When I first began listening to Beck Zegans’ debut album, Engraving Of Armor (Exploding In Sound), I had a little trouble getting a fix on what I was hearing. It’s not that I had any expectations, as I hadn’t heard her name before, even though she’s from Queens and has probably performed with bands I like at venues I’ve been to. There were a couple of slightly psychedelic songs to open the album, crisp indie rockers, more brooding psych, a synthy track followed by a loud blast of guitars, both of which featured El Kempner of Palehound…what was going on here?
I can be a little slow, I guess, but by the fourth listen, it dawned on me: this is a GREAT ROCK ALBUM. The sound overall is remarkably rich, too, making it somewhat surprising that Engraving Of Armor is essentially a trio album, with Zegans’ guitar, vocals, and synths supported by Alex MacKay on bass and synths, and Julian Fader on drums and synths. MacKay, who also produced the album with Zegans and Fader, might be familiar if you’ve read my words on Cutouts or Nation Of Language. Fader is also known for his work in Remember Sports and Ava Luna.
Each song began with a home demo by Zegans, who then added layers to the tracks with MacKay at his studio, before sending Fader the songs to lay down the rhythms and more at his studio. But whatever the players’ provenance or the production methods, they sound like a tight unit, interacting to bring these emotionally driven songs to life in the best way possible.
Zeroing in on Record Tamer, the second song on the album, should be all you need to hear to become a Beck Zegans fan. Beginning with pensive guitar arpeggios and faint synth whirs, it picks up steam with Fader’s busy drum part, which evinces both stasis and forward motion. Zegans enters, her clear voice dreamy, as if in another world from the instrumentation. Additional synths burble on, and the bass undergirds everything with its own pattern. As her voice soars even higher, the synths compete with icy grandiosity, but it’s no contest. As the instruments fade away, Zegans prevails, as she does throughout this wonderful album.
Beck Zegans is sharing her new song “Riddle,” the third and final single from her forthcoming album Engraving Of Armor. Featuring El Kempner of Palehound (whose band Zegans also plays in) on guitar, the song is a rhythmic, sinuous, and slow-burning journey. “Every record has a problem child and I’d say this time it was 'Riddle,'” she explains. “I had an idea that this song could be something odd and fun to add but it took a lot of experimentation to figure it out. We kept adding new synths and sound effects and different layers, I changed the melody completely at one point, we turned the main guitar riff into a synth riff, and in the end we decided to just peel most of what we did back and just let it be jarring.”
“Riddle” follows additional album tracks “Love In The End Times” and “I Want You,” which exemplify how Zegans’ album soars and shimmers.
Ridgewood, Queens’ Beck Zegans (f/k/a Goo) shared her soaring, enveloping new song “Love In The End Times,” the second single from her forthcoming new album Engraving Of Armor. Described as “a love song with mild pseudo-apocalyptic flare,” the track follows lead single “I Want You” and shimmers with the silver glow of a city.
Of the accompanying Andrew Costa-directed video, Zegans explains: “Shot on a sony hi8 handycam, the video follows six friends as we walk down the length of Manhattan in the middle of the night, starting on the Upper West Side around 3:30am and ending on the Brooklyn Bridge at dawn. This is a tradition my friend Alice started with her high school friends. I've done it with her before but not for many years, and I wanted to do it again to document the beautifully delirious experience. The post-apocalyptic air of walking through an empty Manhattan felt fitting for this song, as did the singular camaraderie of doing absurd stuff late at night with those you love.”
Co-produced with her bandmates Alex MacKay (Cutouts, Nation Of Language) and Julian Fader (Remember Sports, Ava Luna)–and featuring Palehound’s El Kempner, whose band Zegans has been a part of over recent years, on two tracks – Engraving Of Armor is now available to preorder.
With the release of their new LP scheduled for Friday, it feels only fair that Urq provide you with one final glimpse at their musical revelry. This new single definitely swims in the weirdo waters of wild punk sounds; you can hear this galloping rhythm section that marches the track forward. It’s slated up against this staggering guitar lines; they’re not as sharp as one might get in cliche sounds, so those muted notes almost feel like they are playing themselves right into the rhythm. Then, just as you’ve immersed yourself in this sort of muddy punk world, a brightness begins to shine, just a ray or two of this sunny psychedelia that pokes out from beneath the shadows. Cool vibes are ahead if you grab This Dismal Village on Friday from Exploding in Sound.
On April 24, New Orleans psych-pop artist Urq release debut album This Dismal Village via Exploding In Sound. And today, they’ve shared a new single from the album, “Kings In Bed.” The track is a warm, crackly and otherworldly gem reminiscent of the Elephant 6 collective of bands from the late ’90s, such as Elf Power or Olivia Tremor Control, along with the warped surrealism of The Residents, and on this track, they employ some unusual instrumentation from the 1970s in crafting the sound. Hear the surreal lullaby below.
The band said in a statement, “This song is based off a few chords looped from an iPhone app which recreates a ’70s instrument called the Optigan. It works by playing back loops off of optical discs in different musical styles, and you can then press different buttons to change between a limited amount of chords.
Lyrically, this song ties in a lot of the most dire themes of the album. Pervasive bleakness, resignation and hopelessness in the face of horrors. A king assassinated in his sleep, only to resurrect in a new, contorted form. More and more people are dropping out, whether we realize it or not. But the battle against apathy and cynicism is worth fighting!”
