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Exek

EXEK's unsettling -- and frequently beautiful -- combinations of post-punk, dub, Krautrock, and found sounds capture the real-life dystopia of the early 21st century. Even as the band's lineup grew, its roots as the studio project of frontman Albert Wolski remained in the hallucinatory layers of effects and textures that imbued their music with a captivating oddness. Elastic rhythms, toys, and kitchen appliances used as instruments, and Wolski's sardonic, spoken-word perspectives on the issues of the day combined in fascinating ways on their woozy 2016 debut album, Biased Advice. Though EXEK pursued a slightly more structured sound on later albums like 2022's Advertise Here and the following year's The Map and the Territory, they remained unpredictable and unmistakable. Wolski grew up in a musical household in Sydney, Australia; his father was a violist in the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. He started EXEK in 2010 as a studio project, combining his experience in film music and sound design (he wrote his honors thesis on Mica Levi's Under the Skin and Howard Shore's Videodrome scores) with his passion for post-punk, dub, Krautrock, and more. After moving to Melbourne, he continued to hone the project's sound with layers of effects-heavy percussion. In 2014, EXEK's lineup expanded to keyboardist Damien Minards, bassist Henry Wilson, and drummer Sam Dixon, and the group's further experiments were captured on their self-titled EP, which Time ^ Space Record Co. released that August. Split singles with Spray Paint and Halt Ever followed in 2015, paving the way for EXEK's debut album. Arriving in September 2016 and featuring Neil Grant on saxophone, Biased Advice gathered re-recorded versions of the songs on EXEK and "Giant Baby Squid," a sprawling 16-minute track that originally appeared on the Halt Ever split. The band's tour in support of the album led them to Japan, where they made February 2017's On a Plane to Japan EP. Recorded and mixed in Wolski's living room and mastered by Mikey Young, EXEK's second album, January 2018's Ahead of Two Thoughts ventured deeper into anxious post-punk terrain and earned favorable comparisons to Public Image Ltd., This Heat, and Swell Maps. That October, the band returned with A Casual Assembly, an EP focused on synth, trumpet, bass, and Wolski's surreal spoken-word narration. Following their first tour of the U.S., EXEK issued their third full-length, Some Beautiful Species Left, in September 2019. Featuring a six-piece lineup of the group, the album balanced tightly wound rhythms with more atmospheric touches. A month later, they released the tour EP Live in Atlanta, and a split single with Novel followed in its wake. In 2020, EXEK appeared on the Born Bad Record Shop 20 Year Anniversary compilation that was released to commemorate the Paris record store, and Castle Face reissued Biased Advice in 2021. That year, the band also issued Good Thing They Ripped Up the Carpet, a collection that featured songs recorded in 2020 on its first half and tracks EXEK contributed to other artists' releases on the second half. The band's fifth proper album, Advertise Here, arrived on Castle Face in February 2022 and expanded on their rangy, adventurous style. EXEK soon returned with October 2023's The Map and the Territory, which added more concise songwriting and elements of '90s R&B and hip-hop to their zero-gravity post-punk.
© Heather Phares /TiVo
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Discography

13 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller

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