Well, well, well. It’s been a while since the world heard from New York’s Basal Gang. They released their Mingling Split EP back in 2012, which got a bit of rejuvenated love when The Math Rock News included ‘Ellen The Generous’ in one of their always awesome compilations last year. Since then the math-punk-alt-rock powertrio have been keeping a little quiet on the release front.
Lo and behold. We folk at Fecking Bahamas are proud to present you with ‘Friday Night Lockjaw’, a brand spanking new track from Basal Gang’s upcoming album Initiation. ‘Friday Night Lockjaw’ is teeming with sounds almost at odds with each other: it begins as a slow and punchy indie piece with folky vocal harmonies, and slowly erupts into a post-hardcore disarray with off-kilter wails and dizzying distortion. Adam Debbarh sings of his yearning for illicit substances to invigorate an otherwise mundane Friday night, which he delivers with counteracting lament: “take me down those legible roads, head down, no sunlight… closer to blue…”. Fitting nicely with its themes, ‘Friday Night Lockjaw’ is dissonant and unpredictable, and ends up a long way from where it began.
Amir from Basal Gang is pretty stoked about Initiation: “This will be our 2nd release and the first to preview our new drummer, Adam Bauch, who joined a year and a half ago. We commissioned Jaime Marcelo of Real Brave Audio here in Queens, NY to engineer and mix the album. It’s our second time around working with Jaime – the first being for Adam Bauch and myself’s experi-metal band, Mothman. We loved how seamless the sessions were and how much of a tremendous help he’s been. We also went back to Ray Marte of Westfall Recording Co. NY for mastering.”
This track is sure to stimulate your basal gang. See what I did there?
Basal Gang’s second album ‘Initiation’ will be released on the 12th of August. Go home and prepare.