New Brutalism Discusses the Making of ‘Requiescat Record’: Monolithic Soundscapes
In a world saturated with overdesigned sounds and disposable streams, this Knoxville-born quartet has spent nearly three decades carving out elemental and utterly singular language.
Their instruments are built by their own hands from aluminum, a deliberate choice that resists the warmth of tradition in favor of clarity, force, and precision.
On ‘Requiescat Record,’ the band leans into a rare intensity. Recorded in a single day at Electrical Audio with the late Steve Albini, these three untitled tracks —’088,’ ‘087,’ and ‘089’— are stripped to their essence, then left to stand like concrete monoliths. Albini’s engineering captures every collision of strings and skins, every sharp edge of the metallic instruments, as if preserving the architecture of the sound itself. Mastering by Bob Weston adds subtle balance without softening the rawness.
There is no narrative here, only motion and repetition, a relentless cycle. Mistakes are not erased but absorbed into the structure, the way cracks in brutalist buildings tell stories of weather and time. Across twenty-seven years and countless lineup changes, one principle has remained: less is more, and directness is a form of truth. With ‘Requiescat Record,’ New Brutalism offers a stark and beautiful artifact of that truth, a document that hums with the ghosts of its makers and the room in which it was captured. This is a blueprint for how sound can endure.
‘Requiescat Record’ will be released September 12, 2025 by the visionary label Computer Students, known for its uncompromising devotion to detail. The EP arrives on a 45rpm, 180-gram 12-inch vinyl with the same three tracks on both sides, a physical artifact designed to endure as much as the music it contains.
Order ‘Requiescat Record’ here.
“We’ve never really been tempted to add, but have often been tempted to subtract too much.”
‘Requiescat Record,’ what a name, especially now with Steve Albini gone. Knowing it’s a nod to him, were there any moments in those Electrical Audio sessions back in ’21 that just feel… different now? Like you can practically hear his ghost in the tracks or something?
We’ve only worked with Steve Albini twice, our first record in ’99 and then this most recent stuff. With a 22-year gap in between, you’d think there would be a big difference in the way he approached engineering, but it was surprisingly similar: same cutting wit, same precise professionalism. He was very workmanlike, and we didn’t request or discuss much. We did our job, made sounds. He did his, documented them. It was just great to watch him work. It is hard to not think of him when listening to this stuff. It’s our music, but really his sound.
Okay, so the whole ‘088,’ ‘087,’ ‘089’ thing… no fancy titles, just numbers. What’s the deal there? Is it like your secret code, or are you just trying to mess with our heads? Do you find it more freeing than trying to come up with some deep, meaningful name?
We thought we were being clever back in ’98 with this number thing. It was this idea that an “untitled” work left it up to the viewer to decide, a kind of anti-abstraction or desire to make them almost meaningless. The result of all this conceptual nonsense is that we can’t make sense of our own songs. To you, the title is 088. For us, it’s “the one that goes dat du dat dat du dat dat du dat dat.” But hey, when you start something you have to finish it. We are on a path. The real question is, what are we going to do once we get to song 1000 with this three-digit thing?
You guys are all about “less is more” and keeping it super raw. Was there ever a point with ‘Requiescat Record’ where you were tempted to, like, add a thousand layers of guitar, and then had to slap yourselves and go, “Nope, keep it brutal, keep it simple”?
We’ve never really been tempted to add, but have often been tempted to subtract too much. Most of our life as a band has been long-distance with not a lot of time to practice. It created a sense of urgency that manifests as efficiency. For instance, when we recorded with Steve, we had one day. Even if we wanted to add, there was no time. We had to set up, play them a few times, pick the best take, and roll. We are working on a new record and are headed back to Electrical Audio in early August with Shane moving to second guitar. That is truly an addition, but strangely, the music we are writing is even more simple, as if we are using two guitars to do the job of one, staying in our frequency ranges and almost taking turns playing, with more isolation, more space, and definitely more repetition.
Seriously, aluminum instruments? That’s just wild! Beyond the techy stuff, does building your own gear feel like you’re literally forging your sound rather than just buying it off the shelf? And do they make a totally different noise than regular guitars and bass? I gotta know!
This goes back a long time. Dave built his first tube amp in ’97. Matt built the first guitar in ’99, with drums to follow early the following year. Part of it is that some members of the band are engineers and architects. It’s as if we were just doing our job. Everything is a design, so why not be more total, more specific? It’s part aesthetic, part ethic. Part sound, but also part knowing we made the tools to make the sound, and only we sound this way. As the world ratchets us into conformity, it’s a little mark of resistance to refuse to take something off the shelf. Ultimately, we can’t help ourselves. Just this year, Dave has started up his amplifier company (Brut Industries) and designed and built two new amps and new speaker cabinets. We built a new aluminum drum kit with lighter shells but surprisingly more tone. We’ve produced new Obstructures guitars, and a new bass is also complete, further refining our designs but also reacting to the new lineup of two guitars and experimenting with how the tone is differentiated.
They do sound different, but it’s sometimes subtle. Aluminum is denser than wood and refuses to absorb the frequency ranges that make an instrument sound warm. It’s full wide frequency all the time: sharper highs and deeper lows, a bit more clinical and definitely capable of a wider range of noise. Dave’s amp designs are super clean and honest. They stay tight for longer before they break up, allowing for more precise control over the sound. In some ways, there is no place to hide because the instruments are so clear, which makes us play them differently. Again, all part of the design, but design is often about creating limitations rather than more options.
The band formed in 1998, with Matt Hall and Carey Balch connecting in 1996. Going way back to ’98 when you guys started, and Hall and Balch even earlier, what was that moment, that spark, where you just knew, “Yep, this is New Brutalism, this is our sound”? Was it some weird jam, or just a mutual head-nod to some obscure band?
And Shane Elliott, he was on bass when we started before he moved to Chicago and Dave ultimately took over. It’s a wild reunion to have Shane back on vocals for ‘Requiescat’ and now on guitar #2. It’s a little fuzzy since we are so old and have shite memories, but Matt was in architecture history class during Professor Rudd’s lecture on postwar British architecture, and one could say that was the spark: some super raw and honest buildings “made for a society that has nothing,” as the architects Alison and Peter Smithson stated regarding a new aesthetic for bombed-out London. Matt thought, what would that SOUND like? Of course, the musical influence was also in the air. We had been in so many mathy bands with multiple time signatures, countless parts, and a worship of complexity. Perhaps it could be more simple, more direct. I think we just wanted to strip it down to some bastardization of rock music. We found we loved listening to bands like A Minor Forest but were more interested in playing music like Tar.
I read you guys embrace “mistakes” and “accidents” in the music. So, blow the lid off: was there a total screw-up on “Requiescat Record” that you just loved so much you kept it in? Like a happy little accident that made the song even cooler?
Yep, there was a big one. At the end of ‘089,’ Matt fudged his guitar part, so we punched in to re-record it. Steve accidentally punched in at the wrong spot, and the guitar just screamed in unexpectedly on a bended note. It sounded awesome and could never be replicated. So we left it. Now you know. If you like that part, it was a mistake. If you don’t, it was still a mistake.
The band’s had a few lineup shifts, right? How did that feel, getting Elliott back in the fold for this EP after all these years? Did it feel like picking up right where you left off, or was there a whole new vibe in the room?
Might have already rambled about this, but it was very much a different animal. Matt and Dave never really liked writing and executing vocals. Shane in many ways is a storyteller. It seems to come more naturally, and it’s not like the territory was unfamiliar. We’ve been in many bands over the years, so he knew the territory, it was just a matter of how to occupy it: when to yell, and when to leave space. The vibe is, of course, better because even though we want to keep things essential, he brings another dialog, personality, and view to the project. Ultimately, we are all great friends, so one could argue that we exist to spend time together.
“Rigid and riff-driven, more intuitive and open to the unknown.” That’s a mouthful! How do you balance being super tight and riffy with also letting things get a bit wild and spontaneous? Just good chemistry or something more?
You nailed it. Good chemistry, a familiar context, and perhaps a desire to not question things too much. Generally, we know it when we hear it, but lately we are experimenting with being a little bit more experimental, leaving some space to wander and repeat. Often, we have a part we are into, and we play it four times and repeat once, as rock songs tend to do. The three tracks on the EP are very much essential and tight, no fat. The new stuff we are working on lets a part run if we are into it. We are stretching and, in many areas, not even counting, other than counting on Carey to play a fill to signal a change.
A 12-inch, 180g vinyl, 45rpm… that’s serious commitment to the format! In an age where everyone streams, what’s so special about putting this EP out on proper wax? I just love what Julien is doing with his label, truly something special.
Love is the right word. We’ve always loved Computer Students: the aesthetic, the quality, and of course the lineup. It’s an absolute joy and privilege to be on the label and work with Julien. It’s all about what is best for the document, and we’ve never worked with anyone that takes this more seriously. If you are going to do it, do it. Might as well make everything count. It might not be that these three songs are inherently special (other than it’s the last time we will ever get to record with Steve), but the circumstances of these songs, at this time, with this new collaboration with Computer Students all add up to something we will find difficult to repeat or top.
“Feedback is unpredictable, so is dialog.”
New Brutalism, after that old architectural style… I dig it! What’s the connection there? Is it just the harshness, or is there something deeper about those buildings that just screams “your band” to you?
Again, we jumped the gun and hinted at this earlier, but that movement at its heart was about directness, an “architecture without rhetoric.” We hope that the music has a balance between the familiar and unfamiliar. We hope that, like a good building, it’s appreciated not just for its inherent literal consequences, but the people, tools, and context that generated it. The brutalist stuff isn’t all harsh; it’s often human. The mark of the hand is often messier than the machine. In our instrument and music-making, there is always this automatic contention with what we can calculate, count, and control, and what just happens when we pick up the instrument or hold it up to a tube amp at full gain. Feedback is unpredictable, so is dialog. The music and our collaboration seek to tame that in some way.
Bob Weston on mastering! That’s a huge name. What was it like working with him on ‘Requiescat Record’? Did he just get your sound instantly, or were there any moments where he totally blew your mind with what he pulled out of the tracks?
Bob is a force. While our recordings with Steve are bookends to a 20-plus-year period, we recorded with Bob multiple times in between. He’s stepped away from engineering, but we were absolutely stoked that he was able to master the songs. He knows our aesthetic and knows Steve’s techniques, so it was a no-brainer to work with Bob. The recording was solid, but it came out of Bob’s shop with more refinement and balance. As with most things we do, it’s the subtle and incremental adjustments that speak volumes, and Bob is meticulous and seemingly very careful to not color the document, but just adjust contrast and vibrancy where needed.
If he is doing mastering and willing to deal with our nonsense, you can expect his name on any future recording we manage to muster.
So, ’98 to 2025 – that’s a long haul! How do you think New Brutalism has stayed the same, and how has it totally morphed over the years? What’s the one thing that’s always been at the heart of the band, no matter what? And what’s next, are we getting another album in another 20 years?
We have a strange allegiance to consistency, so perhaps what has never and will never change is the desire to not overcalculate, overthink, or overdesign. Strange thing to say considering how much the band IS a design, but it needs to, at some point, get out of the way so we can just make rock music (or whatever the kids are calling it these days).
There may also be a blunt acceptance that we work in a context. We are a lot older. It’s not about slowing down or being less energetic, but more about our current sensibilities tempering the longstanding aesthetic. And yes, new album all written and ready to be tracked in early August. I do expect we will sit on it for a year, but if it comes out that soon it will be a record, literally and figuratively.
Oh, and one more. You stop by in my town, what five records do we put on my turntable?
Based on our rock rendezvous at the concrete block shed we practice in down south last weekend, we discussed, listened to, and weighed the merits of the following five albums:
Wire – ‘Pink Flag’
Memo PST – ‘Combat LSD Demo’
Dboy – ‘Live in Belém’
INXS – ‘Listen Like Thieves’
Evergreen – ‘Evergreen’
Klemen Breznikar
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