Category: industrial electronica

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: OWLS Returns with a Furious Howl of Protest

Emy Collum is a Longford, Ireland-based producer, musician and creative mastermind behind the rising electronic music project OWLS. Starting his career in earnest playing drums for a number of local indie bands, Collum stepped out into the spotlight as a solo artist and began crafting darkbrooding songs paring driving rhythms and grooves, dynamic vocals and abrasive textures.

Sonically, his material draws largely from post-punk, techno and synth pop — or as he describes them “songs for the night, for the moon and its shadows” and “dark tunes you can dance to.” Thematically, his work focuses on the uneasy balance between love and brutality. 

The Irish producer released his debut single 2021’s “They Kill.” 2022 saw the release of his acclaimed debut EP End Me. Last year was a busy year for the acclaimed and rising Longford, Ireland-based artist: He made the rounds of the national, summer festival circuit. He played headlining shows in Dublin — and he played at a slew of underground events throughout the country. He closed out a busy year with two more singles “Swallow My Love” and “Bury Me,” a brooding and uneasy mix of industrial and post punk built around relentless, twitter and woofer rattling, skittering beats and whirring and wobbling synths and bursts of angular guitar paired with the Irish producer’s furious howls. 

Lyrically and thematically, “Bury Me” saw its narrator on a tumultuous dance between life and death, hope and despair with an uneasy, unvarnished honesty. 

The acclaimed and rising Irish producer “Body Bags” is an aggressively furious, in-your-face goth meets techno howl of protest featuring skittering tweeter and woofer rattling thump and scorching synth arpeggios with eerily processed and distorted yet strangely beautiful howls attempting to burst out from the chaotic, messy and punishing soundscape.

According to Collum, the song and its accompanying video has been largely informed by the current and unfolding events in Gaza. “‘Body Bags’ looks at humanity turning it on itself,” Collum says. “For all the beauty and harmony in the world, we are chaotic by nature — violent and cruel to our own. It explores the human condition and our ability to inflict pain and suffering upon the most vulnerable.” Throughout the video, violence and cruelty are treated with the mundanity of daily errands.

The events in Gaza has forced the rising and acclaimed Irish artist to look outward instead of inward, as he has previously done. “All of my songwriting up until now has been dealing with internal conflicts and self assessment. It feels selfish looking inwards when being faced with bloodied images daily. I teach history. I had a Palestinian student join one of my classes recently. They presented a project on the ancient buildings of Gaza City only to highlight the fact that they’re no longer there. That hit hard.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: ALIAS Shares Swaggering and Genre-Defying “EMPTY HEAD” with KROY and Cadence Weapon

Emmanuel Alias is a French-born, Montréal-based singer/songwriter multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer, dilettante and polymath who had had a varied and rather accomplished career in music before he started his eponymous psych rock project ALIAS. 

After spending nine years studying jazz at the Darius Milhaud Conservatory in Aix-en-Provence, France, Alias relocated to Montréal in 2014. Upon his arrival in Québec, Alias landed a job at XS Music, where he worked on scores for HBO’s Big Little Lies and Sharp Objects, ICI Télé’s  Une autre histoire, Hubert et Fanny and Cerebrum et Mon fils, Mariloup Wolfe’s feature film Jouliks and for a number of Cirque du Soleil productions. In 2017, Alias also worked for Musique Nomade, where he produced multidisciplinary Oji-Crie’ and Mi’gmaq artist Anachnid‘s DREAMWEAVER, which was nominated for an Association québécoise de l’industrie du disque, du spectacle et de la video (ADISQ) Award and long-listed for the Polaris Prize. 

The French-born, Montreal-based artist also produced singles by Q-052, Annie Sama, Chances, iskwē and Beyries. And he also had a stint as the musical and stage director for Ananchid.

Along with his production and songwriting work for other artists, the French-born, Canadian-based artist has managed to have had a host of different projects to accommodate his need to explore different genres, releasing punk, hip-hop and even ambient material under different monikers, before starting his solo recording project ALIAS, a cathartic psych rock project that sees him crafting retro-tinged sons rooted in fantastical, batshit crazy, hallucinogenic tales paired with fuzzy guitars and wild tempo changes.

Alias’ sophomore ALIAS album Embrace Chaos will be released through Simone Records. Embrace Chaos will feature “CURSED” and “TRUTH OR TRUST,” a woozily euphoric bop featuring glistening synth arpeggios, whirring bas synths, relentless four-on-the-floor paired with razor sharp, incredibly catchy hooks. The result is a LCD Soundsystem-meets-Psymon Spine-like soundscape that’s roomy enough for Alias, along with fellow Montréalers Virginie B and Meggie Lennon to playfully trade neurotically self-aware and vaguely paranoid verses and hooks throughout. 

Embrace Chaos‘ third and latest single “EMPTY HEAD” sees the French-born, Canadian-based artist further establishing a genre-bending and genre-defying sound. Featuring guest spots from acclaimed Canadian emcee Cadence Weapon and KROY, the hook-driven “EMPTY HEAD” features elements of industrial electronica, hip-hop and punk rock delivered with a swaggering, in-your-face aplomb.

Directed by Gabrielle Thiffault, the accompanying video for “EMPTY HEAD” features Alias at a birthday party — or some other related gathering — with a table seated by mannequins and masked people. Throughout the French-born, Canadian artist seems to lose his mind and behaves poorly.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Boise’s Street Fever Shares Brooding and Sultry “Fate”

Street Fever is a mysterious and enigmatic, Boise-based multimedia and mixed media artist who crafts gritty soundscapes that incorporate elements of hardcore, hip-hop, industrial techno, EBM, noise, electronica, pop and classical music. The mysterious Boise-based artist cites Three 6 Mafia, and the DIY hardcore scene as major influences on his sound.

For the mysterious Idahoan, his work is anchored in an ongoing and continuous spiritual awakening informed by a desire to better understand themselves as an artist, spiritual speaker and human — and by the profound experiences and circumstances of his life: After losing all their professions, being institutionalized several times and nearly losing their life in a Southeast Asian prison, the mysterious Boise-based artist has used the project as a platform to speak on their own addiction and recovery with the hopes that they will connect with others who are seeking personal and spiritual growth. Aesthetically and thematically, the Idahoan’s work is a journey of self-discovery and enlightenment through thought-provoking creations while seeing them deftly balancing between destructive possession and holy reclamation.

The Boise-based artist’s latest single “Fate” is a sleek and slickly produced, club friendly bit of industrial electronica that seemingly channels Downward Spiral-era Nine Inch Nails, A Place to Bury Strangers and Out of the Black-era Boys Noize featuring aggressive, tweeter and woofer rattling beats, wobbling synths, buzzing guitars and a yearning vocal that pieces through the haze. “Fate,” as the artist explains is a reflection of self-love and desire, and a deep look into one’s shadow to embrace who out is that we want to be. It’s also a call for the listener to dive deeper into th love we want to give ourselves and the feeling of an indescribable love from a power beyond ourselves. And as a result, the song evokes the tug of war between desire and presence.

Directed by Street Fever, the accompanying video is shot in a cinematic black and white, and seems to channel the video for Nine Inch Nails’ “Closer.“

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Alex Paradoxe Shares Club Friendly “T.U.E.R.”

Alex Paradoxe is a queer, Brussels-based artist who pairs defiant protest-fueled lyrics with a sound that draws from electro pop, pop and rock. His latest single “T.U.E.R.” is a dark yet club friendly industrial-inspired, club banger built around tweeter and woofer rattling thump, woozy synth oscillations, big bass drops, buzzing guitars paired with sultrily delivered vocals.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays The KVB Share Brooding Yet Club Friendly “Labyrinths”

Formed back in 2010, the acclaimed Manchester, UK-based JOVM mainstays The KVB initially started as the solo recording project of its founder, singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Nicholas Wood. And as a solo project, Wood released a series of limited cassette and vinyl releases. But my 2011, vocalist, keyboardist and visual artist Kat Day joined on, finalizing the project’s lineup.

Since Day joined on, the JOVM mainstays have released several critically applauded albums and EPs through a series of different labels that saw them crafting a sound simultaneously inspired by The Jesus and Mary Chain and Cabaret Voltaire that became increasingly streamlined. The duo signed to Geoff Barrow‘s Invada Records, who have released 2018’s Only Now Forever, 2019’s Submersion EP and 2021’s Unity.

The duo’s seventh album, the James Trevascus-produced Tremors is slated for an April 5, 2024 release through Invada Records. Tremors sees the band returning to the darker, coldwave sound of their earliest releases and some of their early influences, while retaining the infectious hook driven pop of 2021’s critically applauded Unity. The band have dubbed the new album’s material “dystopian pop” and specifically wrote it with the live show in mind — energetic and full of hooks and dynamic moments.

Thematically, the album’s material, as the band explains expands “on previous album themes of dystopia, apocalypse and the human condition, but with a more pessimistic outlook and deeper distrust than before. It also touches on themes of loss, and the resistance, lament and acceptance of inevitable change.”

Tremors latest single, “Labyrinths” is a shadowy and brooding yet club friendly bit of coldwave/New Wave built around skittering, tweeter and roofer rattling beats, glistening synths, scorching guitars and a motorik groove paired with Wood’s seemingly detached delivery. “Labyrinths” sonically nods at Suicide, New Order, JOVM mainstays The Vacant Lots, A Place To Bury Strangers and others — but a bit sleeker, which gives the song’s underlying menace and unease a cinematic quality.

With “Labyrinths,” the band explains that “it’s the most aggressive track on the album and a nod to some of our early releases. Lyrically, it was inspired by the collection of short stories of Jorge Luis Borges and its references to historical subjectivity, the flexibility of truth and construction of narratives.”

The accompanying video is a highly digitalized realm of screens within screens with computerized effects in the background, with the duo signing and playing the song with layers of analog glitch. The duo describe the video as “a visceral assault of digitalised nature, CRT screens and analogue glitch textures. We wanted the first video single to reflect the album artwork and the energy of the edit to mirror the aggression of the song.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: OWLS Shares Abrasive and Uneasy “Bury Me”

OWLS is a rising Longford, Ireland-based producer, who crafts dark and brooding songs paring driving rhythms and grooves, dynamic vocals and abrasive textures. Sonically, his material draws largely from post-punk, techno and synth pop — or as he describes them “songs for the night, for the moon and its shadows” and “dark tunes you can dance to.” Thematically, his work focuses on the uneasy balance between love and brutality.

2023 has been a busy year for the Irish producer: He has made the rounds of the national, summer festival circuit. He has played headlining shows in Dublin — and he has performed at a slew of underground events throughout the country. He closes out the year with “Bury Me” a broody and uneasy mix of industrial and post punk built around relentless, twitter and woofer rattling, skittering beats and whirring and wobbling synths and bursts of angular guitar paired with the Irish producer’s furious howls.

Lyrically and thematically, the song sees its narrator on a tumultuous dance between life and death, hope and despair with an uneasy, unvarnished honesty.

Directed and shot by Nathan Sheridan in Longford, Ireland, the video features the Irish producer in a dilapidated and abandoned school building, a brown Ford Cortina, a woman clad in leather burying an eggplant in the woods and more.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Montréal’s AN_NA Shares Uneasy, Industrial “So Far”

Formed over three decades ago, French-born, Montréal-based married couple and electronic music duo AN_NA have had a lengthy career in which they’ve used their experiences in electronic music, industrial and experimental music to create a unique sound of their own while playing with different styles and genres. They’ve found that their penchant for experimentation has given them the space to evolve as artists while keeping them open to new ideas and influences that could be incorporated into their own sound and approach.

Now, if you’ve worked in the music industry long enough, you’d begin to recognize that surviving for longer than a few minutes in a cutthroat industry is extremely difficult. The members of AN_NA have managed their lengthy careers by being true to their art — and making music that they’re passionate about.

At the end of 2022, the French-Canadian duo began to write and record new material, which they began releasing as a series of singles across the following calendar year, before being officially released as their forthcoming album More Pills.

Their sixth and most recent single of the year “So Far” is a brooding yet dance floor friendly bit of industrial electronica built around glistening synth arpeggios, a relentless motorik groove and twitter and woofer rattling thump paired with icily detached vocals and anthemic hooks and choruses. The result is a song that channels Detroit-based electronic music legends ADULT., complete with a similar sense of unease.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: The Serfs Share an Icy, Club Banger

Cincinnati-based synth punks The Serfs — founding members Dylan McCartney (vocals, percussion, guitar, bass, electronics) and Dakota Carlyle (electronics, bass, guitar, vocals) along with Andie Luman (vocals, synths) — can trace their origins back to when McCartney and Carlyle were working the fryers at a local pub and generally wallowing in puddles of despair.

The duo decided to express their grim outlook through the self-hypnosis of drums and synthesizers. After a couple of bungled attempts to play live shows, Luman joined the project, finalizing their lineup.

The Cincinnati-based trio’s third album Half Eaten By Dogs is slated for an October 27, 2023 release through their new label home, Trouble in Mind. The album reportedly sees the trio putting a decidedly Midwestern spin on the modernist twitch of future-forward acts like Total Control, Cold Beat, Skinny Puppy, Dark Day, This Heat, and Factrix while being informed by the existential doom of our current moment — with the album’s material at points featuring doomed proclamations of natural and supernatural disasters.

Half Eaten By Dogs‘ latest single “Club Deuce” is an icy, industrial-inspired club banger built around glistening and shimmering synth arpeggios, burnt out, tweeter and woofer rattling 808s paired with Lumen’s sultry cooing. Channeling early Depeche Mode and mid-80s New Order among others, “Club Deuce” is specifically designed to make you head to the dance floor and move — right now.

“I thought of the idea for this song at first like a movie in my mind,” says Luman. “It was the story of a fated man and a modern day Venus with complete and unrelenting control. The set was a quiet corner in a thunderstruck city with endless commotion in the distance. The whole thing glowing like a neon sign. ‘Club Deuce’ churns unhurried until it billows all around you and you’re caught like a fly in the jaws of a venus fly trap.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Mervyn Shares Brooding and Intense “The Bomb”

After spending years writing and recording pop and rock music, French artist and producer Mervyn made a radical departure in his creative approach with the release of his debut EP Holod, a defiant cry of revolt against war and the unbearable violence of our world. While meshing several different genres and styles, the French producer created an uncompromising sound with a punk rock urgency and ethos.

The EP’s latest single “The Bomb” is a brooding, intense and uneasy bit of industrial electronica built around twitter and woofer rattling thump, dense layers of synth oscillations, eerie screaming, howled vocodered vocals and an eerie Nine Inch Nails “Closer“-like coda. “The Bomb” evokes a desperate scream into an indifferent void.

The nightmarish accompanying video features some slickly edited incredibly eerie religious imagery, stock footage of dancers from the 20s and 30s. It’s fittingly creepy.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 58th Birthday, Trent Reznor!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Trent Reznor’s 58th birthday.

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.