It’s a year later and everything has gone from bad to worse. . .
Machiavellian Art and Riot Season Records present Population Control – a sonic examination of the mechanisms of control.
Population Control extends beyond its predecessor, Indoctrination Sounds, in both musical depth and thematic scope. An intense exploration of societal and self-imposed controls, encapsulated in a dynamic contrast between Side A’s visceral anger and the introspective ambiance of Side B, the album confronts a broad spectrum of modern-day addictions – not just to substances, but to technology, social media, and the relentless 24-hour news cycle.
These themes manifest across tracks like ‘A Slow Death’, ‘Population Control (1) + (2)’, ‘Fear of the Outside World’, and ‘Crisis’, each exploring the resulting isolation, paranoia, fear, and hopelessness. Offering no break, ‘Seaside Holiday,’ is in fact a critique of environmental negligence, specifically highlighting the issue of untreated sewage being dumped into Britain’s waterways by private companies.
Population Control was conceived at The Cellar Rooms, Wolverhampton, throughout 2022 and 2023 and recorded at Ian Boult’s Stuck On A Name Studios in Nottingham in October 2023. Will Killingsworth mastered the record at Dead Air Studios.
Machiavellian Art are:
- Amy Murphy
- Benjamin Thomas
- Joe Parkes
- John Andrews
- Sam Hunt
Population Control releases May 10 2024 via Riot Season Records and can be pre-ordered here on Bandcamp
