Street Sects is an American experimental band from

Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the county seat, seat and largest city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and Williamson County, Texas, Williamson co ...

formed in 2013, composed of vocalist Leo Ashline and multi-instrumentalist Shaun Ringsmuth. Their style is extremely abrasive, characterised by

industrial Industrial may refer to: Industry * Industrial archaeology, the study of the history of the industry * Industrial engineering, engineering dealing with the optimization of complex industrial processes or systems * Industrial city, a city dominate ...

rhythms, use of

screamed vocals Screaming is an extended vocal technique that is popular in "aggressive" music genres such as heavy metal, punk rock, and noise music and others. It is common in the more extreme subgenres of heavy metal, such as death and black metal as wel ...

, samples of both

noise Noise is unwanted sound considered unpleasant, loud or disruptive to hearing. From a physics standpoint, there is no distinction between noise and desired sound, as both are vibrations through a medium, such as air or water. The difference arise ...

and

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

s, and

nihilistic Nihilism (; ) is a philosophy, or family of views within philosophy, that rejects generally accepted or fundamental aspects of human existence, such as objective truth, knowledge, morality, values, or meaning of life, meaning. The term was pop ...

lyrics. Following two EPs released in 2014, the duo's debut album ''End Position'' came out on September 16, 2016, on

The Flenser The Flenser (also known as Flenser Records) is a San Francisco-based record label specializing in experimental music. Notable bands that work with or have worked with The Flenser include: Have a Nice Life, Botanist, Deafheaven, Wreck and Refe ...

to generally positive reviews.

History

In 2013, in the wake of struggling with addiction for thirteen years, vocalist Leo Ashline formed Street Sects with his friend, multi-instrumentalist Shaun Ringsmuth, in order to produce extreme, experimental music addressing the negative aspects of life. In 2014, they self-released the first two EPs for the planned ''Gentrification: A Serial Album''

pentalogy A pentalogy (from Greek πεντα- ''penta-'', "five" and -λογία ''-logia'', "discourse") is a compound literary or narrative work that is explicitly divided into five parts. Although modern use of the word implies both that the parts are re ...

: ''The Morning After the Night We Raped Death'' (February 4) and ''Broken Windows, Sunken Ceilings'' (July 15). On November 18 they also released the song "Things Will Be Better in California" which is a composition built from ''Spill/Fill'', a collection of samples by

Wreck and Reference Wreck and Reference is an experimental rock group based in Los Angeles, California. They compose their sound as experimentation with vocal styles over electronic instrumentation using samples, synthesizers and acoustics. The group has been assoc ...

from their 2014 album ''Want''. All of these works were produced by the duo, mastered by James Plotkin, and illustrated by A.J. Garces Bohmer based on concepts by Ashline. Street Sects' debut studio album '' End Position'' was released on September 16, 2016, through

to generally positive reviews. It was mixed and mastered by Machines with Magnets in

Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts Bay ...

. The album's title is based on a lyric from ''

I See a Darkness ''I See a Darkness'' is the sixth album by American musician Will Oldham, released on Palace Records on January 19, 1999 as the first album under the name Bonnie "Prince" Billy. The album features appearances from Bob Arellano, Colin Gagon, Paul ...

'' by Will Oldham.

Musical style

On their

Bandcamp Bandcamp is an American online audio distribution platform founded in 2007 by Oddpost co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker, with headquarters in Oakland, California, US. On March 2, 2022, Bandcamp ...

, Street Sects place their work within the categories of electronic,

, punk, hardcore,

sample Sample or samples may refer to: Base meaning * Sample (statistics), a subset of a population – complete data set * Sample (signal), a digital discrete sample of a continuous analog signal * Sample (material), a specimen or small quantity of s ...

-based, power electronics and

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

. Their label,

, described their music as "a feverish marriage between industrial music and punk rock" ... "utilizing frantic, uncompromising rhythms and a variety of nightmarish samples". Their style was addressed by various critics in reviews of '' End Position'', which were generally positive. Adam Devlin of ''

Tiny Mix Tapes ''Tiny Mix Tapes'' (also ''TMT'' or ''tinymixtapes'') is an online music and film webzine that focuses primarily on new music and related news. In addition to its reviews, it is noted for its subversive, political, and sometimes surreal news, a ...

'' described it as a harsh noise industrial hammer punk album", noting that "Shaun Ringsmuth is an aural sculptor of rare form, mixing industrial rhythms made of machine gun parts and bursting crash cymbals with

psychedelic Psychedelics are a subclass of hallucinogenic drugs whose primary effect is to trigger non-ordinary states of consciousness (known as psychedelic experiences or "trips").Pollan, Michael (2018). ''How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of ...

, transgressive melodies of alien origin". ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

'' recommended the duo to fans of

Big Black Big Black was an American punk rock band from Evanston, Illinois, active from 1981 to 1987. Founded by singer and guitarist Steve Albini, the band's initial lineup also included guitarist Santiago Durango and bassist Jeff Pezzati, both of Nake ...

Youth Code Youth Code is an American EBM duo, formed in 2012 by Sara Taylor and Ryan George in Los Angeles, California. The duo's musical style, following the model of early Wax Trax! Records, has been described as industrial music infused with "hardcore a ...

and Agoraphobic Nosebleed, describing their music as a "lean, murderous blend of synths, samples, pained vocals and industrial rhythms" featuring "nightmarish noise, punk and industrial punchouts". Tristan Jones of Sputnikmusic wrote: "Street Sects combine dirty synths with traces of

noisecore Mathcore is a subgenre of hardcore punk and metalcore influenced by post-hardcore, extreme metal and math rock that developed during the 1990s. Bands in the genre emphasize complex and fluctuant rhythms through the use of irregular time signa ...

and industrial piss, underscored with thoughts of suicide and misanthropy." Dæv Tremblay of Can This Even Be Called Music? called their music "hardcore

plunderphonics Plunderphonics is a music genre in which tracks are constructed by sampling recognizable musical works. The term was coined by composer John Oswald in 1985 in his essay "Plunderphonics, or Audio Piracy as a Compositional Prerogative", and even ...

". Stephen Proski of ''

New Noise Magazine ''New Noise Magazine'' is an American music magazine that focuses on artist news, band interviews, album reviews and underground culture. It was founded in February 2013, by Lisa Root, who had previously been the co-founder and editor-in-chief of ...

'' praised the interplay between Ringsmuth's sophisticated musical structures and Leo Ashline's ( screamed) vocals, which he called "intimate and vehement".

Members

*Leo Ashline – vocals, production (2013–present) *Shaun Ringsmuth – instruments, samples, production (2013–present) *Michael Lauden – guitar, drums, production (2019)

Discography

;Studio albums ; ;EPs *''Gentrification I: The Morning After the Night We Raped Death'' (2014) *''Gentrification II: Broken Windows, Sunken Ceilings'' (2014) *''Rat Jacket'' (2017) *''Gentrification III: Death and Displacement'' (2019) *''Gentrification IV: Suspended from Gallery Rails'' (2019) *''Gentrification V: Whitewashed'' (2022) ;Splits *Street Sects / Portrayal of Guilt (2018) *Street Sects / Curse (2018) ;Singles *"Things Will Be Better in California" (2014) *"And I Grew Into Ribbons" (2016) *"Featherweight Hate" (2016) *"Blacken the Other Eye" (2017) *"Things Will Be Better In Hell" (2018) *"In For a World of Hurt" (2018) *"Still Between Lovers" (2018) *"The Drifter" (2018) *"Fourteen Frames" (featuring Nick Sadler & LINGUA IGNOTA) (2019)

References

External links

Street Sects
on

* {{Authority control American industrial music groups Electronic music groups from Texas Electronic music duos American noise rock music groups Noise musical groups American experimental rock groups Hardcore punk groups from Texas Punk rock groups from Texas Rock music duos Musical groups from Austin, Texas 2013 establishments in Texas Musical groups established in 2013