Ex-Hyena offer up ‘Nightmare Pills’
Out October 1, the Boston dark-pop duo make their Hush Club Ltd. debut with a stirring new single that goes bump in the night
SPOTIFY . FACEBOOK . INSTAGRAM . BANDCAMP . YOUTUBE . LINKTREE . HUSH CLUB LTD.
‘Nightmare Pills’ marks Ex-Hyena’s first new music since their acclaimed Winter 2021 debut album ‘Artificial Pulse’
BOSTON, MA [October 1, 2021] -- When Ex-Hyena first formed a short while ago, the musical project of Bo Barringer and Reuben Bettsak attempted to craft the sound of an emerging dystopia, a sort of fantasy land that existed along the margins of reality and within the confines of the imagination. A very short time later, their music is simply the sound of our enclosed reality.
Anxious, paranoid, conflicting, and foreboding, the maniacal and minimal electronic compositions from the Boston duo have soundtracked our tumultuous era through dark disco currents like few bands attempting to make musical sense of the now.
Several months after the unveiling of debut album Artificial Pulse -- which earned high praise from the likes of Brutal Resonance, White Light // White Heat, Blood Makes Noise, Darkness Calling, ReGen, and other mindful purveyors of the dark editorial arts -- Ex-Hyena return with the the brisk dusk of autumn to unleash a new single titled “Nightmare Pills.” The sinister and elusive track, out everywhere October 1 complete with Jackson VanHorn remix as its b-side, marks their debut effort in collaboration with Los Angeles-based music collective and independent label Hush Club Ltd.
“The song has a sinister, yet fun, dancey vibe, and I think the lyrics reflect those moods,” says Bettsak. “There is seduction and deception going on for the purpose of some crazy mind control experiment. It delves a bit into the idea of futuristic mind control drugs that give the user nightmarish, psychedelic visions. We've developed a bit of an Ex-Hyena universe, via our sound, and lyrics. In my head I see noir, and futuristic city elements wrapped together. High class meets seedy underworld in this song. Is it a date gone wrong? Government spies using mind control drugs to get what they want? A psychedelic nightmare trip? You decide.”
The past year has been a vertical whirlwind for Ex-Hyena at a time when we’re all required to stand still as we wait out the pandemic. But the duo’s reach has extended far from the jealous shores of any local music community, and instead reached across the underground to like-minded individuals who share in this frenetic sonic vision. Remix efforts with Denial Waits, Blood Handsome, and Control I’m Here, as well as in-house collaborations with R.M. Hendrix, Tequila Sirens, and Downcity Armory, allowed Ex-Hyena to open up their cocoon ever so slightly; in turn, “Nightmare Pills” was mixed by Dave Westner at Woolly Mammoth, the first time a hired gun was brought in to influence the Ex-Hyena universe.
“Since we recorded and released Artificial Pulse, we’ve learned a lot about what makes our sound work,” says Barringer. “Having our songs remixed by other artists, remixing other artists’ songs, remixing our own songs. Having to prepare for live performance songs that we’d only collaborated on remotely in our respective basements. Finally playing in the same room together as Ex-Hyena. We’ve had to take the machine apart and put it back together several times. So there’s this natural evolution that informs everything you do after.”
Barringer adds: “First of all, having someone else mix the new material (Westner at Woolly Mammoth) took it to a whole new level, giving way more punch and sheen. Also, with an album already under our belts, we felt more freedom to open the sound up and take it in new and different directions. Although we were heavily influenced by all types of ‘dance’ music on Artificial Pulse, ‘Nightmare Pills' is probably the first actual ‘dance’ song, if you will. Having created a cohesive sound, an Ex-Hyena universe, with the first album, we kind of gave ourselves a little launchpad to lift off in new directions.”
That direction has led them west to Hush Club Ltd., whose roser includes Male Tears, DüllHaus, Pleasure Policy, and the aforementioned Blood Handsome and Control I’m Here. The sophomore album from Ex-Hyena, as expected, is forthcoming sometime in the future.
“Hush Club has a really great stable of bands and a dedicated following,” Barringer says. “We are super psyched to be working with them to bring this to a wider audience.” Adds Bettsak: “We’re super excited to join Hush Club Ltd. We initially discovered a lot of the bands by following [music promotion community] Darkness Calling. We did a remix for a Denial Waits EP that includes a bunch of Hush Club Ltd. bands, and then did a remix for the Control I'm Here X Blood Handsome ‘Dancing on the Edge of the Knife’ release. It's also exciting to be the first band from the East Coast on the label.”
Media Contact: Please direct all press inquiries to Reuben Bettsak at reubenbettsak@gmail.com or Michael Marotta at michael@publisist.co.
***
‘Nightmare Pills’ single artwork, illustrated by Ian Adams:
***
Ex-Hyena artist bio:
Does music in 2021 need to reflect the mood of society, or can it exist beyond its influence? For Ex-Hyena, the new musical collaboration between longtime Boston music conspirators Reuben Bettsak and Bo Barringer, the answer is something a little more complicated than just yes or no. And that’s a reflection of this era all on its own.
Ex-Hyena taps into the doom and gloom of our current climate while also existing on its own sonic plane. Debut album Artificial Pulse arrived in the frigid spell of New England’s 2021 winter, capturing the sound of a mutant disco alien dance party where cold electronics and warm emotion sprawl across a nocturnal dystopia of underground electro. It earned praise from the likes of Brutal Resonance, White Light // White Heat, Blood Makes Noise, Darkness Calling, ReGen, and other mindful purveyors of the dark editorial arts, while remix exchanges and collaborations with Denial Waits, Blood Handsome, and Control I’m Here crafted a network of like-minded creatives aching to break free from pandemic age restrictions. The attention across the underground led Ex-Hyena to Hush Club Ltd., the blossoming alternative label that will issue their new single, October’s “Nightmare Pills.”
“For me, everything happening [today] definitely shapes things lyrically, but at the same time, I also need to escape into the music world we are creating,” says Bettsak. “With this Ex-Hyena album, it's kind of like, ‘take a ride with us into this noir, futuristic adventure world, where technology is at its peak, but the robots might get ya’. I think the combination of COVID-19, and watching the third season of Westworld, got us channeling vibes of sci-fi, dark, technically advanced, but ruined cities.”
The DNA of Ex-Hyena runs deep, down a jagged line of Boston bands tracing back nearly 20 years. Bettsak and Barringer have collaborated in the past in bands and projects like Future Carnivores, Emerald Comets, Guillermo Sexo, and probably others lost to memory, false starts, and muted ambitions. So while their chemistry was set on course long ago, adding new sonic chemicals to the mix -- electro, techno, darkwave, synth-pop, and post-rock -- developed a more kinetic element.
“Bo and I are both prolific musicians who really share a musical kinship,” says Bettsak. “The musical vision really came together fast. We figured out our roles in creating the music. I think the first two songs, ‘Shades’, and ‘Fortress Supreme’, really hit on a vibe we wanted to explore more. Bo basically created 10 more music tracks, dumped them in a folder, and over the next 10 weeks (around April and May), I wrote lyrics, and recorded my vocals, and guitar to a few tracks. And then Bo added his vocals, and mixed the album. Lyrically, I took things in different directions as well.”
Adds Barringer: “Our previous collaborations had always been fruitful. It was just a matter of time before we started making music in some incarnation again. We dipped our toes into the water just before quarantine and we were digging where it was going. So it was kind of a no-brainer for us to dive head-in. It came from a pretty free, open exchange of ideas. I was just writing instrumentals with a beat, texture and mood that I was really vibin’ on and Reuben put them through his own internal filter and gave it depth and dimension. It was challenging, but at the same time, it was one of the easiest things I’ve ever been involved in.”
Easy music for difficult times. That’s the mood of Ex-Hyena, and maybe it reflects what’s going on in the world after all -- and maybe we just don’t want to admit it. At least on the surface of things.
“I feel the despair,” admits Barringer. “Who the fuck knows what’s gonna happen next month? Next year? Is COVID-19 the worst of it? Or is 2030 gonna make 2021 look like a walk in the park? Music isn’t going to answer that for us, but I don’t think it’s possible for music made these days to not be affected by the trash fire of it all.”
***
Positive affirmation in media outlets:
“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
“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
“'Instant Fires' delves deep into the chaos that has become modern life. Dark, poetic, hegemonic-narcipop has arrived on the scene to score the apocalyptic vibes of today. Hypnotic, mysterious techno thriller music for people who laugh at the absurdity of our new, luddite life this agorophorock-with-synths-throwback-to-industrial-pop timelines that learned what it needed from the past, packed it up, and was violently expelled back and out of the mouth of the universe… Cool. Seductive. Dangerous.” _Blood Makes Noise
“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
***
The unmistakable sound of Ex-Hyena has been seen and heard on:
Synthentral, Artefaktor Radio (Mexico City), Darkness Calling, Flyfew Radio, White Light//White Heat, Backpacks And Magazines (WMBR), Radio Black Room (Italy), BICT Radio, Virtual Detention (WZBC), Radio Coolio (Canada), Radio Oscura (Downtown Radio), Boston Emissions, Bay State Rock, BumbleBee Radio, Stuck In Thee Garage, On The Town with Mikey D (WMFO), Brian Carpenter’s Free Association (WZBC), This Is Not A Show, Odilon’s Grip Edgy Electronic Beats, Jay Breitling’s Parcheesi Redux, Oh Hello Boston, and other fine independent outlets that are not run by corporate fuckery.
Press Contact: michael@publisist.co or reubenbettsak@gmail.com
SPOTIFY . FACEBOOK . INSTAGRAM . BANDCAMP . YOUTUBE . LINKTREE . HUSH CLUB LTD.