The NYC-based duo Bangladeafy makes music that’s nearly as upfront as their moniker—a portmanteau referring to the Bangladeshi heritage of drummer Atif Haq and the hearing loss suffered by multi-instrumentalist Jon Ehlers. Rather than reducing their music to their identities, these namesakes get folded into the brutal-prog sounds they’ve been churning out for 15 years now as they explore the boundaries of math rock and industrial noise-rock. “I’ve certainly faced criticism that I might not have what it takes to hang with the big dogs, so to speak, because there’s a limit to what a hearing-disabled musician might be able to do,” Ehlers shares. “If anything, I feel that I’ve proved myself and have worked harder to get there.”
The duo has already shared the first three singles from their 15-track fourth full-length Vulture ahead of its June 21 street date, and the newly unveiled fourth single falls directly in line with the project’s pivot toward electronic sounds. “Vulture is the sound of Bangladeafy settling into our purest form,” Ehlers continues. “When Atif and I were young, our first jam had me on a Roland synth. The very first time we got into a room together, it was something of a synth-punk persuasion, way back in late 2006. As time went on, our individual skills as a bassist and drummer took off and Bangladeafy was officially formed in 2009. That youthful display of bass and drum acrobatics can be heard on our early albums.”
He adds that he’d “said all [he] needed to say” on bass after the release of 2018’s Ribboncutter, bringing us to the frantic percussion and droning dial-up noises of their latest single, “Prism.” In addition to the sounds of Yamaha MODX6, Ehlers notes that the recording samples manipulated field recordings of bees and “counter-rocket systems used in war…pitched to match the song and mangled in various ways.”
In case, for whatever reason, you can’t imagine what that sounds like, hear it for yourself below. You can also pre-order Vulture ahead of its June 21 release via Nefarious Industries here.
