June 2 street date. Algiers will release their self-titled debut album on Matador Records. Steeped in radical politics and deeply indebted to post-punk’s sonic trailblazing and gospel’s spiritual bloodletting, the album imbues neo-modernist hymns with caustic social sentiment and explosive noise. A trio of émigrés of the American Deep South, now split between New York and London, Algiers synthesizes its eclectic influences, from Nina Simone and PJ Harvey to Suicide and Public Enemy, into frightening new forms. Algiers comprises singer/guitarist Franklin James Fisher (deemed "one of the most powerfully guttural vocalists in rock today" by SPIN), guitarist Lee Tesche, and bassist Ryan Mahan. From the militant stomp of "Remains" to Fisher’s commanding presence on the gospel no wave blowout "Black Eunuch," Algiers channels righteous fury into an incisive, innovative assault that Vice Noisey calls "intense...right on the beat of the current cultural climate." Having previously issued videos for ‘Blood’ and ‘Irony. Utility. Pretext’, the band will also unveil ‘Claudette’ and Black Eunuch’ prior to release. NPR says :If I had topick one new band that you have to listen to, it’s Algiers", and Rolling Stone and Stereogum concur naming them as Ones To Watch in 2015. "Mesmerizing...really sucks you in with its weird power." - The Wire (Byron Coley). "Dark stuff, but good grief they’ve got soul." - The Guardian.
June 2 street date. Algiers will release their self-titled debut album on Matador Records. Steeped in radical politics and deeply indebted to post-punk’s sonic trailblazing and gospel’s spiritual bloodletting, the album imbues neo-modernist hymns with caustic social sentiment and explosive noise. A trio of émigrés of the American Deep South, now split between New York and London, Algiers synthesizes its eclectic influences, from Nina Simone and PJ Harvey to Suicide and Public Enemy, into frightening new forms. Algiers comprises singer/guitarist Franklin James Fisher (deemed "one of the most powerfully guttural vocalists in rock today" by SPIN), guitarist Lee Tesche, and bassist Ryan Mahan. From the militant stomp of "Remains" to Fisher’s commanding presence on the gospel no wave blowout "Black Eunuch," Algiers channels righteous fury into an incisive, innovative assault that Vice Noisey calls "intense...right on the beat of the current cultural climate." Having previously issued videos for ‘Blood’ and ‘Irony. Utility. Pretext’, the band will also unveil ‘Claudette’ and Black Eunuch’ prior to release. NPR says :If I had topick one new band that you have to listen to, it’s Algiers", and Rolling Stone and Stereogum concur naming them as Ones To Watch in 2015. "Mesmerizing...really sucks you in with its weird power." - The Wire (Byron Coley). "Dark stuff, but good grief they’ve got soul." - The Guardian.
June 23 street date. Matador Records is excited to announce Algiers’ second album, The Underside Of Power, that will be released on June 23. The Henry Busby-directed video for the simultaneously incendiary and infectious. Suicide-meets-Temptations first single and title track ‘The Underside Of Power’ is out there now. Recorded largely in Bristol and produced by Adrian Utley (Portishead) and Ali Chant, mixed by Randall. Dunn (Sunn O)))), touchstones on the uncompromising and impassioned album run from Southern rap to Northern soul, gospel to IDM, industrial to grime to italo. More pertinent than ever before, The Underside Of Power follows Algiers’ 2015 eponymous debut which received praise from the CBC, NY Times, Pitchfork, The Quietus and others. The album is available on US import CD and LP with 12 page insert as well a UK import indie only cream coloured LP, also with 12 page booklet.
June 23 street date. Matador Records is excited to announce Algiers’ second album, The Underside Of Power, that will be released on June 23. The Henry Busby-directed video for the simultaneously incendiary and infectious. Suicide-meets-Temptations first single and title track ‘The Underside Of Power’ is out there now. Recorded largely in Bristol and produced by Adrian Utley (Portishead) and Ali Chant, mixed by Randall. Dunn (Sunn O)))), touchstones on the uncompromising and impassioned album run from Southern rap to Northern soul, gospel to IDM, industrial to grime to italo. More pertinent than ever before, The Underside Of Power follows Algiers’ 2015 eponymous debut which received praise from the CBC, NY Times, Pitchfork, The Quietus and others. The album is available on US import CD and LP with 12 page insert as well a UK import indie only cream coloured LP, also with 12 page booklet.
February 24 street date. Atlanta based post-punk group Algiers present their 4th album, "Shook". At the same time notably joyous and celebratory, the record was born when bandmates Franklin James Fisher and Ryan Mahan found themselves at home for several months, reeling from growing pressures and burnout as touring musicians. This triggered an intense period of beatmaking, reconnecting as friends over hours immersed in episodes of "Rhythm Roulette", and descending deep into alt-rap YouTube rabbit holes. A revisit of DJ Grand Wizard Theodore's 1970s punk-infused New York City rap masterpiece ‘Subway Theme’ then emerged as a spiritual moodboard for what was to be the cross-pollination of urban and counter-culture styles on "Shook". The sprawling 17-track double LP is Algiers' first new music since 2020's "There Is No Year" and features an array of guests spanning icons like Rage Against The Machine's Zack De La Rocha to 2021 Polaris prize winner Backxwash and Future Islands' frontman Samuel T. Herring. Each contribution deftly reshapes and recontextualized the notion of being shook from a variety of perspectives, occupying shifting roles as oracles and narrators.
February 24 street date. Atlanta based post-punk group Algiers present their 4th album, "Shook". At the same time notably joyous and celebratory, the record was born when bandmates Franklin James Fisher and Ryan Mahan found themselves at home for several months, reeling from growing pressures and burnout as touring musicians. This triggered an intense period of beatmaking, reconnecting as friends over hours immersed in episodes of "Rhythm Roulette", and descending deep into alt-rap YouTube rabbit holes. A revisit of DJ Grand Wizard Theodore's 1970s punk-infused New York City rap masterpiece ‘Subway Theme’ then emerged as a spiritual moodboard for what was to be the cross-pollination of urban and counter-culture styles on "Shook". The sprawling 17-track double LP is Algiers' first new music since 2020's "There Is No Year" and features an array of guests spanning icons like Rage Against The Machine's Zack De La Rocha to 2021 Polaris prize winner Backxwash and Future Islands' frontman Samuel T. Herring. Each contribution deftly reshapes and recontextualized the notion of being shook from a variety of perspectives, occupying shifting roles as oracles and narrators.
February 24 street date. Atlanta based post-punk group Algiers present their 4th album, "Shook". At the same time notably joyous and celebratory, the record was born when bandmates Franklin James Fisher and Ryan Mahan found themselves at home for several months, reeling from growing pressures and burnout as touring musicians. This triggered an intense period of beatmaking, reconnecting as friends over hours immersed in episodes of "Rhythm Roulette", and descending deep into alt-rap YouTube rabbit holes. A revisit of DJ Grand Wizard Theodore's 1970s punk-infused New York City rap masterpiece ‘Subway Theme’ then emerged as a spiritual moodboard for what was to be the cross-pollination of urban and counter-culture styles on "Shook". The sprawling 17-track double LP is Algiers' first new music since 2020's "There Is No Year" and features an array of guests spanning icons like Rage Against The Machine's Zack De La Rocha to 2021 Polaris prize winner Backxwash and Future Islands' frontman Samuel T. Herring. Each contribution deftly reshapes and recontextualized the notion of being shook from a variety of perspectives, occupying shifting roles as oracles and narrators.
Chaabi has its roots in the Andalusian music of Moorish Spain, spreading to North Africa with exiled Jewish and Moorish communities; but it really took off in the music schools, parties and bars of occupied, post-WWII Algiers, where its Andalusian, Middle Eastern and North African lineage fused with the Mediterranean soundtrack of that era - chanson, jazz, snatches of tango, a little boogie-woogie. A chaabi band combines traditional instruments such as the quanoun (or zither), mandole, oud, gambar (a stringed turtle shell), bendir and derbouka (types of drum); together with the piano, flute, banjo, violin, accordion and bongos. With subject matter ranging from God to pretty girls, the songs often touch on taboo issues. For this recording, the Abdel Hadi Halo & The El Gusto Orchestra of Algiers includes four singers - joined in chorus by the voices of the entire orchestra and five-man banjo, percussion and violin sections. The scale and organization are thrilling; the music is swirling and improvisatory, surging from the haunted to the bluesy, the devotional to the kneesup.