Posts Tagged ‘liberation’

Divide and Dissolve sign to Bella Union and share the brand new single "Monolithic" as their North American tour dates commence. A new album is expected in 2025.

Monolithic is a prayer for systems of liberation, freedom, Indigenous sovereignty, and for a Black future. This song is hope for the seemingly impossible and for things that have never been seen or experienced in many lifetimes. Where no memories have been created. – Takiaya Reed

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Divide and Dissolve’s music is an acknowledgement of the dispossession that occurs due to colonial violence, it honours ancestors, opposes white supremacy and calls for indigenous sovereignty.

Takiaya Reed’s dense sound is overwhelmingly heavy; a dissonant pounding of percussion, guitars, piano, synths and saxophone, interwoven with passages of orchestral beauty that give a feeling of respite.

Divide and Dissolve have released four full-length albums to date; Basic (2017, DERO), Abomination (2018, DERO), Gas Lit (2021, Invada) – which was hailed Mary Anne Hobbs’ Album of the Year, and was complimented by the Gas Lit remix EP, including reworkings by Moor Mother, Chelsea Wolfe and Bearcat. Most recently the band released Systemic (2023, Invada), and plan to follow up with their Bella Union debut in 2025.

Catch Divide and Dissolve supporting Systemic for the final time this year across North America – dates below.

Upcoming live dates:

9/12 Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall Upstairs

9/13 Austin, TX @ The Ballroom

9/14 Denton, TX @ Rubber Gloves

9/16 Albuquerque, NM @ Sister

9/17 Phoenix, AZ @ The Rebel Lounge

9/18 Santa Ana, CA @ Constellation Room

9/19 West Hollywood, CA @ Troubadour

9/20 San Francisco, CA @ Bottom of The Hill

9/21 – Sacramento, CA @ Goldfield Trading Post

9/23 Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios

9/24 Seattle, WA @ The Sunset

9/26 Boise, ID @ Neurolux

9/27 Salt Lake City, UT @ The DLC

9/28 Englewood, CO @ Moes

10/1 Minneapolis, MN @ 7th St. Entry

10/2 Chicago, IL @ Cobra Lounge

10/3 Columbus, OH @ Rumba

10/4 New Kensington, PA @ Preserving Underground

10/5 Buffalo, NY @ Rec Room

10/6 Toronto, ON @ Lee’s Palace

10/9 Montreal, QC @ Bar le Ritz PDB

10/10 Cambridge, MA @ The Middle East Upstairs

10/11 Brooklyn, NY @ Elsewhere Zone One

10/12 Philadelphia, PA @ MilkBoy

10/15 Baltimore, MD @ Metro Gallery

10/16 Richmond, VA @ Richmond Music Hall

10/17 Chapel Hill, NC @ Local 506

10/18 Atlanta, GA @ The EARL

10/19 New Orleans, LA @ Siberia

UK indie pop-rock outfit JODY AND THE JERMS have a summer surprise for eager ears – their new single ‘Liberation’, which was produced, mixed and mastered by RIDE frontman MARK GARDENER at his OX4 Sound studio. Getting into the summer groove with a 3-minute stomp, the Oxford band ventures beyond their jangle pop roots. With vocals to the fore, buoyed by the addition of new Jerm Salma Craig on backing vocals, the song is awash with Wah, Hammond and shaker.

Now that the dust has settled on April’s release of their third album ‘Wonder’ and latest single ‘Intuition’, the sweet taste of ‘Liberation’ propels the band forward, recalling the killer riffs, sass and harmonies of the B-52s in the embrace of the Jerms’ own trademark twists and warm production. An upbeat and empowering song, ‘Liberation’ is about how the good times make you feel alive and free -  and how you want that positivity to last forever.

Listen here:

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Divide and Dissolve’s Systemic is a thick wash of sound, equal parts beauty and anguish and creates a wholly encompassing experience for even a casual listener. You can feel the deep intention. Their dense sound is overwhelmingly heavy; a dissonant pounding of percussion, guitars, piano, synths and saxophone, interwoven with passages of orchestral beauty that give a feeling of respite.

The album examines the systems that intrinsically bind us and calls for a system that facilitates life for everyone. It’s a message that fits with the band’s core intention: to make music that honours their ancestors and Indigenous land, to oppose white supremacy, and to work towards a future of Black and Indigenous liberation.

Just ahead of its release tomorrow, Divide and Dissolve share Systemic’s palpable opener. “‘Want’ is a deep dive into longing within a decolonial framework,” tells saxophonist / guitarist Takiaya Reed. “We can want many things, but how will it happen? What is necessary, what systems must be broken in order for people to live?”

It comes alongside a third video from director Sepi Mashiahof who explains, “As ‘Want’ is the song that introduces us to ‘Systemic’, the concept for the video emulates this kind of infant yearning for worlds beyond our current heartbreaking reality. There are so many beautiful textures above our heads that are inaccessible (as there are so many desired modes of existence that are inaccessible), and the rotation emphasises the limbo of what that desire feels like. Trying to reach something, but succumbing to the loop of failure. Still, that infant yearning is persistent, and that compliments the need for hope and cements the importance of idealism as essential tools in our greater struggles for liberation.”

Watch the video here:

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Something unlike anything you’ve heard before, Severance is the 9th release from multi-instrumentalist, compulsive creator, and unrepentant volume addict Timo Ellis (Cibo Matto, Spacehog, Yoko Ono) under the Netherlands moniker. Just out on Svart Records, Severance features all the hallmarks of Ellis’ work, including blistering post-shred guitar heroics, primal drumming, and soulful, yet searing caterwauls. But as with every Netherlands release, Ellis has inexplicably found a way to ratchet up the intensity, render the dynamic shifts more extreme, and hone his menacing melange of melody and rhythm into a uniquely weaponized form of rock ‘n’ roll that reaches towards high art.

To coincide with the release of their new album, Netherlands have shared the video for their animal-rights anthem ‘Animal Insults’. Band leader Timo Ellis comments, ‘The song (and video of) ‘Animal Insults’ is more or less a straight up, punk rock animal-rights anthem/ scream of anger and grief. IMO, any regular meat/ fish/ dairy eaters that have the (relative) privilege + access to be able to *extremely easily* transition to a fully plant-based diet…ought to summon the guts to unflinchingly watch footage like this…in order to plainly see how horrifically inhumane (and socially and environmentally catastrophic!) the worldwide, legal, factory farm system really is. The current cultural and commercial manifestations of malevolent, ecocidal speciesism need to be dismantled, at scale…and as soon as humanly possible. ANIMAL LIBERATION RIGHT NOW! ‘

Watch the video now:

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