As we’ve said before, nothing warms our cold, dark hearts like giving away free stuff.  This time we’ve got a box of swag from the movie Splice from the good folks at Allied Marketing and as always, we do the give-away on Twitter, just because we’re lazy and it makes it easy to do.

What does this mean to you?  It means get your fanny over to twitter and tweet @darktwincities for your free t-shirt or tank top and maybe we’ll throw in a poster or two.

FREE STUFF!  Get all the gory details (ok, there are like two details) here.

Last summer I reviewed David Thrussel’s latest Black Lung album. I really didn’t think much of it. To be honest, I’m not a fan of his Snog project and can take or leave most of the Black Lung material but with both acts I would have to say the earlier output is far superior to anything he’s put out in recent years.

It’s the marketing campaign behind Full Spectrum Dominance, out on Tympanik Audio, that both irritates and appeals to me. I mean, it’s clever and well played even though it’s totally ludicrous. And now Thrussel’s even managed to get Side-Line in on the whole thing.

Some background (in case you skipped the review): in essence, DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), a shadowy government organization, commissioned Thrussell to “produce a recording that reflects the ideals and reality of Vision 2020, a futuristic military strategy program.” DARPA granted him a sizable budget and gave him access to defense installations and personnel the world over in an effort to utilize field recordings and the sounds of sensitive hardware and technology in an effort to weave together a soundtrack reflecting the aims of an undercover Skynet-like organization.

Y’know, puuure bullshit.

DARPA itself is not bullshit. It’s actually a pretty frightening organization. But the rest of it? C’mon. I’ll give Thrussell points for coming up with such a grand sounding scheme. Unfortunately the music is terrible.

Side-Line did an interview with Thrussell that was apparently “censored” by US military authorities. And Side-Line bought into it. So the guy scores some points with me for sticking with this whole thing so diligently and coming across as convincing, to some.

Now if he could only make music as cool as his cover stories.

I can’t really say the UK act Somatic Responses is one of my favorite acts and yet I’m endlessly intrigued by their material. Y’know how you have those CDs in your collection that you always pass over when you’re looking for something that fits the mood you’re in yet it seems like every time you do put that particular CD in it more than adequately touches you regardless of your current state of mind? Yeah. That’s what Somatic Responses is like for me. And I can’t quite put my finger on just why I don’t listen to them (or write about them) more often. Their music is a brilliant mixture of styles, none of which are particular accessible to the more mainstream tastes. Ambient, Breakcore, Noise, Electro and even Dubstep are woven together in an intriguing collage. And the emphasis on Ambient is especially helpful in binding all these styles together.

Their last release, 2009′s Mercury was offered as a free download (which is still accessible here) and they’ve been putting out material for about a decade and a half now so it’s impossible for me to break their output down for you (although Discogs did manage a pretty comprehensive list of their output). On the 22nd of this month Hymen Records is releasing their latest work, Neon, and it’s something those of you with more adventurous tastes should pick up. The press release mentions that its “pulsating sub-bass and acherontic (where did that word come from?!) synth lines induce a multitude of moods (including) aggression, disarray and melancholy.” Yep, sounds like Somatic Responses. This is one to which I’m looking forward. You should be as well, particularly if you were ever a fan of Aphex Twin and Autechre. Early on the act’s material could be pretty spotty but as of late they really seem to have hit their stride and evolved into a consistently satisfying outfit with which you should be familiarizing yourself if you haven’t already.

The growing popularity of Austrian act Mind.In.A.Box has been one of the greatest success stories in electronic music over the past few years and for good reason. Longtime collaborators Stefan Poiss and Markus Hadwiger parlayed a career in programming video games into a musical juggernaut that is both unique and intimately familiar, combining fantastical noir fiction into highly conceptualized albums featuring an inspiring technopop sound. Hopefully you didn’t miss our review of their last album, 2007′s Crossroads

MIAB’s latest effort is due out at the end of February (early March in the States) and it offers something a little different. Sampling the chip music of old C64 video games and throwing in a few covers such as Last Ninja 3 and Giana Sisters that geeks the world over will no doubt relish, R.E.T.R.O. promises to match kitsch with a hefty portion of cleverness. It eschews the dark and alluring feel of their first three albums for something more playful and fun. But don’t let that turn you away as it still has that Mind.In.A.Box atmosphere that we’ve come to enjoy over the past eight years. Just check out the samples they’ve posted on their website.

Even if you decide to pass on this latest project the act are planning on putting out a proper album later this year that will mark a return to the continuing storyline of the first three releases. MIAB are on the freshly resurrected Dependent Records in Europe and Metropolis Records in the US.

So here’s something that is pretty cool, and I say that knowing full well that only myself and a few random musicians reading this will concur. But the reader responses to our interviews often consist of thanks for asking the artists about how they go about writing songs and what sorts of equipment/software they use.

Netherlands-based act Tapage, one of the more prolific artists on the Tympanik Audio label, recently uploaded a YouTube video which shows you how he goes about putting together a loop. It’s eight and a half minutes long. There are no explosions or car chases but it’s interesting nonetheless.

Be sure to check out our review of the latest Tapage release, Fallen Clouds.

According to his review, Jacob seemed to generally like The Art Of Breaking Apart. I listened to it a couple times and threw it up on the shelf. I don’t foresee listening to it much more. It ain’t horrible but it also isn’t anything that compels me to come back for more the way Bryan Erickson’s early work did. But, as luck would have it, I’m faced with writing something up for the new single from that album, “Caustic Disco.”

The most irritating thing about the track is that the chord progression during the chorus sounds almost exactly like Dead Or Alive’s “You Spin Me Round (Like A Record).” This could be deliberate, but I doubt it. The lyrics have something to do with making Electro music for the underground and seem to be rifled off in a mocking tone. This would make sense as Erickson has relayed some disdain for the club circuit in the past. Yet the song itself is a clubby track. I suppose that’s supposed to be “ironic” or something. It might be considered as such if it was a significantly more worthwhile piece.

What makes this single worth it are not the four largely uninteresting remixes of “Caustic,” nor the reworking of “Killed In Space.” The last two tracks are from the Toxic Coma days, an early Erickson project apart from VAC. “Mental Itch” and “Zombie Sex” actually sound more lively and vital than anything on The Art Of Breaking Apart. Now that is ironic. “Itch” could actually be used by modern DJs as it straddles a line between classic sounding material and a contemporary production feel but “Sex” has a rather bright sound with a lot of silliness throughout and it actually grows quite irritating after a couple minutes.

The Caustic Disco single is available digitally from Metropolis Records.

So Alfa Matrix would like you to know that Dutch act Schwarzblut have a new album coming out called Das Mausoleum. Now, my German is a little rusty but I believe that translates to English as “The Mausoleum.” I could be mistaken, I don’t know.

The band blends romantic, melancholic Weimar poetry with danceable dark electronic music. Basically it sounds like Harsh EBM with occasional fits of angelic female vocals. But they have a “new angle” in that the lyrics are based on classic poetry verses. I mean, that makes it fresh and new, right?

You decide.

This San Fransisco band aren’t just channeling the best elements of The Cure’s sound, they’re also mining the introspective depths of 90′s Shoegaze with swirling guitar and fuzzbox melodies. At times singer Kevin Tecon sounds more like Robert Smith than Robert Smith does and the act even contributed a version of “The Upstairs Room” on the Perfect As Cats Cure tribute album. While music fans who have been around for at least a few decades might scoff at this and call it a retread they would be missing the point. Veil Veil Vanish‘s version of Post Punk adds a lot more to the mix, making it sound contemporary and fresh even as it grants a solid nod to the classic music that inspired it.

They’ve got a new full length album coming out at the end of February on Metropolis called Change In The Neon Light which will serve as a proper debut in spite of the self-released ’07 EP Into a New Mausoleum. To warm up potential new fans and whet the appetites of established admirers they have presented a new five track single for “Anthem Of A Doomed Youth” which contains that song and another album selection along with three remixes.

Named after a book which compiled poetry from those who served in the first World War, the title track rings with bittersweet guitar and crunchy bass while its companion piece, “Modern Lust,” shimmers with synth and propulsive percussion which serve as the backdrop for an overly familiar sounding chorus.

The three remixes of “Anthem” run the gamut from the bouncy and ebullient “Cheap Speed Remix” to the dramatically slowed down and phasered echo of “No Wave In Hell Remix” to the intriguingly restructured “Gomorrah Remix.” None of the three are particularly memorable and probably won’t serve to make the band much of a presence in the club circuit.

While I could count myself among the crowd that thought at first this was just another pointless retread I have to admit that the more I listen to Veil Veil Vanish the more I like and appreciate what they’re doing. They’re definitely a band to watch and it would seem their wildly growing popularity will make it that much easier to do.

Out next Tuesday via Radio-Active-Music is a five song EP from DC Industrial act XuberX. It represents the dawning of a new era for the band after the departure of vocalist Liebchen, whose voice can be heard on a couple tracks here.

“Something I Choose To Ignore” has rapid beats and raw, Punk guitar providing a platform for Zomboy’s impassioned roar. There’s an awkward fade-out at the end that lends an unfinished feel to the song but it does serve as a quick two and a half minute burst of energy to get things going. A little production assistance from The Dark Clan’s Dan Clark makes “Imported Failure” a catchy number, infusing a bit of icy synth melody which compliments the guitar riffing nicely.

Assemblage 23′s Tom Shear did such a great job with the reworking of “Within Silence” on the Intelligence: Revised remix album that he was invited to make another contribution. This time out he handles “Gone” with a surprising amount of restraint but adds a juicy club flair to the track, adding crisp percussion and subtle layering that make it extremely palatable for dance floors. “Rid Of Me” showcases Liebchen one last time with a wispy throwback of a tune that has elements of New Wave combined with power ballad flair. It would have benefited from a little brevity as it gets overly repetitive toward the end but it’s an intriguing experiment that stands apart from all the band’s previous material.

The last track is a live recording of one of their most popular songs, “The World Ends Today,” performed at a show in Madison last year. The sound quality is surprisingly clear and represents a hard working act tirelessly dedicated to providing even more energy in a live context than can be heard on their studio recordings.

Five tracks for five bucks, available in hard copy format only (no digital release), All Things Belong To Us Now is one for the fans as much as it is for those who haven’t yet looked into what XuberX is all about. Preorders are being taken at the Radio-Active site.

“I think records were just a little bubble through time and those who made a living from them for a while were lucky. There is no reason why anyone should have made so much money from selling records except that everything was right for this period of time. I always knew it would run out sooner or later. It couldn’t last, and now it’s running out. I don’t particularly care that it is and like the way things are going. The record age was just a blip. It was a bit like if you had a source of whale blubber in the 1840s and it could be used as fuel. Before gas came along, if you traded in whale blubber, you were the richest man on Earth. Then gas came along and you’d be stuck with your whale blubber. Sorry mate – history’s moving along. Recorded music equals whale blubber. Eventually, something else will replace it.”

-Brian Eno, Interview with The Guardian, 1-17-10.

I guess I’m always shocked when I hear a musician coming from the standpoint that they’re not making enough money with their music, regardless of the reasons they offer as the causes for their lack of revenue. If you’re not on some major corporate label why would you expect that you can use your music as the primary source for your income? Without a great deal of press – press that goes way beyond pissant little blogs such as ours – you’re never going to have widespread name recognition. And beyond that if you’re making noise Industrial you pretty much have to expect that the audience will be very small. The VAST majority of music listeners like a great melody, a good singing voice and beat that has a definite hook. Maybe that doesn’t sit well with you, and hey – I’m with you. Maybe you want to make instrumental rhythmic noise without melodies and harmonies and have progressive, ever-changing beats and perhaps you feel there should be a wider audience for such music.

Where I come from we have a saying; “Tough shit, asshole.”

Just because you bought all the equipment and learned how to use it, just because you put together a series of tracks and recorded them, just because you manufactured CDs and art-filled booklets to sell to the public does not mean anyone is obligated to buy your shit. There’s this sense of entitlement I’m seeing coming from musicians who seem to think that just because they’ve put an act together and recorded music people must buy their stuff. And they get all pissy and throw out all sorts of scapegoating when there are no – or very few – takers.

Well, guess what? If not many people are buying your stuff you’re probably not very good. That’s the long and short of it right there. And yes, I’m a dick for saying it but refer to the above saying as a reference. Maybe you found some blog to give you a good review and that served as a great ego stroke but when regular people hear your music they pass. Our site reviewed nearly 100 new albums in the past year from a variety of labels. 100 albums within 12 months. And we didn’t even come close to covering all the music that was released in the limited genres we cover. You want to scapegoat? Instead of blaming file sharing and YouTube and such try blaming your peers – all the people out there making and marketing music. They’re the ones making it less likely people will buy your stuff. It really doesn’t matter how big a fan you are of a specific style, buying hundreds of albums within a year’s time is highly unlikely. Just trying to keep all the acts straight is next to impossible.

But it doesn’t just have to mean you’re no good. It could be (and I guarantee you this is the exception, not the rule) that you’re too good and your forward thinking art is a bit much for people to take. Perhaps they’ll eventually catch up to you and there will be success later on but it might not be until after you’ve thrown up your arms and quit in frustration.

Back when I was making music I never expected to build a career out of it. I already had a career as a laborer, one that gave me regular, predictable pay, benefits and even a pension that will ensure I don’t have to work until the day I die. Music was, to me, a hobby. It gave me a chance to flex my creative muscle and “communicate” with people in an abstract way. That was the reward. When we recorded an album we would sell them at shows but we would always put on the back “Unauthorized duplication would be cool” because we recognized that getting our music in as many hands as possible was the key, even if it meant next to nothing in sales.

And I really didn’t want my music to become my career. Music was my art and my art was an expression of life. Once the art becomes your life you lose the capacity to view life in a relatable way to those who might respond to your art. It’s the daily struggles of going to work at the scheduled time every day, dealing with the authority figures hovering over you, paying your bills on time and trying to successfully maintain and nurture relationships with workmates, acquaintances, friends and family that make compelling – and yes, mundane – life experiences which are then expressed in art that speaks to people. Honestly, I’d rather have musicians poor and struggling just like me than gallivanting all over the country or world, climbing out of bed whenever they want and partying/drinking well into the wee hours of every morning. That ain’t real life and once you make it to that point you have no idea what real life is anymore. Hence, your art becomes less vital.

“A working class hero is something to be,” Lennon once sang.

There are going to be artists who won’t be able to accept the new paradigm in music distribution. Some are already threatening to quit since – in their minds – there’s no point in making music if people aren’t going to hand over a ton of money for them to do it. I say good riddance. We have far too many people making music and I’d rather have the people who have a passion for music regardless of financial compensation stick around than those who just want to make a fast buck. I don’t believe the music is going to go away precisely because there are plenty of people who have that passion to express themselves and it doesn’t matter if it doesn’t make them rich and famous. What matters is the art. What matters is what is being expressed. That’s all that is relevant.

So am I saying artists shouldn’t be compensated in some way for what hey offer up for us to enjoy? Hell no. If you take something away from these gifts you should be willing to give something in return. I just don’t think the rewards should be so substantial that they remove the artist from the world that nurtured their art so effectively. That doesn’t adequately serve the purposes of great art.

Oh, and read the rest of the interview with Eno. Brilliant, brilliant man.