INSTITUTE - Catharsis

After demoing for several weeks at home in Austin, Institute tracked and mixed Catharsis in just four days between Christmas and New Year's Eve 2014, in New York City with Ben Greenberg at Brooklyn's Gary's Electric. "Cheerlessness" carves out the perfect trine foundation to aspect both the anthemic "Cheaptime Morals" and the much looser jam "Christian Right" (the latter featuring fellow Texan Andrew Savage of Parquet Courts). Issues of morality, sexuality and religion are all interwoven seamlessly throughout the 10 tracks as the band explores new sonic astral space. Aligning themselves so closely with punk politics might make some of the music on Catharsis come as a surprise. Yes, they're still the anarcho punks who put out gloriously lean Crass and Crisis worship across a demo, a 7-inch, and last year's Salt EP. But for their boundary-smashing debut long-player, they've incorporated everything from acoustic guitars to proto-punk psych excursions, even stretching their songs out to Krautrock lengths when necessary. "For all their resemblance to deathrock and post-punk greats of yore, there's nothing mannered or simulacral about them. They are as real as the lump in your throat and the salt under your nails, and their sting couldn't be sweeter." - Pitchfork RiYL: Early Christian Death, early T.S.O.L., Crisis Record Label: Sacred Bones Style: Punk