A week later than originally planned, here are this month’s best tracks.
/Subject /Tracks of the Month
/Playlists 
/Spotify / 
/YouTube
/Related /522/Tracks/Mar-23 /Tuesday Ten/Index
/Details /Tracks this week/10 /Tracks on Spotify Playlist/10 /Duration/39:33
A fair number of returning artists this month, too – from industry veterans to newer artists that I’ve covered before.
A quick explanation for new readers (hi there!): my Tuesday Ten series has been running since March 2007, and each month features at least ten new songs you should hear – and in between those monthly posts, I feature songs on a variety of subjects, with some of the songs featured coming from suggestion threads on Facebook.
Feel free to get involved with these – the more the merrier, and the breadth of suggestions that I get continues to astound me. Otherwise, as usual, if you’ve got something you want me to hear, something I should be writing about, or even a gig I should be attending, e-mail me or drop me a line on Facebook (details below).
/Track of the Month
/Underworld
/and the colour red
Underworld have been playing a handful of new songs at shows recently, as I understand it, perhaps suggesting that an album proper is coming at some point in the near future. And if any of the other new tracks are as brilliant as this, we’re in for a treat. and the colour red takes us back to their nineties heyday, frankly, a five minute thrill-ride into sleek, dark techno that has Karl Hyde providing his usual, minimalist vocals and a rhythm that could keep going for hours and I’d never get bored of it.
/Godflesh
/NERO
/PURGE
Industrial veterans Justin Broadrick and B. C. Green are back with the first taste of the new album PURGE coming in the summer, and NERO is a monster of a track that unexpectedly returns to the quasi-hip-hop beats of Pure. Like many of the best Godflesh tracks, there aren’t many parts, but the sheer force of what they do include makes for a bracing, vicious listen. I cannot wait to hear this track live, I can tell you.
/3TEETH
/Merchant of the Void
Longtime site favourites 3TEETH are back at last, with their first new material in a while, and a precursor to a new album coming later in the year. Merchant of the Void isn’t a subtle return either, as a brooding intro gives way to a stomping, monstrous chorus. Interestingly, this song feels more of a return to their earlier sound than they’ve done in a while, but make no mistake, it is still very much 3TEETH enhancing and powering-up their sound yet again (and this time with videogame musician Mick Gordon along for the ride). It will certainly be interesting to see where else they go on this new album, too.
/Odonis Odonis
/Beast (ft. TOBACCO)
/ICON
An unexpected new release from Canadian industrialists Odonis Odonis sees them working with a set of collaborators (one song with each of the six artists). Some are very familiar – A Place to Bury Strangers and Actors – and others are names I’ve never heard of. The lead track is one with an artist I don’t know, Pittsburgh experimentalist TOBACCO, and it is a track that clearly builds on the last Odonis Odonis album, the marvellous Spectrums – vocal and synth drones weave around a fast-paced track that has a striking intensity and a weirdness to it that I can’t quite put my finger on. I can’t wait to hear what else has come out from these collaborations.
/HEALTH
/HATEFUL
I have to admit that I was not expecting HEALTH to go full-on electro-industrial, but on HATEFUL, that’s exactly what they’ve done. The song is dominated by a thundering drum pattern and burbling synths, with Jake Duzsik’s melodic, softer vocals providing quite a counterpoint to such a heavy track. It’s really interesting to hear HEALTH rush headlong down this industrial route, as they’ve been toying with this style for a while, but never fully committing (instead using elements to expand their sound to great effect in recent times), but there is no doubt here that they’ve nailed it on this track. More of this exploration, please!
/Ventenner
/Vade Retro
/Alchemy EP
Last year’s Signal Collapse saw Charlie Dawe work Ventenner as effectively a solo piece, and as far as I can tell, this time around Dawe has involved others again. Ventenner has always been an impressive industrial rock outfit, but as time has passed, the sound has been refined and expanded, and I suspect better tech over the years has helped too. Certainly the tracks here come possessed with exceptionally clear and powerful production, and Vade Retro broods and glowers before the guitars cut through the mix like an avalanche across the chorus.
/KITE
/Don’t Take The Light Away
Newly signed to DAIS Records, Swedish synthpop sensations KITE played two rare London shows last week (while I was away at Whitby), and there were the usual rapturous reports about how damned good their live show is. Of course, their live show wouldn’t be as sensational as it is without great songs to perform, and this new single is one that has been in their sets a little while. An almost martial rhythm picks up the pace and drives the song forward, and subtle use of vocal treatments and even a choir of voices as the song truly kicks off suggest gentle changes to the way KITE work. Don’t worry, though, it’s still a magical, enthralling song.
/Magic Wands
/Time
/Switch
A new signing to Metropolis – and a group I’d not come across before – is this LA band, who I’ve seen described as both dreampop and post-punk, and there’s definitely a crossover of the two styles (and more than a bit of 80s Goth, too). This track, from their upcoming new album, has a quite glorious melodic touch to it (particularly the fabulous chorus) and is very much part of the newer breed of goth-adjacent bands that are taking classic styles in slightly different directions – and are all the better for it.
/Therapy?
/Poundland of Hope and Glory
/Hard Cold Fire
Therapy? are one of those bands I grew up with, with many of their earlier songs being formative works in my musical taste, that’s for sure. That they are still going, and still releasing songs of this quality fills my heart with joy, and while I’ve not had the chance to listen to the full album yet, I hear great things about it. Anyway, this blast of a song seems appropriate to be featuring after the ghastly, wall-to-wall Coronation coverage over the weekend, as Andy Cairns offers some bitter political missives about the state of the United Kingdom at the moment – and particularly around how myths somehow become fact, whether we like it or not.
/Tombstones in their Eyes
/No One to Blame
/Sea of Sorrow
The previous Tombstones in their Eyes album was a wonderful find, and this new single from their next album (out next week) continues their explorations of what could be called psych-americana, with laid-back (semi-)acoustic-rock rubbing shoulders with psychedelic influences and a measured, elegant vocal delivery that has fashioned an instantly recognisable style within just a few years. Highly recommended.