A Place to Bury Strangers announce new album ‘Synthesizer’
New York noise rock innovators, A Place to Bury Strangers have announced their new album Synthesizer, and released the lead single ‘Disgust’.
The band’s sixth album will arrive on October 4th via Dedstrange, the independent label run by the group’s leader, Oliver Ackermann, alongside Steven Matrick, and Mitchell O’Sullivan. Demonstrating their propensity for thinking outside the box, the album’s vinyl version will come in packaging made up of a circuit board that fans can use to build the instrument.
“It’s pretty messed up, chaotic,” says Ackermann of Synthesizer, “But it feels really human.” In an era of AI and technology, where many artists make music from the comfort of their homes and forgo the milieu of the rehearsal room, the latest effort celebrates natural and spontaneous sounds that emerge from collaborating with other humans.
Work on Synthesizer began at A Place to Bury Strangers’ Queens studio shortly after their last effort, 2022’s See Through You, arrived. At the time, the group coalesced with a new lineup with John and Sandra Fedowitz. “It felt like a fresh new thing,” Ackermann explains, “I wanted to write songs everyone was excited about playing.”
Lead single ‘Disgust’ is a triumphant way to return. An animated number featuring a driving rhythm section and Ackermann’s fuzzy, cacophonous guitar, it’s vintage A Place to Bury Strangers. It contains all of the verve and rawness you might expect from a jam in a rehearsal room. Fittingly, it arrives with a kaleidoscopic video from Bodega’s Ben Hozie and Joe Wakeman.
‘Disgust’ is a song I wrote that was inspired by the way I used to perform ‘Got That Feeling,’ a song by my old band Skywave,” Ackermann reveals. “There was a long riding open note on the bass that enabled me to play the whole part with my fist in the air. I wrote this song just on open strings so it could be played with just one hand: dumb and fun.”
Later in July, A Place to Bury Strangers will be hitting the road across North America, Europe and the UK, and will share the stage with the likes of The Black Angels, Martin Rev, The Black Lips, Shabazz Palaces and more across the run. They will also be in London for a special performance to celebrate Sonic Cathedral’s 20th anniversary.
Synthesizer tracklist:
- ‘Disgust’
- ‘Don’t Be Sorry’
- ‘Fear Of Transformation’
- ‘Join The Crowd’
- ‘Bad Idea’
- ‘You Got Me’
- ‘It’s Too Much’
- ‘Plastic Future’
- ‘Have You Ever Been In Love’
- ‘Comfort Never Comes’
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