New Material
New Material
New Material
New Material

Preoccupations

New Material

2018 | CD / LP / TAPE | FLCR037

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  • Preoccupations’ songs have always worked through themes of creation, destruction, and futility, and they’ve always done it with singular post-punk grit. The textures are evocative and razor-sharp. The wire is always a live one. But while that darker side may have been well-explored, that’s not quite the same as it being fully, intensely lived. This time it was, and the result is ‘New Material’, a collection that broadens and deepens Preoccupations to a true mastery of their sound. In it lies the difference between witnessing a car crash and crashing your own, between jumping into an ocean and starting to swallow the water.

    Available on limited edition orange & clear vinyl and classic black. 

    1. Espionage
    2. Decompose
    3. Disarray
    4. Manipulation
    5. Antidote
    6. Solace
    7. Doubt
    8. Compliance
  • Preoccupations’ songs have always worked through themes of creation, destruction, and futility, and they’ve always done it with singular post-punk grit. The textures are evocative and razor-sharp. The wire is always a live one. But while that darker side may have been well-explored, that’s not quite the same as it being fully, intensely lived. This time it was, and the result is ‘New Material’, a collection that broadens and deepens Preoccupations to a true mastery of their sound. In it lies the difference between witnessing a car crash and crashing your own, between jumping into an ocean and starting to swallow the water.

    Opener “Espionage” kicks off with a clattering, rhythmic echo that gives way to sprinting percussion and a melody in the orbit of Manchester’s classics. “Manipulation” explores the futility of going through the motions, balancing a droney, minimal march with a thunder roll that brings it to the brink, and to the doomed romantic declaration, “please don’t remember me like I’ll always remember you.” “Disarray” bursts up like a blackened confetti cannon, the song’s undeniably bright melody dancing over a refrain of “disarray, disarray, disarray” and literally nothing else.

    If the through-line unifying Preoccupations’ work is a furious, almost punishing cyclical quality, ‘New Material’ does offer some relief, as that propulsive, itchy quality rescues ‘New Material’ from the proverbial bottom of the pit. To write these songs is to force oneself to reignite, to play them is to stand up and reengage.

    Liner Notes

    Produced by Preoccupations
    Matthew Flegel – Vocals, Bass
    Daniel Christiansen – Guitar
    Scott Munro – Synth, Guitar, Engineer
    Michael Wallace – Drums
    Justin Meldal-Johnsen – mixing, synthesizer bass
    Mike Schuppan – Mixing engineer
    Rena Kozak – Editing
    Dave Cooley – Mastering
    Miles Johnson – Artwork layout
    Marc Rimmer – back cover photo, cover photo

  • the record furthers the band’s dual focus on moody, industrial atmospheres, and warmly melodic vocal lines

    Pitchfork 7.6/10

    New Material taps into the bewildering contradictions woven into our human experience

    dominionated

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