Really Digging System Syn Right Now

Not sure why, but I'm really digging System Syn right now, not only their recent album "Once Upon A Second Act...", but also their older stuff too! I'm really enjoying the production values on each album, and the sound design! For some reason the music is really resonating with me right now, maybe not even the lyrical content so much... but I just love the way everything sounds, and the way the songs are constructed... the music seems to be helping me get through this period right now... and I'm actually finding it really inspirational! I feel the majority of his music, is very clear sounding... like there's a level of clarity in the mixing on the albums... and everything, all the different sounds and instruments really stand out!  

I will be honest, the first time I came across System Syn was at a gig here in Calgary, at a now long lost club from the days of yore... they played that night, as well as Imperative Reaction... I actually really liked Clint's performance... and it wasn't until many years later, that I actually ended up seeing a video of them performing their song "Abrasion Collar"... and I think out of all the stuff that they've put out, that has to be one of my most favorite songs by them... but, a little while later, I ended up finding out about Clint's side-project Fake... and I really dug the only album that came out from that project, and I think if I remember correctly... I actually purchased the Fake album, before I picked up System Syn's debut release "Premeditated"! A short while later I did end up picking up System Syn's debut album and I've picked up every subsequent album after that! I'm pretty sure I have every System Syn album and release (outside of compilations, and remixes they've done for other artists)... although, I don't think I have all of them in physical form...

(Clint Carney of System Syn)

...I know I mentioned this in the blog about System Syn's new album "Once Upon A Second Act..." here, that I think the production team of Ted Phelps and Clint Carney... have really made these albums stand out... I think Ted has had production credits on every System Syn release if I'm not mistaken... and I think that they make an amazing team... every System Syn album has been solid!

I know Clint doesn't really reveal too much about his lyrical content on the albums, in interviews he typically let's the listener decide what it means to them... but I am curious what his lyrics are truly about, and too be honest, I would kinda like to get into his mind to understand what he sings about... I honestly think it would be really cool to have a chat with him about his inspirations and even his other creative and artistic endeavors!

To me it's really interesting hearing the directions an artist or musician goes on their albums, and to be honest, when I listen to albums... I listen to the sound design and the sampling and the way things have been produced, cause I'm quite interested in what were the artists/musician thinking when they were writing these albums. What are they trying to evoke in their expressions on these songs... sound-wise and even lyrically. The thing that I get from Clint's albums is that... there is a level of maybe, well... I would call it experimentation... cause his songs tend to be dancey, in some instances, but in others some of the way things are sequenced and programmed they certainly seem to be in an experimental fashion, cause they may not be entirely dancey in their production.

I guess the important thing, is that these albums and songs are really getting me through the whole situation right now... and I'm finding them inspiring... maybe not so much in the musical style aspect of my own endeavor, but definitely they are keeping me going and motivated in my own endeavor!

I hope this blog finds you folks doing well, and I hope that you may find inspiration in this stuff too!

Stay positive,

Shayne "Daemon_w60" Lawrence | Twitch | Trippingonacable Records

Twitch Releases New Single "Everlasting" and Announces Live Stream

(New single "Everlasting")

First thing is first, this last Friday, we released the new single "Everlasting" during a live stream chat and listen through! What is the single about?

In the early evening, during the pandemic... we were starting to get into Spring... the sun was slowly setting, and there was a little bit of snow falling and blowing around. Looking to the West, I experienced something that has never happened before in my life. The light, the sun, the clouds... it looked gold, and I didn’t want it to end... I had never seen anything like it before. There was beauty... It kinda felt like a moment of, we will eventually get back to living our lives, even though things have changed... probably for the rest of life, I realized at some point we will get through this, we will eventually overcome these obstacles. I’m not sure what it will look like after, but we will change and adapt! I felt peace and hope. I didn’t take any pictures, but I was inspired to write “Everlasting” to capture what I was feeling... and share it with whoever wants to listen! Even when things are dark, there is still light within that.

You can purchase Twitch's new single "Everlasting" here!

We are also doing a live stream performance on our Twitch Facebook page here on Thursday, October 22nd/2020 at 7pm - 8:30pm (MST)! So be sure to join us for that! We might be playing some old, and some new... and there might be some surprises... we'll see!!

("Everlasting" A Dance Party - Live Stream)

We hope you folks are staying well!! See you in the live stream!!

Books: Industrial Revolution (25th Anniversary Edition) by Dave Thompson

Received this book in the mail not too long ago... wasn't exactly what I was expecting, but still glad to have this in my collection. This is certainly a piece of Industrial Music history! Here's what the back of the book says:

Back in print for the first time in some two decades, The Industrial Revolution - 25th Anniversary Edition includes the full text of the now collectible, and so influential encyclopedia, published at the dawn of the Industrial Music boom of the mid-1990s.

Featuring in-depth biographies and discographies of every Industrial band functioning at the time, together with historical retrospectives, features, exclusive interviews and more, "The Industrial Revolution" has long been regarded as the essential guide to a musical form that promised, at one point, to become the dominant force of the decade.

Covering the entire spectrum of industrial rock bands, The Industrial Revolution remains a spellbinding introduction to... and a reminder of... the moment when experimental left field music was poised on the very edge of mainstream superstardom. Complete and unabridged.

The description on the back kind of sums up everything about this book; basically an encyclopedia of all the bands in existence in the mid-1990s. There's also interviews with select bands and this books includes discography listings of each band at the time! There's quite a few bands included that I haven't really heard, or even knew of... so for me, even though this book wasn't what I was expecting, it is still valuable, cause at some point I'm going to want to check out some of those bands and see what they are/were all about! I think the addition of the discographies of each band is great too, cause it's easier to figure out what exactly I want to purchase or even just check out and listen to online!

Would I recommend this book? If you a serious Industrial Music collector and interested in the history, I would suggest this! There's a very interesting interview with Rozz Williams about his project Premature Ejaculation... that I think people should read. Actually, there's quite a few interesting interviews in here... so yeah... would recommend!!

PRONG: Power Of The Damager

(PRONG's "Power Of The Damager" Cover)

Yes, we received this in the mail not too long ago... popped it in and started listening...

...this is PRONG's comeback album after their "Scorpio Rising". This album is a lot heavier and it sounds like Tommy Victor is a lot more angry on these tracks.

(Inner sleeve; Part 1)

I will say this album veers more heavily in the metal direction... but still has some industrial and darker elements to it.

(Inner Sleeve; Part 2)

PRONG has always been on the edge as far as industrial goes... they are not strictly industrial... but they kind of crossover into it on various albums and songs... Personally, I think PRONG is more of a crossover band than a strictly industrial metal band.

(CD Artwork)

I would say the tracks that stand out for me are... "Looking For Them", "Pure Ether", "Power Of The Damager", "The Banishment", and "Spirit Guide"... I think "The Banishment" is probably my favorite track off the album!

(Back Cover)

If you are curious about industrial music history and in particular industrial metal... I would consider this as a part of that history, and being that the main songwriter Tommy Victor has worked with bands like Danzig during his industrial phase (Blackacidevil), as well as played and toured with Ministry...

...Prong has long crossed the line between metal and industrial I will recommend picking this up and adding it to your collection! Digging into this stuff, you realize there's all these little connections in the history of industrial music... and bands that you thought weren't related are actually related and have had members play in the various industrial bands or related bands in the scene...

...yeah, exciting stuff!!

Hope you are well!!

COLDWAVES 2020 "Lost Weekend"

Wow, when you thought online live streamed festivals couldn't get any better, COLDWAVES put together an amazing festival!! A lot of the other festivals were basically just live streamed band performances, but this festival (granted a lot of this stuff was pre-recorded)... amazing... there's all kinds of amazing videos, performances, music video commentary (Chris Vrenna, Martin Atkins, and what I do believe is the director for both "Down In It" and "Head Like A Hole" video(s), talk about Nine Inch Nails "Head Like A Hole" as well as "Down In It" and the stories around the videos and how they were made, and kinda what happened around the filming of those videos)... even premiers of new music videos and all that kind of stuff... great!! I honestly think this is the best live streamed festival so far!! Makes me want to actually be at a future COLDWAVES! If you missed it, you really missed out!! Plus, they are trying to raise funds for the Darkest Before Dawn charity... the blurb says this: 

"Welcome to Darkest Before Dawn. We are a new non-profit, based in Chicago and Los Angeles, with one simple yet urgent goal: to provide resources, support, and community for our nightlife, restaurant and music venue industry, who's late hours and isolated commutes leave them susceptible to depression, addiction and suicide. Recent data points to a high rate of chemical dependency and suicide for this demographic in our country, especially in the very industries built to provide excitement, leisure and happiness to everyone else. They are the people heading home in the early morning hours, when businesses are closed, the streets are empty, and it truly is the darkest period of time before the dawn."

I realize this is a U.S. charity, but for folks who read this blog that are from the U.S., you can check out Darkest Before Dawn here!

Here's a Canadian Musician charity... it's called UNISON! Here's a little blurb about them:

"Unison Benevolent Fund is a non-profit, registered charity that provides counselling and emergency relief services to the Canadian music community. We are here to help professional music-makers in times of hardship, illness or economic difficulties."

There's hope out there folks!!

Stay safe, stay positive!!

Industrial Metal... The Journey.

(Nailbomb)

So, as of recently I've been on an industrial metal journey... or well... just really interested in finding bands that do or did industrial metal. There were a couple of things that kind of kicked this recent journey off, one... there's a band I came across on Bandcamp called: Black Magnet... they are a dark black/doom/industrial metal band... I wanted to purchase a physical copy of their latest album "Hallucination Scene"... and that kinda spurred this whole deep dive into industrial metal music! Afterwards, randomly I came across a band from the mid-90's called: Nailbomb, which I had never heard before and to be honest, I'm not sure why they didn't cross my musical periphery when I was younger, but they did not... and discovering a video of their performance at some concert in the 90s on Youtube... I really enjoyed it and that is kinda how, I've ended up on this search for industrial metal bands (interesting enough Dino Cazares of Fear Factory was a session player on the Nailbomb album "Point Blank", and Rhys Fulber of Front Line Assembly played keys for Nailbomb for their one and only live concert).

There's things in the past that I passed over when I was a teenager, like Danzig's "Blackacidevil" where he fired his old band and went industrial (as at the time, it seemed every metal or rock band that had darker themes were inserting industrial elements into their music... I mean, Nine Inch Nails was at the peak of their Self-Destruct Tour and the whole "The Downward Spiral" era, and because of that tour, Industrial music was becoming more popular, and a lot of bands were jumping on the bandwagon), so... now I want that in my physical collection... cause it's industrial music history, and even though he was kind of jumping on the bandwagon, I thought the album was fairly solid. Even crossover bands like Prong I'm trying to find their stuff on CD (got one coming in the mail)... I mean Tommy Victor front man of Prong, had a stint in Danzig during the industrial phase of Danzig (he also appeared in the video for "Sacrifice"). He also toured and played guitars for Ministry. Course there's other stuff too, like Godflesh... which I've recently been checking out their stuff, which is something I passed over in the past, but now I want this stuff in my collection. It's really interesting all the kind of stuff that is out there... and finding stuff that is new to me in the vein of industrial metal... I mean there's all kinds of stories associated with this stuff too... how some of these bands were connected to each other in some way... yeah...

This journey so far has been fun, trying to find physical CDs rather than just picking up digital stuff, at least... if there is physical, if there isn't then I do go the digital route! I can't wait to continue in this journey... and kinda see how deep the rabbit hole goes... It's really interesting finding all this weird obscure shit (Black Magnet), and all that kind of stuff.

If you folks have any suggestions as to what I should take a listen to in the industrial metal vein, please leave those suggestions in the comments!

I'll likely post my progress in this journey, to let you know where I'm at, and maybe you have suggestions along the way!!

Stay positive, stay safe!!

Shayne "Daemon_w60" Lawrence / Twitch / Trippingonacable Records

Nine Inch Nails, Memories, and a Live Stream!

Yes... it's been quite sometime since I've given Nine Inch Nails a good listen. I found that during this pandemic, the lyrics are a little too depressing to really focus on it and enjoy listening to it, but last night "Head Like A Hole (Soil)" randomly came on my playlist... and it reminded me, that first I love Nine Inch Nails, and second... I love industrial music... not sure why, the mix just really clicked, and I felt inspired! So, the rest of yesterday and today I've been listening to NIN's back-catalogue... and really enjoying it. Not sure what changed there... but it seems to be what I want to listen to right now.

I thought I would share what tracks in particular are inspiring me right now:

(Nine Inch Nails "Head Like A Hole (Soil)")

I remember when I first heard this track, total inspiration, has a bit of a hiphop vibe:

(Nine Inch Nails "Closer (Deviation)")

This particular track, I remember when I first got this CD, loved it! Lot's of inspiration, and I actually prefer this mix of "March Of The Pigs" rather than the original mix:

(Nine Inch Nails "All The Pigs, All Lined Up")

It's really a lot of fun right now being back to having NIN in the playlist, there's sooo many memories, and reminders of why I love industrial music in general, and there is so much inspiration. I remember when I was first jamming with my first band Adam Hates You, and we would listen to stuff like this... and take inspiration from it. There were so many ideas, and truthfully speaking, I was finding my voice (vocally, and musically) and even though we didn't really go anywhere with it (and a lot of it was, us really jamming out), there was a lot of fun... I remember at the time, going into the music instrument stores in the area (H.E.L. Music), and checking out synthesizers and figuring out what I really wanted in a synth, and how I was gonna translate the stuff that I was creating into a live show. I remember looking at initially, the Alesis Q synth if I'm not mistaken, and testing it out, and playing with the sounds and stuff... and there were some patches in it, that kind of sounded like NIN patches... there was another synth I checked out (I can't remember for the life of me, what the name of it was), but ultimately I decided not to purchase either of them... I remember walking into Mothers Music (just down the street from H.E.L), and playing around with another synth, and it looked like a really cool synth... and I looked at the price tag... and at the time I thought "At that price ($2500), it's gotta be a good synth", for some reason the name of that synth stuck with me (Yamaha EX7)... and then eventually I ended up picking it up (years and years later)... and I still have it! 

(Nine Inch Nails "The Art Of Self-Destruction, Part One)

Lot's of memories from that time. There was a little goth/industrial scene in that city (Saskatoon) at the time, and a lot, if not all of my friends were doing industrial music in some way... Adam Hates You had a rotating roster (basically whoever showed up to jam), and even though I ended up dissolving that band and moving to Calgary, Alberta... it was really a time of exploration, and my first foray into writing industrial music, and kinda figuring out what exactly I wanted to do. A friend had given me a copy of a freeware DOS program called Impulse Tracker... and that's how I wrote my first track... really experimenting, finding my voice and sound, and then eventually some of those tracks ended up turning into Twitch's first "Self-titled" release.

(Nine Inch Nails "The Downward Spiral (The Bottom)")

Definitely, not feeling nostalgic, definitely don't want to go back to those times, but definitely reminded of why I love industrial music, and what got me into it in the first place!

I hope you folks are doing well, I hope you are staying safe, I hope you are staying positive!

Shayne "Daemon_w60" Lawrence / Twitch / Trippingonacable Records

(Your Canadian Goth/Rivethead)

P.S.: We got this live stream show coming up on September 24th/2020 on our Twitch Facebook Page, which you can confirm your attendance here!

We hope you folks join us!!