BOSTON DARK-POP DUO UNLEASH THEIR HIGHLY ANTICIPATED DEBUT ALBUM FEBRUARY 19
LISTEN TO ‘ARTIFICIAL PULSE’ ON SPOTIFY
Longtime musical conspirators Reuben Bettsak and Bo Barringer keep their nocturnal beat rolling with a groundbreaking debut album born of our modern societal decay
It was only a matter of time before society caught up to the dystopian future we’ve long been warned about. And as our cultural decay falls briskly into unreturnable depths of pity and despair, marred by paranoia, grief, and impending doom that would act as humanity’s desperate last gasp, it was only natural that a musical project emerged from the shadows and provided its grim sci-fi soundtrack.
Ex-Hyena, the nocturnal music duo of longtime sonic conspirators Reuben Bettsak and Bo Barringer, arrived in 2020 just as our country, and many others, were faltering into an emotional fun house of insanity and deception. On February 19, the band release Artificial Pulse, a debut album of stark, black-lit electronic-pop that could only be born of this moment of universal instability.
Ex-Hyena have already developed a global audience through a string of singles that began with a staunch detachment in the ultra-cool and nervous charm of “Shades.” Ex-Hyena’s beat suddenly grew more intense as the walls closed in, as the kaleidoscopic, padded-room romp of “Instant Fires” showed this was not a project content to lurk in the darker corners of the mind. The New Year was ushered in with a coldwave fury with “Motorfreaks,” the LP closer that unfolded a tale of biker-gangs revving through streets of urban decay, eluding the police and fueling a child’s nightmares.
A beat-driven menace that balances the hypnotic and the industrial, Ex-Hyena are set to unleash their vision of today’s tomorrowland. It’s sinister music for sinister times, and though it has found allies in the shady underworlds of post-punk, darkwave, and death disco, there is simply nothing else out there that sounds anything like it.
As has been stated by the band, the world of Artificial Pulse is a futuristic ruin. But in order for tomorrow to be in shambles, the sky must fall today. And as our modern anguish swirls in flashes of blackened neon and the comforts of the future crashing down upon time’s front door, the dystopian beat of Ex-Hyena is suddenly rooted in the right here, right now.
SPOTIFY . FACEBOOK . INSTAGRAM . BANDCAMP . YOUTUBE
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Artificial Pulse album artwork, illustrated by Ian Adams:
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Ex-Hyena artist bio:
Does music in 2020 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 2020 itself.
Ex-Hyena taps into the doom and gloom of our current climate while also existing on its own sonic plane. With a full length album on the way in early 2021, if we all make it there, the duo captures the sound of a mutant disco alien dance party, where cold electronics and warm emotion sprawl across a nocturnal dystopia of underground electro.
“For me, everything happening in 2020 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? Are COVID-19 and Trump the worst of it? Or is 2030 gonna make 2020 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.”
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Positive affirmation via 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 Track of the Day [02.02.21]
“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.”
“‘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”
“'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.”
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As seen and heard on:
Synthentral, Artefaktor Radio (Mexico City), Darkness Calling, 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