Ex-Hyena explore the deepest realm of movement with ‘In Slow Motion’
The subversive Boston duo re-emerges with a propulsive new single set for September 22 release via Re:Mission Entertainment
The lead single off Ex-Hyena’s forthcoming third album ‘A Kiss of the Mind’
is b/w an exclusive Child of Night remixOUT NOW: Listen to ‘In Slow Motion’ via Re:Mission Entertainment
Photo Credit: Ex-Hyena
Listen to Ex-Hyena on Spotify x Read the premiere on Post-Punk.com
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BOSTON, MA [September 22, 2023] -- The music of Ex-Hyena has often explored our collective sense of being through hyper-specific moments. But if we were granted the ability to slow those moments down, would we react differently, and would we have a greater or lesser understanding of what transpires before us? That’s at the core of the Boston dystopian dance-pop duo’s new single and video, “In Slow Motion,” a sensory exploration of time and meaning set for release on Friday, September 22 through Re:Mission Entertainment. Both the single and video were premiered by Post-Punk.com.
The propulsive and driving “In Slow Motion,” backed with a fevered remix from Ohio’s Child of Night, marks a new era for Ex-Hyena. It’s the deliberate first offering from Reuben Bettsak and Bo Barringer’s forthcoming third album, A Kiss of the Mind, and their debut for the respected Oklahoma-based darkwave record label.
Since its inception in 2021, surfacing through the haze of a global pandemic and illuminated by the city’s darkest corners, Ex-Hyena has delivered a steady and prolific beat across underground dance floors, with two albums (2021’s Artificial Pulse and 2022’s Moon Reflections), a handful of singles and EPs, and collaborations with Control I’m Here, Hororhaus, The Gothsicles, BlakLight, Pleasure Policy, Jackson VanHorn, Denial Waits, Blood Handsome, and others.
Prolific by design and mysterious by nature, the project has been lauded globally by the likes of Post-Punk.com (“a luxurious combination of shadow and sound”), Brutal Resonance, White Light // White Heat, Blood Makes Noise, Darkness Calling, ReGen, Obscura Undead, Wintermüte, Flyflew, and countless others.
Now, through “In Slow Motion,” Ex-Hyena’s distinctive, voyeuristic sound, which blurs the line between our tense reality and aching nightmares, once again looks at the world directly in front of it, taking panoramic snapshots of our daily routines and submerging them into the darker depths of our psyche.
“Things seem to move so fast sometimes and it's hard to savor moments, or understand a magical day, a traumatic event, a breakup or a fight, etc.,” says Bettsak. “It's kind of the whole imagining life as a movie where you could replay things in slow motion – with other psychedelic effects for good measure. In the lyrics 'Leaning backwards / There's impact from your words / They sneak into my brain like a scorpion,' I was picturing an argument with a significant other in slow motion. With actual colorful letters coming out and such. The song is also a celebration of movement and cherishing life. And of course it delves into our fears and how they can be debilitating.”
Produced and mixed by Barringer, and Mastered by Adam Stillson at Decade Music Studio, “In Slow Motion” has already become something of a fan favorite in the Ex-Hyena live arsenal. Employing shoegaze guitars and a spectrum of sound to create a yearning depth that aligns with its emotive drive, as if everything in the world depends on the next impactful beat, “In Slow Motion,” continues to pull back Ex-Hyena’s sonic curtain to display colorful shades of the project’s dark energy. It made sense to unveil it as an introduction to A Kiss of the Mind.
“It's one of the most direct, catchy, energetic songs on the album,” says Bettsak. “We thought it would be great to start with the bang it brings. It's a song with powerful hooks and impactful lyrics. I also love that it makes you dance and dynamically keeps building up even though it's somewhat repetitive.”
Bettsak adds: “A lot of the songs from A Kiss of the Mind, including ‘In Slow Motion’, deal with the challenge of communicating with one another. It can be so hard to understand each other even when we know each other so well. It can be difficult to understand each other even when we know the same language and this modern world makes it even harder with all the distractions.”
These themes come into cinematic view with the “In Slow Motion” music video, which debuts on the same day the song permeates the streaming platforms. Directed by Bettsak, the video brings the listener into a visual world of zebra people, dancing dragons, and strange portal doors that lead to the unknown. And it furthers Ex-Hyena’s sense of world-building, as it stars Irina and Cyan from the band’s prior videos for “At the Moondial” and “Nightmare Pills,” as well as Alfonso from “Sight Unseen.”
From here, the beat rolls on, and Ex-Hyena’s future-noir styling would not be complete without a look ahead. Another new single and companion remix via Re:Mission is on the way for the tail end of this year or early 2024, ahead of the unveiling of A Kiss of the Mind.
“We can't wait to share those as well,” Bettsak concludes. “We'll definitely have live shows for the rest of the year and through 2024. Essentially, we are just thrilled to share the new album with everyone, work with this great label, play shows, meet great people, and collaborate.”
Because it’s those moments, viewed and absorbed at whatever speed they play out, that shape the world in front of us.
Media Contact: Direct all press inquiries to Reuben Bettsak at reubenbettsak@gmail.com.
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‘In Slow Motion’ production credits:
Ex-Hyena is Bo Barringer and Reuben Bettsak
‘In Slow Motion’ is the first single from the forthcoming 3rd Ex-Hyena album, A Kiss of the Mind
Written by Reuben Bettsak and Bo Barringer
Recorded by Bo Barringer and Reuben Bettsak
Produced and mixed by Bo Barringer
Remixed by Child Of Night
Mastered by Adam Stillson at Decade Music Studio
Artwork by Ian Adams
Released by Re:Mission Entertainment
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‘In Slow Motion’ single artwork:
Art Design by Ian Adams
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Ex-Hyena 2023 artist bio:
Ex-Hyena is human psychology set to music.
Since its inception in 2021, surfacing through the haze of a global pandemic and illuminated by the city’s darkest corners, the prolific collaboration between longtime Boston music conspirators Reuben Bettsak and Bo Barringer has quickly made a name for itself during a time when a project initially set to create a tense, neurotic soundtrack for a far-off dystopian landscape suddenly felt all too real. The scenes that play out across Ex-Hyena’s stark brand of world-building, where the detachment from an uneasy society on edge is only matched by the residual effects of our fractured psyche, are chronicled by expressive lyricisms and a minimal, propulsive electronic music foundation. Ex-Hyena taps into the doom and gloom of our current climate while also existing on its own sonic plane.
After instantly declaring arrival with the detached cool and mummified swagger of “Shades,” debut album Artificial Pulse arrived in the frigid spell of New England’s unforgiving 2021 winter, capturing the sound of a mutant disco dance party where cold electronics and warm emotion sprawl across a nocturnal dystopia of underground electro. The debut effort earned praise from the global underground community, with Brutal Resonance placing it in its Top 5 albums of 2021, and even broke through to the mainstream, as Ex-Hyena earned a Dance/Electronic Artist of the Year nomination in the 2021 Boston Music Awards.
But where the acclaimed 2021 debut album Artificial Pulse danced through the shadows of reality, from waking up in dystopian landscapes to riding highways with biker gangs, 2022's Moon Reflections (Brutal Resonance Records/HUSH LTD) bridged the physical into the psychological. Moon Reflections dives into the deep, murky waters of memories, it falls down a void of nightmares, it experiences extreme loneliness, and it also highlights a few characters via cinematic scenes from the Ex-Hyena future world.
But the beat did not stop there. In fact, it fueled Barringer and Bettsak’s dedicated approach to collaboration and community far beyond its staid New England borders. Ex-Hyena may be Boston-based, but it continues to position itself as a global project, bringing its city’s scene to others around the world. Delivering a steady and prolific beat across underground dance floors, collaborations and remix exchanges with the likes of Horrorhaus, The Gothsicles, BlakLight, Pleasure Policy, Jackson VanHorn, Denial Waits, Blood Handsome, RM Hendrix, The Mystic Underground, Sawtooth, and others. The collaborations led to a 19-track remix album, Moon Reflections Remixed, this past March.
With a third album titled A Kiss of the Mind forthcoming, Ex-Hyena have unveiled signing to Oklahoma’s Re:Mission entertainment for the release of the record’s first single. The pulsating “In Slow Motion,” is b/w a Child of Night remix, which flips the song upside down and turns up the dark synth-pop elements. The new single, which follows the summer’s three-track EP collaboration with Control I’m Here, arrives to all DSP on September 22 complete with a companion music video. It is hailed as one of the catchiest and most driving songs on the new album.
“Fear can be a debilitating force that can mess things up for yourself and also for relationships, friendships, etc.,” says Bettsak. “'In Slow Motion' explores the themes of fear and also motion. It's like picturing our actions through slow motion movements and dancing."
For a band immersed in darkness, the future remains illuminated. Ex-Hyena have, in a short time, developed a captivating, strobe-lit live show, sharing the stage with the likes of Korine, Haunt Me, Traitrs, Blood Handsome, Harsh Symmetry, Komrads, and others. And the project has garnered significant global radio play and alternative press for its distinctive, voyeuristic sound, having been heard and/or featured on Post-Punk.com (“a luxurious combination of shadow and sound”), Brutal Resonance, White Light // White Heat, Blood Makes Noise, Darkness Calling, ReGen, Obscura Undead, Wintermüte, Flyflew, and countless other mindful purveyors of the dark editorial arts and radio-ready transmissions.
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Human praise for Ex-Hyena:
“Ex-Hyena experiment with staccato, Hertztones, hip-hop-inspired beats and complex rhythms, bolstering the project deeper into sonic territories that are impossible to label. They crafted a shadowy blend of industrial, disco, and psych-rock with synthpop.” _Post-Punk.com
“The most imaginative dream the space age has ever known. Moon Reflections is retro-infused peerance into the future. Laced with synth-pop and darkwave, Ex-Hyena constructs tales of synthetic nightmares and floating euphorias. At times this album is dark dream-pop, and other times glitchy, chill-out music with bits of strange melancholy. ‘Fractured’ most exemplifies this interaction, with its chilly mechanistic vocals and spare beats. ‘Nightmare Pills’ is another solid track that lends to a very cinematic universe of a world gone mad. Probe 7, over and out.” _Procession Magazine
“...a must-listen for all of you dark disco electronic freaks. They play almost synthwave music but with a quite peculiar twist and are keen on the new wave approach to things in life, which means in their 10 new songs it is impossible you won't find (a lot I hope) things that have passed through your vast mind. Ex-Hyena likely have heard (y)our thoughts and they did put it all down orchestrated and stardusted.” _White Light//White Heat
“Some interesting and evocative shades from Boston’s Ex-Hyena on their new single. Despite its slinky lope, ‘Capture The Stills’ never lets you get comfortable in the groove, peppering in smoothly sculpted but disquieting programming and percussive tics. We often talk about the lush atmospheres of darkwave, but here you can see how familiar and commonly welcoming darkwave dancefloor sounds can be given an uncanny and alienating edge.” _I Die:You Die
“Ex-Hyena’s 'Artificial Pulse' gave me a bit of a shock when I listened to it... An electronic album inspired by both science-fiction and cyberpunk lore alike. But when I clicked that play button I didn’t get huge bass drops and four-on-the-floor dance rhythms. I was rather greeted with minimal electro, darkpop, and sometimes disco-inspired beats... [it's] an album that could easily play in a futuristic, smokey bar.” _Brutal Resonance’s Top 10 albums of 2021 (Number 5)
“If, like us, you’re into dystopian vibes, ‘Blade Runner’-esque color palettes, and hypnotic dance tracks, look no further than ‘Shades,’ the debut single by Ex-Hyena.” _Darkness Calling
“‘Motorfreaks’ presents the band’s dark disco style, with themes revolving around the perilous and lawless dystopian world of a future that is perhaps nearer than expected” _ReGen Magazine
“This twilight hallucination resonates as the shadowy side of Depeche Mode and the enigmatic darkwave murk of The Soft Moon. The iterating synth-riff at work here gets under your skin without asking. The atmosphere is impending, the tone is obscure, the color is black. All you need for a sonic nightmare.” _Turn Up The Volume
“It's a hypnotic and minimal album without a dry moment in between songs. Rather than focusing on a million different layers to generate a unique sound, Ex-Hyena utilizes a select set of electronic notes without coming out as overbearing. The beats are meticulous and well-crafted, which forced me to really focus on what was going on; it's this type of analyzing that I find most amusing in a song. Something different, something breathing, and something so out there that it encapsulates my attention.” _Brutal Resonance
“Bursting with an obsessive humming throbbing bassline, crispy mechanical electro rhythms, and off-tempo tight percussive patterns rambling bouncily through the neon-lit dark night, stabbed by vexed flashing glaring swathes of analog synths, while distressed stealthy dual vocals blend shady secret whispers, with high quivering mania, to unleash intense dramatic characters from the seedy underworld of ‘Motorfreaks’.” _White Light/White Heat
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The unmistakable sound of Ex-Hyena has been seen and heard on:
1st 3 Magazine, A Moment of Darkness, BICT Radio, Backpacks And Magazines (WMBR), Barcelona Alternative Nights, Bay State Rock, Black Room Radio, Blood Makes Noise, Boston Emissions, Brian Carpenter’s Free Association (WZBC), BumbleBee Radio, Christian’s Cosmic Corner (Mark Skin Radio), Darkness Calling, Electro Wave, ElektroSpank, Everything You Know Is Wrong on Salem State Radio, Flyfew Radio, Fused Wireless, Fused Wireless, Future Robot Lab, Heresey, If It’s Too Loud, Infectious Unease, Jay Breitling’s Parcheesi Redux, Johnny Normal’s Synthetic Sunday Show, Loud Cities, Mechanical Breakdown (KEXP), Odilon’s Grip’s Edgy Electronic Beats, Oh Hello Boston, On The Town with Mikey D (WMFO), Procession, Radio Black Room (Italy), Radio Coolio (Canada), Radio Oscura (Downtown Radio), Rodon FM, Screaming for Years, Songs from the Floorboard, Sound Obscura, Stuck In Thee Garage, Subculture Shock, Synth-Pop Fantatic, Synthentral, The Music Bugle, This Is Not A Show, Tinnitist, Transmissions NJ, Virtual Detention (WZBC), Vox Sinistra, Wave Dimension, Wave Press, White Light//White Heat, Wintermute, and other fine independent outlets that are not run by rampant corporate fuckery.
Press + Artist Contact: reubenbettsak@gmail.com
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