ALGIERS RELEASE NEW SONG “73%”

NEW LP ‘SHOOK’ OUT FEBRUARY 24TH

AN ALBUM RECORDED WITH BIG RUBE, ZACK DE LA ROCHA, BILLY WOODS, BACKXWASH, MARK CISNEROS (HAMMERED HULLS), SAMUEL T. HERRING (FUTURE ISLANDS), JAE MATTHEWS (BOY HARSHER), LATOYA KENT (MOURNING [A] BLKSTAR), NADAH EL SHAZLY, DEFORREST BROWN JR. (SPEAKER MUSIC), PATRICK SHIROISHI, AND LEE BAINS III

2023 UK, EUROPEAN, AND US TOUR DATES

“… most of the guests feel like friends and comrades. And there’s a genuine feeling of discussion and ideas shared (…) ‘SHOOK’ is the sound of a serious group equipped with the gravitas and shades of expression to carry their many ideas” – The Wire

“Algiers remain one of an elite few bands writing songs that are political, polemical, and good all at once.” – FADER

“There is no-one on Algiers’ level” – Afropunk

On February 24th, Algiers will release their fourth album, ‘SHOOK.’ It’s a record that’s deeply informed by collaboration and community, with almost every track including a guest or feature. Today, you can hear “73%,” one of the album’s most raw and explosive moments and also one of a handful of songs that highlights Algiers’ core lineup. Listen HERE.
“73%” follows previous singles, “I Can’t Stand It,” “Bite Back” featuring billy woods and Backxwash, and ‘Irreversible Damage’ featuring Zack de la Rocha.
Stereogum called “Bite Back,” “An essential posse cut for a landscape ablaze.” Afropunk highlighted “Irreversible Damage” as, “… a track that shines a light on everything Algiers does best. It’s intense, but contemplative, haunting but driving. Jagged edged guitars and liquid 303s underpin Fisher and De La Rocha’s tumultuous vocals which spit out lines that split the difference between poetry and prophecy.”
Algiers kicked off the first show of the ‘SHOOK’ era with a guest strewn performance at New York’s National Sawdust on December 15th which featured ‘SHOOK’ collaborators Big Rube, billy woods, Deforrest Brown Jr, LaToya Kent, Mark Cisneros, Patrick Shiroishi alongside many others. The band’s European tour kicks off tomorrow in Dublin. They continue to SXSW in Austin, followed by North American dates. A full live itinerary can be found below.

“The world got shook”

So Algiers formed a crew. The band—who have built one of the most exciting catalogs and cult followings of recent years, with 2020’s There Is No Year described as “electrifying and unpredictable” (The Observer) and “precise, thoughtful and powerful” (NME) —gathered a posse of like-minded artists to create their fourth album, SHOOK, out February 24th on Matador. Stacked with guests spanning icons through to future stars, SHOOK is a lightning rod for an elusive yet universal energy and feeling. A plurality of voices; a spiritual and geographical homecoming; a strategy of communion in a burning world; the story of an end of a relationship; an Atlanta front porch summer party. Ultimately, it’s a 17-track set of the most mind-expanding and thrilling music that you are likely to hear anytime soon.

Algiers have always been unflinching, but SHOOK is at the same time notably joyous and celebratory. It was born when Fisher and Mahan found themselves back in their native Atlanta for several months, reeling from growing pressures and burnout as touring musicians. This triggered an intense period of beatmaking, reconnecting as friends over hours immersed in episodes of Rhythm Roulette and Against the Clock and descending deep into alt-rap YouTube rabbit holes. A revisit of DJ Grand Wizard Theodore’s 1970s punk-infused New York City rap masterpiece ‘Subway Theme’ served as a spiritual moodboard for the album’s cross-pollination of urban and counter-culture styles. Across the seamlessly flowing set, including spoken vignettes and ambient instrumental segues, the band pay respect to a sprawling lineage of rap and punk iconoclasts from DJ Premier, DJ Screw and Dead Boys to Lukah, Griselda and Dïat – chopping and screwing beats on a dusty SP-404 and a Sequential Circuits Tempest, building imagined sample libraries from scratch.

While community and collaboration has always been integral to Algiers’ ethos, SHOOK brings this to its fullest manifestation. The liner notes read like a who’s who of ground-breaking and contemporary underground music, featuring Zack de la Rocha, Big Rube (The Dungeon Family), billy woods, Samuel T. Herring (Future Islands), Jae Matthews (Boy Harsher), LaToya Kent (Mourning [A] BLKstar), Backxwash, Nadah El Shazly, DeForrest Brown Jr. (Speaker Music), Patrick Shiroishi, Lee Bains III, and Mark Cisneros (Hammered Hulls, The Make-Up, Kid Congo Powers). Their contributions throughout deftly reshape and recontextualize the notion of being Shook from a variety of perspectives, occupying shifting roles as oracles and narrators. “It very much deepens and broadens the world of Algiers”, says drummer Matt Tong.

Atlanta, where the genesis of this record took place, is ultimately at its heart. It opens with a robotic train announcement from Hartsfield Airport—iconic to many Atlanta natives—that used to frighten Fisher when he was a child. Field recordings and original samples created by the band emphasize throughout a sense of place, collectivity, imagined community and home, all building a world that evokes the elusive sensory experience of growing up in the urban South. “We were working in an environment that we were used to”, says guitarist Lee Tesche. “It feels like the most Algiers record that we’ve ever made.”

The accomplishment of this record is made all the more impressive by the fact it was made by a band who were falling apart and on the verge of breaking up. But instead they have produced an extraordinary, transformative record born from a shared sense of place and experience. “I think this record is us finding home,” says Mahan, with Fisher adding: “It was a whole new positive experience— having a renewed relationship with the city we’re from and having a pride in that. I like the idea that this record has taken you on a voyage but it begins and ends in Atlanta.”

TRACKLIST
1. Everybody Shatter (ft. Big Rube)
2. Irreversible Damage
3. 73%
4. Cleanse Your Guilt Here
5. As It Resounds (ft. Big Rube)
6. Bite Back (ft. billy woods & Backxwash)
7. Out of Style Tragedy (ft. Mark Cisneros)
8. Comment #2
9. A Good Man
10. I Can’t Stand It! (ft. Samuel T. Herring & Jae Matthews)
11. All You See Is
12. Green Iris
13. Born (ft. LaToya Kent)
14. Cold World (ft. Nadah El Shazly)
15. Something Wrong
16. An Echophonic Soul (ft. DeForrest Brown Jr. & Patrick Shiroishi)
17. Momentary (ft. Lee Bains III)

LIVE DATES
Feb 9 Ireland, Dublin, Workman’s
Feb 10-12 Netherlands, The Hague, Grauzone Festival
Feb 15 Belgium, Brussels, Botanique Rotonde
Feb 16 Switzerland, Winterthur Salzhaus
Feb 17 Italy, Ravenna, Bronson
Feb 18 Italy, Pordenone, Capitol
Feb 20 Slovenia, Ljubljana, Kino Šiška
Feb 21 Austria, Vienna, Flex
Feb 22 Austria, Linz, Posthof
Feb 24 Czech Republic, Prague, Lucerna Music Bar
Feb 25 Poland, Warsaw, Niebo
Mar 1 Germany, Dresden, Beatpol
Mar 2 Germany, Berlin, Hole44
Mar 3 Germany, Bielefeld, Forum
Mar 4 Germany, Schorndorf, Manufaktur
Mar 5 Germany, Cologne, Club Volta
Mar 7 France, Paris, Petit Bain
Mar 8, UK London, The Dome
Mar 15, Austin, TX, SXSW
Mar 16, Austin, TX, SXSW
Mar 17, Austin, TX, SXSW
Mar 19 USA, Phoenix AZ, Rebel Lounge
Mar 20 USA, San Diego CA, Soda Bar
Mar 21 USA, Los Angeles, CA, Knitting Factory NoHo
Mar 23 USA, San Francisco, CA, Bottom Of The Hill
Mar 25 USA, Portland, OR, Show Bar at Revolution Hall
Mar 26 USA, Seattle, WA Madame Lou’s
Mar 29 USA, Minneapolis, MN, 7th St Entry
Mar 30 USA, Chicago, IL, Sleeping Village
Mar 31 USA, Louisville, KY, Whirling Tiger
Apr 2 USA, Knoxville, TN, Big Ears Festival
Apr 3 USA, Durham, NC, The Pinhook
Apr 4 USA, Washington, DC, DC9
Apr 5 USA, Philadelphia, PA, PhilaMOCA
Apr 6 USA, New York, NY, Racket
Apr 7 Canada, Montreal, Casa Del Popolo
Apr 8 Canada, Toronto, The Garrison