System Exclusive are Ari B and Matt Jones – a Pasadena, CA originated duo, balancing the hard edged electronic pulse of old school synthwerks against hot-under-the-collar live drums and slashing post-punk guitar. Ari’s melismatic alto completes the triangle, crowning the cyborg-rock compositions with a torn and vulnerable human edge. Faced with the near-impossible task of making a living in California while working as touring musicians, they put their life in storage, put a bed in the van, and have been living wherever the shows take them. On a mission to make strangers misty in the disco throughout the US, UK, and Europe…and wherever else fine records are sold.
The new album, ‘Click’ was conceived at maximum velocity across multiple borders, a venn diagram of clanging post-punk thrust, neon lavender synthesizer latticeworks, and Ari’s tough yet tender alto reaching for the streetlights. In the past two years System Exclusive have hauled their mini-synth “band in a backpack” to 12 different countries, 20 different US states and all around the UK in desperate search of a good time. They brazenly sought to record this album on the incredibly beautiful but isolated Portuguese island of Saõ Miguel, and experienced a superstition-confirming level of setbacks, equipment breaking, and cosmic nuttiness while tracking. Secret weapon and Bay Area producer extraordinaire K. Dylan Edrich took those island-cursed stems and cultivated them into the sculpture garden of tunes that now lay before you.
Current fancies include:
Shameover maintenance.
The Golden State.
Can you even afford to get out of bed?
Uteri in the USA.
Betrayal.
That syncing feeling.
Butt shakin’ vs full body sobs.
Carrying your life on your back.
Getting too little, too damn late.
‘Click’ and drag that ass onto the dance floor with these 10 moody bangers, taste-tested and battle bruised on stages across the decaying and decadent West. It’s out on Le Cepe Records (Worldwide) / Mt St Mtn (US) on May 17th.
Territory : UK & IRL