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LP
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MUS 306LP
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$32.00
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 12/6/2024
NYC duo Straw Man Army return with their third LP, Earthworks, to complete a trilogy of records begun with 2020's Age of Exile, and 2022's SOS. Whereas Age of Exile dealt with the haunted landscapes of colonial history in the Americas, and SOS gave voice to a crisis of the present moment, like a prayer in bewildering times, 2024's Earthworks signals the band's attempt to close this trilogy by turning their gaze towards the future, where paradox, complexity and contradiction spiral in ascendance to an agonizing pitch. While continuing to develop their own style of anarcho-punk, Earthworks finds the band pulling once again from jazz and ambient influences, expanded Krautrock rhythms, and post-rock experiments, with a stronger emphasis on melodic vocals and varied song structures than on previous offerings. Taking cues from the wistful anti-war harmonies of The Byrds and the angry melodies of Zounds, tracks like "Turn the Wheel" and "Second Nature" mark new territory for a group whose messages and methods of experimentation have merged to form a singular sound equally at home on All the Madmen Records or in the spiritual legacy of ESP-Disk'. "Earthworks" is an album that holds and subverts many contradictions -- juggling the weight of melancholy, grief, guilt, impunity, and the yearning for clarity against the backdrop of boiling wrath; the wrath of nature, the occupied, the dispossessed, and of the mind against itself. To quote the track "Spiral" -- "Is this all that's left for us these days? / Apathy and rage?" -- Straw Man Army offers this record as a companion to our frustration, our sickness, our despair, and a lifeline for our fugitive attention in the struggle for peace. Gatefold sleeve with a double-sided A2 poster.
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LP
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MUS 252LP
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New York's Straw Man Army return with SOS, the follow-up to their 2020 debut LP, Age of Exile (DM4T 001LP). Emerging from the D4MT Labs group that also includes Kaleidoscope and Tower 7, Straw Man Army's delicate musical touch, embrace of melody, and rapid-fire, clearly articulated vocals separate them from the louder and noisier end of New York's fertile punk scene. While Age of Exile examined the legacy of colonialism through the musical milieu of melodic anarcho-punk, SOS turns its attention to the increasingly bleak prospects for the human race and planet Earth. While Straw Man Army's lyrical approach remains dense and thought provoking on SOS, their musical scope grows wider, encompassing Age of Exile's melodic take on anarcho, bleak and brooding post-punk, psychedelic instrumental excursions, and even the wistful pop of album highlight "Beware". SOS is everything Straw Man Army's fans could have hoped for in a follow-up and so much more, cementing the band's status as one of the most original, exciting, and important groups in the contemporary punk underground.
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LP
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DM4T 001LP
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"I've lost track of how many times I've listened to Age Of Exile in the past few weeks. I got a preview before it came out and on the first listen, I was hooked. My first impression was that it sounded like Kaleidoscope (with whom Straw Man Army shares members), but it's reaching toward something more like the song-oriented anarcho punk of Zounds and Crisis. I've been playing this record into the ground in the subsequent weeks, though, and there's so much more to hear than a simple 'this kinda sounds like this' comparison. One thing Straw Man Army shares with Kaleidoscope is a sense of rhythmic sophistication and inventiveness. We expect that a neo-anarcho band will have some interesting marching band snare patterns, but there's so much more to the tracks on Age Of Exile. Every song has a unique groove (or rather several of them, frequently overlapping), giving the album a sense of scope and breadth far beyond most contemporary punk records. And then there's the sense of melody, which is equally sophisticated. While the interwoven rhythms make each song seem like a dense tapestry, the guitar melodies have a sense of sweetness and directness that makes Straw Man Army seem approachable and human. And then there are the lyrics, which I haven't been able to dig into thoroughly, but are as dense, poetic, and vibrant as the music, focusing on how to live in the rubble of empire. Age Of Exile is a striking album no matter which aspect of it you focus on, and it's so distinctive and consuming that I can already tell it's going to be a big part of the soundtrack to this part of my life." --Sorry State
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