***Angel Guts: Red Classroom is the beginning of XIU XIU’s descent from grayness into the deepest blackness endurable. It is the sound of Xiu Xiu’s death. Primary songwriter JAMIE STEWART relocated to Los Angeles this past year, moving blindly into a neighborhood whose notoriously dangerous reputation was unknown to him. The aura of his new home bleeds into every pore of the album, each lyric and note bearing traces of its essence: the terrible beauty, the despair, the violence, the ultra humanity, the uncertainty. Working with only analog synths, drum set, and 1970s analog drum machines, Xiu Xiu has never before sounded so focused, so captivating, so intent on delivering a kick to the throat. Unbearably dark, yet incredibly illuminating, AG: RC is the work of a band unraveling to its core and exposing the boldness within. LP pressed on 180-gram clear vinyl with download.