Poltergeists is a biweekly feature in which Michael and Wes share tracks that they have had on repeat over the past two weeks.
Michael
Alter Der Ruine - “Bottom Feeder”
Friends of the site Alter Der Ruine have a great new EP called Gravity Hunts Us All and I chose the funkiest Haujobb-inspired track ever! To me, this track is a brilliant throwback to old-style ADR (sans cowbell), with a splash of Daniel Myer Minimal, and the infectiously unique new sound of their last album I Will Remember It All Differently. The evolution of ADR’s discography boils down to a wonderfully fresh blend of genres that I think is absolutely necessary in today’s industrial scene’s climate.
Her Blood In My Veins - “They Said We Once Were, But We Are No Longer”
Crunch Pod is back with a giant sampler called The Future of Dreaming! There are a lot of really solid tracks on this release. As you can imagine at this point, I gravitated to the deeply emotional tracks with lots of symphonic pads and voicemail recordings. “They Said We Once Were, But We Are No Longer” is the first track that I played on this release because the title grabbed me (I’m the guy who judges books by their covers). This track is deeply symphonic and exactly the type of IDM/glitch stuff that I like. There is a subtlety to the bass elements in this song that plays really well with the piano.
Wes
Hante. - “Burning (feat Box von Düe)”
If you’re a fan of outrun and of dark synthpop, I think Hélène de Thoury’s solo project Hante. has something for you. The use of synth on this track has a really nice old analogue feeling, which in combination with the big reverbing percussion, gives it a bit of that outrun sort of feeling. The sort of slow, triplet bass line bounces along nicely; I catch myself involuntarily bobbing along with, and it’s not the sort of rhythm I feel like I hear very often. There’s also this really nice little plucky synth that pops in later in the track that really adds a nice little counterpoint to the big spacey synths. I’ll definitely be watching for the full album’s release.
Holly Herndon - “Chorus”
I had a hard time deciding on the second song for this week. There were a lot of runners up. I just really loved the weirdness of “Chorus” and eventually it beat out the rest. The track starts out jumping around; there’s a lot of weird little samples and a lot of weird little silences. Eventually those samples start to dart back and forth, creating a rhythm for the song to start to follow. The percussion comes in, dancing along quietly, waiting as the vocal samples start to sound more and more like a vocal track and less like an instrument. Finally, two minutes into the song, it all takes off. The build up pays off - the percussion finds its speed, the bass starts bumping and the song starts to really move. It manages to be sparse and dense at the same time. To really get a good feel of everything that’s happening, you have to really listen.