Tag: Converge

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: BUÑUEL Returns with Bruising, Genre-Defying “A Killing on the Beach”

BUÑUEL — OXBOW‘s Eugene S. Robinson, Afterhours and A Short Apnea‘s Xabier Iriondo (guitar), The Framers‘ Andrea Lombardini (bass) and Il Teatro Degli Orrori’s Franz Valente (drums) — is a transatlantic supergroup that specializes in heavy music that’s been described as beautiful, merciless and unforgiving. 

Creatively, the band has always been led by instinct and the id-like impulse to expressed completely unfiltered and unvarnished emotion through song. And through their close musical alliance, they’ve displayed a seemingly innate ability to craft material that warps and buckles with complexity, freedom, tenderness and primeval energy — simultaneously. 

“BUÑUEL is a name that embodies a certain cultural and literary reference, which evokes an entire world,” the band’s Franz Valente says. “Like his films, our Buñuel is surrealism. We take the listeners into a place that’s suspended between dream and reality.” Eugene S. Robinson adds “What we’re doing with BUÑUEL is to carve out a very specific glimpse… partly into hearts of darkness, but more specifically into the depth of our secrets. Secrets we keep from each other, ourselves and whatever futures we’ve imagined for ourselves. We are ultimately trying to communicate something direct and deadly about the human condition.”

Released last October through SKiN Graft Records and OVERDRIVE Records the transatlantic supergroup’s latest album, the Timo Ellis-produced Mansuetude derives its title from an archaic word, which means “meekness’ or “gentleness.” Certainly, for a band known for being punishingly heavy, the title seems like an ironic juxtaposition. Firmly anchored in the band’s long-held penchant for surrealism, the album sees the band taking every opportunity they can to stretch their musical tendrils towards discomfort and the deconstruction of tradition, all while reaching absolute abandon.

Sonically, the album’s material encompasses many moods — sometimes simultaneously — while blurring elements of post-hardcore, avant-noise, hard blues, post-industrial, symphonic thrash, metal and free-jazz, played at great cost. The record is, in Robinson’s words “extreme but articulate.” 

The album also features guest spots from Converge‘s Jacob Bannon (vocals), The Jesus Lizard‘s Tomahawk‘s and The Denison Kimball Trio‘s Duane Denison (guitar), Andrea Beninati (cello) and David Binney(alto sax, vocals). 

In the lead up to the album’s release, I wrote about two of the album’s singles “Class,” and “American Steel,” which featured The Jesus Lizard’s, Tomahawk’s and the Denison Kimball Trio’s Duane Denison.

Album single “A Killing on the Beach” is a feral and unhinged, genre-defying bruiser of a track, which features elements of post-punk, art punk, metal, No Wave and more that also serves as the perfect bed for an equally unhinged vocal performance by the band’s Robinson.

Directed by Annapaola Martin, the cinematically shot visual for “A Killing on the Beach” is a surreal and brutal fever dream shot in the breathtakingly gorgeous Basque Country.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: BUÑUEL Shares a Primal and Incisive Ripper

BUÑUEL — OXBOW‘s Eugene S. Robinson, Afterhours and A Short Apnea‘s Xabier Iriondo (guitar), The Framers‘ Andrea Lombardini (bass) and Il Teatro Degli Orrori’s Franz Valente (drums) — is a transatlantic supergroup that specializes in heavy music that’s been described as beautiful, merciless and unforgiving.

Creatively, the band has always been led by instinct and the id-like impulse to expressed completely unfiltered and unvarnished emotion through song. And through their close musical alliance, they’ve displayed a seemingly innate ability to craft material that warps and buckles with complexity, freedom, tenderness and primeval energy — simultaneously.

“BUÑUEL is a name that embodies a certain cultural and literary reference, which evokes an entire world,” the band’s Franz Valente says. “Like his films, our Buñuel is surrealism. We take the listeners into a place that’s suspended between dream and reality.” Eugene S. Robinson adds “What we’re doing with BUÑUEL is to carve out a very specific glimpse… partly into hearts of darkness, but more specifically into the depth of our secrets. Secrets we keep from each other, ourselves and whatever futures we’ve imagined for ourselves. We are ultimately trying to communicate something direct and deadly about the human condition.”

Slated for an October 25, 2024 release through SKiN Graft Records and OVERDRIVE Records, the transatlantic supergroup’s latest album, the Timo Ellis-produced Mansuetude derives its title from an archaic word, which means “meekness’ or “gentleness.” Certainly, for a band known for being punishingly heavy, the title probably seems like an ironic juxtaposition. Firmly anchored in the band’s long-held penchant for surrealism, the album reportedly sees the band taking every opportunity they can to stretch their musical tendrils towards discomfort and the deconstruction of tradition, all while reaching absolute abandon. Sonically, the album’s material encompasses many moods — sometimes simultaneously — while blurring elements of post-hardcore, avant-noise, hard blues, post-industrial, symphonic thrash, metal and free-jazz, played at great cost. The record is, in Robinson’s words “extreme but articulate.”

The album also features guest spots from Converge‘s Jacob Bannon (vocals), The Jesus Lizard‘s Tomahawk‘s and The Denison Kimball Trio‘s Duane Denison (guitar), Andrea Beninati (cello) and David Binney (alto sax, vocals).

“Class” Mansuetude‘s latest single is an urgent, amygdala-driven teeth-bared, id-fueled ripper built around Robinson’s primal shouts and howls, thunderous drumming and scorching riffage. Seemingly featuring elements of heavy metal, No Wave, thrash punk and noise rock, “Class” sonically seems like a forceful synthesis of Boris, Bo Ningen, The Stooges and several others while being deliriously artful. But underpinning it all, the song is rooted in incisive socioeconomic criticism that’s furious yet very funny.

“America is schizophrenic about class and class attributes,” BUÑUEL’s Robinson explains. “On the one hand we claim it doesn’t exist here, on the other hand like Paul Fussell lays out in his book on class it works its way through every aspect of American life and living. The song itself eviscerates the notion by placing it where it most needs to be placed: in the iD fuelled [sic] underworld.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Acclaimed Punk Act Ceremony Releases a Shimmering Post-Punk Inspired Single

Currently featuring Ross Farrar (vocals), Anthony Anzaldo (guitar), Justin Davis (bass), Andy Nelson (guitar) and Jake Casarotti (drums), the Rohnert Park, CA-based punk act Ceremony can trace their origins to 2005, when they formed as a sextet with Farrar, Anzaldo, Davis, Nelson, Casarotti and Ryan Mattos (guitar) under the name Violent World before eventually changing their name. 

With the release of their earliest work — in particular, 2005’s Ruined EP and Violence Violence, 2008’s Still Nothing Move You, the band quickly developed a reputation for a relentlessly brutal and bruising hardcore punk sound compared to the likes of Infest and others. Building upon a growing profile, the Rohnert Park, CA-based punk act toured across the world with bands like Blacklisted, Converge, and AFI before releasing 2010’s Rohnert Park. 

Shortly before they signed to Matador Records in 2011, the band went through a lineup change with the departure of Ryan Mattos. The following year saw the release of the band’s fourth album Zoo, an album that was a radical sonic departure from the band, as it saw them moving from the bruising hardcore sound of their earliest efforts towards a pre-hardcore, post-punk inspired sound much like Pink Flag-era Wire. 2015’s The L-Shaped Man found the band sonically moving further towards post-punk with a sound that was compared to the likes of Joy Division and others. 

The band’s soon-to-be released sixth album In The Spirit World Now is slated for an August 23, 2019 release through Relapse Records and the album reportedly finds the band’s sound further pulling from the post punk influences that’s driven their last couple of albums — but there’s also a bit of a rock influence. And unsurprisingly, the band has managed to evolve their sound while remaining true to themselves as songwriters and artists.  Interestingly, the album’s latest single, the hook-driven “Presaging the End” is centered around shimmering and slashing guitars and a motorik-like groove, the song finds the acclaimed punk act sounding much more like The Fixx — in particular “The Sign of Fire” and “Red Skies” but while retaining a punk rock intensity and earnestness.