Why The Eye are set to release a new album on EXAG’
After several years' silence, the masked quartet from Brussels is back with a new album ‘Inspirex’ due out October 4th on EXAG’ Records.
In the meantime, they've released a first track entitled ‘La machine’.
Why the Eye is an experimental masked quartet from Brussels citing artists including The Residents, Snapped Ankles, Société Étrange, Kokoko!, Autechre, Boards Of Canada, Fulu Miziki and Charles Frégier's ‘Wilder Mann’ as influences. Describing their music as "Prehistoric Techno", Why The Eye are set to release their new album ‘Inspirex’ on the 4th October via Exag Records.
Releasing their self-titled debut album in 2017, Why The Eye has performed across a number of underground and experimental venues including Magasin 4, Ateliers Claus and Rockerill in Belgium, Sonic Protest and Gare des Mines in Paris and Cave 12 in Geneva alongside festivals including Festival Baignade Interdite, France, Le Festival de la Cité in Lausanne, Switzerland and Festival Hop Pop Hop, France.
Having formed in 2013, the band’s first scheduled gig was for Carnaval Sauvage – an illegal, alternative carnival held in Brussels, hence the masks – where participants dress up in homemade costumes, often made from recycled materials, then dance through the city. Designed to be ‘ungovernable’ but not disrespectful, the carnival is a rebellious tradition in the ‘Marolles’ flea market and antiques district, dating back to 1969’s Battle of Marolles. However, the gig never happened but the band decided to keep the masks.
On the recording of ‘Inspirex, band lead Damien Magnette says, “The album is live music based on energy. It has a chaotic side. How do you convey the chaotic, wild, animal energy of live music on record? My point of view is that to achieve this energy, you have to do exactly the opposite in the studio. A lot of layering. Lots of overdubs that we can't do live. It's all these elements that give the album its wildness.”
Opening with the fidgety ‘JNSP’, the anti-capitalist summons ‘La Machine’ is a brash, abstract experience with a deep yearning to set us free from everyday political confinement while the raw ‘Où cours-je’ explodes into a wild rage of disorder and mayhem. At the heart of each track are the DIY instruments the quartet had assembled over the years, directly inspired by the sanzas found throughout Africa. With names such as ‘radiocaphone’ and ‘castabignettes’, the instruments are cleverly connected to different effects pedals and are the heartbeat of Why The Eye. Elsewhere, the album title track reveals a snappy rhythmic quality with skittish sounds while ‘Prairies’ and ‘Animal’ are tribal-like in delivery with a deep-lying punk ethos.
Why The Eye is Jean-Philippe de Gheest, Jean Paul Domb, Nico Gitto and Damien Magnette
