Public Circuit ask what you bend a knee to on new album 'Modern Church'

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Public Circuit ask what you bend a knee to on new album 'Modern Church'

PUBLIC CIRCUIT ASK WHAT YOU BEND A KNEE TO ON

NEW ALBUM MODERN CHURCH — OUT TODAY

LIKE BOTH A FLICKER OF CANDLELIGHT AND A FLUORESCENT GLARE, THE NYC SYNTH BAND

RELEASES THEIR SECOND ALBUM

VIA À LA CARTE RECORDS

HEADLINE NORTH AMERICAN TOUR UNDERWAY

NOW & EUROPEAN TOUR TO FOLLOW WITH PERFORMANCES AT 8MM FESTIVAL

AND LEFT OF THE DIAL — SEE ALL DATES HERE

Today, New York City synth-punk band, Public Circuit, have released their second album Modern Church via à La Carte Records. If electronic music is sacred theology, then they are the pagan heretics driving the genre forward with an indomitable will to live. On the new record, Public Circuit dismantle and reassemble post-punk with surgical precision. Gone is any pretense of retro revivalism—what remains is something sharper, darker and entirely their own — Listen to the new album.

With a newfound sense of collaboration amongst all three members (Ethan Biamont, Sean Holloway and Nelson Fisher), this is a record that dances in the flicker of candlelight and fluorescent glare alike, channeling an austere pulse of angular electronic instrumentation, and raw percussive rhythms all bathed with the high-gloss ache of sophisti-pop into a sound that’s equal parts ritual and revolution.

The album is overtly religious in theme; an analogical tool to explore gender identity, the fleeting faith of society, and the illicit repercussions of unresolved trauma. Public Circuit is deeply influenced by NYC’s constant feed of noise and bustle the city delivers. Channeling these pensive emotions into explosive energy, the band commits to live up to the historical behemoth of NYC music as their sphere of influence continues to expand.

"’Modern Church’ represents the collapse of connection—the album's chants are hollow, stripped back, and full of seething energy,” shares singer Biamont. “As we departed from the sound of our last album, we don’t see change as an enemy, but as a tool — a structure that can be repurposed, re-tuned into a tightly wound and potent new form.”

Press photo by Nicole Miller

Beginning with the album opener and title track, the sparse, rhythmic offering lays out what a modern church is. A critique on false idols, Biamont sees this as anything from, “the gym and one's physique, a substance to abuse, or one's own vain obsession of their online image; everyone has something that they bend a knee to.”

Next comes the danceable “Samson,” a poke at the hubris that courses through the veins of masculine society. The more straightforwardly post-punk “Take The Blame” covers an almost masochistic tendency of society to be driven by guilt. The album’s final single ahead of release, “No Faith,” is both animalistic and accusatory as the band attempts to untangle the knotted web of faith and gender identity.

At the album’s halfway point, “Hymn 01” is a break in the album’s driving force, a slow-burning prayer of a song. Following the brief interlude, “To The Grave” intensely twinkles and crashes as the band reels against the parts of themselves they refuse to push back down. The blisteringly explosive “Damager” started off as a jam the band would play between songs during their live show. Biamont describes it, “like running through a supermarket with no remorse for what you are rummaging in your path. It's like all the pain and feeling inside has welled up into an explosive expressionistic splatter painting. Like a broken machine: everything damaged continues to damage.”

Intentionally ending the album with searing intensity, “Cost Of My Life” questions that if life is about always reaching for something more, at what point did you sacrifice too much and miss it all?

MODERN CHURCH TRACK LIST

"Modern Church"

"Samson" — watch

"Take The Blame"

"No Faith" — watch

"Hymn 01"

"To The Grave" — watch

"Damager"

"Cost Of My Life"

Now underway, Public Circuit is out on their tour of the US and Europe. While in Berlin, they will join the lineup of 8mm Festival, and in the Netherlands, they will play Left Of The Dial festival. Once they make it back to their home of NYC, Public Circuit will play an album release show at TV Eye on November 5. See all dates here and below.