Street Sects is an American

experimental An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs whe ...

band from

Austin, Texas Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...

formed in 2013, composed of vocalist Leo Ashline and multi-instrumentalist Shaun Ringsmuth. Their style is extremely abrasive, characterised by industrial rhythms, use of screamed vocals, samples of both

noise Noise is sound, chiefly unwanted, unintentional, or harmful sound considered unpleasant, loud, or disruptive to mental or hearing faculties. From a physics standpoint, there is no distinction between noise and desired sound, as both are vibrat ...

and

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

s, and

nihilistic Nihilism () encompasses various views that reject certain aspects of existence. There have been different nihilist positions, including the views that life is meaningless, that moral values are baseless, and that knowledge is impossible. Thes ...

lyrics. Following two EPs released in 2014, the duo's debut album ''End Position'' was released in 2016 on

The Flenser The Flenser (also known as Flenser Records) is an American record label founded by Jonathan Tuite in 2009 in San Francisco, California. It describes itself as a "dark music" label or a "dark experimental record label". Bands that work with or ha ...

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,

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. History Wreck and Reference (sometimes stylized as Wreck & Reference or W&R) started out as a garage project in Davis, California, in 2008. In 2012, the band ...

from their 2014 album ''Want''. All of these works were produced by the duo, mastered by

James Plotkin James Plotkin is an American guitarist and producer known for his role in bands such as Khanate and OLD but with an extensive catalogue outside these bands. He has played guitar for Phantomsmasher and Scorn and continues to remix tracks for ba ...

, 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 List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Rhode Island, most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. The county seat of Providence County, Rhode Island, Providence County, it is o ...

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

I See a Darkness ''I See a Darkness'' is the sixth studio album by American musician Will Oldham, and his first album under the name Bonnie "Prince" Billy. It was released on January 19, 1999 by Palace Records. The album features appearances from Bob Arellano, C ...

'' by

Will Oldham Joseph Will Oldham (born January 15, 1970) is an American singer-songwriter and actor. From 1993 to 1997, he performed and recorded in collaboration with dozens of other musicians under variations of Palace (Palace, Palace Brothers, Palace Son ...

Musical style

On their

Bandcamp Bandcamp is an American online music distribution platform founded in 2008 by Oddpost co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker, with an office and record store in Oakland, California. Acquired by Epic ...

, Street Sects place their work within the categories of

electronic Electronic may refer to: *Electronics, the science of how to control electric energy in semiconductors * ''Electronics'' (magazine), a defunct American trade journal *Electronic storage, the storage of data using an electronic device *Electronic c ...

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

, hardcore, industrial, sample-based,

power electronics Power electronics is the application of electronics to the control and conversion of electric power. The first high-power electronic devices were made using mercury-arc valves. In modern systems, the conversion is performed with semiconduct ...

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 Wale ...

. 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, ...

'' 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 mental states (known as psychedelic experiences or "trips") and a perceived "expansion of consciousness". Also referred to as classic halluci ...

, 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, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'' 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 first as a solo project by singer and guitarist Steve Albini, the band became a trio with an initial lineup that included guitarist Santiago Dur ...

Youth Code Youth Code is an American Electronic body music, 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 i ...

and

Agoraphobic Nosebleed Agoraphobic Nosebleed (abbreviated as ANb) is an American grindcore band. Its line-up has changed often over the years, with guitarist and drum programmer Scott Hull being the only continuous member. The current line-up includes vocalist Jay Ra ...

, describing their music as a "lean, murderous blend of

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

s, samples, pained vocals and industrial rhythms" featuring "nightmarish noise, punk and industrial punchouts". Tristan Jones of

Sputnikmusic Sputnikmusic (abbreviated as Sputnik) is a music website that publishes music reviews and news entries. The site hosts both professional and amateur content, covering metal, punk, indie, rock, hip-hop, pop and other styles. Its reviews are us ...

wrote: "Street Sects combine dirty synths with traces of

noisecore Noise music is a genre of music that is characterised by the expressive use of noise. This type of music tends to challenge the distinction that is made in conventional musical practices between musical and non-musical sound. Noise music include ...

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 (music), sampling recognizable musical works. The term was Neologism, coined by composer John Oswald (composer), John Oswald in 1985 in his essay "Plunderphonics, or Aud ...

". 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 o ...

'' 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 A ''lingua ignota'' (Latin for "unknown language") was described by the 12th-century abbess Hildegard of Bingen, who apparently used it for mystical purposes. It consists of vocabulary with no known grammar; the only known text is individual ...

) (2019) *"X Amount" (2022)

References

External links

Street Sects
on

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