Washington DC’s PSYOP returns June 13th with Defector, their third EP and arguably their most musically focused release to date. Dropping via local tape label What You See Is What You Get with distro through Kill Yellow Fever Records, the four-track cassette continues their blend of old-school hardcore punk and d-beat with streaks of doom, post-hardcore, and grind.
Recorded by Matt Michel at Viva Studio and mastered by Will Killingsworth at Dead Air, Defector strips the fat and goes for the throat.
It’s been over two years since their last release, and that time was used to sharpen both message and execution. “We’ve gotten through some false starts and lineup changes but we feel the finished work sets out our most musically tight release yet,” the band states. “We tried to stay more to our roots on this of old-school hardcore punk and d-beat but threw in a touch of doom or a blasty section here and there.”
Thematically, Defector doesn’t waste a second. From track one, PSYOP drops listeners into a reality shaped by surveillance, disinformation, and scorched-earth politics. Their lyrics lay out a vision of a collapsing country “ravaged by corporate greed, environmental destruction and religious extremism,” and they don’t hedge.
On Last Season, the band conjures a world of droughts and dead oceans. Revolutionary Guard sees vocalist Danial K reckoning with his own Muslim upbringing while criticizing the role of fundamentalism—whether Islamic, Christian, or Zionist—in perpetuating violence and false promises.
The EP’s centerpiece is Psychological Operations, a track that PSYOP describes as their self-titled-in-spirit song. “We wanted to do our own spin on a self-titled song that captures the main vibe of PSYOP: how it feels to live in an imperialist surveillance state plagued by disinformation and propaganda.”
Built collaboratively from a bass riff, the song piles on side-to-side parts, breakdowns, and gang vocals. Its lyrics are rooted in historical precedent: “CIA psychological warfare campaigns that the US has used to wreak havoc in Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East; and the war on terror,” they explain. “We grew up in a post-9/11 era of reduced civil liberties, drone strikes, and regime changes that set the stage for the current nightmare we find ourselves in.”
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The EP’s cover art comes courtesy of Jeff Poleon (Quarantine, The Slads), underlining the band’s connection to broader punk and DIY networks. For the physical release, PSYOP teamed up with KYF Records—a label they admire not just for its growing roster, but for its political commitments. “Their label’s commitment to amplifying AAPI and POC voices in the hardcore scene is something we truly value and connect with, as a band partially with South and East Asian backgrounds that have worked on increasing representation in the wider scene.”
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PSYOP will play day two of Break Free Fest in Philly, followed by a DC release show on June 21st with Pilau and No Model—both of whom will also be dropping a split.
A Northeast tour runs from July 30 to August 3, hitting mostly DIY spots in New York and New Jersey. “We’ll be playing everything from guerrilla underpass shows to more traditional stages supporting great bands like HIRS Collective and Body Farm.”
For PSYOP, hardcore punk is still a weapon. “We’re big believers in the power of DIY to unite, spark joy, and speak out against the many injustices of those in power,” they say. In DC, a city they admit is “tough to make art in,” they namecheck a thriving scene made up of grindcore, screamo, youth crew, and hardcore bands holding their ground across basements, streets, and festivals.
