Algiers -- The Underside of Power

You're most welcome. Complex is the word, but it's definitely a very immediate release too -- it's an obvious comparison point (so obvious I didn't bring it up in the article in the end, though I batted it back and forth) but in terms of ambition and layering and hooks all at once, there's more than a hint of PE/Bomb Squad circa It Takes a Nation of Millions (not to mention in terms of documenting the wider context of its creation). It's also obviously not the only album since then that's taken that as a cue, but it's a hell of a strong example.

Credit to that (one of those) piece(s) that referenced this, which I had never heard:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frKJee1zwS0

This is immense.

It's a big step up from the debut

Hymn for an Average Man feels like Portishead's ideal next direction

Good interview in the Quietus

http://thequietus.com/articles/22709-algiers-interview-the-underside-of-power

the chorus to the title track is just so ludicrously good

this on amazon + depeche mode 2cd deluxe edition of spirit = £20.97.

i.e. 97p over the free postage requirement.

seems like a rather good deal to me.

i have suspect this band were always going to win me over.

I went to check out the LP in a Toronto record shop and it was $34.99 :/

ok, a few tracks in ..
this is what the second age of chance album should have been like.

ok wtffffff pitchfork

imo this is their dumbest pan since....idek when?

this sounds like the black keys or something... who knew the combined forces of bloc party and portishead could fail to excite...

I like it. Title track particularly.

Weird missing the point apex of the (tbf not really a pan) review: "Algiers have produced a record that is timely and necessary but also scatterbrained and messy."

Well, yeah.

Just the list of proper names and other references in the review underscores the album's achievements: Black Panthers and Fred Hampton, Che Guevara, Camus’ The Plague, T.S. Eliot, Italian zombie exploitation flicks and horror film disco, PiL, Michael Stipe, Walter Benjamin, Jamaican soul, Dominick Fernow’s Vatican Shadow, Geto Boys, Afrika Bambaataa, grime, footwork, Portishead, Wendy Carlos, Donny Hathaway, the Shangri-Las, Delia Derbyshire, Bad Brains, the Clash, Public Enemy, Rage Against the Machine, Fishbone, Dicks. That's one heck of a RIYL.

this sounds like the black keys or something

What in the absolute hell

I think it's fair to call that a pan. There's no unqualified praise for even a single track.

It's a pan only in the not generic 7.8 or BNM sense. Reads to me like a mixed review, no unqualified praise or no. There's also no unqualified dismissal of anything either, is there? Anyway, if I were Joe Wannabuyanalbum, I'd be more inclined to listen to this one based on this review than listen to something more positively received.

yeah but joe wannabuyanalbum only looks at the score these days

idk even if i thought this was an ambitious album that didn't quite pull off what it was aiming for, i wouldn't have slapped it with a score under 6, that's some contrarianist bullshit

Sort of what I mean. If anything, the review (the words) does a pretty good job explaining all the album has going for it, even if the writer doesn't think it pulls it off. That's what the review is for, and why (as silly as numbers are) the review reads (to me) more like a 7.x that explains why it's not higher than a 5.x which doesn't quite nail why its arbitrary number is so low.

First listen to this a few weeks ago damn near blew me away but returns felt like the individual songs were lacking a bit, especially Walk Like A Panther as an opener. Title track and Animals jumped out as being more than just polemic and bluster, but wasn't convinced by the rest.

However, going back to it this morning on the walk to work, it's stronger than I remember. Maybe not quite hitting me as hard as some so far, but getting there. The placement of the two instrumental tracks near the end feels strategically strong to me; it gives enough pause for things to kick back in so you don't feel bludgeoned (even though you are being!).

I think Black Eunuch and Blood are pretty much as good as anything on here, but other than that this is definitely a step up.

Yeah I was blown away and now I've given it a bit of a break and ready to go back to it soon. Still think the title track is an absolute worldbeater. Animals is the one that sounds like Ministry (in a good way) and overall it's really great. There are just one or two tension-diffusing moments towards the second side that aren't interesting enough to keep my mind from wandering.

I'm trying to think of what specific 80s band Mme Rieux sounds like. Not sure how much I like it. There's something just slightly cheesy or obviously melodramatic about that one.

Full video for "Cleveland"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FhcJTqJm98

This is quite an improvment on their debut, huh?

Hymn For an Average Man is a highlight.

Great show last night!

https://scontent-lga3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t31.0-8/20121550_10155331411186136_2391515124569243158_o.jpg?oh=32b6d200ef32ffd0412fd137ded5627f&oe=59F60803

So see 'em live, I sez.

I would kill for them to hit TO but it doesn't seem to be in the cards

Hell, Chicago isn't even currently on their tour schedule.

It's possible they're avoiding places they hit with Depeche? idk

DM is touring with Warpaint in Chicagoland

Nope, Warpaint opening here. So no idea!

xpost!

Direct quote from their publicist when I asked about Chicago: "I know wtf!?"

Bunch of new tour dates. They're playing a tiny square box in TO (the Baby G) and I could not be more excited.

Go forth and rock.

And here's the full thing -- including Chicago, so there ya go Josh

http://algierstheband.com/live/

Yeah, Empty Bottle, nice n little!

I'm both depressed and excited by how small these venues are, the one in TO is like 150 capacity tops

Meantime here's a new tape/download

https://algierstheband.bandcamp.com/

I adore this record, one of my favourites from this year, but I wish it was less compressed. The squished dynamics aesthetic works in some places, but a DR of 5 or 6 doesn't lend itself nicely to listening on headphones.

between these guys, Zeal & Ardor and Here Lies Man, there seems to be a kind of micro-trend in this kind of metal-industrial/traditional black music fusion thing. I'm not sure how good those other two bands are, but why now?

why not now?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waiwJ5rW4xw

new single which is a sort of spoken word response to criticism of the band over a free jazz freakout? it's cool

more info from Matador:

ALGIERS have released a collaborative audiovisual piece, “Can the Sub_Bass Speak?”, a new work from the band and production duo Randall Dunn and Ben Greenberg. The new piece pits charged language and free jazz collage by ALGIERS multi-instrumentalist Franklin James Fisher, saxophonics pioneer Skerik and drummer D’Vonne Lewis against a maelstrom of visuals by award-winning filmmaker Sam Campbell and typographer Farbod Kokabi.

Inspired by a chance encounter with artists Moor Mother and Harrga at Wysing Polyphonic in 2018, “Can the Sub_Bass Speak?” contorts ALGIERS’ post-punk deconstruction of racial and class sonic politics into new collaborative directions. “Can the Sub_Bass Speak?” is the centerpiece of a larger web installation thereisnoyear

There are some new UK/euro dates as well

Looking forward even more to the new album now.

Has there been any indication that's forthcoming?

new single which is a sort of spoken word response to criticism of the band

And that goes for all of you punks in the press
That want to start shit by printin' lies instead of the things we said
That means you andy secher at hit parader, circus magazine
Mick wall at kerrang, bob guccione jr. at spin
What you pissed off 'cause your dad gets more pussy than you?
Fuck you! suck my fuckin' dick!
You be rippin' off the fuckin' kids
While they be payin' their hard earned money to read about the bands they want to know about
Printin' lies, startin' controversy
You want to antagonize me? antagonize me motherfucker!
Get in the ring motherfucker! and I'll kick your bitchy little ass! punk!!
I don't like you, I just hate you
I'm gonna kick your ass, oh yeah! oh yeah!
You may not like our integrity yeah
We built a world out of anarchy oh yeah!

xpost -- Per J's post, it'll be a note-for-note cover of both Use Your Illusions.

(Actual answer: I'm not positive it's totally done but I'm pretty sure it is, and there have been quiet rumblings that it's en route -- no idea whether it'll be before the end of the year or not, though.)

enjoyed this, wonder if the whole album will be a bit like it