Live performances and conversations in which artists talk about their work, their process, and themselves. Genre-blind but open-eared. Hosted by John Schaefer.Read more »
Live performances and conversations in which artists talk about their work, their process, and themselves. Genre-blind but open-eared. Hosted by John Schaefer.Read Less
Algiers is a mesmerizing band of musicians born in Atlanta, Georgia and now splitting time between London and New York. Their urgent, genre-resistant, chill-inducing, and fist-shaking music taps into and channels the frustration of locally-informed global citizens in these dark times - with a soulful and compelling roar. Their live sets feel spiritual and cathartic, but also might be for dancing. Then again - they also put out a music/zine series of somewhat more experimental sounds.
1st November 1954 by Algiers
Frontman Franklin James Fisher is a multi-instrumentalist who might, at any point in their set, be stationed at the Rhodes, handling the samples. or wielding a guitar. (Read about his non-tour instrument on which he composes, Rhoda.) Ryan Mahan, ostensibly on bass, also handles drum programming, baritone guitar, and synthesizer. There’s also the multi-instrumentalist stylings of Lee Tesche, on guitar, prepared guitar, harmonium, saxophone, and prepared piano. The 2017 record, The Underside of Power, was the band's first to include drummer Matt Tong (ex-Bloc Party) on hybrid drum kit, chimes, and percussion. (NPR has published this excellent in-depth article on Algiers, by Ned Raggett.)
Algiers, in their press materials, cite a great breadth and variety of influences - Big Black, Wendy Carlos, W.E.B. Dubois, John Carpenter, Cybotron, The Four Tops, Portishead, Public Image Limited, Steve Reich, Miles Davis, and Nina Simone - which may or may not inform their (I’m going for it here) their postpunk-gospel-kraut-y-motown-rocking ferocious crooning resistance music by this "American experimental band." We’re super-pumped to have them play in-studio. - Caryn Havlik