New-York based A Place To Bury Strangers announce their seventh album Synthesizer, out 4th October via Dedstrange, and present the lead single/video, “Disgust.” Synthesizer is the title of the album, but it is also a physical entity, a synth made specifically for A Place to Bury Strangers’ seventh album. The band have never been one to do things by halves, and they once again demonstrate that with vinyl version of the album’s packaging, which is made up of a circuit board that fans can use to build the instrument.
“It’s pretty messed up, chaotic,” says frontman Oliver Ackermann, “But it feels really human.” In an era of making music where so little is DIY and so much is left up to AI, never setting foot in a practice room or a home studio, making something that feels deliberately chaotic, messy, and human, is entirely the point. Synthesizer is a record that celebrates sounds that are spontaneous and natural, the kind of music that can only come from collaboration and community.
“Disgust” is a sonic assault on the senses. Fueled by frustration and raw emotion, the track features guitar lines punctuated by furious banging, creating a cacophony of sound. With a high-pitched, piercing intro designed to challenge listeners, it’s an unapologetically bold statement. The arpeggiating bass line, weaving in and out of the driving bass. “‘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 explains. “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.”
The song is accompanied by a video directed by BODEGA’s Ben Hozie and filmed by Joe Wakeman, and frames the band next to and within distorted images on TVs to “achieve a certain style of cine-cubism where the band members can be seen from multiple angles at once in the same frame.” “This sense of dissociative texture is exactly what A Place to Bury Strangers music feels like to me,” Hozie says, “I was trying to create a visual accompaniment to the disorienting buzzy speed of the band’s grooves and bliss of their distorted overtones.”
The writing sessions for Synthesizer started in the band’s Queens studio, shortly after the release of 2022’s See Through You. The band re-formed with a new lineup, Ackermann still at the helm, now featuring friends John and Sandra Fedowitz. This new iteration of the band was inspiring for Ackermann, “It felt like a fresh new thing,” he says, “I wanted to write songs everyone was excited about playing.” Indeed, the sense of connectivity is everywhere on the record. Synthesizer very much feels like a record of reinvention, of taking a carefully honed aesthetic and sound and cracking it wide open, gutting it, reimagining it. And of course, to ever so slightly reinvent one’s sound, one must also build a new instrument, thus again the synth in question. The resulting record is one that is romantic, colourful, loud as hell.
Synthesizer is one of A Place to Bury Strangers’ most live sounding records to date. This is a band that is meant to be witnessed in a live setting, where the songs take on a new energy in the presence of a crowd. That playful approach to making music and intentionality around live performance makes sense in the historical context of the band. Ackermann founded the storied DIY space (and now effects pedal factory) Death By Audio. DBA, as a venue, had a collaborative, creative spirit of chaos and collectivity. That essence appears all over the band’s work. “We’re artists,” Ackermann says, “Going to shows and bringing that imperfect and beautiful DIY ethos is important.” Imperfect and beautiful — that’s a good way to sum up Synthesizer. It is a raw collection of songs, wild and loud and fucked up just like the instrument itself.
Later this month, A Place To Bury Strangers will take their celebrated live show back on the road for a world tour. The dates will see the band cross the US, Europe, Canada, and the UK, playing alongside the likes of YHWH Nailgun, Stella Rose, The Black Angels, Martin Rev, The Black Lips, Shabazz Palaces. and more. The band will also take part in a London live residency across three dates during in their UK dates, including Sonic Cathedral’s 20th anniversary, and shows in association with Loud & Quiet and Fuzz Club – full dates below.
Synthesizer tracklist:
1. Disgust
2. Don’t Be Sorry
3. Fear Of Transformation
4. Join The Crowd
5. Bad Idea
6. You Got Me
7. It’s Too Much
8. Plastic Future
9. Have You Ever Been In Love
10. Comfort Never Comes
A Place To Bury Strangers tour dates:
Fri 27/07/24 – Guimarães, PT @ Lagosto Festival
Sun 28/07/24 – Binic-Etables-sur-Me, FR @ Binic Festival
Wed 31/07/24 – Hamburg, DE @ Hafenklang
Thu 01/08/24 – Dresden, DE @ Chemiefabrik
Fri 02/08/24 – Beelen, DE @ Krach Am Bach
Sun 04/08/24 – Transylvania, RO @ Rockstadt Extreme Fest
Mon 05/08/24 – Budapest, HUN @ A38 $
Tue 06/08/24 – Bratislava, SK @ Pink Whale $
Wed 07/08/24 – Munich, DE @ Milla Club $
Thu 08/08/24 – Aschaffenburg, DE @ Colos-Saal $
Sat 10/08/24 – Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso $
Sat 21/09/24 – Groningen, NL @ Vicefest
Mon 23/09/24 – London, UK @ The Shacklewell Arms
Tue 24/09/24 – Wed 25/09/24 – London, UK @ No90 Live Hackney Wick
Thu 26/09/24 – Manchester, UK @ Deaf Institute %
Fri 27/09/24 – Dublin, IE @ The Grand Social %
Sat 28/09/24 – Belfast, IE @ Oh Yeah %
Sun 29/09/24 – Glasgow, UK @ Stereo %
Mon 30/09/24 – Bedford, UK @ Esquire %
Thu 03/10/24 – Berlin, DE @ Berlin Metropol [Record Release Show] %
Fri 04/10/24 – Copenhagen, DK @ Loppen %
Sat 05/10/24 – Oslo, NO @ Goldie %
Sun 06/10/24 – Gothenburg, SE @ Fangelset %
Mon 07/10/24 – Stockholm, SE @ Slaktkyrkan %
Wed 09/10/24 – Wroclaw, PL @ Lacznik %
Thu 10/10/24 – Warsaw, PL @ Hybrydy %
Fri 11/10/24 – Poznan, PL @ 2progi %
Sat 12/10/24 – Brno, CZ @ Kabinet Muz %
Sun 13/10/24 – Jena, DE @ KuBa Jena %
Fri 25/10/24 – Washington, DC @ Black Cat &
Sat 26/10/24 – Raleigh, NC @ Kings &
Sun 27/10/24 – Asheville, NC @ Grey Eagle &
Mon 28/10/24 – Atlanta, GA @ The Earl &
Wed 30/10/24 – Houston, TX @ White Oak &
Thu 31/10/24 – Austin, TX @ Levitation &
Sat 02/11/24 – Phoenix, AZ @ Valley Bar #
Sun 03/11/24 – Los Angeles, CA @ Teragram Ballroom #
Mon 04/11/24 – San Francisco, CA @ GAMH Psyched Fest #
Thu 07/11/24 – Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios #
Fri 08/11/24 – Seattle, WA @ Freakout Festival ^
Sat 09/11/24 – Vancouver, BC @ The Pearl
$ w/ Skelesys
% w/ Stella Rose
& w/ YHWH Nailgun
# w/ Pop Music Fever Dream
^ w/ The Black Angels, Martin Rev, The Black Lips & Shabazz Palaces
Guestlist available upon request
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