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Psychological Badlands: Henchpersons Instrumentals is the sixth new release from Gridfailure in 2019.

While Gridfailure has already released five records this year, Psychological Badlands: Henchpersons Instrumentals stands out as an illustration of what makes the Dave Brenner experimental project so unique.

Get a first taste via our exclusive stream, here:

Recorded, designed, and mixed by Brenner at The Compound in Rockland County, NY, this project was pieced together from several sessions dating back to 2016 when Gridfailure first got underway. The record features a number of musicians, including Benjamin Levitt (Megalophobe, Gridfailure live), Pete Tsakiris, Richard Muller (The Third Kind, Vise Massacre, Gridfailure live), BJ Allen (Full Scale Riot), Lane Oliver (Feel Happiness), Steve Truglio (Jean-Luc Ponty Band, King Dead), and Joe D'acci, It’s a collaborative, often spontaneous, lo-fi musical mutant.

Brenner explains:

With GRIDFAILURE, virtually everything is an experiment or amalgamation of recordings in one way or another, unless it’s performed live… then everything is an experiment/improvised attack. Everything recorded in the project is somewhat of a free-range feeling or mode, rather than a song, whether I’m putting together a specific song, riff, or beat for a conceptual recording, or I’m completely freestylilng lyrics live at a show. Everything is meant to embody a tone or mood; there’s a lot of duality in the lyrics and concepts, and I think in a “genre-free” way.

GRIDFAILURE’s records are rooted in feelings of catastrophe, paranoia, confusion; themes are ecological collapse, revenge, horror. Even the most melodic or mellow movements are usually doused in scathing noise or feelings.

While the majority of what I record and release is of my own performance and DIY/untrained self-recording, much of the music on some of these releases are rooted in working with friends; this is one of those albums. I created this from random recordings made with random jams with friends – Henchpersons – here at my abode, aka, The Compound. Most of the tracks have an improvised core with one or more of my cohorts and I recording random jams together, some of the songs have several of these sessions intertwined, and some even have outside help. Some recordings were captured at parties or random gatherings, some were recorded at 4am with windows open, some with three folks sending a signal to one track, some simply captured on a recording from a simple hand-held recorder or device. With extra instrumentation from an outside source or two, some field recordings, and a wealth of editing later, this is a lighthearted record in comparison to most of GRIDFAILURE’s material, but it holds a wealth of personal value above all else, and I plan on getting back together with some of these folks to rebuild/some of these tracks at some point.

Psychological Badlands: Henchpersons Instrumentals is available on Oct. 31 with two tracks available now for a Misfits-inspired price of just $1.38.