Photo by Carmelo Española
“The thirteen-track offering… is nothing less than totally unforgiving for the duration, featuring antisocial, cacophonous squalls that shift and retract on a moment’s notice.” — Revolver Magazine
Revolver is currently hosting an exclusive premiere of the self-titled sixth full-length from veteran experimental noise collective, BLOODYMINDED. The stream comes on the eve of its release via BloodLust!
Writes Revolver of the punishing creation, “Long-running heavy electronic juggernaut BLOODYMINDED are more than just one of Chicago’s finest exports, stacked with an impressive array of contributors including current and former members of Indian, Wolves In The Throne Room, Anatomy Of Habit, and Wierd Records – the crew creates confrontational noise brutality that is unlike virtually anything else in the musical landscape. Anchored by the fierce yet relatively clean screamed vocals of Mark Solotroff, the band conjures some of the most hateful sounds imaginable, mining dark ambient, harsh noise, and other outer reaches of terrifying sonic extremity.”
Adds Solotroff, “Our new album feels like our most definitive statement of who we are as a band, as band mates, as friends, as humans, and as members of our communities and of society as a whole. It accounts for how we interact and how we remain together, despite differences and distance. It’s our most collaborative and evolved recording, which is no surprise, since we were all finally in the same studio at the same time, and as we worked together well in advance of recording, to conceive of the album’s various themes and voices. That might be something that most groups take for granted, but in our band’s nearly twenty-five-year long history and with our continued geographic sweep, we remain acutely aware of the ‘struggle of togetherness.’ We draw from this concept and radiate outwards from our band, to friendships, to relationships, to families, and to our places in this increasingly impalpable and discordant world. I couldn’t be happier about where we’ve arrived with this album, at this time in my life.”
Stream BLOODYMINDED only at Revolver at THIS LOCATION.
The follow-up to 2013’s Within The Walls marks the first time ever all six current BLOODYMINDED band members – Xavier Laradji, Will Lindsay (Indian), James Moy (Anal Hearse, Machismo, Ferro Mortem), Isidro Reyes (Anatomy Of Habit, The Fortieth Day), Pieter Schoolwerth, and founder Mark Solotroff (Anatomy Of Habit, The Fortieth Day) – recorded together in the same room at the same time. The group convened in Chicago, at Decade Music Studios, to write, record, and even squeeze in a historic six-man live show at hallowed Chicago venue, The Empty Bottle. They chose to once again to work with engineer/producer Sanford Parker (Buried At Sea, Minsk, Mirrors For Psychic Warfare, Corrections House), who handled Within The Walls. Mixing duties were handled by John McEntire (Tortoise), Solotroff’s former Anatomy Of Habit bandmate, while mastering was completed by Collin Jordan, who also worked on Within The Walls.
BLOODYMINDED will see release Friday, May 31st on 180-gram double-LP in a gatefold jacket, eight-panel digipak CD, and digital formats. For preorders, go to THIS LOCATION.
If you missed it, sample the band’s previously-released three-song digital single of the title track featuring the album recording, a live version from the band’s aforementioned Empty Bottle performance, and the Soma Remix at Bandcamp HERE or Spotify HERE. The “BLOODYMINDED” single is available at all digital outlets: iTunes, Apple Music, Google Play, and Amazon.
The disquieting thirteen track BLOODYMINDED centers itself on the death of human interaction in an age of digital abstraction and disconnection. Notes Solotroff, “Cities and architecture feature prominently in this album and we considered the various ways that people not only interact with each other, but how they engage with their surroundings, and how bodies inhabit and move through discrete urban spaces. We strove to create songs that considered the contradictory sense of loneliness and isolation that arises in densely populated modern cities. Our lyrics and our music were conceived to live and breathe at the intersection between human desire, sociological theory, digital solemnity, and concrete, glass, and steel universes. We recommend playback through substantial physical sound systems, but we also encourage our listeners to play this album through earbuds, while walking alone in a city, late at night. Play it loud or let some of sounds of the city seep into the mix.”
BLOODYMINDED is a heavy electronic band that was formed in New York, in 1995, after the dissolution of the pioneering American post-industrial noise group Intrinsic Action, which was founded by Mark Solotroff, in Chicago, in 1984. BLOODYMINDED‘s live shows are exceptionally energetic and are characterized by physical engagement, layers of abrasive analog synthesizer, aggressive vocals, and abundant feedback. In a live context, BLOODYMINDED celebrate and deconstruct the rock and roll performance.
While BLOODYMINDED most obviously operate within the contemporary noise scene, their sound is broadly informed by their early industrial forbearers, NYC pre-punk and noise rock, and British hardcore and grindcore. BLOODYMINDED has performed with diverse artists covering noise, power electronics, experimental, avant garde, deathrock, industrial, hardcore, metal, and punk.
“I can think of no better audio examples of social disorganization than BLOODYMINDED, which makes it a fascinating work that bridges the gap between sound art and sociological theory. Easily a masterpiece of noise and experimental music that not only is the band’s greatest work to date, but also among the most fully realized albums of the genre.” — Brainwashed
BLOODYMINDED LP Cover
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