Skull + Crossfades | Genre-fluid dark music mixtapes.

Big Black — “He's a Whore”, 1987.

Albini and co. launch a grindball sardonic sludge from their shit catapult.Automatic — “Mind Your Own Business”, 2019.

Classic Delta 5 jam repurposed by a one of the most exciting post-punk trios of the new school. Can I lick the crumbs from your table? Fuck yes.Gang of Four — “To Hell With Poverty”, 1981.

From an album that reeks with brilliance in almost every note, this is an extremely guilty pleasure. That bassline could solve world hunger and that backbeat could launch rockets.Kas Product — “Never Come Back”, 1982.

The sound of electro punk recorded in a kid's cardboard fort.Pigface — “Cutting Face”, 1993.

Absolute peak early 90s Pigface when every creative piston was firing on overdrive. Released on the between-albums Washingmachine Mouth EP, which in of itself is a dark trip into psycho electronics.16 Volt — “Motorskill”, 1995.

Released at the very apex of "industrial metal", 16 Volt's first album outpaced their brethren with sharper production, better songwriting and a firmer grasp of why "industrial" mattered for the disillusioned. Its menace is espoused perfectly on "Motorskill", its most widely traded single.Cyanotic — “Signal The Machines (Randolph & Mortimer Remix)”, 2019.

R&M run this electro-metal stomper through their trademark EBM workout with astonishing results. This is built for bodies in motion.A Projection — “Transition”, 2017.

Intoxicating hit of darkwavey post-punk masquerading as an ultra economical top 40 pop song. Fun, sad, dark and bright all at the same time.Hapax — “Elegy”, 2019.

Perhaps the best post-punk album of 2019, every song on Hapax's astonishing third LP is a tour de force of gothic catharsis, a late-night, slow-motion fall through lost loves and fragile memories. "Elegy" offers no comfort except reflective commiseration.IAMTHESHADOW — “The Skin”, 2018.

This delicate goth mover bleeds loss and desperation, but the velvet harmonics on the chorus are soul-shaking and literally unforgettable. This is ten times better than it has any right to be and the scene is lucky to claim them.Body of Light — “Don't Pretend”, 2019.

An album worth revisiting over and over again for its explosive, neon-lit dance fight montage gems like this.Night Sins — “Two Headed Dream”, 2019.

Philly's darkwave maestro bolts a driving beat onto a sultry bassline and curtains of gothy keys.Bloc Party — “Ares (Villains Remix)”, 2009.

Whatever your opinion of Bloc Party, there's no denying their passion for remixes and giving other producers a platform. This rinse converts a barn-burning post-punk grenade into a city-destroying dancefloor nuke. No prisoners on this one.SARIN x Imperial Black Unit — “Will To Destroy”, 2019.

Industrial techno has every opportunity to fall stale and formulaic, but in the hands of these guys, it's a near infinite sonic lab in which to devise new forms of skull-melting anthems. Masters at work.

Bess — “Dragonfly”, 2019.

Luscious femme-forward electro that echoes Switchblade Symphony but with far more emphasis on the switchblades.Sierra — “Gone”, 2019.

Criminally perfect retro wave electro funk that holds you by the hair and forces you to nod along with every deep black barb-wired hook. Physicists have determined that this song's kick drum will appear as the new heaviest element on the Periodic Table.Silent Runners — “Forgotten”, 2019.

I love the metronomic build of this song, but that drop at 3 minutes, the low rolling tension and the retaliatory backhand before the curtains close is fucking auditory cinema. A highlight song from a highlight album.Tor Lundvall — “The Night Watch”, 2019.

This passionate, gloomy synthpop poem feels like summer at 9 pm where the sun recedes and the ghosts shimmer at the edge of the trees.Rhys Fulber & Blush Response — “Dissipate”, 2019.

The rolling bowels and bleak pad work of this song are the soundtrack to every slow-motion vampire rave. Play this over the opening scene of "Blade" instead of that trash New Order remix.Panther Modern — “Body//reaction”, 2019.

The high-water mark of modern synthpunk with production so tight it could shelter life in outer space.Einstürzende Neubauten — “Feurio!”, 1989.

I my love/hate for this band swings hard for "love" on this track, a sonic wall of bedlam that plows through a sound system like a heaving, steaming 18-wheeler that blew half its tires on its climb out of hell.Grauzone — “Eisbaer”, 1980.

Stone classic German coldwave. Come for the gimmick, stay for the bass, collapse with that closing saxophone.Individual Totem — “Subsistence”, 1997.

This track — crunchy beats, immaculate sound design, emotive singing — is mother electro's warmest embrace. No one else except Haujobb and Forme Tadre had perfected the science of this sound in the 90s.Sabotage Q.C.Q.C. — “Les fleurs du mal”, 1995.

Second only to maybe Die Form when it comes to beats, latex and sweat.Mascarpone — “Faceless”, 2019.

The horror scream is a dumb trope, but the demonic acid-drenched bassline and skull-slapping kick drum more than cover for the sins of cliched sampling. The less obvious beauty is the chameleon-shifting melodies and rhythms that keep the water roiling across every moment.Kontravoid — “Hold Nothing”, 2018.

It's hard not to unclench your jaw in this tough-as-nails EBM workout. The tension between kicks hangs like blood in the air, and the ripping body blows don't relinquish their assault until your bones hit the floor.Skinny Puppy — “Tin Omen 1”, 1990.

One of the absolute gems in Puppy's canon, this descent into hell is all three members unleashed and unhinged, a free fall of righteous fury and vengeful intent. (This version, from the "Worlock" single, removes the production muck of the album cut.)And One — “Ghama Voodoo”, 1995.

A b-side to the "Deutschmaschine" single, this is the soundtrack to sinking, a long, slow immersion into a sensory-deprived abyss of grey.

Midnight Oil — “Beds Are Burning”, 1987.

An anthemic rail against the brutal mistreatment of indigenous cultures, this song, even though you've heard it 1000 times, has never lost one gram of relevance. (Bonus: monster cowbell.)Bootblacks — “Captives”, 2019.

This delicious off-album cut is everything that sets Bootblacks apart from the pretenders: precise and perky percussion, sexy-as-fuck guitar and pitch-perfect vocals. One of my personal favorites from them.The Foreign Resort — “She is Lost”, 2019.

The Foreign Resort are best when their post-punk fury relinquishes control to their synth-driven darkwave melancholy. The feels on this one are massive, but that's what we're all secretly wanting anyway.Project Pitchfork — “December Sadness”, 1997.

From their stone-cold masterpiece ¡Chakra:Red! album (don't bother arguing), this is Peter Spilles in full haunted vampire vocal mode.Numb — “Blood”, 1994.

It's impossible to overstate the influence of this song on my life. Like Skinny Puppy's "Worlock", this lullaby for the damned transformed the concept of what electronic music could be. 25+ years later, those heralding blasts of overdriven bass still give me chills.Missions — “Glimmer”, 2019.

Sexy minimal synthpop from LA-based Missions swims in a retro-futuristic cocktail of percolating synths, delicate percussion, emotive pads and crooning vocoder. A sensational late-night lost highway of a song.Night Sins — “Annihilator”, 2019.

The lead single from Night Sins' 2019 Portrait in Silver LP was an unambiguous statement of intent. Synthpop with teeth. Darkwave with razors. Dance music with body armor.Body of Light — “Time To Kill”, 2019.

The production on this song is insane. Every sample, drum hit, bass rumble, pad, and lyric is placed with astonishing precision. Matched with its give-no-fucks pop drapings, it was a song-of-the-year candidate.Andreas Rund — “Spectre”, 2019.

My favorite Nein Records release in 2019, Andreas Rund's massive synths and beats (and just the right amount of edge) are a chemical accelerant to any dancefloor.White Lies — “Fifty On Our Foreheads”, 2008.

This album felt meteoric when it landed in 2008. So massive, so passionate, a critical bridge from 90s melodrama to the scene today.Melotron — “Maschinen aus Stahl”, 2001.

This slow-building ode to technological advancement is Melotron at their best: American club-inspired synthpop with a uniquely and unapologetically German perspective.Depeche Mode — “Precious”, 2005.

This song is just so good. Like really, really good. This, along with "Enjoy the Silence", is the Depeche Mode feel I want to capture in ember forever.Kraftwerk — “Metall Auf Metall”, 1991.

The original gangsters of hitting things with other things.HIDE — “Fall Down”, 2018.

A scorching tour de force, HIDE produce a sort of audio zealotry, a sign-your-soul-away cult of noise immersion, scream therapy, headphone isolationism and emotional expulsion that burns from the inside out.

Björk — “Army of Me”, 1995.

Björk has many amazing songs, but it's tough to find one more anthemic. That rolling beat was a love-at-first-listen revelation over the grunge wasteland at the time.Haujobb — “Eye Over You”, 1994.

Critics panned Haujobb as a Puppy knockoff after their first album. But those that were listening heard something deeper, richer and more lasting than much of the electro-industrial field of the 90s.Daniel Gregori — “Tremendo”, 2019.

Moody, slow and throbbing for the darkest and dirtiest disco floors.HIDE — “Resurrection (Statiqbloom Remix)”, 2015.

A true clash of titans. The shoot-him-if-he-twitches fury of HIDE transformed into a heat-seeking dancefloor goliath by the inimitable Statiqbloom. This is everything I want from everything.Downwell — “Tears of the Sun”, 2019.

Modern industrial techno born with a knife between its teeth. This EP was a highlight of 2019.Front Line Assembly — “Eye On You (Orphx Remix)”, 2018.

Modern FLA remains as relevant as ever, especially in the hands of beat maestro Orphx. That bassline is so heavy it should have a place on the periodic table of elements.Individual Totem — “W.W.W. (Club)”, 2001.

A critically underrated act who delivered back-to-back albums of next-generation electro-industrial in the 90s, this single was a furious late career uppercut that should have ignited the world if futurepop hadn't set the bar so low.gusgus — “Teenage Sensation”, 1999.

I'm just gonna leave this one here.Cruel Reflections — “Voices”, 2019.

Absolutely sensational pop-oriented post-punk whose ultra-tight production and manic dark energy tense every muscle in your body. A personal favorite from the last decade.French Police — “Je Te Veux”, 2019.

Similar to groups like Antipole, the magic is the exceptional guitar work that works as hard as the lyrics to give this song a truly beautiful voice.L'Avenir — “Heart of Hearts”, 2019.

Riveting coldwave that occupies the very narrow triangle within the Venn diagram of "heavy retro influence", "immediately danceable" and "artistically intelligent". Works equally well on dancefloors as well as secret mixtapes.Linea Aspera — “Attica”, 2019.

Sultry. Dark. Pulsing. Cold. Lustful. And that's only the first 30 seconds. Every gram of hype for this duo is deserved.Bauhaus — “Kick in the Eye”, 1981.

The most Bauhaus-sounding Bauahus song ever. David J's bassline is the true star, and it takes every trick in Peter Murphy's arsenal to control that prowling diesel beast.Nocturnal Projections — “You'll Never Know”, 1982.

Equally classic post-punk from the early 80s, thankfully given a thoughtful resurrection by Dais records.

Vox Low — “Now We're Ready To Spend (1981/91 Remix)”, 2019.

Sexy Parisian anti-capitalist darkwave smoothed out into a warm club embrace. A pleasant enough way to ignite the people's revolution.Double Eyelid — “A Means to an End (Leather Strip Remix)”, 2019.

The good work of Claus Larsen never ends. Here he takes the bones of a decent song and reworks it into a deeply sensuous vibe that is dark, danceable and emotional, a trifecta that never gets tired.Antiflvx — “The Last Sun”, 2018.

The luscious beat and bassline are a good start, but the pleading vocals on the refrain pull you heart-first onto the dancefloor, even if that dancefloor is your bedroom at 3 am.Virgin Prunes — “Baby Turns Blue”, 1982.

A brilliant flame that burned too shortly, Virgin Prunes bequeathed unto us the fire-breathing mid-range post-punk that made for an uncomfortable tour down dank, dark alleys.Panther Modern — “Creep”, 2019.

The sound of the future is here: full-velocity synths riding 23rd century grooves. In an alternate reality, this is where Daft Punk could have gone. Thankfully, Panther Modern are even better at scratching that electro-punk itch.Unhuman — “Rapid Body Corruption”, 2019.

Bleak machine beats that peel back the synthetic artifice of society to let us peer at the corrupt machinery within.Covenant — “Tour De Force (Com-pass mix)”, 1999.

Haujobb's frothing club take on one of Covenant's mid-career highlights was our last glimpse of 90s electro before the world tipped into the ruinous Great Futurepop Depression.Blogie Milczenie — “Twarze”, 2018.

This elegant darkwave from Eastern Europe unfolds like a lush Flemish Baroque painting, drenching the listener in velvet synth washes.Concavity — “Forget Me”, 2018.

Absolutely delicious electro-goth that slows the game down into a dancing hunt between male and female leads with the listener left guessing who, exactly, the victim actually is.Doubting Thomas — “Nagual Tone”, 1991.

From the single best one-off album the scene ever produced. I won't even entertain argument. Overwhelming evidence to the brilliance of cEvin Key.Wingtips — “Deaf Pursuit”, 2019.

Heroes of the new school synth-goth-wave-pop sound, Wingtips bring to bear the retro-future electro we adore with the intelligence of the post-punk scene's most enduring actors. And yes, the entire album is this good.Ghost Cop — “Lay Down”, 2018.

Claustrophobic, punishing, intoxicating, it's the technoid club soundtrack of slow electrocution in baths of neon and tube amps. Do not sleep on Ghost Cop; they are the real deal.Houses of Heaven — “Dissolve the Floor”, 2020.

A fresh, inventive take on EBM-tinged post-punk that hits fast with heavy machinery but doesn't wait before pulling you into throttling songwriting and compelling sound design.Numb — “Dirt”, 1997.

Name one track heavier, darker and more foreboding than this. More than two decades old and it will still turn your hair white.

Sextile — “Disco”, 2018.

Rambunctious synthpunk that absolutely gives no fucks. Level up literally any party in less than 20 seconds.Oomph! — “Mein Herz”, 1992.

Before they smothered their EBM aesthetic in a jockstrap of guitar rock, Oomph unleashed one of the best electro dance records -- ever. Every track bangs. The drums are throwing body shots while Dero's vocals are eating your face. Lassigue Bendthaus — “Render”, 1994.

The DNA of electro-industrial has many roots, but few pulse harder than LB. "Render" is a masterclass in putting the "body" into "body music" and 25 years later those fucking drums are still rolling over pretenders.A-Ha — “Take On Me (Extended)”, 1985.

You're either going to turn this up or fast-forward. I respect either decision as long as you know only one is correct.The Arms of Someone New — “Every Seventh Wave”, 1989.

Nearly forgotten new wave act whose mishmash of releases yields a delicious blend of shoegaze, new beat and synthpop draped in the gossamer, naive optimism of late 80s / early 90s aesthetic.Alien Sex Fiend — “Dead and Buried”, 1984.

If one were to build a church to the Fiend, this 12" would be the alter. The ridiculous studio effects, rhythmic chaos, guitar dirges and more goth-than-goth vocals cements this as a classic for all time.Revolting Cocks — “Something Wonderful”, 1990.

The soundtrack to your submission.The Wake — “Nazarene”, 1990.

The wall of hellnoise, the subterranean bassline, the cathedral reverb on the vocals. This gem from the 90s' second wave of goth rock is the sound of the genre shedding its early identity crisis.The Foreign Resort — “Suburban Depression”, 2015.

2015's "The American Dream" EP is one of the most inspired post-punk releases of the decade. This cut, a bleak core sample of dismal suburban consumerism and community disassociation, is fearless criticism that only grows in relevance.NNHMN — “Pleasure”, 2019.

NNHMN birth a throbbing, low-light meditation that is an exercise in restriction and subtlety. The beat is quiet but insistent, the wave forms undulating, the vocals soft and suggestive.Bob Moses — “Hands to Hold”, 2015.

Blending right in with NNHMN is Bob Moses' stone classic of dark, emotional house that is somehow bright, dark, sweet, bitter, private and freeing at the same time. Two Mamarrachos — “Agosto”, 2019.

And following is some dark disco from Two Marrachos on Nein Records. It's instrumental, yeah, but that guitar riff, wobbling bassline and liquid acid line are evoking a narrative darker than an Albert Camus novel.Blakk Harbor — “Gods and Goats”, 2018.

An undeservedly obscure instrumental masterpiece following in the steps of Blackfilm and others, Blakk Harbor arrange soundtrack compositions that are both menacing and somehow familiar. This is the deepest noir.Haujobb — “The Cage Complex”, 1996.

And then this. The masterpiece track from a masterpiece album, the song that made every electro-industrial head stop dead in their tracks, the six minutes that kicked the genre forward into its next generation.

This mix starts with a nice handshake from some modern post-punk and classic new wave, but it quickly escalates into some electro/EBM hand-to-hand combat. Bring your gloves.

Undertheskin — “Burn”.

Perhaps one of the most underrated post-punk bands in the business, every track is a death-grip of guitars and drums that leaves you beaten and exhausted like a car crash. A Transition — “Cold”.

The instrumental post-punk jam is a beast we see too infrequently. This choreographed dance of evocative guitar and head-nodding riffs doesn't need a single lyric to convey feelings of searching, finding and regretting.A Flock of Seagulls — “I Ran”.

Their aesthetic became a punchline and was a distraction to near peerless songwriting, musicianship and production. I mean, that guitar. What new wave act burned brighter than AFOS in their '82-'83 run?Billy Idol — “White Wedding”.

Every Billy Idol song lives and dies by his vocal delivery. This song, when his discography is fully stacked and tallied, is what everyone hears when they see his sneer. It is the ultimate conviction through performance.Killing Joke — “Follow the Leader”.

It's tribal, but not JUST because of the drums. Youth's bass and Jaz's vocals create a gravity well for conscious thought, and the track becomes less about listening than it does about experiencing. It's only natural state is "loud".Empirion — “Red Noise (Rotersand Rework)”.

After a hiatus of a million years, these electronauts from the 90s return with an LP that aims for the dancefloor with the subtlety of a napalm drop. Recommended if you have a heartbeat.Street Fever — “In Your Lungs”.

This song has a whole new inflection in our COVID-19 crisis, but at least we can dance our way toward physical distancing. I mean, how depraved is that synth stab?Kanga — “Viciousness”.

This one-woman sonic armada delivers a tour de force of beats, bass and brio, and few electro-industrial-dance artists have delivered a first LP so fully realized. We're living in Kanga's world and better off for it.Boy Harsher — “Tears”.

Listen to the bass drop at 1:58. Let it patiently morph into a deceptive bridge before it drops again at 2:51. That's all you need to understand why Boy Harsher is bigger than Jesus.Noise Unit — “Deceit”.

This is North American EBM cut so pure it's amazing it wasn't banned during Bush's anti-drug crusades.Armageddon Dildos — “East West”.

Let's talk about 80s geo-politics with a song about, um, fucking in the park. Wait, what? Exactly. Ministry — “So What”.

The best song from their best album? Fight me. (RIP Rieflin. God created the kick drum for him like he created the guitar for Prince. Proof.)Front Line Assembly — “Iceolate”.

Remember when electro-industrial fetishized the near-future dystopian technostate? It was a lot more fun when we weren't actually living in it. But this shit still spanks hard, so bend over.Dusty Springfield — “Spooky”.

What we're all secretly singing to ourselves when we're getting dolled for da club.

Odonis Odonis — “Insect”. These guys elevate industrial and punk genre-bending to an almost out-of-body experience. This tracks is so sick, so hard, so absolutely filthy and luscious and steel-tipped and velvet at the same time that I can't even. (2019)Pigface — “Hips Tits Lips Power”. Pigface at their best: animalistic, id-driven, unrepentant. Your bruises from Lesley Rankine's pummeling assault is a feature, not a bug. (This is actually a mashup of the original with the Britishit Mix version.) (1992)My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult — “Burning Dirt”. You will never convince me that MLWTTKK's "Confessions of a Knife" was not the single best Wax Trax! release of all time. (1990)Killing Joke — “Primitive”. This song is a fucking freight train and 40 years later it hasn't lost a gram of muscle. (1980)Soft Kill — “Cry Now Cry Later”. There is a LOT of emotion to unpack in Soft Kill's "Savior" album, but this track cuts particularly deep. The guitar mourns and pleads as hard as the lyrics, and the relentless bass never allows time to stop the way you wished. (2018)The Foreign Resort — “Hearts Fade Out”. How massive are the synth washes in this dancefloor killer? As deep as that rubbery bassline, as incendiary as the guitar, as forlorn as the lyrics, as perfect as those handclaps. Why is everyone not listening to this song all the time? (2019)Night Nail — “Hollow Day”. Crooning, wistful post-punk whose backbeat and layered guitar work unloads all kinds of feels. (Also, heads up DJs, it mixes perfectly with "Hearts Fade Out".) (2018)The Stranglers — “Nice N' Sleazy”. From their third and most excellent 1978 LP, this bass'n'organ workout conveys, quite literally, what these guys were about and why we love them so hard. (1978)Depeche Mode — “Suffer Well”. This under-the-radar cut from DM's last meaningful album is the quintessence of their legacy: emotionally dark, eminently danceable, experimental in its sound design and written ~ just for you ~. (2005)Drab Majesty — “Too Soon To Tell”. In 20 years, when much of this decade's music is rinsed away, Drab Majesty's second album will retain a featured position in the highlight reel simply for its immediate and inarguable brilliance. (2017)Die Krupps — “Machineries Of Joy (Wahre Arbeit Mix)”. Nothing like a splash of pre-90s Die Krupps to remind you that Jürgen and crew (with some help from Nitzer Ebb) were capable of destroying EBM dancefloors long before they paved the way for industrial metal. (1989)Blind Delon — “Argent”. A primary example of more modern genre-bending, Blind Delon is synthpop, darkwave and post-punk cocktail that is both danceable and headphone-able. (2017)Crash Course In Science — “Cardboard Lamp”. Viciously fun synth punk originally released in 1981 whose grit and off-kilter shuffle-beat feel more relevant than much of the limiter-crushing nonsense of the last few years. (1981)Dryft — “End of the In”. A side-project of Gridlock that, for me, was even more vital. Dryft acted as a Hadron Collider of industrial, drum'n'noise, dub, ambient and emotion that shattered hearts and woofers alike. (2000)

Korine — “Sweet Misery”, 2018. Mördelin — “Garden on the Terrace”, 2019. Into the Pale Abyss — “Without Light”, 2019. Public Image Limited — “Graveyard”, 1979. Coil — “The Anal Staircase”, 1986. Liebknecht — “Hamburg”, 2019. Shriekback — “My Spine is the Bassline”, 1982. Kazino — “Binary”, 1985. Brandy Kills — “Neverwhere”, 2019. Clan of Xymox — “Louise”, 1986. Blacklist — “The Believer”, 2009. The Cinematics — “Race to the City”, 2007. IAMTHESHADOW — “Fall Apart”, 2019. Fearing — “Winning”, 2020.

Le Tigre — “Deceptacon”, 1999.Bloc Party — “Positive Tension”, 2005.Whispering Sons — “Dense”, 2018.Vox Low — “What if the Symbols Fall Down”, 2018.Black Plastic — “Savage (Black Asteroid Remix)”, 2019.The Chain Gang of 1974 — “Hold On”, 2011.Ritual Howls — “I Can Hear Your Tears”, 2019.The Underground Youth — “Fill The Void”, 2018.The Agnes Circle — “Law of Angels”, 2016.Speedy J — “Drill”, 2010.Dead — “No Place For Us”, 2016.The Foreign Resort — “Dead Leaves”, 2014.Wandering Poets — “Future”, 2017.Poliça — “Smug”, 2013.