Kevin Bronson on September 14th, 2020

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Peel is an L.A. duo whose first single, “Rom-Com,” dives into ’70s/’80s viscera, particularly the Factory Records sound and the work of producer Martin Hannett.

It’s the brainchild of multi-instrumentalists and visual artists Sean Cimino and Isom Innis, both of whom have spent the past decade playing with Foster the People. The project, which they say is as much a visual endeavor as a musical one, was conceived in Innis’ concrete loft above the Orpheum Theatre in downtown L.A. With “Rom-Com,” you get a glimmer of the seed from which industrial music sprang — pulsing like the sounds of machines, reverberating through a stark factory space. It’s a sound third- and fourth-wave post-punk artists cleaned up for commercial consumption, but Peel have kept it beautifully raw.

“We are obsessed with records like “Second Edition” (Public Image Ltd.) and “The Pleasure Principle” (Gary Numan), records where spirit and improvisation guide expression,” Innis says. “The lyrics, deriving from stream-of consciousness, are from the perspective of trying to find your existential footing in the cyclical information spiral.”

“Rom-Com” will be the centerpiece of the duo’s first release for Innovative Leisure Records, a five-track, eponymous EP that includes three additional versions of “Rom-Com.” It’s out Oct. 16.

||| Watch: The “Rom-Com Live Broadcast 006” video