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Hamartia means a fatal flaw in relation to a hero, and flawed heroes are very prominent in Greek mythology. Hamartia – Part One is also the new EP from Teknovore, aka George Klontzas, who also often steeps his techno industrial music in the Greco mythos he grew up with. The EP consists of five tracks and is out on the Infacted Recordings label.

The title track, “Hamartia” kicks this all off, with tribal rhythms that could rattle your teeth and shake a dancefloor, and there are glimmers of acid house synths in the mix, reminiscent of The Shamen and Prodigy. It is a whirlwind of electronics, with occasional female vocals.

The ancient Greeks believed in “Ekyprosis” or the intermittent destruction of the universe by fire, also known as conflagration, and then follows renewal. It hits like a burst of energy and plays a news reel about the dangers of Raves on the teenage mind. Maybe this is the destruction of the world as the parents knew it, when their children found a new reason to be, burning through the rave culture.

French duo Moaan Exis, feature on “Disclose,” giving the track a far more heavier and harsher industrial sound, as it throbs and bounces between revelation and gritty repulsion. The vocals want to reel you in with emotional attachment and then in the next moment revile you.

There is deception at hand with “Coercion” as it leads you down the dance path, towards…. what? The music is techno brilliance, that builds and swells, with an intermittent female vocalist, who stays perfectly in rhythm, hinting at the murky company being kept.

Last track is the entrancing “Autonomy,” featuring Marie L. Dragontown, better known for her project name Grabyourface, Dragontown lends her smouldering spoken words to the heavily techno orientated music, with a serious and very current underlaying message about targeting people for their nationality, faith and sexual preferences. When the personal becomes completely impersonal.

There is nothing flawed about this EP, and especially not the hero of our story, Klontzas. Hamartia is rich in electronic sounds that vary from techno and rave, through to cyber industrial and EBM. The beauty is that this is Part 1, so technically there is more Teknovore waiting in the wings to take us on another epic odyssey.

Hamartia (Part One) | TeknoVore

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How can you turn down listening to a track called ‘An Industrial Disco Revenge Hymn‘? That line of words is like catnip and connected to the new single “Dead To You” by Brisbane project ÚMBRIEL. James Halloran is ÚMBRIEL and “Dead To You” is the second single off soon to be released debut album The Signs.

PHOTO BY MORGAN ROBERTSc

Halloran and a piano, is the introduction, like a cabaret performer, breathing life into a story in a darkened club, and it sounds like a tragedy with the crooned out lyrics ‘now she’s just a headline on the news..’ Rhythmic staccato style stutters that are instantly attention catching. Layers of harmonising vocals immerse your senses, while the music builds in sound between the electronic beats and inorganic stardust of the synths.

The vocals are perfection and I suspect Halloran has had training in stage singing, and if not, throw them a bouquet of roses anyway. This is a song crafted around the memory of a female friend, gone too soon, both emotional and yet, it feels like a celebration of this life that deserves to never to be forgotten. “Dead To You” is an ode to a being who lives in treasured memories, and do you truly fade away if never forgotten? ÚMBRIEL burns bright and fabulous in the genius “Dead To You.”

Dead To You | ÚMBRIEL

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Melbourne’s Velatine are going from strength to strength, solidifying their line-up of founding member Loki Lockwood and vocalist Holly Purnell, and at the end of March, releasing the single “Whisper Park,” out on Spooky Records. This is Velatine covering Velatine, as “Whisper Park” was originally released in 2022, though now it has become a different beast.

We are going Fields of the Nephilim style, with that southern gothic guitar twang, and the track builds and builds on itself in thick waves of powering guitars and welling drums. Purnell is sultry and makes “Whisper Park” her domain, inhabiting it with her drawled vocals, like she embodies the personality of Marlene Dietrich.

‘We’re aligned on where we want to go, how we want to be seen, even our basic thoughts on humanity connect. It’s spooky.‘ – Loki Lockwood

The original version, which you should check still check out as well, is very much more electronic, whilst this latest is far heavier, imbued with a streetwise griminess, as if “Whisper Park” is the place to meet all those weird goth kids, and, of course, Velatine. It is not a whisper, but rather a call to the disenfranchised.

Whisper Park | Velatine

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Dave McAnally’s Sys Machine is back with his third album dropping in April, called Parts Unknown. Sys Machine has found a home with Glitch Mode Recordings, which has the extra benefit of drawing on the expertise of fellow Glitchers Sean Payne and Brad Huston for programming, mixing & production, while the artwork over the Giant’s Causeway in Ireland is by Jim Marcus.

Kimberly Kornmeier (Bow Ever Down) is the guest vocalist for two tracks, with one of them being the single “Fading.” Her voice is very recognisable and plaintive in the track, which is a slow burn with a emotional depth in the synths, reflecting back the lyrics.

The latest single “Shallow” is anything but, with a southern flavour of the lone cowboy in an electronic modern world, and there is a powerful message to be had. Do you believe what you are told to believe or do you trust your own eyes? This is a sentiment Orwell pushed and it still rings so true today.

“Doubtless” struck me, though leaning into Depeche Mode stylings, it really made me think of Project Pitchfork both vocally, rhythmically and flirting with the interludes of guitar and piano. I think this is an epic track and sublime in how it seems to make your soul want to take flight.

I know McAnally’s previous albums shed light onto how he sees things in the bigger world, but this album seems far closer to home. The inner struggle so to speak. And the music is not quite the more wham bam style, influenced by 90s industrial rock of yore, as it feels more reflective and synth based. We often fear the unknown when we are younger, and as we age some will run from it, while others will embrace it and welcome the adventure. Unknown Parts is Sys Machine’s growth into something wonderful.

Parts Unknown | .SYS Machine

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Music | Glitch Mode Recordings

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Los Angeles based Siren Section are back with a new album called Separation Team. This independent release is the first for Siren Section’s members, James Cumberland and John Dowling, in eight years, and with nineteen tracks on said album, I am thinking they have been hording music just like dragons horde gold.

The single “Flinch” is straight EBM, all electronics and a droning rhythm to dance to. The vocals are distorted and low in the mix, so the most prominent part of the track are the beats and looping synths. However, in complete opposition is the track “Solidarity,” with clean vocals and dreamy guitar, while it all sits on a drifting cloud of synths. It swells in the chorus and sonically so different to “Flinch.”

There is the trap inspired “Minotaur” that has an off kilter fair ground feel that wavers between near manic and spiritual enlightenment. It sits next to the track “Deer Hunter” that could be at home in a piano bar, for the lost and hopeless, looking for hidden truths.

Not only do you get nineteen fully formed tracks, but there is such interesting blend of styles that keeps everything fresh and interesting. Shoegaze guitars, electro-industrial/industrial rock, post-punk roots…. you get the idea. The myriad of genres pulled on does not make the tracks overly busy, as the experimentation keeps it flowing and holds your attention. Siren Section are back in action with Separation Team.

Separation Team | Siren Section

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The end of January had US label, Re:Mission Entertainment, dropping the Stuck EP, a cross pollination between Warm Gadget and Snowbeasts. The EP is three tracks long that is a blending of Warm Gadget’s brusque, 90s styled industrial and Snowbeasts‘ modern EBM.

The title track intro powerfully looms into being before you hear the very recognisable vocals of Tim Vester. The clattering beats and vocals lean into the buzz cut guitar, while above the tempst, there is the ghost like touch of synths and the ethereal singing of Elizabeth Virosa. You can hear the influence of Snowbeasts in the rhythms of “Bodiless.” The electronics screaming is high pitched, and soon are mixing with the twisting female vocals, looping into a hypnotic fever dream, which feels like it might never end.

Last track, “Lost Dub” is going to fool you on first listen. It seems to meander slowly, though suddenly atmosphere becomes heavy as a raucous electronic noise bubbles infect your ears. The rhythms do not change one iota, but you could swear things started moving faster and became more menacing, until we get to the winding down end.

Collaborations when done well will always be entertaining, as you tend to get the best of both worlds, where something new and exciting occurs. And so Stuck gives us an intersection meeting of Warm Gadget’s punchy, slap down, 90s metal industrial, tempered by the electronic gossamer nuances of Snowbeasts’ more modern style. I am all here for this!

Stuck EP | Warm Gadget x Snowbeasts | Re:Mission Entertainment

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Portland, Oregon, is the land of the whacky, wild and, most importantly, spooky. A new abomination has been birthed in the form of gothic/industrial group Hexxes, with the witchy beings Agatha Hexx (synth, bass, drums/percussion, programming), Alastair Hexx (guitar) and
Scarlett Hexx (lyrics, vocals)

My goodness, those vocals sound so familiar. I cannot workout if I have heard the singer before or they remind me of someone else. Ballsy, yet smooth like Caroline Blind (Sunshine Blind), and it complemented by the clattering, industrial style programmed drum machine and electronics. Scarlet’s vocals soar and are the focus, though you can hear the cheeky guitar holding its own.

Hexxes seem to be drawing from the political machinations happening in the United States, a dark and depressing series of ongoing events, with a narrative pushed by self serving, bible thumping, paedophilic oligarchs and politicians. These events have highlighted how much we take life for granted until it becomes threatened by having freedoms eroded. “Fragile Things” is an acknowledgement, but also it points to holding onto those ideals and small wins. Witches are the best type of bitches, and Hexxes have created a great dance track in “Fragile Things.”

Fragile Things | Hexxes

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Do you have a funny little Valentine? Do you, and they, err on the more darkside of life? Then you might truly be ready to romance your other half with the single “My Bloody Valentine” by Who Saw Her Die?!

Get hot and heavy with the danceable beats, and the breathy vocals, groaning in your ears. Nothing says I find you deathly attractive than background screaming electronics and lyrics that speak of asphyxiation and being someone’s dirty buried secret. And you also get the extra bonus of two extended/remix versions of this artery splurging track. Who Saw Her Die? are bringing the electronic darkwave for you to exsanguinate for the one you hate to adore. So, in that vein, will you be “My Bloody Valentine“?

My Bloody Valentine | Who Saw Her Die?

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German label Dependent, dropped the new Fïx8:Sëd8 album Octogram, in the month of October, which seems oddly apt. The guys from Wiesbaden, have really put a lot of thought and heart into Octogram, with there being eight tracks, which all have a running time of approximately eight minutes each. Further more, each track has the last words of a imprisoned person, about to receive the ultimate penalty of death.

“The Unborn” is your introduction to the concept of last words integrated into music. There is a undeniable truth is the fact that ‘everybody dies,’ but not everybody gets to choose when, The synths are sublime at times, almost serene in acceptance of the awaited fate, though there is a darkness within and it accented with the high pitch electronic feedback, breaking into your conscious.

There are probably no more powerful words than ‘I don’t want to go,’ when you know they were the last utterances from a human, who was euthanised, and “New Eden” is electronically beautiful, compared to the voice of this woman. The synths simply sparkle like stars in the sky, that will never be seen again and there is an urgency, with the metallic vocals that morph at will into otherworldly singing.

“Darkness Visible” has a delicate tone, carried with the almost oriental lines that ring out making me think of Depeche Mode, broken by the guttural vocals. It sails on mercurial synths. There feels like a righteous reign of fire just waiting to break loose in “Oathbreaker,” as if the track is on the knife’s edge, waiting to break open, throbbing and building in tension. The beats become heavier and evolves into semi rhythmic noise.

There is a point in Octogram where you begin to wonder if humanity has the right to snuff out the life of another, as you run the gamut of emotions where the music and vocals sometimes builds on the psychological state and in other tracks, can almost be diametrically opposite. The music, as always, from Fïx8:Sëd8 is really breath-taking, putting forth creations that are not just danceable, but also take you from your safe place and make your heart beat just a bit faster.

Octagram | FIX8:SED8

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Dependent – SPKR.store

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Let us take a jaunty journey to Seaford in Victoria, a place of extreme weather patterns and industrial rock music, where the native DevilMonkey can be found. At the end of October, those sons of a DevilMonkey, namely Jim (bass, vocals, programming), Jesse (guitars, programming) and Wayne (drums, percussion), dropped the latest single “Zero Days,” featuring the guest vocals of Beck McPhai.

Be lured into a false sense of electronic security, which is soon broken with the bass heavy guitar work and the guttural vocals. Wowsers….it really is a vocal thunderdome of epic Aussie accented angst and funkiness. My description is going to sound a bit wrong, but the best analogy I have is Australian pub rock sashaying on down, and getting all industrial dirty on punk overdrive. It works and you can also check out the extraordinary Palliative Remix that amps up the cyber ante, creating a dancefloor track. All bets are on DevilMonkey taking you back to “Zero Days.”

Zero Days | DevilMonkey

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Zero Days by DevilMonkey – DistroKid

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