Ears Wide Open: BYSTS

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BYSTS

The end of the world needed a unsettling soundtrack, and darkwave duo BYSTS seem only too happy to oblige. “Spread Out” is No. 4 in a series of singles they’ve been dropping since last September, when their EP “Dreamland” saw the light of day.

“Spread Out” is the first official release from their forthcoming sophomore album to be released later this year, which follows 2018’s debut, “The Rolling People.”

The single features inspirational hints of Primal Scream’s seminal 1991 album “Screamadelica” within the serpentine vocals, and somewhere between the stuttering factory noises and the 10,000 Hz crackle, a guitar is being strangled to death. Their subject matter is also apt, as dystopia is the touchstone, as well as the perverse madness of inequality in a world full of profane wealth.

Originally hailing from Salt Lake City, Bryan Holbrook and Stefanie Marlow have created something new from the old. Eminently danceable, they draw from a veritable buffet of influences (Madchester, shoegaze, Wax Trax, ’60s psychedelica and goth all rear their pretty heads). They’ve also shared stages with the likes of Autolux, Black Angels, Neon Trees, Black Lips, Mini Mansions, Ben Kweller, Dead Meadow, Spindrift, Dengue Fever, Swervedriver and The Growlers. But it was a private showcase at Cloak & Dagger that minted their bona fides among the darkwave illuminati.

||| Stream: “Spread Out” and “16mm Lover”