Heavily influenced by 90’s and early 00’s post-hardcore with mathy, spacey and noisy rock tendencies, Los Angeles based band ARC ANGLES just dropped the first single “Hammerhead” from their upcoming EP “Daisy”, mixed by the legendary J. Robbins from Jawbox/Burning Airlines/Government Issue, etc. Today we’re stoked to give you the official premiere of the music video for this wild barnburner of a track, taking its musical inspiration from the post-hardcore greats of the golden eras for post hardcore, embellishing Refused and Quicksand’s strangulated guitars and massive dynamic shifts and the more ragged, eccentric edges of Glassjaw, Drive Like Jehu, Every Time I Die, and At the Drive-In.
The band returned to the studio with producer/engineer, Christopher Dwyer (also from the bands Entry & Ghost Idols), who was also behind the board for their bombastic 2021 debut record, “Apocalisp”. The band was also beyond excited to be able to enlist the legendary J. Robbins (Jawbox, Burning Airlines, Channels) to mix the EP. Robbins’ work on multiple seminal rock records that have been fundamental influences on Arc Angles’ sound made him a natural choice to accentuate the frenetic energy the trio brought to the songs.
The band cites the combination of working with Dwyer to refine the songs and capture raw, energetic performances, paired with Robbins’ unique ability to bring out huge, punchy warm tones balanced with articulate clarity and crispness, to produce a collection of songs that brings a ferocious assault of spacy/mathy riffs and rhythms, melodic sensibilities and urgent vocals.
“𝐻𝑎𝑚𝑚𝑒𝑟ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑑” 𝑖𝑠 𝑎 𝑚𝑒𝑡𝑎𝑝ℎ𝑜𝑟 𝑟𝑖𝑐ℎ 𝑑𝑖𝑎𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑏𝑒 𝑎𝑔𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑠𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑔𝑙𝑜𝑏𝑎𝑙 𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑎𝑢𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑛𝑖𝑠𝑚, 𝑓𝑎𝑠𝑐𝑖𝑠𝑚, 𝑚𝑖𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛, 𝑣𝑖𝑜𝑙𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑎𝑠 𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑠𝑒, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑒𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑜𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑜𝑓 𝑐𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ𝑡.
“The idea behind the song came while watching news coverage during the early days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine,” recalled Chris Matalone, vocalist and bassist of the band.
“While describing the indiscriminate violence in the war, a journalist used the adage “if all you have is a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail”, and that phrase really made an impression on me. It captured the brutality, recklessness, absurdity, and inhumanity of the war, and it was a natural jumping off point for the rest of the imagery in the song.
“But I do think it’s about more than just that one conflict. Broadly it’s about the unhinged use of power by leaders of all types, on all sides of belief spectrums and group affiliations, and how there is a difficult but righteous obligation for us all to resist tyranny in all its forms. I consider it my own personal diatribe against the global rise of authoritarianism, fascism, misinformation, violence as discourse, and the deterioration of critical thought.” – explains Chris.
“I almost think of the full “Daisy” EP as a sort of mini-concept album that expands on these concepts, such as of the growing resurgence of saber-rattling, “strong-man” leaders (the aforementioned “Hammerhead”), the ease with which huge groups of seemingly otherwise normal people are so easily manipulated into believing outright lies and conspiracy theories, to the point they become violent monsters that lash out against their fellow citizens (song 2 on “Daisy”: “Absurdity/Atrocity”), how the failed application of technology and artificial intelligence has only exacerbated these negative trends (song 3, the title track “Daisy”), the fragility of our man-made laws, organizations, and structures, and how most of us take for granted that the modern societal framework around us could fall apart at any moment (song 4 on “Daisy”: “Nervous System”), and ends with the perspective of an individual caught up in all this mess and has trouble distinguishing what’s real and what they really believe due the ubiquitous sources of manipulation (song 5 on “Daisy”: “Gaslight”).”
Sonically, ARC ANGLES tried to capture a sort of dynamic ebb and flow throughout the tracks that captured the emotional feeling of these concepts. “In a way, I liken it to an average person like myself just watching the news and being overwhelmed by all the chaos over the past couple years, which really was how I was feeling at the time when we wrote these songs.” – explains Chris.
“Even though the EP clocks in at only roughly 20 minutes or so, we think listeners will have a similar experience and are pulled into this journey with a range of emotions and maybe provide a sort of outlet to reflect on their own circumstances dealing with a world that has hit a new level of turmoil and insanity.”
Arc Angles tapped UK based surrealist artist, Andrew Blucha to design the cover art for the single, along with the artwork for the upcoming full EP, “Daisy”. Blucha’s dark, mind-bending collage-style images pair perfectly with the raucous, shifting soundscapes of “Daisy”.
“Daisy” EP was produced & engineered by Christopher Dwyer, and mixed by J. Robbins at The Magpie Cage Recording Studio. Mastering was done by Dan Coutant at Sun Room Audio.
The music video for “Hammerhead” was shot by videographer Grant Bell and directed and edited by Nick Bradford.
“Daisy” EP is dstributed by Rabbit Rabbit Records/Press
