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More than 20 years after recording their avant-punk swan song Cough, Black Eyes return to Dischord with Hostile Design. The album’s six all-new songs were written directly in the wake of their April 2023 reunion shows and see the quintet pushing deeper into the ominous dubscapes and feral punk that defined their first two LPs. In 2022, after nearly two decades apart, the five members decided to begin rehearsals with the goal of celebrating the 20th anniversary of their debut self-titled album in the spring of 2023. What started as a few lowkey practices quickly built up steam, and the reunion revealed their essential intensity has remained undiluted. Once they wrapped the first weekend of shows, Black Eyes convened a meeting and immediately agreed to continue pushing forward. No longer in reunion mode, they took their next steps as a fully operational band. This album is the first output of the new chapter. Written over a period of fifteen months between August 2023-November 2024, Hostile Design’s lyrics explore the political, sexual and interpersonal with poetic fluidity. As with all their work, the band skips didactic platitudes and turns the lens into the shadows. How does it feel to live through times of terrifying violence? How does it shape us, and how do we shape each other? Hostile Design was recorded at Tonal Park studios over three days, with Ian MacKaye resuming his role as producer and Don Godwin engineering. The instrumentation returns to Cough’s two drums, bass, guitar and sax lineup, but adds some fresh elements. Live multichannel dubbing, now a standard of their shows, has been integrated into the performances, as have electronic drum triggers and samples as well as the occasional bass clarinet passage. Taking the breathless density of Cough as their starting point, the arrangements unfurl into something more spacious and, in moments, haunting. In the years since their initial dissolution, each member has pursued their own creative paths, including drone rock, avant techno, ambient, sonic collage, visual art, video work and more. In coming back together, the breadth of their collective practices are all integrated into the music, but it will only take a second for listeners to hear the unmistakable sound of Black Eyes. In celebration of the album’s release, Black Eyes have organized Speaking In Tongues Festival, a four night series of events that builds off the community-focused approach of their 2023 zine of the same name. Inspired by the lineups from their first twelve shows between April 2023- March 2024, Speaking In Tongues invites many of those same artists – including Pissed Jeans, Luke Stewart and TALsounds – as well as longtime friends and collaborators, including More Eaze and Dolo Percussion. The members’ solo projects Earthen Sea and Relaxer will also join the lineups
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