Australia-based act Divide and Dissolve will release a new album called Systemic on June 30 through Invada. Like 2021’s excellent Gas Lit, it was produced by Ruban Nielson of Unknown Mortal Orchestra. Saxophonist and guitarist Takiaya Reed comments:
“This music is an acknowledgement of the dispossession that occurs due to colonial violence. The goal of the colonial project is to separate Indigenous people from their culture, their life force, their community and their traditions. The album is in direct opposition to this.”
The first taste of D/D’s new blade is “Blood Quantum”, a song that begins with tendrils of Reed’s saxophone at first invitingly twisting through the air, before things curdle and become creepy. This is followed by the band’s usual crunch of guitars, which lurch and fester as they move in sonic space. As ever with D/D, “Blood Quantum” is instrumental, but the message of rage and desired retribution comes through loud and clear.
“The heaviness is really important,” Reed says. “It’s congruent with the message of the music, and the heaviness feels emblematic of this world’s situation.”
Watch the video for “Blood Quantum” below or find it on streamers.
Divide and Dissolve’s new album Systemic arrives on June 30 through Invada. You can follow the band on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
