Algiers (the band)

Really loving this album - a cross between depression era gospel-blues and gothy post-punk from Atlanta. Do you guys like them too?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3L0NI8vcMg

I do. Had no idea they were an Atlanta band.

Cool album, btwn them and the excellent Aussie band Harmony I need one more band to make for a post-punk w/ choral-vox hat trick.

Their harmonies are outstanding. I'd be really interested in seeing how they operate live. There's a real chain-gang/worksong thing going on; not just in the era they're referencing, but also the way the drums are treated and the amount of reverb they use to recreate that clanging/slashing sound.

The members originally met in Atlanta, formed the band in London (2007), and the album was completed by file exchanges between three cities.

They remind me quite a bit of the On-U Sound blues/field song project Little Axe.

And by that, I mean, ALGIERS & MATADOR, GET ADRIAN SHERWOOD TO DO SOME SINGLES REMIXES!

That would be interesting. So they did it over the internet? Do they play as a live band or is it just a recording project?

File exchanges between the three principals in Atlanta, London, and New York. They never thought they'd play live 'til Matador A&R discovered them whilst surfing. Live, they add Matt Tong of Bloc Party as tour drummer.

Unsurprisingly, they're familiar with Sherwood, his mix of Einstürzende's "Yu-Gung" appears on their Mix #1 from May 2013.

A live appearance, on French TV:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOQmhLEzuSo

There's a pretty good KEXP session on YouTube too. Really enjoying the album, underneath all the clever sampling stuff they're obviously a pretty kick-arse rock band as well

Note to self: stop saying pretty

Yeah as a rock band they're really understated. My drummer and I were trying to work out exactly what was going on when we were listening to them the other night.

This all reads very exciting. I may purchase this album on my way home today.

listening to the full album on Spotify now and there's something undeniably thrilling about a post-punk/industrial band fronted by a singer who's a direct throwback to The Four Tops

btw it was gratifying to write the above post, google "Algiers The Four Tops" and find this interview:

http://kgou.org/post/algiers-debut-album-southern-boys-find-common-cause

FISHER: So ever since I was a kid I was playing in these bands as a lead guitarist. But it was always very Anglo-sized, you know what I mean? I was, like, playing in bands trying to emulate The Beatles or something like this. And when I was writing lyrics to these songs and trying to sing, I couldn't really find my voice. And I think Ryan perceived that I was trying to emulate a lot of my musical idols, but with whom I didn't really share any sort of aesthetic. And so he was like, hey, man, why don't you just kind of, like, reference what you know? And for me, you know, that was music that I grew up to in church or the music that my parents listen to, you know, driving my grandma's house, like Motown and things like this. And so we developed this vocal approach, and that's really me pretending that I'm in the Four Tops.

upcoming live dates including two london shows:
http://algierstheband.com/live

oh there's a boston date as well djp

ASRGH! everything cool in the world seems to be happening during the crucial weeks of me moving house :-(

Finally catching up here a bit. Very intrigued.

this is the one performance that made my hair stand on end:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Cq4TdDB4-0

oooh Sep 17, eh

while listening to this record i can't stop thinking about the difficulties of mixing handclaps as your main source of percussion. the best sound in the world when there's not much else happening, but so easily swallowed up once the guitars & synths come in.

cool record btw.

Kind of wish I could poll this album without fear of it being a pointless exercise. So far track 3 'And When You Fall' is doing it for me best.

OMG I love this more than life.

OK, Spotify's discover playlist pointed me to this album, and holy shit is it thrilling!

saw these guys last night - absolutely smoking set, one of the best bands i have seen in YEARS. they do need some more songs cos it was a bit on the short side tbh, but seriously: head, heart, body and senses - everything just chewed up, spat out and set on fire

Yeah I saw them on Friday night alongside _jed and it was really, really good. Amazing stage presence from every member too.

The support act Jupiter-C were very different but really good too, minimal wave disco with lots of shoegaze effects.

finally got around to this album and it's goddamn incredible

I will be the one naysayer, or maybe subsequent listens will win me over. On first listen, some of its too goth and industrial for my tastes. I like old-school post-punk, but am less of a goth and industrial fan. I love the 4 Tops aspect, but its done in a too abrasive manner for me. Plus, am not hearing the Adrian Sherwood dub aspects I like.

It's definitely more on Maffia side of the On-U catalogue, but I still think Sherwood would be a good touchstone for some dub remixes. If he's not available, I'd be happy for Liam Farrell (producer behind Mbongwana Star, one of this year's more comparable albums) to do some knob twirling.

Not sure I can hear much goth unless you mean a birthday party / gun club / wolfgang press gutter blues thing?

A few weeks back I know Mekon Sally Timms was extolling these guys on Facebook, and for some reason all I could think of was that band Bastille. But yeah, this album is pretty cool, and yeah, I get a hint of the Goth stuff, too. A la Fields of the Nephilim or something, though yeah, I hear a lot of that junkyard skronk blues stuff, too. Also, maybe TV on the Radio had that band existed in 1982.

it's more American Gothic than 80s goth to me.

^^^

someone needs to hook mark e up with this thread btw, think he would like this A LOT

It's the mechanical rhythms combined with the gospel/blues stuff that give it that Goth vibe, imo. Or, sure, whatever Wolfgang Press gets categorized as. But I'm definitely not getting the American Gothic vibe. It's way too theatrical, too dramatic, too minor-key, less mysterious more aggressively dark.

That said, there's tons of stuff in here, from the gospel-y vox to the skronk AR Kane guitar to the nods to blues, electro, the spooky backing vox ... just a cool album, sounds really fresh to me.

I've been rly on the fence from listening to the album. saw them last night and they were rly good. very posey in some ways, which doesn't play to my tastes, but there's an innocence to their... i guess they feel like religious "enthusiasts" in the old sense: there's an earnest innocence to the aggression, which I find immensely appealing. franklin's voice is wonderful.

don't get sherwood, don't get fœtus. not sure entirely what I do get but this I guess is uncertainty is part of what I like about them. they're really up front and central. venue cocked up the sound which distracted from the intensity a bit - all a bit farcical in fact - but very glad to have seen them.

"The Mute Sessions were undertaken as a way of using alternate instrumentation to accentuate different sonic and conceptual contours, which may not have been so heavily in the foreground in the album versions.

Tape manipulation, musique concrete and synthesizer programming were some of the techniques employed here.

We endeavoured to strip a few of the songs of their machinations, as if re-sung from sheet music at the end of times to a tape loop and a broken piano."

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/mute-studio-sessions-single/id1057988459

http://lpr.com/lpr_events/brendan-canty-christoph-greens-burn-to-shine-6-atlanta-april-13th-2016/

About a month ago my dad sent my brother and me a text asking "Who set up this Algiers Pandora station on my computer? It's WONDERFUL!"

someone needs to hook mark e up with this thread btw, think he would like this A LOT

yeah someone on twitter nudged me on saturday re one of their tracks.
he said it reminded him of Mecca era Age of Chance.
and in my drunken state, i could not disagree.
its on my list of "get it in fopp for a fiver".

Can you claim the credit, djp?

I can!

saw these guys play a show last night & it was amazing! go see them, everybody

don't get fœtus
hearing this first time today, but oh man, the climax of irony.utility.pretext. with the repeat mock-orchestra stabs over staccato beats is totally hole-era foetus imo.

As long as this is revived, thread on the new album here:

Algiers -- The Underside of Power

Playing Baby's All Right in BK on July 22
https://www.ticketfly.com/purchase/event/1472342

I couldn't make it last night, but I heard that advance tickets for the Chicago show, in a tiny club, were apparently pitiful.

The cleaner, less goth/industrial sound on these songs is a bit of a bummer for me

New one's out today. Fingers crossed for gr8ness

Not sure about this one after a couple of listens. A lot of songs seem to peter out just as they're gaining steam.

“Chaka” is amazing. I like this new album a lot.

Three tracks in and I think this is sounding pretty cool - it's a sonic step forward again - all sorts of lovely details in the mix

This album is great, cosign on "Chaka"

Ah right, I should link my review here:

https://daily.bandcamp.com/album-of-the-day/algiers-there-is-no-year-review

Chaka the highlight so far for sure

Dispossession for me

"We Can't Be Found" and "Dispossession" are incredible.

OK, it's been steadily growing on me even if I'm pretty sure it's the least of the three albums (though not by as much as I feared.)

I'm confused about how popular they are/aren't. They have significantly more monthly streams on Spotify than every band in their "fans also like" recommendations (including Iceage, Preoccupations, Savages, Protomartyr, and Tropical Fuck Storm) but on both visits here they are playing one of our very smallest dedicated venues.

I was trying to remember why I didn't ever try to investigate Iceage and on a hunch googled Iceage racist

now I remember

I can't imagine their singer's vocal uh "stylings" would be much to yr liking anyway

I was disappointed to listen to the Trap Set interview with Matt Tong and not have Algiers touched on at all; Bloc Party and Algiers require totally different approaches and I'd like to have heard more about how he made the leap

totally unnecessary bewbz of exploitation (DJP) at 8:50 27 Jan 20

I was trying to remember why I didn't ever try to investigate Iceage and on a hunch googled Iceage racist

now I remember

iirc correctly there's a thread here where Fred explains how his fellow Danes are not racist and everyone was too dumb to understand

plz do not summon anyone to this thread based on northern european politics

lol that’s all coming back to me now

they went on Colbert

https://youtu.be/JmzwOG06iUg

Put up a full live set from a couple of weeks ago in Dublin:

https://algierstheband.bandcamp.com/album/live-in-dublin-8-feb-2020

And this one from the other day! Apparently they're going to make a thing of it.

https://algierstheband.bandcamp.com/album/live-in-amsterdam-13-feb-2020

NYC show rescheduled to December 11. Something to look forward to.

and then it wasn't

Been a couple of good solo things lately -- here's Ryan's:

https://dedmeet.bandcamp.com/album/the-end-of-their-world-is-coming

And here's Lee's:

https://algierstheband.bandcamp.com/album/mondo-decay

Meantime the band themselves put out this for the election -- a hell of a thing:

https://algierstheband.bandcamp.com/album/cleveland-20-20

And even a Christmas single!

https://algierstheband.bandcamp.com/album/algiers-crew-holiday-fan-club-digi-7inch

So Lee's Nun Gun project is out today per the link above -- and there's a dub version due in a couple of weeks. You might recognize some of the names (he said, drily).

https://algierstheband.bandcamp.com/album/stealth-maxi-dub-companion

New album en route and the new single is here with Backxwash and billy woods and it rules.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17SmU2Q_Qt0

oh this rules, hopefully the album is similarly cool because the last one just didn't quite do it for me

omg this is fantastic, full portishead prog-rap-soul trip

I felt like "Chaka" was a near-pinnacle for them and this isn't quite at that level but yes it's very promising for the new album.

yeah I quite liked the last album but it def had Internet Backlash

oh i didn't know RYM hated it lol, i just remember it being mostly more-of-the-same except not quite as strong as TUOP

just a little underwhelming rather than being awful or anything

Fantano apparently piled in, you know the rest etc

Piled in full knowing their history of sub(bass)tweeting their critics, even. Time for a sequel lads

yeah I quite liked the last album but it def had Internet Backlash

― imago, Thursday, September 15, 2022 3:04 AM (five hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

now this one has internet backxwash

😎

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfkWWzQPNrs

another very cool new single

album shook out feb 24

late pass but bite back is fucking great

Saw some IG video clips of a December 15 gig in NY where they were joined onstage by guests including Billy Woods and Mark Cisneros; and I was impressed

https://www.thisisnotaphotograph.com/blog/2022/12/16/algiers-and-special-guests-at-national-sawdust

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZ2Uw9llbrg

the new album is sure shaping up well

extremely cool, touch of Mars Volta to it dare i say

interesting/awesome remix-not-remix album by nyc doing-it-wrong hiphop impresario king vision ultra aka geng aka head of ptp

https://algierstheband.bandcamp.com/album/shook-world-hosted-by-algiers

new album sounds pretty good on first listen

It does indeed.

Enjoying this

Will be seeing them in a few weeks at Bottom of the Hill; they were great when I caught them for Underside of Power a while back but I suspect this show, with the catalog even deeper now, will be a hell of a thing.

Algiers not happy with Under the Radar site negative review

no one could accuse under the radar of knowing what theyre talking about

— Algiers (@AlgiersMusic) February 25, 2023

Haha. Well presuming they read all the criticism of them, this is easily their best album yet imo

yeah it's fantastic, definitely their best

So Ryan and Lee from Algiers and Kyle Kidd from MOTHERBOARD have a new project and yeah this rules.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5F7LurnwI9s

This is excellent!