Street Sects

Street Sects

Gentrification V: Whitewashed

Flenser

Bleeding edge Texas industrialists, Street Sects have completed their long running “Gentrification” single project with Gentrification V: White Washed. “Gentrification,” is a five part serial album that began eight years ago as a series of self-released seven inches. Now that your streets have been drained of all color and character, now that the last of the generational holdouts have been forced beneath the wheels, now that history has been torn up, rewritten, injected with fillers, plied with White Claw, passed around and shared by members of the board...are you sleeping more soundly?

Street Sects

Gentrification IV: Suspended From Gallery Rails

Flenser

Gentrification IV: Suspended From Gallery Rails is the penultimate installment in the five part serial album by Texas industrialists Street Sects. Delving further beneath the surface of the festering malcontention that is born from increasing class disparity in rapidly developing urban environments, this chapter of the series loosely touches upon the repugnant hypocrisy inherent in our arts and entertainment circles. Passing through the gateway of shameless self promotion and into the halls of unapologetic exploitation, artists and industry parasites scurry to capitalize upon the plights of the underprivileged and oppressed, even when there is no money to be made. However, as always, popularity and influence are the most valuable social currencies, and nothing bolsters exposure and interaction like waving a flag for a supposed cause. The irony of this topic being weaved into the narrative of a self serving, monetized, navel gazing piece of "art" is not lost upon us, but we invite you, the consumer, to pull the pencil from the writers hand and shove it deep into our one good eye...until you feel the graphite connect with gray matter. We're as tired of this bullshit as you are.

Street Sects

Gentrification III: Death And Displacement

Flenser

In January of 2014 Street Sects released their first single, Gentrification I: The Morning After the Night We Raped Death. The two song 7-inch was the first of a planned five part series titled Gentrification: A Serial Album. In June of the same year they released Gentrification II: Broken Windows, Sunken Ceilings. After the second single was released, the band was approached by San Francisco-based record label The Flenser, and the band switched gears to begin working on a full length for the label. One release led to another, and the final three installments of the Gentrification series were put on hold, indefinitely. Now, five years later, in the wake of the release of their more melodic and melancholic sophomore LP, The Kicking Mule, the band have returned to the serial album that started it all to pick up where they left off. Gentrification III: Death and Displacement isn't so much a return to form (the bands' style has always been in flux, and their approach to songwriting and production has evolved significantly in the past half-decade) as it is a return to the emotional intent that fueled those first two releases. The themes and stories addressed within the Gentrification series were never intended to be strict socioeconomic commentary, but rather the conversation and consequences surrounding Gentrification were meant to be a fractured and brutal lens through which we are given a voyeuristic look into the emotional perspectives of characters whose lives are maligned by alienation, exile, and economic peril....

Street Sects

The Kicking Mule

Flenser

As urgent and tense as a hunting knife pressed to a quickening jugular, The Kicking Mule presents ten intimate vignettes about self-sabotage, visiting themes like battling mental illness, addiction, alienation and more across ten new tracks. Though primarily known as masters of cacophonous samples and jittery electronic stutter, post-punk duo Street Sects’ forthcoming sophomore album represents a seismic shift in execution by applying those ideas to that of the romantic yet experimental approach of Roxy Music / Brian Eno as well as Berlin-era Bowie. Take for example how “Something I Can Never Have” fits on Pretty Hate Machine—a section of serenity within a blanket of attack.  Vocalist Leo Ashline and multi-instrumentalist Shaun Ringsmuth use pulsating tension, melodic vocals and deliberate space, keeping their assault on the senses measured and intentional. Featuring album art by renowned illustrator Francesco Francavilla and the title inspired by Elton John’s track “Ticking,” the duo pairs neo-noir aesthetic with aching lyricism, recalling scenes of fear, loss, crime and desperation  Street Sects formed in 2013 after Ashline emerged from the fog of a thirteen year battle with addiction and began to collaborate with friend Ringsmuth. The duo embraced the ethos and aggression of punk rock, and the experimental attitude and disillusionment of early industrial music to create a sound unique to them alone. The band has earned a reputation for their confrontational, sensory deprived fog-drenched live performances.

Street Sects

Rat Jacket

Flenser

“We all have a price tag, we all sell each other out.” In 2016 Street Sects arrived with the intensity and volume of a gunshot. Their debut album End Position was a merciless, post-industrial declaration of suicidal intent. Now, the Austin, TX duo returns with a 12-inch titled Rat Jacket. It is not exactly a follow-up; rather, it represents a brief step to the side, an intentional detour. Still maintaining their sample-based foundation, the songs here experiment with melody and organic instrumentation. The record deals with loyalty, trust, betrayal, paranoia, and the sadness and regret that comes with the acceptance of our own selfish nature. If End Position was a bullet to the head, then Rat Jacket is a knife in the back.  Street Sects formed in 2013 after vocalist Leo Ashline emerged from the fog of a thirteen-year battle with addiction and began collaborating with friend and multi-instrumentalist Shaun Ringsmuth. Disgusted with life but eager for catharsis, the duo embraced the experimental attitude and disillusionment of early industrial music pioneers, eschewing traditional rock music instrumentation and arrangement in favor of modern sampling technology and harsh electronics. Together they released a series of singles and honed their fierce and confrontational live performance before releasing their debut on The Flenser.

Street Sects

End Position

Flenser

***Available again!!!  Utilizing frantic, uncompromising rhythms and a variety of nightmarish samples, Austin, Texas, duo Street Sects create a feverish marriage of industrial music and punk rock. Their debut album, End Position, is a meditation on suicide fantasy—both the means and the cause. In 2013, after emerging from the fog of a thirteen year battle with addiction and homelessness, Street Sects vocalist Leo Ashline began collaborating with friend and multi-instrumentalist Shaun Ringsmuth. Disgusted with life but eager for catharsis, the duo embraced the experimental attitude and disillusionment of early industrial music, eschewing traditional rock instrumentation and arrangement in favor of modern sampling technology and harsh electronics. Together they released a series of singles (Gentrification I and II) and honed their fierce and confrontational live performance, eventually writing and recording what would become End Position. Ashline’s pessimistic lyrics explore an array of intense, personal obsessions and the violence inherent in modern life. End Position is a provocative existential statement on the bleeding-edge of extreme music.

Street Sects

Gentrification I: The Morning After The Night We Raped Death

Flenser

Street Sects

Gentrification II: Broken Windows, Sunken Ceilings

Flenser