New Stuff - Adventures in Completism Vol. 4982

I've been scoping out Bandcamp lately, and I've picked up a few worthwhile things: the latest from Alter Der Ruine for example, and the end result of Hate Dept.'s unexpected resurgence last year.

Apart from that, I'm now up to date with Cracknation Records, including the new Cocksure EP, and the latest from Acucrack, Iron Lung Corp., and Czar, and I am now in possession of several artifacts from Caustic's expanding media empire, including the Coprophagia/Consummatia EP and the Causticles album.

Expect all of these to find plenty of room on TechDiff playlists, well into the foreseeable future.

Oodles of Adds

The Technical Difficulties empire has continued to expand over the past couple of months.

First off, I was privileged to be amongst the audience witnessing the opening performance of Swans' "To Be Kind" tour, in Washington DC on Wednesday. It was a transcendent experience, and while I can't pipe that transcendence through the series of tubes between me and you, I can at least play songs from the latest album, which I made sure to procure. Jenny Hval, the opening performer, was impressive in her own right, and will also be gracing future playlists.

Some other recent acquisitions include recent Projekt releases, including the latest from Lovesliescrushing, Paulina Cassidy, and All My Faith Lost's tribute to Black Tape For A Blue Girl. While I was at it, I got a few recent Projekt-distributed releases from Lycia, Voltaire, Unwoman, Android Lust, Spiritual Front, and Mushroom's Patience. And Combichrist's "From My Cold Dead Hands" single too - what the heck.

Then I got up to date with ArtOfFact - Individual Totem, Agent Side Grinder, Volt 9000, Öhm, Δaimon, and Seeming. I filled in some of the holes in my Ant-Zen, Hymen, and Pflichtkauf collections. I swept up most of the Metropolis releases from last year that I was missing, including the latest Suicide Commando, Covenant, Funker Vogt, Download, and DUBcon. I randomly picked up something from Lust For Youth and some miscellaneous imports: Amduscia, Blutengel, Z'ev, new Cyclobe, old Cyclobe. And somehow, I also managed to pay the mortgage and all my bills.

As always, you can enjoy the fruits of my financial ruin at here.

Adds, Announcements, and an Apology

First, the apology. I haven't been updating the blog with playlists as assiduously as I ought to. Sorry about that.

Now, the announcements.

First of all, Valentine's Day has come and gone, and as of this weekend, Maschinenherz is off the air. But it was fun while it lasted, and most of the songs will find a spot on Technical Difficulties' regular rotation, if they're not there already. My heartfelt gratitude to everyone who tuned in - I love you all. Same time next year...?

Second of all, I took the regular live stream off the air earlier this week for maintenance - that maintenance being using iVolume to adjust the volume on all the mp3s in my library - Every. Single. One. Hopefully, this will result in less variation in volume between songs, and hence, a better listening experience for all y'all.

As for adds, the big one is that I now have in my sweaty little hands a copy of the new Recoiled EP from our friends at Cold Spring Records, featuring some "lost" Coil remixes of Nine Inch Nails songs.  I also recently picked up several volumes of the Muslimgauze Archive Series. Other recent adds of note: I somewhat belatedly grabbed VNV Nation's Transnational, and Crystal Castles' (III), as well as a whole bunch of Ad Noiseam's back catalogue that I was missing. All of these will be trickling into our  regular rotation in the weeks to come - expect them.

Maschinenherz - Industrial Love Songs

So, Live365 is doing this special "Love365" type thing for Valentines Day, and I somehow talked them into letting me do a broadcast devoted to the many fine love songs industrial music has produced over the years. After a frantic weekend of listening to dimly remembered songs on dusty CDs, poring over lyric sheets, and ripping and transcoding and uploading and wondering what I had gotten myself into, I am pleased to announce that Maschinenherz - Industrial Love Songs is live and broadcasting right now as you read this.

So, if you're in love, lovesick, in sick love, in love with industrial music, or sick of the ordinary love songs that everyone else is intent on inflicting on us this time of year, go listen. And suggestions and requests are welcome - leave 'em in the comments.

Maschinenherz.

Dark love songs. Noisy love songs. Love songs with teeth. Industrial love songs.