(Photo by RA Desilets) US dark electronic artist Slighter, who we have reviewed several times on Side-Line, presents an all new single “Have No Fear”, which is out now via Confusion Inc.. This is the first taste of his full-length album “This Futile Engine”, due out on July 21 via Brutal Resonance Records.

The single comes backed by the B-side ‘Dark Rave Mix’ of the title track. The accompanying video which you can view below was created by Psyklon Industries.

Colin C., the main force behind this project, explains the track as follows: “‘Have No Fear’ is a song that took a while to come together, but it was actually one of the first ideas I had for the new Slighter album. Coming off of my last album ‘V O I D’ (released in 2021), I wanted to break away from that creative vein I was tapping then, but still have some catharsis in the songwriting.” And he adds: “The ‘Have No Fear’ recording sessions were all hardware synth jams, very organic moments that shaped my direction for the whole new record. But it took awhile to find the voice for it, the lyrics are intentionally personal but there’s some universality to reminding oneself that fear is a choice to make.”

Slighter is the solo moniker of Colin C. (Colin Cameron Allrich) who was previously involved in collaborations for various Metropolis Records releases and Cleopatra Records compilations, in addition to Slighter releases via his own Confusion Inc. imprint.

The full-length album “This Futile Engine” was mixed and mastered at The Cell Studio and features 13 tracks and holds collaborations with Steven Seibold of Hate Dept, Yvette Winkler of Vaselyne, Craig Joseph Huxtable of Landscape Body Machine, Morgue VVitch, Deep Dark Water and more.

“This Futile Engine” will be released, both as a deluxe edition CD and digitally, on July 21.

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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Cleveland based alternative electronic duo She 1 · Him 2 have released their second single of 2022, “Stuck Inside”. The video for the track features graphics by Steven Archer of Stoneburner and Ego Likeness.

The band explains the song: “The theme of the track involves getting stuck in thought patterns of negativity which drag us down and become habits. Then we need to figure out how to let go and break free.”

The band features darkwave rocker and former Lestat frontman Evan Nave and Cassie Bishop of Shy Moon. The duo has once again teamed up with producer Michael Seifert (Tori Amos, Paul Simon and many other Grammy award winners) for the project. “Stuck Inside” can be found at all electronic merchants and streaming services, and the video can be seen below.

The band is releasing tracks over time to fill out their first full EP and all music and videos have been filmed without either of them seeing each other in person. Over the past few years, they have released “Split the Line”, “Spoken Words to Light” and earlier this year they released a cover of David Bowie’s “Fame” featuring Steven Seibold (Hate Dept./Pigface). They are currently working on a full 4 song EP slated for 2023.

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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We got a few questions regarding this, so yes, the Chicago-based industrial band, Project .44, have unleashed their first album in sixteen years, “(The Storm Before) Reform”. It’s the band’s first full album output although there has been a sporadic single, some compilation contributions, and an EP and lead-man Chri5 Harri5 has been busy for a few years with Sean Payne (Cyanotic) on the Glitch Mode Recordings offshoot CONFORMCO.

Harri5 explains the 16 years of album silence: “Well after we released our debut, ‘The System Doesn’t Work’ on Invisible Records, we put out a follow up remix CD in ‘07 and then still had five years left on our deal. We were in limbo. Recording had started and demos have lived, some, up to ten years. After we were free we got the braintrust together, Louis Svitek, Charles Levi, MTL, and long time producing friends The Thump and Seibold and went full bore into finishing the jams.”

After seven more years, two reissued releases from the Give/Take label, appearances at SxSW, Mechanismus Fesival and Sanctuary Festival, Project .44 was able to take the final sprint and complete work on their new album.

You get 11 tracks of brutal Chicago industrial with Chri5 Harri5 and fellow industrialists Louis Svitek (Ministry/ReVco), Charles Levi (Thrill Kill Kult/Pigface), Seibold (Hate Dept.) and guest appearances from En Esch (KMFDM/Pigface) and Lady E (Slick Idiot).

The CD features 3 bonus tracks with remixes from Jim Marcus (Die Warzau), Phildo Owen (Skatenigs) and Sean Payne (Cyanotic) The cassette and vinyl features 2 bonus tracks with remixes from Walter Flakus (Stabbing Westward) & Mark Trueman (Choke Chain).

Check out the video for “Murder Weapon” featuring En Esch.

And here is the full release.

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: Electro-wave.

Background/Info: Standalone is brand-new solo-project driven by American musician Steven Seibold. You maybe know him from his involvement with hate Dept.

Content: This self-titled debut album features 10 electronic songs with some retro-feeling. There’s something 80s running through the songs, which even makes me think to a rough electro-pop version of The Cure. The song structures are rather simple while the songs are pretty short. The main characteristic of the sound is the rough and unpolished production.

+ + + : The main strength of Standalone is the simplicity of the writing mixed with some rough sound production. The debut song “Destroy Yourself” is a terrific exposure of the artist’s approach. I also like the synth lines running through the song, which often have something vintage-minded. I here want to tip “Ready To Kill”.

– – – : Standalone avoids complexity and that’s a rather positive point, but I however sometimes miss a little bit more elaboration. The sequences became a bit too repetitive after a while.  

Conclusion: Standalone brings a refreshing electro/wave-pop format revealing a few cool cuts, but I’m sure this artist can do better.

Best songs: “Destroy Yourself”, “Take Over”, “Short Forever”, “Ready To Kill”.

Rate: (7).

Artist: www.facebook.com/standalonesounds

Label: www.negativegain.com / www.facebook.com/pages/Negative–Gain/212061438836984 Read the news on ‘Standalone’.

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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(Photo credit Radiant Inc) Curse Mackey (Evil Mothers, Pigface, My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult), along with Rona Rougeheart of SINE, at the request of David J filled in for Peter Murphy who was unable to perform due to illness. A statement from Peter Murphy was issued on his website. Mackey was in attendance initially to appear as a guest vocalist for SINE when he was approached by David J side stage during the SINE set.

Rougeheart (who as SINE was the sole opener for Peter Murphy’s rescheduled, final date of a monumental 5-month, ninety-four date world tour) and Mackey joined David J along with Peter Murphy guitarist Mark Thwaite and drummer Marc Slutsky in what David J described to a near capacity audience as an “Improvised, mash-up, deconstructed Bauhaus in dub” set.

A video of Mackey singing the Bauhaus hit song “In The Flat Field” with the ensemble can be seen below.

Mackey will be releasing his debut solo album “Instant Exorcism” May 10th on Negative Gain. On “Instant Exorcism” Mackey fuses post-punk atmospherics with dark electronics and industrial dance beats.

Mackey: “This record for me is like a personal exorcism. The songs had to get out of my system. Working from a solo project perspective presented an opportunity for me to write with a clean slate, to broaden the brush strokes and create something that represents where I am at today. Influenced by the past and all the experiences of my life to this point but not constrained or obligated to it.”

Instant Exorcism was produced by Curse Mackey and Chase Dobson (Tycho, Black Tape for a Blue Girl) with additional recording sessions with Charles Godfrey who engineered the last two Yeah Yeah Yeahs records and has worked with …Trail of Dead and Explosions in the Sky. The album was mastered by Stephen Seibold who has worked extensively with Mackey as members of Pigface.

Check out the first 2 singles 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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