Poliça And s t a r g a z e – “How Is This Happening”
Many of us will remember where we were on the day after the 2016 election as vividly as we recall 9/11. Minneapolis synthpop band Poliça sure do. They first collaborated with the European orchestral collective s t a r g a z e on Bruise Blood: Reimagining Steve Reich’s “Music For Pieces Of Wood” this past summer. Now, just in time for the dreaded anniversary of the Cheeto in Chief, the two groups are announcing a full-length album together called Music For The Long Emergency.
Written the day after the election, lead single “How Is This Happening” is a 10-minute meditation that recalls the fear and fury felt across much of the nation. Poliça frontwoman Channy Leaneagh sings the protest-driven, “I’ll fight until my days are done/ Protect the ones he prays upon,” between lyrics of disbelief and resistance. And though the death of Eric Garner predates the election by almost two years, Leaneagh’s repetition of Garner’s final words “I can’t breathe” feels thematically appropriate here.
The song’s second half takes the eerie baton from Leaneagh and translates it to something completely visceral but no less haunting. The result is a jarring and full of dissonance, a reflection of how we felt then and the sobering realization that that feeling hasn’t really gone away since.
Tracklist:
01 “Fake Like”
02 “Marrow”
03 “Speaking Of Ghost”
04 “Agree”
05 “Cursed”
06 “How Is This Happening”
07 “Music For The Long Emergency”
Music For The Long Emergency is out 2/16 via Totally Gross National Product/Transgressive. Pre-order it here.
