Exclusive Track: Zachary Reid - We Break Backs And Bend Wills

Zachary Reid is the eponymous pseudonym used by ambient producer and composer Zack Hansen, also know as a founding member and drummer of Tucson based doom monsters North (Prosthetic Records), and grind band Languish (Battleground Records/Crown and Throne Inc).

What started as pure noise on his end, a cacophony of misplaced notes played out painstakingly on a darkened computer keyboard. The outlet for stifled creativity and frustration with all music eventually turned into something more. Actual music.

After what felt like an eternity of electronic tinkering, his debut album “Songs For Cyanide” was released like a dull murmur into the nothingness in early 2014. An amalgamation of cackling noise, soothing synths, and distorted samples ripped from nothingness, replete with vicious critiques about the state of modern theology throughout the work, “Songs For Cyanide” reflected it’s bitter epithet. 

“I was almost embarrassed by it, this personal of an album with my name on it, it was something I’d never done before” Zack says. The album went unheard for the most part, no physical medium in site and Zachary had no interest in sending it to anyone, content to leave it on bandcamp.

The project stagnated, until a series of live opportunities sprang into existence. “I had several friends coming through Tucson and not enough bands to play, so I thought, why not?”. The only problem was “Songs For Cyanide” was entirely created on a computer with virtual instruments and samples, the question was how would Zachary Reid be played live? Zachary set out to build a live set that could be accurately represent his music. Thus the first live shows were performed. “I then realized I had written an entire album for live purposes and I actually really liked the songs” he says. From these live shows, the next album was created. 

“My Return To The Ground Will Be Lonely” is a dramatic, despair filled, compilation of music composed entirely for solo live performances. A profound loneliness and a foreboding sense of doom about the human condition flood the work which is replete with lush synthesizers and distorted drones. “It’s not hopeful music, if anything it’s what happens when you’ve given up hope”. 

Now both albums are ready for the world, with simultaneous cassette releases being readied by Zachary Reid’s own label, Precarian Media, with “My Return To The Ground Will Be Lonely” coming digitally as well. Limited to 50 white cassettes for Songs For Cyanide and 100 black cassettes for My Return To The Ground Will Be Lonely, followed by the first ever Zachary Reid tour, scheduled to make stops in El Paso, Tucson, Los Angeles, San Diego, and Phoenix alongside Memphis based ambient guitar wizard Holy Gallows.

Zachary Reid has performed live with such bands as Barrows, Godhunter, He Whose Ox Is Gored, 100 Onces, Destroyer of Light, Sleep Like Trees, Minnow, Methra and more.

Songs For Cyanide (PCM-001)  

https://zacharyreid.bandcamp.com/album/songs-for-cyanide

1. Never Ending Quiet
2. Cyanide Dreams In Scarlet Sleep
3. Singularity
4. Fuck Music
5. Entropy
6. Dead Kids Don’t Do Drugs

My Return To The Ground Will Be Lonely (PCM-002)

https://zacharyreid.bandcamp.com/album/my-return-to-the-ground-will-be-lonely

1. Form and Void
2. We Break Backs And Bend Wills
3. And The Graves We Dig Shall Be Our Own
4. My Return To The Ground Will Be Lonely

RIYL: Stars of the Lid, Tim Hecker, Eluvium, Fennesz.

September 23rd - El Paso, TX - Bowie Feathers

September 24th - Tucson, AZ - Sky Bar w/ Ryan Chavira, Adam Golden

September 25th - Los Angeles, CA - The Pehrspace w/Barrows, YEAR

September 26th - San Diego, CA - The Treehouse

September 28th - Phoenix, AZ - The Trunk Space w/ MA Bell

all shows with Holy Gallows

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