Photo: Kayla Hoots
What happens when artificial intelligence gains more intel about the inner workings of humanity, and responds in kind? Austin-based experimental post-punk/doom duo Deep Cross explore this subject in the emotional dirge “Gnaw at the Heart” from their new album “Royal Water” out today via Roman Numeral.
“On the surface this song is a pretty straightforward pop song with lyrical content being about desire for another. Conversely, and from an anthropomorphic standpoint, it’s also about an algorithm learning all it can about our species. Our desires, our habits, how we react to stimuli. It is simultaneously the warmest and coldest part of the record.”
The DIY visualizer for “Gnaw At The Heart” is mysterious and enigmatic; an amorphous figure writhes in light, never quite revealing its true form.
Watch below:
“We found ourselves at a point where we kept wanting to explore…music that is rhythmic, while also experimenting with detached segments of tape loops and rich, adventurous sample usage,” the band says about Royal Water. “We wanted this record to be a mutated animal in that sense. Conceptually, Royal Water is not a dark album per se. It deals with ideas of what hope looks like in action, what sacrifices come with growing/changing, the things we confront when we want to change ourselves, and the growing that stems from it. The end point to it is that we are all here to die so we might as well try to make this place easier for each other.”
Royal Water will be released on limited edition vinyl (Roman Numeral) and cassette tape (Somatic). It is available now for streaming on your favourite platform.
Precisely crafted and monumentally scaled, Royal Water stands as a seamless and unified masterpiece. The ebb and flow of life is channeled through a juxtaposition of the harsh and the serene.
With a varied yet focused approach, the album’s five tracks navigate the negative spaces where possibility and action intersect, resulting in a hybrid reverie of sumptuous post-punk, dense industrial mutations, shattered tape loops, fragmented sample technique, and corrosive blackened abrasion. Royal Water boldly declares the fluidity of change; a testament to the forging of new forms, and the obstacles that hinder our collective journey towards a more open and enlightened world.
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