Article Views: 61

Born of the pandemic shutdown and mobilized by the world’s societal ills, Plutocracy Planet is an experimental sociopolitical super-collective led by former Alarm Magazine editor and musical vagrant Scott Morrow.

Fusing post-hardcore sensibilities with electronics, polyrhythms, atypical time signatures, and a far-reaching instrumental palette including strings, saxophone, piano, harp, marimba, acoustic guitar, and more. The ambitious collaborative project utilizes the talents of more than two dozen venerable vocalists and instrumentalists across hardcore, hip-hop, emo, avant-garde composition, pop, and more.

Greed, inequality, and the endless influence of money in politics serve as the project’s thematic focal points. But between a broad-minded approach and a coalition of lyrical voices, the collective’s forthcoming debut LP also touches on the cult of personality, fear-mongering media, police brutality, toxic masculinity, religious zealotry, factory farming, the billionaire space race, and the singularity.

Lead single “This Very Severity,” whose music video premiered at BrooklynVegan and is out now on DSPs, features emo legend Bob Nanna (Braid, Hey Mercedes, The City on Film) playing a slowly unravelling news anchor, relaying stories of our current fractured reality and an increasingly dystopian future.

Nanna says:

“I was overjoyed to be asked to contribute to the record as I usually don’t dabble in this genre or subject matter too much, and now I think I should way more often. Being able to collaborate on cool, important projects is something that brings me great joy, so being a part of this record was a tremendous pleasure. Please disregard my lack of dress pants in the video.”

Joining Nanna on “This Very Severity” are a pair of instrumental phenoms, guitarist Jason Schimmel (Red Fiction, Estradasphere, Secret Chiefs 3) and bassist Jonathan Hischke (The Sound of Animals Fighting, Le Butcherettes, Hella, Anywhere).

Morrow says:

“It’s unbelievable to me that I get to work with the people on this album. I’ve been a fan—in many cases a super fan—of many of them for 20 to 25 years. It’s a mind-blowing honor that they said yes, and I still don’t really know how the hell I convinced them .”

Plutocracy Planet Track Listing:

1. Prologue
2. This Very Severity (f. Bob Nanna)
3. But You Said (f. onelinedrawing)
4. A Simple Refrain (f. Matt Pryor & Swamburger)
5. Commence Mutation (f. Carson Pace)
6. Slaughterhouse Soliloquy (f. Swamburger & Drumcorps)
7. War? (f. Rody Walker)
8. True Crime (f. Angela Mullenhour)
9. Hours and Hours (Work Harder, Not Smarter) (f. Mark Rose)
10. Dance of the Downtrodden (f. Carla Kihlstedt, Nils Frykdahl & Jørgen Munkeby)
11. Remain Silent (f. Emily Jane White, Blueprint & Bruce Lamont)
12. Epilogue