Overrider Announce New Album 'Sparse Vector' Released 1st November 2024
Overrider Announce New Album Sparse Vector Released 1st November 2024
Stream and share - https://linkmix.co/26789070
Stream New Single ‘Tokyo 3’ Released 9th October 2024
Watch the video - https://youtu.be/6MUxKqYkbp4
Stream and share - https://overrider.bandcamp.com/album/tokyo-3
New Rework EP 0.1.3 Out Now
Stream and purchase - https://overrider.bandcamp.com/album/0-1-3
Anonymous Manchester-based cyberpunks Overrider are pleased to announce their return with new album Sparse Vector, set for release on 1st November 2024, with the band also revealing the artwork and tracklist below.
The album artwork is a generative image referencing “OG” computer generative art piece ‘Schotter’, by 1960s computer art pioneer and German academic, Georg Nees.
To celebrate the news, the band are sharing the video for new single ‘Tokyo 3’ which is set for release on 9th October 2024.
Commenting on ‘Tokyo3’, Overrider says: “Tokyo3 was chronologically the first thing written for the album, as well as being the first track. There's a pretty clear line going from kill -9 yr idols to this, via the singles we did the year before. Though Vector has some pretty different moods on it, this is a good introduction - it's short, punchy, and introduces the narrative. If you dig this kind of electronic stuff with guitars, you'll be into the rest of the record.”
The new tracks follows on from lead single ‘black wings’ which was revealed earlier this year alongside a special new EP titled 0.1.3 which included re-worked tracks from their 2020 release cyc|er.
According to Overrider, their second LP Sparse Vector, true to form, has been as difficult as the saying goes. "It's weird finally getting it out there," they say. "It's been ninety percent complete for about twelve months, and we're not a band who usually hang around when finishing things."
Sparse Vector is a logical continuation of the aggression of their previous EP, kill -9 yr idols, and single ‘726564 626c7565’. Powerful beats and in-your-face guitars take centre stage, with their funk, downtempo and math rock influences taking a backseat.
"We've definitely been less afraid of putting guitars on this one," they agree, "there was a thought that if we're doing a guitar record, let's get it out of our system properly." And get it out they do—there's the opening twisted crescendocore of ‘Tokyo 3’, the bombastic, stadium riffage that closes ‘Redeye’, the wonky, mangled radio alt rock of ‘Black Wings’, mathcore-meets shoegaze of ‘Khallos’ and the drop-tuned percussive grind of ‘Fracture’.
Rather than being a collective effort, Sparse Vector is mostly a two piece, guitars-and-drums record. "It was both a smaller and a bigger band in some ways," they say. "The contributions, especially John's, were more significant. On the other hand, most of the tracks originated on strings, guitar or bass, rather than keys, beats, found sounds or generative approaches."
Crucially, returning collaborator John Simm on drums shaped the tracks "at an early stage. He basically came in with a huge folder of beats. Some really off-the-wall stuff, some more caveman things, but that was the basis for the writing process."
Indeed, Sparse Vector is their first release that has contributions from Simm throughout. Only side A closer ‘This Is Not An Exit’ and breakcore workout ‘Turn The Static Up’ do not feature his drumming.
The genesis of the album was a clip from Australian born writer and scholar McKenzie Wark found in the track ‘Redeye’, about a present where capitalism itself has ceased to function and even arch-capitalists appear not to have noticed. "Nobody is flying the plane, which means that there are opportunists lining up to break into the cockpit."
Sparse Vector isn't a concept album exactly, but it does have a narrative arc, like previous Overrider releases. "It's about the usual stuff, betrayal, loss, death, all the bad energy you need music to exorcise," they muse. "We're at the age where there's kids on the scene and you have to wonder, is it possible to atone and move on from the sins of the past? There's always the fear that the victim today can become the bully tomorrow."
All this said, the album isn't self-indulgently negative. "We didn't want it to end up being a total downer," they say, "there's a lot of bittersweet vibes throughout, and hopefully the mood is more one of defiance than anything else."
Album closer, ‘Shattered’, exemplifies this, dizzily screaming between widescreen electronic rock, claustrophobic post-metal, and tongue-in-cheek drum n' bass, before closing the album with the heaviest passage they've written to date. "The conversation with John there was something like, 'this build up riff is quite Tool' and we just took that to its logical conclusion. It's a love letter to all the amazing early 2000s proggy UK alt rock we grew up with."
Overrider’s new album Sparse Vector is released 1st November 2024
Sparse Vector album tracklist:
01. tokyo 3
02. black wings
03. khallos
04. redeye
05. this is not an exit
06. crisis
07. helix
08. fracture
09. turn the static up
10. shattered
Personnel:
John Simm - Drums & percussion
Tom Peters - Mastering
Overrider - Everything else
Overrider online:
https://overrider.bandcamp.com
https://www.instagram.com/overrider_
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8bh8ECKdPbBuD4oRYgXTKw
More info:
Describing themselves as “shoegaze x breakcore, but with the attention-span of Dillinger Escape Plan", there's still enough focus on a power-trio setup of guitar, bass/keys and drums for Overrider to be within the reach of a rock band—early listeners threw comparisons to everything from Aphex Twin to The Mars Volta.
The band have released a steady string of material since their 2020 debut, including re|cycler (2020), re:ntegration (2020), the city eats the stranger//the sky eats the city (2021), kill -9 yr idols (2021), and 2022 standalone singles ‘dayvan cowboy’ and ‘726564 626c7565’.
Their heady mix of post-genre futurism and hacktivist aesthetic has previously drawn praise from progressive music tastemakers and gear aficionados at Guitar World, Everything Is Noise, Arctic Drones, Noizze and more.
