We Have a Technical www.idieyoudie.com

Classic two albums format of the podcast for you this week folks, with a pair of fairly obscure records from a couple of decades back under the microscope. First up, the fanatic devotion to and imitation of Front 242 shown by Mastertune on their second LP prompts some discussion of the je ne sais quois possessed by the Belgian masters which makes that sort of homage so rare and awkward. Next, the synthpunk/deathrock car wreck of the Bay Area's Subtonix getsd us talking about what we are and aren't interested in in those genres.

A 2001 record which was rather out of step with industrial club styles of the time, Stromkern's Armageddon proved to cast a long thematic shadow as well as stand the test of time musically. We're discussing Ned Kirby's electro-acoustic arrangements, the eerie political polyvalence of its addressing of fanaticism, and how the album left a mark on the midwest industrial scene in this month's Patreon-supported commentary podcast.

It's a Pick Five formatted episode this week, and we're each trying to find tunes which summarize or represent the larger catalogs and aesthetics of the artists involved; a surprisingly difficult task as we found it.

At long last, we're proud to present the 500th episode of We Have A Technical. We're joined by Joakim Montelius and Eskil Simonsson of the legendary Covenant to discuss the entire history and discography of the innovative electronic project. From industrial to techno to EBM and from teenage friendships to major label deals to fractures within the band, Joakim and Eskil spent nearly three hours with us laying down what we hope stands as the definitive interview with this storied and beloved act.

As we often like to do when a new album by a landmark legacy band is released, we're setting this week's podcast aside for the discussion of Rampen - APM: Alien Pop Music, the brand new LP by industrial royalty Einstürzende Neubauten. We're making some attempts to situate the record in relation to the rest of the latter-era Neubauten catalog, but also spinning off into discussion of Blixa Bargeld's poetics, the exactitude of the band's not-so-noisy percussion, and the experience of listening to a new record by a band as storied as Neubauten.

The thorny issues of social media and general online presentation and how they shape our understanding of artists is the subject of this week's podcasts. From gaining additional context about a record to seeing other sides of artists to the perils of parasocial delusion, we're talking about the ins and outs of what we do and don't see of artists online. All that, plus discussion of the allegations against Arnaud Rebotini and our experience at the HEALTH show.