Algiers - Shook (02/24/23)

Gonna be a big one, folks.

Algiers have always been unflinching, but SHOOK is at the same time notably joyous and celebratory. It was born when Fisher and Mahan found themselves back in their native Atlanta for several months, reeling from growing pressures and burnout as touring musicians. This triggered an intense period of beatmaking, reconnecting as friends over hours immersed in episodes of Rhythm Roulette and Against the Clock and descending deep into alt-rap YouTube rabbit holes. A revisit of DJ Grand Wizard Theodore’s 1970s punk-infused New York City rap masterpiece ‘Subway Theme’ served as a spiritual moodboard for the album’s cross-pollination of urban and counter-culture styles. Across the seamlessly flowing set, including spoken vignettes and ambient instrumental segues, the band pay respect to a sprawling lineage of rap and punk iconoclasts from DJ Premier, DJ Screw and Dead Boys to Lukah, Griselda and Dïat – chopping and screwing beats on a dusty SP-404 and a Sequential Circuits Tempest, building imagined sample libraries from scratch.

While community and collaboration has always been integral to Algiers’ ethos, SHOOK brings this to its fullest manifestation. The liner notes read like a who’s who of ground-breaking and contemporary underground music, featuring Zack de la Rocha, Big Rube (The Dungeon Family), billy woods, Samuel T. Herring (Future Islands), Jae Matthews (Boy Harsher), LaToya Kent (Mourning [A] BLKstar), Backxwash, Nadah El Shazly, DeForrest Brown Jr. (Speaker Music), Patrick Shiroishi, Lee Bains III, and Mark Cisneros (Hammered Hulls, The Make-Up, Kid Congo Powers). Their contributions throughout deftly reshape and recontextualize the notion of being Shook from a variety of perspectives, occupying shifting roles as oracles and narrators. “It very much deepens and broadens the world of Algiers”, says drummer Matt Tong.

1. Everybody Shatter (ft. Big Rube)
2. Irreversible Damage (ft. Zack de la Rocha)
3. 73%
4. Cleanse Your Guilt Here
5. As It Resounds (ft. Big Rube)
6. Bite Back (ft. billy woods & Backxwash)
7. Out of Style Tragedy (ft. Mark Cisneros)
8. Comment #2
9. A Good Man
10. I Can’t Stand It! (ft. Samuel T. Herring & Jae Matthews)
11. All You See Is
12. Green Iris
13. Born (ft. LaToya Kent)
14. Cold World (ft. Nadah El Shazly)
15. Something Wrong
16. An Echophonic Soul (ft. DeForrest Brown Jr. & Patrick Shiroishi)
17. Momentary (ft. Lee Bains III)

 

Two more bangers

 

seeing them tonight at the tour kickoff in Dublin! saw them for the first time almost exactly three years ago and it's a gig I regularly still think about. I think they have copies of this for sale too!

 

I saw them touring The Underside of Power at a maybe 100 capacity venue, fantastic gig though Franklin sounded a bit worn out. (Just watching him multitask wore me out a bit.) Should be seeing them again this spring at a slightly larger venue...baffling to me they're not huge, but maybe that'll change soon. All the preview tracks are great.

 

no support, copies of the new album at the merch desk. HYPED.

 

get on the hype train losers

Album Of The Week: Algiers Shook

 

it's fucking amazing

 

ahhhh I'm excited to hear it in full. it's been a struggle not to wear myself out on the preview tracks, though "bite back" is a running playlist essential.

 

Fantastic album. "Everybody Shatter" is the most killer album opener I've heard so far this year.

track-by-track:
Algiers break down every track on new guest-filled album 'Shook'

 

Epic, guest-filled show from December pro-shot by hate5six...see them live this tour, people