Detroit three-piece Ritual Howls dropped their second album Turkish Leather on felte back in September. It’s a dark, hybrid thing, built on Morricone-esque riffs, hard-boiled lyrics, and big, crunchy drones that twist around industrial beats. The vibe lends well to film, and here, now, we have the album’s first single, “Zemmoa” (named after a Mexican disco artist the trio met on tour). The band produced the single’s video in their Detroit studio, with local visual artist Kiril Slavin providing digital projections coded in a deconstructed 80s Macintosh. Check it out here:
The trio of Ben Saginaw, Chris Samuels, and Paul Bancell provide a fresh angle on Detroit’s musical culture, often reduced to techno, or J Dilla, or Motown — though that’s a hell of a thick reduction. The feeling is that all these essential histories hold some weight in the band’s aesthetic, as well as in the sound of Death and other early punk groups. But tracks like “Zemmoa” demonstrate the broad potential for synthesis, for making something new and vibrant out of the past, which Detroit artists have always been exceedingly good at.
• Ritual Howls: http://www.ritualhowls.com
• felte: http://www.felte.net
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