As we head out the door for Terminus, the schedule of written content on the site is going on a break but the podcast keeps rolling. This week we're looking at mid-90s records by Machines of Loving Grace and Placebo Effect and discussing the effects of the major label pursuit of alternative hits and the evolution of dark electro, respectively.

As selected by our patrons, this month's commentary podcast takes us back to the heyday of the minimal wave revival, with the self-titled debut of Linea Aspera. As we discuss, even more so than being representative of its time, it's a record which points the way forward for both Alison Lewis' work across a range of projects, but also the next decade-plus of club-focused darkwave.

On this week's episode of the podcast, the very amorphous topic of non-musical points of attraction to Our Thing is taken up. Half cod-anthropology, half therapy sesh, half wanton conjecture, this is about as loose as our general topic episodes are likely to get.

We're talking about an of its era European electro record by Chrom and some off the beaten path video game soundtracking by Daniel Myer on this week's podcast, plus some talk about general shifts in DJing from both a personal and demographic perspective.

In a "wishful beginning" themed episode, we're each picking five projects which have effectively started and ended in the time that we've been running the website. We've seen them come, we've seen them go; bands who we had flagged for great things but maybe passed the torch on to other acts down the line.

We're joined by Matt Green and Athan Maroulis on this month's commentary podcast to discuss their memories of and reflections upon Spahn Ranch's 1995 sophomore LP The Coiled One, on the occasion of its recent remaster and reissue. Matt and Athan speak with us about the membranes between industrial, goth, and general 90s alternative culture, the role of clean vocals, and plenty more.

We're navigating some illness on the Senior Staff's part to bring you discussion of records we missed last year by Container 90 and Vacious Cuerpos. We're also talking about Ted Phelps, Substance, and forthcoming Haujobb and Encephalon records.

Prompted by catching an absolutely electric show from all around cross-genre rock legends The Damned this past weekend, we're dedicating this week's episode to discussing their history, their strengths, and the ways they've drifted in and out of proximity to and influence on goth while maintaining their own utterly groovy sense of cool. We're also discussing some coverage of recent darkwave in The Guardian.

It's a very specially formatted episode of the podcast this week, as we're joined by three of our Patreon backers to discuss records by Steril, Black Light District/Coil, and GusGus. These episodes are always a treat as they prompt us to listen to records we might not have otherwise considered for the podcast, or listen to old favourites from new perspectives. Thanks very much to Dave, Jeremy, and Adam for joining us!

We're happy to present an interview with Mark Burgess of legendary UK act Chameleons on this week's podcast. The band was in town on the first leg of their Strange Times album tour, but are also hot on the heels of their first new material in over two decades, so there was a lot Mark was enthused to discuss with us. In addition to offering our own thoughts about the Chameleons show, we're also throwing in our two cents about the Praga Khan/Lords of Acid tour which made its was through Van.