Watch: Algiers “Irony. Utility. Pretext.”

The self-titled debut LP from Algiers is due out June 2nd via Matador, and today the band posted this rousing new video for their single, “Irony. Utility. Pretext.“. Nikola Mihov’s book Forget Your Past seems to have inspired this Atlanta-based trio to travel to Yugoslavia and Bulgaria, where the haunting images in this video were filmed. The band explains:

“There you can find towering monuments of abstract art erected by Tito in an attempt to constitute a new identity rooted in political collectivity rather than ethnic particularity. In neighboring Bulgaria sprout an entirely different set of physical remainders of a deeply contested history. They stand imposing and forlorn dotted across the countryside, looming like decaying alien spacecraft over factory towns and desolate mountain peaks”.

More than mere “ruin exploitation”, though, Algiers goes on to say that the images in “Irony. Utility. Pretext.” instead seek to problematize such a practice, and in so doing they represent, inevitable “themes of death and decay”. In addition to this stark and desolate imagery, reclaimed here by Algiers energized presence (instead of exploited for it’s necrotic properties), the video also includes thought provoking text slogans from free thinkers like, “Robespierre, Angela Davis and Fred Hampton“.
Look for Algiers to play select live dates as they ready their upcoming LP for release this June. Here they are…
April 18th | Paris, FR @ Record Store Day – Rough Trade On Tour, Point Éphémère
April 22nd | London, UK @ Power Lunches
May 7th | Richmond, VA @ The National*
May 8th | Raleigh, NC @ The Ritz*
May 11th | St. Louis, MO @ The Pageant*
May 12th | Indianapolis, IN @ Egyptian Room at Old National Centre*
May 13th | Detroit, MI @ The Fillmore*
May 15th | Cincinatti, OH @ Bogarts*
May 16th | Pittsburgh, PA @ Stage AE*
* = w/Interpol