Pyramids, the experimental band who share members with The Sound of Animals Fighting and RX Bandits, have announced their first album in 10 years, Pythagoras, due May 2 via The Flenser (pre-order). For this album, they brought in Buenos Aires singer Emy Smith, who has a background in neoperreo and reggaeton, and they worked to fuse the influence of that music with the more usual Pyramids fare like black metal, drone, and shoegaze. Founder Rich Loren Balling says:
One need only trace a simple lineage like Black Sabbath through Darkthrone to see that over time, music compounds itself towards the extreme, until one day it is so extreme and dense and noise-rich, that the brutal transitions into bliss. The sonic palette is then cleansed and the listener can start the cycle over again. It isn’t difficult to see the leap from Transilvanian Hunger to a work like Jesu’s Conqueror. I surmise that some of the most innovative music in the last decade has taken place in female pop, and even more specifically, in female neoperreo and reggaeton. After years of listening to extreme metal and harsh noise, this was my ground zero for the next reinvention.
The first single is “Fools Gold (Mi Vida Ha Ido Pa Atras),” and it finds Pyramids putting distorted ambient textures atop a reggaeton rhythm, with Rich and Emy splitting vocal duties. It comes with a video that Rich directed himself, and you can check that out below.
In related news, Pyramids/RX Bandits/Sound of Animals Fighting member Matt Embree has a new solo LP coming in March, and he just released new single “Miscellium” a few days ago. RX Bandits are also playing The Resignation on tour (and doing a “fan pick” Brooklyn show) in March.
Tracklist
Fools Gold (Mi Vida Ha Ido Pa Atras)
Pretty Pigs
Bones and Eggshells
Mira Mirame Brillar
Brine
Cracks
God of Light
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For more, listen to our podcast episode with Rich Loren Balling: