13" Frank Beltrame Italian Stiletto With Bison Horn Grips by Xiu Xiu

Time provides us with every reason to despair, to give up the fight and lay down in the stream as gallons of putrid filth suffocate us overhead. Temporality weighs heavily on experimental music legends Xiu Xiu as they enter their third decade of existence, but their new record 13" Frank Beltrame Italian Stiletto With Bison Horn Grips gives us every reason to stare the unrelenting onslaught of time in the face and dig in our heels. Desperate lyrics bob at the surface of deeply textured synthscapes, sounds that bear the suggestion of pop production while serving noisy, drony ends. Eventually, intense, vulnerable, raw vocals explode over the surface, sending their obedient army of synths and rock instrumentation with them to drive home repeated mantras that oscillate between the extremes of depression and determination. Xiu Xiu demonstrates a musical mastery over time, with their intuitive, flowing song structures and unflappable pension for dance, giving us the tools to face the unstoppable consequences of existence with fierce, unafraid eyes.