s:cage is the electronic music alias of producer Stephen Seto, known for blending atmospheric textures with experimental beats, fusing elements of ambient, industrial, and IDM. Emerging in the late 1990s, s:cage has gained recognition for his intricate sound design and emotional, immersive soundscapes. Drawing from a wide range of influences, his work combines organic and synthetic elements to create complex, thought-provoking compositions. With a focus on innovation and detail, s:cage has built a reputation as a forward-thinking artist in the experimental electronic scene.

When Stephen Seto released his second s:cage album “madness turns to glass” back in 2006, he didn’t anticipate that it would take almost 2 decades for the next album to be completed. Yet here we are, in the back half of 2025, and finally a new s:cage album is upon us. The aptly titled “we end in a beautiful mess” (weiabm) will be the third s:cage album. Even after all of this time, weiabm still unmistakably sounds like an s:cage album, with it’s ambient textures set amidst harsh rhythmic environments, intricate sound design and complex thought-provoking compositions. But with that time, also comes a maturity in expression, a growth in perception, and a clever confidence in technical prowess, that has evolved the s:cage sound. As you listen to the album in it’s entirety from start to finish, you will undoubtably feel the weight of those 19 years gone by and maybe begin to understand why there was a huge gap between albums. There is no hiding on this album for Stephen Seto; it’s right there in the song titles. It is drenched in a heaviness, which can only be derived from personal experience. loss. sadness. denial. anger… so much anger. grief. process. acceptance. healing. resurfacing. The hauntingly, lifeless, mechanical pulse of a life support machine; recorded on the last day Stephen would ever see his father, starts you off on this epic 10 track, 70 minute journey. Where will you let it take you?

The world will not change itself, says Seeming’s fourth album. Then it gets to business. Brass and strings blare a warning siren. Drums roll like thunder behind songs of ruin, hunger, and queer strains of love. Unflinchingly antifascist and soaringly tuneful in spite of itself, The World is a diary of collapse and defiance. Darkwave in a new, urgent key.

Standout singles include “A Failure of Imagination,” “Grindshow,” and the stomper “Zebra Tramples Horse Trainer.” The record’s postgothic pop is textured and insistent, less about escape than setting your own strange terms of survival.

Signed to Artoffact Records and based in Ithaca, NY, Seeming has built a reputation for rich songcraft and stark aesthetics.

Antigen Shift, the collaborative project of Nick Theriault and Jairus Khan, has always been greater than the sum of its parts. Like the process of their namesake, wherein two viruses merge to create something more contagious and virulent than either of the original strains, Antigen Shift combines dark, synth-driven electronics with industrial aggression. On Verified Unidentified, however, the result of the duo’s combined talents and influences is more that mere synthesis. The tracks are alien and infectious, characterized by driving rhythms and startling noise that ruptures into moments of profound strangeness.

“Superheavy Particle” throws cortisol-raising sirens into the sucking maw of a weeping black hole, making you wonder how the suppurating fabric on the universe can sound so damn groovy. “The Fog,” featuring guest vocals and lyrics from industrial monsters Encephalon, is an agonized deconstruction of moral failure that you can nonetheless headbang to. The soaring, lonely ache at the core of “Arrival” banishes the listener to a lifeless planet where it rains diamonds.

As singles, these disparate tracks form their own pocket universes; but taken as a whole, the album has a kind of gravitational pull, and reminds us that the same forces that hold the universe together can rip us apart. Verified Unidentified is a collection of malevolent earworms, the kinds of maggots you might find wriggling through the corpse of a dead star.

Speaking To The Body can refer to any physical form and its relationship to the space it is in, the expectations imposed upon it, and actions that unfold from it. Through the conception of this record, Goldstein battled with overwhelming anxiety and panic disorder, which extended itself into the work in mysterious ways. The sounds of wavering analog synths, and distant watery voices layer upon the tough, and sometimes industrial, drums of hardware instruments and self collected samples from fences just outside the studio doors. The music and lyrics are always posing questions, as if the songs are one side of the mind asking the other to answer the big questions it cannot compute. Is it all you thought it would be? Further themes always come in twos, a series of checks and balances, expectations vs. realities. Incorporating her feelings on mental health, the media’s perception of women in the arts, and the pains of feeling helpless in a hopeless world, Madeline Goldstein once again steps forward with an emotional and vulnerable record of synth-pop ballads for the most curious and questioning of hearts.

This record was made exclusively with hardware instruments, sequenced on a Synclavier PSMT and mixed on an AMS Neve 8424 analog console.

The Tear Garden, the legendary experimental project of Edward Ka-Spel (The Legendary Pink Dots) and cEvin Key (Skinny Puppy), is set to release their highly anticipated new album, Astral Elevator. This record marks a significant return for the duo, delivering a soundscape that is both familiar and refreshingly new. As with their past work, the album is a journey through surreal, often haunting electronic textures and Ka-Spel’s distinct, poetic lyricism and mysticism.

Produced entirely by The Tear Garden themselves, Astral Elevator is a testament to the enduring creative partnership between Ka-Spel and Key. The album also features contributions from a stellar lineup of guests, including the late Dwayne Goettel, who provides a poignant and powerful presence. The sound is further enriched by the talents of Randall Frazier and Dre Robinson, and the entire experience was brought to its final form by the expert hands of Greg Reely on mixing and mastering.

In addition to the album’s release, fans can look forward to a full visual experience. The stunning artwork for Astral Elevator was created by Simon Paul, perfectly capturing the album’s ethereal and otherworldly themes. Furthermore, videos directed by Cory Gorski will accompany the singles due out during the album cycle.

Astral Elevator marks not only a return for The Tear Garden, but also their first record for Toronto-based Artoffact Records, home to many of cEvin Key’s other projects.

Rider, the new album by SDH, released by Artoffact Records, proposes a form of crash-body music that is physical, tense, and direct. The album is built on vibrant electronic structures, sharp synthesizer lines and insistent rhythms, resulting in a body of work marked by a more contemporary, dry, and less nostalgic sensibility. Everything sounds as if each track were a test of endurance.

This bodily and mechanical approach is reflected in the album artwork, inspired by crash-test dummies. Bodies exposed to external forces, subjected to repeated impacts, and evaluated after the damage. Rider is precisely that: a record of collisions (emotional, affective, and identitarian) and of what remains once the impact has already occurred.

The songs unfold like brief, tense scenes. You Talk, I Listen and Cruel explore dynamics of control, erosion and emotional obedience through an unsettling coldness, while You Lost My Keys and Keep My Hands move through anxiety and frustration. Dawn Fawn, Defeated, and Behind This Dream examine the consequences of excess without dramatization, in a satirical way marked by a mordant, nihilistic acceptance.

The central track, Rider, frames the album around movement and escape: moving at full speed as necessity, sudden clarity, and a tired but lucid assertion of autonomy.

Within this landscape, Night Visit, a collaboration with Lust For Youth, stands out, fitting naturally into the album’s universe while reinforcing its melancholic atmosphere, European pulse, and adding a somber elegance.

Rider is electronic music made for the body, meant to be heard after the impact. With this release, SDH consolidates a distinct voice within the contemporary electronic scene—precise, sharp and honest.

Hangwire’s second album showcases the band’s refined take on the Post-Punk Revival, further establishing their place within the Artoffact Records darkwave roster. Following their debut, Farewell, this new collection intensifies the band’s signature blend of brooding melancholy, gothic rock atmosphere, and the driving energy of ’80s-inspired post-punk. Tracks like the single “The Fall” demonstrate the band’s ability to weave sharp, reverberating guitar riffs and atmospheric synths around the charismatic, emotive vocals of Andres D’Souza, exploring themes of urban decay, existential reflection, and the darker side of the human experience with a compelling and modern intensity.