Fresh from a good weekend up north, including seeing an excellent Mesh and Mari Kattman show, it’s back to normal life and regular programming now the Bank Holiday has passed.
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/Subject /Tracks of the Month
/Playlists 
/Spotify / 
/YouTube
/Related /629/Tracks/Mar-26 /Tuesday Ten/Index
/Details /Tracks this week/13 /Tracks on Spotify Playlist/10 /Duration/42:53
So: a baker’s dozen of new tracks this week as I look at the best new music of the past month.
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 1
/Glass Apple Bonzai
/I Am A Machine
I’ve perhaps associated GAB mostly with the eighties, with big pop hooks and production to match on recent releases. So this new single appears to herald the beginning of a new era for the project. The eighties are still there, but it is a total change of direction, as Daniel Belasco channels his finest Gary Numan influences for a moody epic whose synths certainly echo Numan’s most iconic output. The song broods and glowers, as Belasco imagines shedding human form for cybernetics, and it is a barely disguised metaphor for the need for change. Happily, Belasco nails the landing – this is an absolutely exceptional track.
/Track of the Month 2
/Spike Hellis
/By God
/Successor
I saw Spike Hellis play an impressive early set at Cold Waves a few years ago, and until now, none of their recorded output matched the seething rage that the live set bristled with. Consider that view changed: By God is a sharply-constructed, vicious take on modern EBM that is overflowing with ideas: stabbing, EBM synths that could be conscripted for war, staccato vocals that are spoiling for a fight, effects and samples that fill every gap and keep you guessing as to what is coming next. The soaring, near-wordless chorus hook is just the icing on the cake. Successor comes on 07-Aug, and I can’t be the only one counting the days.
/Massive Attack & Tom Waits
/Boots on the Ground
A new single from Massive Attack – their first new material proper in six years – sees them working with a decidedly unexpected collaborator, Tom Waits, who himself has barely been involved with recording music in years. The song is a furiously political track, from the point of view of those having their rights trampled on by the Trump administration in many forms – by quelling protest, attacks on and unlawful deportation of immigrants and those perceived to be immigrants, and political and physical attacks on anyone different to the white-boy racist new norm. Waits also turns his ire on spineless politicians that have allowed all of this to happen, apparently in fear of their own political and financial futures.
The striking video – that comes armed with a welter of facts and statistics – uses the photo work of finaleye, who has been documenting what has been going on. Future generations will hopefully hold this period to account, and thankfully there is a lot of it documented.
/SDH
/Rider
/Rider
I wasn’t especially keen on previous SDH releases: they felt too close to previous work by the likes of Boy Harsher. But something has changed with new album Rider – there’s a sharper, harder edge to their sound and the entire album bristles with a power that none of their past releases have had. The title track is a particular case in point, with vocalist Andrea Pérez delivering the vocals with a cool venom, while the rolling drums jab you in the chest. This is a fascinating album seemingly about the dynamics and effects of control – on both sides – and the urgency that results makes for a great listen.
/Madeline Goldstein
/One Star One Body
/Speaking to the Body
Maybe I’ve not been paying that close attention, but I’d totally missed the buzz about Madeline Goldstein until their latest – and excellent, as it turns out – album was released in April. Thankfully, this is not yet another darkwave album that you couldn’t pick from a lineup (yep, we’re at that point in the lifecycle of a sub-genre – again), as there’s far more going on here than first appears. The swooning, sprawling One Star One Body is a standard-bearer for this, a slower-paced, slow-burner of a song that owes as much to the Cocteau Twins as it does to gothic electronics, with Goldstein’s powerful vocals giving way to a thundering coda which comes out of nowhere. I’m going to be spending more time with this album in the coming months, that’s for sure.
/De Staat
/The King
/De Staat
There’s the distinct feeling of a new phase coming from De Staat, after their fascinating Red-Yellow-Blue concept of the last few years (and the fantastic live shows that followed). Everything about The King is something of a reaction to that, as far as I can tell – the video teasers suggest shades of grey, the band photos in green/grey. The song spends three minutes building amid almost unbearable tension, with backmasked bass and synths, repeating motifs and vocals that loop and repeat.
They long since shed the mantle of being just another indie-rock band, instead turning into fearless experimenters who have created wild, viral hits (Hi, Witch Doctor) and songs in colour moods, not to mention astonishing visual work. Whatever The King is heralding, I’m along for the ride.
/MAQUINA.
/agony
/BODY TRANSMISSION
Portuguese trio MAQUINA. raised eyebrows with their last, ferocious release: one that was frighteningly intense noise-rock (and reportedly a hell of a thing live, too). A few years on, and they are back. First single agony confirms that the template hasn’t changed a great deal, and neither has the intensity. It is, though, a little bit stripped back: a pummeling drum performance provides a steady base for barked vocals and guitars put through a meat grinder and an arsenal of FX: they squall and squeal through the mix like air-raid sirens. There’s no doubt they are not for everyone, but that’s long been the case in the world of noise rock…
/The Joy Thieves
/The Wrong End of Your Rifle
/Apocalypse Pending
The Chicago industrial rock collective (what is it with Chicago and industrial collectives?) return with a furious, grinding track that roars like a well-oiled machine, and is very much a product of 2026 America. Chris Connelly delivers a characteristically sneering, as he takes on ICE, Corporate America sucking up to the Trump Administration, snake-oil selling financiers, and Corporate greenwashing. It’s fierce, remarkably catchy and a great return.
/Quicksand
/Get To It
/Bring On The Psychics
“Time is running out / Get to it!”
Walter Schreifels and his band Quicksand are on their third active phase, and indeed have now released more albums (three) since 2017 than they did in their original 1990s era. Last album Distant Populations lost me a little, being a bit anodyne to these ears, but the opening track to their new album, Get To It, has a fierce urgency and in-your-face power that had me hooked from the first ten seconds. The song provides a taut, post-hardcore base whose guitars burst out of the speakers like an avalanche when they first hit, and Walter Schreifels’ forceful vocals are a call-to-arms not to waste a second of inspiration, to just go and do that thing, make that change. Quicksand were always at their best when sounding like this, and it’s great to hear it again.
/Absolute Form
/Shame System
/Form & Function
It isn’t just Spike Hellis delivering the goods with modern EBM right now: there is also shit-kicking EBM from Indianapolis courtesy of Absolute Form. They aren’t fucking about – all four tracks on the debut (debut!) EP are straight-up bangers, with minimal vocals that provide texture for the slamming rhythms, and the kind of titles that tell you little other than to define them. Opener Shame System remains my favourite, five minutes of neck-grabbing bass synths and driving rhythms to make you move your feet. This is club-bound EBM, and very good it is too.
/The Anchoress
/I Had A Baby Not A Lobotomy (feat. Gwenno)
/As We Once Were
Catherine Anne Davies returns at last with new material – five years since their last album The Art of Losing, which was album of the year on /amodelofcontrol.com in 2021. They have had other commitments, of course – not least having a baby, which becomes the subject of the comeback single. An understated, synth-based song allows their vocals to shine, as they detail the various comments and “advice” that they’ve had since having a child, and needless to say, Davies, who has a PhD and has long been an intelligent voice in musical realms in particular – gives them short shrift on this intriguing song. Little else has been given away about the new album yet, so what else is to come is for now going to be a surprise.
/Torture Gallery
/Future Evil
/Opening Wounds Of The Shocking Truth
A fascinating new collaboration comes from David Christian (Cervello Elettronico) and Claus Larsen (Leæther Strip) – two artists that on the face of it are poles apart, but share a love of the work of Dirk Ivens (DIVE, Klinik, Sonar, Absolute Body Control), and the first release from the project was on a tribute to work Ivens has been involved in.
That is clearly the signpost to this album, or at least fired the starting gun. The stark, threatening sound of Future Evil is an obvious highlight and starting point – pulsing bass, screeching synths, steady beats and Larsen’s snarl certainly pay homage, but they take things in some interesting directions too (particularly as it is perhaps more danceable and that bit more accessible than the Klinik ever were!). That said, this album is by no means an album for the dancefloor – there are other tracks where beats are barely there and the rest is swathed in distorted noise – but it is a genuinely intriguing diversion for both artists.
/Front 242
/Moldavia (Live)
/Black Out Live
I’ve written at length about the final 242 shows in Brussels, and I guess it was inevitable that the occasion was going to be released at some point – even though there is already exceptional footage from the livestream on the night, which is still available. This is, also, the eighth live album to be released by 242, it should be added
That said, this release will allow three of the new songs the band have been playing in recent times to get some form of release – I’m sure many of us would like Fix It in particular to be released in studio form, but this will do for now – but none of them have been made available when the pre-order links went up. It does give us a good idea of the quality of the sound for the release, though, as Moldavia in particular sounds absolutely amazing, with the band taking things to insane heights as they rush through a supercharged, slightly shortened take which also returns the Neurobashing elements to the track one more time.