Industrial and EBM with some techno and trance. Some cyberpunk soundtrack, some party scene score.
Soft Crash – Your Last Everything
Noise Unit – Cheeba City Blues
I wasn’t aware that Noise Unit was a Bill Leeb and Rhys Fulber project. But I’ve been listening to this album as casual daily backdrop for months. It’s nothing too outstanding or new to be honest, but it combines many of the things that I just like to hear in the industrial electronic music spectrum, which is not so surprising given Leeb and Fulber. It also has this musical diversity (like dub reverbs with a strong modern bass line and EBM-like vocals in one track), which always gives me some cyberpunk feeling (the “beyond globalization” kind where everything goes in the multicultural blender).
Minuit Machine – Don’t Run From The Fire
It’s so strange that I haven’t made note of Minuit Machine before considering how much I listen to their records recently. It’s a constant item in my cyberpunk playlists. It’s an amazing blend of electro and goth moods resulting in this beautiful dark wave atmosphere that I just strive in.
Asteria – Faderhead
EBM and futurepop from cyberpunk atmospheres to the dancefloor.
Kontravoid – Faceless
The last album from Kontravoid I found mainly EBM while this one is primarily cold wave. It’s not as great as the previous one but still worth noting.
Arnaud Rebotini – Shiny Black Leather
EMB and industrial flavored electronic dance music and cold wave.
Planetdamage – Relapse Protocol
Industrial electronics and beyond that goes through a wide range of styles from EBM through breaks to psytrance. It is like an amazing soundtrack to a cyberpunk videogame that I’d love to play. I’m sure Planetdamage would like to imagine people walking through neon-infused city nights while listening to it, but it’s a perfect companion for pushing work, too. The only downside is the vocal, which on the full length gets somewhat tedious because of it’s monotone sound, but since the Bandcamp release has the instrumental version included that’s what I have on replay.
Years of Denial – Suicide Disco
This is easily one of my most influential albums that I came across in 2020. Modern technoid EBM with bubbling analog synths and tight industrial beats. It has all the dark beauty of any oldschool EBM but without the spotlight mainstreamism of some retro abusing modern electronic music. They are to EBM what Led Er Est was to post-punk goth rock—something new that understands the roots and fully lives in the present. Wonderful, fantastic music, soundtrack of my life material.
Kontravoid – Too Deep
Absolutely classic EBM. Some tracks are more on the rhythmic noise side with raw and metallic synths, while some are more about vocals and melodic futurepop. But all in all it has most that I love about electornic body music. Fantastic cover photo, too.
Phase Fatale – Scanning Backwards
It sounds like a classic industrial-EBM album from many years ago getting a remaster in 2020 with a techno heart. Sounds like an abandoned factory, heavy beats, greasy and steamy noises, distorted synths, slow marching rhythms. It is something not new but refreshing to hear. This could only possibly come from Berlin, has a cosy home at Ostgut Ton.