On the eve of the first new albums from S:cage and Das Ich since 2006, we're talking about those records from both of those bands from nearly twenty years ago: "Madness Turns To Glass" and "Cabaret", respectively. Are technoid and Neue Deutsche Todeskunst especially Halloween-esque genres? Who's to say.

As selected by our Patreon backers for a loosely spookily themed commentary episode, we're talking about the 1984 debut of beloved ethereal mainstays Dead Can Dance. With one foot in Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard's roots in post-punk and one in the fatalistic, shimmering aether they would go on to make their home, it's an imperfect yet fascinating starting point for the duo.

The two albums featured on this week's podcast are about as far away from one another as we're likely to get on this podcast, with the abstracted dream-pop and shoegaze of loveliescrushing's Xuvetyn and Digital Poodle's Euro-inspired hybrid of EBM and techno on Crush up for discussion.

Our first Pick Five episode in a while is a bit of a tricky one. We're each nominating tracks which break from traditional pop song structure, with the caveat that they be from artists who normally work within it (no death industrial). Join us as we nearly go blind trying to distinguish pre-choruses from The Real McCoy.

We're happy to be joined this week by renaissance man Antoni Maiovvi to talk about the recent trilogy of records from his Ye Gods project. We touch upon what distinguishes this project from his other work in post-punk and italo disco, its strange but true origin story, and the considered intentions and hermetic study underpinning the Equilibrium Trilogy.

In a "we had to get to it sooner or later" topic-driven episode of the podcast, we're discussing our reactions to how AI generated visuals and music have appeared in Our Thing…thus far. We're doing our level best to limit discussion to the ways use of various forms of audio and image generation have been deployed in goth and industrial circles, but you can be the judge of how well we partitioned off that talk.

This month's commentary podcast features a special returning guest, as Real Cardinal joins us to talk us track by track through Comaduster's heady new LP Memory Echoes. We chatted with Real about the album's reality warping concept, the range of genres beyond Comaduster's usual remit woven into the album, and his experiences regarding artistic intent and complexity.

The latest score from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross isn't being released under their names, but under the Nine Inch Nails handle, which raises the stakes and expectations for the Tron: Ares soundtrack, and has us discussing its range of styles as well as how it compares to previous missives in the uneven Tron franchise with regards to integrating electronics into "traditional" film scoring.

We're testing the limits of Sweden's sonics as well as our own self-imposed genre limitations with our two records up for discussion this week. First, the soft and contemplative neo-classical compositions of Arcana's As Bright As A Thousand Suns is on the docket, followed by the growling muscularity of Agent Side Grinder's Irish Recording Tape, the rough and tumble post-punk record preceding the group's departure for smoother synth pastures. 

For the minor occasion of our 575th episode we're taking a somewhat personal and sociological detour and talking about the city we live in and from whence grew so much of the music we discuss on the podcast: Vancouver. What conditions allowed for "Vancouver school" industrial music to emerge in the first place, what shaped its sound and aesthetic, and how we and the rest of the city have weathered social and economic changes in the area ever since are all up for discussion.