TRACE AMOUNT: NYC industrial extremist teams with rapper Fatboi Sharif on "Seeing God on the L Train" single; "video game" music video streaming now
NYC industrial extremist Trace Amount has released "Seeing God on the L Train," the new single from the upcoming album, FLAGRANT.
Stream the official "Seeing God on the L Train" music video, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5EegT-c_Rc
Recorded at Corpus Studios with Harlan Steed of Show Me The Body, produced and mixed by Trace Amount, and mastered by Kris Lapke (Cold Cave, Prurient), FLAGRANT will be released November 14th on Bleakhouse, the label founded by industrial-hardcore powerhouse King Yosef.
Pre-order FLAGRANT, here: https://bleakhouse.co/collections/all/trace-amount
Inspired in part by the ominous soundscapes and beat experimentations of Mick Harris' post-Napalm Death project Scorn, "Seeing God on the L Train" features vocals by New Jersey rapper Fatboi Sharif, whose work Rolling Stone has described as "punctilious, every-word-counts lyricism... like GZA’s Liquid Swords, Ghostface Killah’s Supreme Clientele, and RZA’s Gravediggaz work all congealed in a thrilling sonic stew." On "Seeing God on the L Train," Sharif starts with cool, deadpan wordplay, then shifts into maniacal wailing.
Brandon Gallagher, the New Jersey-born, NYC-based vocalist, drummer, producer, and visual artist behind Trace Amount, states: "I had been really into Fatboi Sharif's album Decay, and in late 2024 I booked a show with Dreamcrusher and asked him to round out the line up. I had always wanted to cross over into more hip hop and dub elements with Trace Amount, so it felt like a slam dunk doing this track with fellow New Jerseyan Fatboi Sharif."
Designed, animated, and edited by Gallagher, the "Seeing God on the L Train" music video is a "video game" that fully embodies the techno-apocalypse vibe that runs through all of Trace Amount's work. Set in locations that will be familiar to many New Yorkers, including music venues such as TV Eye, House of Yes, and the late, great Saint Vitus Bar, the video is described by Gallagher as "a nice tour of north Brooklyn, hitting some iconic landmarks and defending them from robo-dogs trying to data farm inside our cultural hubs."
First conceived by Gallagher in 2019, Trace Amount took shape during the early stages of the COVID pandemic, inspired by the grim realities of life in New York City at that time, and has evolved at a lightning pace ever since. Revolver Magazine has described it in these words: “Trace Amount is the one-man project of Brooklyn's Brandon Gallagher, a prolific musician and visual artist… In just a few years, he's already unloaded a wealth of harsh, confrontational industrial material under the Trace Amount moniker... Glitchy vocals, pounding drums, screechy noise soundscapes and a pummeling atmosphere." BrooklynVegan meanwhile has labelled it as "the exact middle ground between The Downward Spiral and the death industrial/power electronics scene."
Trace Amount's portal-to-hell-in-the-basement aesthetic has been in place from the very start and, as Gallagher hones his craft on each successive release, the sound seems to grow only more suffocating. On sophomore album FLAGRANT, drums pound coldly and sparsely. Ambient tones surge like choirs of evil angels. Gallagher's groans and screams drip with contempt. FLAGRANT is not so much music to be appraised, but a beating, a purge, a guided tour of pure torment.
Part of what defines Trace Amount and makes the story so exceptional, is Gallagher's sheer willpower. To achieve what he has achieved in six years – the collabs, the tours, the media acclaim – is remarkable for any DIY solo project, but especially for one as utterly personal and abrasive as this. Some of the highlights of the journey thus far include: collabs with artists such as the late Blake Harrison of Pig Destroyer, Uniform vocalist Michael Berdan, Integrity mastermind Dwid Hellion, Rhys Fulber of Front Line Assembly, Kontravoid; releases on labels such as Greg Puciato's Federal Prisoner and now, King Yosef's Bleakhouse; tours of Japan, Australia, the UK, Mexico, and the US; and bills shared not only with the best of the industrial and noise scenes, but with titans of other genres too, from shoegazers A Place to Bury Strangers to fairy-trap icon Zheani.
Unapologetically, Gallagher continues to grind forward and burrow deeper into the world he has been building, playing by his own rules. The title of the new album says it all. "In basketball, the most aggressive foul you can get is a flagrant foul," he explains. "Like, you're literally swinging at another player with intent. That's me. I am intentional. I am flagrant."
Stream the official "Seeing God on the L Train" music video, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5EegT-c_Rc
Recorded at Corpus Studios with Harlan Steed of Show Me The Body, produced and mixed by Trace Amount, and mastered by Kris Lapke (Cold Cave, Prurient), FLAGRANT will be released November 14th on Bleakhouse, the label founded by industrial-hardcore powerhouse King Yosef.
Pre-order FLAGRANT, here: https://bleakhouse.co/collections/all/trace-amount
Inspired in part by the ominous soundscapes and beat experimentations of Mick Harris' post-Napalm Death project Scorn, "Seeing God on the L Train" features vocals by New Jersey rapper Fatboi Sharif, whose work Rolling Stone has described as "punctilious, every-word-counts lyricism... like GZA’s Liquid Swords, Ghostface Killah’s Supreme Clientele, and RZA’s Gravediggaz work all congealed in a thrilling sonic stew." On "Seeing God on the L Train," Sharif starts with cool, deadpan wordplay, then shifts into maniacal wailing.
Brandon Gallagher, the New Jersey-born, NYC-based vocalist, drummer, producer, and visual artist behind Trace Amount, states: "I had been really into Fatboi Sharif's album Decay, and in late 2024 I booked a show with Dreamcrusher and asked him to round out the line up. I had always wanted to cross over into more hip hop and dub elements with Trace Amount, so it felt like a slam dunk doing this track with fellow New Jerseyan Fatboi Sharif."
Designed, animated, and edited by Gallagher, the "Seeing God on the L Train" music video is a "video game" that fully embodies the techno-apocalypse vibe that runs through all of Trace Amount's work. Set in locations that will be familiar to many New Yorkers, including music venues such as TV Eye, House of Yes, and the late, great Saint Vitus Bar, the video is described by Gallagher as "a nice tour of north Brooklyn, hitting some iconic landmarks and defending them from robo-dogs trying to data farm inside our cultural hubs."
First conceived by Gallagher in 2019, Trace Amount took shape during the early stages of the COVID pandemic, inspired by the grim realities of life in New York City at that time, and has evolved at a lightning pace ever since. Revolver Magazine has described it in these words: “Trace Amount is the one-man project of Brooklyn's Brandon Gallagher, a prolific musician and visual artist… In just a few years, he's already unloaded a wealth of harsh, confrontational industrial material under the Trace Amount moniker... Glitchy vocals, pounding drums, screechy noise soundscapes and a pummeling atmosphere." BrooklynVegan meanwhile has labelled it as "the exact middle ground between The Downward Spiral and the death industrial/power electronics scene."
Trace Amount's portal-to-hell-in-the-basement aesthetic has been in place from the very start and, as Gallagher hones his craft on each successive release, the sound seems to grow only more suffocating. On sophomore album FLAGRANT, drums pound coldly and sparsely. Ambient tones surge like choirs of evil angels. Gallagher's groans and screams drip with contempt. FLAGRANT is not so much music to be appraised, but a beating, a purge, a guided tour of pure torment.
Part of what defines Trace Amount and makes the story so exceptional, is Gallagher's sheer willpower. To achieve what he has achieved in six years – the collabs, the tours, the media acclaim – is remarkable for any DIY solo project, but especially for one as utterly personal and abrasive as this. Some of the highlights of the journey thus far include: collabs with artists such as the late Blake Harrison of Pig Destroyer, Uniform vocalist Michael Berdan, Integrity mastermind Dwid Hellion, Rhys Fulber of Front Line Assembly, Kontravoid; releases on labels such as Greg Puciato's Federal Prisoner and now, King Yosef's Bleakhouse; tours of Japan, Australia, the UK, Mexico, and the US; and bills shared not only with the best of the industrial and noise scenes, but with titans of other genres too, from shoegazers A Place to Bury Strangers to fairy-trap icon Zheani.
Unapologetically, Gallagher continues to grind forward and burrow deeper into the world he has been building, playing by his own rules. The title of the new album says it all. "In basketball, the most aggressive foul you can get is a flagrant foul," he explains. "Like, you're literally swinging at another player with intent. That's me. I am intentional. I am flagrant."
Photo by Quinten Koroshetz
No comments:
Post a Comment