New – Straw Man Army – Earthworks – LP

Earthworks by Straw Man Army

NYC duoStrawManArmyreturn with their third LP, Earthworks, to complete a trilogy of records begun with 2020s Age of Exile, and 2022s SOS. Whereas Age of Exile dealt with the haunted landscapes of colonial history in the Americas, and SOSgave voice to a crisis of the present moment, like a prayer in bewildering times, 2024s Earthworks signals the bands attempt to close this trilogy by turning their gaze towards the future, where paradox, complexity and contradiction spiral in ascendance toan agonizing pitch. While continuing to develop their own style of anarcho-punk, Earthworks finds the band pulling once again from jazz and ambient influences, expanded Krautrock rhythms, and post-rock experiments, with a stronger emphasis on melodicvocals and varied song structures than on previous offerings. Taking cues from the wistful anti-war harmonies of The Byrds and the angry melodies of Zounds, tracks like Turn the Wheel and Second Nature mark new territory for a group whose messagesand methods of experimentation have merged to form a singular sound equally at home on All the Madmen Records or in the spiritual legacy of ESP Disk. Earthworks is an album that holds and subverts many contradictionsjuggling the weight ofmelancholy, grief, guilt, impunity, and the yearning for clarity against the backdrop of boiling wrath; the wrath of nature, the occupied, the dispossessed, and of the mind against itself. To quote the track Spiral Is this all thats left for us these days? /Apathy and rage?StrawManArmyoffers this record as a companion to our frustration, our sickness, our despair, and a lifeline for our fugitive attention in the struggle for peace.