Open Head – “House”

Last month, Hudson Valley experimental band Open Head announced their signing to Wharf Cat with the single “Catacomb.” That’s gonna be the closing track to their upcoming album What Is Success, which they’re announcing today with a new anxiety-ridden single called “House.” It’s brooding and gloomy, with touches of industrial elements that underscore its frenetic pace. The band say in a press release:

“House” emerged from what turned out to be a pivotal jam session during the writing of the album. The band had a batch of songs, but many were feeling stuck in an angular, busy post-punk vocabulary they wished to escape. Creating tonal landscapes became more important than intricate melodies, and a lot of talk at the time was about the simple immediacy of electronic music and the punk-like attitude of experimental rap. Following these impulses, Jon abandoned his bass guitar for an Arturia Brute SE, focusing more on the manipulation of tone than a linear bass line, and Jared triggered samples of scrap metal on an SPD-SX running through his guitar effects pedals. These became the main melodic elements of the song. Brandon bowed a guitar prepared with several screwdriver bits, creating the haunting pads that swirl through one another. The lyrics imagine a machine made of flesh and metal limbs, trekking along in some sort of destructive tortured state: “I don’t wanna know what habit forms chains/ I just wanna be done for awhile.”

Listen to “House” below.

TRACKLIST:
01 “Success”
02 “Fiends Don’t Lose”
03 “Monotones”
04 “N.Y. Frills”
05 “*INOY”
06 “Take It From Me”
07 “House”
08 “Bullseye”
09 “Julo”
10 “Palace Quarters”
11 “Catacomb”

What Is Success is out 1/24 via Wharf Cat.