US / THEM: Zorch stream entire album via SPIN a week before release, announce house party tour

Photo by Ben Aqua

"A maximal pop masterwork." -- SPIN

Austin, TX hyper-kinetic duo Zorch are streaming their entire forthcoming album this week, starting today courtesy of SPIN. The album, titled Zzoorrcchh will be released by Sargent House on July 23rd. Stream full album HERE. (Direct Soundcloud link HERE)

In fittingly maniacal Zorch style, the duo play a series of intimate southern house party shows at the end of the month, featuring complimentary drinks by Bone Spirits Liquor. Please see complete dates below. For more info and location addresses, please see HERE.

The debut full length by Austin duo Zorch is the end result of nearly 5-years worth of material carefully collected, then shredded, condensed and completely remolded into a solid whole. It sounds like two hyperactively creative minds finding ways to cleverly merge together effervescent synth blips, blue-eyed soul vocals, gang-chant backups, blurting EDM bass lines, frenetic drums, hazy psych-drone and even the proverbial kitchen sink taking leads here and there. Each song sounds like it could've been crafted out of samples from several different decades of pop culture history, though it's entirely the work of two exceptional musicians.

If Zzoorrcchh sounds like a photomosaic looks, it's because there is similarly a meticulously organized logic to it all. When Zac Traeger (keyboards, omnichord, vocals) and Shmu (drums, omnichord, vocals) first started playing together in 2008 while studying music in college in Boston, the pair would improvise and record many hours worth of ideas. Some of these songs are direct descendants of those jams; the duo picking out pieces of those recordings, re-organizing and reworking them multiple times and in various studio settings while also adding on and creating new ideas. Demo versions of some of the songs on this album were previously released, only to again be redone a couple of times over for the album. And, Zorch even previously offered up all of the basic audio tracks from early EPs for fans to remix their own versions. Not quite like George Lucas endlessly tinkering with Star Wars, but there's a similar conviction that the work of art is never necessarily finished.

In July of 2009, Zorch recorded their self-titled 4-track EP at Cacophony Studios in Austin, TX. It was the duo's first attempt to capture their sound and demonstrate their wide palette of musical colors, ranging from tribal to pop. Choosing to self-release the EP and offering it up as a free download through their website, Zorch also gave fans the opportunity to design and create their own CD cases at live shows. The "Cosmic Gloss" / "E.M.F." single followed in 2011.

Zzoorrcchh will be available everywhere on CD, LP and download via Sargent House on July 23rd, 2013.

ZORCH LIVE:

07/25 San Antonio, TX @ VHS 1138 *

07/26 Houston, TX @ House of Creeps

07/27 New Orleans, LA @ Triple 6 Klubhouse *

07/28 Hattiesburg, MS @ 112 North 19th Ave. *

07/29 Atlanta, GA @ TBA

07/30 Birmingham, AL @ Spring Steet Firehouse

07/31 Texarkana, AR @ The Cottage

08/01 Dallas, TX @ Canton Co-op *

08/02 Denton, TX @ Macaroni Island *

08/03 Austin, TX @ The Museum of Human Achievement *