Post-punk band Algiers delivers gospel-tinged fury in San Francisco
SAN FRANCISCO -- Politically charged Atlanta-based post-punk band Algiers delivers dark, gospel-influenced tunes from the crew's latest Matador Records release 'Shook' when it headlines the Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco Thursday night.
Though the members behind the uniquely modern gospel-punk outfit have been working together for nearly a decade, the group has roots that go back even further. Guitarist Lee Tesche and bassist Ryan Mahan were childhood friends and had already played in a number Atlanta bands since their teens when singer/multi-instrumentalist and friend Franklin James Fischer became a regular fixture at their live shows in the late 2000s.
The trio began collaborating, crafting a sound that touched on the synth-powered proto-industrial minimalism of Suicide, the brooding intensity of Nick Cave's bands the Birthday Party and the Bad Seeds and the dub-influenced experimentation of PIL touched with Motown soul. Algiers aired it's first sampling of gospel-soul-meets-post-punk-ferocity in 2012 with the release of the single "Blood" on Atlanta-based label Double Phantom Records.
With Fischer's soulful voice and impassioned delivery taking center stage amid soundscapes that mixed howling guitars, industrial/hip-hop beats and ghostly vocal samples, the single attracted the attention of indie powerhouse Matador Records. The band's self-titled debut was released in the summer of 2015, dazzling reviewers and fans with its kaleidoscopic swirl of influences and feverish social commentary that had some likening the group to a post-punk version of Public Enemy.
The group would bring on former Bloc Party drummer Matt Tong before heading out on the road to promote the album, opening for modern post-punk outfit Interpol before bringing their savage, cathartic live shows to clubs on both sides of the Atlantic on their first headlining tour.
The group would maintain a busy schedule of live dates at European festivals as it began recording its sophomore album last year. Working with Bristol-based Portishead member Adrian Utley as producer, the band members began piecing together their disparate ideas into new songs, all informed the rising political and racial tensions in post-Trump U.S. and post-Brexit England.
The resulting album if anything elevates the spirited intensity and fervor of the band's first album. Songs like "Walk Like a Panther" (which samples a speech by slain Black Panther activist Fred Hampton) and the stomping title track "The Underside of Power" found Algiers distilling uneasiness over our increasingly dystopian present into a fiery, cathartic soundtrack.
The quartet would go on to playing high-profile sets at European festivals in addition to playing its first stadium-sized shows as direct support for Depeche Mode. In the U.S., the group would embark on a tandem tour with fellow Atlanta artist, psychedelic-soul singer/songwriter Curtis Harding. The band's third full-length effort for Matador reteamed Algiers with producers/engineers Randall Dunn (Sunn O))), Boris, Earth, Six Organs of Admittance) and Ben Greenberg, who both contributed synths and programming to There Is No Year.
While the band's lyrical commentary was if anything more pointed and direct given the political and social upheaval of the intervening years since their last record, the new material offers a more simmering intensity to the music than past albums. The effort came out in early 2020 to wide acclaim, just in time for the global pandemic to shut down any possibility of touring behind the release, though the group did manage to make its network television debut with an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert prior to the shutdown.
The band was finally able to return to the road with reduced COVID restrictions last year, though Dante Foley -- a member of Cleveland, OH-based live experimental hip-hop act Mourning [A] Blkstr -- filled in as touring drummer as Tong took paternity leave to take care his newborn baby. The group would reconvene last year to record their most hip-hop influenced album yet, the celebrated new release Shook. Featuring an array of guests including Rage Against The Machine vocalist Zack de la Rocha, Dungeon Family spoken word artist Big Rube, rising rappers Billy Woods and Backxwash, vocalist Nadah El Shazly as well as indie-rock figures Samuel T Herring (Future Islands), Jae Matthews (Boy Harsher), LaToya Kent (Mourning [A] BLKstar) and Deforrest Brown Jr (Speaker Music).
Touching on everything from early hip-hop to outside jazz icon Sun Ra in its freewheeling sometimes hectic collage of sounds, the effort maintains the revolutionary political slant of Fischer's lyrics, but injects a glimmer of hope as the world emerges from the specter of COVID. For their current tour including this Thursday night show at the Bottom of the Hill, the group is joined by Australian duo Party Dozen, the improvisational duo of saxophonist Kirsty Tickle and percussionist Jonathan Boulet that takes an intense maximal approach to danceable electronic rock.
Algiers with Party Dozen
Thursday, March 23, 8 p.m. $15
The Bottom of the Hill
