We Have a Technical

It's a very 90s two-fer episode of the podcast, as we look at Swamp Terrorists'  Combat Shock  and Perfume Tree's  A Lifetime Away  this week. 

This month's commentary podcast revisits 2015's Remain , the central work of Them Are Us Too. It's a beautiful record which ably fits into darkwave and dreampop traditions, but more importantly showcases the incredible talents and special personalities of Kennedy Ashlyn and Cash Askew. From its alternately delicate and crushing sounds to its radical demands for a peaceful existence, it was a pleas...

We try to make these landmark numbered episodes of the podcast something special, and we think we've come through on that account. This week, we're happy to be joined by bass player, Wax Trax legend, and all around thoughtful guy Paul Barker as the release of The Eternal Present , the new Lead Into Gold album, draws close. Paul spoke with us about the particular mood and sound of the new record, h...

After a week missed due to scheduling mishaps, we're back with another instalment of our ever popular Pick Five format on this week's podcast. This time, we're each picking tracks from our respective 20+ year DJing careers which we just could not turn into dancefloor hits, despite our best efforts. Rather than pointing out "failures" in the songs themselves, we're using this as an opportunity to r...

Due to circumstances beyond our control, a new episode of We Have a Technical was not possible this week. In place of the planned episode (which we still hope to record), we are re-presenting episode 40, "The :Wumpscast:", our commentary on :Wumpscut:'s seminal Bunkertor 7 . 

We're joined this week by two of our Patreon backers, Stuart White and Richard Gould, to talk about albums they've each chosen: Bloodline , the reunion LP from formative UK goth-punk act 1919 which found them tackling resurgent political and economic crises, and the self-titled record from France's Les Clopes, which puts a bemused indie spin on some classic French coldwave and minimal wave sounds....

As selected by our Patreon backers from the slate of the four "classic" Front Line Assembly records, 1991's Tactical Neural Implant is the subject of this month's commentary podcast. It's viewed as the high watermark for the band and arguably for electro-industrial itself for a number of reasons, and we find ourselves discussing how it and FLA overall have been shaped by grooves and constant refin...

While both of the records we're talking about are from nominal side-projects, you couldn't get much further from one another in sound (and perhaps quality?) on the industrial spectrum than Santa Hates You's Crucifix Powerbomb and Anima Nostra's Atraments. We're also talking about the cost of live shows, Laibach's just-announced show in Kyiv, and a solid "goth for metalheads" list. 

The new LP by industrial legends Laibach is the subject of this week's podcast. The band has perhaps never been more active, releasing a slew of soundtracks and other releases, but  Sketches Of The Red Districts finds the band returning to both tWe're also talking about the new single from (occasional labelmates of Laibach) Depeche Mode.

We're joined on the podcast this week by journalist Konstantina Buhalis, for a conversation emerging out of her recent article on the role of social media in shaping contemporary goth culture . While being a participant within our scenes, Buhalis is often writing for more mainstream readerships, and so we were keen to speak with her about the ins and outs of writing for broader publications, and t...

Deep scene records from the 80s and 90s make up this episode of the podcast, with the politically savvy EBM of Borghesia's No Hope No Fear and the turn of the millennium trance/coldwave experimentation of Kevorkian Death Cycle's A​+​0​(​m) . We've also been playing along with the latest EBM-flavoured Electronic Beats Blind Test. 

The subject of this month's commentary podcast blends post-punk with exotica, and tranquility with brutality. Yes, we're taking a look back at Feast , the first LP from Siouxsie & The Banshees side-project The Creatures. We're talking about the record's experimental song structures, its literary and cultural influences, and its handling of the themes and music adopted from Hawaii, where Siouxsie a...

Now is the winter of our discontent, as the Senior Staff are each picking five tracks which scratch a particularly misanthropic itch for them. We're also talking about the upcoming Cruel World and Fixation festivals, along with some general observations about DJing in dark(ish) clubs in 2023. 

We're joined by longtime friend of the site Rexx Arkana to discuss the release of his new 4-CD compilation, Passing Strangers . Partially a tribute to the legendary There Is No Time Comp , partially an attempt to triangulate and link all manner of industrial and related sounds from the past decades, it's an ambitious project and we were happy to discuss its aesthetic and historical goals with Rexx...

After last week's odd couple pairing, there's at least a spiritual link between the two solo/side project records we've chosen for this week's podcast: the sculpted technoid of Daniel Myer's S'Apex project, and the anxious looping mania of Angelo Bergamini's Uranium USSR 1972. We're also discussing the first news about this year's instalment of the Mechanismus festival in Seattle.

The first podcast of the new year has us returning to the classic two albums format. Here's where we'd normally make some pithy contrast or comparison between the two records, or some comment about how the pair shows the breadth of records we like to talk about on We Have A Technical, but we'll cop to not being able to think of a goddamn thing which might link or frame the difference between 23 Sk...

We're hybridizing traditions right at the end of 2022, as we combine our customary off-topic episode of We Have A Technical and our monthly commentary episodes. We asked our Patreons what sort of non-scene related album they'd like us to discuss, and with pop music making a late run from behind to beat out metal and hip-hop, we're talking about the 2009 debut from UK electropop artist Little Boots...

The site might be on hiatus for the annual holiday break, but we're still gonna be recording the recently established traditional "Pick 5 songs from this year" episode of We Have a Technical. Find out which songs by acts not represented on our Year End list tickled our fancies, along with some broad discussion of how they relate to broader trends and styles we're interested in!

As is traditional, we're capping off our Year End Coverage with a discussion of our Top 25 list, as well as getting into some statistical analysis of the last 12 years of this exercise and of course our honourable mentions. This episode was produced under slightly adverse circumstances as our production box bit the dust minutes before recording, so it may sound a little rougher than normal (althou...

This week's We Have A Technical is a bit of a housecleaning episode, as we're talking about our favourite record of the year which fits just outside of our normal purview - Endure by Special Interest - and discussing how a recent live tape from Rhys Fulber got us thinking about that legendary producer's work in some new ways.

The two albums format has us shifting from an Oz goth debut in Ikon's In The Shadow Of The Angel to a US electro swansong in Alter Der Ruine's I Will Remember It All Differently . We'e also talking about the just announced line-up for next year's Verboden Fest, and catching SRSQ live.

This iteration of our ever popular Pick Five format has us casting our minds back to the days before we were the worldly and jaded connoisseurs of all things goth and industrial we are today. We're each picking five 'precursor' experiences; points of contact with various elements of what would go on to be Our Thing before we truly understood or recognized it.

As selected by our Patreon backers, this month's commentary subject is Re-constriction Records' 1993 covers comp  Shut Up Kitty . A document of both the emerging US coldwave sound as well as larger trends in 90s alt music, it's a mixed bag in terms of quality, but as we hope this discussion shows, holds real value to those fascinated by the evolution of industrial sub-genres and themes. 

This week's episode of We Have A Technical features an interview with none other than London After Midnight mastermind and all around goth icon Sean Brennan, who's joining us to discuss the band's new Oddities Too compilation, as well as the band's different eras and aesthetic dimensions over the years. We're also discussing Synth Kids , Thomas Z Westerberg's graphic novel about coming of age in S...

We're joined on the podcast by Jill Sheridan and Eric Oehler of long-running midwest synthpop act Null Device to discuss their new record, The Emerald Age . Between broader world events and shifts in the band's philosophy, Null Device's sound has changed and matured a great deal in recent years, and we were keen to get Eric and Jill's sense of the band's relation to the nebulous notion of synthpop...