We Have A Technical

We wanted to continue the tradition of having our December instalment of We Have A Commentary deal with an album well outside of Our Thing, and loved the idea of doing a "Weird Al" Yankovic LP. Al's been a huge influence on our lives and cultural tastes from a very young age, so the only question was which album we'd discuss. We turned things over to our Patreon backers, who selected Al's third record, 1985's Dare To Be Stupid. It's an end to end burner and gave us all sorts of opportunities to discuss both the minutiae and the broad strokes of what's made Al such a beloved and admired figure to us and so many others.

As a bit of a denouement to our Year End coverage, we're each picking five tracks we loved from the past year. There's maybe a bit of a club tilt to some (but not all) picks, and we're aiming for bands and releases not featured on either our Top 25 list or the honorable mentions discussed on last week's podcast. 

With our Top 25 records of the year up and discussed on the website, it's time for our annual year in review episode of We Have A Technical, where in addition to a quick look at the list itself, we're discussing some trends and statistics from the year that was, and each picking five honourable mention releases we wanted to ensure got some time and love as well. A reminder that written coverage on the site will be pausing for a couple of weeks over the holidays, but we'll keep the podcast coming on schedule to give you something to listen to when you need a break from your relatives.

As we careen towards Year End coverage we're using this week's podcast to get some formal comments down about new records by long-time deep scene acts in Corpus Delicti and Forma Tadre. The French goth rock act reformed a couple of years ago and their new record Liminal does a solid job of carrying on the qualities which distinguished them from their second wave peers, while new archival record Seven Century Factory is fascinating listening for die-hard fans of Andreas Meyer's work, serving as a missing link between very distinct eras in Forma Tadre.

An interview we've been meaning to put together for a long time finally came to fruition, with our friend Abelardo of The Invisible Orange joining us to discuss the state of live event promotion in 2025. From the differences between tiny and large shows to the boutique differences in promoting events to niche audiences corresponding to musical aesthetics, this is a getting into the weeds conversation we're very happy to offer to you. 

This month's commentary podcast has us winding the clock back to the days when futurepop still ruled club floors and when German act Rotersand were just beginning to make their way onto that arpeggio-laden territory. The band's 2003 debut "Truth Is Fanatic" absolutely holds up as an exemplar of the styles of the time, but as we learned and discussed in closely reexamining the record, also used a range of compositional and programming experimentation to plant its flag.

An alliteratively themed two albums episode has us discussing the debut LPs of House Of Harm and Multiple Man. We're digging into the former's infectious and well-executed melodic new wave, and the latter's restrained, aloof, and decidedly funky reinvention of the earliest of EBM sounds.

It's a Pick Five ep this week folks, and we're opting for a theme so basic and simple we had to triple check that we hadn't done it before: side projects. Ranging from overrated to criminally forgotten, we're looking at a slew of projects folks had running on the side, whether to explore different sounds or to avoid certain bandmates. 

We're looking at a pair of industrial records, albeit in fairly different styles on this week's podcast. First up, it's the 2007 reactivation of cult German act Individual Totem with their Mothfly record which broke from their hazy read on dark electro. Next, the 2019 LP by US BDSM terrorists Spit Mask, You May Feel Some Pressure is being revisited as we sit a fair distance away from the wave of new acts Spit Mask were (unfairly?) bundled in with. We're also talking about the promising lineup for next year's Grauzone fest and a recent Norillag show. 

It's an open topic episode of the podcast this week, as we're discussing what factors go into choosing songs for club play. Novelty vs. familiarity, immediacy, place within genre(s)…there's a lot underlying an art which, when it's done best, should feel as instinctive and natural as possible to those enjoying it.

On the eve of the first new albums from S:cage and Das Ich since 2006, we're talking about those records from both of those bands from nearly twenty years ago: "Madness Turns To Glass" and "Cabaret", respectively. Are technoid and Neue Deutsche Todeskunst especially Halloween-esque genres? Who's to say.

As selected by our Patreon backers for a loosely spookily themed commentary episode, we're talking about the 1984 debut of beloved ethereal mainstays Dead Can Dance. With one foot in Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard's roots in post-punk and one in the fatalistic, shimmering aether they would go on to make their home, it's an imperfect yet fascinating starting point for the duo.

The two albums featured on this week's podcast are about as far away from one another as we're likely to get on this podcast, with the abstracted dream-pop and shoegaze of loveliescrushing's Xuvetyn and Digital Poodle's Euro-inspired hybrid of EBM and techno on Crush up for discussion.

Our first Pick Five episode in a while is a bit of a tricky one. We're each nominating tracks which break from traditional pop song structure, with the caveat that they be from artists who normally work within it (no death industrial). Join us as we nearly go blind trying to distinguish pre-choruses from The Real McCoy.

We're happy to be joined this week by renaissance man Antoni Maiovvi to talk about the recent trilogy of records from his Ye Gods project. We touch upon what distinguishes this project from his other work in post-punk and italo disco, its strange but true origin story, and the considered intentions and hermetic study underpinning the Equilibrium Trilogy.

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.