Computer Students™, one of the most quietly uncompromising labels we’ve come across in recent years, returns with another stripped-down gem. Their next release is Requiescat Record, the new EP from Knoxville-based minimal rock unit New Brutalism — and today, the band shares its final track, “089,” as the first single. The full EP arrives September 12, 2025.
New Brutalism — Shane Elliott (vocals), Matt Hall (guitar/vocals), David Basford (bass/vocals), and Carey Balch (drums) — formed in 1998 and have remained firmly locked into their original mode of operation.
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Their latest EP follows the same numerical naming convention that’s defined their catalog: “088,” “087,” and “089.” All three songs were recorded in 2021 by Steve Albini at Electrical Audio and mastered by Bob Weston at Chicago Mastering Service in 2025.
The EP will be released on heavyweight 12-inch vinyl (180g, 45rpm), with the same tracklist mirrored on both sides.
The band’s name — lifted from a derided architectural movement — hints at their raw, utilitarian approach. Hall and Balch first connected in 1996 around a shared principle: minimalism, stripped of anything ornamental.
Elliott joined early on, with Basford and former bassist Sonny Simpson rounding out the original configuration. After Elliott moved and Simpson exited, Basford took over on bass. In 2021, Elliott returned to the fold as vocalist.
New Brutalism plays on aluminum instruments they design and build themselves. “It’s lighter than steel, more consistent than wood, and easy to machine,” they explain. The goal is accuracy — nothing more, nothing less.
The title Requiescat Record — Latin for “a prayer for the dead” — took on deeper weight following Albini’s death. “Shattered and kinetic, forged by time and tragedy, with god-given sonic quality,” the band notes. “Requiescat Record may acknowledge the dead, but this music feels ever so alive.”
In their own words, “089” is “an orchestra of most all of the moves refined over nearly twenty five years of sound making.” Built without repetition, the track unfolds in a single forward line: “an immediate big driving riff with a rapid evolution, a pause filled with noise, an isolated big bottom bass and drum prelude, a screeching verse with single note runs beneath.” Then comes a second verse variation, a lead, and a guitar passage they describe as “a near accidental series of notes” chopped from tape edits. It all builds into distortion and noise before cutting abruptly.
“If vocal content is of any interest these days where there is not much left to be said,” they add, “the lyrics seem to refer to ancient techniques of boat making.”
