GosT's infectious synthwave output has always leaned much darker than the rest of the pack, but on the outfit's latest album, Valediction, the Texas-based project has gone fully blackened. A volatile mix of corpse-painted blasts, tundra soundscapes and club bangers, the record paves a new sinister pathways to the dance floor, one that has led to the duo to tours with everyone from 3TEETH and Author & Punisher to Mayhem and Gaahls Wyrd. We recently caught up with the producer behind the madness to get his top five electronic/dance tracks for metalheads.
1. Justice - "Phantom Part II"
The saw bass synth on this track is everything that made this record so memorable to me. They overly compressed everything. I have never heard an electronic album hit has hard as Cross, and the drums are absolutely relentless, which has clearly influenced my work.
2. Danger - "9h20"
Again, the main bass synth on this track is the focus and sounds extremely filthy without adding clutter to the track. This track glistens from beginning to end. I was mostly drawn to this song due to the complex glitching and off time breaks. It's done only as the French are able.
3. Schwefelgelb - "Es zieht mich"
Something about good EBM has always pulled me in. This track reminds me of being a little younger raiding my older brother's CD collection, which always had a great EBM selection. The beat is incredibly infectious and has super tight production. Turn this one up to 11.
4. Aphex Twin - "Windowlicker"
What can I say other than Richard David James is a master of his craft. I have mad respect for the sounds this man is able to manufacture, truly innovative. When this song dropped MTV was still playing music videos and this video made its mark. Trust, if you haven't heard/seen the video, do yourself a favor and look it up. Wonderfully strange af.
5. SebastiAn - "Yes"
The master of compression in my opinion. The percussion is heavy and sharp. I believe most of this dude's music is sample-based, which may sound like a shortcut until you hear this track. So much effort clearly went into finding the samples and there are so many varying types of samples smashed together. Groove for days with plenty of distortion. Top electronic music production skills. Hardest in the game. Really hard for me to choose one track from Sebastian.
