Algiers purveys a sound that, on paper, should not gel. As a fusion gospel and soul elements with the din of post-punk and clamorous industrial, the components should cleave against rather than complement one another. Yet by wrangling these disparate parts together, this trio of Atlanta natives crafts something wholly original. Steeped in atmosphere, the record sounds as though it was recorded in a haunted rock quarry or in the bowels of an abandoned factory. Vocalist/guitarist Franklin James Fisher’s delivery alternates from fire-spitting indignation to ghostly crooning, while guitarist Lee Tesche and bassist Ryan Mahan conjure all manner of spooky tones and textures. Politically-charged, challenging, and fearless, yet still groovy as hell, Algiers has made one of the best, most thoroughly captivating debuts of the year. At once eerie and energizing, Algiers is a dispatch from survivors of a Southern Gothic world laid waste in an apocalypse
Quotes used in this video and their source: ‘The most painful state of being is remembering the future, particularly the one you’ll never have’ – Søren Kierkegaard ‘The road to freedom has always been stalked by death’ – Angela Davis ‘A nation regenerates itself only upon heaps of corpses’ – Louis Antoine de Saint-Just ‘History repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce’ – Karl Marx ‘Everything under heaven is in utter chaos, the situation is excellent’ – Mao Tse-Tung ‘Art is dead, do not consume its corpse. Capital is undead’ – Unknown ‘Truth is on the side of the oppressed’ – Malcolm X ‘Peoples do not condemn kings they drop them back into the void’ – Maximilien Robespierre ‘I am the people. I’m not the pig’ – Fred Hampton ‘We revolt simply because we can no longer breathe’ – Frantz Fanon
The Fat Angel Sings 