London and New York-based trio Algiers today released a new video for “And When You Fall,” which features a heady mix of live performance footage and visuals shot on VHS at night in various locations around London. Directed by Lamb & Sea, who Algiers previously worked with on their “Blood,” “Black Eunuch,” and “Irony. Utility. Pretext.” videos, the visual accompaniment to “And When You Fall” is filled with fast cuts that mimic the driving percussion and haunting howls of frontman Franklin James Fisher.
Says Lamb & Sea: “The video focuses, albeit abstractly, on the idea of observation and surveillance in our society particularly in our cities via the relentless and invasive accumulation of information… The video takes reference from the step and repeat edits seen in Ernie Gehr’s ‘Serene Velocity,’ abstract streets scenes as observed by Peter Hutton’s ‘New York Portraits’ and the erratic patterns in Len Lye’s film ‘Free Radicals’ while also leaning towards the pace of Cabaret Voltaire’s 80’s video output.”
Says Algiers’ Ryan Mahan: “For me, Franklin’s lyrics in ‘And When You Fall’ transcend the traditional contours of revenge narratives, promising instead a collective revolutionary justice awaiting all oppressors. The video excels in representing how this demand for substantive justice and collective consciousness is distorted and disembodied in modern times, partially through the incessant flow of capital and information. The song also owes a debt to early Mute Records recordings, most notably The Normal. The video lays bare this influence by referencing Cabaret Voltaire’s ‘Kino,’ and repurposing early electronic pioneers, from Fad Gadget to Throbbing Gristle, with an interest in J.G. Ballard and the politics of post-industrialism.”
The self-titled debut LP by Algiers is haunted by promises of the past: the rapturous call and response of millenarian gospel, the bellowing urgency of 60s protest soul, the scene-searching intensity of DC hardcore and the smeared viscosity of post-punk and no wave. But rather than revel in a state of nostalgia, the band wields these burdened visions to charge headlong into the future.
Over the album’s eleven tracks, these three émigrés of the American Deep South lay waste to appropriators, oppressors, revivalists and the cultural shock troops of capitalism. Vocalist Franklin James Fisher’s every shriek and incantation will take you from the sweaty fervor of Dennis Edwards-era Temptations through the righteous rebellion of Nina Simone to the solitary midnight howls of PJ Harvey. Shards of Lee Tesche’s guitar, along with Ryan Mahan’s bass pulses and synthesizer slashes, pierce through the processional, transforming neo-modernist hymns with explosions of foreboding and dread that evoke the vanguard of pop experimentation from Suicide to Roland S. Howard.
“A striking, impeccably timed album…puts its politics over industrial drum machines and raucous southern hymns.” -The New York Times
“Sounds like the Death Grips of gospel torching the South’s dark underbelly…the results are spiritual, political and confrontational.” -Rolling Stone
“Ebbs and flows between moments of gritted-teeth tension and furious release, its solemn, confession-booth ruminations offset by heart-racing, steeple-toppling rave-ups.” -Pitchfork
Read recent features in Salon and Noisey discussing the band’s gospel-punk sound and their political views
Links:
Algiers Official Website
Algiers Facebook
Algiers Twitter
