After month, another (presumably boring, for you) post about the music I’ve listened to. That’s three months in row! If only I had something better to do.
It’s also the first music post I’ve written since creating some artwork exploring the music I love which was part of a local music themed exhibition. See the artwork here and read more about it here.
Top Artists
The top artist this month is Dogshow, who I saw and heard for the first time at wedding at the beginning of July. At some point, two men with poodle masks on wheeled out a trolly with keyboard and drums and started playing music in the middle of the dance floor, and I thoroughly enjoyed it
The next day, we listened to them in the car on way home from the wedding, and then I listened to them some more throughout the month. They describe themselves as ‘Boiler Room meets Crufts on a trip to space’, I’d describe them as daft fun dance music. Possibly house music? I don’t know about such things, there are no guitars. I’ll talk about Dogshow a bit more in a minute.
Next up, ESA (Electronic Substance Abuse) are back in the list, and this time Apple Music has put the correct ESA on the list, unlike in May. They had a new album out, so more on that below.
In third place its Type O Negative. I have loved Type O since I was a goth kid in the 90s. They’ve had no new music for years since the lead singer died but they’re still a regular listen for me. They are a blend of heavy goth rock that’s both miserable and has a good sense of humour in equal parts, which very much describes me. The sort of music you put on to embrace your misery and then the humour lifts you out of it.
Nine Inch Nails are also regulars on my top artist list, but this time the missus requested them on the same drive home from the wedding mentioned earlier. A different vibe to Dogshow.
Finally, I’m still listening to HEALTH after seeing them live and having an old man funny turn, as described last month.
Top Songs
This month’s top songs list is dominated by Dogshow. Dancing (Dancing) is a fun song where the main (and possibly only) vocal is the word dancing said in one accent and then repeated in a different (and as a man from Essex, correct) accent. Dancing (Darncing).
Spinnaround, at number 2, I specifically remember from the wedding as we naturally formed a circle around the band when they appeared on the dancefloor and they used that to coordinate spinning us around to this song. When you’re drunk, that’s quite fun.
It’s The C by Dogshow is at number 4 as it is on the same EP as Dancing (Dancing), so this has made the list as a result of me listening to Dancing (Dancing) a lot.
Back to number 3, and Sacrifice was the lead single from Danzig’s experiment with an industrial album in (1996) that most people hated at the time. As someone who loves industrial and the aforementioned goth kid, I liked the album! This song is on my big industrial gothic playlist and made this list by playing a few times when I had the big playlist on shuffle this month. I think it’s a great song. Danzig (Danzig).
Rats Come Together by ESA is awesome. It’s been out for a while as a single but it is also on the new album which is number 1 in the top albums below. It’s loud and noisy, a bit hard industrial, a bit hard dancey (dancey).
Top Albums
There’s no Dogshow here, but probably only because they don’t have an album! Instead, the top album is Sounds For Your Happiness (2025) by Electronic Substance Abuse. I’ll be honest – I don’t remember too much about the album except that it was noisy and I liked it. I should listen to it again really.
Now on to some old albums. Life is Killing Me (2003) by Type O Negative has made the list, and although I think they have better albums than this one, it’s still a sold goth rock album. For me, ‘I Don’t Wanna Be Me’ and ‘Life Is Killing Me’ are the stand out tracks.
A regular album in these lists is Total Nihilism (2012) by Nitronoise. I have already written about this before as it made my top 5 albums of 2024 but it is such a solid, heavy noisy album and I keep coming back to it.
I listened to Rat Wars (2023) part of my ongoing listening to HEALTH. I could be lazy again and guide you back to last month’s post for more about HEALTH but I should also mention that this album has collaborations with two of my favourite artists – SIERRA and Godflesh. Nice heavy industrial fun all round.
Finally, we have No Easy Way Out (1986) by Robert Tepper. I watched the Sylvester Stallone film Cobra (also 1986) as it was added to ITVX and is a cult 80s film I had never seen that I’ve been wanting to watch. I thought it was pretty rubbish, and I usually like cult/cheesy 80s films! Despite the film being bad, the soundtrack was pretty good including Angel of the City by Robert Tepper. I also love the Rocky IV soundtrack, including No Easy Way Out, so decided to try out this album whilst driving around the M25 on my own. Despite liking those two songs, the rest is not really my cup of tea. I’ll just stick to the two good songs.
Thanks for reading, and before you go here is one more plug for my music themed art and the blog post about it.
Matt Hart 