Mind Spiders Announce New Album, Unveil First Track
Mind Spiders have announced that their new album, Furies, will be released January 26th via Dirtnap Records. Listen to a new track now via Noisey…
“The ‘Furies’ are the ancient Greek Gods of vengeance and violence,” says Mark Ryan of the title of his latest album. “The Furies were tamed,” he continues, “but in my story, they are waking up and the ancient chaotic ways are resurfacing.”
Ryan (the Marked Men, High Tension Wires, Radioactivity), alongside Peter Salisbury (Baptist Generals) on synth and Mike Throneberry (Marked Men) on drums, lead this modernistic, machine-like and cinematic version of the story of the Furies and have churned out something furious in return; Furies is their most electronic album, yet. Gone are any notions of Ryan’s former project the Marked Men and its style of winningly bombastic garage-pop. Since 2012’s Meltdown, Mind Spiders have been perfecting an aggressive, relentless, frenetic and melodic style of punk that is a long, dark shadow of DEVO but carries something much more sinister in its jaws as it slinks its way through the ears, illustrated by their lone, intensified cover of Grauzone’s 1980 hit, “EISBAER”. It’s a sound for the new dark ages, emboldened by urgency and sped along by some good old fashioned panic.
From an entrance of a lo-fi punk sound progressing steadily to a sinewy, industrial and relentless “machine music” vibe, the album goes full-throttle towards a slow and cool burn with the final track, “August”. Throughout, the brash guitar dissonance and synth sounds distort and blur any lines the group has created even further (yet it’s unsettlingly danceable all the way through) and by the time “August” begins its synth build propulsively and reflectively, it wraps up the furious journey quite neatly. At this final resolve, one feels overstimulated, yet alone (which is precisely what Ryan seems to be going for as evidence by the smashed television screen on the artwork).
Listening to Furies scrapes the inside of your skull and fills it with cold television fuzz. Ryan got that sound by design. “I bashed out the demos quickly to find the right feel,” he shares, “but then it took a long time to find the best way to record. Finally I figured out how to record the drums using drum pads and an old Yamaha drum machine. It worked really well. They sound artificial and harsh and electronic, but still have the feel of Mike’s playing. It set the right tone. After that, it all came together easily.” As most great stories often do.
