Crucifera, the solo industrial project of New Jersey-based musician Danielle Astraea, released the single “Paint” on July 24, 2026. The track is self-released independently and available digitally on Bandcamp and other streaming platforms. It follows the debut album, “Exostential,” released April 3, 2026.

“Paint” mixes industrial, trip-hop, gothic trap and witch-house elements. Astraea wrote, produced, recorded and mixed the track herself in her home studio, and Sebastian Komor (Icon of Coil, Xenomorph Productions) handled mastering, the same role he held on “Exostential.” The song is a dark, abrasive exploration of cognitive dissonance, attribution error and tribalistic projection, built around how people reduce other people to fixed caricatures – either idealized or demonized – rather than responding to who they actually are.

Astraea describes her overall sound as “crunchy ethereal industrial music for spiders.” She works without a traditional drum kit, building the rhythm tracks from processed field and sound-design textures rather than sampled or programmed drum sounds, and composes each song first on acoustic piano and guitar before building out the electronic production in her home studio.

About Crucifera

Crucifera is the solo project of Danielle Astraea, a self-taught multi-instrumentalist, producer and visual artist based in New Jersey, United States. Astraea began her professional career in the arts and creative direction in 2000, but kept her original music private for years before releasing it under the Crucifera name. She writes, records, mixes and produces every Crucifera track herself, starting each composition on acoustic piano or nylon guitar before building the finished arrangement digitally in her home studio.

Crucifera’s debut full-length album, “Exostential,” was released on April 3, 2026, preceded by the singles “saVior” and “Martyr Box.” The album was mastered by Sebastian Komor of Icon of Coil and Xenomorph Productions; “Martyr Box” was mixed by Steven Seibold of Hate Dept. Astraea has also contributed composition and remix work to other industrial acts outside her solo output.

“Paint,” Crucifera’s first single since “Exostential,” continues the project’s fusion of acoustic songwriting roots and industrial electronic production, with Komor again handling mastering. A new Crucifera EP is planned for later in 2026, followed by a second full-length album in 2027.

Korean vocalist Hye-gang and Polish producer DustCats have released “Tired with all these, for restful death I cry”, a single continuous drone and ambient piece running just over 35 minutes, on the Wrocław netlabel Ubocze Rec. (catalog Ubocze Rec. 089). The digital release went up on Bandcamp on August 7, 2026, as a name-your-price download with a suggested price of 27 and a minimum of 10.

The track’s title is drawn from the opening line of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 66. It builds from field recordings DustCats made in Bangkok, Thailand, layered with a generative drone assembled from six Thai-sourced samples controlled through sliders and macros in Ableton. Over that bed, Hye-gang reads a William Wordsworth poem and Sonnet 66 in a spoken-word style DustCats describes as “very ASMR.” The music was recorded in Wrocław, Poland, while the cover artwork and an accompanying video were shot in Jelenia Góra, Poland, using a microscope attachment on a phone camera.

DustCats describes the piece’s assembly: “While in Thailand a while ago, I made a lot of field recordings, but after returning, I had no idea how to put them together. Meanwhile, Hye-gang, a friend from Korea with whom I’d already collaborated on Ashes and Kalpa, sent me her recordings, where she reads a Wordsworth poem and Shakespeare’s Sonnet 66. […] I also experimented with a generating drone that combined six different samples, which could be controlled using sliders and macros in Ableton. All the samples were Thai ones. All this, combined, resulted in a 35-minute suite recorded at once.”

About Hye-gang and DustCats

DustCats is a Poland-based producer who builds drone and ambient pieces from field recordings, active on Ubocze Rec., the Wrocław netlabel run by Łukasz Bejnar and Kuba Knoll since 2019. Hye-gang is a South Korea-based vocalist and collaborator who contributes spoken-word readings to DustCats’ productions; by DustCats’ own account, the pair had previously worked together on releases titled “Ashes” and “Kalpa” before “Tired with all these, for restful death I cry.”

Ubocze Rec. operates as a non-commercial netlabel associating solo acts and projects from across electronic and experimental music, with releases spanning industrial, field recordings, lo-fi, ambient, techno, electro and IDM. The label’s catalog is anchored by Łukasz Bejnar’s own recording alias Uchylak, whose 2025 album “Zimna Gmina” received prior Side-Line coverage; label artist Dariusz Jackowski’s EP “Bezimienny” was also covered by Side-Line following its August 2026 release. “Tired with all these, for restful death I cry,” released alongside two other Ubocze Rec. titles on August 7, 2026, extends that catalog into a two-person, cross-continental field-recording piece built from source material gathered in Thailand, Poland and South Korea.

From 12 August 2026, today that is, small European record labels and mail-order businesses selling CDs and vinyl across EU borders face a new layer of packaging bureaucracy. The environmental goal behind the PPWR is easy to understand, but the way cross-border EPR has been organised is much harder to defend. Actually, it’s not defendable at all, and you wonder how otherworldly these bureaucrats really are.

A packaging law with consequences far beyond packaging

Today, 12 August 2026, the EU’s Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation, better known as PPWR, starts applying across the European Union. Most consumers will barely notice, but independent labels, artists, specialist record shops and small mail-order businesses could notice very quickly.

The PPWR is meant to reduce packaging waste, improve recycling and make producers pay for the collection and treatment of packaging they place on the market. Few small businesses will object to that principle. The trouble however starts when a tiny seller ships directly to a customer in another member state.

Under the new framework, the seller can become the packaging producer for EPR purposes in the country where the order is delivered and where the packaging will eventually become waste. A German label mailing a CD to France can therefore face French EPR obligations. A vinyl order sent to Germany brings German obligations into play. Austria, Italy, Finland or Portugal each add another national compliance system.

The European Commission’s own 2026 guidance confirms that a webshop selling packaged goods directly to an end user in another member state is the producer for EPR purposes in that destination country.

Who actually proposed this bureaucratic PPWR atrocity?

The cross-border representative requirement was not an amendment dreamed up later by the European Parliament or quietly added during negotiations with national governments as it was already present in the European Commission’s original PPWR proposal of 30 November 2022.

In that draft it appeared as Article 40(2). The Commission proposed that a producer should appoint an EPR representative in every member state other than its own where it placed packaging on the market. After the legislation was negotiated and renumbered, that provision became the current Article 45 requirement.

So where did it come from? The author of the proposal was the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Environment, DG ENV. The proposal was then adopted by the first Commission headed by Ursula von der Leyen on 30 November 2022.

The two politicians who publicly fronted the package that day were – of course who else – the climate extremists Frans Timmermans, then Executive Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for the European Green Deal, and Virginijus Sinkevičius, then European Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries. Both presented and publicly proudly defended the Commission’s new packaging rules at their launch.

Parliament had the chance to remove the PPWR, but did nothing

But the responsibility does not end with the Commission. A Commission proposal does not become EU law on its own. In the European Parliament, the politician with primary responsibility for steering the PPWR through the legislature was Belgian MEP Frédérique Ries of Renew Europe/Mouvement Réformateur. She was appointed rapporteur for the Parliament’s Environment Committee in January 2023, drafted the parliamentary report and handled compromise amendments and negotiations on Parliament’s behalf.

The parliament had ample opportunity to amend or remove it during the legislative process, but surprisingly they hardly tried so the requirement survived. On 24 April 2024, the European Parliament approved the PPWR by 476 votes in favour, 129 against and 24 abstentions.

In short, a large majority of elected MEPs voted for the package that contained it.

National governments signed off too

On 16 December 2024, the Council formally adopted the PPWR. The vote was 26 countries in favour and one against. The only member state that voted against the final regulation was Slovakia. Belgium voted for it. France voted for it. Germany voted for it. The Netherlands voted for it. Italy, Spain, Austria, Denmark, Sweden, Poland and 16 other countries voted for it as well.

There is no shortage of people or institutions to hold politically accountable.

One small mailorder, but several national PPWR systems

For the independent music business, the result is painfully concrete. A label may press 300 copies of an album and sell 150 at home. The remaining copies go to customers scattered across Europe: ten to France, six to Germany, three to Finland, two to Portugal, one to Slovenia. Those are ordinary cross-border sales in what is supposed to be a Single Market. For packaging compliance, however, they can become separate national obligations.

There is no single EU packaging registration covering all 27 countries. There is no central declaration filed in Belgium, Germany or France that follows the seller across the Union. National registers, national schemes, national reporting and locally established representatives remain part of the system.

That may be manageable for Amazon or Universal Music, but It is a very different proposition for a mailorder selling a few thousand records per year.

Small volume does not mean no obligation

Many independent sellers will logically assume there must be a threshold below which none of this matters. But, there is no broad exemption based on turnover or parcel numbers.

The PPWR does provide lighter reporting for producers placing less than 10 tonnes of packaging per year on a national market. And almost every indie label or mailorder will sit far below that figure. The lighter reporting rules, however, do not erase the underlying producer status or the country-by-country EPR structure.

A label may send only a few kilograms of cardboard into a country during an entire year and still face fixed administrative costs that bear little relation to the amount of waste it actually generates.

A few records can trigger hundreds of euros in costs, per destination that is

A 2026 price list published by EPR compliance provider Eldris illustrates how quickly those costs can rise. Its published packages range from roughly €360 per year for Germany to €1,485 for Slovenia, depending on the country and services included. Adding the listed prices for all 27 EU member states produces a total of around €17,860 for the first year.

These are commercial prices, and other providers may charge less, but you get an idea how ridiculous this has gotten. Businesses can also handle parts of the administration themselves. Yet the reason such an EPR compliance industry exists is obvious: a small seller is being asked to cruise through different registers, schemes, representatives, declarations and deadlines across multiple countries.

The economics turn ugly very fast. If a label sells 20 records into one country and spends €400 annually on compliance there, that fixed cost equals €20 per order. Sell five records and it becomes €80 per order, before postage, VAT, payment fees, manufacturing, packaging and artist royalties enter the calculation.

Stopping sales to that country then becomes cheaper than complying with the rules required to sell there. And that is what is happening now. Small retailers have already started cutting EU destinations. German businesses Pikecraft and Valkyrie Parts explicitly blame PPWR for reducing the countries they will serve, while Betta Botanicals in the US has stopped EU shipping altogether.

The Commission knew it had created a problem with the PPWR, but still went ahead

This is where the story becomes particularly uncomfortable for the European Commission and all the politicians involved, hundreds that is in every member state.

By the end of 2025, the Commission was already trying to suspend the very authorised-representative requirement that had appeared in its own 2022 proposal. It proposed delaying the obligation for EU businesses until 1 January 2035, explicitly recognising that fragmented EPR requirements create barriers to cross-border business inside the Single Market.

That attempt failed to produce relief before 12 August 2026. On 24 June 2026, the Council reported that negotiations on the proposed changes had been discontinued after a large majority of member states raised strong reservations. The regulation therefore reached its general application date with the problem unresolved.

The Single Market starts looking less single after PPWR

This is the contradiction at the heart of the system. Europe spent decades removing barriers to cross-border trade, only to construct a packaging regime capable of making the destination country relevant again for a €20 CD. Charging a seller according to the amount of packaging waste it creates is defensible. Making that seller establish separate compliance arrangements because five people in another member state bought records is something else.

As a result, large retailers will absorb the change while small sellers will reduce their reach significantly.

PPWR does not discriminate between Amazon and an indie label on paper. That is precisely the problem. It subjects radically different businesses to fixed country-by-country obligations whose cost Amazon can spread over millions of parcels while an independent label may have only three customers in that country. Equal rules do not produce equal consequences when the compliance cost is largely fixed.

It remains to be seen whether common sense will return to Brussels.

British electronic musician and producer William Orbit has died at the age of 69. His family confirmed he died at home on July 23, 2026. Orbit, born William Mark Wainwright on December 15, 1956, in Enfield, north London, is best known for producing Madonna’s 1998 album “Ray of Light” and for a series of remixes for artists across pop, rock and electronic music during the 1990s.

Orbit’s family announced his death in a statement posted on social media: “William passed away at home on 23rd July, 2026. We are deeply saddened by his passing. He will be greatly missed by us and by so many whose lives he touched through his music, friendship, and kindness.” A cause of death has not been made public.

Madonna paid tribute to Orbit on Instagram, writing: “He pressed a magic button inside of me and I fell into a galaxy of unrealized dreams. Your music gave me a magic carpet to fly on. You were my Ray of Light – as was my daughter Lola who was born around this time.”

Among William Orbit’s many remix credits is his 1993 rework of Depeche Mode‘s “Walking in My Shoes”, released as the “Random Carpet Mix” and issued as part of the single’s release campaign for “Songs of Faith and Devotion”.

About William Orbit

William Orbit began his career in 1980 as a founding member of the ambient trio Torch Song, alongside Laurie Mayer and Grant Gilbert. He went on to score the 1986 film “Youngblood” and recorded as part of the dance act Bassomatic before establishing himself as a solo artist and in-demand remixer through the 1990s, working with artists including Madonna, U2, Kraftwerk, Nitzer Ebb and Blur.

Orbit produced Madonna’s “Ray of Light” (1998), which won three Grammy Awards, and went on to work with her again on “Music” (2000) and “MDNA” (2012). He also produced Blur’s 1999 album “13” and delivered two UK number-one singles for All Saints, “Pure Shores” and “Black Coffee”. His solo output includes the long-running “Strange Cargo” series and the classical-crossover project “Pieces in a Modern Style”. His most recent solo album, “The Painter”, was released in 2022.

Finnish alt-electronic artist Detalji has released “So Call (Summer Night)”, a new single on the label Deep Limit, out August 12, 2026. The track is the latest cut from Detalji’s upcoming album “Imagine Life”, due October 16, 2026.

“So Call (Summer Night)” was written about a specific memory. “This song was distilled directly from a certain memory,” Detalji said. “I remember partying at a midsummer festival with my friends, being intoxicated and happy at that moment listening to techno music and dancing the entire night. And at the same time being excited that I had met a certain special person, and that even though things were uncertain and they were far away, I was feeling hopeful and falling in love with the person and just feeling thankful for being alive. At that moment I felt the world was full of possibilities.”

“Imagine Life” spans nine tracks: “Dancing (With What’s Left)”, “I Ain’t Faking”, “Circa 1983”, “Another Failed Romance”, “Bring Me Back to Life”, “Drifting”, “To The Night”, “Morning After” and “So Call (Summer Night)”. The album was written across Helsinki, Los Angeles and Berlin. Detalji describes it as centered on navigating contradiction and the pull between nostalgia and moving forward. “Imagine Life is a glimpse into a year of my life,” Detalji said. “I was moving between different cities, ending a relationship and figuring out what kind of life I wanted next. The album feels like a mixture of LA sunsets, Nordic melancholy and gritty Berlin basement beats.”

About Detalji

Detalji is an alt-electronic artist based in Finland who released the debut album “Truly” in 2023, featuring the single “Keep Me Alive”. Detalji has performed at SXSW, Eurosonic and Iceland Airwaves. “Imagine Life”, Detalji’s follow-up album, moves between electronica, trip-hop, house, drum & bass and synth textures, with “So Call (Summer Night)” marking one of its final singles ahead of the October 16 release.

Karlsruhe, Germany industrial death-wave trio Bleak Monday has released a video for Shelter, a single issued on Bandcamp on July 31, 2026. The track is drawn from Bleak Monday’s upcoming debut album, “Bad Music”, which does not yet have a confirmed release date.

The video for “Shelter” was directed by Natascha Gaballo. It is the latest visual release from the band, which has built its catalogue independently since forming in December 2022.

“Shelter” follows Bleak Monday’s 2024 single “Human Needs”, released December 13, 2024, and the band’s earlier EP “flies”. The new track continues the project’s industrial death-wave sound, pairing distorted guitar and synth textures with vocalist Kim Ryder’s delivery.

About Bleak Monday

Bleak Monday formed in Karlsruhe, Germany, in December 2022. The trio is made up of Kim Ryder (vocals), Yann Lauer (guitar and feedback) and Sebastian “Hubu” Huber (synths, drums and bass). The band began playing live in early 2023 and has since shared stages with acts including Das Kinn, Nils Keppel, The Body and Ministry.

Bleak Monday released its debut EP, “flies”, followed by the single “Human Needs” on December 13, 2024. Both releases, along with “Shelter”, are self-released through the band’s Bandcamp page. “Shelter” is presented as an early single from Bleak Monday’s forthcoming debut album, “Bad Music”.

Project Pitchfork, the Hamburg group that mixes dark wave, electro-industrial and dark electro elements, released “Quantum Mechanics” on 12 August 2011 through Trisol. The album turns 15 this year. It arrived one year after “Continuum Ride” (2010) and appeared on CD, as a strictly limited double-CD book edition of 2,000 copies, and digitally.

Peter Spilles wrote and produced the album, Chris von Rautenkranz mastered it at Soundgarden Tonstudio, Ingo Römling created the artwork and Jens Howorka took the band photography. The ten-track album runs “Freeze in Silence,” “Lament,” “Run for Cover,” “Radical Business,” “Mute Spectators,” “Quantum Mechanics,” “The Queen of Time and Space,” “Splice,” “We Will Descend” and “You Rest in My Heart.” The book edition, bound with thread stitching and packed with a 40-page booklet of lyrics and additional artwork, adds a bonus disc holding the exclusive tracks “Tempest” and “Insomnia,” remixes of “Freeze in Silence,” “Run for Cover” and “Lament,” and an instrumental version of the title track. In December 2019, Trisol reissued “Quantum Mechanics” as a limited 2LP and 2CD set. The album streams on Spotify.

About Project Pitchfork

Project Pitchfork started in Hamburg, Germany, where vocalist and composer Peter Spilles and keyboardist Dirk Scheuber began collaborating in 1989. The pair played their first concert in Hamburg in February 1990 and recorded the demo “K.N.K.A.” that same year. Their debut album “Dhyani” followed in May 1991 on Hypnobeat, and 1992 brought both “Lam-‘Bras,” which introduced vocalist Patricia Nigiani, and “Entities.”

In 1994 the band moved to Off Beat for “IO,” whose singles “Renascence” and “Carrion” brought them into the German charts. A year later they founded their own imprint Candyland Entertainment, issued “Alpha Omega” and supported Rammstein on selected tour dates. The late 1990s produced “¡Chakra:Red!” and the concept album “Eon:Eon,” while the 2000s added “Daimonion,” the “NUN” trilogy built around “Inferno,” and “Kaskade” (2005).

On Trisol, the group released “Dream, Tiresias!” and “Continuum Ride” before “Quantum Mechanics” arrived in August 2011. “Black” (2013), “Blood” (2014) and “Look Up, I’m Down There” (2016) followed, and the space-oriented trilogy of “Akkretion,” “Fragment” and “Elysium” was completed in 2024. The current line-up centres on Peter Spilles with keyboardist Jürgen Jansen and drummers Achim Färber and Christian “Leo” Leonhardt; co-founder Dirk Scheuber left the group in 2021. The 15th anniversary of “Quantum Mechanics” places the album back in that timeline, early in the band’s 2010s run on Trisol.

German synth-pop duo Purwien & Kowa release the single “Hinter Glas” on August 14, 2026 via Town And Towers Records. The track is a new version of “Hinter Glas,” a song originally released by Christian Purwien’s earlier band Second Decay, and arrives ahead of the duo’s sixth studio album, “Sechs,” due October 9, 2026 on the same label.

The digital single carries three tracks: “Hinter Glas,” a remix of “Eyes Of Aragon” by Swedish electronic duo CRED, and a 12″ mix of “Hinter Glas.” “Eyes Of Aragon” was originally recorded by No Comment, the German synth-pop band Thomas Kowa played in from 1989. The single is available on major streaming services through this link.

Purwien & Kowa reunite Second Decay and No Comment on ‘Hinter Glas’

“Hinter Glas” first appeared on Second Decay‘s 1993 maxi-CD of the same name and again a year later on the album “Taste,” the German wave/electronic act Christian Purwien co-founded with Andreas Michael Sippel in 1987. With Purwien & Kowa, Purwien re-recorded his own song while Thomas Kowa brought in a remix of “Eyes Of Aragon” from his former band No Comment, handled by CRED. The pairing puts a track from each half of the duo’s back catalogue on a single release.

Purwien & Kowa describe their own sound as “retro analogue synth pop without hair.” “Hinter Glas” follows the single “Concorde” as the second preview of “Sechs,” the duo’s sixth studio album, due October 9, 2026 via Town And Towers Records. The band also runs the Disko 80 podcast with Purwien and Kowa as hosts, and records as Heldautomat as a side project.

About Purwien & Kowa

Purwien & Kowa is a German synth-pop duo based in Dortmund formed by Christian Purwien and Thomas Kowa. Purwien co-founded the electronic/darkwave act Second Decay in 1987, initially under the name Blue Velvet, together with Andreas Michael Sippel. Second Decay released the tape “Monochromes” in 1988 and the 12-inch “Killing Desire” in 1989, followed by “La Décadence Électronique” on CD in 1992, the “Hinter Glas” maxi-CD in 1993 and the album “Taste” in 1994. The band continued with “Der Nerv” in 1995, “Familiar” in 1997, “The Hunt” and “De Luxe” in 1998, “Hotels” in 1999 and “Kaltes, weißes Licht” in 2001, before pausing new material after the 2002 live release “Zwischenfall 1999.”

Thomas Kowa, born Thomas Kowalzik in 1969 in Ludwigshafen am Rhein, joined the German synth-pop band No Comment in 1989 and has lived in Switzerland since 2007. He founded the label Nanopop in 2001, closing it in 2007 to focus on writing; since 2012 he has published a series of crime novels and thrillers. His other current music projects include Nine Seconds and Emily Kinski’s dead.

Purwien and Kowa began recording together as Purwien & Kowa, releasing the three-EP digital set “Drei” via Zwei Records in October 2018. The duo also co-hosts the Disko 80 podcast, which covers 1980s music and has featured more than 100 episodes with guests including Joachim Witt, Bernhard Lloyd of Alphaville and Marcus Meyn of Camouflage. Kowa separately co-hosts the “Krimi Schweiz” podcast on Swiss crime fiction. Purwien & Kowa returned in 2026 with the single “Concorde,” followed by “Hinter Glas,” ahead of their sixth studio album “Sechs,” due October 9, 2026 via Town And Towers Records.

German electronic duo Heldautomat released the single “Anders Sein” on August 14, 2026 via Town & Towers Records. The track is a new interpretation of “Anders Sein,” originally released by Second Decay in 1994 on the album “Taste.” The release includes a classic 12-inch mix as a digital B-side.

Heldautomat is Christian Purwien (vocals and lyrics) and Thomas Kowa (synthesizers and songs). Purwien co-founded Second Decay with Andreas Sippel in 1987, and “Anders Sein” appeared on Second Decay’s 1994 album “Taste” alongside “I Hate Berlin” and “Hinter Glas.” The new Heldautomat version is built around analogue synthesizers, piano and minimalist drum-machine rhythms, keeping the melody of the original while giving the arrangement more space. “Anders Sein” follows Heldautomat’s debut single, “Am ersten Tag,” released in May 2026. The duo’s debut album, “Zwischen den Lichtern,” is scheduled for autumn 2026 and will include eleven tracks sung in German and English. “Anders Sein” is available to stream and purchase via all platforms and on Bandcamp.

About Heldautomat

Heldautomat is a German electronic duo formed by Christian Purwien and Thomas Kowa. Purwien began his recording career in 1987 as co-founder and vocalist of Second Decay, a project originally named Blue Velvet, alongside Andreas Sippel. Working exclusively with analogue synthesizers, Second Decay released the tape “Monochromes” in 1988, the 12-inch “Killing Desire” in 1989, the CD “La Décadence Électronique” in 1992, the maxi-CD “Hinter Glas” in 1993 and the album “Taste” in 1994, the release that introduced “Anders Sein.” Second Decay’s second album, “The Hunt,” originally released in 1996, was reissued by Emmobiz Records as a green double LP with bonus tracks in November 2025, and a second vinyl edition of “Taste” followed via Emmo.Biz Records in 2026.

Thomas Kowa is a music producer, synthesizer player and thriller author whose Erik Lindberg crime series is available in audiobook form; he has previously worked with No Comment and Nine Seconds. Purwien and Kowa first collaborated as Purwien & Kowa, releasing five albums together, including “Zwei,” the three-part “Drei” series and “Vier.” In February 2026, Purwien & Kowa performed at the 18th Elektrisch Festival in Zwickau. Heldautomat, launched in 2026 with the single “Am ersten Tag,” is described by the duo as a darker and more uncompromising direction than their earlier collaborative work, built around analogue synthesizers, piano and minimalist drum-machine rhythms. “Anders Sein” is the project’s second single, revisiting a track from Purwien’s own back catalogue ahead of the debut Heldautomat album “Zwischen den Lichtern,” due in autumn 2026.

When I spoke with Bon Harris in February, on EBM Day of all days, our conversation kept returning to something more fundamental than legacy. Creativity. At one point, talking about what had changed across four decades of Nitzer Ebb and what had stubbornly remained, he said: “The thing that never changes is the desire to be creative.” He described it as an instinctive force, something present from the moment he wakes up in the morning.

Today, 12 August, Bon Harris turns 61, and that sentence feels like a much better place to begin than another ceremonial list of influential records. Because although Harris is inseparable from Nitzer Ebb and from a particular idea of physical electronic music, his creative life has always been considerably wider than the role history assigned him.

Born Vaughan David Harris in Chelmsford on 12 August 1965, he co-founded Nitzer Ebb in 1982 with school friends Douglas McCarthy, David Gooday and Simon Granger. The early records developed a brutally economical musical vocabulary: sequenced electronics, percussion, repetition, command-like vocals and a relationship with rhythm that treated the body as seriously as the intellect. After signing with Mute, “That Total Age” arrived in 1987, followed by “Belief”, “Showtime”, “Ebbhead” and “Big Hit”; after the long interruption, “Industrial Complex” followed in 2010.

Harris’s role inside that history is difficult to reduce to “keyboard player.” His own Bon Harris biography describes him as a founder member and principal writer/producer of Nitzer Ebb, while his work has encompassed programming, synthesizers, percussion, vocals, composition and production. The machinery was important, obviously, but talking to him earlier this year reminded me how strongly his understanding of electronic music remains connected to physical presence.

“Music historically is a communal pastime,” he told me. For Harris, the live show remains the highest expression of that idea: people gathering in one place, the performers giving energy to the audience and receiving it back. That philosophy explains quite a lot about Nitzer Ebb. The famous severity of the programming has always contained something deeply social: this is music designed to happen between bodies.

But Bon did not stop exploring when Nitzer Ebb first went quiet. After relocating to Los Angeles, he moved further into studio production and composition, with scoring work becoming his primary source of income for several years. His work outside the band has included Billy Corgan and The Smashing Pumpkins, Marilyn Manson and Avril Lavigne, while working with arranger Andrew Poppy during Nitzer Ebb had already given him an early view into orchestration and scoring. His film and television work later included music for Project Runway, Top Chef and NBC’s Treasure Hunters.

There was also Maven, the post-Nitzer Ebb project he was already developing by the late 1990s, which placed Bon much further forward as a vocalist. Years later, BLACK LINE offered almost the inverse experience of his traditional role in Nitzer Ebb: a deliberately collaborative environment in which he could enter music already being shaped by other people, find his own space inside it and, as he put it, feel like one of the band rather than having the musical architecture resting largely on his shoulders.

Then there is bonharris:arts, the platform Bon created for work extending beyond Nitzer Ebb into his own music, animation and collaborations. During the 2020 lockdown, “songs:from the lemon tree” began as a series of intimate performances filmed in his Los Angeles garden, with Bon radically rearranging songs that had been important to his own musical development. The project also brought him back to sustained lead vocals after the Maven period.

If “songs the lemon tree” exposed one side of Harris, “mikro” opened another. Released as his first substantial solo project in almost two decades, it joined raw modular synthesis with the funk, soul and R&B that surrounded his childhood and adolescence. Harris described the idea as “twenty-first-century electronic punk funk“; the recordings brought electronic programming into contact with brass, vocals and a rhythmic vocabulary very different from the disciplined severity people automatically associate with Nitzer Ebb.

And Bon Harris extends beyond sound. Harris has spoken about teaching himself animation after suffering music-industry burnout, finding in it another creative language when he needed some distance from music production. He has also discussed ambitions to combine animation and music in larger narrative or theatrical forms. It is an interesting detail because it makes his career look less like a sequence of side projects and more like a restless investigation of how an idea can be given form: through rhythm, voice, image, movement, performance or technology.

That question feels particularly poignant in 2026. Douglas McCarthy died in June 2025, and Harris has since carried a much greater vocal responsibility in Nitzer Ebb while continuing the band with David Gooday, Simon Granger and the wider live unit. When we spoke in February, he was candid about the difficulty of that transition. Singing Douglas’s words every night had forced him to enter those lyrics at a depth he had never needed to before; he spoke about being repeatedly reminded of what an extraordinary lyricist and singular vocalist his friend had been.

Yet he was equally insistent that Nitzer Ebb was not simply becoming a memorial. In February, Harris confirmed that a new album had been written and was awaiting the administrative work necessary for release. He said there were roughly 15 or 16 finished pieces from which the final album would be selected, including recordings featuring McCarthy as well as newer material written and sung by Harris. His description was telling: the album should carry one period forward while opening another. No later confirmed release date has been announced that I could verify at the time of writing, while Nitzer Ebb remain active onstage, with another US run scheduled to begin later in August.

There was another answer from that February conversation that stayed with me. When I asked what he hoped people would eventually remember about Nitzer Ebb, Harris did not choose the sound, the influence or even the extraordinary physical force of the concerts. He chose commitment.

He talked about the financial, emotional and spiritual difficulty of sustaining a creative life, about encountering people who do not understand what you are doing, and about continuing anyway. What mattered to him was that Nitzer Ebb had remained committed to its own artistic vision and had refused to back away from the work. That seems like the right thing to celebrate today.

There is the Bon Harris who helped create one of electronic music’s most recognizable rhythmic languages. There is the producer, programmer and synthesist. The drummer and increasingly prominent singer. The studio collaborator and screen composer. The man who returned to the songs that formed him and rebuilt them under a lemon tree. The modular-funk experimenter. The animator. And there is still the person getting up in the morning with ideas that need somewhere to go.

At 61, the history is substantial. Fortunately, Bon Harris still seems much more interested in creating than in becoming history.

Happy birthday, Bon.

About Bon Harris and Nitzer Ebb

Nitzer Ebb formed in Chelmsford, Essex in 1982, when Bon Harris co-founded the group with school friends Douglas McCarthy, David Gooday and Simon Granger. Signed to Mute Records, the band built a stark, body-driven strand of EBM around sequenced electronics, percussion and command-like vocals, releasing its debut album, “That Total Age”, in 1987. “Belief” followed in 1989, “Showtime” in 1990, “Ebbhead” in 1991 and “Big Hit” in 1995, after which the band went on extended hiatus.

Nitzer Ebb reconvened in the mid-2000s and released “Industrial Complex” in 2010, and has continued to tour internationally in the years since, with Gooday and Granger rejoining the live lineup alongside Harris and McCarthy. Douglas McCarthy died in June 2025, and Harris has since led Nitzer Ebb as its vocalist as well as its programmer and instrumentalist, continuing the band’s live schedule into 2026 while completing a new studio album.

Rome released its tenth studio album, “The Hyperion Machine,” on 12 August 2016 through Trisol Music Group. The neofolk album turns 10 this year. It followed the mini-album “Coriolan,” released on 1 April 2016, and arrived as the tenth studio album in a decade of releases that began with 2006’s “Nera.”

Rome recorded “The Hyperion Machine” at Ear We Go Studio in Belgium. The 11-track album runs 47 minutes and includes “The Hyperion Machine,” “Celine in Jerusalem,” “Transference,” “The Alabanda Breviary,” “Stillwell” featuring Swedish vocalist Thåström, “Cities of Asylum,” “Skirmishes for Diotima,” “Adamas,” “The Secret Germany (For Paul Celan),” “Die Mörder Mühsams” and the bonus track “FanFanFan,” a cover of a Thåström song. Jérôme Reuter wrote all the other tracks. Trisol issued the album on CD and vinyl LP, including an orange vinyl edition and a later white vinyl pressing, and it streams on Spotify. Side-Line’s 2016 review of the album rated it 8½ out of 10.

About Rome

Jérôme Reuter, born 2 August 1981 in Luxembourg, founded Rome in November 2005 as an outlet for his own songs, taking the project’s name from an abridged version of his first name. He had previously recorded as Reggie Fain, played in the Oi! band the Skinflicks and fronted the post-punk act Mack Murphy and the Inmates. Rome signed to the Swedish label Cold Meat Industry in 2006 and released the EP “Berlin” and the debut album “Nera” that year, followed by “Confessions d’un Voleur d’Ames” in 2007, co-produced with Patrick Damiani. Nikos Mavridis joined Reuter and Damiani in 2009, the same year Rome signed to the German label Trisol and released the EP “To Die Among Strangers” and the acoustic-based album “Flowers from Exile.”

Rome issued the EP “Hate Us and See If We Mind” in 2013, followed in 2014 by “A Passage to Rhodesia,” released as a box set of two CDs, a 10-inch vinyl single and a DVD containing music videos and an interview with Reuter. The mini-album “Coriolan,” inspired by Shakespeare’s “Coriolanus,” followed on 1 April 2016, and “The Hyperion Machine” arrived that August as Rome’s tenth studio album.

Rome went on to release “Hall of Thatch” in January 2018, “Parlez-Vous Hate?” in January 2021, “Gates of Europe” in August 2023 and the mini-album “World in Flames” in July 2024, and issued three further albums – “Civitas Solis,” “The Hierophant” and “The Tower” – in April 2025, extending a catalog that now runs to more than twenty studio releases as “The Hyperion Machine” marks its tenth year.

Lustmord, the Welsh dark ambient and industrial pioneer, and Dave Lombardo, the Grammy Award-winning drummer and co-founding member of Slayer, have formed a new joint project called Lustmord Lombardo. The duo’s debut album, “The Pulse of Atoms”, is out October 2, 2026 via Ipecac Recordings. The lead single, “Paleomagnetic Resonance“, arrived today, August 11, with a visualizer video created by Displaced/Replaced.

Lustmord built evolving walls and vortices of sound for the record, leaving room for Lombardo to add percussion and synthesizer layers; Lustmord mixed and mastered the album. Cover photography and design come from Stefan Alt. “The Pulse of Atoms” arrives as limited-edition vinyl in Clear and Smoke variants, on CD, and digitally, with pre-orders and pre-saves available now at lustmordlombardo.lnk.to/pulse.

‘The Pulse of Atoms’ tracklist

1. An Eternal Presence Part I: Unknown
2. An Eternal Presence Part II: Relentless
3. Paleomagnetic Resonance
4. Beyond The Vast Cold Waste
5. The Desolate Shore Part I: Submergence
6. The Desolate Shore Part II: Emergence
7. The Abyssal Deep

Lustmord on ‘Paleomagnetic Resonance’

“One thing about an album like this is that you can’t really point it out as being part of any specific genre or hopefully any specific period. Is it from last year? Is it from 10 years ago, is it from 20 years ago, is it from 5 years in the future? It’s trying to create something that has its own sound, not tapping into whatever musical language or history you’re familiar with. It goes way, way further back. This is the sound of planets dying or of stars being born. It’s about a bigger picture. It’s the sound of the birth of the universe and the death of the universe; it’s not rock and roll,” Lustmord stated.

Lombardo commented on the collaboration: “I’m very proud of this collaboration because it’s so different from anything else that I’ve done. And to create this body of work with Lustmord – this guy is legendary! He rattles the plaster off of venues.”

About Lustmord Lombardo

Lustmord, born Brian Williams in Wales, has recorded as Lustmord since the early 1980s, when he assisted the industrial group SPK before relocating to London and befriending Throbbing Gristle’s Chris & Cosey within the city’s post-punk and industrial scene. Working with field recordings, low-frequency drones and cinematic sound design, he is widely credited as a founder of the dark ambient genre, with albums including 1990’s “Heresy”. Side-Line covered his 2021 collaborative album “Alter” with Karin Park.

Dave Lombardo, born February 16, 1965 in Havana, Cuba, co-founded Slayer in 1981 alongside guitarists Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman and bassist/vocalist Tom Araya, drumming with the band from 1981 to 1992 and again from 2002 to 2013. He has also recorded and toured with Fantômas, Suicidal Tendencies, Dead Cross, Mr. Bungle and the Misfits, and released his debut solo album, “Rites of Percussion”, in 2023.

Lombardo and Lustmord first met backstage at a Fantômas show, introduced by mutual friend Buzz Osborne, around the time Lustmord and Melvins released a collaborative album. Nearly two decades later, the pair reconvened as Lustmord Lombardo to record “The Pulse of Atoms”, their debut album together, due October 2, 2026 via Ipecac Recordings.

New Jersey band Deardarkhead unveiled a video for “In Another Life”, a track from their album “The Pendulum Swings”, out now on their own imprint Fertile Crescent Records. The video was directed by Italian video artist Francesca Bonci, known for work with Federale, The Dandy Warhols and Slowdive’s Rachel Goswell.

“The Pendulum Swings” is Deardarkhead’s second full-length album, arriving almost three decades after their 1998 debut, “Unlock the Valves of Feeling”, also issued on Fertile Crescent Records. It was recorded at Miner Street Recordings in Philadelphia and produced, engineered and mixed by Brian McTear and Amy Morrissey, known for their work with The War on Drugs, Kurt Vile and Sharon Van Etten, and mastered by Joe Lambert, whose credits include Animal Collective, Blonde Redhead, Beach House, M83 and Wild Nothing. The album is streaming on Spotify, Apple Music and Bandcamp, with CD, digital and 180-gram vinyl editions available for pre-order.

Deardarkhead’s current lineup on ‘The Pendulum Swings’

Deardarkhead’s current lineup features guitarist Kevin Harrington and drummer Robert Weiss, joined by bassist James Malizia, who replaced Brandon Howard after the album was recorded. Drummer Robert Weiss described the record as a mix of older and newer material: “‘The Pendulum Swings’ is a collection of both older and newer material that we are very proud of. Each song has its own distinct vibe, but they collectively make up the DDH sound. This was the second time we recorded at Miner Street Recordings and we focused on trying new things with drum loops, different time signatures, backing keyboard tracks, using an ebow and bass VI, plus more guitar tracks than ever.”

Deardarkhead had earlier shared the album’s lead track, “Letting Go”, featuring keyboardist Joe McGinty of The Psychedelic Furs and Nada Surf on additional layers.

About Deardarkhead

Deardarkhead formed in 1988 in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The band takes its name from “Cean Dubh Dilis”, an 1867 Irish poem by Samuel Ferguson. After early cassette releases, Deardarkhead debuted with the full-length “Unlock the Valves of Feeling” in 1998 through their own imprint, Fertile Crescent Records, the first of five recordings the band issued on that label. Vocalist Michael Amper left the band in 2009, after which Deardarkhead shifted to a fully instrumental, texture-driven approach centered on guitar and atmosphere.

Captured Tracks released a retrospective of the band’s early material, “Oceanside: 1991-1993”, in 2011 as part of its Shoegaze Archives series. Deardarkhead joined Saint Marie Records for the “Strange Weather” EP in 2016. Over the years the band has played shows alongside Supergrass, The Psychedelic Furs, Everclear, Nothing and The Lilys. “The Pendulum Swings”, released through Fertile Crescent Records, is Deardarkhead’s first full-length album since “Unlock the Valves of Feeling”, and the video for “In Another Life” is the latest piece of material the band has shared from it.

Liverpool post-punk band The Room release the single ‘Things Have Learnt to Walk that Ought to Crawl’ digitally on August 12, 2026. It is the second single, after “Drill, Baby, Drill!”, from the band’s third album since their 2023 reunion, “Doom Pop!”, due September 4, 2026 via 9×9 Records on CD, digital and limited eco-vinyl, with North American distribution through Darla Records.

“Things Have Learnt to Walk that Ought to Crawl” was originally written in 1982 and released that year as the band’s debut single for Red Flame Records. It is the only older song reworked for “Doom Pop!” and one of just three of the band’s 1980s songs that have remained in their live set. The new version was recorded and mixed at Ark Recording Studios in Liverpool by Steve Powell, produced by Dave Jackson and Steve Powell, and mastered by Pete Maher.

“‘Things Have Learnt to Walk that Ought to Crawl’ is the only older song re-envisioned for this album, and one of only three 1980s songs by The Room to survive in our live set,” said Dave Jackson. “We decided to re-record and release it as it fits neatly into our new repertoire with its exhilarating jangly forward thrust, and also highlights Clive Thomas’ unique drumming.”

On “Doom Pop!” as a whole, Jackson said: “We aimed at shorter, sharper, more pop-oriented songs than on our previous album ‘The Telling’, which was a continuous story told in eleven songs without repetition or distinct choruses. The ‘pop’ element mainly harks back to the roots of our music, updating our original spiky, post-punk independent sound with Ethan’s keyboard stylings. Lyrically, it is a response to the current climate of emerging fascism and paranoia that increasingly colonizes all media.”

The current line-up features Dave Jackson (vocals), Becky Stringer (bass), Darren Brown (guitar), Ethan Kyme (keyboards, theremin) and original member Clive Thomas (drums), with Tom McCabe playing drums on two tracks. “Doom Pop!” follows “Restless Fate” (2023) and “The Telling” (2024), both also released via 9×9 Records.

The Room’s live dates

The Room play the following shows around the release of “Doom Pop!”:

• September 11, 2026 – Birkenhead, Future Yard
• September 12, 2026 – London, Aces & Eights
• September 26, 2026 – Liverpool, 81 Renshaw Street
• October 9, 2026 – Edinburgh, Wee Red Bar
• November 13, 2026 – London, Dublin Castle

About The Room

The Room formed in Liverpool in late 1979 around singer Dave Jackson, guitarist Robyn Odlum, bassist Becky Stringer and drummer Clive Thomas. Early releases on their own label, Box Records, drew comparisons in the press to Joy Division, The Fall and fellow Liverpool band Echo & The Bunnymen, and won the band support from John Peel, for whom they recorded four sessions, plus an appearance on “The Old Grey Whistle Test”. In 1982 the band signed to Red Flame Records, debuting with the single “Things Have Learnt to Walk that Ought to Crawl” and the album “Indoor Fireworks”. The line-up changed in 1983, with Odlum and Thomas replaced by drummer Alan Wills, guitarist Paul Cavanagh and keyboard player Peter Baker, a configuration that recorded the mini-album “Clear!”. Brass player Phil Lucking joined in 1984, ahead of the album “In Evil Hour”, part-produced by Television’s Tom Verlaine. The Room split in 1985; Jackson and Stringer went on to form Benny Profane, Dust and Dead Cowboys.

The Room reunited in 2023, releasing the album “Restless Fate” via 9×9 Records that January, followed by the concept album “The Telling” in 2024. The current line-up of Jackson, Stringer, Darren Brown, Ethan Kyme and Clive Thomas, with Tom McCabe on drums for select tracks, now returns with “Doom Pop!”, due September 4, 2026, which includes the re-recorded “Things Have Learnt to Walk that Ought to Crawl” alongside new material.

Electronic duo Oui Plastique will release the single “Spirit” on September 4, 2026 through the Danish label Town and Towers Records, available on all digital platforms. It is the third single from the project’s upcoming second album, “Forever Will Be Over Before You Know It”, following “Revival” in April 2026 and “Linger” in June 2026. Oui Plastique consists of Martin Nyrup and James Thomas.

“Spirit” is described as an atmospheric, slow-burning track that takes the listener to a dark place deep in the psyche, where the lines of reality blur. The B-side carries Oui Plastique’s own interpretation of John Barry’s theme for “The Persuaders”, the early-1970s TV series starring Roger Moore and Tony Curtis.

Oui Plastique’s ‘Spirit’ and the album ‘Forever Will Be Over Before You Know It’

“Spirit” marks the duo’s continued run-up to “Forever Will Be Over Before You Know It”, their first full-length since 2022’s “Fraternity of Strangers”. No release date for the album has been confirmed beyond 2026.

About Oui Plastique

Oui Plastique grew out of a 2017 collaboration between Martin Nyrup, one half of the Danish-British dark wave duo Perpacity, and James Thomas of the band DVL, who together recorded the album “Convergence” that year. The Oui Plastique name followed, and in 2018 the pair recorded a three-track covers EP for the UnMute project, a tribute to Mute Records, released on Bandcamp as “UM EP 04” on February 1, 2019.

The duo’s debut album “Fraternity of Strangers” was released on February 25, 2022 through ScentAir Records, as a limited CD and digital release containing eleven tracks. A remastered edition of “Convergence” followed in June 2022. In August 2025, the UnMute covers were remastered and reissued on all major platforms as the EP UnMute via Town and Towers Records. Oui Plastique previously released the singles “Revival” and Linger in April and June 2026 respectively, ahead of the second album. With “Spirit” set for September 4, 2026, Oui Plastique continue the build-up to “Forever Will Be Over Before You Know It”, their first full-length since their 2022 debut.

The Polish band Jude was founded in 1993 and gradually earned recognition within the wider Experimental and Industrial music scene. “Zakaz” was originally released in 2024 by Kulturkampf, but two years later Zoharum is giving the album a welcome reissue aimed at collectors. Alongside the CD edition, it is now also available on vinyl.

I missed the original release, but this reissue finally gave me the opportunity to discover “Zakaz”, and the least I can say is that it is a masterpiece of its genre. This is brutal, archaic Industrial music, with the guitar playing a central role alongside the relentless Industrial drums. The Polish vocals sound utterly possessed, perfectly matching the raw violence of the compositions. More than once, the album reminded me of the early work of Swans, yet Jude sounds even heavier, more intense, and even more merciless. The tracks surge forward without offering a moment of relief, at times drawing the listener into an almost trance-like state. Guitar and percussion merge into a powerful symbiosis that is impossible for devotees of the genre to resist.

This is Industrial in its purest form-stripped of unnecessary embellishments and driven by raw, elemental power. (Rating:8½).

Listen to “Beton Blok. Methodology”:

About Jude

Jude is a Polish industrial and experimental act from Łódź, formed in 1993. The lineup has included Anna Krupska, Jacek Walczak, Konrad Grajner, Łukasz Franek and Wiktor Skok. The band’s discography includes “Combat Exhaustion” (2004), “Stat” (2015), “Ultimate Obedience” (2016, reissue and remaster) and “Pigment” (2017). “Zakaz” was first released on CD and digitally by Kulturkampf in 2024. Zoharum reissued the album in 2026 on CD and vinyl, with Kamil Łazikowski credited as recording engineer, mixer and producer on the original sessions.

German synthrock act Antiage released the single “Leaving Babylon” on August 7, 2026. The song follows the band’s previous single “Zenith of Decay” and marks a shift in tone, from decay toward a fresh start.

“Leaving Babylon” is about the conscious decision to turn away from overwhelming noise. The single follows “Zenith of Decay”, released May 15, 2026, which Antiage described as a song about knowing when something tips over and choosing to stay in that state rather than looking for a way out or back.

About Antiage

Antiage is a synthpop and synthrock project from Friedrichroda, Thuringia, in Germany, formed around keyboardist and producer Veto Lestard (Sebastian Schulz). Schulz was previously a co-founder and long-time member of the EBM and IDM formation Mnemonic, which released albums on labels including Alfa Matrix, M-Tronic, Halbsicht and AntZen. Antiage released its debut single, “Lone”, in 2021 ahead of its debut album, combining electronica, melodic pop and rock. The band went on to release the album “Aphrodisiac Odyssey” on May 26, 2023, followed by “Pianistic Odyssey”, a piano-version companion release, on December 15, 2023. Antiage released the single “Zenith of Decay” on May 15, 2026, and followed it with “Leaving Babylon” on August 7, 2026.

Irish synth-pop artist Paul Quin has signed to Town And Towers Records for his second album, “HIVEMIND”, set for release in December 2026 on digital, CD and vinyl. The Copenhagen label will issue a new single each month starting at the end of September, with the album following in December. The lead single, “Dancing With The Devil”, has been shared with press ahead of the release schedule.

“HIVEMIND” arrives five years after Quin’s debut album “Life On Earth”, released in 2021 on the Russian electronica label ScentAir Records. According to the press release, the new album’s title refers to “groupthink” and “conformity of thinking” in internet culture, continuing as a theme across the record.

UK producer and mixer Mark Saunders, credited on previous work with David Bowie, Erasure, Human League and Cyndi Lauper, came out of what the press release describes as semi-retirement to co-write and produce a series of tracks with Quin. DJ and former Royseven guitarist Eamonn “Jabbawookie” Barrett also co-wrote and produced tracks for the record. Additional credited collaborators include Dec Quinn of Republic of Loose, who co-wrote “Ordinary Love”; string arranger Gav Moran, who contributed to “1986”; punk musician Pete Holidai, who produced a cover of MGMT’s “Kids”; sound engineer Greg Malocca; and Aidan Casserly of Empire State Human and songwriter Colm Key, both previous collaborators of Quin’s.

‘HIVEMIND’ tracklist

According to the press release, the twelve tracks run: “Half A Man”, “I Promise”, “People Look Better At Night”, “Dancing With The Devil”, “Blood Stained Dream”, “Gods”, “Little Brother”, “1986”, “Alex”, “Friday Night For Lovers”, “Ordinary Love” and “Bray (Candyfloss And Lucozade)”.

About Paul Quin

Paul Quin is an Irish singer, songwriter and producer who has released Irish electronic music since the late 1980s. He first performed as lead singer of the synth-pop duo BiaZarre with John Butler, whose double A-side single “A Better Place / The Colour of Rain” was released in 1989. Butler died in 1998 of an AIDS-related illness.

After a decade away from music, Quin returned with his debut solo album “Life On Earth”, released in 2021 on ScentAir Records and co-written and co-produced with Aidan Casserly of Empire State Human. The album was preceded by a re-recorded version of “A Better Place” as its first single, and its songs drew on themes of loss, bereavement, addiction and homelessness, with lyrics informed by Quin’s experience as a gay man in Ireland. In an interview with GCN (Gay Community News), Quin described the album as “a kind of a personal renaissance.”

Quin has now signed to Town And Towers Records, a Copenhagen-based label specialising in Nordic dark wave, synthpop, dark synth, italo disco, future pop and electro pop, for his second album “HIVEMIND”. The label plans to release a new single monthly from the end of September 2026, leading up to the album’s release in December 2026 on digital, CD and vinyl formats. The current single, “Dancing With The Devil”, was shared directly with Side-Line ahead of its release. More information is available on Quin’s official website.

Can has shared “Arles 75 Sechs”, a track from the forthcoming live album “Live in Arles 1975”, out 25 September 2026 via Mute and the band’s own Spoon Records on double vinyl, CD and digital. The album documents a 1975 concert at the Théâtre Antique d’Arles in the South of France, and “Arles 75 Sechs” is the sixth of six tracks on the record.

Founding keyboardist Irmin Schmidt recalled the performance: “I remember a very beautiful atmosphere. It was a summer night in the South of France, everybody was stoned and the atmosphere was very special.”

“Live in Arles 1975” originates from a fan recording of the show and features the core lineup of Irmin Schmidt, Jaki Liebezeit, Michael Karoli and Holger Czukay. The concert was supported by Nico & Kevin Ayers and Ash Ra Tempel, and is remembered in the sleeve notes by two attendees, including author and journalist Pascal Bussy. The tracklist runs “Arles 75 Eins”, “Arles 75 Zwei”, “Arles 75 Drei”, “Arles 75 Vier”, “Arles 75 Fünf” and “Arles 75 Sechs”.

Full release details, including format and pre-order information, were covered in Side-Line’s earlier report: Can announce “Live in Arles 1975”, out 25 September via Mute.

Can Live series continues

“Live in Arles 1975” is the latest in a series of archival live albums assembled by Schmidt and producer/engineer René Tinner from the Spoon Records vaults and fan recordings. Previous volumes in the series include “Can Live in Stuttgart 1975”, “Can Live in Cuxhaven 1976”, “Can Live in Brighton 1975”, “Can Live in Paris 1973” (the first to feature the late Damo Suzuki), “Can Live in Aston 1977” and “Can Live in Keele 1977” (2024).

About Can

Can formed in Cologne, West Germany, in 1968, founded by Irmin Schmidt (keyboards) and Holger Czukay (bass), both former students of composer Karlheinz Stockhausen, together with Michael Karoli (guitar) and Jaki Liebezeit (drums). The band’s early vocalists were Malcolm Mooney and, from 1970, Damo Suzuki. Can released a run of studio albums through the 1970s, including “Monster Movie” (1969), “Tago Mago” (1971), “Ege Bamyasi” (1972) and “Future Days” (1973), before disbanding in the early 1980s.

Since 2020, Mute and Spoon Records have issued a series of archival live recordings drawn from the band’s touring years, beginning with “Can Live in Stuttgart 1975” and continuing through “Can Live in Cuxhaven 1976”, “Can Live in Brighton 1975”, “Can Live in Paris 1973”, “Can Live in Aston 1977” and “Can Live in Keele 1977”. Irmin Schmidt, the band’s last surviving founding member, has also continued to release solo work, including the 2026 album “Requiem” on Mute, covered previously by Side-Line. “Live in Arles 1975”, out 25 September 2026, extends the live series with a recording from the band’s 1975 concert in the South of France.

Brazilian-born, Brighton-based producer Gil OS released “Mono Substance” as Amorphous on 7 August 2026 through Semantics Productions. In this Amorphous interview for Side-Line Magazine, Gil OS speaks with Karo Kratochwil about the album’s core question, where the individual ends and the system begins, the role of Nora Avant’s voice across four tracks, bringing berimbau and alfaia into “Maracatu”, and testing an idea against the body before trusting it on record.

Mono Substance begins with a philosophical problem, but Gil OS does not treat philosophy as something to paste over electronic music after the machinery has already been assembled. The interesting part is what happens when an abstract question, where the individual ends, whether separation is ever complete, how systems become internalised, has to survive bass pressure, repetition and a moving body. That line has been developing through Amorphous for some time. “Skepticism” looked outward at technology and the structures shaping human behaviour; “Devour” moved closer to consumption, obedience and the erosion of individual autonomy. On “Mono Substance”, Gil pushes underneath both questions and starts interfering with the boundary itself. If the individual and the system continuously shape one another, how useful is the distinction between them in the first place?

Musically, however, “Mono Substance” is anything but an exercise in abstraction. Gil’s earlier history in chill out, freestyle electronics and psytrance remains somewhere inside his understanding of repetition and momentum, while Amorphous has developed a harder electro/EBM language of its own. Nora Avant’s voice enters the machinery on four tracks, while “Ancestors” and particularly “Maracatu” open the rhythmic vocabulary toward ancestry, ritual and collective physical experience. On the latter, Gil brings his Brazilian roots directly into the album through berimbau and alfaia, setting hand-played percussion against programmed electronics.

Kratochwil had already seen how physical this music becomes when Gil performs it at Fourscher Festival. That experience became one of the starting points for the conversation that follows: control and surrender, melody as seduction, rhythm as communication, Nora Avant as another consciousness within the record, and why an idea that works perfectly in theory may still fail the moment the body refuses to believe it.

Amorphous interview

Karo: When I reviewed “Skepticism”, I was interested in the way you examined systems, technology and the structures that begin shaping the people who created them. “Devour” moved further into consumption, obedience and the erosion of self. On “Mono Substance”, the question seems to move underneath both of those subjects: where does the individual actually end and the system begin? Was that conceptual shift deliberate?

Gil: Yes, I think that shift was deliberate, although it happened quite naturally through the work. With Skepticism, I looked outward at systems and technology, and with Devour, I became more interested in what those systems do to us through consumption and obedience. Mono Substance felt like the next step: turning the question inward and asking how much of what we think of as the self is actually our own. The line between the individual and the system becomes increasingly difficult to locate. At a certain point, the system isn’t just something outside us that we participate in, it becomes part of how we think, behave and understand ourselves. That tension is really at the centre of the record.

Karo: The title “Mono Substance” immediately invokes the philosophical problem of whether apparently separate things are ultimately expressions of one underlying reality. What interested you in that idea musically?

Gil: Musically, I was interested in the idea that very different things can emerge from the same underlying material. I wanted the record to explore that without trying to literally illustrate a philosophical idea. Rhythm, texture and sound became different ways of working with the same substance, repeating, mutating and breaking apart until something familiar starts to feel completely different. There’s also a tension in that: if everything comes from the same source, where does difference actually begin? Rather than adding a philosophical concept onto the music, I wanted the concept to exist within the way the sounds behave, develop and relate to each other.

Karo: There is a fascinating contradiction between the album’s concept and its construction. Philosophically, the record questions separation, while musically your production is extremely precise, with sounds carefully differentiated and positioned. Did you ever think about the production itself as a way of exploring the difference between distinction and genuine separation?

Gil: Yes, absolutely. Precision can create the impression that everything is clearly separated, but the more closely you listen, the more those boundaries start to blur. Sounds can occupy their own space while still being completely dependent on everything around them. Distinction doesn’t necessarily mean separation. You can isolate a sound, a rhythm or a texture, but it still exists within a larger system and is shaped by its relationship to everything else. In that sense, the precision of the production actually reinforces the central idea of the record rather than contradicting it.

Karo: Before the current Amorphous sound, you had already travelled through very different electronic territories under Gil Mahadeva and Mukunga Umbura, including chill out, freestyle electronics and psytrance. How much of “Mono Substance” comes from allowing those older parts of your musical identity back into Amorphous rather than trying to maintain a strict electro or EBM vocabulary?

Gil: I think those earlier projects are still present in the music, even if they’re not always obvious on the surface. I’ve always been interested in repetition, trance and the physical effect of rhythm, so those elements naturally found their way into Mono Substance. I wasn’t trying to return to those styles specifically, but I also didn’t want to exclude parts of my musical history just to maintain a strict Amorphous vocabulary. The older electronic work gave me a different understanding of movement and repetition. It’s less about genre and more about what certain sounds and rhythms can do to the body and the mind.

Karo: One thing I have consistently liked about your work is that the intellectual element never becomes an excuse for the music to stop being physical. Do you consciously test an idea against the body, almost asking whether a concept still works once it has to survive a dance floor, bass pressure and repetition?

Gil: Yes, definitely. For me, an idea ultimately has to work physically as well as intellectually. I can be interested in a concept, but if it doesn’t translate into rhythm, tension, movement or some kind of bodily response, then it probably doesn’t belong in the music. The dance floor is a useful test because repetition strips away a lot of the intellectual framing. You experience the sound first, and only later might you think about what it means. The body is almost the final reality check for the idea.

Karo: Across the album, questions of control appear in several forms: political power, technological systems, consumption, conditioning and even control over one’s own perception. Yet musically there is also a strong tension between very disciplined programming and moments that feel more fluid, hypnotic or ritualistic. How much of that tension between control and surrender is built deliberately into the sound?

Gil: Very deliberately. Control and surrender are two sides of the same process, especially in electronic music. Programming gives you an incredible level of control over rhythm, repetition and detail, but once those elements are repeated and layered, they can start to produce something that feels almost autonomous. There are moments where everything is tightly controlled and mechanical, and others where the repetition becomes hypnotic and you almost stop listening analytically and simply follow it. Surrender isn’t necessarily the opposite of control, sometimes it is what control eventually produces.

Karo: Your music has become darker and more confrontational over time, but melody has never disappeared. Is melody important to you as a counterweight to aggression, or perhaps as something more dangerous, a seductive surface through which uncomfortable ideas can enter more easily?

Gil: I think melody can do both. It can be a counterweight to aggression, but it can also make something much more unsettling because it gives the listener a way in. A melodic element can feel familiar or even beautiful while the material around it is much darker, and that contrast can make the underlying idea hit harder. If a difficult or uncomfortable idea arrives through something seductive, you may engage with it before you’ve had the chance to put up a defence.

Karo: There is the hard electro and EBM impact I already associate with Amorphous, but also trance logic, more organic movement and, in places such as “Ancestors” and “Maracatu,” something communal or ritualistic. Is rhythm becoming a larger conceptual language for you, rather than simply the engine underneath the songs?

Gil: Yes, I think so. Rhythm has always been central to the music, but on Mono Substance I became more interested in rhythm as a way of communicating rather than simply driving the track. With tracks like “Ancestors” and especially “Maracatu,” I was interested in that more collective aspect of rhythm: the idea that rhythm can connect people physically and almost temporarily dissolve the sense of the individual. Maracatu comes from the northeast of Brazil, particularly Pernambuco, and carries a strong Afro-Brazilian cultural identity, combining percussion, dance, ritual and community. I played the berimbau and the alfaia, the large bass drum that gives Maracatu much of its deep, powerful pulse, and then had to find a way of mixing and producing those organic instruments alongside the electronic elements. I wasn’t trying to reproduce Maracatu traditionally, but to let something from my own cultural background enter the language of Amorphous.

Karo: Nora Avant appears on four tracks. On an album concerned with unstable boundaries and the idea that apparently separate voices may belong to the same underlying continuum, how did you think about bringing another voice into the record?

Gil: Nora’s presence felt like much more than simply adding another voice. I think she became another consciousness within the record. Her voice has a very particular emotional and psychological quality, and that allowed the music to move into spaces I couldn’t reach through the production alone. At times she feels like a contrast to the machinery and repetition, and at other times she feels completely absorbed into it. I wanted her voice to become part of the same structure and, in a way, blur the boundary between the human and the system.

Karo: I saw you live at Fourscher Festival, and what stayed with me was how little distance there was between the electronic construction and your physical performance. While making “Mono Substance”, were you already thinking about what these tracks would require from you physically when performed live?

Gil: Yes, definitely. I don’t want the live show to feel like a reproduction of the record; it needs to have its own physical energy and sense of movement. The electronic elements can be very precise, but the performance introduces something human and unpredictable into that structure. For me, the ideal is that you don’t really perceive a separation between the electronic construction and the person performing it.

Karo: Amorphous itself is a name that implies unstable form. Do you recognise one continuous line running through “Skepticism”, “Devour” and “Mono Substance”, even if you did not necessarily plan it from the beginning?

Gil: Yes, I can see a continuous line running through it, even though I definitely didn’t plan the whole journey from the beginning. With Skepticism, I was looking at systems and the way they shape us. Devour moved closer to the individual and the way those systems can become internalised through consumption and conditioning. With Mono Substance, the question has become more fundamental: if everything is interconnected, can we really talk about the individual as something completely separate? The name Amorphous fits that process quite well, not because the music has no form, but because the form is always capable of changing.

Karo: If boundaries disappear, connection becomes possible, but so do loss of autonomy, contamination and absorption into larger systems. Do you personally experience the idea of “one substance” as liberating, disturbing, or as a contradiction you deliberately wanted to leave unresolved?

Gil: I think it’s both liberating and disturbing, and that contradiction is exactly what interested me. The idea that everything is connected can be comforting because it suggests that nothing exists completely alone. But if there is no real separation, then individuality and autonomy become much more complicated. I didn’t want to resolve that tension on the album. Mono Substance isn’t really arguing that unity is good or bad; it’s asking what happens to the idea of the self if we take that unity seriously.

Karo: What happens now that “Mono Substance” is out? Are you planning live dates or a broader run of shows around the album?

Gil: The first two shows were actually in Brazil, in São Paulo, which was very special to me. The CD was also sold there before it was available elsewhere and before the official release, so being able to present the album first in my own country felt like a huge bonus. I definitely want to continue bringing the album into a live setting. The challenge at the moment is finding organizers in Europe who are interested in having Amorphous perform live. I’ve approached a few people, but some haven’t responded, so I’m still trying to figure out how to make the live side more consistent and sustainable. The live version is also an opportunity to develop the more hypnotic and ritualistic side of the album. I want the set to feel physical, immersive and capable of changing in the moment.

About Amorphous

Amorphous is the solo project of Gil OS, a Brazilian-born electronic producer active since the early 1990s. Gil OS first made his name as the mastermind of Morgue Mechanism, one of the pioneering industrial and EBM acts in South America, released through the German label Off Beat. He later relocated to the United Kingdom, settling in Brighton, and worked under further monikers including Gil Mahadeva and Mukunga Umbura across chill out, freestyle electronics and psytrance before consolidating his electro-industrial work under the Amorphous name.

Amorphous released the album “Shapeshifting” in 2016, followed by the “Behaviourism” EP, “Moth Metaphor” (2020) and “Stigmergy”. Side-Line has covered the project twice before through Karolina Kratochwil’s ‘Click Interview’ series, first in 2017 and again in 2020. The album “Skepticism” followed on Semantics Productions in 2024, previewed through the single “Algorithm“.

On 19 June 2026, Amorphous released the single “Devour” featuring Nora Avant on main and backing vocals, written, produced, mixed and mastered by Gil OS. The track introduced the concerns of the forthcoming album in a club-oriented format. “Mono Substance” followed on 7 August 2026 through Semantics Productions, a ten-track album, Axiom, Devour, Masquerade, Blinding Gold, Domino Effect, Kingdom Fall, Ancestors, Unconditioned, Through The Noise and Maracatu, with Nora Avant providing backing vocals on “Devour”, “Blinding Gold”, “Kingdom Fall” and “Ancestors”, and artwork by Anastase Kyriakos. This interview follows Gil OS’ live performance at Fourscher Festival and marks Amorphous’ first Side-Line feature since the “Skepticism” campaign.

Perverts in White Shirts, the Zurich-based experimental electronic duo of Nathalie Dreier and Dave Phillips, will release the 2CD “CULTurally appropriated songs and revisited memories” on September 4, 2026 through Misanthropic Agenda. The 28-track, roughly two-hour album reworks source material connected to Dreier’s upbringing in the Children of God cult, alongside songs and texts drawn from other fringe religious movements and groups built around charismatic leaders.

Perverts in White Shirts rework cult songs on ‘CULTurally appropriated songs and revisited memories’

Dreier and Phillips rework, decontextualize and reimagine melodies and words originally tied to ideology, isolation and indoctrination, blurring the lines between belief and manipulation, intimacy and control, devotion and performance. Misanthropic Agenda describes the record as “a two-hour cringe-pop journey.” The tracklist includes “What A Wonderful World We Live In,” “Love Is The Only Weapon,” “Truth,” “Come To Mommy” and “The Fear Of God,” and closes with “Shangri-La,” a 28-minute, 59-second track. The album was recorded in Zurich between 2024 and 2025 and mastered by Riccardo Mazza. Misanthropic Agenda is also issuing Vincent Grimaldi’s “Amorce De Champ” on the same September 4, 2026 release date.

About Perverts in White Shirts

Perverts in White Shirts is the collaborative project of Nathalie Dreier and Dave Phillips, active since 2011 and based in Zurich. Phillips is a Swiss experimental noise musician and multimedia artist who performs as a core member of Schimpfluch-Gruppe, the Zurich collective founded in 1987, and who also founded the grindcore group Fear of God and the project OHNE. Perverts in White Shirts released their debut album, “Power to the Sheeple,” in 2016, followed by “Meaning What Exactly?” in June 2022, an album recorded in Zurich and Berlin between 2016 and 2020 and issued in a limited edition of 100 copies through Misanthropic Agenda. The duo combine treated field recordings with acoustic and digital sources, with music described across outlets as electro, industrial, witch house, experimental and noise pop. “CULTurally appropriated songs and revisited memories,” due September 4, 2026, is the duo’s third full-length and their first to draw directly on Dreier’s own upbringing within the Children of God cult.

Dariusz Jackowski, a composer and multi-instrumentalist based in Wroclaw, Poland, released the EP “Bezimienny” through the Wroclaw label Ubocze Rec. The four-track release takes its title from the Polish word for “nameless,” and each track carries a different-language equivalent of that word, in Polish, Japanese, Turkmen and Zulu. All instruments and ideas on the EP are credited to Jackowski himself.

Stylistically, “Bezimienny” moves between film and theatre music, building a suggestive, tension-filled soundscape. Almost orchestral passages, built from choral voices and bells, are set against the heavy sound of distorted, droning guitar, giving the four compositions a strong sense of drama. The Japanese-titled track “Nanashi,” meaning “nameless,” carries an unsettling, western-tinged atmosphere that draws on the spirit of Ennio Morricone’s film work, filtered through Jackowski’s own musical language.

Dariusz Jackowski explores anonymity on ‘Bezimienny’

The theme of anonymity runs through the EP’s four track titles, each a different language’s word for “nameless.” Ubocze Rec. describes the release as moving between soundtrack and haunt-leaning electronic music, pairing orchestral elements with distorted guitar textures.

About Dariusz Jackowski

Dariusz Jackowski is a composer, improviser and multi-instrumentalist based in Wroclaw, Poland, who also works as a sound and music computing researcher, music software developer, and mixing and mastering engineer. He performs as part of the group Monument Zero and has released a series of solo works through Ubocze Rec., including “Not for People,” “Colours of Wind,” “Mikrodawkowanie” (with DustCats) and “Bleach Cocktail.” “Bezimienny” continues that run of releases on the label, built entirely from Jackowski’s own instrumentation and production.

Thirty years is more than enough time for an archive to become a mausoleum. This Morn’ Omina have little interest in building one. Vestiges – 30 Years of Ritual Sound (1996-2026) looks backward, certainly, but it does so according to the same logic that has always driven the project: material remains alive only as long as it can still move, change shape, enter a live set differently or find itself placed beside another piece from a completely different moment in the band’s history.

That is why Vestiges does not behave like a conventional retrospective. Its selection moves through the Hegira and Nyan periods, older EP and vinyl material, pieces that have survived through changing live incarnations, and two previously unreleased versions that longtime concertgoers may already recognize. Mika describes it very precisely during our conversation: Vestiges is not a “best-of,” but a “part-of.” The distinction matters. This is less an attempt to establish an official history of This Morn’ Omina than to show which fragments of that history still carry current through the body of the project.

And the timing makes that retrospective gaze particularly interesting. This Morn’ Omina are hardly standing still to admire their own past: Insha has opened another phase, Triptych and Rivers Of The Sea remain ahead, and the latter is intended to complete the Kundalini trilogy. After seeing the band at Castle Party this summer, where rhythm, bodies, light and concentrated physical energy seemed to occupy the same space, I wanted to talk to Mika about what thirty years actually look like from inside the project: memory, ritual, changing technology, old compositions that refuse to become fixed objects, and why the future still matters more than commemoration.

This Morn’ Omina interview

Karo: “Vestiges” is an interesting word for an anniversary release because a vestige is neither the past itself nor a complete record of it; it is what remains after time, change and disappearance have done their work. When you looked back over thirty years of This Morn’ Omina, what made something feel like a genuine vestige of the project rather than simply an important or successful track? Were you selecting music according to historical significance, personal memory, or according to what still feels alive to you now?

Mika: Selecting these “traces” was based on the importance they have in the context of the past releases. Pierre St. Pierre was instrumental in the first draft of the list, as he listened for which ones might still prick up ears, and then the final list was created from a conceptual point of view so it would make sense on multiple levels.

Karo: The selection does not behave like a conventional career retrospective. It refuses chronology and moves freely between different periods, while a substantial part of the core program comes from the Hegira and Nyan-era material rather than attempting to represent every phase equally. Was the intention therefore less to document what happened over thirty years than to identify certain ideas, rhythms and states of consciousness that have persisted underneath everything else?

Mika: There is also a moral, ethical part at play. The Kundalini trilogy is still available as a physical medium and has not been finished yet. It would be dishonest toward the listener or buyer to try and sell the same tracks twice.

So the focus went toward Hegira/Nyan, but also toward tracks from vinyls or EPs that are no longer available, while plenty of them are still, in rotating ways, part of the live sets.

Karo: This Morn’ Omina has often organized music through cycles and larger conceptual structures, including the Hegira, Nyan and Kundalini sequences. A compilation necessarily removes individual compositions from those original systems and places them beside music that once belonged to another context. What happens to a ritual object when it is removed from the ritual for which it was created? Do these tracks retain their original meaning for you, or does Vestiges inevitably create a new mythology from fragments of the older ones?

Mika: They retain their original meaning, although it could be argued that their closer links to the surrounding tracks on the original releases are missing. But now they are part of Vestiges, which is not a new mythology, just a compendium of different stories.

Karo: There is an unusual tension between preservation and transformation here. Vestiges ostensibly looks backward, yet it opens with a previously unreleased version of “The Nameless Grey” and closes its 12-track core with the previously unreleased “One Eyed-Man (liber III).” Why frame an archive with versions the audience did not know from that history? Is there something important to you in refusing the idea that the past can ever be retrieved in one definitive form?

Mika: These versions were always part of our live sets. We made them available for those people who have not been able to see TMO live yet, and for those who have and were asking where they could find these versions.

Karo: That becomes particularly interesting with “One Eyed-Man,” because it is one of those compositions that acquired a life far beyond the circumstances of its creation and became an important point of recognition for This Morn’ Omina. The new “liber III” version means that thirty years are not concluded by preserving the familiar object in glass, but by opening it again. What can you hear in a composition after living with it for decades that its original author could not possibly have heard when writing it?

Mika: “One Eyed-Man,” and other tracks as well, had many iterations because we like to keep the live situation interesting for us and for the returning live audience. They live a sonic life of their own and evolve according to our taste.

Karo: The track titles themselves carry markings such as [ccf], [lcf], “liber II,” “liber III” and “FL.” On Vestiges, those designations become especially conspicuous because different systems and periods suddenly coexist on one tracklist. Rather than asking simply what the abbreviations stand for, I am interested in why classification has remained part of the language of This Morn’ Omina. Are these codes practical version markers, or do they also express the idea that a composition can exist in several states without one becoming the final, authoritative version?

Mika: [CCF] is a term coined by a friend of mine, Paul Willeme, in 2000, when he noticed that the versions played live were shorter than those on the physical releases. He dubbed them “compressed commercial format,” and [LCF] “live commercial format.” These tags stuck throughout TMO history, as they clearly denote what to expect from that musical embodiment of that particular concept when released.

“Liber…” can be seen as different “books,” self-sustaining entities.

Karo: Rhythm presents another fascinating problem when looking back over thirty years. Electronic production technology has changed enormously since the earliest material, but the human body has not changed at anything like the same speed. This Morn’ Omina has always used repetition, percussion and pulse to produce states that are bodily before they become intellectual. When you revisit older pieces now, do you hear production methods that belong unmistakably to their time, or are you more struck by how little the fundamental mechanics of trance actually need technological progress?

Mika: The writing process evolved over the decades, of course. But at its basis always lies the goal of inducing saccadic movement and attaining spiritual transcendence. Access to knowledge of new methods, or simply experimenting with different instruments or gear, old and new, makes rooting new concepts a pleasurable process as well.

Karo: Your work has repeatedly brought archaic or pre-modern symbolic systems into contact with electronic machinery, from “Enuma Elish” and “The World Tree” to “Nuraghi,” while the music itself has moved through tribal percussion, industrial force, EBM and techno-derived repetition. After thirty years, do you still see an opposition between the archaic and the technological? Or has the project gradually demonstrated that both ritual and electronic sequencing rely on something very similar: repetition, pattern, anticipation and the transformation of consciousness through time?

Mika: There has never been an opposition between archaic and technological in our worldview. All sounds work together to make the concept or the story of a piece intelligible and transmutable.

Karo: There is a danger in the language surrounding “ritual industrial” that ritual becomes an aesthetic adjective: drums, symbols, incantatory voices, certain visual codes. This Morn’ Omina has always seemed much more concerned with what rhythm actually does. After three decades, what distinguishes ritual as a real compositional process from ritual as decoration? Is there a point at which repetition ceases to be a musical device and genuinely alters the listener’s state?

Mika: A track is finished when everything has blended into one form that interconnects all elements, whether this is a voice, noise, hand drum or lower frequencies. The whole is ritual, not just one specific element.

Karo: Vestiges also raises the question of memory in electronic music. A photograph or written document tells us something about a past event from a distance, whereas an old rhythm can make a body reproduce an action it performed twenty years earlier. When you hear these tracks together now, is your memory primarily intellectual, remembering studios, people and circumstances, or physical? Can the body remember a piece of music differently from the person who made it?

Mika: I remember all of the circumstances in which these tracks were made. Most of them are good memories; some are tied to lesser ones because of, in most cases, failing gear or erratic musical experiments going off the rails.

Listening to ritual music leaves an imprint on mind and body. That is a personal experience. The creator has no control over that.

Karo: Earlier this year you described Insha as reflective rather than restrained, a necessary return to stability after a period in which This Morn’ Omina had effectively undergone a tabula rasa. That makes the timing of Vestiges particularly intriguing. Does an artist look at his archive differently after having seriously contemplated an ending? In other words, did almost losing the continuity of This Morn’ Omina change your understanding of which parts of those thirty years were actually essential?

Mika: To an extent, yes, because of the necessary turmoil that is part of a tabula rasa. But Insha was not made on a deserted island. It was made on a peninsula, a place that, even though remote, is still firmly connected to the mainland. After Insha, it was with fondness that we looked back upon what had been made before.

Karo: There is also a difficult curatorial question hidden inside every retrospective: exclusion. Eighteen pieces can represent thirty years only by leaving a vast amount outside the frame. Were the omissions harder than the selections? And did you ever reject a track precisely because it was too obvious, too successful or too strongly associated with one historical version of This Morn’ Omina to tell the story you wanted Vestiges to tell?

Mika: Well, blame us for the omissions, hah! It was not hard at all to leave certain tracks out. Vestiges needed to make “sense” to listeners, new and old. Certain tracks did not make it, as otherwise it would have been too long to present in a meaningful way. So we apologize that “your favorite track” was not included.

Karo: You have said recently that stories within This Morn’ Omina matter across past, present and future, and that many different sources can flow toward one larger universal arc. Listening to thirty years compressed into one collection creates an unusual opportunity to test that belief against the work itself. When you place a piece from 1998 beside material conceived many years later, do you discover continuity you consciously planned, or patterns that only became visible retrospectively? Can an artist discover meanings in his own catalogue that the younger version of himself never intended?

Mika: There is continuity. But it is not rigidly planned. In the end, the person or people making it evolved over time, but it is still the same human being at the cradle. The production value definitely went up quite a few notches over time.

Karo: There is a particularly beautiful paradox in releasing Vestiges during what is actually an extremely productive new period for This Morn’ Omina. Insha arrived this year, and you have already said that two further records are in development: Triptych and Rivers Of The Sea, with the latter intended to complete the Kundalini trilogy. Has the process of excavating these thirty years fed back into the music you are making now? I am curious whether an archive can work in both directions: preserving evidence of where you have been while quietly changing where you are able to go next.

Mika: I do not see any paradox at all. Vestiges is a pebble along the same road where Triptych and Rivers Of The Sea will be. We could have waited another 10 years, but we decided not to. This Morn’ Omina has always had a prolific output because we feel that there are always new concepts that deserve the light of day, and maybe waiting another 10 years would have made a Vestiges project almost too big and therefore confusing.

Vestiges is not a “best-of.” It is a “part-of.”

Karo: I have to finish with the live side because I have just seen This Morn’ Omina at Castle Party, and it was an extraordinary visual and sonic experience. What struck me was how completely the music occupied the space: rhythm, bodies, light and the almost ceremonial concentration onstage seemed to become parts of the same thing. You still have several dates ahead, including the special 30th-anniversary performance at La Luna Obscura in Ostend, Fourscher Festival in Erfurt, and Schachtfrequenz in Zwickau in February 2027. Are further concerts being planned around the 30th anniversary and Vestiges, and is there anything particular you want these anniversary performances to say about where This Morn’ Omina is now, rather than simply celebrating where it has been?

Mika: Thank you. We found it a resounding experience as well. A deep connection with the audience was formed through a TAZ. La Luna Obscura is the only real anniversary concert, with a one-off special setlist. The concerts that are lined up, and those not announced yet, will definitely reflect some parts of that, but our aim is the future, with new tracks and new stories to tell.

About This Morn’ Omina

This Morn’ Omina is a Belgian post-industrial and ritual trance project founded in 1996 in Roeselare by musician and producer Mika Goedrijk. Musically the project mixes ritual trance, tribal industrial, power noise and dark ambient, built around polyrhythmic percussion and layered atmospheres. In its early years, the project issued three self-released tapes on the Afterfurcht imprint: “The Future Has Taken Root In The Present” (1996), “Terra Tramuit et Quievit” (1997) and “Decline and Fall of Empires” (1997). These recordings led to the first full-length CD, “Nezeru Enti Sebauem Neterxertet,” on the Italian label Old Europa Cafe in 1997, followed by “Em Sauf Haa Heru” (1998) and “Taiu” (2000), completing the initial Hegira-related cycle.

During the 2000s, This Morn’ Omina released a string of albums on labels including Ant-Zen and Spectre Records, among them “7 Years Of Famine,” “Le Serpent Blanc / Le Serpent Rouge,” “The Drake Equation” and “Les Passages Jumeaux.” The track “One-Eyed Man” became one of the project’s best-known compositions, giving This Morn’ Omina wider recognition beyond its ritual industrial base. In 2017, the project moved to the German label Dependent for the double CD “Kundalini Rising,” followed in 2021 by “The Roots Of Saraswati,” also on Dependent. In 2025, This Morn’ Omina released the four-track digital EP “Omm Of Life” through Zazen Sounds. Beyond This Morn’ Omina, Mika Goedrijk has been involved in several other projects, including Sygo Cries, Nebula-H, Pow[D]Er Pussy, Les Nuits Blanches, Project Arctic, Andraculoid and, more recently, Plan C.

In January 2026, This Morn’ Omina announced “Insha,” released 23 February 2026 as a CD and digital co-release between Cyclic Law and Zazen Sounds, the project’s first new full-length album in five years and its twelfth studio album overall. In June 2026, This Morn’ Omina joined the Dark Dimensions Label Group and announced “Vestiges – 30 Years Of Ritual Sound (1996-2026),” a compilation of known, rare and previously unreleased tracks marking the project’s 30th anniversary, released as a limited edition digipak CD via ProNoize / Dark Dimensions on 26 June 2026. This Morn’ Omina played Castle Party in the summer of 2026 and has further dates ahead, including a 30th-anniversary performance at La Luna Obscura in Ostend, Fourscher Festival in Erfurt, and Schachtfrequenz in Zwickau in February 2027, with two further albums, “Triptych” and “Rivers Of The Sea,” in development, the latter intended to complete the Kundalini trilogy.

Los Angeles artists FEVR and Vick Vapors signed to German label Cold Transmission Music, the label announced. The signing runs in collaboration with Darkwave Records, a Los Angeles-based independent label and artist collective for darkwave and related dark music genres.

Cold Transmission and Darkwave Records said the partnership goes beyond a shared release strategy, aiming to strengthen the international darkwave and post-punk community and support artist development on both sides of the Atlantic.

“As the Los Angeles home for a growing community of darkwave and post-punk artists, Darkwave Records is honored to collaborate with Cold Transmission on these landmark releases from Fevr and Vick Vapors,” said Ray Arroyo, co-founder of Darkwave Records. “By combining our strengths in North America with Cold Transmission’s deep roots throughout Europe, we’re giving these artists a unified international platform while remaining true to the independent spirit that defines our scene. We see this as the beginning of a long-term creative partnership built around exceptional music and artist-first values.”

The labels’ first joint release will be a split album featuring FEVR and Vick Vapors in several physical formats, with new studio albums from both artists planned for 2027.

FEVR and Vick Vapors’ sound

FEVR is the project of songwriter and producer Matt Rozo, blending coldwave pulse, new-wave melody, dark synth textures and guitar-driven post-punk. Rozo cites The Cure as a formative influence and has released a run of albums, EPs and singles since 2022, including “Hidden Meadows”, “Ghost”, “Lonely Eyes”, “Mourning Rain” and “Fate”, along with collaborations with Vick Vapors and The XRAY5.

Vick Vapors is a multi-instrumentalist and producer whose work moves through darkwave, industrial, electro and indie dance, pairing haunting atmospheres with club-ready beats. He has collaborated with other artists in the scene and recently completed a full US tour.

About Cold Transmission Music and Darkwave Records

Cold Transmission Music is a German label with a catalogue of darkwave, post-punk, coldwave and related acts, previously covered on Side-Line for releases including OH Madonna’s debut single “Touch” and SIIE’s debut album “Acmé”. Darkwave Records, founded in Los Angeles by Ray Arroyo and Matt Rozo, is an artist-driven independent label and collective dedicated to darkwave, post-punk, gothic rock and synthpop, built around collaboration and long-term artist development. The signing of FEVR and Vick Vapors marks the start of the two labels’ collaboration, with a joint split album due next and new albums from both artists planned for 2027.

Project Silence, the industrial death metal band from Kuopio, Finland, released “Final Report (Purge)”, the second single from their upcoming fourth album. The track blends melodic death metal with retro-inspired synths and industrial metal, mixing blackened death vocals with melodic electronic elements.

The band’s current lineup features vocalist, keyboardist and programmer D, guitarists S and A, drummer Silve_R and bassist H. Artwork for the single comes from Darkbringer Art.

Second single since ‘Rotten’

“Final Report (Purge)” follows “Rotten“, the first single from the same forthcoming album, released in November 2025. The new album will be Project Silence’s fourth, following “The Void”, which combined industrial and synthwave melodies with groovy riffs.

About Project Silence

Project Silence was formed in Kuopio, Finland, in 2008 by vocalist Delacroix, later joined by Silve_R (Rieti Jauhiainen) on drums, S (Simo Ruotsalainen) and A (Aksu Mussalo) on guitars, and H (Henri Hakkarainen) on bass. The band mixes melodic death metal with the rhythmic, melancholic beats of synthwave and industrial music, a sound it developed across three albums, with combined streams passing two million on Spotify. Project Silence has played clubs and festivals including Kuopiorock and Mammothfest, and toured the UK, Russia and Latvia, opening for Aborted, Soilwork and Decapitated.

Side-Line has followed the band’s singles cycle since “Disease” in 2022 and “Cult” in 2023, both ahead of “The Void”, and the lyric video for “Rip The Flesh” in 2024. “Final Report (Purge)”, released in August 2026, is the second single from the band’s fourth album, following “Rotten” in November 2025.

Hearing Unter Null in 2026 means hearing two versions of Erica Dunham at once: the young woman who turned rage, grief and instinct into “Sick Fuck,” and the woman who can now look back at that fire without needing either to apologize for it or step back inside it.

When Erica Dunham released “Coming Up To Breathe” in April 2025, it ended more than a decade of release silence under the Unter Null name. “You Made A Monster” followed that July, and in June 2026 Alfa Matrix brought another part of the story back into circulation with “The Rise From Ruin (and the Ritual of Becoming)”, a double-CD revisiting material from the formative The Failure Epiphany period and other early releases.

For anyone who remembers Unter Null from the “Sick Fuck” era, there is something strange about hearing that material again now. The aggression is immediately recognizable, but the person standing behind it has accumulated another two decades of grief, survival, silence, loss and rebuilding. The old songs have not changed; the consciousness looking back at them has. That tension runs throughout this conversation.

Dunham speaks with striking clarity about rage becoming something she can aim rather than simply explode inside, about distortion functioning simultaneously as armor and confession, about refusing to allow somebody else’s account of her life to become the official version, and about the long silence in which Unter Null had not disappeared so much as become temporarily unreachable. She also talks about Stray as another emotional nervous system, the literal destruction of her studio in the 2008 fire, being a woman inside an aggressively male-coded scene, and why reopening the past has very little to do with wanting to live there again.

For Erica, survival is no longer simply about making it through. It is about deciding what belongs to her after everything that tried to take pieces of her away.

Check her official website at www.unter-null.net .

Unter Null interview

Karo: When you look at the very young Erica who started Unter Null in 1998, and then at the woman who returned with “Coming Up To Breathe”, “You Made A Monster”, and now “The Rise From Ruin (and the Ritual of Becoming)”, do you feel continuity between them, or do you feel that Unter Null had to be broken apart and rebuilt by a different person?

Erica: I don’t think I was ever rebuilt by a different person, just a different version. Erica 2.0 and beyond, and I think I keep surviving just long enough to become more of myself, more authentic without apologies. The same passion and fire that started Unter Null in 1998 is still here, it never left. I’ve always written about grief, love, anger, longing, and trying to understand what it means to be human.

That part has never changed. What changed is the amount of life I’ve lived between then and now. I’ve lost people, and I’ve buried versions of myself that I thought would last forever. I’ve had to start over more times than I ever would have expected, but some things had to be broken apart completely so I could see what was actually worth carrying with me. I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason, whether we see it at the time or not.

So, yea, I don’t feel disconnected from that younger version of myself. I love her and she deserves grace and compassion. She was fearless, chaotic, stubborn, and she created something honest with whatever tools she had at the time. But I also don’t romanticize her. She hadn’t yet realized the fires she would be walking through.

“Coming Up To Breathe,” “You Made A Monster,” and this re-release all come from a place of understanding that becoming is a lifelong process. You don’t rise back just once. You do it over and over again until it makes sense. Every loss, every mistake, and every act of survival leaves a mark.

I didn’t bring back Unter Null because I wanted to relive the past. I brought it back because there were still so many things left to say.

Karo: “The Rise From Ruin (and the Ritual of Becoming)” feels less like a standard reissue and more like a full-circle moment. The “Sick Fuck” era comes back, but you are no longer the same person who created it. What kind of circle does this release close for you, and what does it reopen?

Erica: I think it closes a circle with the version of myself who was creating from pure instinct. The Sick Fuck era was chaotic, ugly, emotional, but thoroughly honest. I was young, wild, without much direction, and writing music because I had an intense drive to do so- I didn’t have some grand plan, I was just pulling whatever was inside of me out into sound, whether it was rage, grief, desire, self-destruction, or the need to feel like I existed somewhere. Coming back to that material now is strange because I recognize my younger self completely, but I’m not survive without fully knowing that’s what I was doing. So in that way, this release closes the circle of shame I may have had around some of that early chaos. I don’t feel the need to distance myself from it.

I don’t feel the need to apologize for how intense, imperfect, or unpolished it was. That was my rocky foundation, unforgiving, but the making of who I am now. It also reopens the door to the parts of myself I thought I had buried. Not in a destructive way, but in a way that lets me look back and say, “You made it! I’m still here.” However, this re-issue isn’t about living in the past. It’s about honoring the fact that the past survived me (ha), and I survived it too.

Karo: I remember you from the “Sick Fuck” era, including those earlier visits in Poland, and listening to this material now feels strange in the best possible way. It is the same voice, but it does not feel like the same girl speaking anymore. It feels like a woman looking back at her own fire. When you hear those songs now, do you recognize yourself immediately, or do you hear someone you had to survive becoming?

Erica: I recognize myself immediately, but I feel detached in some ways, almost like it was another lifetime. There are moments in many of those songs where I can hear exactly who I was at the time of writing. I can hear the anger, the ferocious hunger, the lack of fear, the chaos, and the need to purge something out of myself and make it real. I don’t listen to it and feel disconnected from my younger self. I know her now, and I understand her, which is all she needed, but I also hear someone who had no idea what was coming. I can hear the beginning of survival in those songs before I even knew what survival was going to cost me. I hear someone becoming, but not yet understanding the price of becoming. I hear someone playing with fire before knowing how badly it would burn.

So yes, it is the same voice, but it carries differently now. Back then, it was instinct. Now, there is memory behind it. There is grief behind it. There are teeth of steel, but also a lot more clarity. I don’t think I had to survive becoming who I am- I think I had to survive everything that tried to take her from me. When I hear those songs now, I don’t feel ashamed of the chaos. I feel protective of it. That fire was real, and I’m grateful it never fully went out, it just transformed.

Karo: The title joins two very different ideas: ruin and becoming. Ruin suggests destruction, while ritual suggests transformation, repetition and meaning. Was revisiting this early material emotionally difficult, or did it feel like taking control of a story that had been waiting for you?

Erica: It was both. Revisiting this material was emotionally difficult in ways I didn’t fully expect. Not because I’m ashamed of it, but because old work has a way of dragging old versions of you back into the room. You remember what your voice sounded like before certain losses. You remember what anger felt like before it became grief. You remember who you were before life took a sledgehammer to everything – but it also felt like taking control of something that had been waiting for me. Ruin and becoming have always been connected for me. I don’t think transformation happens in some clean, beautiful, peaceful way most of the time. Sometimes it starts in the wreckage. Sometimes you don’t get to choose the fire, but you do get to choose what you build from the ashes. That’s what this release feels like to me. It isn’t just looking backward. It’s returning to the scene with a different kind of strength. I can hear the damage, but I can also hear the beginning of something that refused to die (which would be me). So yes, it felt necessary, like putting my hands on an old wound and realizing it doesn’t dictate my life anymore.

Karo: “Coming Up To Breathe” felt less like a comeback single in the usual sense and more like the first moment after a long submersion. What exactly were you coming up from? Artistic silence, personal exhaustion, trauma, survival, disillusionment, or something harder to name?

Erica: I was coming up from all of it. Artistic silence, personal exhaustion, trauma, grief, survival, disillusionment. All of those things were tangled together. I don’t think there was one clean, singular reason I disappeared or went quiet. Life just kept piling on until I didn’t recognize the surface anymore. I was coming out of years of being in survival mode; from losing parts of myself I thought were permanent, from carrying more than I knew how to carry, from being so emotionally and physically exhausted that creating didn’t feel possible for a long time. There also is the harder-to-name part: that moment when you realize you have been underwater for so long that you forgot what breathing even felt like beyond short gasps of air. “Coming Up To Breathe” wasn’t written as a polished comeback statement. It was more like proof of life. It was the sound of me breaking the surface after being submerged in so many things that had tried to bury and silence me. It wasn’t triumphant in some clean, cinematic way. It was messy. It was human. It was the first inhale after a long period of slowly drowning quietly.

Karo: A lot of Unter Null’s music has always dealt with survival, but survival can mean very different things. Sometimes it means staying alive. Sometimes it means keeping your voice. Sometimes it means refusing to let someone else’s version of events become the official story. When you write now, what kind of survival are you writing from?

Erica: I think I now write from the type of survival that comes after staying alive. There is the immediate kind of survival where you are just trying to make it through the day, through the night, through the next hour, through whatever is happening without completely disappearing inside of it, and I know that version very well. The type of survival I write from now is very different- it is the aftermath of pure emotional exsanguination. It is what happens when you are still here, but you have to figure out what parts of you made it through and what parts need to be rebuilt from nothing.

I write from the survival of keeping my voice, of not feeling that I have to shrink anymore to keep the peace, of not letting someone else’s version of me become the truth, of refusing to let the worst things that happened to me be the only things that define me. There is a lot of anger in that, but there is also clarity. I am not necessarily writing as a wounded version of myself anymore, I am writing from the scars that I will carry with me for the rest of my life. So, when I write now, it is still about survival, but it is also about ownership. I am not asking for permission to tell my story, I am simply taking my power back.

Karo: In your earlier work, anger often felt explosive, almost feral, as if the only honest language was attack. In the newer songs, the anger feels more precise, more conscious, more controlled. Has your relationship with rage changed over the years?

Erica: Oh, for sure. Absolutely. When I was younger, rage was immediate- it was reflexive. It was the only language I had for things I didn’t know how to process yet. A lot of the earlier material came from that place where the feeling hits and you just throw it against the wall as hard as you can. There was honesty in that, but there was also a lack of distance from it. I was inside the fire. My relationship with rage has definitely changed. I don’t think I’m less angry now. I think I understand my anger better. I know where it lives in my body. I know what it is protecting. I know when it is useful, and I know when it is just trying to keep me from falling apart.

The newer songs still have teeth, but the bite is different. It’s more deliberate. I don’t need to burn the whole room down just to prove that I was hurt. I can point directly at the thing. I can name it. I can turn it into something controlled, focused, and still very dangerous. Rage is not something I want to erase from Unter Null. It belongs there. It has always belonged there. But now it feels less like an explosion and more like a weapon I actually know how to hold. I think that is the difference. The anger is still feral, but it has learned how to aim.

Karo: “You Made A Monster” is such a powerful title because it shifts responsibility. It does not say, “I became this by accident.” It says, “Look at what was done, look at what was enabled, look at what you helped create.” Was that song written as a personal exorcism, a confrontation, or a document of something many people silently recognize?

Erica: I think it was all three. “You Made A Monster” was definitely personal. It came from that place where you finally stop absorbing everything and start handing it back. There is a moment when you realize you have been carrying the weight of someone else’s damage, someone else’s choices, someone else’s cruelty, and somehow you are the one expected to stay soft, quiet, graceful, and forgiving. That song is me saying no. It is an exorcism because I needed to get it out of my body. It is a confrontation because I wanted to point directly at the source and say, “You don’t get to act surprised by what I became after what you did.” But I also think a lot of people recognize that feeling.

That moment where you are no longer willing to be the only one held responsible for how you survived. I don’t mean “monster” as something evil. I mean it as something altered. Something created under pressure. Something that grew teeth because it had to. It is not about avoiding accountability for myself. It is about refusing to carry everyone else’s. There is power in saying: I did not become this in a vacuum. I was shaped by love, loss, betrayal, survival, and the things people thought I would never say out loud. And now I am saying them.

Karo: The early Unter Null material returns after “Coming Up To Breathe” and “You Made A Monster”, which changes how we hear it. Do you feel the new songs explain the old ones in any way, or do they complicate them?

Erica: I think the new songs complicate the old ones more than they explain them. I don’t really want to explain the early material too neatly. Those songs came from a very specific place in time, and part of their power is that they are messy, instinctive, and unresolved. I don’t want to go back now and clean them up with adult language just to make them easier to understand. But I do think the newer songs change the way the old ones are heard. “Coming Up To Breathe” and “You Made A Monster” come from someone who has lived long enough to understand the patterns more clearly. The early songs were me inside the fire. The newer songs are me standing in the aftermath, looking at what burned, what survived, and what I refuse to lose again. So no, I don’t think the new songs explain the old ones like an answer key. They give them more context. They show that the rage, the grief, the chaos, and the survival were not separate phases. They were part of the same long thread. The old songs were the warning signs, the wounds, the instinct. The new songs are the scar tissue, the language, and the refusal to disappear. So maybe they don’t explain the past. They prove I made it through it.

Karo: The voice in Unter Null is still distorted, still violent in texture, but in the new material it feels emotionally clearer. Do you feel that distortion protects the truth, exposes it, or allows you to say things that would be unbearable in a clean voice?

Erica: I think distortion does all of those things. It protects the truth, but it also exposes it. There are certain things I can say through distortion that would feel almost too naked in a clean voice. Not because the clean voice is weaker, but because some emotions don’t feel clean when they come out of you. Some things are jagged. Some things are ugly. Some things need to sound like they clawed their way through your chest to get into the room. Distortion gives me a place to put the violence of the feeling. It lets the voice become something more than just a human voice. It becomes armor, static, teeth, machinery, grief, panic, rage — all of it layered together. And sometimes that is the only honest way to deliver something. If I’m writing about survival, betrayal, dependency, anger, or the parts of myself that are hardest to look at, a clean voice doesn’t always feel truthful enough. But I also think the emotional clarity comes from knowing what I’m saying now. I’m not hiding behind the distortion. I’m using it as part of the language. The newer material feels clearer because I understand the source of the feeling more than I used to. So yes, distortion protects me. But it also tells on me.

Karo: “The Rise From Ruin” brings back “The Failure Epiphany”, “Sick Fuck”, and material from “Sacrament” and “Absolution”. How does it feel to reopen that specific period from this distance? Do those songs still feel like yours, or do they feel like preserved evidence from another life?

Erica: It feels like opening a box I buried a long time ago and realizing everything inside still has a pulse. Those songs still feel like mine, but they also feel like evidence. They are pieces of a life I lived, a mind I had, a body I was in, and emotions I didn’t always know how to survive. I can hear who I was in them so clearly. I can hear the chaos, the instinct, the damage, the defiance, the hunger to create something that felt real. But from this distance, I don’t hear them the same way anymore. When I was making that material, I was just inside it. I wasn’t thinking about what it would mean decades later. I wasn’t thinking about legacy or revisiting it or having to explain it.

I was just making sound out of whatever was eating me alive at the time. Now, reopening that period feels less like returning to it and more like witnessing it. I can hold it differently. I can respect it without being consumed by it. I can see the beauty in the ugliness and the strength underneath the chaos. So yes, they are still mine. Completely. But they are also preserved evidence of someone trying to become, even when she had no idea what she was becoming. And I think that is what makes this release feel so strange and powerful to me. It is not just nostalgia. It is proof that something survived.

Karo: “Sick Fuck” became one of those tracks people remember almost physically: club impact, aggression, shock, adrenaline. But when a song becomes an anthem, it can also flatten the person behind it into one image. Did you ever feel trapped by that song, or by the version of Erica people projected onto it?

Erica: Yea, I think I did feel trapped by it at certain points. “Sick Fuck” became bigger than I ever expected it to become. I understand why people connected to it the way they did. It has that immediate impact. It is aggressive, ugly, confrontational, and it hits the body before the brain has time to catch up. I’m grateful that it had that life. But when a song becomes that recognizable, people sometimes start treating it like the entire definition of who you are. They see the aggression, the shock, the distortion, the title, and they build a version of you around it. And that version can be very flat. I was never just that song. I was never just rage, or provocation, or violence in a club track.

was always vulnerability underneath it. There was always grief underneath it. There was always a human being trying to turn something unbearable into sound. So yes, I think I pushed against being reduced to that one image. But I also don’t reject the song. I don’t look at it like something I need to escape from. It was honest. It came from me. It still belongs to me. The difference now is that I can hold it without letting it define the entire room. “Sick Fuck” is part of the story, but it is not the whole story. It is one huge scream from a much larger body of work.

Karo: Unter Null emerged in a scene that was often aggressive, male-coded, confrontational, and not always generous to women who sounded angrier than people expected them to be. Did you feel you had to become harder, louder, or more extreme to be heard, or was that intensity simply your natural language?

Erica: I think intensity was always my natural language. I feel loudly. I don’t think I sat down and decided I needed to become harder or louder to survive in a male-coded scene. I was already angry and emotional. I was already drawn to violent sound, distortion, confrontation, and the kind of music that felt like it could rip something open. But I also think being a woman in that space meant people read that intensity differently. When men are aggressive, it is often treated as power, confidence, or authority. When women are aggressive, people want to explain it, soften it, sexualize it, or turn it into some kind of novelty. I was never interested in being a novelty.

wasn’t there to be the “angry girl” in the room. I was there because that sound was mine. So no, I don’t think I became extreme just to be heard. But I do think I refused to become smaller so people could feel more comfortable with me. The intensity was real. The anger was real. The damage was real. The need to make something beautiful and ugly at the same time was real. If anything, Unter Null gave me permission to stop translating myself into something easier to digest.

Karo: The “Sick Fuck”, “Sacrament” and “Absolution” period almost reads like a dark religious sequence: sickness, ritual, confession, punishment, release. Was that language accidental at the time, or were you already building a kind of personal mythology around damage and cleansing?

Erica: I don’t think it was fully conscious at the time, but I also don’t think it was accidental. I’ve always been drawn to language that feels ceremonial, violent, sacred, and ruined all at once. Words like sacrament and absolution carry weight. They imply guilt, cleansing, punishment, forgiveness, devotion, and the need to be released from something. Looking back, I can see that I was building my own kind of mythology around damage before I even had the language to explain it. At the time, I was probably just following instinct. I liked the ugliness. I liked the contradiction of something sacred being dragged through something filthy. That tension made sense to me. It still does.

think a lot of Unter Null has always lived in that space between confession and exorcism. There is shame there. There is rage there. There is a need to purge something from the body and turn it into sound before it poisons you. So no, I wasn’t sitting there with some perfectly formed concept. But I do think I was already circling the same themes that still haunt the work now: damage, survival, ritual, guilt, transformation, and the strange kind of cleansing that can happen when you finally say the ugly thing out loud. Maybe I didn’t know I was building a mythology then. Maybe I was just trying to survive the one I was already living inside.

Karo: You have Stray as another part of your artistic identity, and that project has often seemed like the aftermath of impact rather than the impact itself: sadness after rage, reflection after damage, breath after violence. How do you now understand the relationship between Unter Null and Stray?

Erica: I’ve started to understand Unter Null and Stray as two different nervous systems in the same body. Unter Null is the impact. It is the violence, the confrontation, the thing that happens when the feeling is too big to come out gently. It is rage with machinery around it. It is the scream, the static, the teeth, the part of me that refuses to be quiet. Stray is what happens after. Stray has always felt more exposed to me. It is less armor and more bruising. It is sadness after the adrenaline wears off. It is reflection, longing, grief, tenderness, and the strange quiet that comes after you survive something and don’t know what to do with your hands.

don’t see them as separate identities as much as different ways my body processes emotion. Unter Null fights. Stray mourns. Unter Null spits blood. Stray sits with the stain and tries to understand what happened. They both come from the same place. They just speak in different temperatures. And honestly, I think I need both. I need the violence and I need the breath after the violence. I need the weapon and I need the wound. They explain each other in ways I’m still figuring out.

Karo: There is a long silence between “Moving On” and the new Unter Null material. Silence is often described as absence, but sometimes it is full of work nobody sees. What was happening inside that silence? Did you stop being Unter Null during those years, or was Unter Null waiting somewhere under the surface?

Erica: I don’t think I ever stopped being Unter Null. I think I just stopped being able to reach that part of myself for a while. That silence was not empty. It was full of life happening very loudly behind the scenes. Grief, caregiving, loss, survival, burnout, trying to hold everything together, trying to be a functioning human being when a lot of me was falling apart. There were years where music felt very far away, not because I didn’t love it anymore, but because I didn’t have enough of myself left to give to it. I think people see silence from the outside and assume nothing is happening. But sometimes silence is where the heaviest work is happening. it is where you are breaking down.

Sometimes it is where you are learning how to stay alive. Sometimes it is where you are being stripped down to whatever is actually real. Unter Null was still under the surface. I just couldn’t hear it clearly for a long time. And maybe it needed to be quiet. Maybe I needed to live more, lose more, survive more, and become someone who could return to it with a different kind of honesty. So no, I don’t see those years as absence. I see them as the space where the next version of me was being formed, even when I didn’t know it yet.

Karo: After the studio fire in 2008, part of the story around Unter Null became literal loss: equipment, recordings, physical tools, the material body of music. Did that event change your relationship with control, memory, and the idea that art can be destroyed but still somehow return?

Erica: Yea, absolutely. The fire changed my relationship with control in a very real way. When you lose equipment, recordings, files, tools, and the physical things that helped you make the work, it forces you to understand how fragile all of it really is. You think you have things preserved because they exist somewhere outside of you, and then suddenly they are gone. That kind of loss is brutal because it is not just “stuff.” It is time. It is memory. It is versions of songs. It is unfinished ideas. It is pieces of a life and a creative process that you can’t fully recreate. But it also taught me that art doesn’t only live in objects. The machines can burn. The files can disappear. The room can be destroyed.

But if something was real enough, some part of it stays in you. It changes shape. It waits. It comes back through a different door. I think that fire became part of the mythology of Unter Null in a way I couldn’t have planned. There is something almost too literal about it: ruin, loss, destruction, and then years later, the work finds its way back into the world anyway. It definitely made me less trusting of control, but maybe more trusting of return. Some things are destroyed, some things are transformed, and inevitably there will be things that haunt you until you are ready to rebuild them.

Karo: You returned not only with new music, but with a sense of purpose. The new Unter Null does not feel nostalgic, even when the old catalogue is being revisited. What did you refuse to bring back from the past, and what did you know had to remain untouched?

Erica: I refuse to bring back anything that feels like performance for the sake of being extreme. The anger, the honesty, the distortion, those things have to remain untouched because they are the core of Unter Null. But I don’t want to drag the past forward just to recreate it. I’m not interested in nostalgia or trying to sound like a younger version of myself. What had to remain was the truth of it. The emotional violence, the melody, the vulnerability under the noise, the refusal to be quiet. What I refuse to bring back is the need to prove anything.

Karo: You have classical training, and even in the harshest Unter Null material there is often a hidden sense of structure beneath the violence. How much of your writing is instinct, and how much is architecture? Do you build chaos, or do you discover order inside it?

Erica: It’s a combination of instinct and architecture. The emotional part usually comes first. I follow the feeling, the melody, the tension, and whatever hits my nervous system before I fully understand it. But the classical training is always underneath, whether I’m thinking about it or not. It gives the chaos a spine. I don’t think I build chaos just to be chaotic. I’m usually trying to find the shape inside it. Even the harshest material has to move, breathe, and resolve in some way. So maybe I discover the disorder first, and then I build a structure strong enough to hold it.

Karo: In 2026, many artists are speaking more openly about burnout, survival, mental health, and the cost of keeping a creative identity alive over decades. What does it cost you now to write honestly? And has that cost changed since the early Unter Null years?

Erica: It costs me less now because I’m not afraid of my truth as I’ve grown older. Early on, I think brute honesty came out like a reflex, but now it comes with aim. I know what I’m saying, I know why I’m saying it, and I’m not interested in softening it for anyone. The cost is vulnerability, but the reward is power..

Karo: If “The Failure Epiphany” captured Unter Null as rupture, “Coming Up To Breathe” captured the first breath after silence, and “The Rise From Ruin” captures the ritual of becoming, what kind of emotional place is the next Unter Null chapter coming from?

Erica: The next chapter is coming from the part of me they couldn’t take. It’s still rage, grief, and survival, but now it’s sharpened by clarity. Some people will empty the room, steal the furniture, and then swear you burned the house down. I’m not living inside their version of the story anymore. This next chapter is feral, focused, and very much alive.

About Unter Null

Unter Null is the solo project of Erica Dunham, launched in 1998 in Seattle, Washington, when Dunham was 17. Classically trained in piano, cello and guitar, she began writing under the name as a powernoise-leaning project influenced by artists including Noisex, Converter and P.A.L. A self-titled debut album followed in 2001, and in 2002 she signed to Leech and NTT/Annihilvs Records for the web-exclusive second album, “Neocide.”

In 2005, Dunham signed to Belgian label Alfa Matrix. Her debut for the label, “The Failure Epiphany,” peaked at number four on the German Alternative Charts (DAC) and ranked 43rd on the DAC’s albums of the year for 2006; that same year, the “Sacrament” EP reached number six on the DAC singles chart. The “Sick Fuck” and “Absolution” EPs followed from the same period, cementing Unter Null’s confrontational, distortion-heavy sound within the mid-2000s EBM and aggrotech scene. Unter Null toured the United States and Europe in support of the material, including a short 2005 run and a longer European tour in 2006.

In early 2008, Dunham launched a side project, Stray, releasing a self-titled two-CD album with contributions from Mothboy, Detritus and Testube, among others. On December 25, 2008, a fire destroyed the studio housing her musical, recording and electronic equipment; her next album, “Moving On,” was feared lost but was ultimately recovered from a damaged hard drive and released. In 2012, Dunham relocated to Hamburg, Germany.

A long period of reduced activity followed. Unter Null resurfaced in January 2025 with news that Dunham was back in the studio, followed in March by a collaboration, “Hollow,” with Frontal Boundary. In April 2025, Unter Null released the free download single “Coming Up To Breathe,” its first new material in over a decade, followed that July by the EPCD “You Made A Monster” on Alfa Matrix. In September 2025, Unter Null headlined Das Bunker’s 29th anniversary show at Catch One. In April 2026, Alfa Matrix announced “The Rise From Ruin (and the Ritual of Becoming),” a limited double-CD compiling “The Failure Epiphany” era alongside the “Sick Fuck,” “Sacrament” and “Absolution” EPs and remixes by Noisuf-X vs. X-Fusion, Manufactura, T3chnophobia, Aslan Faction, Grendel, KiEw, Terrorfakt and C-Drone-Defect; the collection was released on June 26, 2026.

Erica Dunham speaks about all of it in the interview above: the two decades between “Sick Fuck” and “The Rise From Ruin,” the 2008 fire, the long silence after “Moving On,” and what the next Unter Null chapter is coming from.

Cliff and Ivy, the goth duo from Anchorage, Alaska, released their ten-track album “Angels Eyes” on August 7, 2026, on the band’s own label, House of Extreme Darkness. The record revisits classic goth rock while adding deathrock, post-punk and metal elements.

“Angels Eyes” runs “Lockdown”, “The Healer”, “The Raven and The Wolf”, “Tidalwaves”, “Of Love and The Rain”, “Kiss of Death”, “Black Pyramid”, “The Collapse”, “Stone and Mind” and “Propaganda”, with a digital/CD bonus track, “The Healer Alt Mix”. The album is available on streaming platforms, CD and vinyl, with physical media, merchandise and downloads sold through the band’s Bandcamp page.

Cliff Livingston wrote and arranged the songs and plays guitars and bass, while Ivy Silence handles lyrics, vocals, art and design. The sessions brought in guest drummer Tom Coyne, who also plays in 45 Grave and Kommunity FK, and multi-instrumentalist Paul Roessler, known for his work with the Nina Hagen Band and The Screamers, who produced, engineered, mixed and played keyboards, piano and synth on the record at Kitten Robot Studio in Los Angeles. Maor Appelbaum, a Grammy-nominated engineer, mastered the album.

‘The Raven and The Wolf’ and the album’s themes

“The Raven and The Wolf” pairs piano, rock drums and guitar riffs around the image of a raven and a wolf as archetypal lovers. “We wanted to capture the feeling of love that’s wild, eternal, and a little dangerous,” Ivy Silence said of the song. “It’s about finding someone who sees your shadow and still chooses to stay.”

“The Healer” honors a nurse who spent decades caring for children and families in remote parts of Alaska, built around piano and guitar swells. “Lockdown” addresses isolation and confinement through distorted guitars and pounding rhythms, while “Propaganda” carries a political edge and “Kiss of Death” leans into deathrock with the line “Everything born begins to decay.”

About Cliff and Ivy

Cliff Livingston and Ivy Silence, originally from New Jersey, have made music together since the 1980s, working through hardcore, post-punk and experimental projects before settling in Anchorage in 1993. They formed Cliff and Ivy in 2011 and built their catalogue independently from Alaska, drawing on ritual imagery and the state’s wilderness for their sound and visuals.

The duo released the EP “Bring Us The Night” in 2021, followed by the single “Die Tonight” in 2023 and “We Ignite“, a collaboration with a guitarist from The Smithereens, later that year. In 2024 they issued “Sinister Stars” on vinyl with several collaborators, and in October 2025 they previewed the new record with the two-track EP “Angels Eyes: Singles“. “Angels Eyes”, released August 7, 2026, is their first full album since “Sinister Stars” and continues the collaborative approach of past releases, with credits from Tom Coyne and Paul Roessler among others.

Although Robin Storey has been active with his Rapoon project for even longer, he will always be closely associated with Zoviet France. In 2001, the British artist released Cold War: Drm ‘N’ Bass, an album now celebrating its 25th anniversary with the addition of an exclusive third disc. The original double album was conceptual on several levels. Storey explored elements of D’n’B, fusing them with his distinctive musical universe, while also using the work as a personal reflection on the state of the world and contemporary geopolitics.

That theme remains as relevant as ever and serves as the guiding principle of the new third disc, which draws its inspiration from today’s global conflicts. The world seems not to have changed for the better—if anything, it has become even more troubled—yet these developments continue to inspire artistic expression.

The original album has lost none of its magic or power. It is Rapoon at its very best. Tribal influences emerge primarily through the rhythms, intertwined with the project’s familiar Eastern-inspired atmospheres. The music is dark, at times almost bleak, and enriched by the deep, low-end textures that characterize D’n’B. The new album features eleven tracks that echo the themes and ideas of the original compositions while leaning more toward Experimental music and Cinematic soundscapes. Atmosphere takes center stage, with the D’n’B elements receding into the background. Repetitive loops, Industrial textures, and wonderfully crackling samplings from radio transmissions are seamlessly woven together into an apocalyptic whole. I even detected a track with distinct Martial influences, which fits perfectly within the album’s overall concept.

This is therefore far more than a straightforward reissue. It is a thoughtful reimagining of the original work, shaped by the turbulent events of recent years and given renewed relevance in today’s world. (Rating:8).

Listen to “It’s Over Isn’t It?”:

About Rapoon

Rapoon is the solo project of English musician Robin Storey, based in Newcastle upon Tyne. Storey formed Rapoon in 1992 after the breakup of Zoviet France, the group he had been part of since 1980, using the new project to explore what he described as “ethnic musics” and techniques he felt he could not pursue with his former band.

Most of Storey’s recordings in the 1990s appeared on Staalplaat and Soleilmoon, including “Raising Earthly Spirits” (1993) and “The Kirghiz Light” (1995). A 1996 US tour led to a connection with Matt Jacobson of Relapse Records, which released “The Fires of the Borderlands” in 1998. Rapoon’s “Cold War: Drum n Bass” first appeared as a double CD on Caciocavallo in 2001. Later releases include “Time Frost” (2007, Glacial Movements), “The Library of the Dead” (2008, Ewers Tonkunst), “Disappeared Redux” (2012, Zoharum) and “Cultural Forgeries” (2014, Alrealon Musique). In 2019, Storey discussed the project’s approach in a Click Interview with Rapoon on Side-Line.

Zoharum, which had already released Rapoon’s “Disappeared Redux” in 2012, now reissues “Cold War: Drum n Bass” as a 3xCD edition, adding the new third disc reviewed here.

Slovenian industrial group Laibach will give “Die Kanone”, its collaboration with Bijelo Dugme, a first physical release on October 30, 2026, via Matrix Music Arhiv (MMA), distributed through Audioglobe. The release comes on two vinyl editions and a digipak CD, and follows the digital-only single Laibach issued via Mute in July 2025.

“Die Kanone” reworks “Top” (“The Cannon”), the first single Bijelo Dugme released in 1974, recast by Laibach in German for a collaboration initiated by Bijelo Dugme founder and songwriter Goran Bregović to mark that band’s 50th anniversary. The October 30 release adds the track’s Slovenian-language version, “S topom te bom ciljal moja mala” (“I’ll Aim My Cannon at You, My Little One”), together with previously unreleased remixes by German industrial and EBM act Die Krupps, UK producer the Lincolnshire Poacher, and Slovenian-Croatian electronic duo Black Dot. Both the German and Slovenian versions are being made available on a physical format for the first time.

The vinyl LP is issued in a limited green edition and a standard black edition, both carrying the same six tracks: “Die Kanone”, “S topom te bom ciljal moja mala”, the Die Krupps remix, the Lincolnshire Poacher mix, the Black Dot version, and a live recording of “Die Kanone” performed with the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra at the Ljubljana Opera. The CD, released as a digipak, carries all six tracks plus two exclusive bonus cuts not available on vinyl: a live version of “S topom te bom ciljal moja mala” recorded at the same Ljubljana Opera performance, and a karaoke version of “Die Kanone”.

‘Die Kanone’ tracklist across formats

Vinyl LP (green and black editions):

• A1 “Die Kanone (The Cannon)” – 3:03
• A2 “S topom te bom ciljal moja mala (I’ll Aim My Cannon at You, My Little One)” – 3:01
• A3 “Die Kanone (The Cannon)” – Die Krupps remix – 3:41
• B1 “Die Kanone (The Cannon)” – the Lincolnshire Poacher mix – 5:18
• B2 “Die Kanone (The Cannon)” – Black Dot version – 4:34
• B3 “Die Kanone (The Cannon)” – live at the Opera with RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra – 3:05

Digipak CD:

• 01 “Die Kanone (The Cannon)” – 3:03
• 02 “S topom te bom ciljal moja mala (I’ll Aim My Cannon at You, My Little One)” – 3:01
• 03 “Die Kanone (The Cannon)” – Die Krupps remix – 3:41
• 04 “Die Kanone (The Cannon)” – the Lincolnshire Poacher mix – 5:18
• 05 “Die Kanone (The Cannon)” – Black Dot version – 4:34
• 06 “Die Kanone (The Cannon)” – live at the Opera with RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra – 3:05
• 07 “S topom te bom ciljal moja mala (I’ll Aim My Cannon at You, My Little One)” – live at the Opera – 2:51
• 08 “Die Kanone (The Cannon)” – karaoke version – 2:52

About Laibach

Laibach was formed in 1980 in Trbovlje, Slovenia, then part of Yugoslavia, by Dejan Knez, Milan Fras, Ervin Markošek and Ivan Novak. The group positioned itself from the outset as a multimedia collective, pairing martial industrial sound with provocative imagery, performance art and sociopolitical critique, and later became the musical wing of the Neue Slowenische Kunst art collective. After early cassette releases, Laibach’s debut album appeared on ŠKUC ROPOT in 1985. International attention followed a signing to Mute Records, which released “Opus Dei” in 1987, featuring reworkings of Queen’s “One Vision” and the Austrian national anthem “Geburt einer Nation”.

Laibach has maintained a steady release pace since, with albums including “NATO” (1994), “Volk” (2006) and “Spectre” (2014), and has worked with symphonic ensembles and experimental artists on projects such as “Also sprach Zarathustra” and, more recently, “Alamut” with A/Political. In 2015, Laibach became the first Western band to perform in North Korea. The group’s 2026 studio album “Musick” was released via Mute earlier this year, following a 2026 European tour. The current lineup includes Milan Fras, Ivan Novak, Luka Jamnik and Rok Lopatič.

Laibach initiated its collaboration with Bijelo Dugme – the Sarajevo rock band founded by Goran Bregović in 1974 whose original 1974 single “Top” is reworked on “Die Kanone” – at Bregović’s request, to mark Bijelo Dugme’s 50th anniversary. The two acts first released “Die Kanone” digitally via Mute and Classic Records in July 2025. The October 30, 2026 release on Matrix Music Arhiv brings the collaboration to vinyl and CD for the first time, adding the Slovenian-language version and three new remixes alongside a live recording made with the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra at the Ljubljana Opera.

Swiss avant-garde project KiKu will release its new album Suzhou / It’s All The Rage on Everest Records on September 25, 2026, on LP and CD. The album features Blixa Bargeld, founder and vocalist of Einstürzende Neubauten, and Berlin-based rapper and vocalist Black Cracker.

“Suzhou / It’s All The Rage” is built as a diptych: two distinct halves held together by a shared musical architecture of trumpet, drums, sampler and electronics. The digital release and CD present the work as a continuous eight-track album. On vinyl, the dual structure becomes physical, with Side A carrying “Suzhou” featuring Bargeld and Side B carrying “It’s All The Rage” featuring Black Cracker.

On “Suzhou”, Bargeld’s vocals move between speech, song, whisper and abstract vocal gesture across four tracks shaped by space, tension and control. On “It’s All The Rage”, Black Cracker’s vocals take a more percussive, volatile and immediate approach across the remaining four tracks.

The tracklist runs:

Suzhou – KiKu feat. Blixa Bargeld – Orlando’s Victory – 4:06 – The Number of the Millibeast – 4:48 – Suzhou (XX XY YX YY) – 4:16 – Nonsense Rock’n’Roll – 4:58

It’s All The Rage – KiKu feat. Black Cracker – Bull Whip – 3:36 – Leaping Bull (Chicago) – 5:05 – The Running of the Bulls – 3:50 – Sleeping Bull (Woke) – 4:32

Vocals and lyrics on tracks 1-4 are by Blixa Bargeld. Vocals and lyrics on tracks 5-8 are by Black Cracker. David Doyon plays guitar on tracks 2-4, and Cyril Regamey plays drums and sampler throughout. Bargeld’s vocals were recorded by Boris Wilsdorf at andereBaustelle Tonstudio, Berlin. Black Cracker recorded his own vocals, which were edited and mixed by Jane Arnison in Berlin. Drums were recorded by Antoine Estoppey at Blend Studio, Lutry, and trumpet and computer parts by Yannick Barman at Printemps Digital Studio, Monthey. The album was mixed by Barman and mastered by Estoppey at Blend Studio. Artwork and graphic design are by Cédric Raccio at La Fabrik, Monthey, and the photo of Bargeld is by Thomas Rabsch.

About KiKu

KiKu was founded in 2003 in Sion, Switzerland, by trumpeter and composer Yannick Barman and drummer and percussionist Cyril Regamey. The pair started as an acoustic improvisation duo, and their sound turned toward electronic music during a run of concerts at the Théâtre de l’Oriental in Vevey in February 2003. Since then, KiKu has operated as an open, modular formation that changes line-up and musical language with each project, working across contemporary jazz, electronic music, rock, improvised music and experimental sound art.

The group has toured internationally, performing at jazz clubs and festivals across Europe and Asia as well as in Australia, and has previously collaborated with Blixa Bargeld and Black Cracker on the albums “Marcher sur la tête” (2015) and “Eng, Düster und Bang” (2017), both on Everest Records. Bargeld founded Einstürzende Neubauten in Berlin in 1980 and was also a member of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds from 1983 to 2003. Black Cracker, born Ellison Glenn in Anniston, Alabama, is a rapper, producer and vocalist based in Berlin who also performs with the Swiss jazz trio Grand Pianoramax. “Suzhou / It’s All The Rage” extends KiKu’s collaboration with both vocalists into a new full-length release on Everest Records.

Stephan Groth, founder and vocalist of Apoptygma Berzerk, turns 55 on August 10, 2026. The Norwegian EBM and synthpop act, which Groth has led since 1989, marks the birthday alongside “Kathy’s Song XXV,” a 25th-anniversary reissue campaign built around one of the band’s best-known tracks, “Kathy’s Song (Come Lie Next to Me).”

Groth was born on August 10, 1971, in Odense, Denmark, and relocated with his family to Sarpsborg, Norway, in 1986. He founded Apoptygma Berzerk in 1989 together with Jon Erik Martinsen, taking the band’s name from a word picked at random out of a dictionary, derived from the Ancient Greek for “piece of a tunic.” Martinsen left the group early on, and Groth has remained its sole constant member and main songwriter since.

The band’s first two albums, “Soli Deo Gloria” (1993) and “7” (1996), established a darker EBM and electropop sound. “Welcome to Earth” (2000) moved toward a lighter, more experimental style and included “Kathy’s Song (Come Lie Next to Me),” built around a vocoded chorus voiced by Kathy Macintosh.

The single followed on December 11, 2000, with a remix from Ferry Corsten that became a trance-scene favorite and helped push the song beyond the EBM and futurepop audience. “Harmonizer” (2002) leaned further into synthpop, “You and Me Against the World” (2005) took the band toward an indie rock-oriented sound, “Rocket Science” followed in 2009, and “Exit Popularity Contest” (2016) returned to the band’s earlier electronic roots. Beyond Apoptygma Berzerk, Groth has recorded as H2O with Geir Bratland in the mid-1990s and is a member of Fairlight Children, a lighter, pop-oriented electronic project that issued a limited vinyl edition of its “808Bit” album in February 2025.

2026 has brought “Kathy’s Song (Come Lie Next to Me)” back into focus. The 25th-anniversary “Kathy’s Song XXV” edition arrived digitally in December 2025, first on Bandcamp and then across other platforms, with new remixes by Ferry Corsten – who reworked his original 2000 remix – alongside Per Martinsen (Mental Overdrive) and Alyxx Digre (Zone Tripper). Groth has said the track is “probably the most important song I have ever written,” and described the vocoded chorus, recorded with Fredrik Darum and Vegard Blomberg, as something that “had never been done before” at the time. A physical follow-up arrived via emmobiz with a limited vinyl reissue, released on July 10, 2026.

Stephan Groth marks 55th birthday as Apoptygma Berzerk celebrates ‘Kathy’s Song’ anniversary

The overlap of Groth’s 55th birthday with the ongoing “Kathy’s Song” anniversary campaign places two Apoptygma Berzerk milestones in the same year. Side-Line previously covered the band’s 25th anniversary of “Soli Deo Gloria” with the “SDGXXV” reissue project in 2018, a similar reworking of an early album that Groth has cited as a direct model for how the “Kathy’s Song XXV” campaign was organized.

About Apoptygma Berzerk

Apoptygma Berzerk was founded in Norway in 1989 by Stephan Groth and Jon Erik Martinsen. Martinsen departed soon after, leaving Groth as the band’s vocalist, programmer, guitarist and sole constant member. The band’s debut album, “Soli Deo Gloria,” was released in 1993 and established a dark EBM and electropop sound, followed by “7” in 1996. Geir Bratland joined on keyboards in 1995, having already worked with Groth on the ambient techno side project H2O in the mid-1990s.

“Welcome to Earth” arrived in 2000, softening the band’s earlier darker themes and including “Kathy’s Song (Come Lie Next to Me),” with vocals by Kathy Macintosh and a single release that December featuring a Ferry Corsten remix. “Harmonizer” followed in 2002 in a more synthpop-oriented direction, and “You and Me Against the World” (2005) marked a more mainstream, indie rock-influenced turn for the band, a departure the group revisited with expanded reissues in 2021. “Rocket Science” was released in 2009, and “Exit Popularity Contest” (2016) returned to the band’s earlier electronic and EBM-rooted sound.

Alongside Apoptygma Berzerk, Groth has recorded as H2O with Bratland and continues as a member of Fairlight Children, a lighter, pop-oriented electronic project. The band marked the 25th anniversary of “Soli Deo Gloria” with the “SDGXXV” reimagining released in 2018 and 2019, and has since applied the same approach to “Kathy’s Song,” releasing the “Kathy’s Song XXV” remix EP in December 2025 and a limited vinyl edition in July 2026. Stephan Groth turns 55 on August 10, 2026, with more than 35 years of Apoptygma Berzerk behind him and, by his own account, new material still in progress.

Ayria, the Toronto electro-pop, EBM and futurepop project of Jennifer Parkin, will release the album “13 Stitches” on October 2, 2026 through Artoffact Records. The 13-track digital and CD release ships on Compact Disc in a jewel box with an 8-page booklet of photography and in a limited deluxe CD box with bonus postcards and stickers; the vinyl LP, pressed on solid pink, carries an 11-track cut, “11 Stitches,” made to fit the format, with the full 13-track album included as a digital download.

Ayria bring an EBM and futurepop sound that mixes stomping electronic rhythms with pop hooks and personal, confrontational lyrics, and Parkin describes “13 Stitches” as a record of personal rebirth. The album was produced and mastered by Sebastian R. Komor at Xenomorph Production Studio, with additional contributions from Komor and Joe Byer of v01d. Its tracklist runs “Feeding Your Monsters,” “Turn of the Tide,” “Not My First Time,” “Long Gone,” “Vicious World,” “Manic,” “Antihero,” “Trickle Truth,” “Don’t Ever Touch Me Again,” “Overturn,” “We’re Not Relevant,” “Mr. Morals” and “Turn Into Gold.” The vinyl edition omits “We’re Not Relevant” and “Turn Into Gold” to fit the format.

Ayria’s ‘Vicious World’ single ahead of ’13 Stitches’

Ayria shared “Vicious World” as the lead single from “13 Stitches,” with an official video pairing the track’s EBM stomp and repetition with dark, visceral visuals.

About Ayria

Ayria is the project of Toronto musician Jennifer Parkin, formed in 2003. Her debut album, “Debris,” followed later that year, with “My Revenge on the World” and “Flicker” in 2005, “Hearts for Bullets” on Alfa Matrix in 2008, “Plastic Makes Perfect” in 2013 and “Paper Dolls” in 2016, the last of which Side-Line covered as it was announced on CD, 2CD and fuchsia vinyl after the single “Feed Her to the Wolves.” Parkin discussed her approach to songwriting and production in a 2016 interview with Side-Line, and toured North America and the UK alongside Inertia that same year. Ayria signed to Artoffact Records in 2020 and most recently released the “Vicious World” EP, which Side-Line reviewed, ahead of “13 Stitches,” due October 2, 2026.

Soft Vein, the California-based electronic project of Justin Chamberlain, will release his third studio album, “All We’ve Known of Heaven,” on September 4, 2026 through Artoffact Records. The album arrives on a limited dark blue vinyl LP and on CD in a jewel box with booklet, alongside digital and streaming formats.

Soft Vein bring a sound that mixes synthpop and sophisti-pop, with lush synthesizers, sparkling guitars and melodic vocals set against themes of nostalgia, romance, homesickness, personal growth and change. “All We’ve Known of Heaven” is co-produced by Soft Vein and Andrea Mantione of Nuovo Testamento, mixed by Chamberlain himself, and mastered by Jason Corbett of ACTORS at Jacknife Sound in Vancouver. Saxophonist Rachel Mazer guests on two tracks. The eight-track album runs “Another Summer,” “Chekhov,” “Learning to Talk,” “Proof of Life,” “White Towers (White Shores),” “Forgetting You,” “Living in Liminal Spaces” and the title track, “All We’ve Known of Heaven.”

Soft Vein’s title-track video for ‘All We’ve Known of Heaven’

Chamberlain shared an official video for “All We’ve Known of Heaven,” directed by Sydney Mills with cinematography by Cameron Dunbar.

About Soft Vein

Soft Vein is the solo electronic project of Los Angeles-based songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Justin Chamberlain. The project broke into the Los Angeles darkwave scene with a pair of early singles before signing to Artoffact Records and releasing its debut album, “Pressed in Glass,” in October 2023. Chamberlain followed with the second album, “Through Blinds,” in January 2025 and the EP “From Another Room” in June 2025, alongside the singles “Chekhov” and “All We’ve Known of Heaven” earlier in 2026. “All We’ve Known of Heaven,” due September 4, 2026, marks Soft Vein’s third full-length and was recorded during winter 2025/2026 at Seahorse Sound in Los Angeles and Jacknife Sound in Vancouver.

Schrödinger, the post-punk duo from Mexico City, released their second studio album, “International Decay,” digitally on July 26, 2026 through Swiss Dark Nights. The label follows with physical editions on September 4, 2026: a regular black vinyl LP, a limited white vinyl LP with red splatters capped at 250 copies, and a CD in digipak with a booklet containing lyrics and additional artwork.

Schrödinger is the project of brothers Carlos and Ernesto Carapia, who mix post-punk, gothic rock and darkwave with delayed and reverberated guitars and synthesizers over cold, chaotic vocals. “International Decay” runs eight tracks: “Broken Cities,” “The Void,” “Ghost Nation,” “Eclipse of Faith,” “Metal Rain,” “Eleventh Hour,” “Caotica Penumbra” (featuring the Argentine gothic rock band Euroshima) and “Black Room.”

Schrödinger describe ‘International Decay’ as a more forceful record

Schrödinger stated: “There’s a very noticeable change compared to the previous album. On the first album, we opted for a more minimalist sound, where space and atmosphere played a fundamental role, without losing that nocturnal identity that characterises the band. On this new album, there’s a clear evolution towards a more mature, solid and forceful sound. The compositions, arrangements and production were developed with a more precise approach, seeking greater depth, power and cohesion in each track. We believe it retains the essence of Schrödinger, but presents it with a more defined identity and a much more consolidated sound.”

“Caotica Penumbra” features Euroshima, the Argentine gothic rock and darkwave band formed in Buenos Aires in 1986 by Fabián Iribarne, José Wyszogrod, Ricardo Parrabere and vocalist Wanda, whose album “Gala” was reissued on vinyl by Dark Entries Records in 2022.

About Schrödinger

Schrödinger formed in Mexico City around brothers Carlos Carapia (guitars, programming, synthesizers) and Ernesto Carapia (vocals, bass, electronics, synthesizers). After close to a decade of live activity, the duo issued their debut full-length, “Last Days on Earth,” in October 2020 through Swiss Dark Nights, an album built on the chaos of the human mind with reverbed, delay-heavy guitars over a dense, melancholic atmosphere. “International Decay,” released digitally on July 26, 2026 and following on vinyl and CD on September 4, 2026, is Schrödinger’s second studio album and continues the band’s work with Swiss Dark Nights.

US industrial metal band Black Magnet will play its first-ever Belgium show at Magasin 4 in Brussels on September 8, 2026, as part of the band’s first European tour.

Tour dates for Black Magnet

• September 8, 2026 – Magasin 4, Brussels, Belgium

Black Magnet plays industrial metal built on distortion, repetition and mechanized rhythm, citing Godflesh, Ministry and Nine Inch Nails among its reference points. The band will perform material from across its catalog on the tour alongside new, previously unreleased material making its live debut. The Brussels show is part of the band’s debut run of European dates.

About Black Magnet

Black Magnet started as the solo project of Midwestern US musician James Hammontree and has since expanded into a trio with the addition of Jared Branson and Ryne Bratcher, who also play with All Your Sisters, Destroyer Destroyer and Greg Puciato. The band released two albums through 20 Buck Spin before signing with Federal Prisoner, the label co-founded by artist Jesse Draxler and Greg Puciato of The Dillinger Escape Plan and Better Lovers, for its third album, “Megamantra,” released July 25, 2025. “Megamantra” was recorded at Earth Analogue Studio, engineered and mixed by Sanford Parker, mastered by Vlado Meller, and features additional synthesizers and background vocals by Eric Gorman. Black Magnet has toured as support for 3Teeth, Code Orange and Author & Punisher, and now returns to the road for its first European tour, which brings the band to Brussels for the first time on September 8, 2026.

Sorrow Stories, the project of UK artist Tina Forlorn, has released “So Sick”, her second collaboration with Christopher Hall of Stabbing Westward and The Dreaming, leading up to a full-length album planned for next year.

Sorrow Stories and Christopher Hall’s ‘So Sick’

“So Sick” follows “Too Early [with Christopher Hall],” the pair’s first joint release, which came out on April 3, 2026, as an EP featuring remixes from Bow Ever Down, Null Device and Allie Frost. “So Sick” is described as the second track in the ongoing collaboration between Forlorn and Hall, with further material building toward a joint album.

About Sorrow Stories

Sorrow Stories is the project of UK artist Tina Forlorn, who writes, sings, produces, mixes and masters her own music across dark electro, darkwave, synthpop, EBM, industrial, alt-acoustic and soundtrack styles. Forlorn has self-released her work through Bandcamp since around 2009, after starting out with acoustic demos before moving into electronic production. Her soundtrack work includes music for the horror film “Swap,” released through Epic Pictures, and the short film “Tamesis Trilogy 1” with director Dennis Da Silva, which won the Jean-Luc Godard award for best experimental short in 2020. Sorrow Stories has previously collaborated with Aiboforcen on the 2024 album “Between Noise and Silence” and related EPs, with Aesthetische on the 2021 EP “Overflow,” and with Psy’Aviah on the “Bittersweet” album and its “Healing” and “Still Healing” EPs. Forlorn is currently working with Christopher Hall of Stabbing Westward and The Dreaming on new joint material, of which “So Sick” is the second release following April 2026’s “Too Early” EP.

French solo project Morphoex released the album “Méta Langages” on January 6, 2026, a 12-track record built around voices, field recordings and synthesizers, recorded on magnetic tape at a farm studio in Normandy.

Morphoex’s ‘Méta Langages’ album

“Méta Langages” is the seventh full-length released under the Morphoex name and the first to be almost entirely sung. The album is a concept record centered on voice, transmission and language, running as a continuous, uninterrupted listen. It includes twelve tracks: “Vagues sidérales,” “Schizodrome,” “Méta langages,” “Listen to the New Noise,” “Reality Is False,” “Tnemetohcuhc,” “Confuse Science Illustration,” “Black and White Lines,” “Vengeance Is Silence,” “Kinshasa,” “Toniki” and “Après un cataclysme.” Music and words are by Isthmaël Baudry throughout, except for “Schizodrome,” composed by Zaäk Årandi. Urban and nature sounds were captured through field recording, and the vocal and synthesizer parts were recorded onto magnetic tape at a studio set up on a farm in Normandy’s Eure department. Cédric Moglia recorded and mastered the album.

About Morphoex

Morphoex is the solo project of French artist Isthmaël Baudry, based in Rouen. Baudry also sings in the post-punk band Spleen XXX and in the project Love in Cage, whose track appeared in a Side-Line compilation. “Méta Langages” is Morphoex’s seventh album under the project name and its first mostly-sung release, following earlier releases including “An Imaginary Being.”

Une Vraie Gothique – literally translated as A True Goth – is a French duo that came into existence in Paris in 2023, founded by Ulrika and Ferdinand Legendre. This year, Manic Depression Records released their debut album, “R.D.V. Au Cimetière”, an eclectic take on dark Electronic music where EBM, Dark-Wave and Techno collide. Their identity is every bit as important as their music: corpse paint, dark humor, French and German lyrics, and a generous wink towards the codes and clichés of Goth culture all come together to create a universe that is at once serious, absurd and irresistibly danceable.

The album’s nine tracks take the listener on a journey into a world where darkness and absurdity go hand in hand. A defining element of the record is the interplay between the two voices: Ulrika sings in German, while Ferdinand delivers his vocals in French, making many of the tracks feel like a dark and intriguing dialogue. For me personally, this debut is an absolute revelation. A band whose name may initially sound like the ultimate Goth cliché – although I see it much more as a hilarious reference to the scene that clearly inspires them – manages to turn those very clichés on their head. The real strength and originality of Une Vraie Gothique lie in their compositions.

They crack open the codes of different genres and reshape them into something distinctly their own, creating what feels much more like an ode to underground Electronic music than a parody of it. “R.D.V. Au Cimetière” is one of those albums I was instantly sold on. So, it is high time to get to know Ulrika and Ferdinand from Une Vraie Gothique a little better and discover what exactly lies behind the corpse paint, the French and German incantations, and that irresistible urge to meet somewhere in the cemetery… (Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)

Une Vraie Gothique interview

Q: Could you tell us how you first met and how that eventually led to the creation of Une Vraie Gothique? Were there any particular artists or albums that served as important points of reference in shaping your sound?

Ferdinand: We met at a mutual friend’s house, and Ulrika had asked me to help her compose an Electro-Disco track on the theme of the tiger for a performance she was doing at a Parisian cabinet of curiosities. Our conversations about music led us to realize our shared love of Goth music. So we decided to launch this project, starting with the title track, “Une Vraie Gothique.”

We don’t really have any major points of reference, but I’d say we’re influenced by a huge number of different projects. For my part, Suicide Commando and Hocico immediately come to mind, for example.

Ulrika: When that tiger project was finished, we had a sleepover where we were supposed to start working on a Euro-Dance track (one of our guilty pleasures). But instead, we watched “Hellraiser”, sampled ‘Demons to Some, Angels to Others’, (which you can hear at the beginning of our track “Une Vraie Gothique” ) and the process of becoming a true Goth was set in motion! I wish I could tell you another story and say that we probably connected in immaterial realms long before we met four years ago, but that’s still a topic under investigation.

Q: I imagine the band’s name is meant to be taken with a touch of humor, but I’m still curious about the story behind it. Why did you choose Une Vraie Gothique, and if it does refer to Gothic culture, what does that scene and its music represent to you personally?

Ulrika: We get asked a lot about this. Do I relate to the Goth scene and culture? Definitely. Come on, I was reading all classical Goth books, from Ann Radcliffe to Baudelaire, watching my classmates out of the corner of my eye in high school, while taking refuge in the school cloister to take black-and-white photos in long dresses. Do I see myself as a ‘genuine gothic’? Of course no. No one could… let’s then joke about it? In fact, I don’t think seriousness and humor are incompatible, except in Kundera’s “The Joke”, which deals with a totalitarian system.  

For me, the Goth scene is that undeniable feeling of being at home. I go down into a basement, drawn by the light and the sounds, by the promise of an intensity that’s both painful and joyful. Bodies dancing, minor scales. It’s already a contradiction in itself! The Goth scene is about celebrating life, with one foot in another world (the world of the dead, the world of shadows?). There’s a kind of haunting ritual, wrapped in a contemporary aesthetic. I wanna be a part of it, as a priestess. 

Ferdinand: Goth music represents my musical ‘family’. I discovered it through a sampler from Elegy magazine around 2003, and even though I developed my musical taste by listening to a wide variety of genres, it was Goth music that most gave me that sense of ‘belonging’ to a musical family. It was also at these parties that I danced the most and watched others dance. Among Goths, as in any social group, there are certain attitudes and recurring elements that you can have fun with while still respecting them.

My friends and I have always had a great sense of self-deprecating humor, and we loved to laugh at ourselves. At first, we couldn’t quite come to terms with the fact that we were goths, even though we were clearly identified as such by everyone outside the movement who interacted with us. I think “Une Vraie Gothique” tells this story—the playful questioning of a genre’s identity that sometimes tells its followers, ‘If you want to be different, be like us’.

In this project, we’re trying to strike the right balance: the band is perfectly accessible at face value (especially because of Ulrika’s character, who talks almost exclusively about personal things), but you can also have fun reading between the lines to uncover humorous elements.

Q: Strictly speaking, your music doesn’t sound traditionally Gothic. Instead, it blends elements of EBM, Electro-Wave and even Techno, while it’s mainly the atmosphere and the song titles that evoke a Gothic aesthetic. How would you describe your musical identity, and how do you see the relationship between your Electronic sound and the themes explored in your lyrics?

Ferdinand: Ulrika and I both listen to a huge variety of very different music. I’ve listened to a lot of Techno, actually, and quite a bit of Rap, which comes through in some of the tracks and in the way I use my voice at times. I think you’re right: the music itself isn’t necessarily ‘Goth’ in the traditional sense. It’s more of a reflection of a movement that has evolved and influenced many different musical styles. I feel like we’re living in an amazing era for music.

Things are much less compartmentalized than before. There are Pop bands with a Goth aesthetic; Techno has become much darker; and many people in Hip-Hop don’t hesitate to rock leather and latex looks. We use elements that come from all over the place and that serve the purpose of the tracks: metal clangs, animal sounds, and a variety of synths and VSTs.

We want our tracks to be hard-hitting and dark; we compose from the heart, and we’re our own biggest fans. Even if we wanted to make an entire album consisting solely of dark Electro tracks, I’m not sure we could pull it off. We’re diverse by nature.

Ulrika: I like the opportunity to create my own music and follow my own, personal and unique vision. As I said in the previous question, I am definitely truly and completely related to the Goth/dark/alternative scene. BUT I want to be true to myself also, and I have to recognize different parts I am made of. To me, our musical identity is soft & sexy. The scent of Père Lachaise Cemetery on a windy day. Why? We often have a sultry bass line and pleasant, mellow mid-range frequencies.

And I use my voice in a percussive, unsettling, incantatory way (the graves), whilst also allowing myself to incorporate more lyrical and mystical elements (the great wind). My influences  are related to Germany: Deine Lakaien, Welle:Erdball, Helium Vola, Sopor Aeternus, Lacrimas Profundere, Agonoize, Feindflug, Nina Hagen, Bohren & Der Club Of Gore… as far as possible, I preferred to listen to German lyrics and, as I was in Metz in my childhood (East of France), it made more sense to look across the border.  

As for the Electronic aspect, I just want to say that I love powerful basslines and energetic kicks, paired with melodies you can really let loose to. In our lyrics, we’re always talking about connection and energy. ‘Electronics’ comes from ‘electron’. It’s what carries electricity. I feel like I’m right at the heart of my material theme!

Q: How did the two of you collaborate on “R.D.V. Au Cimetière”? What roles does each of you take on within the creative process, and what were the biggest challenges you encountered during the writing, recording and production of the album?

Ulrika: Thanks for this question. It’s great to talk about the creative process! For me, the biggest challenge is finding our signature style, our identity, our voice. We’re walking a tightrope between our influences and our own inner worlds. I’ve made huge progress writing this album by allowing myself to simplify and pare down musical phrases to give them more impact.

I’d like to do that even more. We also try to focus on using variations rather than introducing new elements when we want the song to evolve. One of our favorite questions now is, ‘What if we did a bass variation?’. Right after ‘What filter should we put on the keyboard?’

Ferdinand: We’re both involved in every stage of the songwriting process. We both write and compose equally. Sometimes one of us needs to spend a few hours working on the song alone, and then we come back to it together, but overall we work as a team. Usually, I start by suggesting a rhythm and bassline, and Ulrika adds variations to it, then fairly quickly brings in vocal elements and a narrative direction. Sometimes we work together, and sometimes we take turns, but we always end up with a song to which we’ve both contributed equally.

The biggest challenge was undoubtedly not going off in all directions. There were times when we took the humor too far, for example, and the song became way too parodic, so we had to completely backtrack. As mentioned earlier, our main challenge is finding the right balance between paying homage to that scene and allowing for different levels of interpretation.

Q: You are based in Paris, which seems to have become an increasingly vibrant hub for both the Electronic and Gothic underground scenes. What is it like to be part of that environment? Does a city like Paris influence artists in a way comparable to cities such as Berlin, or does it have its own unique creative identity?

Ferdinand: Paris is lucky to have so many ‘underground’ venues and an endless cultural heritage. The walls have a history, and there are so many people that you always end up meeting others who are interested in what you’re offering and who understand your vision. We also have a vibrant cultural scene in the suburbs—I’m thinking of cities like Montreuil, for example, which have always been very open to alternative ideas. I don’t know if our city influences us the way Berlin might, but it certainly offers us plenty of opportunities to connect with others.

Ulrika : I find inspiration in old places. I love cemeteries, and coming across churches, works of art, and objects from the 12^th century is definitely a source of enchantment. I studied at the school of the Louvre, which had a profound impact on me. That’s why I chose to live in Paris. 

Besides, it’s the only city I know where I can go to a medieval music concert of Hildegard von Bingen or Perrotin on Monday, a Black-Metal show on Tuesday, a math lecture on Wednesday, an Electro-Goth show on Thursday, and a batcave show on Friday. We’re incredibly lucky to be surrounded by this beautiful heritage, and I want to honor and share it. I feel enriched by this multicultural history of dark music from today and yesterday, sometimes looking back several centuries !

Q: Have you already started working on new Une Vraie Gothique material or other projects? Looking back at “R.D.V. Au Cimetière”, how critical are you of the album today? Are there aspects you’re particularly proud of, and are there things you would approach differently next time?

Ulrika: We are currently working on a documentary that we filmed in February 2026 in California at the Mars College Festival. We had the immense pleasure of being invited by Vanessa Rosa and Gene Kogan to the desert to collaborate with the artists/developers and create a song about Euler’s Basel formula, in which we seek to convey the emotional impact of a theoretical argument. That’s my ultimate quest! We’re finishing up the composition of the song and wrapping up the editing! Is math Gothic? It’s full of formulas, after all.

As for the album, this is my first release with this kind of project. There are inevitably things we’d like to take further, but I’m extremely proud of the work we’ve done, and I enjoy listening to the tracks without feeling like they’re mine. That’s a good sign!

Moving forward, I’d like to simplify things even more, making them even more effective and precise. Asking myself, ‘What can we take away?’ rather than ‘What can we add?’ ‘Less is more’ (Mies van der Rohe) is a powerfull statement.

Ferdinand: I’m very proud of this debut album; it really captures our work and the first narrative arc of Une Vraie Gothique. That said, I can’t wait to release new material, and we’re already working on the next album. In fact, we’re playing several songs live that aren’t on “R.D.V. Au Cimetière” but will be on the next one, such as “France Gothique” or the more recent “Anathème.”

I think we’ve both grown in many ways; I don’t think there’s any aspect we’ll need to approach fundamentally differently next time. We’re going to keep putting out great songs and try to get our music out there at festivals and abroad. We’re also very happy with our first music video, “Nuée Ardente,” directed by Anaïs Novembre, which brings a welcome new visual dimension to the project.

De/Vision released their synth-pop album “Fairyland?” on 9 August 1996 through Strange Ways Records. The album turns 30 this year. It became the first De/Vision album to enter the German album charts, where it reached number 87 later that month.

‘Fairyland?’, De/Vision’s first chart entry

The band recorded the album at The Factory in Belgium in April and May 1996. De/Vision produced and mixed the record together with José Alvarez-Brill, and Tom Meyer mastered it at Master & Servant in Hamburg. Strange Ways Records issued “Fairyland?” on CD, alongside a limited digipak edition of 7,777 copies that came with a 12-page booklet and a band poster. The twelve tracks are “I Regret,” “Dawn,” “Sweet Life,” “Like the Sun,” “Harvester,” “Today’s Life,” “Scars,” “Keep Your Dreams Alive,” “Wages of Sin,” “Bleed Me White,” “Take Me to the Time…” and “Daydreamin’.” The singles “I Regret” and “Sweet Life” accompanied the album in 1996.

The album entered the German album charts on 26 August 1996 and peaked at number 87, the band’s first chart placement. Asked in a Q&A on their Apple Music artist page about the most memorable moments of their career, the band pointed straight to this record: “Our first chart success with ‘Fairyland?’ in 1996!” The live album “Fairylive!” followed in 1997. The original 1996 recordings are currently not available on the major streaming services; the album circulates on CD through the secondhand market.

About De/Vision

De/Vision formed in July 1988 in Bensheim, near Darmstadt, Germany, with Steffen Keth on vocals and Thomas Adam, Markus Ganssert and Stefan Blender on synthesizers. Blender left in 1991. The band self-released the single “Your Hands on My Skin” in 1990 and issued “Boy on the Street” in 1992 through Synthetic Product Records, before the 1993 maxi single “Try to Forget” brought them to Strange Ways Records. The debut album “World Without End” followed in 1994, produced by Axel Henninger, who had previously worked with Camouflage. “Unversed in Love” and “Antiquity” both appeared in 1995, and “Fairyland?” arrived in August 1996 as the band’s first chart album. “Monosex” followed in 1998 through WEA.

Markus Ganssert left in 2000, and Keth and Adam have continued as a duo since, now based in Berlin. They founded their own label Popgefahr Records in 2009 and released later albums including “Popgefahr” (2010), “Rockets and Swords” (2012), “13” (2016) and “Citybeats” (2018). Keth also appears in Devision Redux, which went on tour in 2025 with Daniel Myer of Haujobb, while De/Vision themselves joined a 2025 tour with Lakeside X and Empathy Test. The 30th anniversary of “Fairyland?” points back to the album that opened that chart history.

Carpenter Brut and HEALTH will reunite this autumn for “Conflict: Europe 2026”, the European continuation of their co-headlining partnership following the North American “Conflict: Leather Tour” earlier this year. The European run begins in Utrecht on November 3 and moves through the UK, Germany, Poland, Hungary and Italy, with VOWWS joining as special guests on the joint dates.

The pairing works precisely because the two headliners arrive at heaviness from different directions. Carpenter Brut builds it through darksynth, metal dynamics, huge synthesizer hooks and cinematic excess, while HEALTH combine industrial electronics, distorted guitars, noise and vulnerable melodic songwriting. On the same bill, these approaches should create a particularly physical evening without simply repeating the same musical language twice.

For Polish audiences, the tour brings two consecutive shows:

• November 16, 2026 – Kraków, Klub Studio – Carpenter Brut + HEALTH + VOWWS
• November 17, 2026 – Wrocław, Centrum Koncertowe A2 – Carpenter Brut + HEALTH + VOWWS

The Polish concerts are promoted by Knock Out Productions.

The European dates come after Carpenter Brut and HEALTH spent spring 2026 touring North America together, making this less of a one-off package and more of an ongoing collaboration between two acts whose audiences increasingly overlap across industrial, dark electronic, alternative and heavier scenes.

‘Conflict: Europe 2026’ tour dates

Carpenter Brut, HEALTH and VOWWS play the following joint dates:

• November 3 – Utrecht, Netherlands – TivoliVredenburg
• November 4 – Bristol, UK – O2 Academy Bristol
• November 5 – Glasgow, UK – SWG3 Galvanizers
• November 6 – Wolverhampton, UK – Wulfrun Hall
• November 11 – Hamburg, Germany – Große Freiheit 36
• November 13 – Leipzig, Germany – Täubchenthal
• November 16 – Kraków, Poland – Klub Studio
• November 17 – Wrocław, Poland – Centrum Koncertowe A2
• November 19 – Budapest, Hungary – Barba Negra
• November 20 – Milan, Italy – Alcatraz

About HEALTH

HEALTH is an American industrial rock band formed in Los Angeles in 2005 by vocalist and guitarist Jake Duzsik and bassist John Famiglietti, who met while Duzsik was working at a Guitar Center store. Guitarist Jupiter Keyes and drummer BJ Miller joined soon after, giving the band its early lineup; Keyes left in 2015, and the group has continued as the trio of Duzsik, Famiglietti and Miller. HEALTH drew early attention with a remix of Crystal Castles’ “Crimewave” before releasing its self-titled debut album in 2007, followed by “Get Color” in 2009 and “Death Magic” via Loma Vista Recordings in 2015. “Vol. 4 :: Slaves of Fear” followed in 2019, and the band released the collaborative “Disco4” project across two volumes in 2020 and 2022. HEALTH issued “Rat Wars” in 2023, and its sixth studio album, “Conflict DLC”, followed via Loma Vista Recordings on December 11, 2025, preceded by the singles “Ordinary Loss”, “Vibe Cop”, “Thought Leader”, “You Died”, “Shred Envy” and “Antidote”. Los Angeles-based HEALTH have spent years developing a sound in which industrial electronics, noise, metal and pop melody are allowed to coexist without softening one another. One of the band’s most distinctive qualities remains the contrast between the enormous physical weight of the production and Duzsik’s comparatively restrained, vulnerable vocal delivery, which gives the music an emotional character very different from straightforward industrial aggression. The current touring cycle follows “Conflict DLC”, continuing the darker and heavier direction explored on “Rat Wars”. Live, that combination of mechanical rhythm, distortion and unexpectedly intimate vocals gives HEALTH a particularly strong physical and emotional presence, one that carries directly into the “Conflict: Europe 2026” dates.

About Carpenter Brut

Carpenter Brut is the project of French producer Franck Hueso, born in 1977 in Poitiers, who has cultivated anonymity as a deliberate artistic choice since starting the project in 2012 to mix horror-film scoring, metal, rock and electronic music. He first released three EPs, “EP I” (2012), “EP II” (2013) and “EP III” (2015), later compiled as the debut album “Trilogy” (2015). “Leather Teeth” followed in 2018, drawing on 1980s metal and glam rock and opening the fictional story of anti-hero Bret Halford. Hueso then scored the animated feature “Blood Machines” in 2020 before continuing the narrative with “Leather Terror” in 2022. He closed the trilogy with Leather Temple, released on February 27, 2026, which continues Bret Halford’s story into a cryogenic, cyberpunk-inflected future and closes out the “Leather” arc that began with “Leather Teeth”. Carpenter Brut approaches electronic heaviness from another angle than HEALTH. His music draws from synthwave, metal, horror cinema and 1980s pop culture, but over the years the project has moved far beyond simple retro aesthetics, developing into something much more aggressive, theatrical and designed for large live spaces. “Leather Temple” continues Carpenter Brut’s mixture of cinematic electronics, darksynth and metal while expanding the fictional world that has accompanied this chapter of the project, material that now anchors the “Conflict: Europe 2026” set.

With VOWWS opening and two headliners whose methods of creating tension are so different, “Conflict: Europe 2026” looks like one of the more interesting dark electronic touring packages of the autumn, including the two Polish dates in Kraków and Wrocław.

6YPAH is a Slovenian/Italian duo releasing their debut album here. It appears to be a conceptual work inspired by the early years of the Soviet space program and the space race with the USA.

The duo crafted this six-track album primarily using analog equipment. The opening track immediately transports us to a bygone musical era, perfectly matching the album’s concept. Clear Krautrock influences are evident, with the psychedelic guitar taking center stage. Gradually, a balance develops between guitar and electronics, with the warm analog textures adding further depth. The music consistently evokes a sense of nostalgia, at times leaning toward an ’80s aesthetic and even incorporating touches of Wave-Pop. Vocals are present throughout, although they serve more as an additional layer than as the main focus of the compositions.

This strikes me as the kind of album that truly benefits from a visual component, allowing its concept to unfold to its fullest. It is a highly commendable debut that will especially appeal to a discerning audience. (Rating:6½).

Listen to “Vedno S Tabo”:

About 6YPAH

6YPAH is a Slovenian duo formed in Nova Gorica in 2009 by singer and keyboardist Jani Toplak and guitarist and bassist Giorgio Multineddu. The project calls itself “transboundary,” pairing Slovenian songwriting with a base that stretches across the nearby Italian border into Gorizia. 6YPAH mixes synthwave with krautrock and 1970s and 1980s German electronic influences, and sings in Slovene.

The duo self-released its first recording, “Electronic Visions Across The Border” (CDr, catalog RSSCD02), in 2023. 6YPAH then signed to Final Muzik for “Prozorno Mesto,” a concept album inspired by the Soviet Buran space program and the space race with the United States. Bandcamp lists the release date as 7 April 2026, while Discogs dates the release to 2025. The album was recorded and mixed at Resounding Sounds Studio in Gorizia, Italy, and mastered by Gregor Zemljic in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Guitarist Matteo Birsa performs a guest solo on “Vedno S Tabo.” The album’s limited CD edition is capped at 200 copies, tying this release to the duo’s ongoing work built around analog synthesizers and Cold War-era imagery.

UK black metal festival Fortress Festival has confirmed a new batch of artists for its dungeon synth stage, which expands to two full days in the theatre room at Scarborough Spa for the event’s fifth anniversary. Fortress Festival 2027 takes place on 29-30 May 2027 in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, UK. Organizers said around 150 tickets remained for the two-day event as of the August 4, 2026 announcement.

Leading the new dungeon synth stage confirmations is the worldwide live debut of French dungeon synth artist Erang. Discussing the decision to perform live for the first time, Erang stated: “This music is all my life, and I give everything I have to it. For the longest time, it has been such a solitary thing to craft. 2027 will mark the 15th anniversary of my first album, TOME I, and for the first time, I’ve decided to create a live performance around the Land of the Five Seasons. Because the people who enjoy my music have been asking for this for so many years, and their support is the only thing that matters to me: the Kingdom is Ours!”

Dungeon synth stage lineup for Fortress Festival 2027

The dungeon synth stage additions announced on August 4, 2026 are:

• Erang (France) – worldwide live debut
• Wraith Knight (US) – UK debut and exclusive performance
• Spectral Castle (France) – live debut
• Hole Dweller (US)
• Atlantean Sword – had to cancel its planned 2026 appearance
• Lord Bakartia (Spain)
• DragonKeep (France)

These artists join Fortress Festival’s dungeon synth stage alongside the festival’s already-announced main and Ocean Room bills, which are led by Norwegian black metal act Emperor in an exclusive UK headline performance.

About Fortress Festival

Fortress Festival is a black metal festival held at Scarborough Spa in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, UK. Its first edition ran over three days starting June 2, 2023, and the festival has continued annually since, with its 2025 edition selling out. The 2027 edition, spanning 29-30 May 2027, marks the festival’s fifth anniversary and is organized in partnership with Reaper Agency UK.

Fortress Festival’s dungeon synth stage has grown alongside the wider bill, and the 2027 edition expands the format to two consecutive days in the venue’s theatre room. Dungeon synth itself traces back to the early 1990s as an offshoot of black metal, built around synthesizer-led, atmospheric, fantasy-themed soundscapes; Erang, one of the fifth-anniversary stage’s new confirmations, has been part of that scene’s revival since releasing his debut album “TOME I” in 2012.

Here’s a news that only reached us now. Death By Love released “In Unity (Wieloryb Remix and Tribute)” on 14 July 2026, a two-track single on Distortion Productions built around remixes by the late Polish industrial artist Wieloryb (Paweł Kmiecik), who died in June 2026. The release reworks “In Unity”, a track from the duo’s 2026 debut album “444”, and all profits go to support Kmiecik’s family.

Death By Love bring a gothic-industrial and darkwave sound that mixes trip-hop pacing with Middle Eastern melodic elements, heard across their debut album “444”. “In Unity” was originally written by Inga Habiba and Peter Guellard for that record. For this release Wieloryb reworked the track into two versions: “In Unity (Wieloryb Vs. Psychotribe Remix)”, edited by Peter Guellard under his Psychotribe alias, and “In Unity (Wieloryb Power Noise Remix)”. Inga Habiba’s vocals carry over from the original, Guellard handled mastering, and Grindhouse Alternative Art Studio created the cover art. Wieloryb also directed the video for the Psychotribe remix before his death, released via Distortion Productions.

Peter Guellard explained why the duo dedicated the release to Wieloryb:

“We dedicate this release to Wieloryb, Pawel Kmiecik, an extraordinary artist, producer, and video creator, whose vision left a lasting mark on the industrial scene. ‘In Unity’ was the final remix he completed before his sudden and unexpected passing. His post-apocalyptic industrial landscapes sent chills down our spines, while his relentless rhythms and crushing soundscapes raised our pulse and demanded movement. His work was raw, uncompromising, and unforgettable. Thank you for everything Pawel. Your legacy lives on through the art you left behind. All profits from this release will go directly to support Pawel’s family.”

The video for “In Unity (Wieloryb Vs. Psychotribe Remix)” is on YouTube.

Wieloryb, the artist behind ‘In Unity’

Wieloryb was the project of Paweł Kmiecik, formed in 1994 in Poland’s Trójmiasto area (Gdańsk, Gdynia and Sopot) and among the country’s earliest EBM acts. Its debut cassette, “1”, earned a nomination for the Fryderyk award, Poland’s main music industry prize, and the project went on to blend electro-industrial, EBM and techno with noise, metallic rhythms and ambient textures across releases including “2”, “3” and, in 2025, “No Flag” on Requiem Records. Side-Line interviewed Kmiecik about “No Flag” in January 2026, months before his death.

About Death By Love

Death By Love is a Polish-U.S. dark electronic duo formed by Polish singer-songwriter Inga Habiba and Polish-born, U.S.-based producer and multi-instrumentalist Peter Guellard, whose past work includes the Polish goth band Blitzkrieg and the U.S. dark-electronic underground. The pair’s collaboration grew out of a remix Guellard made for Habiba’s electronic act NUN Electro, which led to further work on her solo project CallMe and, eventually, to Death By Love. The duo signed to Distortion Productions in January 2025 and released their debut single, “Strong Inside”, the same month, followed by a cover of Maanam’s “Krakowski Spleen” in March 2025.

Their debut album, “444”, followed on Distortion Productions in February 2026: an 11-track record combining gothic, industrial and trip-hop elements with Middle Eastern melodic touches, exploring mysticism, identity and spiritual tension. Its tracks include “Sellenno”, “Cosmic Power”, “In Unity” and “Temros (Symphonic Mix)”, a reworked version of a track that first appeared on the compilation “Electronic Saviors Vol. 7: ReUnion”. “In Unity (WIELORYB Remix and Tribute)”, released on 14 July 2026, reworks the album’s “In Unity” into two Wieloryb remixes and doubles as a tribute to the Polish industrial artist.

Chicago electronic trio Pixel Grip has announced ‘Percepticide: Remixed’, a remix package built from their 2025 album “Percepticide: The Death of Reality.” The self-released project rolls out on Bandcamp, opened by Glasgow-based producer KAVARI’s rework of the album track “Noise,” released July 10, 2026, with the wider package following on July 29, 2026.

‘Percepticide: Remixed’ tracklist and contributors

“Percepticide: The Death of Reality,” released independently on June 12, 2025, was Pixel Grip’s third studio album and first fully self-released record, running twelve tracks: “Crows Feast,” “Bet You Do.,” “Stamina,” “Reason to Stay,” “Insignificant,” “Noise,” “Moment with God,” “Split,” “Last Laugh,” “Work or Shut Up,” “Jealousy is Lethal” and “Gonna Be Faster.”

For “Percepticide: Remixed,” each of those tracks is reworked by a different producer, with some, including “Reason to Stay,” receiving multiple versions. Confirmed contributors include KAVARI, Perel, Curses, Auragraph, Frazer Ray, Matrixxman, Mercy Girl, Fire-Toolz, Black Asteroid, Inhalt, club.drippy, A Thousand Mad Things, Majick, Ole Mic Odd and Normal Bias, alongside a Pixel Grip self-remix. KAVARI’s version of “Noise” reworks the original into a harder club arrangement.

Pixel Grip is Rita Lukea on vocals with Tyler Ommen and Jonathon Freund handling production, active since 2018. Earlier in 2026, the band contributed a remix of Nine Inch Nails’ “As Alive as You Need Me to Be” to the compilation “TRON Ares: Divergence”, released alongside contributions from Mark Pritchard, Boys Noize, Lanark Artefax, Chilly Gonzales and other artists.

No CD or vinyl edition of “Percepticide: Remixed” has been announced; the release is confirmed for digital release via Bandcamp only.

About Pixel Grip

Pixel Grip formed in Chicago, Illinois, in 2018, built around vocalist Rita Lukea with producers Tyler Ommen and Jonathon Freund. The trio’s sound draws on electropop, darkwave, minimal synth, coldwave and EBM, shaped in part by Chicago’s queer club and disco scenes.

The band released its debut album, “Heavy Handed,” in 2019, followed by “Arena” in 2021. “Percepticide: The Death of Reality” arrived on June 12, 2025, as Pixel Grip’s third studio album and its first release without a label, described by the band as a record built around betrayal, trauma, rage and reconstruction. In February 2026, Pixel Grip contributed a remix to “TRON Ares: Divergence,” the various-artists companion project featuring new material from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross alongside Nine Inch Nails.

With “Percepticide: Remixed,” Pixel Grip extends the “Percepticide” era into a second, fully collaborative release, handing the original album over to a wide field of electronic producers for reinterpretation.

Toronto aggrotech act Mission Divide released the single “Plaything” on Bandcamp on 7 August 2026. The digital release pairs the original track with a remix by Sean Beesley of Live Evil Productions, and closes out the project’s Flesh Collection series of singles.

“Plaything” runs 3:58 and was written, produced and performed by Mission Divide. The release adds a second version, “Plaything (Live Evil Get Down Mix),” a 4:43 rework credited to Sean Beesley of Live Evil Productions, a Toronto-based production and remix outfit. Bandcamp tags the release as electronic, aggrotech, dark electro, hard techno and industrial techno. According to the release notes, “Plaything” concludes, for now, Mission Divide’s Flesh Collection series of singles.

‘Plaything’ remix by Live Evil Productions

The Live Evil Get Down Mix marks Mission Divide’s latest collaboration with a Toronto-based remixer, keeping the project’s release pattern of pairing new singles with a single guest rework rather than issuing multi-remix EPs. No further formats or physical editions have been announced; “Plaything” is available as a digital streaming and download release on Bandcamp.

About Mission Divide

Mission Divide is a Toronto, Ontario project combining aggrotech, techno and industrial elements. No founding date, member names or label affiliation have been published; releases have gone out independently through the project’s own Bandcamp page. The project’s Bandcamp discography traces back to “Happiness Is Fleeting,” released 14 April 2023, followed by “DANSE” and “Mechanical Lust” the same year, then “Wasteland” in September 2023. “Resolution” followed in February 2024, the “PHASES” release in August 2024, and “The Devil’s Got A Gun” in October 2024. “Look At Me” arrived in October 2025, followed by “Die For You” in July 2026. “Plaything,” released 7 August 2026, is Mission Divide’s most recent single and the project’s first release to receive Side-Line coverage.

US industrial project Gasoline Invertebrate released the single “Disaffect” via Ligerhawk Records on 7 August 2026. The digital track runs 3:19, the project’s first new release since the July 2026 EP “ALL CAPS ARE BASTARDS.”

“Disaffect” is a single track available as a digital streaming and download release, with downloads offered in MP3, FLAC and 24-bit/44.1kHz formats. Bandcamp tags the release as dark techno, EBM, industrial, goth, hardstyle and electronic. Gasoline Invertebrate is the recording name of Brian Graupner, who also records as The Gothsicles. The Bandcamp release page lists Gasoline Invertebrate as based in Tampa, Florida, while the project’s Facebook page lists a Knoxville, Tennessee location; the two sources have not been reconciled for this article.

Gasoline Invertebrate on Ligerhawk Records

Ligerhawk Records, the Knoxville-based netlabel behind two “Enter the Hawktagon” compilation samplers, has previously released material from Gasoline Invertebrate alongside acts including The Gothsicles and Killerwytch. No further formats or remixes have been announced for the single.

About Gasoline Invertebrate

Gasoline Invertebrate is the solo industrial project of Brian Graupner, who also records as DarkNES and performs with The Gothsicles. The project’s second full-length album, “Damage Over Time”, was released 22 May 2020 on Tigersquawk Records. A companion release, “The Hurtmore EP,” followed on 20 November 2020, and the album “Bad Fact” arrived in 2022. Gasoline Invertebrate also contributed the track “So You’ve Been Canceled,” featuring Pnakotica, to the “The Odin Files” and “The Freya Files” Ukraine charity compilations. The project released the EP “ALL CAPS ARE BASTARDS” in July 2026, followed by the single “Disaffect” on Ligerhawk Records on 7 August 2026, Gasoline Invertebrate’s most recent release.

Atlanta, Georgia mutant disco/post-punk band Go Public debuted the single “Dream Over” and announced their debut album, “You Are Traffic”, out September 18, 2026 on vinyl LP and digital through HHBTM Records.

Go Public’s ‘Dream Over’ single and ‘You Are Traffic’ album

“Dream Over” is the third single from “You Are Traffic” and a live staple for the band, which formed in Atlanta in 2022 and is made up of Sean Rawls (also of Masters of the Hemisphere and Still Flyin’), Adrian Finch (also of Masters of the Hemisphere and Elf Power), Sam Gunn and Jay Domingo. HHBTM Records label head Mike Turner has worked with Rawls since 1999, when Masters of the Hemisphere appeared on the label’s first compilation and first 7″ singles club; the label later signed Go Public for an EP that ultimately grew into the full “You Are Traffic” album.

About Go Public

Go Public is a four-piece mutant disco and post-punk band from Atlanta, Georgia, formed in 2022 by Sean Rawls, Adrian Finch, Sam Gunn and Jay Domingo, several of whom also play in Masters of the Hemisphere, Still Flyin’ and Elf Power. The band has been a fixture of the southern post-punk live scene since forming, and now release their debut album, “You Are Traffic”, on September 18, 2026 through HHBTM Records, led by the single “Dream Over”.

Division:Dark, the anonymous industrial metal collective from Germany, released the single “The Curse”, the fourth track from their upcoming second album, “The Eternal Baptism”, out October 2, 2026 through Metalville.

Division:Dark’s ‘The Curse’ single

“The Curse” continues the sound of “The Eternal Baptism”, combining powerful guitars, modern industrial rhythms, orchestral elements and electronic sound design into what the band describes as an approach that is “as emotional as it is monumental.” The twelve-track album, previously led by the single “Caught In The Loop”, builds a concept around a dystopian society that has suppressed human emotion, with its title “baptism” symbolizing what the band calls a “return to the lost human frequency.” As with the rest of Division:Dark’s output, the musicians behind “The Curse” remain unnamed, with the project presenting itself as an anonymous collective rather than a fixed line-up.

About Division:Dark

Division:Dark is an anonymous industrial metal project from Germany that pairs heavy guitars, electronics and cinematic arrangements with an ongoing science-fiction narrative. The collective released its debut album “Prophecy” on February 11, 2022 through Drakkar Entertainment, a digipak CD built around a different guest vocalist on each track, including Blutengel’s Chris Pohl, Megaherz singer Lex, Otto Dix, Vicky Psarakis, Anna Murphy of Eluveitie and Anneke van Giersbergen. With “The Eternal Baptism”, Division:Dark move from Drakkar Entertainment to Metalville and shift to a self-contained concept album, with “The Curse” arriving as the second single after “Caught In The Loop” ahead of the record’s October 2, 2026 release.

Swedish electronic act Twice a Man will release “The Marine Trilogy”, a 48-page 2CD artbook compiling out-of-print, marine-themed material recorded between 1984 and 1986, on October 23, 2026 through Dependent, limited to 500 copies.

Twice a Man’s ‘The Marine Trilogy’ artbook

The tracks originally appeared on the cassette “Waterland” and the 12″ singles “Aqua Marine Drum” and “Across The Ocean,” releases that have since become sought-after collectors’ items. “The Marine Trilogy” gathers and remasters that material for its first appearance on CD. Pre-sale for the artbook begins September 9, 2026.

The band describes “Waterland” as the result of a collaboration with the Center for Studies of Whales and Dolphins, which recorded the whale sounds used as the bassline on “Across the Ocean.” Twice a Man frame the material around the marine world as “a perspective from which to view the world,” made amid what the band calls its “fear of the turbulent world order” of the mid-1980s. The group also confirmed a new full-length album is in the works, to be announced separately.

About Twice a Man

Twice a Man is a Swedish electronic duo from Gothenburg, formed by Dan Söderqvist and Karl Gasleben (born Ingemar Ljungström), who met in the early 1970s playing in the groups Älgarnas Trädgård and Anna Själv Tredje. The pair started working together in 1978 as Cosmic Overdose, renamed the project Twice a Man in 1981 and released their debut album, “Music For Girls,” in 1982. From 1984 the group began incorporating samplers into its synthesizer-based, theatrical sound, a period that produced the marine-themed “Waterland” cassette and the “Aqua Marine Drum” and “Across The Ocean” singles now collected on “The Marine Trilogy.” Long-time collaborator Jocke Söderqvist rejoined the group in 2013. More recently, Twice a Man released the video for “Dahlia” in 2023, remastered former member Lars Falk’s classic 1980s-era material, and in 2025 announced the album “The Coloured Breeze Is a New Dimension,” led by the single “Birds Eye View.” “The Marine Trilogy,” due October 23, 2026, revisits the band’s mid-1980s marine-themed recordings ahead of a new full-length album still to be announced.

Tender Ender, the solo project of Swiss artist Thomas Schmidiger, released the single “Darkness”, accompanied by a self-directed music video, ahead of his second album, “Red Kites”, due November 13, 2026. The single is also available to stream via iMusician.

Tender Ender’s ‘Darkness’ single and ‘Red Kites’ album

“Darkness” is built around a home organ and its built-in rhythm section, a duet pairing Schmidiger’s baritone with the breathy vocals of Sabine Ruch. Schmidiger describes the track as “a living-room-sized hymn,” where the home organ “rolls out the carpet for a soothing daydream of escape,” and compares its mood to dark chocolate: “bittersweet, velvety and uplifting.”

Schmidiger also directed the accompanying video, shot during the annual wheat harvest and the swarms of red kites that gather over the fields afterward. He explains the imagery came to him ready-made: “It was basically ready-made,” he says of the harvest and the birds, adding that the scene “somehow summed it all up.” “I like boring things,” he says. “They tend to open doors you didn’t even know existed.”

“Darkness” is the first single from “Red Kites”, out November 13, 2026 and available to preorder on Tender Ender’s site.

About Tender Ender

Tender Ender is the solo project of Swiss artist Thomas Schmidiger, blending film-noir pop, ambient melancholy and piano balladry built around a home organ, enriched with harmonium, vibraphone, pedal steel and piano. Less than a year after his debut album, Schmidiger returns with “Red Kites”, due November 13, 2026, led by the single “Darkness” featuring vocalist Sabine Ruch.