Ex-Hyena remain hidden in plain view on ‘Sight Unseen’
The latest single from the Boston dark-pop duo is set for a March 11 release via Hush Club Ltd. and Brutal Resonance Records
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Ex-Hyena’s highly anticipated sophomore album ‘Moon Reflections’ out June 24
BOSTON, MA [March 11, 2022] -- It has been said that if you gaze into the abyss long enough, the abyss willingly gazes back at you. But what happens when you gaze too long into the moon up above? The reflections that beam back, cutting through the darkness of night, have the power to enchant and entrance. Ex-Hyena emit those emotions as well, as the Boston duo’s forthcoming album, Moon Reflections, set for June 24 release via Brutal Resonance/Hush Club LTD., is finally starting to take sonic shape.
The pieces to this dark disco riddle began late last year with the release of the kinetic “Nightmare Pills,” and fueled a tryst through the shadows of Lynchian midnight with January’s “Capture the Stills.” On March 11, a third single from the LP emerges through dawn, a tumbling house of mirrors called “Sight Unseen.” This new Ex-Hyena single is backed with a propulsive remix from California producer Pleasure Policy, continuing the duo’s trend of pairing up singles with exclusive remixes from the electronic music community.
“‘Sight Unseen’ is about how we fill our headspace with beautiful noise and music to combat thoughts of loneliness,” says Reuben Bettsak. “The line ‘From our beds into the waves,’ conjures up stormy dreams and memories. An ocean can be dangerous, dark, and beautiful at the same time. Love can be those things as well.”
Unnerving and comforting against its asphalt bounce, “Sight Unseen” serves as the companion piece to previous single “Capture the Stills,” which dropped a beat on Ex-Hyena’s 2022 presence and showed 2021 debut album Artificial Pulse was no fluke. It earned high praise from the likes of IDie:You Die, White Light//White Heat, and Turn Up The Volume, among others; and garnered radio play around the world, including spins from Artefaktor Radio, Subculture Shock, Radio Obscura, Your First Listen, A Moment of Darkness, and Infectious Unease.
“I think ‘Capture the Stills’ and ‘Sight Unseen’ are the most recently recorded songs on the album and they most reflect where we are at sonically right now,” says Bo Barringer. “Both songs have these big swelling pads underneath them and more hip-hop inspired beats. They sound fuller and richer to me than some of our earlier stuff. We allowed ourselves to stretch out a bit more on this album.”
Adds Bettsak: “These three songs – ‘Capture the Stills,’ ‘Sight Unseen,’ and ‘Nightmare Pills’ – are a good representation of the overall tone of the album. Ten songs with big beats, twists and turns, dark vibes, with some minimal moments, but also songs with lots of layers. Having Dave Westner mixing the album was an awesome touch. Theme wise, the album is almost split into sections. There are songs that delve into memories, and the intricacies of our minds, other songs play out like noir movie scenes.”
Though as noted through each single release from Artificial Pulse, the music of Ex-Hyena would be strictly dystopian if it didn’t already reflect a burgeoning reality that the end of days may be fast approaching. What was once relegated to far-off sci-fi fantasies – outlaw biker gangs roaming the streets, social decay corroding all corners of modern life, a general malaise that has set in like abandoned concrete structures casting shadows on our hopes and dreams – is now part of our daily existence as we come to grips with a never-ending pandemic. But perhaps it’s always been this way. As “Sight Unseen” suggests, we fill our heads with distractive tissue, if only to not be insane, but others have done this already for decades. Perhaps we’re just noticing. Perhaps we’re all the targets.
“It’s hard to argue that it’s NOT the End Times,” admits Barringer. “It probably feels like it because, for the first time in generations, people of privilege – yes, people like us – feel threatened by Covid, Trumpism, climate change etc. But I’m sure for much of the world it has ALWAYS felt like End Times. History is full of really dark moments and at every point in history there are totally catastrophic things happening to people in other parts of the world. It’s just hitting closer to home for many of us.”
Bettsak appears a bit more hopeful. “I hope these are not the end times,” he says. “I'm optimistic about the future, but there's a lot we need to do to improve our world.”
Media Contact: Please direct all press inquiries to Reuben Bettsak at reubenbettsak@gmail.com or Michael Marotta at michael@publisist.co.
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‘Sight Unseen’ single artwork:
Art design by Reuben Bettsak; layout by Ryan Thomas Mitchell
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Ex-Hyena artist bio:
Does music in 2022 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, Pleasure Policy, 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 issued their October ‘21 single “Nightmare Pills.” A second taste of forthcoming sophomore album Moon Reflections arrived in January ‘22 in the throbbing “Capture the Stills,” and a shadowy March ‘22 single called “Sight Unseen” not only furthered Ex-Hyena’s undertow-like draw, but also welcomed an artist and partner with Brutal Resonance Records, which will deliver their sounds to a physical product format.
“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.”
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Proper praise for Ex-Hyena:
“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
“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)
“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
It sounds as if this Boston tandem warns us for Big Brother’s ambition to brainwash humankind with mind-altering chemicals with this darksome, yet instantly striking electro jam. Haunting, feverish, and gloomy are the keywords here. Best played at night while being dazed and confused by the surreal times we experienced the past 18 months. _Turn Up The Volume
“'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
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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), Mechanical Breakdown (KEXP), Radio Black Room (Italy), Infectious Unease, Sound Obscura, Johnny Normal’s Synthetic Sunday Show, Procession, Wave Dimension, 1st 3 Magazine, Fused Wirelress, ElektroSpank, Loud Cities, A Moment of Darkness, Subculture Shock, Transmission NJ, BICT Radio, Virtual Detention (WZBC), Rodon FM, Wintermute, Radio Coolio (Canada), Radio Oscura (Downtown Radio), Christian’s Cosmic Corner (Mark Skin Radio), Boston Emissions, Bay State Rock, Wave Press, The Music Bugle, BumbleBee Radio, Stuck In Thee Garage, On The Town with Mikey D (WMFO), Synth-Pop Fantatic, Brian Carpenter’s Free Association (WZBC), This Is Not A Show, If It’s Too Loud, Odilon’s Grip Edgy Electronic Beats, Jay Breitling’s Parcheesi Redux, Oh Hello Boston, Everything You Know Is Wrong on Salem State Radio, Blood Makes Noise, Tinnitist, Mark Skin Radio, and other fine independent outlets that are not run by rampant corporate fuckery.
Press Contact: michael@publisist.co or reubenbettsak@gmail.com
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