“I think this record is us finding home,” says Mahan, with Fisher adding: “it was a whole new positive experience— having a renewed relationship with the city we’re from and having a pride in that. i like the idea that this record has taken you on a voyage but it begins and ends in Atlanta.”
Algiers returns with “Shook”, their first new music since 2020’s there is no year, called “a heady concoction of post-punk, ‘60s soul and political insight.” (nme ****). shook features contributions from Rage Against the Machine’s Zack de la Rocha, Boy Harsher’s Jake Matthews, Big Rube, Billy Woods, Backxwash, and many more.
September’s standalone release of “Shook” single “Bite Back” was greeted a glowing “song you need” review: “a sober state of the union rallying cry for the revolution.”The band gathered a posse of like-minded artists to create their fourth album, “Shook”, out February 24th on Matador. Stacked with guests spanning icons through to future stars, shook is a lightning rod for an elusive yet universal energy and feeling. a plurality of voices; a spiritual and geographical homecoming; a strategy of communion in a burning world; the story of an end of a relationship; an Atlanta front porch summer party.
Ultimately, it’s a 17-track set of the most mind-expanding and thrilling music that you are likely to hear anytime soon. Algiers have always been unflinching, but “Shook” is at the same time notably joyous and celebratory.
The band pay respect to a sprawling lineage of rap and punk iconoclasts from dj premier, dj screw and dead boys to lukah, griselda and dïat – chopping and screwing beats on a dusty sp-404 and a sequential circuits tempest, building imagined sample libraries from scratch. while community and collaboration has always been integral to Algiers’ ethos, “Shook” brings this to its fullest manifestation.“It very much deepens and broadens the world of Algiers”, says drummer Matt Tong. “We were working in an environment that we were used to”, says guitarist Lee Tesche. “it feels like the most Algiers record that we’ve ever made.” the accomplishment of this record is made all the more impressive by the fact it was made by a band who were falling apart and on the verge of breaking up.
Algiers shake you with tour-de-force new single ‘Irreversible Damage’ featuring Zack de la Rocha, in one of his rare guest appearances. “This a relapse / what it be god / No rehab for my jihad / A rapture in a grief storm / Time on my neck an’ it be gone” de la Rocha spits to a breakneck climax of clattering beats, snaking guitars and pulsing electronics. “The end of that song is the sound of joy,” says Algiers frontman Franklin James Fisher. “That’s what hope sounds like in 2022 when everything’s falling apart.” It follows the recent release of new single/video ‘Bite Back’ featuring billy woods and Backxwash.
Coming Feburary 24th Algiers returns with “Shook”, their first new music since 2020’s There Is No Year, called “a heady concoction of post-punk, ‘60s soul and political insight.” (NME ****) Shook features contributions from Rage Against The Machine’s Zack De La Rocha, Boy Harsher’s Jae Matthews, Future Islands’ Samuel T. Herring, Big Rube, Billy Woods, Backxwash, and many more. September’s standalone release of Shook single “Bite Back” was greeted with a glowing “Song You Need” review: “A sober state of the union rallying cry for the revolution.”
“The world got shook”
So Algiers formed a crew. The band—who have built one of the most exciting catalogs and cult followings of recent years, with 2020’s “There Is No Year” described as “electrifying and unpredictable” (The Observer) and “precise, thoughtful and powerful” (NME) —gathered a posse of like-minded artists to create their fourth album, SHOOK, out February 24th on Matador. Stacked with guests spanning icons through to future stars, SHOOK is a lightning rod for an elusive yet universal energy and feeling. A plurality of voices; a spiritual and geographical homecoming; a strategy of communion in a burning world; the story of an end of a relationship; an Atlanta front porch summer party. Ultimately, it’s a 17-track set of the most mind-expanding and thrilling music that you are likely to hear anytime soon.
Algiers have always been unflinching, but “Shook is at the same time notably joyous and celebratory. It was born when Fisher and Mahan found themselves back in their native Atlanta for several months, reeling from growing pressures and burnout as touring musicians.
The accomplishment of this record is made all the more impressive by the fact it was made by a band who were falling apart and on the verge of breaking up. But instead they have produced an extraordinary, transformative record born from a shared sense of place and experience. “I think this record is us finding home,” says Mahan, with Fisher adding: “It was a whole new positive experience— having a renewed relationship with the city we’re from and having a pride in that. I like the idea that this record has taken you on a voyage but it begins and ends in Atlanta.”
‘Shook,’ the upcoming album from Algiers out February 24th.
The Fat Angel Sings 