We Have A Technical

In a “we had to get to it sooner or later” topic-driven episode of the podcast, we’re discussing our reactions to how AI generated visuals and music have appeared in Our Thing…thus far. We’re doing our level best to limit discussion to the ways use of various forms of audio and image generation have been deployed in goth and industrial circles, but you can be the judge of how well we partitioned off that talk.

This month's commentary podcast features a special returning guest, as Real Cardinal joins us to talk us track by track through Comaduster's heady new LP Memory Echoes. We chatted with Real about the album's reality warping concept, the range of genres beyond Comaduster's usual remit woven into the album, and his experiences regarding artistic intent and complexity.

The latest score from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross isn’t being released under their names, but under the Nine Inch Nails handle, which raises the stakes and expectations for the Tron: Ares soundtrack, and has us discussing its range of styles as well as how it compares to previous missives in the uneven Tron franchise with regards to integrating electronics into “traditional” film scoring.

We're testing the limits of Sweden's sonics as well as our own self-imposed genre limitations with our two records up for discussion this week. First, the soft and contemplative neo-classical compositions of Arcana's As Bright As A Thousand Suns is on the docket, followed by the growling muscularity of Agent Side Grinder's Irish Recording Tape, the rough and tumble post-punk record preceding the group's departure for smoother synth pastures. 

For the minor occasion of our 575th episode we're taking a somewhat personal and sociological detour and talking about the city we live in and from whence grew so much of the music we discuss on the podcast: Vancouver. What conditions allowed for "Vancouver school" industrial music to emerge in the first place, what shaped its sound and aesthetic, and how we and the rest of the city have weathered social and economic changes in the area ever since are all up for discussion.

The two album format draws up records of vastly different style and intensity as the final LP from German electro act The Dust Of Basement and a definitive live statement from Dive are on the docket. We're also discussing a recent live set from Vancouver's percussive industrial group Norillag.

The debut album from Rosetta Stone and one of the landmark achievements in the second wave of goth rock is the subject of this month's commentary episode. The ways in which An Eye For The Main Chance bends Rosetta Stone's influences to suit their own stormy and driving read on anthemic goth rock, the style and quality of Porl King's songwriting, and so much more are all delved into.

Your latest hotly anticipated, or at least blithely accepted pick five formatted episode of We Have A Technical is here. We're zeroing in on our recurring fascination with the role of soundtracks in forming our tastes in Our Thing by each selecting tracks which stand out for good or bad in various film soundtracks. Are there a number of chalk choices by well-established bands? Sure, but that's with an eye to digging into the lesser known moments and aspects of those giants' discographies, we promise. There's also some New Order ephemeral trivia off the top!

After a lengthy hiatus, Austin cautionary tales Street Sects are back. They're turning their combination of noise, post-hardcore, and sample-driven industrial to investigate some extremely painful territory related to addiction and recovery with their new Dry Drunk record, but also have something quite different on the go in their more electro-pop influenced Street Sex incarnation and its Full Color Eclipse debut. Given their similarities and differences, we thought a full episode dedicated to the discussion of these records and their thematics was warranted.

The second of our interviews stemming from Terminus is here, with rising synthpop/EBM act Sleek Teeth joining us. The band's use of harmonies, threading of the needle between pop and aggression, and flair for the uncanny and occluded have made them one of the new bands we're most impressed by these days, and they were happy to speak with us about all that and more. We're also offering some thoughts on the Vancouver stop of the ongoing Nine Inch Nails tour.

Fresh off her performance at Terminus Festival, we're happy to present our interview with Mari Kattman on this week's episode of We Have A Technical. Her new record Year Of The Katt is a statement of arrival of Kattman as a solo artist and producer after having heard her in collaborative capacities for years, and she talks with us extensively about her own creative process and aims with the record. We're also introducing the ID:UD co-presented stage at this year's Purple City Festival in Edmonton!

Our favourite time of the year's come and gone with Terminus: Modulation in the books. Four days, thirty-one acts, and a goodly amount of beer later, we're here to break down all of the festivities which took place this past weekend in Calgary. Pleasant surprises, hot prospects, and the odd swing and a miss, you'll get the blow by blow details on this episode of We Have A Technical.

On the occasion influential 1999 debut "Viral Extinction" being remastered, we're happy to welcome back Flesh Field's Ian Ross to the podcast to discuss the record in its entirety with us. We're touching on how the record reflected Ian's influences but also pointed towards a new vision for dark electro, how limitations in gear both hindered and helped the creation of the record, and so much more.

It's a "Born To Runner Up" themed episode this week, as we're each picking five of our second favourite records by specific artists. From underrated comebacks to idiosyncratic personal faves, we had a lot of fun making cases for each of these. We're also chiming in on the new NIN track from the forthcoming Tron: Ares soundtrack.

This week's two albums format has us discussing two records separated by a number of years but both abutting upon dark electro even as both artists work to define their own separate aesthetic: Moral Cleansing, the first full-length from TBM producer SARIN, and Contempt, the debut of Tom Shear's Assemblage 23. We're also talking the Pixel Grip/Travis Scott debacle, a forthcoming Coil tome, and some rumblings in The Tear Garden.

As is our custom when there's a new record from industrial legends Laibach, we're taking to the podcast to discuss it rather than simply knocking out a review. A deeply collaborative record between Slovenian and Iranian musicians, Alamut is a record steeped in history and which draws together diverse strands of Laibach's own musical past and future as well as contemporary art music composition from around the world.

In a wide-ranging open topic conversation, we discuss our thoughts about the purpose, value, and reception of negative music reviews in Our Thing. What's the line between constructive criticism and a hatchet job? Why write them or, conversely, avoid writing them? All that and plenty of questions in between await on the latest episode of We Have A Technical.

For this month's Patreon-supported bonus podcast, we're talking about the second LP from Wes Eisold's post-punk/synthpop act Cold Cave. A record that has taken on more emotional resonance as it (and we!) have aged, so there's gonna be a lot of talk about feelings, not to mention Cold Cave's unique place in the transition from the landfill post-punk boom into the contemporary darkwave era.  

We have a classic two albums episode for you this week folks, including the last decidedly industrial-related work from German act The Galan Pixs, plus the experimentation of latter-era Portion Control with their SEEDEP3. We're also looking ahead at some records set to be released in the back half of 2025.

We're catching up with a whole slew of news and live show business off the top of this episode as your regularly scheduled ID:UD programming resumes, and we're returning to the ever-popular Pick Five format. From powernoise to goth rock we're each picking some especially long tracks and talking about how that length has shaped our impressions of them.