Suicide co-founder Alan Vega‘s vault of unreleased material continues to be excavated, and a new posthumous album Insurrection will be out May 31 via In the Red.
“Insurrection was created in the time period around 1997/98, after Mutator and prior to Vega’s 1999 release of 2007 and captures the intense energy of NYC in the 90s rife with crime, killing, hate, fascism, racism, and moral bankruptcy,” says Vega’s creative and life partner, Liz Lamere. “You can hear the tortured souls floating through this album. Post-Gulf War angst still enveloped Alan. He was having premonitions about a major terror attack in the US, well before 9/11. The upcoming birth of his son raised further awareness of the state of our world. All these emotions are mirrored in the sounds he magnetized. And true to Vega form, there remains hope and empowerment coursing through the tracks. In the almost three decades of going into the studio with Vega, we recorded significantly more material than the seven albums released. Vega’s intention was to experiment with sound which would become the canvas for the poetry that reflected his vision of the universe. Because the goal wasn’t to make albums, he had no timeline or constraints and would freely follow new paths uncovered along the way.”
You can listen to “Mercy,” which clanks with industrial percussion, now. Says Alan Vega collaborator and producer Jared Artaud, “‘Mercy’ reminds me of some of the talks I had with Alan about Free Jazz, when we would hang out and listen to Albert Ayler’s ‘Spirits Rejoice’ and Pharoah Sanders’ ‘Black Unity’ albums together. It has this underlying Jazz spirit in the track that is unlike anything I heard him do before. The track is sparse yet deep and poetic, and shows the minimalist spirit Alan had, where he could always make the most from the fewest elements possible.”
The video for “Mercy” was directed by Douglas Hart, the onetime Jesus & Mary Chain bassist who has made videos for Paul Weller, Primal Scream, Pet Shop Boys, The Horrors and more. “To underscore the powerful rhythms of the song, the video loops and repeats simple movements, like the repeated opening and closing of doors,” Hart says. “The textures of the music are illustrated by using both black and white and heavy colour-tinted images.” Watch below.
INSURRECTION:
SEWER
INVASION
CRASH
CYANIDE SOUL
MURDER ONE
FIREBALLER FEVER
GENOCIDE
CHAINS
JET LORD
MERCY
FIREBALLER SPIRIT