Peel Dream Magazine release Agitprop Alterna in April 2020

Peel Dream Magazine Agitprop Alterna

SLR 251 » released April 2020

LP Violet Vinyl  » $16.00 CD » $9.00

DIGITAL » Bandcamp |  Apple Music |  Amazon |  Google

Play1.Pill8.Too Dumb2.Emotional Devotion Creator9.The Bertolt Brecht Society3.It’s My Body10.

Permanent Moral Crisis4.Escalator Ism11.Do It5.

Brief Inner Mission12.Eyeballs6.NYC Illuminati13.Up and Up7.Wood Paneling Pt 2

This is a pre-order item and is expected to ship on or before the April 3rd release date. If you order this in combination with other items they will all be shipped together.

Peel Dream Magazine is the musical vehicle for NYC’s Joe Stevens, who launched the band in 2018 with the critically acclaimed album “Modern Meta Physic.” With it Stevens created a mysterious, liminal tribute to the hazy end of ‘90s dream-pop – a masterful mix of first-class songwriting precision and train-window sonic impressionism that duly found its place on numerous “Best of 2018” lists.

After 18 months of writing and live shows with a shifting cast of band members, Peel Dream are back with “Agitprop Alterna,” an album that pushes the group’s dreamy, motorik sound to a deeply melodic and beautifully discordant place. This sophomore LP pays homage to the fuzzy, mod-ish pop of acts like My Bloody Valentine and early Stereolab, but it’s also indebted to stateside bands like Yo La Tengo and Rocketship that were cut from a similar cloth. It’s part Chickfactor, part Space Age Bachelor Pad; a shambolic, drone-heavy brand of minimalism, filtered through a cross-section of classic indie pop.

Where the creation of “Modern Meta Physic” was a solitary pursuit, “Agitprop Alterna” found Stevens channeling the collaborative spirit of the band’s ever-rotating live incarnation in the studio. The album is ultimately defined by the tension of difference: between itself and its predecessor; intertwined male-female vocals; the music’s languid dreaminess and concrete sonic immediacy.

Deeply rooted in the Brechtian ideas of art as a tool to spur action, “Agitprop Alterna” intensifies the connection between the existential and the interpretive first explored on “Modern Meta Physic,” giving the listener space to find their own meaning in shimmering guitars, fuzzed-out synths, and humming organ drones. It is a rejection of manipulation in all its forms and a buzzsaw against complacency – soft-focus pop whose clear-cut message is that you get to decide the message. It’s a rare trick to agitate without being obvious: perhaps that makes “Agitprop Alterna” the most Peel Dream Magazine-like statement yet.