We Have A Technical

The passing of legendary Nitzer Ebb frontman Douglas J. McCarthy is the only thing we could talk about on this week's podcast. Forgive us if this episode is a bit more scattered than usual; news of McCarthy's passing came out less than an hour before our recording, but we wanted to at least get some of our thoughts about his work and legacy out, as well as personal remembrances. 

On this week's episode of We Have a Technical, Alex is joined by Chris Hewitt of Terminus Festival to discuss the history of our favourite annual gathering of bands and fans of Our Thing, as well as the logistics of putting on a big event, the finer points of arranging a line-up, and what acts we're most excited for in this year's fest! It's a great convo with a long time friend of the site, and one that has us excited to pack our bags for Calgary seven weeks out! 

This month's We Have a Commentary takes on a special form as Alex welcomes Jason Pettigrew to the podcast, where the longtime Ministry chronicler fills us in on his new 33 1/3 on Ministry's immortal industrial classic The Land of Rape and Honey. Join us as the former Alt. Press Editor in Chief and alternative music writer extraordinaire outlines how the book came together, who he spoke to (and he didn't) and his personal feelings on the legacy of one of Al Jourgensen and Paul Barker's most enduring contributions to our shared musical history. 

On this week's episode of the official I Die: You Die podcast, we welcome Barrett and Panther from Bootblacks, who gave us the skinny on their excellent forthcoming LP Paradise on a windy but very scenic day in Vancouver a few weeks back. Details on their recent lineup changes, the genesis of the record and their goals in making it, as well as their philosophy on performance and what they want to get across on stage and on record are all touched on during what we think was an insightful and entertaining chat. Also, Alex gives his scorching hot review of the Ministry show he attended this week (it was good).

On this week's episode, we're taking some time to talk with Canadian synthpop legend Darrin Huss of Psyche, in an interview recorded a few hours before his set at Veboden festival here in Vancouver just a few short weeks ago. It's a wide-ranging discussion of the band's origins, legacy, Darrin's own relationship with his catalogue, Psyche's fans, and how he approaches addressing the different generations that come to see them in how he performs live.

With Bruce off to the highlands and Alex recovering under a pile of coats in a hall closet somewhere, this week's episode is a hastily recorded recap of this year's Verboden Festival from right here in Vancouver. You can hear the strain in the quality of our voices at the time of this recording, as we did plenty of chatting with artists, attendees and assorted friends and well-wishers while taking in an excellent lineup of artists across two venues, representing for the past, present and future of darkwave, EBM, industrial and several related genres.

We're talking about records by electronic pioneers who need little introduction in Gary Numan and Uwe Schmidt's Lassigue Bendthaus, but while the latter's Matter is an undisputed, hugely influential masterpiece, Numan's Berserker has a more mixed legacy, hinting at the rough sledding ahead. We're also chatting loads of festival news (real and hypothetical) on this week's episode.

We love two things here at ID:UD - dark music festivals, and arbitrary competition. We're combining those two passions with a mock draft of our own non-existent music fests, drawing from the line-ups of a handful of this year's real-world parties. Which of our two line-ups seems the most tempting to you? Let us know here or on socials, or give us your own line-up from the same pool.

A landmark for minimal, aggressive EBM for decades to come, the debut LP from Swedish legends Pouppée Fabrikk is the subject of this month's commentary podcast. A deceptively varied listen, Rage infused EBM with a unique punk ethos, and as we discuss here, hinted at the voluminous discography frontman Henrik Nordvargr Björkk was to embark upon. 

We're getting into the weeds of US industrial this week, discussing a record that captures a very specific early 90s moment, along with some formal experimentation in D.D.T.'s Discomedia, and one which consolidates the strength and range of cyberpunk stalwarts Cyanotic, The Trigger Effect. We're also looking over the solid lineup and new location for this year's Subtance Festival.

How does community lead to the discovery of new music? How do changes in the circles we run in or means through which we communicate lead to changes in our musical diets? How do modern algorithms interrupt or aid those musical flows? These are questions probably best left to serious sociological researchers, but instead you’ve got us two chuckleheads talking about the subject on this week’s We Have a Technical! 

We're offering up one of classic, easy going Pick Five episodes this week folks, as we each look back at some underrated singles. Which tunes came out too early or too late to hit the spotlight? Which hinted at roads less travelled by established bands? And which tickled the fancies of the Senior Staff just because? 

We’re going hard in the powernoise paint this week, as we look back on records from very different periods in the history of the subgenre, Tarmvred’s Subfusc and Iszoloscope’s The Edge Of Certainty. There’s a lot of lateral discussion about the genre on the whole, in addition to consideration of what stands out about these records so many years on from their release. We’re also breaking down the recently announced line-up for the thirteenth instalment of the Cold Waves Fest. 

On this month's commentary we look at a nearly 40 year old classic which feels as though it could have been released in response to the world at large today: Test Dept.'s The Unacceptable Face Of Freedom. In addition to the record's searing indictment of the intertwining of capitalism and fascism at the expense of the working class, it marks a turning point for the band, with their classic industrial percussive sound now being tempered with an increased focus on sampling and programming, pointing the way forward for post-industrial music.

We're reaching just across some borders this week, talking about a pair of records which abut upon the industrial and goth worlds but aren't entirely part and parcel of them. First up is the latest and very cyperpunk-themed record from the industrial-tinged hip-hop trio Clipping. Next, we're talking about Chicago experimentalist Circuit Des Yeux's new dark art rock opus, which lifts from the same ur-sources as goth.

It's our sesexacentennial anniversary here at We Have A Technical, and no, that's not a mispronunciation of some oddly named aggrotech album, but cod-Latin for our 550th episode. We like to do something special every fifty episodes, and this is no different, with the Senior Staff casting their eyes and ears back to some club hits which didn't exactly curry favour with them upon release, and reappraising them. Has the music changed, or have we? We're also giving some immediate reactions to the newly rerecorded "Every Day Is Halloween" (just be thankful we're not really on Youtube with soyjak reaction faces).

We’re joined by a pair of Patreon backers, Gustav of Sturm Café and Eric of Everything Goes Cold, to talk about a pair of records: the throwback, funk-inflected synthpop of Berndsen’s Planet Earth and Babyland’s electronic junk punk swan song Cavecraft, respectively. We’re also chatting about a recent show by Vancouver’s own Devours.

On this week's podcast, we're talking about an everything and the kitchen sink industrial crossover record reflective of its late 90s era in Pail's Epidemic, and the now decade-old statement of arrival from Finland's Vancouver-school electro-industrial act Cardinal Noire. We're also running through the just announced line-up of this year's Terminus Festival.

Ottawa’s Encephalon join the podcast for the first time in nearly a decade to discuss the Ottawa act’s latest high-concept, high-def electro-industrial LP, Automaton All Along. Alis and Matt chat with us about process, influences, and all of the various post-human and philosophical threads to be found in the record. We’re also discussing the news of Mentallo & The Fixer returning to live touring. 

We're breaking from the usual LP format of our commentary episodes to bring you a discussion of a label compilation, specifically the first volume of Nightbreed's infamous "Gothic Sounds" samplers. We're using tunes from the likes of Suspiria, Nekromantik, and Faithful Dawn as an opportunity to discuss the ins and outs of mid 90s UK goth, and specifically the tantalizing electrogoth sound which has always been closely tied to Nightbreed.