Three co-writers share the credits on the new PIG EP. “Dirt Box” is released on 4 September 2026 via Metropolis Records, on CD and digital, and collects four new songs by Raymond Watts plus a remix of each. The songs were written with Marc Heal of Cubanate and C-Tec, former KMFDM guitarist Günter Schulz and Watts’ regular writing partner Jim Davies, formerly of The Prodigy and Pitchshifter. The EP follows the album “Hurt People Hurt”, out since May, and lands a week after PIG opened a 44-date North American tour.

Four new PIG songs and four remixes on ‘Dirt Box’

The opener, “An American Ideal Of Beauty”, came out as a single on 31 July with a video directed by E Gabriel Edvy; Side-Line covered it at the time (PIG release ‘An American Ideal Of Beauty’ single from ‘Dirt Box’ EP). Watts described the four-way studio line-up behind it as “my old partners in swine Marc and Günter” joining Davies and himself, with the single “the first result of our work as a quartet”. The same sessions produced “Your Reptilian Overlord Presents”, “Infidel” and “Butterfly”, which complete the first half of the record.

The second half hands each song to a different remixer. Cyanotic, who are supporting PIG on the current tour, rework “Your Reptilian Overlord Presents”; Chris Hall of Stabbing Westward remixes “An American Ideal Of Beauty”; Combichrist take on “Butterfly”; and Rabbit Junk close the EP with “Infidel”. The full running order is:

1. An American Ideal Of Beauty
2. Your Reptilian Overlord Presents
3. Infidel
4. Butterfly
5. Your Reptilian Overlord Presents (Cyanotic Remix)
6. An American Ideal Of Beauty (Stabbing Westward Remix)
7. Butterfly (Combichrist Remix)
8. Infidel (Rabbit Junk Remix)

The CD edition, sold through the Metropolis Records store, adds a ninth track, “Atrocity Obsession”, listed as a spoken-word bonus. The digital release on Bandcamp carries the eight tracks above.

The EP arrives mid-tour. The Hurt People Tour started on 27 August in Lawrence, Kansas and runs to 18 October in Detroit, taking in Cold Waves XIV shows in Los Angeles on 11 September, Austin on 18 September and Chicago on 25 September. That last date is also when the “Merciless” remix vinyl arrives through Armalyte Industries, with reworks by Clock DVA, Pitchshifter, StabWalt and Schulz. Four UK shows follow in December.

About PIG

PIG is the project of Raymond Watts, born in London on 1 September 1961. In the mid-1980s he worked as a sound engineer for Einstürzende Neubauten and, in Hamburg, was a founding member of KMFDM, later returning to write and sing on the 1995 album “Nihil”. He played in Foetus and worked with Psychic TV, and released the first PIG album, “A Poke in the Eye… with a Sharp Stick”, in 1988. “Praise the Lard” (1991), “The Swining” (1993), “Sinsation” (1995), “Wrecked” (1996) and “Genuine American Monster” (1999) followed, several of them first issued in Japan, where Watts also sang with Schaft and Schwein. PIG opened for Nine Inch Nails in Europe in 1994, and “Sinsation” reached the United States through Trent Reznor’s Nothing label. His fashion work includes music for Alexander McQueen’s “Plato’s Atlantis” show and for the Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibition “Punk: Chaos to Couture”.

After “Pigmartyr” (2004) and a long pause, PIG returned on Metropolis Records with “The Gospel” in 2016 and has since released “Risen” (2018), the covers album “Candy” (2019), “Pain Is God” (2020), “The Merciless Light” (2022) and “Red Room” (2024), most of them paired with remix companions, the latest being “The Merciful Night” in 2025. The 2026 campaign began with the singles “Tosca’s Kiss” and “Sex & Suicide”, then the album “Hurt People Hurt” on 22 May, co-written with Davies and reviewed by Side-Line in July, followed by a Side-Line interview in August. Both new co-writers have PIG history: Watts and Heal released the “Compound Eye Sessions” EP together in 2015, and Schulz played on “Wrecked”. “Dirt Box” is the first PIG record to carry writing credits for both of them alongside Davies.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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Four remixers, four tracks, one record. PIG, the industrial project of Raymond Watts, release Merciless on 25 September 2026 through Armalyte Industries, on vinyl and digital. All four source tracks come from the 2022 album “The Merciless Light”, and each is handed to a different name from the industrial and electronic underground.

What is on the PIG ‘Merciless’ remix record

The running order is “Obliteration Liberation” remixed by Clock DVA, “Speak Of Sin” in a StabWalt extended remix, “No Yes More Less” reworked by Pitchshifter, and “The Merciless Light” remixed by Günter Schulz. StabWalt is Walter Flakus of Stabbing Westward; Schulz played guitar in KMFDM and now plays in Slick Idiot, and his remix of “The Merciless Light” first appeared on the limited “Tree Of Blood” CD sold on PIG’s 2024 tour. Jules Seifert mastered the release at Epic Audio Media; the artwork is by Vlad McNeally.

Three of the four source tracks appear on “The Merciless Light”, issued on 23 September 2022 through Metropolis Records; “Speak Of Sin” had already surfaced on the “Baptise Bless & Bleed” EP of 27 May 2022. The record is therefore a second pass at that album, following the 12-track remix collection “The Merciful Night” that Armalyte issued in 2025.

Two vinyl editions are on sale through Bandcamp. The North American pressing runs to 200 copies on black-in-white coloured, engraved vinyl; the European pressing runs to 150 copies on black and white half-and-half coloured, engraved vinyl. Both come in a black inner sleeve inside a black UV spot gloss outer sleeve. A third variant, black splatter on clear vinyl with glitter, is sold only on the current tour. Every pre-order carries an immediate download of all four tracks. Martin Atkins of Pigface, Killing Joke and Public Image Ltd is quoted on the release page in praise of the pressing.

The release date lands mid-tour. PIG are on the road across North America on the Hurt People Tour with Cyanotic in support, a run Side-Line reported on when the dates were announced. The itinerary takes in three Cold Waves shows, at Pacific Electric in Los Angeles on 11 September, The Mohawk in Austin on 18 September and Metro in Chicago on 25 September, the same day “Merciless” is out. The Denver date on 28 August is a co-bill with Nitzer Ebb.

About PIG

PIG is the work of Raymond Watts, born 1 September 1961 in London. Watts was a founding member of KMFDM and has recorded and toured with Foetus, Psychic TV, Einstürzende Neubauten, Schaft and Schwein, as well as touring with Nine Inch Nails. He launched PIG under his own steam with “A Poke in the Eye… with a Sharp Stick” in 1988, followed by “Praise the Lard” in 1991 and “The Swining” in 1993, the last of those initially a Japan-only release.

“Sinsation” arrived in 1995 and reached the United States in 1996 through Trent Reznor’s Nothing imprint. “Wrecked” followed in Japan in 1996 and in the United States in 1997, with Schulz and Sascha Konietzko of KMFDM among its contributors. “Genuine American Monster” appeared in Japan in 1999 and in the United States in 2002. Watts then released “Pigmartyr” in 2004 under the name Watts, reissued the following year as “Pigmata”, and the project went quiet.

The return came with “The Gospel” in 2016, co-written and co-produced by Z. Marr, then “Risen” in 2018 and the covers album “Candy” in June 2019. “Pain Is God” followed on 20 November 2020 and “The Merciless Light” on 23 September 2022, both through Metropolis Records. “Red Room” arrived on 17 May 2024 and the “Feast of Agony” EP on 27 September that year, alongside remastered reissues of “Sinsation” in 2024 and “Wrecked” on 7 March 2025. Remix companions have run in parallel throughout: “Swine & Punishment” in 2017, “Stripped & Whipped” in 2019, “Pain Killer” in 2021 and “The Merciful Night” in 2025.

The most recent studio album, “Hurt People Hurt”, came out on 22 May 2026 through Metropolis Records with Armalyte handling the European side, and Side-Line published a full review in July. A “Dirt Box” EP is due on 4 September through Metropolis, with remixes by Cyanotic, Stabbing Westward, Combichrist and Rabbit Junk. “Merciless” arrives three weeks after that, and Watts spoke about his working method at length in a recent Side-Line interview.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

side-line.com

PIG is Raymond Watts, and Watts has been part of the industrial scene since the early 1980s. He started the project in a West Berlin basement in 1988, after years spent engineering live and studio sound for Einstürzende Neubauten and Psychic TV, playing in Jim Thirlwell’s first Foetus live band, joining John Gosling’s Zos Kia, and writing for early KMFDM records. Schaft and Schwein followed in Japan. For more than three decades PIG has been his own outlet, mixing industrial electronics, heavy guitars and dark theatricality. Watts now returns with “Hurt People Hurt”, a ten-track album issued by Metropolis Records on 22 May 2026 and written with his long-time collaborator Jim Davies. In my view it is a strong record, a run of tracks that works like a well-oiled machine. Time to let the man himself speak, but not without a word on the body of work as a whole: respect. (Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)

PIG interview: Raymond Watts on ‘Hurt People Hurt’

Q: “Hurt People Hurt” is arguably PIG’s twelfth studio album (excluding remix albums, compilations and EPs), arriving almost forty years after your debut. Looking back, what remains of the young Raymond Watts from those early days? In terms of your songwriting, production, influences and choice of instruments, how much has fundamentally changed, and how much has remained surprisingly constant?

Raymond: That’s interesting as a couple of years ago when I was getting “Sinsation” and Wrecked” remastered (albums from the mid 90’s) and I was actually asking myself that very question! I could quite clearly hear what I was trying to put together and it was pretty ambitious… but I was mostly glad to realise that I wasn’t in that place anymore. It was quite harrowing to be a voyeur on my own confusion, overwhelming fear and dread.

When I go back to even earlier material such as “The Fountain Of Miracles” from “The Swining” it’s interesting to hear how the choral and gospel influenced arrangements are already so apparent in my writing and arranging… but it’s where I am in my head that gives the album it’s unique stamp for me and I’ll use whatever production tools that are to hand to give birth to it (but I still love a synth and a guitar locked in mortal combat as much now as I ever did).

Q: I don’t want to generalize, but many artists and bands seem to lose some of their creative spark after such a long career. With you, however, I have the impression that PIG just keeps getting stronger, more focused and more intense with every release. Where do you still find the energy, inspiration and sheer enjoyment to keep making music-and, more importantly, to keep creating new albums? And how demanding and self-critical are you, both of yourself and of the people you collaborate with?

Raymond: To start with the last part of the question first: I am fairly intolerably self-critical and demanding of myself and others! I’m still trying to be a bit more relaxed about things but sometimes it has to be ‘just so’ before I can move on. However I have become a lot less neurotically driven my own vision and have really enjoyed collaborating and seeing where the good ship PIG ends up pointing with others in the crew.

It’s kind of you to say that you think PIG keeps getting stronger with each release and where do I find the energy and inspiration from; I’m not really sure is the honest answer… It just keeps coming out of me at the moment and if I look for my muse it may disappear. As I mentioned I am really lucky to have brilliant collaborators in Jim Davies and recently Marc Heal (Cubanate/C-Tec)… but it’s not just the musical collaborators in PIG that blow on the flames but Gabriel Edvy (videos/visuals), Vlad McNeally and Mark Griffiths (visuals) whom I’m very lucky to work with.

It is worth remembering that I did stop doing all things PIG for about 12 years… this was for many well documented reasons but one of them often gets overlooked… predominantly I just felt I didn’t know where to go after “Genuine American Monster” was released. It’s not that it set a high bar, but I felt at that time the cupboard was bare inside me and maybe I needed to let life take place, restock and try and save myself instead of documenting my decline. All of that certainly filled up the well.

Q: You mentioned Jim Davies who over the years has become an increasingly important part of the PIG story. How do you view his contribution and could you also explain a little about the creative chemistry between the two of you and why your collaboration works so well?

Raymond: Jim is integral to the health and welfare of the current PIG incarnation! We’ve been working together more and more since he first did a remix for PIG… and when I heard that I said to myself ‘I’ve got to meet this guy!’. The collaboration works because Jim is incredibly relaxed about me sometimes taking his structures and deconstructing them, and yet he’s incredibly productive so if an idea hits a brick wall it’s not a big deal.

The biggest difference to this era of PIG is how much I enjoy it and feel blessed to be able to plough this furrow compared to the desperately dark place PIG came from in the nineties when it really was a case of ‘I’ve suffered for my art and now it’s your turn’.

Q: “Hurt People Hurt” is a powerful and thought-provoking title. How did it come about, and what does it represent for you? What themes or ideas did you want to explore through this album?

Raymond: The expression ‘hurt people hurt people’ is obviously very much a part of the vernacular in these current times but if you just take one word out of that it means something completely different and yet also distills the meaning further. There’s something quite distinctly PIG about that approach to wordplay which obviously appeals. The statement becomes a command.

Q: I’ve often had the impression that PIG speaks to people who feel like ‘outsiders’-not necessarily because they reject society, but because they feel misunderstood, disconnected, or no longer recognize the world around them. How do you feel about the idea that your music provides a sense of recognition, comfort, or even a form of therapy for some listeners?

Raymond: The fact that people resonate with the material is an extremely powerful fuel. Many of my songs are born of pain and isolation so to find that becoming a route to connection is both cathartic and joyful. Something I never in a million years could see happening.

Q: One thing I’ve always admired about PIG-and “Hurt People Hurt” only reinforces this-is that you’ve never seemed interested in following trends or adapting to what happens to be fashionable. You’ve always remained true to your own artistic vision. In an era where AI is increasingly capable of generating music, do you think authenticity and individuality have become even more important? How do you see the growing role of technology in music, particularly when it comes to creativity, songwriting and artistic expression?

Raymond: If I tried to follow fashionable trends in music I wouldn’t know where to look and even my myopic sense of style could see impending disaster if I followed that route. As regards technology I am woefully bad at trying to get my head around it. Martin Eden who has been in the PIG camp for years as a co-writer and collaborator is incredibly patient at keeping my studio just about working and showing me how to work things in their most rudimentary forms.

I actually love messing about in the studio (and don’t spend nearly enough time doing it) so why on earth would I want AI or whatever take that away? It honestly doesn’t interest me but one thing’s for certain, AI isn’t going away.

Q: Looking back on the making of “Hurt People Hurt”, what proved to be the greatest challenges during the writing and recording process? Conversely, what aspects of the album gave you the greatest sense of satisfaction once everything was finished?

Raymond: I always enjoy the process of making albums… people always tell me ‘don’t make albums, just release individual songs’ but a collection of songs under one umbrella can be the manifestation of ‘the whole being greater than the sum of its parts’. Many chapters can tell a story that one alone often can’t. I usually feel pretty disappointed when I’ve finished an album and have absolutely no idea if it hangs together or not. Doubt becomes the final hurdle so if I start getting any kind of positive feedback it acts as a life raft in a self filled sea of shit and indecision. I do love the struggle though… it becomes all consuming making an album and the momentum is frightening once it gets going but what often starts out as a journey with a clear signpost becomes a dark forest with no north star, no road map and no compass. That’s when I know I’m in the right place.

Q: What can you already reveal about the new-and rather special-EP that will be released after the summer?

Raymond: I have been co-writing with Marc Heal again and it’s been great to have him back in the PIG camp working with us and I was able to persuade the great (and reclusive) Günter Schulz to put his paws on the fretboard in the service of PIG and what a blast it’s been. I hope you enjoy this EP called “Dirt Box” which has four new songs and four remixes by Combichrist, Stabbing

Westward, Rabbit Junk and Cyanotic. It’ll be out on CD/digital thru my label Metropolis and the vinyl edition will only be available at the mercy booth on the “Hurt People Tour” starting late September and covering the US and a few dates in Canada.

Q: Finally, looking ahead, what challenges still excite you creatively? Are there any ambitions, ideas or directions you haven’t yet explored with PIG that you hope to pursue in the future?

Raymond: I recently returned from doing a couple of shows In Tokyo and that was absolutely wonderful. To perform there again after a gap of 24 years and to see so many old colleagues and friends was an absolute joy. So much of my life (and PIG) was fermented there. I was first there with band in 1981 and I spent that summer playing in small clubs and finding music and myself in what felt like an incredibly alien landscape that at once felt like home. I was there for much of the 90’s and early 2000’s working not just with PIG but other bands and projects so to return felt like squaring the circle in a way.

So in answer to your question about what excites me creatively it’s playing the new material live in new environments… maybe doing a few festivals in Europe as it’s never been PIG’s natural habitat. Recording new material and of course I’m really looking forward to our upcoming US tour which is once again both terrifying, formidable and fantastic in equal measure.

About PIG

PIG is the project of English musician Raymond Watts. He worked on tape loops in London and Hamburg before moving to West Berlin, where he started PIG in 1988 in a basement studio opposite the Wall. The engineering and live-sound work for Einstürzende Neubauten and Psychic TV, the stint in Jim Thirlwell’s first Foetus live band and the membership of Zos Kia alongside John Gosling all predate it, as does his writing and performing on early KMFDM records from the mid-1980s. That KMFDM connection ran on and off into the 2000s.

The first PIG album, “A Poke in the Eye… with a Sharp Stick”, appeared in 1988 on Yellow Ltd. in Germany and Wax Trax! in the United States. “Praise the Lard” followed in 1991 and “The Swining” in 1993 as a Japan-only release. “Sinsation” came out in 1995 on Nothing Records, “Wrecked” in 1996 in Japan and on Wax Trax! in the United States the following year with a different tracklist, and “Genuine American Monster” in 1999. Watts worked extensively in Japan across the same period: he wrote lyrics and sang on Schaft’s “Switchblade” in 1994 with Hisashi Imai of Buck-Tick and Maki Fujii of Soft Ballet, and formed Schwein in Tokyo in 2001 with Sascha Konietzko, Atsushi Sakurai and Imai.

“Pigmartyr” arrived in 2004, credited to Watts, and was reissued as “Pigmata” on Metropolis Records in 2005. No PIG album followed for more than a decade. Watts spent the gap writing music for fashion and film, including Alexander McQueen’s “Plato’s Atlantis” and the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s “Punk: Chaos to Couture” exhibition. He returned with two 2015 EPs, “Long in the Tooth” with Primitive Race and “Compound Eye Sessions” with Marc Heal, then the album “The Gospel” on 9 September 2016.

Metropolis Records has issued every PIG album since: “Risen” on 8 June 2018, the covers set “Candy” on 21 June 2019, “Pain Is God” on 20 November 2020, “The Merciless Light” on 23 September 2022, “Red Room” on 17 May 2024 and ‘Hurt People Hurt’ on 22 May 2026. Remasters of “Sinsation” and “Wrecked” appeared on 23 August 2024 and 7 March 2025. Jim Davies, previously of The Prodigy and Pitchshifter, first worked with PIG on the 2022 EP “Baptise Bless & Bleed” and has been Watts’s main writing partner since.

The “Dirt Box” EP arrives on 4 September 2026 on Metropolis Records, although the label’s own store lists 6 September. It carries four new songs, “An American Ideal of Beauty”, “Your Reptilian Overlord Presents”, “Infidel” and “Butterfly”, four remixes by Cyanotic, Chris Hall of Stabbing Westward, Combichrist and Rabbit Junk, and the spoken-word bonus “Atrocity Obsession”. Marc Heal of Cubanate and C-Tec co-wrote and sings on the first of those, with guitar from former KMFDM guitarist Günter Schulz. Side-Line covered the single in ‘An American Ideal Of Beauty’.

The Hurt People Tour runs 44 shows across the United States and Canada, from 27 August 2026 at The Bottleneck in Lawrence, Kansas to 18 October 2026 at Smalls in Detroit, and takes in Cold Waves XIV dates in Los Angeles, Austin and Chicago. Four UK shows follow in December 2026. The Tokyo concerts Watts describes above took place at Koenji HIGH on 25 and 26 June 2026, both sold out, with Jim Davies on guitar and MOTOKATSU on drums.

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

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PIG, the industrial project of English musician Raymond Watts, released the single “An American Ideal Of Beauty” on July 31, 2026 via Metropolis Records. The track was co-written with Marc Heal of Cubanate and C-Tec, who contributes co-vocals and synth work, with guitar shared between Günter Schulz (ex-KMFDM) and Watts’ regular songwriting partner Jim Davies (ex-The Prodigy, Pitchshifter).

A video for the single, directed by E Gabriel Edvy for Blackswitch Labs, accompanies the release:

Watts described the recording sessions behind the track: “I wanted to distil and hone the sound of the current PIG album, “Hurt People Hurt“, so inviting my old partners in swine Marc and Günter to join Jim and myself in the studio seemed the perfect blend of brutality and beauty to feed, fertilise and transmogrify the hog into Hogzilla,” Watts explains. “This new single was the first result of our work as a quartet, hammered in the heat of the anvil of hurt.”

‘Dirt Box’: the EP behind the single

“An American Ideal Of Beauty” is included on Dirt Box, a new PIG EP due September 4, 2026. The same studio sessions produced three further new songs, each remixed by a different contemporary: Stabbing Westward’s Chris Hall remixes “An American Ideal Of Beauty” itself, while Cyanotic remixes “Your Reptilian Overlord Presents”, Combichrist remixes “Butterfly”, and Rabbit Junk remixes “Infidel”. The full “Dirt Box” tracklist is:

1. An American Ideal Of Beauty
2. Your Reptilian Overlord Presents
3. Infidel
4. Butterfly
5. Your Reptilian Overlord Presents (Cyanotic Remix)
6. An American Ideal Of Beauty (Stabbing Westward/Chris Hall Remix)
7. Butterfly (Combichrist Remix)
8. Infidel (Rabbit Junk Remix)

“Dirt Box” arrives a week after the start of the PIG “Hurt People Tour” of North America, a 44-date run promoting the album “Hurt People Hurt”, released May 22, 2026 via Metropolis Records. The tour includes performances at the Cold Waves XIV festival in Chicago, Los Angeles and Austin, and is followed by four UK shows in December.

About PIG

Raymond Watts started PIG in London in the mid-1980s. Alongside his work under that name, Watts was a founding member of KMFDM, contributing writing and vocals to several of the group’s best-known songs of the 1980s and 1990s, and has worked with Einstürzende Neubauten, Foetus and Psychic TV, as well as with the Japan-based bands Schwein and Schaft during a period living in Japan. He has also written music for film, television, advertising and fashion shows in Europe, Japan and the US, including for the Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibition “Punk: Chaos to Couture” and for the late Alexander McQueen’s “Plato’s Atlantis”, later reprised as “Savage Beauty” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

PIG’s most recent album, “Hurt People Hurt”, was released May 22, 2026 via Metropolis Records and was largely co-written with Jim Davies. “An American Ideal Of Beauty” and the forthcoming “Dirt Box” EP follow that album, alongside the already-announced “Hurt People Tour” of North America.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

side-line.com

Veteran Raymond Watts has continued to reinvent himself for nearly four decades, and this year he returned with the new full-length album “Hurt People Hurt”, delivering ten powerful new tracks.

“Hurt People Hurt” sounds exactly as we’ve come to expect from PIG: hard-hitting and relentless, yet always crafted with sophistication and an undeniable sense of melody. The songs are driven by menacing guitars that effortlessly bridge the worlds of Industrial and Metal, while Electronic textures add depth, atmosphere, and an occasional touch of accessibility. One of PIG’s greatest strengths has always been its choruses, and this album is no exception. They are bold, infectious, and anthemic—made to be sung, shouted, danced, and jumped along to.

To my ears, PIG still shares a sonic kinship with KMFDM, although fans of Marilyn Manson will undoubtedly find plenty to appreciate here as well. Yet Raymond Watts has always maintained his own unmistakable identity, balancing aggression and provocation with theatrical flair and memorable songwriting.

“Hurt People Hurt” is an outstanding album packed with consistently strong material. There isn’t a weak moment to be found, making it genuinely difficult to single out a favorite track. Respect! (Rating:8½).

The album was previewed by two singles, “Tosca’s Kiss” and “Sex & Suicide”.

Listen to “Sex & Suicide”:

About PIG

PIG is the long-running industrial rock project of English musician Raymond Watts. Watts launched the project in the late 1980s after earlier work with KMFDM, Einstürzende Neubauten, Psychic TV, Foetus, Schaft, and Schwein.

The first PIG release was “A Poke in the Eye… with a Sharp Stick” in 1988. It was followed by “Praise the Lard” in 1991, “A Stroll in the Pork” in 1992, “The Swining” in 1993, “Sinsation” in 1995, “Wrecked” in 1996, and “Genuine American Monster” in 1999. After “Pigmartyr” in 2004, released under Watts name and later reissued as “Pigmata”, the project returned with “The Gospel” in 2016, “Risen” in 2018, “Candy” in 2019, “Pain Is God” in 2020, “The Merciless Light” in 2022, and “Red Room” in 2024. The “Feast of Agony” EP followed in 2024, the remastered “Wrecked” in 2025, the remix set “The Merciful Night” in 2025, and now “Hurt People Hurt” in 2026.

Current members are Raymond Watts, En Esch, Steve White, and Bradley Bills. Watts remains the core figure, while Jim Davies continues as a key writing collaborator.

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

www.side-line.com

PIG, the industrial project of English musician Raymond Watts, has announced the PIG “Hurt People Tour”, a North American run of 44 shows in fall 2026 in support of the album “Hurt People Hurt“, released May 22, 2026 via Metropolis Records. The tour starts on August 27 in Lawrence, Kansas and ends on October 18 in Detroit, Michigan.

The 44 shows include the band’s previously announced appearances at the Cold Waves XIV festival events in Los Angeles (September 11), Austin (September 18) and Chicago (September 25). An initial 40-date itinerary has been published, with further shows to be added. The August 28 date in Denver is billed with Nitzer Ebb. Ticket links are collected on the band’s official website.

Before the North American run, PIG play two previously announced sold-out shows in Tokyo on June 25 and 26, with UK dates to follow in December.

PIG ‘Hurt People Tour’ dates: North America fall 2026

• Thu, Aug 27 – Lawrence, KS – The Bottleneck
• Fri, Aug 28 – Denver, CO – Summit (with Nitzer Ebb)
• Sat, Aug 29 – Salt Lake City, UT – Quarters DLC
• Mon, Aug 31 – Garden City, ID – Visual Arts Collective
• Wed, Sept 2 – Spokane, WA – Big Dipper
• Thu, Sept 3 – Bellingham, WA – The Shakedown
• Fri, Sept 4 – Seattle, WA – El Corazon
• Sat, Sept 5 – Portland, OR – Star Theater
• Mon, Sept 7 – Eugene, OR – John Henry’s
• Tue, Sept 8 – Eureka, CA – Savage Henry
• Wed, Sept 9 – Sacramento, CA – Cafe Colonial
• Thu, Sept 10 – San Francisco, CA – DNA Lounge
• Fri, Sept 11 – Los Angeles, CA – Cold Waves – Pacific Electric
• Sat, Sept 12 – Santa Ana, CA – La Santa
• Sun, Sept 13 – Phoenix, AZ – Last Exit Live
• Mon, Sept 14 – El Paso, TX – Bye Bye Dear
• Wed, Sept 16 – Dallas, TX – AM FM
• Thu, Sept 17 – San Antonio, TX – Paper Tiger
• Fri, Sept 18 – Austin, TX – Cold Waves – The Mohawk
• Sat, Sept 19 – Little Rock, AR – Birdie’s
• Sun, Sept 20 – St. Louis, MO – Red Flag
• Wed, Sept 23 – Davenport, IA – Raccoon Motel
• Fri, Sept 25 – Chicago, IL – Cold Waves – The Metro
• Sat, Sept 26 – Cleveland, OH – Beachland Tavern
• Sun, Sept 27 – Baltimore, MD – Metro Gallery
• Tue, Sept 29 – Syracuse, NY – The Song and Dance
• Thu, Oct 1 – Philadelphia, PA – Nikki Lopez
• Fri, Oct 2 – Brooklyn, NY – Saint Vitus
• Sat, Oct 3 – Millersville, PA – Phantom Power
• Sun, Oct 4 – Richmond, VA – Fallout
• Mon, Oct 5 – Greenville, SC – Radio Room
• Wed, Oct 7 – Atlanta, GA – Drunken Unicorn
• Thu, Oct 8 – Orlando, FL – Conduit
• Fri, Oct 9 – Tampa, FL – Orpheum
• Tue, Oct 13 – Columbus, OH – Rumba
• Wed, Oct 14 – Pittsburgh, PA – Sidequest
• Thu, Oct 15 – Hamilton, ON – Mill’s Hardware
• Fri, Oct 16 – Montreal, QC – Toscadura
• Sat, Oct 17 – Toronto, ON – Lee’s Palace
• Sun, Oct 18 – Detroit, MI – Smalls

‘Hurt People Hurt’: the album behind the tour

“Hurt People Hurt” was released on May 22, 2026 via Metropolis Records on CD, limited edition LP and digital. The 10-track album was largely co-written by Watts with guitarist Jim Davies, known for his work with The Prodigy and Pitchshifter. Two singles preceded it: the first single “Tosca’s Kiss” on March 6, 2026, with a video directed by E Gabriel Edvy.

And the second single “Sex & Suicide” on April 10, 2026, with a lyric video directed by Grete Stitch Laus. The album is available via pigindustries.bandcamp.com.

About PIG

PIG is the long-running industrial rock project of English musician Raymond Watts, which he formed in 1988 after earlier work in London, Hamburg, and West Berlin. Before launching the project, Watts had already worked on early KMFDM material with En Esch and Sascha Konietzko, and had also been active as a live and studio sound engineer for Einstürzende Neubauten and Psychic TV. He later toured with Foetus on keyboards and guitar.

The first release was “A Poke in the Eye… with a Sharp Stick”, followed by “Praise the Lard” (1991), “A Stroll in the Pork” (1992), “The Swining” (1993), “Sinsation” (1995), “Wrecked” (1996), “Genuine American Monster” (1999), and “Pigmartyr” (2004), later reissued as “Pigmata”. Small detail, several 1990s releases first appeared in Japan, including “The Swining” and “Wrecked”.

Watts is also a founding member and recurring collaborator of KMFDM. He rejoined that orbit in 1994 for the PIG vs KMFDM release “Sin Sex & Salvation”, later worked with the Japanese projects Schaft and Schwein, and also wrote music and sound design for fashion and exhibition work, including Alexander McQueen’s “Plato’s Atlantis” and the Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibition “Punk: Chaos to Couture”.

After the Watts release “Pigmartyr”, the project resumed under the PIG name with “The Gospel” on September 9, 2016, followed by “Risen” on June 8, 2018 and the covers album “Candy” on June 21, 2019. The project then returned with “Pain Is God” on November 20, 2020, followed by “The Merciless Light” on September 23, 2022. That run continued with “Red Room” on May 17, 2024, the “Feast of Agony” EP on September 27, 2024, the remastered “Wrecked” on March 7, 2025, and the remix album “The Merciful Night” on November 14, 2025.

Jim Davies was a recurring collaborator the past few years. And now there is the brand new album “Hurt People Hurt”.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

side-line.com

PIG, the industrial rock project led by Raymond Watts, has released the new album “Hurt People Hurt” today, May 22, 2026 via Metropolis Records. The album is available as LP, CD and digital release and holds 10 tracks.

The album was written by Watts and Jim Davies, known for his work with The Prodigy and Pitchshifter. Watts says: “”Hurt People Hurt” is the shepherd to pain, shoehorned between the masochist and the drama queen within. It’s full fat PIG where the weak will walk and the sick will see.”

Two singles were released before the album. “Tosca’s Kiss” was the first preview, with a video directed and edited by E Gabriel Edvy for Blackswitch Labs. The second single, “Sex & Suicide“, was released on April 10, 2026. The lyric video was directed by Grete Stitch Laus.

PIG 2026 tour dates

PIG will play two sold-out Tokyo shows on June 25 and 26, 2026. The band is also scheduled for Cold Waves XIV on September 25, 2026, with Stabbing Westward, Acumen Nation, 16 Volt, Purest Form and Kaput.

UK dates have also been announced for December 2026:

• 10 December – Manchester, Rebellion
• 11 December – Bradford, Nightrain
• 12 December – Glasgow, Ivory Blacks
• 13 December – London, The Lexington

About PIG

PIG is the long-running industrial rock project of English musician Raymond Watts, which he formed in 1988 after earlier work in London, Hamburg, and West Berlin. Before launching the project, Watts had already worked on early KMFDM material with En Esch and Sascha Konietzko, and had also been active as a live and studio sound engineer for Einstürzende Neubauten and Psychic TV. He later toured with Foetus on keyboards and guitar.

The first release was “A Poke in the Eye… with a Sharp Stick”, followed by “Praise the Lard” (1991), “A Stroll in the Pork” (1992), “The Swining” (1993), “Sinsation” (1995), “Wrecked” (1996), “Genuine American Monster” (1999), and “Pigmartyr” (2004), later reissued as “Pigmata”. Small detail, several 1990s releases first appeared in Japan, including “The Swining” and “Wrecked”.

Watts is also a founding member and recurring collaborator of KMFDM. He rejoined that orbit in 1994 for the PIG vs KMFDM release “Sin Sex & Salvation”, later worked with the Japanese projects Schaft and Schwein, and also wrote music and sound design for fashion and exhibition work, including Alexander McQueen’s “Plato’s Atlantis” and the Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibition “Punk: Chaos to Couture”.

After the Watts release “Pigmartyr”, the project resumed under the PIG name with “The Gospel” on September 9, 2016, followed by “Risen” on June 8, 2018 and the covers album “Candy” on June 21, 2019. The project then returned with “Pain Is God” on November 20, 2020, followed by “The Merciless Light” on September 23, 2022. That run continued with “Red Room” on May 17, 2024, the “Feast of Agony” EP on September 27, 2024, the remastered “Wrecked” on March 7, 2025, and the remix album “The Merciful Night” on November 14, 2025.

Jim Davies was a recurring collaborator the past few years. And now there is the brand new album “Hurt People Hurt”.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

side-line.com

PIG have released the new single “Sex & Suicide” today, April 10, 2026, via Metropolis Records. The track is the second preview of the 10-track album “Hurt People Hurt”, which is scheduled for May 22, 2026. The single follows “Tosca’s Kiss”, which we covered on March 6 as the first track lifted from the same album.

Raymond Watts says this about the new single: “This is a song of pain, pleasure, obsession and possession, written for the departed, the broken-hearted and the newly started. It’s a walk on the high-wire blade of want for something so bad you beg for release.”

A lyric video for “Sex & Suicide”, directed by Grete Stitch Laus, is out now.

“Hurt People Hurt” will be released in LP, CD, and digital formats. The vinyl edition comes as a limited deluxe pressing.

PIG are also listed for Dark Force Fest 2026 at the Sheraton Parsippany in New Jersey, running from May 1 to May 3.

About PIG

PIG is the long-running industrial rock project of English musician Raymond Watts. Watts launched the project in the late 1980s after earlier work with KMFDM, Einstürzende Neubauten, Psychic TV, Foetus, Schaft, and Schwein.

The first PIG release was “A Poke in the Eye… with a Sharp Stick” in 1988. It was followed by “Praise the Lard” in 1991, “A Stroll in the Pork” in 1992, “The Swining” in 1993, “Sinsation” in 1995, “Wrecked” in 1996, and “Genuine American Monster” in 1999. After “Pigmartyr” in 2004, released under Watts name and later reissued as “Pigmata”, the project returned with “The Gospel” in 2016, “Risen” in 2018, “Candy” in 2019, “Pain Is God” in 2020, “The Merciless Light” in 2022, and “Red Room” in 2024. The “Feast of Agony” EP followed in 2024, the remastered “Wrecked” in 2025, the remix set “The Merciful Night” in 2025, and now “Hurt People Hurt” in 2026.

Current members are Raymond Watts, En Esch, Steve White, and Bradley Bills. Watts remains the core figure, while Jim Davies continues as a key writing collaborator.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

side-line.com

Raymond Watts and his chief songwriting partner in swine Jim Davies (ex-Prodigy and Pitchshifter) have – under the PIG moniker – released the new single “Tosca’s Kiss” today via Metropolis Records. The track is the first preview of the 10-track album “Hurt People Hurt“, which is scheduled for May 22, 2026.

A video for “Tosca’s Kiss” is online now and was directed by E Gabriel Edvy of Blackswitch Labs.

The upcoming album – and we quote the label – “follows the dirt directly to the dustcart where misfits and reprobates can both lose and find themselves in this full fat emporium of ecstasy, naked words and momentous music (…) plucked and sucked on the fruits of pain and bliss, this prime slice of PIG provides a light space for dark spirits (…) enter bruised, leave changed.”

About PIG

PIG is the long-running industrial rock project of English musician Raymond Watts, which he formed in 1988 after earlier work in London, Hamburg, and West Berlin. Before launching the project, Watts had already worked on early KMFDM material with En Esch and Sascha Konietzko, and had also been active as a live and studio sound engineer for Einstürzende Neubauten and Psychic TV. He later toured with Foetus on keyboards and guitar.

The first release was “A Poke in the Eye… with a Sharp Stick”, followed by “Praise the Lard” (1991), “A Stroll in the Pork” (1992), “The Swining” (1993), “Sinsation” (1995), “Wrecked” (1996), “Genuine American Monster” (1999), and “Pigmartyr” (2004), later reissued as “Pigmata”. Small detail, several 1990s releases first appeared in Japan, including “The Swining” and “Wrecked”.

Watts is also a founding member and recurring collaborator of KMFDM. He rejoined that orbit in 1994 for the PIG vs KMFDM release “Sin Sex & Salvation”, later worked with the Japanese projects Schaft and Schwein, and also wrote music and sound design for fashion and exhibition work, including Alexander McQueen’s “Plato’s Atlantis” and the Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibition “Punk: Chaos to Couture”.

After the Watts release “Pigmartyr”, the project resumed under the PIG name with “The Gospel” on September 9, 2016, followed by “Risen” on June 8, 2018 and the covers album “Candy” on June 21, 2019. PIG returned with “Pain Is God” on November 20, 2020, followed by “The Merciless Light” on September 23, 2022. That run continued with “Red Room” on May 17, 2024, the “Feast of Agony” EP on September 27, 2024, the remastered “Wrecked” on March 7, 2025, and the remix album “The Merciful Night” on November 14, 2025.

Jim Davies was a recurring collaborator across this recent period. And now there is “Tosca’s Kiss”, the first single from “Hurt People Hurt”, due on May 22, 2026.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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Industrial rock act Pig will release the remix companion album “The Merciful Night” via Armalyte Industries on November 14, 2025. Contributions come from Pop Will Eat Itself, Republica, Chris Vrenna, Assemblage 23, Grendel, Amphibious Assault (Fallon Bowman), Stabbing Westward’s Stabwalt, as well as Eva X, AVGMNT, Katscan, Euphonic, and Raymond Watts himself.

Tracklist:

1. No Yes More Less (Euphonic Remix)
2. Veni Vidi Vici (Tweaker Remix)
3. Feed The Wound (Assemblage 23 Remix)
4. Speak Of Sin (StabWalt Remix)
5. Limbo (PIG Remix)
6. Glitz Krieg (Republica Remix)
7. Sugar My Pill (Martin Katscan Remix)
8. The Dark Room (Amphibious Assault Remix)
9. The Merciless Light (Pop Will Eat Itself Remix)
10. Tarantula (Eva X Remix)
11. Obliteration Liberation (AVGMNT Remix)
12. The Judas Chair (Grendel Remix)

Small but important detail, Armalyte also announces that it is moving most manufacturing to the US to mitigate potential tariff impacts and improve delivery times. “The Merciful Night” follows the 2022 studio album “The Merciless Light”.

“The Merciful Night” will be out as a 4-panel digipack with UV spot gloss. Pre-orders are handled via the Pig Bandcamp page.

About Pig

The band is the industrial rock project of Raymond Watts (London, UK), active since the late 1980s. Early material appeared via labels including Wax Trax! and Nothing Records, followed by releases on Metropolis Records and Armalyte Industries.

After returning with “The Gospel” (2016), Pig issued “Risen” (2018), “Pain Is God” (2020) and “The Merciless Light” (2022); Watts then released “Red Room” (2024) across Metropolis (CD/digital) and Armalyte (vinyl). The 2025 set “The Merciful Night” serves as a remix counterpart to “The Merciless Light.” Current live/collaborator rosters have included En Esch, Steve White, and others.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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Coming out on Metropolis Records on March 7th is the “Wrecked (2024 remaster)” – reissue of the 1996 album by the UK industrial outfit PIG. The release will be followed by a UK tour in March to promote the 2024 studio album “Red Room”.

“Wrecked” was the 5th album for Raymond Watts (aka PIG), and for this reissue the remastering has been made by Tom Hall at Abbey Road. Pre-orders are available now.

Whereas the recently reissued “Sinsation” (1995) had originally been released on Nothing Records (the label established by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails), its follow-up saw a switch to Wax Trax!, the leading ‘90s exponents of industrial rock.

Raymond adds: “Revisiting ‘Wrecked’ for remastering was a sobering experience that left me shaken,” states Watts. “I recalled a period when I was stirred to a creative frenzy of crisis and desperation while searching for beauty. Although I can still hear glimpses of it, the bonfire of my hope was more an expression that was savage and twisted.”

“Wrecked” features contributions from former KMFDM members Günter Schulz and Steve White, as well as Julian Beeston (ex-Nitzer Ebb, Cubanate).

PIG UK tour dates

The PIG live band currently includes En Esch (ex-KMFDM, Pigface) and Jim Davies, formerly of Pitchshifter (but best known for his guitar lines on several chart hits by The Prodigy). Davies also co-wrote many of the songs on the latetst PIG album “Red Room”.

• 6th March – Glasgow – Ivory Blacks
• 7th March – Manchester – Rebellion
• 8th March – London – 229

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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Former Lords of Acid vocalist, Mea Fisher, has returned with her new project Me and My Nightmare, launching the single “Devil Inside”, featuring industrial legend En Esch (Slick Idiot, PIG, Pigface, ex-KMFDM). The track combines guitar riffs, metallic percussion, and synths “to bring to life a twisted tale of temptation and the underworld” as Fisher describes it.

Originally written for Lords of Acid, Fisher reimagined “Devil Inside” blending heavy metal elements with industrial beats. Apart from En Esch we also find guitars by Danny Lohner (Nine Inch Nails).

The single coincides with the release of a video, where Fisher fully embodies the “devil inside”.

Having garnered attention in the ’90s as a Chicago house scene DJ, Fisher transitioned to industrial rock with Lords of Acid before creating Me and My Nightmare. This new release signals her return to the industrial-electro forefront.

“Devil Inside” is available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify and Bandcamp.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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Inertia are back with a brand-new album, “Estranged Icon”. Fronted by Reza Udhin (Killing Joke / Black Volition / The Devout), Inertia’s new album offers singles like “New Format” with Seiben’s Matt Howden on violins along with “Scowl” including guitar work from Steve White of KMFDM and PIG.

“Estranged Icon” is the band’s 14th studio album, and was just released by Distortion Productions on all digital and streaming platforms along with a limited edition CD. Inertia will soon be announcing North American and European tour dates.

About Inertia

Inertia is a UK-based industrial/electronic band known for their fusion of darkwave, industrial, and electro sounds. Formed in 1992, the band was created by vocalist and musician Reza Udhin, who is also known for his work with the gothic rock band Killing Joke. Over the years, Inertia has become a staple in the UK industrial music scene, releasing a series of albums and EPs.

Inertia’s discography includes albums such as “Negative Prime”, “Deworlded”, and “Universal Blood”, showcasing their evolution from raw industrial sounds to more complex and polished electronic arrangements.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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Out today is the new “Feast of Agony” EP from industrial music legend Raymond Watts a.k.a. PIG (via Metropolis Records). Showcased by the video for “Fallout”, “Feast of Agony” arrives on the trail of the remastered version of PIG’s 1995 “Sinsation” album (originally released via Trent Reznor’s Nothing Records) and the studio album “Red Room”.

Released digitally today, the vinyl edition of “Feast of Agony” will only be available on PIG’s tour starting today.

PIG tour dates

• 9/28/24: Chicago, IL, – Metro
• 9/ 29/24: Minneapolis, MN – Cabooze *
• 9/30/24: Des Moines, IA – Lefty’s Live Music *
• 10/2/24: Milwaukee, WI – X-Ray Arcade *
• 10/3/24: Davenport, IA – Raccoon Motel *
• 10/4/24: Lawrence, KS – The Bottleneck *
• 10/5/24: Denver, CO Kulture Music Hall *
• 10/6/24: SLC, UT – Quarters *
• 10/7/24: Boise, ID – Visual Arts Collective *
• 10/9/24: Eugene, OR – John Henry’s *
• 10/10/24: Seattle, WA – El Corazon ^^
• 10/13/24: Portland, OR – Dante’s ^^
• 10/15/24: Sacramento, CA – Starlit Room ^^
• 10/16/24: SF, CA – DNA ^^
• 10/17/24: San Diego, CA – Whistle Stop ^^
• 10/18/24: Las Vegas, NV – Sinwave ^^
• 10/19/24: Los Angeles, CA – Catch One ^^
• 10/20/24: Scottsdale, AZ – Pub Rock ^^
• 10/21/24: Albuquerque, NM – Launchpad ^^
• 10/23/24: OK City – Beer City ^^
• 10/24/24: Dallas, TX – Three Links ^^
• 10/25/24 – Houston TX – Secret Group *
• 10/26/24: Austin, TX – Elysium *
• 10/27/24: New Orleans, LA – Santos *
• 10/29/24: Pensacola, FL – Handlebar *
• 10/30/24: Orlando, Fl – Handlebar *
• 11/1/24: West Palm Beach, FL – Respectable Street *
• 11/2/24: Jacksonville, FL – Underbelly *
• 11/3/24: Greenville, SC – Radio Room *
• 11/5/24: Atlanta, GA – Star Bar *
• 11/6/24: Richmond, VA – Fallout *
• 11/7/24: Baltimore, MD – Metro Baltimore *
• 11/8/24: New York, NY – STIMULATE *
• 11/9/24 – Wilmington DE – Bar 13 *
• 11/10/24: Millersville, PA – Phantom Power *
• 11/12/24: Cambridge, MA – Middle East *
• 11/13/24: Quebec City, QC – L’anti Bar *
• 11/14/24: Montreal, QC – Cabaret Fous *
• 11/15/24: Toronto, ON – Lee’s Palace *
• 11/16/24: Detroit, MI – Smalls *
• 11/17/24: Cleveland, OH – Beachland Tavern *

* dates with Unitcode : Machine
^^ dates with Curse Mackey and Unitcode : Machine

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

side-line.com

Industrial music legend En Esch, renowned for his work with KMFDM and PIG, is back with his first full-length album in eight years, “Dance Hall Putsch”. The album is out now via GIVE/TAKE. The LP is available in a limited translucent Coke bottle clear vinyl, CD, and digital formats.

Featuring collaborations with members of bands like PIG, Hanzel und Gretyl, Lords of Acid, KMFDM, and Pigface, “Dance Hall Putsch” showcases Esch’s signature blend of industrial, electronic, and electro.

Esch began working on “Dance Hall Putsch” during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, aiming to create a danceable record to help escape the bleakness of that era. However, when war broke out in Ukraine, the album took on a darker, more political edge.

“This current conflict is just 500 miles from Berlin. It became a rather political album that reflects on the senselessness and nastiness of all the current wars around us,” says Esch. His lyrics dig into the devastating effects of war on the innocent, focusing on the long-term suffering of those without power.

En Esch is also gearing up for a tour this fall, playing guitar for PIG in select cities. Prepare for a sonic revolution—Dance Hall Putsch is set to be one of the year’s most incendiary releases.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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(Photo by Bobby Talamine) Sine, the brainchild of New York-born drummer/multi-instrumentalist Rona Rougeheart, is back with an all new video, “Trauma Bondage”. Musically Sine mixes beats with industrial noise, Sub-bass and synthesisers.

Having issued records via the Austin indie media company eMERGENCY heARTS, Rougeheart recently signed to Metropolis Records and has released a brand new single entitled “Trauma Bondage” today. The track is taken from an album to be issued in early 2025. The self-written song was co-produced with US hip-hop producer AwareNess with musical contributions from Curse Mackey and mastering by Jürgen Engler of Die Krupps.

About Sine

2019 saw Rougeheart open for Bauhaus in Orlando, Florida, which led to the ongoing band project Shiva Saves SITE formed by their bassist David J that also features industrial darkwave artist Curse Mackey, plus a revolving cast that includes Yeah Yeah Yeahs guitarist Nick Zinner.

Examples of other artists she has collaborated with are Adrian Sherwood, Meat Beat Manifesto, Clan of Xymox, Chris Connelly, (Pigface, Revolting Cocks), Mark Pistel (Consolidated), Andee Blacksugar (KMFDM, Blondie), Xiu Xiu and the late Mark Stewart (The Pop Group).

As Sine, Rougeheart recently opened for Nitzer Ebb and Clan Of Xymox and will support the latter on an American tour right after her debut appearance at the 2024 edition of the Cold Waves festival in Chicago on 29th September.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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(Photo by E Gabriel Edvy) Out on September 27 via Metropolis Records is the brand new PIG EP “Feast Of Agony”. The EP – available now in pre-order – holds six songs and encounters with the “Lord of Lard”, in which he “brings word to the wordless and truth to the truthless”.

The EP kicks off with “Heroin for the Damned”, a song co-written with Watts’ collaborator Jim Davies (a longtime member of Pitchshifter). The accompanying tracks are “Fallout“, “Comedown”, “Hand of Mercy”, “The Ratchet Effect” and “Baptise Bless & Bleed” (in a remix by Jim Davies).

“Feast of Agony” follows the recent remastered reissue of PIG’s landmark 1995 album “Sinsation” and the 2024 studio album “Red Room”, both of which are available via Metropolis Records.

This Autumn PIG will playing live during the Heroin for the Damned tour across North America.

About PIG

PIG is an industrial music project led by British musician Raymond Watts, who is also known for his contributions to the pioneering industrial band KMFDM. Formed in the late 1980s, PIG blends aggressive, distorted electronic sounds with dark, often satirical lyrics. Watts is the primary creative force behind the project, and over the years, he has collaborated with various musicians, including members of KMFDM, Einstürzende Neubauten, and Nine Inch Nails.

The band’s early work was heavily influenced by the industrial scene of the 1990s, with albums like “A Poke in the Eye… with a Sharp Stick” (1988) and “Praise the Lard” (1991) establishing PIG’s signature mix of gritty electronics and harsh, guitar-driven beats. Despite being less commercially prominent than some of his contemporaries, PIG developed a cult following for its theatrical performances and provocative style.

In the 2000s, after a period of hiatus, Watts resumed recording and touring under the PIG name. Albums like “The Gospel” (2016) and “Risen” (2018) brought fresh energy to the project, with Watts continuing to explore themes of sin, salvation, and decay, often framed in a darkly humorous context.

PIG’s music incorporates elements of industrial rock, post-punk, and electronic body music (EBM), creating a sound that is both abrasive and experimental.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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En Esch (KMFDM and PIG) has a new album out on September 27th via GIVE/TAKE. The new release is his first one in eight years, “Dance Hall Putsch”.

The album features fellow KMFDM band members Raymond Watts, Guenter Schulz and Mark Durante, plus Vas Kallas (Hanzel und Gretyl), Mea Fisher and Erica Dilanjian (Lords of Acid), Hope Nicholls (Pigface) and more,.

En Esch says he began work on “Dance Hall Putsch” in the early days of Covid-19: “I was trying to create an upbeat, rather positive and very danceable album to leave the pandemic days behind us. Then it happened that a war began near where I live with tens of thousands of civilians killed and wounded so far. Everyone was caught by surprise and it influenced me, especially lyrically. This current conflict is just 500 miles away from Berlin, and while that does not make it more horrific than other wars, it is very close to home. From living with this ‘war next door,’ the album turned out much more sinister than originally planned. It became a rather political album that reflects on the senselessness and nastiness of all the current wars around us. It’s always the innocent and those who hold no power that suffer the most. Their fate isn’t always death, but many times indescribable and long-term suffering. We must not forget them or turn a blind eye.”

The album will be out on limited translucent Coke bottle clear vinyl, CD and digital.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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Raymond Watts, better known as PIG, has released a fully remastered version of his iconic 1995 album, “Sinsation“. Out via Metropolis Records (CD, digital) and Armalyte Industries (deluxe 2xLP vinyl), this reissue arrives nearly three decades after the original, just in time to coincide with Watts’ forthcoming North American tour.

“Sinsation” originally hit the scene on Nothing Records, the label spearheaded by Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor. The album emerged shortly after PIG opened for NIN, and as a result PIG found himself labelmates of acts such as Marilyn Manson, Autechre, and Einstürzende Neubauten.

Watts says this about the actual album: “Every record I make is PIG through a different noose, and when I made ‘Sinsation’ the noose hung high. It was born at Ranch Apocalypse in London, a place where creation and cremation coexisted. I was locked inside both the studio and myself, with only [guitarist] Steve White and a large box of drugs for company. ‘Sinsation’ was the sound of the last card turning and burning. The only way out was through. I had to give birth to the noise inside my head and record it.”

The remastering process was an emotional experience for Watts: “I was surprised and saddened to revisit ‘Sinsation’. Surprised by the energy and invention and saddened to hear the pain. But, I was strangely glad to have visited hell, and blessed that I didn’t stay.”

The original ‘Sinsation’ was a collaborative effort, recorded and mixed by PIG and Helen Woodward, featuring contributions from Karl Hyde (Underworld), Jimmy Cauty (The KLF), Steve White (KMFDM), Carol Anne Reynolds (Sow), and Japanese artists Imai Hisashi (Buck Tick) and Hoppy Kamiyama.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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(Photography by E Gabriel Edvy) Raymond Watts aka PIG has released a new single, “Dum Dum Bullet” featuring the Pig Choir. A video for the song is out now. The song is taken from a PIG’s just released new album “Red Room” (Metropolis Records).

The song features a choir of notable guests that include Emily Kavanaugh (Night Club), Chris Hall (Stabbing Westward), Burton C Bell (Fear Factory, Ascension of the Watchers), I Ya Toyah, Chris Connelly (Revolting Cocks, Ministry), En Esch (KMFDM) and Marc Heal (Cubanate).

PIG has also just announced a ‘Heroin For The Damned’ US tour in the autumn. The 40 date itinerary follows a headlining set at Cold Waves XII in Chicago on 28th September.

Much of the material on “Red Room” was co-written with Jim Davies, a longtime member of Pitchshifter but best known for his guitar lines on many chart hits by The Prodigy. Other collaborators include Alexis Mincolla (3Teeth), Chris Hall, Watts’ old KMFDM bandmate Günther Schulz and jazz trumpeter Enrico Tomasso.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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(Photo by Gabriel Edvy) Out now is an all new PIG single “Crumbs Chaos & Lies”. With this single Raymond Watts releases the first taste of his new PIG album “Red Room”. “Crumbs Chaos & Lies” comes with an accompanying video that features Alexis Mincolla of 3Teeth.

Raymond Watts says: “I like to wrap the poison sweets in the finest treats and envisioned this as the sound of PIG officiating at my own funeral.”

The new PIG album “Red Room” features contributions from Jim Davies, a longtime member of Pitchshifter, along with Emily Kavanaugh (Night Club), Chris Hall (Stabbing Westward), Burton C Bell (Fear Factory), I Ya Toyah, Chris Connelly (Revco, Ministry), En Esch (KMFDM) and Marc Heal (Cubanate). “Red Room” will be released on May 17th by Metropolis Records on CD and through all digital and streaming platforms.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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Tomorrow night (Sunday 14th January 2024 at 7pm GMT) there will be a Bandcamp Listening Party to announce the impending launch of the PIG versus KMFDM release “Sin Sex & Salvation (The Conflict Continues)”.

You’ll be able to hear the 8-track release in its entirety. The release was originally issued in 1994 as a 5-track release on TVT Records / Wax Trax! Records but comes augmented with 3 extra tracks now with an official release date on January 19th.

All you need to join this release party is a Bandcamp account, which is totally free, and head over to this link to RSVP.

The new album will be available as download but also as a deluxe vinyl (with a signed screen print) which comes in two colour (red/black) vinyl and with a 4 colour, hand-pulled screen print of the cover artwork on 300gsm somerset satin paper. This deluxe edition comes signed and numbered by Raymond Watts.

Next is a CD version which comes as a 6 panel digipack with UV spot-gloss elements. All orders for the digipack come with a sticker signed by Watts, exclusive to this edition. There will also be a regular black vinyl edition.

The tracklist of this KMFDM / PIG collaboration album is as follows (in bold the bonus tracks):

1. Secret Skin
2. Fuck Me
3. Rape Robbery & Violence
4. Fuck Me Hoghunter
5. Secret Skin (PIG Version)
6. Brute (PIG Version)
7. Disobedience (PIG Version)
8. Secret Sin (Sex & Salvation)

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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Genre/Influences: Ritual, Industrial, Dark-Ambient, Drone, Experimental.

Format: Digital, 2CD.

Background/Info: British Industrial music veteran  Stephen Āh Burroughs (known from Head Of David) released now twenty years ago the debut album of his solo-project Tunnels Of Āh. This album is a selection of previously unreleased tracks which have been released as a double CD.

Content: The first disc features 11 tracks  originally released in between 2012 and 2015 which means we here get compositions from the period of the official debut album. The second disc reveals 10 more unreleased cuts originally composed in between 2016 and 2018. The common element between all cuts is the very particular, specific, sound universe created by Burroughs. The sound is a perfect mix between noticeable Ritual elements, Dark-Ambient atmospheres, and Drone. It’s a cold sound universe featuring spoken vocals empowering the mysterious and Ritual sphere of the work.

+ + + : I think it’s a damned good idea these previously unreleased sonic pearls have been recovered from dust. The composition perfectly stands for the obscure universe of Tunnels Of Āh and doesn’t really sound outdated. This work brings us back to the perfect sonic osmosis between Ritual, Drone and Dark-Ambient. The work features multiple outstanding cuts. I’ve a little preference for the second disc. This work will appeal to lovers of Z’Ev and co. I also have to say a word about the great, sober, artwork of the album.

– – – : Most of the tracks are pretty extended so in the end it might be a true marathon listening to this album. The fans will be pleased…

Conclusion: Great previously unreleased material by sonic master Stephen Burroughs.

Best songs: “Camphor”, “To The Paschal Victim”, “Circumcision (Hunter Christ)”, “Brute World”, “Keys King At Womb Door Again”, “In A Pig Ark dark”.

Rate: 8.

Artist: www.facebook.com/TheTunnelsOfAh

Label: www.zoharum.com / www.facebook.com/zoharum

About Tunnels Of Āh

Formed in January 2013, Tunnels Of Āh is Stephen Āh Burroughs (previously part of the cult band Head Of David).

Tunnels Of Āh signed to historical UK label Cold Spring Records in 2013 for the debut album “Lost Corridors”, followed by “Thus Avici” (2015), “Surgical Fires” (2016), “Charnel Transmissions” (2018), and “Deathless Mind” in 2020. “The Smeared Cloth 2012-2018 Unearthed”, released on Zoharum in 2023, collects previously unreleased material recorded during those same years.

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

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(Artwork by Steven Anthony Roe) The new KANGA album, “Under Glass”, has officially been released under the Artoffact Records label. This project was a collaborative effort, produced by Dave Adrounie, Josh Franks, and KANGA herself. The recording and engineering were handled by Josh Franks and Dave Adrounie, while Nick Townsend took charge of the mastering.

You can experience the album’s essence through its featured track, “Magnolia,” available in this video.

Hailing from Los Angeles, KANGA is an artist—producer, musician, and live performer. She recently gained prominence as the opening act for Gary Numan’s 40th-anniversary tour. Currently, she is on the road with My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult across the United States. Beyond her own music, KANGA has been remixing tracks for artists like Clipping, 3 Teeth, PIG, Aesthetic Perfection, and many others. Her latest album, “Under Glass”, signifies a stylistic metamorphosis, transcending traditional genre boundaries.

Kanga’s debuted in 2015 with the self-released single “Vital Signs”. In 2016, she was signed to Negative Gain Productions, under which she released her self-titled album, “Kanga”. After that she also contributed vocals to Delerium’s single “In the deep”.

Reflecting on her new album, KANGA shares: “I’m immensely proud of ‘Under Glass.’ While I’ve spent years carving out my niche as a producer, this album allows me to expand my artistic scope, offering a more vulnerable and earnest form of storytelling. I hope it resonates beyond genre limitations and connects with a diverse audience seeking intricate narratives and evolving musical styles. Crafted from the heart, this album was born from pure creative freedom, devoid of any agenda or stylistic constraints. Listening to it gives me a newfound sense of liberation, and I hope it instills the same feeling in others.”

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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Featured, the project by Julian Beeston, has teamed up with KMFDM vocalist Lucia Cifarelli for a new single, titled “Medusa”. The single will be out on July 28th.

Written by Julian Beeston and Lucia Cifarelli, the two are joined by Steve White (KMFDM,PIG) and Dean Garcia (Curve, SPC_ECO) on the new release along with remixes by Marc Heal, INHALT, Blush Response, Mark Pistel, Giuseppe Morena and Metroglow.

A video will accompany the release which utilizes extensive facial capture technology and integration with the Unreal Engine.

The single is taken from the forthcoming Featured album, “All Mouth and No Trousers”, due in September 2023, which features further collaborations with Lucia Cifarelli as well as Mari Kattman, Bara Hari, Rose Berlin, Mia FluxXx, Christine Hanlon, Lis van den Akker, Jayelle Gerber and Livvy Holland.

Julian Beeston is an English musician, mainly noted for his time in the electronic groups Nitzer Ebb and Cubanate. He has spent time as a remixing engineer working on artists such as Bob Marley and Billy Idol. More recently, he has worked as a composer and producer, making music for TV commercials for companies such as Mitsubishi and Ford and has produced trailers for Universal, Miramax and 20th Century Fox.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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(Photo by Armand Egidi) Edley ODowd (Psychic TV, Toilet Boys)’s latest project Scorpion Tea has just released the single “Scarlet Misquote”.

“Scarlet Misquote” is the first single from the band’s upcoming self-titled album and a first glimpse into their full-length debut, due October 27th via the Los Angeles and Minneapolis based label GIVE/TAKE. The band mixes punk, goth, death rock, and city pop into the mix.

Included in the single is the bonus “Drag on the Night” mix from labelmates Deathdance fresh off their own EP and remix of En Esch (KMFDM, PIG).

The group’s debut album was recorded at Studio 22 in Los Angeles by Thomas Dolas (Thee Oh Sees, Mister Elevator) and Joo Joo (Air Bol Bol). Read the review of ‘Scorpion Tea’.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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(Photo credit Anders Larson) The Swedish industrial band The Below has a new single and video out, “Artificial Lights (Dystopian Haze)” featuring Aaron Sutcliffe. Aaron Sutcliffe is an alias of Johan Malmgren (of S.P.O.C.K) used for recording electronic covers of classic rock songs. The single is out on the 9th of June but we can already present you the video today which was shot in Lviv, Ukraine, in April 2023 by an all-Ukrainian team..

The single explores the theme of fear and the experience of living in bomb shelters after the brutal Russian invasion of Ukraine.

This is not the first time that The Below and Aaron Sutcliffe have collaborated on a politically charged single: “Our previous release, ‘No Place is Safe’, explored the violence and destruction of Israel’s assault on Gaza in 2014 and gained a lot of attention, particularly in Palestine.” Regarding the new single The Below says: “I am excited to be collaborating with Aaron Sutcliffe again on this project. The events that took place, and still are taking place in Ukraine are truly horrific, and we hope that this music can help raise awareness of the plight of those affected.”

Kate Tiuri, the director of the video, commented on the production, stating: “War doesn’t stop culture! We continue to stand, to speak, and to create. In this musical piece, I want to grasp that tragedy can go alongside beauty. We demonstrate the beauty of Ukraine through dance – a contemporary duet that embodies the strength, resilience, pain, and indomitability of the Ukrainian people.”

About The Below

The Below is a solo project by Bo Magnusson, the sound engineer/bass player from the Swedish industrial experimentalists Dr. Evil & The Boys From Below (1985-1992). A band that had a strong local following thanks to their spectacular stage performances featuring pig’s skulls, hovering washing machines, a truck load of scrap metal etc. After the band took an indefinite break in 1992 there were no plans to continue producing music.

However, in 2015 things changed and a few saved objects and instruments were dusted off and slowly new noises were created under the moniker The Below. So far, The Below has released five singles: ”Knives and Heights” b/w ”Grind Me Down”, “Unarmed (An American Nightmare)”, “I’d Like to Punch Him In The Face”, “Change is Coming” and “No Place is Safe”.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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Chicago’s post-punk pair Bellhead is set to return with their new EP, “Good Intentions”, on 5th May. This release aligns with their U.S. East Coast tour alongside New York’s Clay People, kicking off on 6th May.

Following a busy 2022 supporting their second release “Dead Lights”, Karen and Ivan are back with their third offering. For “Good Intentions”, they’ve reunited with their trusted production team, including audio engineer Neil Strauch (Iron and Wine / Counting Crows / Owls / Joan of Arc / Walking Bicycles / Slow Mass), mastering engineer Carl Saff (Acid Mothers Temple / Smoking Popes / Red Fang / Guided by Voices), and management led by David Schock (WTII Records).

The six-track EP delves into a fresh “pop” direction, nodding to New Order and giving a subtle salute to Jesus and Mary Chain. Alongside the lead single “Valentine”, the EP features “Bad Taste” and “Into the Deep”, which address unsavoury stalkers, unreliable narrators, and bloodthirsty sirens at sea. The duo also present their rendition of Love and Rockets’ hit “No Big Deal”.

“Good Intentions” comes after a standalone single, a cover of Prince’s “I Would Die 4 U”.

Pre-orders are available now on Bandcamp.

Bellhead 2023 Spring dates

• 3/19 Eastside Bowl – Nashville, TN w/ Clan of Xymox / The Bellwether Syndicate
• 3/23 Cactus Club – Milwaukee, WI w/ Clan of Xymox / The Bellwether Syndicate
• 4/15 The Ruin – Fort Wayne, IN w/ Vazum / Observer
• 4/21 Blockhouse Bar – Bloomington, IN w/ Pilgrims of Yearning / Freeze Etch
• 4/22 Mag Bar – Louisville, KY w/ Gentleman Pig / Star Guided Vessel / Village Elder
• 5/6 Livewire Lounge – Chicago, IL w/ The Clay People / Melter
• 5/7 Mac’s Bar – Lansing, MI w/ The Clay People / Zombie Apocalypse / No Skull
• 5/8 Black Circle – Indianapolis, IN w/ The Clay People / Broken Nails
• 5/9 The Foundry – Lakewood, OH w/ The Clay People / Bonded by Darkness / Temple Witch
• 5/10 The Runaway – Washington, DC w/ The Clay People / High Horse Cavalry / Raw Dawgs
• 5/11 Bar Freda – Queens, NY w/ The Clay People / The Amatory Murder / Chroma
• 5/12 Darq @ Koto – Salem, MA w/ The Clay People / Acheron
• 5/13 Harrisburg Midtown Arts Center – Harrisburg, PA w/ The Amatory Murder, Faux Fear, Goth Goth, Sugar Hysteria
• 5/14 Buzzbin – Akron, OH w/ Night Goat / Bonded By Darkness / Temple Witch
• 5/26 Reggie’s – Chicago, IL w/ Night Club / Iron Years / Plasmata

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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Roger Waters, the legendary member of Pink Floyd, has had his concert in Frankfurt cancelled by the city’s government due to his “continuing anti-Israeli stance.” Frankfurt officials view Waters as one of the world’s most influential anti-Semites due to his repeated calls for a cultural boycott of Israel, his comparisons to South Africa’s apartheid regime, and his pressure on artists to cancel events in Israel.

Waters – already often referred to as being the Leni Riefenstahl of rock ‘n’ roll – has also been known for promoting anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and featuring a pig-shaped balloon with the Star of David during a previous tour as you can see above. Fans who love his music but are critical of his political views are directed by Waters to the bar during his performance under the guise of “fuck off.”

Despite this controversy, Live Nation, Mojo and other organizers will keep his concerts maintained. Some say that they do not endorse Waters’ political views, but they will continue with the concerts (for the sake of money of course).

The cancellation in Frankfurt was due not only to Waters’ political views but also because of the sensitivity surrounding the Festhalle, where the concert was to be held. During the Kristallnacht in 1938, 3,000 Jewish men were taken to the Festhalle, where they were mistreated and later deported to concentration camps. The venue has a plaque urging people to take a stand against anti-Semitism and hate speech.

It’s highly possible that Berlin, Munich, and Cologne will also cancel the Roger Waters concerts.

More than one incident

There have been several instances where Roger Waters, the former Pink Floyd band member, has been accused of making anti-Semitic comments.

In a 2010 interview with CounterPunch, Waters compared Israel’s treatment of Palestinians to apartheid South Africa and said, “The parallels with what went on in the 1930s in Germany are so crushingly obvious.”

In a 2012 interview with Electronic Intifada, Waters stated, “I think that the Israeli government has been playing the Holocaust card, and it is disgusting. They have been blackmailing the world with it for years.”

In a 2013 interview with CounterPunch, Waters criticized what he called the “Jewish lobby” in the US and accused it of controlling the media and the government’s foreign policy. He later apologized for using the term “Jewish lobby” but maintained his criticism of Israel’s policies towards the Palestinians.

In a 2017 interview with BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) activist Frank Barat, Waters compared Israel’s treatment of Palestinians to Nazi Germany’s treatment of Jews during the Holocaust, saying, “The situation in Israel/Palestine, with the occupation, the ethnic cleansing, and the systematic racist apartheid Israeli regime is unacceptable.”

In 2018, Waters published an open letter urging fellow musicians to boycott the Eurovision Song Contest, which was being held in Israel. In the letter, Waters accused Israel of “ethnic cleansing” and “dispossession” of the Palestinian people, and called for a cultural boycott of the country.

It’s worth noting that Waters has denied being anti-Semitic and has stated that his criticisms are aimed at the Israeli government’s policies, not the Jewish people as a whole. However, his comments have been seen by many as crossing the line into anti-Semitic territory.

A true Putin lover?

Waters has been known for his criticism of Western governments, particularly the United States and the United Kingdom, and has been vocal in his support of political causes such as the BDS movement and the anti-war movement, and has more recently been used by Putin’s Russia to spread the bogus claim that the Russian invasion in Ukraine was provoked by the NATO countries.

He ended up speaking at the United Nations Security Council – at Russia’s request – in early February. While he denounced the Russian invasion of Ukraine as illegal, he also claimed it was “provoked,” drawing sharp criticism from the Ukrainian UN ambassador, who accused him of aiding Russian propaganda. In addition, Waters criticized his former Pink Floyd bandmates for releasing a charity single, arguing that it would only encourage the continuation of the war.

As a result of his controversial statements, two concerts that Waters was due to perform in Krakow, Poland in April were canceled. This followed an open letter in which Waters strongly criticized Ukraine and the West for their actions in the conflict with Russia.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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(Photo by Berry Behrendt) Frankfurt-born but Berlin-based artist En Esch (PIG, former KMFDM) has signed with the LA/Minneapolis-based label GIVE/TAKE (home to Justin K Broadrick’s Pale Sketcher, David J of Bauhaus and more). His new single “Push” drops March 3rd, with a full EP forthcoming later in 2023.

“Push” will also hold a remix from dark electronic artist KPT. Maintaining a steady output of solo work, beginning with 1993’s “Cheesy” on TVT Records, En Esch’s new LP, his first in over seven years, is slated for release in 2023 on GIVE/TAKE.

En Esch is Nicklaus Schandelmaier, a German drummer, programmer, producer, guitarist and singer who has been a member of the bands KMFDM, Pigface, Slick Idiot, and . And more recently with NUKES, a 16 member band that includes Chris Connelly, John Bechdel, Mario Alberto Cabada, David J and more. It was KMFDM’s Sascha Konietzko who claims to have given Esch his nickname because the latter felt that his real name was inappropriate for the stage.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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December 9th marked the release of “The Nine”, the new album by MissFit Toys on the Pittsburgh-based Distortion Productions label. MissFit Toys was formed in Orlando, FL in 2007 by Richie V. Suriv.

After a string of releases and live shows (with Dope, Pig, Skold, Psyclon Nine, Combichrist, Grendel and Wednesday 13) this aggrotech/industrial band was direct support for electro act Hocico in Spring of ’22.

“The Nine” is available via Distortion Productions on all streaming and digital platforms along with a compact disc. MissFit Toys will be announcing 2023 tour dates that include shows in Mexico supporting Hocico. Read the review of ‘The Nine’.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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Genre/Influences: Industrial.

Format: Digital, CD.

Background/Info: Raymond Watts has written this new PIG album during the ongoing pandemic. He got some help from precious and long-time collaborators En Esch and Steve White while  Jim Davies (Pitchshifter, The Prodigy ao) joined in as well.

Content: Twelve songs of typical Industrial power, mixing guitar riffs with electronics, this work of course will make you think of KMFDM. But Watts takes us by surprise achieving softer -and even cabaret-like cuts.

+ + + : The sound universe of PIG is one familiar for fans of KMFDM, Pitchshifter and co. A dark, Industrial sound in which Watts excels. His passionate vocals -sometimes reminding me to early Nick Cave, are totally matching with the violent sound whereon you’ll also notice subtle, sound arrangements. “The Dark Room” and “Tarantula” both are brilliant pieces but I also have to mention the solid opener “No Yes More Less” and “Obliteration Liberation” for its elevating sensation.

– – – : PIG stands for great music although it became a bit more predictable throughout the years.

Conclusion: PIG sounds dirty and passionate, evil and merciless!

Best songs: “The Dark Room”, “Tarantula”, “No Yes More Less”, “Obliteration Liberation”.

Rate: 7½.

Artist: www.facebook.com/pigindustries

Label: www.metropolis-records.com / www.facebook.com/MetropolisRecords Read the news on ‘The Merciless Light’.

About PIG

PIG is the long-running industrial rock project of English musician Raymond Watts. Watts launched the project in the late 1980s after earlier work with KMFDM, Einstürzende Neubauten, Psychic TV, Foetus, Schaft, and Schwein.

The first PIG release was “A Poke in the Eye… with a Sharp Stick” in 1988. It was followed by “Praise the Lard” in 1991, “A Stroll in the Pork” in 1992, “The Swining” in 1993, “Sinsation” in 1995, “Wrecked” in 1996, and “Genuine American Monster” in 1999. After “Pigmartyr” in 2004, released under Watts’ name and later reissued as “Pigmata”, the project returned with “The Gospel” in 2016 and “Risen” in 2018.

Watts recorded “The Merciless Light” with longtime collaborators En Esch and Steve White, joined by Jim Davies (Pitchshifter, The Prodigy). The album followed “Candy” (2019) and “Pain Is God” (2020), and was released via Metropolis Records in 2022.

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

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In August The Below featuring Jesper Hanning launched “Knives and Heights” backed with “Grind Me Down” as a two-offer single in August of this year. Following the release of the double track single The Below now shares the Ann Wright and Bästa Kompisar nightmare vision video for the single flip side “Grind Me Down”.

The lyrics of the song describe how we live in a time where people often ‘find the truth’ in filter bubbles, where they lose all common sense. The conclusion is always identical: all others are misled fools who need ‘education’. The filter bubble grinds these people down while simultaneously winding them up. A dangerous combination.

Here’s the video.

And here’s the “Knives and Heights” video.

About The Below and Jesper Hanning

(Photo by LW) The Below is a solo project by Bo Magnusson, the sound engineer/bass player from the Swedish industrial experimentalists Dr. Evil & The Boys From Below (1985-1992). A band that had a strong local following thanks to their stage performances featuring pig’s skulls, hovering washing machines, a truck load of scrap metal etc.. After the band took an indefinite break in 1992 there were no plans to continue producing weird sounds. However, in 2015 things changed and a few saved objects and instruments were dusted off and slowly new noises were created under the moniker The Below. So far, The Below has released four singles: “Unarmed (An American Nightmare)”, “I’d Like to Punch Him In The Face”, “Change is Coming” and “No Place is Safe”.

Vocalist and composer Jesper Hanning (born in 1968), son of jazz musician Claes Hanning, grew up in the south of Sweden and has a storied history of many releases and bands. In 1986, at the age of eighteen, Hanning was approached by Bo Magnusson, musician, musical promoter at Stadt Hamburg and founder of the record label Accelerating Blue Fish (the Swedish label releasing S.P.O.C.K and Page among others during the eighties and early nineties). In 2021, 35 years after their first collaboration, Bosse Magnusson approached Hanning with a few songs. At the present Hanning is composing electronic music for the first time in 30 years.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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Out now is “Dicks Incorporated”, the new single from Featured, the alternative rock industrial project from Julian Beeston (Nitzer Ebb, Cubanate).

English born Julian Beeston is best known for his time in Nitzer Ebb (1989–1992) and Cubanate (1993-2016). He has spent time as a remixing engineer working on artists such as Bob Marley and Billy Idol and more recently has worked as a composer and producer, making music for TV commercials for companies such as Mitsubishi and Ford. Next to this he has also produced trailers for Universal, Miramax and 20th Century Fox.

“Dicks Incorporated” has Steve White (PIG, KMFDM) on guitar and Dean Garcia (Curve, SPC-ECO) on bass and features Chelsea Dawn on vocals.

Taken from the forthcoming album, “All Mouth and No Trousers” which has vocal appearances from Lucia Cifarelli (KMFDM), Rose Garcia (SPC-ECO) and Mari Kattman (Helix) amongst others, “Dicks Incorporated” is a tongue in cheek poke at modern society and has remixes by MESH, Marc Heal and Cyanotic.

Here’s the video for the single.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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Taken from the new PIG album “The Merciless Light” is the brand new video for the track “The Dark Room”. The video was directed by LA based Ibex and is available now.

Four further tasty teasers from the album can be consumed in the form of video snippets (see below), while album opener “No Yes More Less” has also been released as a single ahead of the album being released on 23rd September.

Here are some more snippets.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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(Photos by E Gabriel Edvy) Raymond Watts will return with “The Merciless Light”, the new album by PIG, on September 23rd. For the release Watts was joined by En Esch and Steve White, and also go extra help from ‘the new swine to the trough’ Jim Davies (Pitchshifter/The Prodigy).

Other musicians involved include Michelle Martinez, Mike Watts, Enrico Tomasso, Abbie Aisleen, Marc Heal, Jimmy Livingstone and Mona Mur.

The most recent full-length PIG studio album, “Pain Is God”, was released in 2020.

Three teasers from the album are available now in the form of video snippets, with a new single to follow in early September ahead of the album. Read the review of ‘The Merciless Light’.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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This Friday Swedish electro musician Bo Magnusson has a new single out under the moniker The Below. It’s a two track single featuring Jesper Hanning – the vocalist from Ausgang Verboten who also sang with the gothic/post punk band The Chainsaw Zombies – and will be released via released via Accelerating Blue Fish.

Here’s the video for “Knives and Heights”.

Bo explains the tracks: “The first track on the single “Knives and Heights” evolved from a driving rhythm created by noises from scrap metal, a plastic can, and other found objects. Thereafter layer upon layer of sounds was added to build up a dark and intense soundscape. The equally ominous, and uncanny video was directed, filmed, and edited by Jesper Hanning. Even though both tracks could be described as dark and experimental the addition of Jesper Hanning’s powerful voice has given them a more accessible flair, making them almost catchy.”

Hanning describes the lyrical themes as follows: “”Knives and Heights” is all about the intensity of fear and the traumas it can cause. The verses are just little snapshots of eerie things. The chorus was inspired by something actor Cary Grant’s grandmother once told a reporter about her grandson: “He was a nervous child with two primary fears: knives and heights”. Then we just added one more fear: fluorescent lights.”

The second track “Grind Me Down” uses the same set of tools but is instead a slow, grinding song based on a distorted bass line. Bo says: “”Grind Me Down” is a very straightforward text about how we live in a time where people tend to ‘find the truth’ in filter bubbles where they seem to lose all common sense. The conclusion is always the same: the rest of us are misled fools who need to ‘educate ourselves’. The filter bubble grinds these people down while simultaneously winding them up. A dangerous combination.”

“Knives and Heights b/w Grind Me Down” is the follow up to “No Place Is Safe (feat. Aaron Sutcliffe)” – an anti-war song, with stark criticism of Israeli politics, that was supported on social media in Palestine and by Pro-Palestinian organizations. The video for the track includes authentic images from a war-torn Palestine.

About The Below

The Below is a solo project by Bo Magnusson, the sound engineer/bass player from the infamous Swedish industrial experimentalists Dr. Evil & The Boys From Below (1985-1992). A band that had a strong local following thanks to their spectacular stage performances featuring pig’s skulls, hovering washing machines, a truck load of scrap metal etc. After the band took an indefinite break in 1992 there were no plans to continue producing weird sounds. However, in 2015 things changed and a few saved objects and instruments were dusted off and slowly new noises were created under the moniker The Below. So far, The Below has released four singles: “Unarmed (An American Nightmare)”, “I’d Like to Punch Him In The Face”, “Change is Coming” and “No Place is Safe”.

Bo discusses his musical inspirations: “I have always listened to lots of different music, but if I must pick one band that has been influential it has to be Sprung aus den Wolken. They were a huge inspiration for me to start playing in a band. Not only for their music but also for their attitude. They didn’t follow any established musical rules and proved that you could create innovative music without being a virtuoso. There are of course numerous other bands and artists in several different genres that I love and respect. Far too many to mention, but here’s a few that feel relevant: Test Dept, Algiers, This Heat, Tanya Tagaq, The Pop Group and Anna Von Hausswolff. The common denominator of these bands/artists are their forward-looking, intense and critical voices combined to create socially relevant and exciting music.”

Vocalist and composer Jesper Hanning (born in 1968) is the son of jazz musician Claes Hanning and grew up in the south of Sweden. As a teenager Hanning was drawn to electronic music and the live scene in the city of Malmö. At Stadt, Hamburg Hanning found musical peers and in 1984 Ausgang Verboten (a.k.a. Random Toxy), a Kraftwerk influenced band, was formed. The group only recorded a few songs and released a demo in 1985 (later re-released as the vinyl LP “Entertainment” by German label Genetic Music) and contributed with a few tracks to a compilation of electronic music in 1988 (Synthetic Sounds from Accelerating Blue Fish).

In 1986, at the age of eighteen, Hanning was approached by Bo Magnusson, musician, musical promoter at Stadt Hamburg and founder of the record label Accelerating Blue Fish. Magnusson had taken an interest in the intense young vocalist and introduced Hanning to Eddie Wingeståhl, Mikael Forth and Charlotte Rönnström. Soon The Chainsaw Zombies, a slow-motion-psychedelia band, was formed. The group released two albums and an EP between 1987 and 1990.

Hanning played in several bands In the early 90´s: Dave the Butcher with Håkan Lidbo, Tabla Motors with Martin Axén (The Ark) and Sgt Pepsy’s Divine Quartet with Joakim Täck (producer/musician Funhouse/The Saints) and Christer Hermodsson (Biomekkanik/S.P.O.C.K). In the mid 90’s Hanning’s musical focus shifted from the dark and gritty to a sound echoing the 70’s; 10cc, Electric Light Orchestra and Sparks. Together with Eddie Wingeståhl, guitarist from The Chainsaw Zombies, Hanning formed Bradbury, a predominant live act playing music festivals like Hultsfred, Emmaboda, Arvika and Kalas.

Hanning basically retired from the musical scene around 2010. In 2014, Hanning’s wife Yessica passed away at the age of 44, and his sole priority was raising his daughter, only making a few performances in the years to come (e.g. annual concerts with the music from “Nightmare Before Christmas” or performing klezmer-versions of Joy Division/New Order songs). In 2020 Hanning and former Ausgang Verboten comrade Jörgen Abrahamsson started cooperating in Pursued by Furies and released the song “Daedalus Maze”. More songs will follow.

In 2021, 35 years after their first collaboration, Bosse Magnusson approached Hanning with a few songs. At the present Hanning is composing electronic music for the first time in 30 years. It sounds nothing like Kraftwerk.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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(Photos by E .Gabriel Edvy) Raymond Watts aka PIG has released an all new video for the track “Speak Of Sin”. “Speak Of Sin” is taken from the new EP “Baptise Bless & Bleed” which will be out on 12 inch and as download on May 27th via Armalyte Industries.

Accompanying the 4 new songs “Baptise Bless & Bleed”, “Speak Of Sin”, “Tarantula” and “Shooting Up Mercy” are also three bonus extended versions which are added to the digital release. The EP features also the input from regular PIG collaborators Steve White, En Esch and Michelle Martinez.

You can pre-order the download and 12 inch vinyl right here on Bandcamp. For the fans, a BBB tarot cards set is also offered. limited to just 45 sets, the cards include a digital download of the EP (redeemable via download code).

Here’s the video for “Speak Of Sin”.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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After 29 years in existence as a band, the UK act Inertia are back with a brand new single, released on their very own label, Cryonica Music: “Scowl”. “Scowl” features bandleader, Reza Udhin with members Ollie Cater (Guitars), Andrew Lowlife (Keyboards) and Circus performer Blue Jigsaw on drums. And, good news, coming back to the Inertia fold after 7 years is co-leadsinger and ex drummer, Alexys B, lending her vocals to the track.

And that’s not all, we also hear 3 more guitarists: Steve White (KMFDM and PIG), Tim Stephens (ex-Inertia, ex-EMF, Mojiles) and Nick Bayford from Alexys B’s own Rockabilly band Lady Luck Lexy & the Riverside Boys.

Next to the title track we also get 2 remixes by CyberIndustries and Modulate. Out today, you can check the lyric video below, and get the 3-track single right here on Bandcamp.

Welcome back guys!

About Inertia

Inertia was formed in 1992 Reza Udhin and was signed to Germany’s Celtic Circle Productions in 1994 through which the debut MCD “Infiltrator” was released in June 1995. This CD was actually a re-recording of the band’s first demo tape. The band returned to the studio in February 1996 to start work on the “Programmed to respond” album and the “Mind-Energy” MCD. The album and MCD were released respectively in February 1997 and December 1996. By then 1996 Alexys B had joined Inertia on electronic drums.

1997 Mark Barrett leaves Inertia., Ed Luxmoore joins Inertia on Synths.

February 1999, the band released the remix album “Demagnetized / Remagnetized” which featured remixes by artists such as Das Ich, Spahn Ranch and Julian Beeston (Nitzer Ebb). The same year a brand new album, “Negative Prime”, was released in May 1999 on Nightbreed Recordings. A year later the remix CD “Positive Angel” was released on Inertia’s own label Cryonica Music.

November 2001, the new single “No Defect” is launched while the band complete their brand new album “Advanced Revelation” due for release in February 2002. In 2004, the album “Black Ice Impact” hits the streets followed in December 2005 by a best of Double CD “Decade of Machines – 1994-2004”. This DCD is released by Cryonica Music in Europe and Cleopatra Records in the USA.

May 2007, a brand new self titled album “Inertia” is released on Cryonica Music. The album features several guest musicians, including Kneill Brown (Killing Joke), Client E / Emily Strange (Client) and Phill Good (Libitina/Pinion). Inertia also recruit a new member, Bob Malkowski as guitarist. 2 years later the remix album “Interpret”, with remixes from Youth (Producer/Killing Joke), Die Krupps and Armageddon Dildos featured, is released by the Japanese label Deathwatch Asia. In the meantime Reza Udhin becomes the keyboard player for the legendary band Killing Joke.

2010, Inertia emerge with a new line up with Kneill X on Guitar (ex Killing Joke, Killer B Movie) and Andrew Lowlife on Synths (Swarf). In early 2010, they release the covers album “Kloned”, it is followed by the single “Repeat & Follow” later that year. November of the same year sees the new album “Deworlded” being released. At at the end of the year they collaborate with UK band Mechanical Cabaret to release a cover version of the classic John Leyton/Joe Meek track “Johnny, Remember Me”.

2012 Inertia signs with Metropolis Records. A new single “Alive” is released in October, followed by a brand new album “Universal Blood” in November 2012. 2 more albums follow on Metropolis, “Existential” (2015) and “Dream Machine” (2017), plus a string of singles, the last one being “Only Law” in 2017.

4 years later the band returns with the single “Inertia” featuring Sieben on Cryonica Music, and now the new single “Scowl”.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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Front Line Assembly’s Bill Leeb and Rhys Fulber have just announced “Deviator”, the first new Noise Unit record in over 15 years. The duo will release the new album on Toronto-based Artoffact Records on double vinyl, CD digipak, and digital formats.

The new album features exclusive artwork by Dave McKean (see below), and one of the announced tracks is a collaboration with KMFDM / PIG vocalist Raymond Watts. The first single to drop from the record is “Body Aktiv”.

About Noise Unit

Noise Unit was founded by Bill Leeb of Front Line Assembly as a side project. The project has seen several changes in line-up, with Bill Leeb being the only permanent member.

Noise Unit’s first album, “Grinding into Emptiness”, for instance arose from the collaboration between Leeb and Marc Verhaeghen of Belgian industrial band Klinik. It was released in 1989 through Wax Trax! and Antler-Subway. The 1990 album “Response Frequency” included Rhys Fulber. While Verhaeghen left Noise Unit for several years, Fulber remained with the band for the next three releases. Verhaeghen resumed his collaboration with Noise Unit for the 1996 album “Drill”, which also featured members of German industrial band Haujobb.

After an eight-year hiatus, Leeb teamed with former Front Line Assembly member Chris Peterson in 2004 to release “Voyeur” in 2005. Jason Filipchuk and Michael Balch also contributed to the album.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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Genre/Influences: Industrial, Electro-Rock.

Format: Digital, CD.

Background/Info: British born Raymond Watts is what you can call a phenomenon. He collaborated with famous artists and was of course one of the KMFDM core members. Active since the 80s Watts is back on track with a new work of his sonic brainchild Pig! The new opus features fourteen cuts.

Content: Raymond Watts is doing what he has always done; achieving a diversified piece of modern Industrial music, which others will call Electro-Rock. The songs sound as the perfect osmosis between empowering guitar playing and heavy electronics. Some songs have been achieved with epic arrangements, but I also noticed some funky parts and an empowering, pretty Rammstein-driven song. Watts is singing with a natural charisma now adding some rage and later on emotion. The female backing vocals inject a sensual touch on top of the deeper male growls. The KMFDM fans will notice a cover version (but is it really a cover as Watts was a founding member of the band) of “Kickin Ass”.

+ + + : Globally speaking I should dare to say this new opus is a typical Pig album. It still sounds a bit KMFDM-like –which is rather understandable, but in the end it simply sounds like Pig! A merciless compromise between furious guitar play empowering the choruses and heavy electronic treatments. Songs like “Rock N Roll Refugee” and “Seed Of Evil” both are great exposures of this work, but I also have to mention the furious-like “Hell To Pay In The USA”. The Rammstein fans will be pleased by the “Evil Edit” of “Sex And Death”. A last attention grabber I want to mention is “Mobocracy – Militant Mix”.

– – – : I know some Pig albums with more potential hits, but globally speaking this album is a fully accomplished piece of music.

Conclusion: Pig remains a band with a naughty- and very personal sound; play it loud!

Best songs: “Seed Of Evil”, “Rock N Roll Refugee”, “Hell To Pay In The USA – (Piss & Vinegar Mix”, “Mobocracy – Militant Mix”.

Rate: (7½).

Artist: https://pigindustries.com / www.facebook.com/pigindustries

Label: www.metropolis-records.com / www.facebook.com/MetropolisRecords

About PIG

PIG is the long-running industrial rock project of English musician Raymond Watts. Watts launched the project in the late 1980s after earlier work with KMFDM, Einstürzende Neubauten, Psychic TV, Foetus, Schaft and Schwein.

The first PIG release was “A Poke in the Eye… with a Sharp Stick” in 1988. It was followed by “Praise the Lard” in 1991, “A Stroll in the Pork” in 1992, “The Swining” in 1993, “Sinsation” in 1995, “Wrecked” in 1996, and “Genuine American Monster” in 1999. After “Pigmartyr” in 2004, the project returned with “The Gospel” in 2016, “Risen” in 2018 and “Candy” in 2019.

“Pain Is God” followed in 2020 on Metropolis Records, a fourteen-track album released across digital and CD formats.

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

www.side-line.com

(Photo by Candice Ghai) Out via Cleopatra Records is the newest single by Black Needle Noise featuring legendary producer John Fryer and Anjela Piccard. With “She Talks To Angels” the duo pay tribute to the Black Crowes with their own unique twist and stylistic trademark.

“Always been a big fan of the Black Crowes and it always feels good to pay homage to bands you like. We wanted to give it a totally different and cinematic feel to the song in our version. Anjela’s vocals are very heartfelt in her interpretation and delivery of the lyrics and being inspired by the cities of New Orleans and LA, the City of Angels,” says John Fryer.

Anjela Piccard from her side says: “There are moments in this life that are both catastrophic and quite triumphant. The intention in recording this song is one of reflection and understanding. At some point, we all can find ourselves in total relation to the lyrics and the instrumental flow of the track. As for myself, the New Orleans / Los Ánjeles connection remains an anchor of the heart, as both cities represent a long-standing spiritual melange – unparalleled in beauty and gracious acceptance of its people.”

“She Talks To Angels” Is available below to check out. “She Talks To Angels” is the first taste of the forthcoming album “These Mortal Covers”, which will be released later this year. Black Needle Noise’s “Before The Tears Came” LP can still be ordered from the band itself.

The new single comes on the trail of the new video for “Seed of Evil” with PIG which you can check out below.

For more on John Fryer, see Legendary producer John Fryer returns with new single from his… on Side-Line.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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Joining PIG on a UK tour in early February is the American industrial metal act 3Teeth.

PIG, helmed by Raymond Watts, brings Watts back together with En Esch (KMFDM) and Steve White. The trio is completed with drummer Jan-Vincent Velazco (Ghost).

The full list of dates is as follows :

• 01.02.20 Nottingham Rescue Rooms
• 02.02.20 Glasgow Hothouse
• 03.02.20 Manchester Rebellion
• 04.02.20 Leeds The Key Club
• 05.02.20 Bristol Thekla
• 06.20.20 London Heaven

Raymond Watts was an early member and periodic collaborator of KMFDM, and has been a visible part of the industrial music scene since the early 1980s. He has toured with KMFDM, Nine Inch Nails, Schaft, Schwein, and Einstürzende Neubauten. PIG tends to sound more orchestral than KMFDM, with darker, more complex, more ambient beats.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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With 2019 marking 35 years of conceptual continuity, KMFDM are to release the band’s 21st album, “Paradise”. KMFDM was this time joined by Black Sugar Transmission’s Andee Blacksugar lending his guitars along with guest performances that include bassist Doug Wimbish (Tackhead, Living Colour), longtime vocalist Cheryl Wilson and rapper Andrew Ocelot Lindsley.

Fans will undoubtedly be overjoyed to hear Raymond PIG Watts returning to the KMFDM fold for the first time in 16 years.

KMFDM (originally Kein Mehrheit Für Die Mitleid and not Kill Mother Fucking Depeche Mode) is a German industrial band from Hamburg led by multi-instrumentalist Sascha Konietzko, who founded the group in 1984 as a performance art project. Read the review of ‘Paradise’.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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Black Needle Noise, featuring legendary producer John Fryer (Cocteau Twins, Depeche Mode, This Mortal Coil), has teamed up with PIG for the download track “Seed Of Evil”. “Seed of Evil” features PIG vocalist Raymond Watts.

Watts explains how the collaboration started: “When John Fryer called, it was like cream was fed to my poison crop. I was thrilled to lend Satan’s little helping hand to Black Needle Noise,” says Watts of the devilish collaboration. “The result from this marriage made in hell was appropriately called ‘Seed of Evil’ … it pours out of me into the night, where the devil ties it nice and tight.”

Fryer meanwhile states: “After many a moon passing we finally get to work together again. I had to find the right song for Raymond but I think we have a great noise-pop hit on our hands. It’s been a real pleasure working with Raymond on this and I can’t wait to hear it in the clubs.”

Black Needle Noise has previously released music featururing a diverse who’s who of alternative vocalists such as Mimi Page (Delirium), Jennie Vee (bassist, Hole), Ana Breton (Dead Leaf Echo), Omniflux (Puscifer), Kendra Frost (Kite Base), Andrea Kerr (Colt), Sivert Hoyem, Antic Clay, and ZiaLand, among others.

“Seed Of Evil” is now available on Bandcamp, and you can check it out below.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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The Toronto-based A Primitive Evolution will be supporting PIG on the upcoming tour of North America. A Primitive Evolution released their Metropolis Records debut entitled “Becoming” in late 2018. The PIG Tour kicks off in Toronto on September 19th and also features Cyanotic.

The tourdates

• 9/19 Toronto, CAN – Hard Luck Bar
• 9/20 Buffalo, NY – Mohawk Place
• 9/21 Canton, OH – The Auricle
• 9/23 Detroit, MI – Small’s
• 9/24 Pittsburgh, PA – Cattivo
• 9/25 Baltimore, MD – Metro Gallery
• 9/26 Wilmington, DE – Bar XIII
• 9/27 Brooklyn, NY – St Vitus
• 9/28 Harrisburg, PA – HMAC
• 9/29 Richmond VA – Fallout
• 9/30 Atlanta, GA – Drunken Unicorn
• 10/01 Orlando, FL – Soundbar
• 10/02 Ybor City, FL – Crowbar
• 10/03 New Orleans, LA – The Goat
• 10/04 St Louis, MO – The Crackfox
• 10/05 Kansas City, MO – Riot Room
• 10/06 Minneapolis, MN – Mortimers

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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To celebrate the return of Cubanate, the band’s label has dropped a rather spectacular promo video for the EP’s title track today. It’s directed by E Gabriel Edvy of Blackswitch Labs, and stars alt. model Leah Debrincat.

Here’s the video!

The new EP (available here on MCD) contains five new songs plus remixes of the title track by Rhys Fulber (Front Line Assembly, Delerium, Conjure One) and DROWND. Out on 7th June, it will be previewed at a co-headlining London date with PIG on 1st, plus an appearance at the Wave Gotik Treffen festival in Leipzig, Germany. Orders are available here, but be fast!

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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Raymond Watts returns with a brand new PIG album: “Candy”. The album is actually a cover album on which PIG pays tribute to the songs that have made a lasting impression. From Elvis Presley to Frankie Goes To Hollywood, The Spice Girls to Prince, each time putting a twisted spin on some much-loved classics.

Following their collaboration on last years “That’s the Way (I like it)” single (also featured on this album), Sasha Grey returns to contribute vocals to “You’ve lost that loving Feeling”.

14 tracks in total and available here on digiCD on Bandcamp!

The tracklist:

1. Hopelessly devoted to You
2. One Day I’ll fly away
3. You’ve lost that loving Feeling (feat. Sasha Grey)
4. The Blower’s Daughter
5. Kiss
6. Love is in the Air
7. That’s the Way (I like It) (feat. Sasha Grey)
8. If you go away
9. Help Me make it through the Night
10. I can’t go for that
11. The Power of Love
12. If he swing by the String
13. Wand’rin’ Star
14. If I can dream

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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The industrial techno-rock duo Cubanate have announced the release of their first new music in over two decades in the form of an EP entitled “Kolossus”. It follows their “Brutalism” retrospective collection in 2017 and a brief return to live action for the first time since the late 1990’s to promote it.

The new EP (available here on MCD) contains five new songs plus remixes of the title track by Rhys Fulber (Front Line Assembly, Delerium, Conjure One) and DROWND. Out on 7th June, it will be previewed at a co-headlining London date with PIG on 1st, plus an appearance at the Wave Gotik Treffen festival in Leipzig, Germany. Orders are available here, but be fast!

Working with an ocean inbetween

Marc Heal and guitarist Phil Barry had started thinking about writing new material after the positive reaction to their initial comeback shows, but as they live on separate continents these days (Heal is currently based in San Francisco while Barry is in Cambridgeshire) it wasn’t all that easy.

Marc Heal: “I set up a vocal booth in Palo Alto and sketched out the ideas. Phil took them forwards in Cambridge and added guitar. Once I heard that I added some more vocals and tweaked the structure before he then finished the mixes. We’re pleased with the results but I feel we will get stronger now we’ve done these five tracks. It’s a psychological barrier. The EP still sounds like us but inevitably we’re older and hopefully wiser. The wisdom thing is tricky, because a lot of early Cubanate was about relishing a ride towards self-destruction. It’s still like that, but smarter. These days we’re more confident that we can do whatever we want, both musically and lyrically. So long as it keeps being fun and we think we can keep being nasty, we’ll keep doing it.”

Here’s the track “Missing Persons” which is featured on the EP.

The early beginning, the split and resurrection

Formed in the summer of 1992 as a four piece centred around Marc Heal (vocals) and Phil Barry (guitar), their early sound fused the rhythms of the then nascent techno scene with the lo-fi grunge rock sound emanating from the US. Although the band later became adopted by Goth audiences, early Cubanate was more influenced by Joey Beltram, Baby Ford and Nirvana.

Following a UK tour with electronic duo Sheep on Drugs, they signed to the Berlin based Dynamica label and released their debut album, “Antimatter” (1993), which included the single “Body Burn”. The second Cubanate album, “Cyberia” (1995), featured the single “Oxyacetylene”. The band’s third album, “Barbarossa” (1996) contained the single “Joy” and was promoted with live dates supporting Gary Numan, Rammstein, The Sisters of Mercy and Front 242. Heal struck up a friendship at this time with Jean-Luc De Meyer of Front 242 and the pair subsequently released two albums as C-Tec.

In 1997, seeking a change of label and direction, Cubanate signed to Wax Trax! for what was to be their final album to date, “Interference” (1998). Splitting in 2000 but reforming in September 2016 for a set at the Cold Waves Festival in Chicago, they subsequently played several UK and North American dates in 2017 to promote a retrospective compilation entitled “Brutalism”. Read the review of ‘Kolossus’.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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Peter Turns Pirate (aka Neal Reed from Grendel) has released a brand new music video: “Jaw Drop”. It’s the 3rd music video for the project from Toronto (Canada) and the track itself is taken from his latest EP “View as strange”.

This video focuses entirely on the hard-hitiing drums of the track and features some of the electro scene’s most respected drummers: Galen Waling (Lords of acid, Julien K, PIG), Cristian Carver (Bella Morte, Panic Lift, Man1k1n) and Ben Tourkantonis (Grendel, Panic Lift).

You can watch the video right here.

Peter Turns Pirate was formed in 2004. In 2015 the project opened The AfterMath Festival in Toronto, and in 2016 Peter Turns Pirate supported PIG and En Esch on their 5 week North American Tour.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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