Riveting Music has offered up some excellent compilations in recent years, namely Tear Down the Walls: A Tribute to Pink Floyd. The goal of Riveting Music, much like ours here at Sounds and Shadows, is to put industrial and alternative music out to a wider audience. Their next undertaking is set to help fight back against the unfortunate overturning of Roe v. Wade, which has since endangered the reproductive rights of millions of Americans.
Regulate This: A Riveting Tribute to Girl Power is a compilation of twenty-one artists each covering a song dedicated to feminism, girl power, and standing up to the patriarchy. All proceeds from the release are going to the Global Fund for Women, While who is covering what hasn’t been released just yet, we know that the following artists are involved: Containher, Sapphria Vee, Caligulust, Demons Need Angels, Schedule IV, Society Burning, Fractured Machines, The Blue Hour, File Transfer Protocol, Mach FoX and Illuminate Steele, Latex, Machines With Human Skin, Out Out, Flood Damage, Fatigue, Sandi Leeper, Bellhead, Deconbrio, Alcestea, The Joy Thieves, and Eva X.
The following artists will be covered on Regulate This: Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Portishead, Animotion, PJ Harvey, Bjork, Toni Basil, Garbage, Janet Jackson, Ani DiFranco, Bonnie Tyler, Pat Benatar, La Tigre, The Plasmatics, Kim Carnes, Fleetwood Mac, Laurie Anderson, Belinda Carlisle, Danielle Dax, Berlin, Dolly Parton, and The Eurythmics.
The full compilation will be released on September 9th, but to tide us over, we’ve gotten a taste of what is to come. The Joy Thieves have teamed up with I Ya Toyah for a rendition of Pat Benatar’s 1983 hit “Love is a Battlefield.” It’s faithful to the original, though an increased guitar presence helps kick things into another, more powerful gear. It brings the sound forward in time from the early Eighties new wave to a mid-Nineties industrial rocker, while remaining a loving tribute to Benatar’s original work.
Check out the track below, stay tuned for the music video on Friday, August 26th, and the full Regulate This compilation on Friday, September 9th. For more information on the Global Fund for Women, check out their website here.
This is our second S & S Darkscene chart chosen completely by the Djs, Bands, Reviewers, Artists, and Super Fans, of the international group Sounds and Shadows. This features singles from any country and any genre within the loose darkscene category (Goth/Industrial/Darkwave/Postpunk/EDM/EBM/Electronica).
The Joy Thieves(feat. I Ya Toyah) – Money Is Not Our God (Killing Joke Cover) by Coitus Interruptus Productions – Chicago, IL
daddybear(feat grabyourface) – Hypnotic – Madison WI
The Joy Thieves(feat. I Ya Toyah) – Money Is Not Our God (Killing Joke Cover) by Coitus Interruptus Productions – Chicago superband The Joy Thieves return to this chart with a blistering cover of the Killing Joke classic. This entire compilation is full of banger tributes to one of the great names of the scene. Ania (I Ya Toyah) unleashes a terrifying and powerful rendition full of punk rock snarl and sky splitting technicolor. Milligan puts on a loving masterclass in syncopation on drums.
daddybear(feat grabyourface) – Hypnotic – Madison WI – I love this team up more every time it happens. Matt Fanale (Caustic/Klack) dropped this immediate dance floor classic with frequent contributor Marie (Grabyourface) on vocals. It’s a buzzing electronic zapper you can’t help buzz towards your destruction on. Whispy sensual, destruction core vibes. A must own banger.
Aesthetic Perfection (feat. Isaac Howlett) – Save Myself – Austria – The king of pop industrial teams up with glorious songsmith Isaac Howlett (Empathy Test) to create this perfect style blend duet. It cooks and yanks the hell out of your heart strings as two of the great voices of the modern scene push and pull a furious cyclone of exploding energy.
Stabbing Westward – I Am Nothing – From COP International LA Progdustrial sensation continues to prove they are a force of challenge and artistic expression in 2021. It’s fierce guitars and laser burn vocals from Chris Hall, who remains one of the best in the business.
Helix – Run (Hallowed Hearts Remix) – The husband/wife team up of Tom Shear (Assemblage 23) & vocalist Mari Kattman are one of those things I am embarrassed I waited so long to get on board with. It is sledge hammer dance beats smashing ice castles of precision and fractal light beam beauty. Spinning motion I never want to put down.
S Y Z Y G Y X – Light You On Fire – I have been so excited to hear where Luna and Cold Transmission Music would go next with this project. This scorching sensual growl of death disco minimalist glory. I don’t even know how to categorize it. Only that I can’t get enough eagerly await the full album release this Friday .
grabyourface – Rob the Bank – The French Negative Gain artist makes their second appearance on the chart. This coldwave slow stomp single of revolutionary nihilism and burning intelligence is a smoldering exhibition on a post capitalism world.
PALAIS IDEAL – The Voice Of Reason – Cold Transmission progressive post punk artists have again produced a higher concept thinking dystopian sound for the modern age. Overlapping waves of technical excellence and poetic intent. Everyone in the genre wants to make the next Star Wars while John and Richard are creating Issac Asmov.
Sapphira Vee(Feat Cat Hall) – Breath of You – Distortion Records artists teams up with peer vocal power Cat Hall to belt this powerful single about the strength and perseverance of cancer survivors. The weight and emotion of this personal track is a crackling orb of enormous movement and resilience.
ULTRA SUNN – Young Foxes – Saucy Belgian cold wave trance from Cold Transmission. Sam Huge has a resonating voice that fills a room and stalks with intent. Pete Burns adds an elegant mastering to create cavernous echos.
It has been a tough few months. A Lot of stress, but also a lot of exciting news. Sounds and Shadows keeps finding new ways to grow like last months S & S Darkscene Chart. I did Bandcamp Friday reviews last week, but I wanted to write a few tonight and just spend some time with new music. As always reach out to me or one of our other reviewers if you have something you want to hear us write about.
Machines With Human Skin – Transience – Brand new album from Chicago Industrial artist Adrian Halo. I’ve been spinning a bootleg CD copy of this Adrian handed me at Coldwaves festival. I’ve really loved watching his growth and progression. As a songwriter and producer I hear continual learning with every release. Such an underrated aspect or organic growth. I love how this album uses the power of a whisper. The power and anger comes forth, but not with exploding bass, ear splitting guitars, and screams. When you deliver lyrics with a breathy and melodic intensity it makes you lean in to listen. Makes you want to be inside the circle and absorb the emotion. The bounce of these basslines really create movement and give the wispy chant a vehicle. This is my favorite work MWHS have put out to date, it is effortless, soulful, and the mix really sits in the pocket without forcing the intent.
Hey look, It’s Adrian and I in the Post Punk Industrial Museum
Favorite Track: Invisible – This song really struck me in part for the clean and focused tone. In part for the raw and exposed aspect of the lyrics. It’s glitchy with a high energy pace and curled lip defiance. A firehose of pressure and political discourse fired with crystal cool water and builds.
Recorded at Maynott Studios, Chicago, IL Mastered by Jules Seifert at Epic Audio Media, London, UK Artwork: Jim Marcus
Sequential Zero – Second Sequence – Some of the great Australian goth talent teams up with Orcus Nullify axe master Bruce Nullify. Ant Banister of Sounds Like Winter provides a haunted, emotive delivery on vocals. The dark disco style Lenn drums create an abstract Cabaret Voltaire openness. The tracks are gripping hands of tension, holding the mind and forcing introspection. This release really excites me for the future of the project. So many talented voices finding a space together and lifting each other up.
Helix – Bad Dream – It surprises me I don’t think I have reviewed the powerhouse team up that is Mari Kattman and Tom Shear (Helix). I will rectify that now. Bright, bold, and teaming with energy. Mari has an elegance to her voice that feels like a bird of prey gliding on an air current. This is music that makes my legs pump with a desire to concur the world. I’m genuinely mad at myself I haven’t listened to them more before now. Track 2 Slip has a gorgeous triphop backbeat that captures the idea of movement on ice. I love the subtle changes in the vocals cadence, everything happening in the same volume and range, yet creating movement with tiny variations. Masterful songwriting and execution.
Favorite Track: Run (Hallowed Hearts Remix) – These tracks have all really impressed me. This one though managed to take that same beaming energy and fire it through a violet lens of darkness. The shadowy tones open up even more space for Mari’s vocals to shine. I put this track up for the S & S Darkscene charts. These layered guitar leads add a whole other level.
daddybear – Hypnotic (feat grabyourface) – It seems whenever Matt Fanale (Caustic/Klack) and Marie Dragontown (Grabyourface) team up glory ensues. This beat is grinding dance floor magic. Marie’s vocals are sensual and terrifying. The whole song is a promise of ill intent which remains tantalizing while communicating destruction. After a few collaborations anytime I see this team put out a new song, it is an automatic buy. I have been requesting it in every Twitch Dj stream I jump into.
Goth Professor – Swamp Gothic (Halloween Single) – Unnerving atmospheric horror trance from Florida’s Goth Professor . I really didn’t know what to expect wadding into these swampy waters. If you want to invite 9 guests to a mansion, feed them delicacies, then commit a murder everyone remaining is left to solve. This is the soundtrack you need.
One million years ago before the internet it was a lot harder to find the greatest new music. We would head down to the record store and buy the latest compilation from our favorite record labels. Cleopatra and Wax Trax were mine. Streaming services made this a bit of a lost art. COP International has started a new series of comps called “Broken Hearts and Robot Parts“. I beam with pride that I got to choose the name. Christian Petke and team have done a smaller more focused spotlight on label bands and future unsigned talent. It’s great to see a label with a storied history and powerhouse producer like John Fryer take an interest in growing new bands for the sake of the scene. This is the future I have longed for where labels fulfil the promise of family and support so many of us dreamed of. Amazing artwork from Greg Rolfes ties together the concept. Let’s dig in to Part I.
The production levels of everything here are outstanding. I love that COP made sure everyone added to this comp where putting their best foot forward and highlighting each band at their best performance. The music has a diverse range but a cohesive idea of guitar focused rock music blended with electronic elements.
Johnny Tupolev – Shot In Black and White – Out the gate with a strong delivery from a COP International artist. The German performer opens with a tension building breathing vocal and then explodes into a crushing crowbar guitar riff. The vocals have expressive Mike Patton flare. I love the hard Alt rock flavor with electronic elements and a introspective message of ego death.
Suicide Queen – Swan – Truly a dripping oily black horror sound held in a white lace glove. The Oakland CA band delivers beautiful New Order keyboard melodies, washed over by Kay Dolores filthy and distinct rasping growl. It creates fierce contrast that leaves you both lulled and unnerved. This track is a rush of wind at your back, pushing your spread wings to a danger you are trying not to face.
Machines With Human Skin – Watch It Burn – The project of our dear friend Adrian Halo of Chicago. A furious cyclone of fire and wind. I love the wispy style vocals and digital drive. Great use of dynamics that cause the chorus to hit hard with fist pump and boot stomp moments. Wicked overlapping guitar solo around the 3 minute mark give an organic blast to the cold electronic swirl.
unitcode:machine – Paper Empires (Regional Adjunct Remix by GW Childs) Dallas Texas cyber wizards set loose this stop and start bleep bloop broken mechanical dance. I love the way Eric is spinning an static buzz story with his voice and the even cadence walk.
The Burying Kind – Falling Over – One thing I will never stop screaming from the rooftops is about the Chicago duo of Dan Milligan (The Joy Thieves) and Scott-David Allen (A Covenant of Thorns) . They both took the leap, trusted in each other and made one of the best Shoegaze albums I have heard in over a decade. This track in particular highlights the romantic gothic beauty of Allen’s vocals and the grey pallet tapestry of Milligan’s production. I love using this as an outro to this emotional journey.
As 2021 begins and the world continues it’s isolation we find comfort where we can. For me that has been finishing an album, enjoying our ShadowBook Facebook group, and finding amazing new music to drop my hard earned duckets down for on Bandcamp day. The first Friday of every month Bandcamp gives all of it’s proceeds from album sales directly to the artist. So let me fire through what will be taking up residence in my ever expanding collection.
Stoneburner – No Light No Spark – It is fairly well known Steven is a friend of the page. That is why I appreciate it so much he never makes me forfeit my integrity by consistently putting out increasingly amazing albums. In this one he calls upon an army of Industrial compatriots to remix some of his recent work. (Bellhead/Assemblage 23 / Machines With Human Skin / Dogtablet/ Sister Sarin / Stabbing Westward / Joy Thieves / Bativia / Hollowboy / Pill Brigade). It’s always a joy to here material you love, reimagined by other people you love. Often they do something I always want to hear from Steven, which is giving even more clarity to his concepts and poetry.
Standout Tracks: All of them.
Amnesialand(Dogtablet – Soldier Ant Mix) Static strikes like brushes, a machine powers up, Steven’s rapping flow is clarified and direct. I love how the drums slide off the beat behind him.
Are You There The WayI’m Here (Assemblage 23 Remix) A slow and deliberate grind that isolates the lyrics. Striking hard on the front beats. Just wave after wave of giant stone wheels crushing the land before it.
No Light No Spark (Terror Management Theory version) Giant and terrifying in it’s scope. This track stomps around on iron legs with drunken fury. A stalking beast of a song.
You can never have too much Stoneburner in your collection.
SINE – DesolateDistrict Feat. Chris Connelly – This is an absolute burner single that came out last year. It’s starburst drums and satin vocals, weaving through a shattered landscape. Then it adds in Chris Fuking Connelly. I love this call and answer flow of the vocals. The power of the drum beats shakes your spine. This song is a dance club hit every place in America needs to be thumping through a system. When Connelly is the icing on your cake, that is one hell of a cake. Hot poetry like this “The name’s contagious, written in smoke You force fed energy, starved and soaked You misread crime when you look at decline Desolate district dissolute signs”
Die Robot – Frantic – Portland’s cybernetic punk energon cubes released this single in May last year. It’s that perfect synthesis of funky electropunk and smash your face flying robot fist. Great mixture of voices and sensual inflection. I got done stomping my feet to this single and picked up the whole discography. My advice is get this and then when your legs can’t dance anymore build better ones out of broken robot parts.
I Ya Toyah – Out Of Order – Chicago/Poland’s favorite one women sound extravaganza has this eagerly awaited sophomore EP out 3/26/21 which is now available for preorder. So far one single is available and just like every time Ania puts out something new, my jaw hit the floor. Instead of napalm energy, this new sound is a cutting laser or focus and complexity. Like a fine wine every moment it lingers in your throat offers a new flavor and tone. This is a must order and early contender to be on albums of the year. It’s so seldom you see someone with the talents of Ania work as hard as she does at her craft to grow exponentially with each release.
Also a bundle package available Unisex T-shirt designed by Chicago artist Danesh Kothari, printed on soft and natural Bella Canvas, plus limited edition holographic sticker, and CD in 6 panel art wallet with 6 page lyric and art insert. Photos and art by award winning European artist Krzysztof Babiracki. 15% of each physical album sale goes to American Foundation for Suicide Prevention to aid mental health cause. Ania is an amazing human changing the world with everything she does.
The Churchill Garden – Fade Away – Gorgeous new dreampop single with a team up of Andy Jossi and (Whimsical) singer Krissy Vanderwoude. This track is a tear rolling slowly down the cheek just as the sun strikes it to make it sparkle. I kept feeling my heart rise up towards my throat as layer after layer emerged and joined a cacophony of tender sweeping wind. Music to make your feel.
Luis Vasquez – A Body Of Errors – I hate to be that guy, that says I was at that one show. I’m just kidding, I love to be that guy. I got to see The Soft Moon at Berghain and it altered the course of my sonic life. This new solo album is a percussion driven instrumental masterpiece. Rising cities, cities destroyed, the screams of a dying age. Textural emotive hums infusing the body and blasting a prism of colors into the mind. I’m not usually one for instrumental works but just like anything when it is done at this level it is something that moves you. Future Sounds of London with the edgy tension of Coil. I want to be back in that bunker in Berlin riding the wave of this journey of sound.
Doors In The Labyrinth – The Shadow Of The Monolith – I love when a band has so many present influences that their is no effective way to categorize it. New album from the Pittsburgh native Josh Loughrey has a textured coldwave isolation crashing up against sizzling guitars and wilderness crooning vocals. Full album release is 3/15 but this first single is full of promise and explosive energy. I had the opportunity to see Josh open for Adoration Destroyed/Lorelei Dreaming and this is an artist with a bubbling volcano of passion ready to explode.
Collapse of Dawn – of dreams and nightmares – This is a sound that really leans into it’s album name. A sinister stalking wispy electronic sound. Both Saphirra Vee and Melodywhore contribute vocals and it is a powerful combination to give the shadow images both sensuality and dark intention. My personal favorite was “Silent Howl“, it managed to elevate the surrealism to further the dream metaphor. Just like a dream or nightmare I think the true star of the show were the tiny brushstrokes of sound you don’t remember you heard until later reflection. Everyone who listens will get their own story. I’m glad I heard mine.
Kandinsky Noir – DOM-J (Feat. Grabyourface) – This track immeadiately puts you back on your heels with explosive force and smashing guitars. Very old school industrial tone with a sharp high speed modern sound. The effect is made even stronger with a wonderful guest vocal by Marie of Grabyourface providing French lyrics. This one is even more special for me because the collaboration came out of our Sounds and Shadows group. A beautiful textured jam with teeth and blood.
Dissonance – Damage 1st Assault (Feat Melodywhore) Ok I am a long time fan of Cat Hall, she has one of the most underrated voices in modern electronic. So when I say this is my favorite track I want you to appreciate the weight of that. James lays down a filthy grinding beat that really let her voice off the chain. Puts me in mind of that aggressive feminine power of Lords of Acid and My Life With The Thrill Kill Cult. All broken glass and velvet sass. I can’t wait to hear more from this powerful collaboration. The single also features some powerful remix work from Joe Haze , Machines With Human Skin, Steven Olaf, and more.
