disco-inspired beat carries the somber guitar and haunting synth pads as they swell and disseminate.

Pre-order here.

The post Curses Announces a Secret Stash of Dance Floor Heaters with “Next Wave Acid Punx DEUX – Secret Cuts” LP Including a Nuovo Testamento Remix appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

The song, “Violets of Your Neck,” would fit as a soundtrack to Beau Brummell’s most melancholic moments, during a reflective stroll through the garden in his most fashionable mourning attire. “‘Violets of Your Neck’ is an obsessive ballad for a love that produces the Fountain of Youth, leaving you as immortal as the violets in her perfume,” says Page of the song.

With a Ferry-esqe dandyism mingled with Mick Karn’s iconic bass work, the song is delicate and sleek: post-punk at its most glam. Part New Romantic, part Gary Numan’s blue era, The Victoriana is the antidote to the doldrum darkwave of today. Listen below:

The 7″ single of “Violets of Your Neck” is available via Dream Recordings.

Follow The Victoriana and Dream Recordings on IG.

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As the villainized child of Orgy and Nine Inch Nails, GHOSTS IN THE MACHIИE nails the specific elements of 1990s drum & bass breaks, glitchy industrial beats and nu metal vocals, but this time around, the songs are governed by the intelligence of AI. We spoke with Baha about the project’s origins and songwriting processes, as well as the first live performance this winter.

How did you get the idea for GHOSTS IN THE MACHIИE? 

It came to me in a morning journaling session about 3 years ago during covid but I sat on the name / idea for a while, although, It was always haunting me from the back of my mind to explore it further. It wasn’t until I started getting more interested in the increasingly alarming developments of AI last year and realised it actually embodied the new pieces of music I was writing and felt like the soundtrack to what I was discovering via AI. Being heavily influenced by wanting to develop futuristic sounds and delve into clashing genres, a soundtrack warning sign of the future.

I realised it was an apt vessel for the music which was already veering into a hyper-punk, cyber wave-drum&bass direction. I then workshopped the concept further in my journal writing sessions, basically writing a developed story line to what I think the album would hopefully sound like.

The story of GHOSTS IN THE MACHIИE unfolds as a sci-fi cyberpunk concept project inhabiting dual timelines. In one, we glimpse a trans-humanist future where human consciousness exists as intricate sequences of binary code, entwined and controlled by omnipresent AI systems. In this coded future, a profound awakening stirs among a select few who manage to mutate the code they were governed by, unlocking memories of their history that was erased by the AI. Through this discovery they realise they can traverse temporal boundaries, and utilise this power to send warning messages back in time to their former fully-human selves. These eerie missives carry a dire warning for humanity, urging them to rectify the course of society before the relentless march of artificial intelligence deprives humanity of its essence. In this terrifying future, humans are rendered mere spectre’s within the digital expanse, stripped of their souls, to become Ghosts In The Machine. The cyber odyssey unfolds from my own perspective, my own future self (a future ghost): a spectral entity endeavouring to caution its present incarnation against the ominous path it treads, attempting to avert a dystopian future.

In what ways do you approach the project differently from your solo work? What type of sound did you aim for when writing the album?

I approached this album with the core theme in mind, AI Apocalypse. With it being a concept album it was easy for me to collate some songs I already had kicking about and then start a lot of newer ones. Once the story was formed and before I wrote any new songs for the album I made a few presets, collected drum samples and made a blueprint for some sonic limitations &  parameters to follow to allow myself to ascertain the sound of what I think the project/ album was to embody when I wrote the storyline. Even though the album travels to different musical places, I tried to use the same sounds throughout to thread the needle. The Ghosts project is veering into contemporary industrial/ hyper pop, cyberpunk, drum and bass, j/breakcore and psychotic ear candy sonic realms, leaving a bit of the classic EBM sound for my solo project so I can fully explore these sonic realms without past expectations.

I also went back to traditional songwriting , writing rapid fire sketches daily, to a 10 minute clock. Where-as previously for all my previous solo Kris Baha work, I would jam with my machines running live and multitrack everything then comp the best bits that I recorded, printing effects and anything else that I could commit on the way in. There are a few songs on the record which do sound like it could be a Kris Baha song but I left those there as the album is a collaboration with my future / past self, so it would make sense that there would naturally be some of those remnants transitioning over. In my mind, this was the most apt way of expressing the music with the themes and creating a coherent story instead of it being, ’new project new sound’. Moving forward I will release more music under Ghosts and Kris Baha separately.

Were you influenced by any literature or movies to build the GHOSTS IN THE MACHIИE aesthetic? 

I was heavily influenced by William S Gibsons Neuromancer & Burning Chrome, Masamunue Shirow’s Ghost In The Shell (Even though a Comic) and playing a heavy dose of Cyberpunk 2077 through out last year given the patch was updated and it was unplayable in 2020 when I first got it. Heavy doses of Neon Genesis Evangelion also played a part.

I went to Tokyo earlier this year and spent 2 weeks to finish this record and started writing bits for the next before my Asia tour started. I felt like I needed to be there to fully immerse myself in the cyberpunk hyper-madness of Kabukicho even more. I was also listening to a lot of The Prodigy and Nine Inch Nails Year Zero which I am sure comes through loud and clear.

Can you talk a bit about your “Flesh & Code” music video? The process and inspiration? 

The concept of the song is about being trapped in a world that’s governed by code jacked in via trans-humanist machine interfaces automated by AI systems. Our flesh and code trapped in networks that encrypt our ghosts. The merging of our consciousness within the digital realm. The majority of our minds remain as streams of 0’s and 1’s aligned with AI systems rather than the other way around. The coded realm now exists within them, dividing and destroying their physical and digital self although an awakening has occurred for some. There is a haunting presence of another realm, hinting at a past where humans had autonomy and control over themselves. Metaphorically, the track represents the desire to break free from societal constructs, experiencing alienation, doubts and glitches that plague one’s existence. It conveys a sense of not belonging and the search for a place where one truly belongs.

Sonically, the song traverses the cyber waves of the net experiencing glitched out swells of drum and bass, dreamy vocals that morph to screams in pain, in code, in the industrial hyper punk madness of the cyber ether. I wanted to create a video that blurred the lines of what is perceivably real and AI. The video was incredibly DIY as 80% of the video was shot on an iPhone 13pro by Duran Levinson and the rest while I was in Tokyo by Anthony Rilo where we just walked around Tokyo without getting caught as you technically need a permit to film. I then heavily edited the video in Davinci + used various AI GLM’s like Stable Diffusion, Kaiber and Runway GEN2 for all the animations that take place.

What can we expect from the GHOSTS IN THE MACHIИE live show? How will it differ from a Kris Baha show? 

The live show consists of projections, mapped and re-contextualised for real- time performance by CINEMA (Berlin, via Dallas, Texas) and incorporates AI- generated 3D Animations made for the album. The result is then further processed live through a series of modified broadcast equipment and contemporary modular video synthesisers. In total, negative space between the performance and visuals takes hold on 2 meshed screens angling at 45 degrees, creating a physical degree of separation between the audience and myself – becoming ever more trapped as a Ghost In The Machine. The first show will be premiered at Ombra Festival this year.

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The post My Own Future Self (A Future Ghost): An Interview with GHOSTS IN THE MACHIИE appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

Freedom of the night lives in us
The freedom of the night is within us
Freedom of the night lives in us
Freedom

The Serbian-born, New York City-based artist, Facets (who also runs Samo Records), just released his Breakable EP on the underground label, Optimo Music. Facets’ productions often blend genres between new beat, EBM and 80s dance with defiant club-ready kicks alongside memorable grooves—and Breakable is no different. There’s hints of off-kilter mutant disco, akin to Mick Wills‘ or Alessandro Adriani‘s most distorted beats, alongside tough arpeggiated basslines.

Optimo’s boss, JD Twitch, writes: “EBM has become a much abused term in recent times but here are some tracks exploring that EBM DNA where the creator 100% knows that history and what they are doing. Taking that knowledge and bringing that sound right up to date.”

“Noć,” Breakable‘s lead track, holds a sensual mystique with ghostly vocals from Marija Kovacević and lyrics by Jesus Martinez. Her Serbo-Croatian-speaking voice is haunting overtop the track’s piercing, sinewy bassline that’s set to a stern dance tempo. Embodying the charisma of Krishna Goineau (Liaisons Dangereuses) or the sexiness of Chris & Cosey, “Noć” clutches onto the romance of the night and the possibilities it can bring.

Listen below:

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The song “is a desperately ambivalent plea for self-improvement, pictured as a wicked garden watered by our darker aspects, overgrown and paradoxically attractive or repellent,” says Page. And those “darker aspects” are deeply felt in “(These) Sickly Flowers”—swimming in unfulfilment and longing, the song would fit alongside the likes of  4AD’s classic catalog, The Cult‘s more sultry work or Gene Love’s Jezebel‘s most epic.

Listen below:

“(These) Sickly Flowers” is the a-side to The Victoriana’s new 7″ vinyl release out via Dream Recordings today. The release is a follow up to the 2018 LP, Fleetingly, But Completely—a Sylvian-esque, dazzling take on new post-punk music.

Buy the 7″ here.

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As an homage to their early influences such as The Cure, Nine Inch Nails, Placebo and Interpol, the duo of 5imulator reassemble goth and synthpop styles into their own unique concoction with the announcement of their first single, “iLie.” Leo Luganskiy (FOiRMODA, Stranglelove: Depeche Mode Tribute) and Franko Carino’s collaboration revels in a silky, sensual darkness—”iLie” is an immaculately produced tale of lust and deception.

Luganskiy’s distinct baritone vocals grip and tantalize as he sings about the throes of desire and risky clandestine activities… two things that often go hand in hand. “I’ve overdosed on you and that’s a price I pay for not resisting,” he admits. “I should have walked away.” As most of us have at one time or another, he gives into temptation—if only for a moment—and becomes drawn to the danger of the situation. He’s now a slave to a forbidden love, caught in the mangled web he’s created for himself.

The song holds a chilliness that is reminiscent of Chino Moreno’s vocal output with The Deftones, but also blends a sultry melancholy that reflects 2000s-era Depeche Mode with dance-oriented electronics. However, its sound reflects contemporary artists such as Vandal Moon or Vowws with its gloomy sensibilities and colossal chorus that is not only catchy, but addicting. 5imulator adds to the darker side of dance with a sincerity few have achieved.

Listen to a clip of “iLie” below before its Halloween release on October 31st.

Follow 5imulator and Leo Luganskiy on IG for updates.

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The succulence of Secret Attraction is one few current post-punk artists can achieve: bright (but never too), danceable and sorrowful—all at once. It seems the project’s mastermind, Derek Wise, understands the precarious balance of his music, so well that the lead single off of LP3 is aptly titled “Melancholy.” The song “is about realizing you both share the same feelings for each other but unsure of what happens next. Afraid of falling in love… needing time to understand it all,” Wise explains about the single.

“Melancholy”‘s jangly guitars nestle into the fast-paced drum machine’s beat as it canters around Wise’s heavily reverberated vocals—an effect that creates a hazy, dreamlike ambience. Reminiscent of cloudy days and the moments of purity after the rain, “Melancholy” is a strong indicator of Secret Attraction’s forthcoming album out on September 29th. Shoegazey—but, again, never too—Secret Attraction cast their mesmerizing spell all over again.

Listen to “Melancholy” below:

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“Rococo”‘s music video is a kaleidoscope of cotton candy neon flavors that Valuskaya art-directed and produced herself. Watch the artist run through shadowy halls and dance admidst the foggy spotlight below:

The Rococo EP will include ten remixes made by electronic producers such as Alen Skanner, St. Theodore, DJ Wedding, Skelesys, and others at the end of September.

Follow Velvet Velour on IG. Stream Rococo here.

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