It's a bittersweet and emotional episode of the podcast, as we are joined by Chris Peterson to talk about the life and work of Jeremy Inkel, specifically focusing on the recent posthumous release of Hijacker, curated and shepherded by Peterson in conjunction with Inkel's family. We're also preparing for next week's Year End coverage and discussing the news of :wumpscut:'s return in 2021.

This week's classic two-albums podcast format brings discussion of the sole record by the enigmatic industrial/black metal project The Bleeding Light and some late 90s envelope-pushing dark electro from Abscess, with Bruce and Alex by happenstance each picking records the other had never heard. They're quite different in terms of style and development, but both resulted in some extended discussion of genre markers and development. We've also got some (politely worded) ranting about the importance of metadata in digital downloads on this week's episode of the I Die: You Die podcast.

For genres with a lot of clearly recognizable visual markers, industrial and goth can live and die by how they finesse them. In a high-concept episode of We Have A Technical, Alex and Bruce are examining a plethora of themes and types of imagery common to Our Thing, and discussing how they can function successfully...and how they often don't. All that plus some discussion of a recent Quietus article on industrial metal and the beautiful new live Kite video.

It's a pretty left-field choice for this month's track-by-track commentary podcast, with the Senior Staff discussing the final record by German goth rock/gothic metal act Love Like Blood. Made up entirely of covers of goth classics, Chronology Of A Love-Affair offers the opportunity to discuss the place of plenty of bands in the goth canon, the distinctions between goth trends in Europe and in North America, and the connection (if any) between gothic metal and the broader goth rock tradition.

This classic two albums format episode of the podcast couldn't more clearly convey the range of sounds we like to talk about on We Have A Technical if we'd planned it that way. The field testing of powernoise's various forms on Asche's Distorted Disco and the dreamy, autumnal and ethereal goth of The Shroud's A Dark Moon Night represent the archetypal "stomp and swoon", industrial & goth dichotomy ID:UD was founded upon. We're talking about the ins and outs of both records, as well as gassing on about a stellar new Springsteen cover from Deine Lakaien.

The lasting impact and intensity of groundbreaking UK act Portion Control is discussed on this week's podcast, with a specific focus on their first and most recent LPs: 1982's I Staggered Mentally and 2020's Head Buried. From emerging out of the industrial primordial soup and laying the groundwork for '80s electro-industrial to maintaining a bitter yet highly developed EBM style into the present day, we have lots to say about one of Our Things most enduring yet still underrated acts. All that plus some hot takes on the Rock N' Roll Hall of Fame inductions of Nine Inch Nails and Depeche Mode on the latest installment of We Have A Technical.

Recorded in ages past, in the Before Times preceding the election (ie, last Monday), the latest episode of We Have A Technical finds the Senior Staff discussing two very different records which fall under the post-punk aegis but also connect to very different extraneous sounds and traditions: Red Lorry Yellow Lorry's 1985 debut LP Talk About The Weather, and Agent Side Grinder's 2012 record Hardware. The lines between goth rock and machine rock, and what happens when rock instrumentation is transposed over to synths, and plenty of other questions of genre and style are taken up in this week's edition of the IDieYouDie.com podcast.

It's a Halloween like no other for which the Senior Staff are gearing up, or, more accurately gearing down. In anticipation of a more laid back Halloween, Bruce and Alex are each picking five cuts for a hypothetical Halloween mixtape. Which bands or tracks are far too obvious and risk goth cred? How can you maintain an atmosphere that's both spooky and engaging? And how goth are certain Canadian folksingers? We're covering all of those things, plus an unexpected glut of new releases, in this week's episode of We Have A Technical.

As selected by our Patreon backers, this month the Senior Staff is running a track by track commentary on the third LP from Jack Dangers' genre-hopping, sample-mad Meat Beat Manifesto project. We're talking about how hip-hop, funk, and electro all come together on a record that pointed the way towards the electronic takeover of 90s radio, and the thorny question of Meat Beat's proximity to or distance from industrial music at large.

We're talking about The Mighty Killing Joke on this week's podcast, specifically the 2013 documentary The Death And Resurrection Show which is just getting some recent wider distribution. It's a lengthy and rollicking look at the egos, personalities, and possible literal magick which has guided one of the most beloved alternative bands of all time, and the Senior Staff are chiming in with their reactions to the film and thoughts on the mysteries and happenstance lying beneath. We're also rolling through recent news regarding The Damned and Front Line Assembly, plus a solid article introducing the uninitiated to Coil's discography.

It's a wintry and atmospheric Swedish two'fer on this week's episode of We Have A Technical. As the air chills and nights grow longer, the Senior Staff take up and discuss In Slaughter Natives' Enter Now The World and V▲LH▲LL's Leaning On Shadows. While both have some heavy sounds and philosophical themes, we're also discussing how each of these records fuse genres and speak to complex post-industrial histories.

We're cracking open the venerable ID:UD mailbag this week, answering questions fired our way via Patreon and Twitter. How can or should we parse genre? Is nostalgia anathemic to a theoretically future-obsessed genre? And whose at home COIVD era cuisine reigns supreme? You have questions, we have answers...or at least five minute meanders and hobbyhorse rides.

It's an odd couple pair of records being discussed on this week's episode of We Have A Technical, with the proto-goth, proto-industrial, proto-Ministry work of Blackouts sitting next to the thoughtful hybridization of dark electro and aggrotech sounds of Distorted Memory's sophomore LP. All that plus discussion of recent mainstream articles dealing with Ministry and Nine Inch Nails for better and worse, and the recent passing of Kurt Grünewald.

For this month's commentary podcast we're honored to be joined by Tom Shear of Assemblage 23, who takes us on a track by track overview of his new record, Mourn. It's a deeply personal record, as Tom discusses, but also one which conjures up some of Shear's early synthpop influences. We hope you'll join us as we talk with Tom about changes in process and location, and how he's continued to try to explore emotional states through Assemblage 23.

We have records from the peak of late 90s electronica mania and the new(ish) wave of goth-punk on the docket this week in the form of Pitchshifter's www.pitchshifter.com and Belgrado's self-titled debut. How does a Godflesh-indebted industrial metal act end up selling tens of thousands of copies on a major label? How are today's grim realities being filtered into grimier, less-frilly expressions of goth? We take up those questions plus some discussion of Nine Inch Nails reissues and the return of Salem on this week's episode of the podcast.

Ain't no one getting younger right now, and that certainly includes the Senior Staff. With both Alex and Bruce hurtling though middle age, we thought we'd address the thorny questions that come with ageing in subculture, adapting one's listening protocols, and wrestling with the bugbear that is nostalgia. We also have some thoughts on Debby Friday's recent short film Bare Bones and the "TOS2020" charity single.

A pair of recent surprising releases from long-standing acts make up this week's episode of the podcast. An unexpected return to early darkwave glory from The Birthday Massacre charms the Senior Staff, and Sascha's choice to take KMFDM into a pure dub direction earns head-scratches but also begrudging respect.

It's a slightly goofier iteration of We Have A Commentary which we bring you this month, as the 25th anniversary of the Mortal Kombat movie and its accompanying soundtrack seems as good a time as any to discuss the strange mid '90s intersection of metal, electronics, and industrial. From the midwest industrial rock of Gravity Kills to the euphoric perfection of Orbital to prime era KMFDM to...some much less fondly remembered tracks, the Mortal Kombat soundtrack bundled together plenty of markers from the decade of the "extreme", and served as an able gateway record for a generation of kids high on digital fatalities. The Senior Staff are here to discuss the dizzying highs and the abysmal lows of this soundtrack on this month's Patreon supported commentary podcast.

With some assistance from Uatu the Watcher, we're using this Pick Five-styled episode of the podcast to speculate about, er, peer into the Multiverse and perceive possible alternate histories of industrial music. What records, genres, or trends might we have lost or gained had the capriciousness of the Fates led us elsewhere? And would we still be able to argue about "real" industrial music on the Internet? It's a jam-packed, jumbo-sized edition of the podcast (along with some Coil reissue talk), so prepare to have your consciousness blown to smithereens by the infinitide of possibility on this week's We Have A Technical!

We're delivering a bit of a twist on the classic two albums format this week, with the podcast taking up both the first and the most recent LP by that pioneering and chameleonic dark electro project, X Marks The Pedwalk. 1991's Freaks and 2017's Secrets bookend André Schmechta's oeuvre (at least for now) and point to just how varied it's been. Differences between the records in ambition, aim, and sound are discussed by the Senior Staff in this episode, alongside some initial thoughts on the announcement of a new Cabaret Voltaire LP.

Back to the classic two albums format this week, the Senior Staff are discussing a pair of morbidly-minded concept records: Pain Station's Cold and Bernard Szajner's Some Deaths Take Forever. What similarities (if any) can be found between the most minimal and pared down of dark electro and the weird intersection of prog and early electronic programming? Find out, won't you?

Bruce and Alex do one of their semi-regular jaw sessions with a selection of Patreon Supporters about albums of their choosing! In this batch we discuss Winterkälte, The Echoing Green, Zebra Katz and Iszoloscope, and what the specific album selection means to the friend of the site who chose it. Lotsa chatter, all this week on We Have a Technical! 

We've said this before, but you'd be hard-pressed to explain to your Skynard-loving uncle what the two records up for discussion on this week's episode of We Have A Technical have in common. Katscan's 2005 Weapons Of Crass Dysfunction and Sad Lovers And Giants' E-Mail From Eternity are a yobbing electrogoth kiss-off and a fan-curated trove of deep cut post-punk gems, respectively, but Bruce and Alex have plenty to say about each of them. All that plus Terminus reverie and Manson reflection on this week's episode of the idieyoudie.com podcast.

The dreamy, high-camp Edwardian gothic of The Damned's Phantasmagoria is the subject of this month's podcast. What happens when one of the UK's most beloved punk acts steers itself right towards the gloomier sounds which they've always skirted? How many baby-bats experienced a sexual awakening to the "Shadow Of Love" video? Does lamping around with The Young Ones make you more like The Cramps or The Beatles? All these questions and more are taken up by the Senior Staff in this month's Patreon-supported bonus podcast!

In an age in which music is digital and albums are increasingly ephemeral, surely record art doesn't matter anymore, right? Dead frigging wrong. The Senior Staff discuss the changing role and value of album art in the digital age on this week's episode of the podcast, tracking how artists and labels continue to tap into symbolic codes and create their own micro-scenes via visual aesthetics.

It's a cosmic dyad of a podcast episode this week, as the Senior Staff go space trucking with Kangarot and Negative Format for their respective Nursery Of New Stars and Distant Pulses LPs. Both records address space as a theme, but as is discussed the execution of Kangarot's lo-fi kosmische electro-industrial and Negative Format's smooth combo of trance and breaks are quite distinct. All that plus live stream reviews (and the Senior Staff's reactions to dill pickle beers and Japanese wrestling shockers) on the latest episode of We Have A Technical!

We're joined by renaissance woman Andi Harriman to talk about DJing during quarantine and her new EP for aufnahme + wiedergabe, Corpse To Corpus. How do you heat the floor when it's spread across multiple time zones? What might a more feminine approach to EBM sound like? And do real goths love freestyle? All of these questions and so many more are discussed on the latest episode of We Have A Technical.

As an incidental observation of Canada Day, the Senior Staff are selecting a pair of albums from above the 49th to discuss: Volt 9000's Mutronix and Decree's Fateless. Representing some of the lesser celebrated sides of Canuckistan industrial, we have Cory Gorski's satirical journey through bio-punk dystopias and Chris Peterson & co.'s absolutely churning and punishing demonstration of fully textured noise rock. Plus discussion of recent streams from Mr.Kitty and Harsh R! All that and some other grabassery on the latest episode of We Have A Technical!

The absolute stone classic that is Leaether Strip's Solitary Confinement is given the commentary treatment in this month's installment of the Patreon-back We Have A Commentary series. The sound of 90s dark electro was established with this LP, but there's so much more to love and discuss about Claus Larsen's exploration of spiritual and psychological alienation and the horrors of war. The Senior Staff consider the record's lasting influence, its themes, and its undeniable charm and intensity.

It's turned into an accidentally synthpunk-themed week here at I Die: You Die, and in keeping with that we're looking at two albums proximal to the sounds we normally discuss on the podcast, but that made inroads into goth/industrial club play in the early '00s: The Faint's Danse Macabre and The Vanishing's Still Lifes Are Failing. All that plus catch-up on the third Telekompilation release and some news about a new book detailing the history of LA deathrock on this week's episode of We Have A Technical!

With the 'teens in the rearview, the Senior Staff are reflecting on the club tracks which defined the past decade. We're each picking five great club tracks from 2011-2020. Not our faves or personal go-tos, mind you, but the nigh-ubiquitous tracks that shaped the last ten years of life in dark clubs. In addition, we're introducing the third volume of our Telekompilation series of releases featuring tracks by members of our Slack community, which will be available tomorrow on Bandcamp to coincide with Bandcamp's NAACP fundraiser

Bruce and Alex are talking about records by Light Asylum and The Final Cut on this week's episode of the podcast. Topics include Shannon Funchess' ability to move between countless moods and genres and the pioneering techno-industrial programming of Jeff Mills. All that plus some continuing discussion of Black artists within Our Thing in light of ongoing events, on the latest edition of We Have A Technical!

We're taking a break from our usual episode formats to speak with Danesha Artis of Standard Issue Citizen and Jairus Khan of Ad·ver·sary and Antigen Shift. We wanted to hear their thoughts on race and anti-racist work as it relates to industrial culture and music at this particular point in history, and thank them for joining us on short notice to speak on what can be difficult and painful topics.

For this month's Patreon-backed commentary podcast, the Senior Staff are looking 2015's Night Maze. Glass Apple Bonzai's sophomore record simultaneously demonstrates Daniel Belasco's talents for precise and minimal synthpop arrangements and melodies and his ability to flesh out and enlarge the scope of his music with his vocal talents. Add in a well-executed theme throughout the record and you have a modern Canadian synthpop classic.

Long-time pal and frequent guest Brian Graupner is dropping by ID:UD HQ this week...although he's not here to talk about The Gothsicles. Nope, the man behind the scene's premiere industrial comedy act has a lot of other irons in the fire, including his Gasoline Invertebrate project, the eerily prescient Space Couch streaming show, and his label endeavours via Tigersquawk Records. We're talking about all of those projects along with all of the horseplay and grab-assery which occurs whenever we're hanging with Graups, plus the past weekend's Terminus Isolation streams on this week's episode of We Have A Technical.

A new record by Einsturzende Neubauten is always cause for celebration and discussion, and so the Senior Staff are using this week's podcast to examine "Alles In Allem". A record that's approachable even by the standards of contemporary Neubauten releases, it has its pros and cons but ultimately reminds us of why the German godfathers of industrial remain so compelling to us.

There's very little that binds the two albums we're discussing on the latest podcast. The downtempo dark ambient slash rhythmic industrial of Tzolk'in's "Haab" and Cure-indebted post-punk act Veil Veil Vanish's sole LP "Change In The Neon Light" have likely never been mentioned in the same breath, but the Senior Staff are noting some of the subtle shading that comes with deep genre work in both records. All that plus some discussion of recent drama related to a certain German synthpop band on this week's episode of We Have A Technical.

Few acts have been as aesthetically or technologically prepared for the weird new era of streaming concerts as Panther Modern. After an incredibly immersive and groundbreaking livestream performance, we got on the line with Brady of Panther Modern to discuss the future of altered reality performances, the project's roots in cyberpunk, and how to make a virtue of virtuality.    

The two albums format yields discussion of some sophisticated and slightly low-key European releases on this week's podcast. The charms of Melotrons's "Sternenstaub" and Cryo's "Hidden Aggression" are examined by the Senior Staff, alongside some impressive live streaming sets from Mr.Kitty and Panther Mordern (good week for cat-related acts, we guess). All that and plenty more jackassery on the latest episode of We Have A Technical.  

An inversion of the traditional Pick Five format has the Senior Staff firing hypothetical situations to each other to find out what sort of Choose Your Own Adventure path they'd elect to go down...all with an industrial flavour, of course. Whether it's a Sophie's Choice or a lesser of two (or more) evils, Bruce and Alex are putting the screws to one another to find out how they'd react under pressure. All that plus news about the just announced Terminus: Isolation streams on this week's episode of We Have A Technical!  

1985's "Halber Mensch" was a watershed moment for Einsturzende Neubauten, with the industrial legends expanding their creative vision beyond noise and performance to embrace composition and rich lyrical themes. It's the subject of this month's We Have A Commentary podcast, as chosen by the same Patreon backers who made this episode possible. The Senior Staff consider the emergence of Blixa Bargeld as a frontperson, the prescient use of silence in EN's delivery, and the beauty of liberating destruction.    

The two album's format has the Senior Staff traversing the rather broad gap betwixt aggrotech and minimal synth as records from Tactical Sekt and Snowy Red are discussed on the latest episode of We Have A Technical. We've also got all the hot, cold, and lukewarm news concerning Neubauten, Puppy, and Consolidated for you this week.      

The legendary Henrik Nordvargr Björkk joins the podcast to discuss Pouppée Fabrikk's fantastic new raw EBM LP, "Armén". Björkk's work across a wide swath of dark genres is also discussed, as are his thoughts on the history and present state of EBM. The Senior Staff are also pitching in their two cents on the EBM/Industrial "Blind Test" that's been sweeping the internet on the latest episode of We Have A Technical          

The arrival of two new Nine Inch Nails "Ghosts" releases amidst all of the chaos and confusion seems telling. The Senior Staff are discussing the ins and outs of Ross & Reznor's new instrumental releases insofar as they relate to the still-shifting legacy of NIN as an entity as well as the uncertainty we're all living with. All that plus some discussion of how you can help out artists in Our Thing in this week's episode of We Have A Technical.          

It's a real mix of the bitter and the sweet on this week's episode of the podcast. The passings of Gabi Delgado and Bill Rieflin sent shockwaves through the industrial world which are still being felt. But on a more positive tip, the Senior Staff are doing a Pick Five episode which focuses on pick me ups: tracks which never fail to improve one's mood      

Amidst all of the broader chaos and confusion, a pioneer in industrial music passed away this last week. Bruce and Alex are joined by Alex Reed to discuss the life and legacy of Genesis P-Orridge on this week's podcast. Gen's wide ranging and hugely influential body of work, and at times deeply troubling life, are considered in a round table episode which tries to avoid reductive hagiography or cancellation.

The 301st episode of We Have A Technical finds Bruce and Alex returning to the classic two albums format, and between LPs by The Phantom Limbs and Stendeck they're reaching into about as disparate genres ID:UD covers. We're also catching up with all of the live biz that's been happening in Van.

The 300th episode of We Have A Technical finds Alex and Bruce digging into the pre-history of I Die: You Die. What club trends were popping off in the mid aughts? What would have the site's top records if it had been founded a few years earlier? Tune in and find out if Episode 300 goes "Just Like You Imagined". (That's a very relevant and contemporary joke about the "300" trailer, if you didn't catch it.)