Category: industrial electronica

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: m o k r o ï e Shares Post-Apocalyptic “Natural”

Francesco Virgilio is a French electronic music producer and artist, best known as the creative mastermind behind m o k r o ï e, an electronic music project that specializes in a sound that features elements of electro pop, electro soul and industrial that sees him pairing music with unique imagery and video through three releases, Global System Error, Machines & Soul and Works2k21.

Released earlier this year, Virgilio’s latest m o k r o ï e single “Natural” is cinematic bit of electronic music built around layers of glistening and glitchy synths and skittering beats that brings John Carpenter soundtracks to mind.

The accompanying video by Virgilio features two characters in a post-apocalyptic world trying to escape an ongoing natural disaster, which is heading towards them. Even then they think they’ve escaped into an idyllic paradise, nature’s brutal force is inescapable.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: The Heroic Enthusiasts Shares Blak Emoji’s Industrial Remix of “Still Life”

The Heroic Enthusiasts — multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Thomas Ferrera and vocalist and multi-instrumentalist James Tabbi — have celebrated careers as solo artists, producers, composers and multi-instrumentalists. The duo bonded over their mutual influences of Brit Pop, New Wave and post-punk. Additionally, their education in computational mathematics and mathematical statistics help to inform work that manages to deftly combine the intellectual and emotional.

Last year was a busy year for the synth pop duo: They released two EPs last year through Meridian/ECR Music Group — Fits and Fashions EP and Crimes and Passions EP. As the duo explains Fits and Fashions “provided and introduction and an opportunity to glimpse who we are as a band: one that pulls from 80’s-based nostalgia and turns into something modern.” The duo’s Thomas Ferrera explains that the first EP is essentially Side 1 of their forthcoming album. Crimes and Passions in contrasts with — and to compliment — the first EP is a collection of five inspired, spontaneous songs meant to take the listener on a journey that convey a multitude of emotions. Crimes and Passions is essentially Side 2 of the album.

“Still Life” appears on Crimes and Passions EP. Featuring glistening synth arpeggios, mathematically precise, propulsive four-on-the-floor and bursts of angular guitar paired with Tabbi’s expressive crooning and razor sharp hooks, “Still Life” manages to sound indebted to Pet Shop Boys, New Order, and Electronic. “The song is an imagining, a metaphor, of those aspects of a still-life painting reflected into a relationship,” The Heroic Enthusiasts’ Tabbi explains in press notes. “Two lovers feeling the lightness and darkness of love, feeling alive, knowing the feelings and emotions will ebb and flow, and sadly, someday end as all of nature does, in death.”

Recently, the duo recruited JOVM mainstay Blak Emoji to remix “Still Life,” that retains the vocal and razor sharp hooks of the original but pairs them with a club friendly, industrial-leaning production featuring enormous, tweeter and woofer rattling beats and buzzing synths. “’Still Life’ was my favorite song from the Crimes and Passions EP,” Blak Emoji says in press notes. “Soon as I heard it I felt I could contribute a bit more of an industrial pop edge sonically with respect to the original. I kept visualizing how it would sound on the dance floor of a goth club. Had a total blast with it and the Heroic guys are great people, period.”

“’Still Life’ was one of our first compositions for this two-EP collection,” The Heroic Enthusiasts’ Thomas Ferrara explains. “Its lyrical content can be interpreted in several ways, and melodically and sonically the same holds true. Blak Emoji translated the song and original track into his own voice that strikes a chord with both James and me. He may have awoken a sleeping giant. Thank you Blak Emoji.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Ottawa’s Antigen Shift Shares a New Banger

Ottawa-based industrial/post-industrial/noise synth duo Antigen Shift — Nicholas Theriault and Jarius Khan — formed over a decade ago. And over the course of five albums, three EPs and a handful of remixes and compilation appearances, the Ottawa-based duo’s sound has evolved. “We started as a straight-up industrial power noise project, but evolved into a more diverse, complex post-industrial project,” Antigen Shifts Nicholas Theriault explains.

The Canadian duo’s latest single “Sugar and Stamps” is a accessible industrial banger featuring layers upon layers of buzzing and scorching synths, thumping beats and walls of industrial clang and clatter that sonically brings Nine Inch Nails, Ministry, and Fat of the Land-era The Prodigy to mind.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Flossing Shares Sultry and Menacing “All We Are”

When the COVID-19 pandemic struck and sideswiped everything, Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter and musician Heather Elle found themselves thrown from touring with buzz-worthy post-punk outfit The Wants (f.k.a. as BODEGA) and into a dizzying state of long overdue decompression. Aching to artistically progress, Elle felt the need to completely untether from both personal and professional entanglements: They left The Wants and a long-term relationship and quickly began writing and recording songs in their new bachelorette pad.

Elle dug up five-year old songs and song ideas written on the road and unexpectedly wrote last year’s confessional and hedonistic “Switch,” which pushed the Brooklyn-based artist to take their Flossing project further. Elle’s Flossing debut, Queen of the Mall EP was released to critical praise with critics describing the Brooklyn-based artist as a “mischievous pop poet” and the “newly appointed master of psychological provocative.”

Building upon growing buzz, Elle’s sophomore EP World Of Mirth is slated for an August 26, 2022 release through London-based Brace Yourself Records. The soon-to-be released EP continues the Brooklyn-based artist’s for being enigmatic and provocative, while excavating and proving into the self even further than before.

World Of Mirth‘s latest single, the smoldering “All We Are.” Centered around densely layered, tweeter and woofer rattling, Nine Inch Nails-meets-ADULT.-like industrial production paired with Elle’s alternating cooing and howling, “All We Are” is possess a sultry yet menacing quality that’s simultaneously irresistible and uneasy.

“Inspired by binge-watching Steven Soderbergh’s medical drama series The Knick at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic — which is set in an ER in turn-of-the-century New York City — the song invokes themes of metaphysics, existentialism, pride, competition, and legacy,” Elle explains in press notes. “‘This is all we are,’ is the final line from the lead surgeon as he operates upon himself in front of a stadium of colleagues and doctors, attempting to outsmart death.”

Directed by Dylan Brannigan, the accompanying video for “All We Are” is shot through grainy VHS fuzz and emphasizes the song’s sultry yet menacing air.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Poltergeist is a young, mysterious French producer, who quickly emerged into the French electronic and industrial scenes with his debut single “Ich bin ein Kämpfer.” 

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The emerging French producers full-length debut is slated for release next month — and if you’ve been frequenting this site throughout this past month, you may recall that I wrote about the Depeche Mode — or a goth take on Kraftwerk-like “La Grand Dame,” an infectious banger that captures a deep-seated existential terror.

“Der Nachtvogel,” the woozy, latest single from the French producer’s full-length debut is centered around thumping kick drum, skittering beats, dense layers of arpeggiated synths paired with the French producer’s insouciantly delivered lyrics, and continues another run of club friendly, goth/industrial bangers seemingly indebted to early Depeche Mode.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: French Producer Poltergeist Shares a New Club Friendly Banger

Poltergeist is a young, mysterious French producer, who quickly emerged into the French electronic and industrial scenes with his debut single “Ich bin ein Kämpfer.”

The emerging French producers full-length debut is slated for release next month — and to build buzz for it, he recently released the album’s second and incredibly trance-inducing single “La Grand Dame.” Centered around tweeter and woofer rocking thump, oscillating synths and wobbling synth arpeggios pared with the French producer’s insouciant delivery and a forceful motorik groove.

While sounding a bit like Depeche Mode — or a goth take on Kraftwerk, the song thematically is about a deep, existential terror — the terror of humanity being punished for having betrayed and mistreated Mother Nature.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: R.I.P. Andy “Fletch” Fletcher

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the life and music of Depeche Mode’s Andy ‘Fletch” Fletcher.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Liz Lamere Takes the Viewer on a Tour of the Underworld in New Visual for “Sin”

Liz Lamere is a New York-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, who has had a lengthy career playing drums in several local punk bands — and famously for collaborating with her late partner, the legendary Alan Vega on his solo work […]

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Liz Lamere Returns with a Club Friendly Banger

Liz Lamere is a New York-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, who has had a lengthy career playing drums in several local punk bands — and famously for collaborating with her late partner, the legendary Alan Vega on his solo work for the better part of three decades. 

Lamere finally steps out into the spotlight as a solo artist with her solo debut Keep It Alive. Written and performed entirely by Lamere, Keep It Alive was recorded in the Lower Manhattan apartment she shared with Vega during pandemic-related lockdowns — in the same space where the Suicide frontman constructed his light sculptures. Keeping it a family affair, the album was engineered by Vega and Lamere’s son, Dante Vega Lamere. Keep It Alive was co-produced by Lamere and The Vacant Lots‘ Jared Artaud. 

“There’s something very magical about creating music in the same environment where Alan created his visual art,” Liz Lamere says in press notes. “His energy is pervasive and is inevitably infused in the recordings.” She continues “ We were living through unprecedented times and Keep It Alive took adversity and uncertainty and turned it into a message of resilience and empowerment.”

The album’s material reportedly courses with the bold and defiant energy that motivated a young Lamere through her early double life as a Wall Street lawyer by day and a downtown New York musician, before she met and fell in love with Vega. Her relationship with Vega led to her becoming his manager, creative foil and keyboardist on his solo work including albums like Deuce Avenue, Power On To Zero Hour, New Raceion, Dugong Prang, 2007, Station and IT, as well as the posthumously released, lost album Mutator, which led to the Vega Vault, which she curates with Jared Artaud. 

After Vega’s death in July 2016, Lamere found it cathartic to write down thoughts and observations in notebooks. Simultaneously, she and Artaud had started working together on overseeing the mastering of IT and the production and mixing of Mutator. During this very busy period, the pair discussed working together on her own solo material. 

Keep It Alive is a homage to a song on her late husband’s New Raceion that has a deep and significant meaning for her. It was one of the key lines she would chant on stage, becoming a staple of their live performances together. The main theme and vision of the album is preserving your own inner fire. “Alan always encouraged me to make my own music, and I’ve waited until the time was right as I’ve been dedicated to preserving Alan’s vision and building his legacy,” Lamere says. 

Over the past month or so I’ve written about two of Keep It Alive‘s released singles:

  • “Lights Out,” a swaggering banger featuring tweeter and woofer rattling 808s, glistening and melodic synth washes paired with Lamere’s coolly delivered boxing and fighting metaphors. While centered around a gritty and familiar, in-your-face, New York aggression, “Lights Out” is an upbeat, life-affirming song that will give you the energy to keep on fighting the necessary and good fight. 
  • “Freedom’s Last Call” a brooding and cinematic track centered around thumping industrial beats, jagged and ominous synth arpeggios and a menacing bass line paired with Lamere’s icy delivery. Sonically, “Freedom’s Last Call” sounds as though it could have been part of the Blade Runner soundtrack — or the soundtrack of almost any John Carpenter film. 

“Sin” Keep It Alive‘s third and latest single is centered around glistening and oscillating synths, a sinuous bass line and tweeter and woofer rattling beats paired with Lamere’s sultry and plaintive delivery and her uncanny ability to craft an infectious, razor sharp hook. While, “Sin” sonically bears a resemblance to a slick synthesis of Depeche Mode and New Order, the song’s narrator has a unique, non-moralistic, non-Christian view of sin — one that seems to say that sin is just one part of the human experience.

“‘Sin’ is loosely inspired by Dante’s Inferno and the search for meaning in the journey of life,” Lamere explains. “The message is one of redemption, as sin is not always evil, but rather offers a glimpse into the dark side of the human condition. For me the song is more about not letting the judgment of others, of good and evil, hold you back from fully experiencing life.  Ultimately, I hope the listener will interpret the song and find meaning in their own way.”

Keep It Alive is slated for May 20, 2022 release through In The Red.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Lyric Video: Liz Lamere Shares a Brooding, Post-Apocalyptic Single

Liz Lamere is a New York-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, who has had a lengthy career playing drums in several local punk bands — and famously for collaborating with her late partner, the legendary Alan Vega on his solo work for the better part of three decades. 

Lamere finally steps out into the spotlight as a solo artist with her solo debut Keep It Alive. Written and performed entirely by Lamere, Keep It Alive was recorded in the Lower Manhattan apartment she shared with Vega during pandemic-related lockdowns — in the same space where the Suicide frontman constructed his light sculptures. Keeping it a family affair, the album was engineered by Vega and Lamere’s son, Dante Vega Lamere. Keep It Alive was co-produced by Lamere and The Vacant Lots‘ Jared Artaud. 

“There’s something very magical about creating music in the same environment where Alan created his visual art,” Liz Lamere says in press notes. “His energy is pervasive and is inevitably infused in the recordings.” She continues “ We were living through unprecedented times and Keep It Alive took adversity and uncertainty and turned it into a message of resilience and empowerment.”

The album’s material reportedly courses with the bold and defiant energy that motivated a young Lamere through her early double life as a Wall Street lawyer by day and a downtown New York musician, before she met and fell in love with Vega. Her relationship with Vega led to her becoming his manager, creative foil and keyboardist on his solo work including albums like Deuce Avenue, Power On To Zero Hour, New Raceion, Dugong Prang, 2007, Station and IT, as well as the posthumously released, lost album Mutator, which led to the Vega Vault, which she curates with Jared Artaud. 

After Vega’s death in July 2016, Lamere found it cathartic to write down thoughts and observations in notebooks. Simultaneously, she and Artaud had started working together on overseeing the mastering of IT and the production and mixing of Mutator. During this very busy period, the pair discussed working together on her own solo material. 

Keep It Alive is a homage to a song on her late husband’s New Raceion that has a deep and significant meaning for her. It was one of the key lines she would chant on stage, becoming a staple of their live performances together. The main theme and vision of the album is preserving your own inner fire. “Alan always encouraged me to make my own music, and I’ve waited until the time was right as I’ve been dedicated to preserving Alan’s vision and building his legacy,” Lamere says. 

Last month, I wrote about Keep It Alive‘s first single, “Lights Out,” a swaggering banger featuring tweeter and woofer rattling 808s, glistening and melodic synth washes paired with Lamere’s coolly delivered boxing and fighting metaphors. While centered around a gritty and familiar, in-your-face, New York aggression, “Lights Out” is an upbeat, life-affirming song that will give you the energy to keep on fighting the necessary and good fight. 

“’Lights Out’ was the very first track I wrote,” Lamere says in press notes. “You write about what you know. It’s boxing themed. When you step in the ring your life is literally on the line. ‘Let your hands go’ is a boxing term and my mantra for going full tilt in whatever I’ve set out to do.” 

Keep It Alive‘s second and latest single “Freedom’s Last Call” is a brooding and cinematic track centered around thumping industrial beats, jagged and ominous synth arpeggios and a menacing bass line paired with Lamere’s icy delivery. Sonically, “Freedom’s Last Call” sounds as though it could have been part of the Blade Runner soundtrack — or the soundtrack of almost any John Carpenter film.

“This track emerged from the post-apocalyptic vibe around all the uncertainty surrounding the pandemic and the political, social and media-driven upheaval and divisiveness,” Lamere explains. “Uncertainty of certainty. Freedom is the most elemental part of the human condition, which is now being assaulted from so many directions. The song is a call for unity and redemption, and about having one shot to keep hope, humanity and free will alive.”  

Keep It Alive is slated for May 20, 2022 release through In The Red.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Mark Pompeo is a prolific New Jersey-based electronic music producer, best known in EDM/techno circles as Mark Wise. And since the release she this solo debut, 2018’s Blizzard EP, Pompeo has recorded and released club bangers that feature a unique blend of minimalist techno, progressive techno, house and increasingly metal, which has received support from the likes of Marco Carola, Richie Hawtin, Cristian Varela, Spartaque, Lisa Lashes, Phaedon, Vikthor, Illario Alicante, and DJ Dialog. 

Pompeo began the year with the release of the Rumble in the Jungle EP. The EP featured the crowd-pleasing expansive banger and EP title track “Rumble in the Jungle,” and the Guilia and Paxtech remix of “Rumble in the Jungle,” which retained the original’s melodic breakdown while pairing it with relentless tweeter and woofer rattling thump and a trippy, cosmic sheen.

The New Jersey-based electronic producer then released the two-track Heavy Metal EP. The EP featured “Heavy,” a high energy, crowd pleasing banger that found him firmly establishing what he has dubbed “heavy metal techno” with the song centered around scorching synth riffage, tweeter and woofer rattling beats and trippy cosmic squeals. “Metal,” the second and final single pushed the heavy metal techno concept even further with the song featuring a seamless synthesis of thrash metal, goth, industrial techno and acid house — while being equally crowd pleasing.

Continuing a remarkably prolific period, Pompeo’s latest release Riff Machine sees the New Jersey-based producer further honing his heavy metal techno concept. Centered around power chord-driven synth guitar riffage, skittering techno hi-hat, rock ‘n’ roll-like drum fills, explosive cymbals and deep low end, the EP title track “Riff Machine” is a high energy, industrial headbanger that pairs arena rock bombast with euphoria-inducing hooks. (EDITOR’S NOTE: This is a radio edit that clocks in a little over five-and-a-half minutes; the full song, which is also on the EP clocks in at a little over seven minutes.)

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Liz Lamere Shares Sultry, Boxing-Themed Visual for Thumping “Lights Out”

I’m grateful for New Colossus Festival’s triumphant return this week. But as you can imagine, it means that this week I’ll be very busy running around Manhattan’s Lower East Side to cover shows; chatting and bullshitting with friends and colleagues; and of course, doing that valuable in-person networking that has been hampered by the pandemic. I’ll be posting when I can; it’ll just be kind of sporadic.

But let’s get to the business at hand . . .

Liz Lamere is a New York-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, who has had a lengthy career playing drums in several local punk bands — and perhaps more famously for collaborating with her late partner, the legendary Alan Vega on his solo work for the better part of three decades.

Lamere finally steps out into the spotlight as a solo artist with her solo debut Keep It Alive. Written and performed entirely by Lamere, Keep It Alive was recorded in her Lower Manhattan apartment during pandemic-related lockdowns in the same space where the Suicide frontman constructed his light sculptures. Keeping it a family affair, the album was engineered by Vega and Lamere’s son, Dante Vega Lamere — and then co-produced by Lamere and The Vacant Lots‘ Jared Artaud.

“There’s something very magical about creating music in the same environment where Alan created his visual art,” Liz Lamere says in press notes. “His energy is pervasive and is inevitably infused in the recordings.” She continues “ We were living through unprecedented times and Keep It Alive took adversity and uncertainty and turned it into a message of resilience and empowerment.”

The album’s material reportedly courses with the bold and defiant energy that motivated a young Lamere through her early double life as a Wall Street lawyer by day and a downtown New York musician, before she met and fell i love with Vega. Her relationship with Vega led to her becoming his manager, creative foil and keyboardist on his solo work including albums like Deuce Avenue, Power On To Zero Hour, New Raceion, Dugong Prang, 2007, Station and IT, as well as the posthumously released, lost album Mutator, which lead to the Vega Vault, which she curates with Jared Artaud.

After Vega’s death in July 2016, Lamere found it cathartic to write down thoughts and observations in notebooks. Simultaneously, she and Artaud had started working together on overseeing the mastering of IT and the production and mixing of Mutator. Interestingly, during this very busy period, the pair discussed working together on her own solo material.

Keep It Alive‘s first single, “Lights Out” is a swaggering banger, featuring tweeter and woofer rattling 808s, glistening and melodic synth washes paired with Lamere’s coolly delivered boxing and fighting metaphors. While centered around a gritty and familiar, in-your-face, New York aggression, “Lights Out” is an upbeat, life-affirming song that will give you the energy to keep on fighting the necessary and good fight.

Interestingly, “Keep It Alive” is a homage to a song on her late husband’s New Raceion that has a deep and significant meaning for her. It was one of the key lines she would chant on stage, becoming a staple of their live performances together. The main theme and vision of the album is preserving your own inner fire. “Alan always encouraged me to make my own music, and I’ve waited until the time was right as I’ve been dedicated to preserving Alan’s vision and building his legacy,” Lamere says.

Lamere is an avid boxer, who has been involved in the boxing world for over fifteen years. And the Jenni Hensler-directed video for “Lights out” was fittingly filmed on 8mm film at New York-based Trinity Boxing Club. The sultry video features Lamere and a collection of men and women of various ages and backgrounds at the punching bag and sparring to strobe lights, while others dance along.

“’Lights Out’ was the very first track I wrote,” Lamere says in press notes. “You write about what you know. It’s boxing themed. When you step in the ring your life is literally on the line. ‘Let your hands go’ is a boxing term and my mantra for going full tilt in whatever I’ve set out to do.” 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: ADULT. Return with Techno-influenced Banger “I Am Nothing”

Throughout their 25 year history, acclaimed Detroit-based multimedia and electronic music production and artist duo ADULT. — the husband and wife team of Adam Lee Miller and Nicola Kuperus — have a sprawling catalog of material released through  Mute Records, Ghostly International, Thrill Jockey, Third Man Records and a list of other labels that has seen the duo obscure and blur lines between genres and styles in a cohesive fashion within the album format. 

“but for this we wanted something that’s falling apart.” Becoming Undone, ADULT.’s ninth album reportedly sees the duo explicitly aiming for that goal, while simultaneously rejecting and reflecting the planetary discord that inspired and informed it. Written between November 2020 and April 2021, Miller and Kuperus kickstarted the creative process through additions to the rig: a vocal loop pedal for Kuperus and Roland percussion pads for Miller. They also reconnected with some of their earliest influences including Test Department and Throbbing Gristle’s 20 Jazz Funk Greats, which helped spark a series of fruitful and frenetic sessions, centered on themes of impermanence and dissonance. “We weren’t interested in melody or harmony since we didn’t see the world having that,” ADULT.’s Miller bluntly reasons. 

While there are still plenty of the dance floor bangers the duo is known for, Becoming Undone is also informed by deep, personal loss: Kuperus’ father died during the height of the pandemic, just before the duo were about to start working on the album. As his hospice caretakers, she and Miller faced the banality of finality, surrounded by objects drained of meaning — “the joy of having a body, but also the drudgery of having one,” they say. 

The end result is an album that crackles with revulsion and dissent, and it seemingly equal parts exorcism and denunciation, centered around a breadth of vocal effects: Kuperus at times sounds alternately indignant and possessed, decrying the crimes, fears, and failings of a deluded, broken world. “Humans have always been pretty terrible,” Kuperus explains. “But every year the compromises of culture just accelerate.”

Late last year, I wrote about Becoming Undone single “Fools (We Are . . .)“, a glitchy and uneasy banger centered around stuttering beats, dense layers of arpeggiated synths paired with an unhinged and desperate vocal performance by Kuperus, who sings lyrics describing the sensation of being hopelessly stuck in a seemingly endless and foolish loop of the same ol’ banal, things while everything else around them collapses.

“I Am Nothing,” Becoming Undone‘s second and latest single is an abrasive yet accessible industrial techno banger, centered around arpeggiated synths, tweeter and woofer rattling thump, metallic clang and clatter paired with Kuperus’ desperate howls inspired by Detroit techno between 1992-1995, Suicide‘s Alan Vega, Swans‘ Micheal Gira and Malaria!‘s Gudrun Gut.

“The meaning of ‘nothing’ in the context of this song is not in regards to worthlessness, but of being lodged into something we can not understand and yet somehow accept it / or not accept it,” the acclaimed Detroit-based duo explain. “We are collectively living in liminality. And personally, we are more content currently to be in a state of nothingness.”