Ghosts, EBM Funks, and the Hall of Fame Problem
The Real Stuff is Still Underground
PostPunk.com dropped their best-of-2025 list this week, which is fine—someone has to keep score. But the real story isn't in rankings. It's in the artists refusing to calcify.
Xmal Deutschland Are Coming Back
Anja Huwe announced the first North American tour in 40 years. Forty. Years. That's not a nostalgia lap—that's a verdict. Cold, precise, still dangerous synths. If you haven't lived with Nicht Isst or Transmutation, now's your window. This is the sound that made 80s darkwave feel like an actual threat, not an aesthetic.
Most post-punk bands reunite because the streaming checks add up. Xmal Deutschland is doing it because the songs haven't aged; we have.
Buzz Kull Gets Funky (In the Best Way)
"Just A Memory" is the kind of track that shouldn't work: EBM structure, actual groove, vocal texture that sounds like it's broadcasting from inside a bruise. The new EP Deep Hate is worth your time. This is what happens when you treat the dancefloor like a confessional.
Nothing cynical about it either. Buzz Kull sounds like they actually want you to move.
She Past Away Is Still Nailing It
"Mizantrop" hits different. Turkish darkwave, lyrics about disconnection, production that feels like chrome and concrete. The video treatment—all monochrome, no sentimentality—is exactly what the song deserves. Lost generation anthem? Sure. But also just good, honest dark music that doesn't apologize.
And Also the Trees, Still Teaching
The PostPunk interview with Justin Jones and Simon Huw Jones is worth reading if you care about how the underground gets built. They're talking about legacy, about texture, about why a single good idea recorded correctly matters more than a thousand mediocre collaborations.
The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Can Have Joy Division
Joy Division, New Order, Billy Idol, Oasis—2026's inductees are official now. Cool. Necessary, maybe. But also: institutions legitimizing art doesn't make the art better or worse. It just means the art is now property of a voting body in Cleveland.
The real canonization happens in basements, in headphone sessions, in the way you build your sound around what moves you. That's happening right now in the underground.
What I'm Working On
Been deep in texture lately—layering analog synth drift under digital percussion to get that feeling of something alive and something dead occupying the same space. The Xmal Deutschland news got me back into their back catalog, specifically how they used reverb like a character in the song, not just decoration. Learning from that. Also can't stop thinking about Buzz Kull's approach to groove. Darkness doesn't need to be static.