This month's commentary podcast has us winding the clock back to the days when futurepop still ruled club floors and when German act Rotersand were just beginning to make their way onto that arpeggio-laden territory. The band's 2003 debut "Truth Is Fanatic" absolutely holds up as an exemplar of the styles of the time, but as we learned and discussed in closely reexamining the record, also used a range of compositional and programming experimentation to plant its flag.

An alliteratively themed two albums episode has us discussing the debut LPs of House Of Harm and Multiple Man. We're digging into the former's infectious and well-executed melodic new wave, and the latter's restrained, aloof, and decidedly funky reinvention of the earliest of EBM sounds.

It's a Pick Five ep this week folks, and we're opting for a theme so basic and simple we had to triple check that we hadn't done it before: side projects. Ranging from overrated to criminally forgotten, we're looking at a slew of projects folks had running on the side, whether to explore different sounds or to avoid certain bandmates.

We're looking at a pair of industrial records, albeit in fairly different styles on this week's podcast. First up, it's the 2007 reactivation of cult German act Individual Totem with their Mothfly record which broke from their hazy read on dark electro. Next, the 2019 LP by US BDSM terrorists Spit Mask, You May Feel Some Pressure is being revisited as we sit a fair distance away from the wave of new acts Spit Mask were (unfairly?) bundled in with. We're also talking about the promising lineup for next year's Grauzone fest and a recent Norillag show.

It's an open topic episode of the podcast this week, as we're discussing what factors go into choosing songs for club play. Novelty vs. familiarity, immediacy, place within genre(s)…there's a lot underlying an art which, when it's done best, should feel as instinctive and natural as possible to those enjoying it.

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.