Divide and Dissolve’s Systemic is a thick wash of sound, equal parts beauty and anguish and creates a wholly encompassing experience for even a casual listener. You can feel the deep intention. Their dense sound is overwhelmingly heavy; a dissonant pounding of percussion, guitars, piano, synths and saxophone, interwoven with passages of orchestral beauty that give a feeling of respite.
The album examines the systems that intrinsically bind us and calls for a system that facilitates life for everyone. It’s a message that fits with the band’s core intention: to make music that honours their ancestors and Indigenous land, to oppose white supremacy, and to work towards a future of Black and Indigenous liberation.
Just ahead of its release tomorrow, Divide and Dissolve share Systemic’s palpable opener. “‘Want’ is a deep dive into longing within a decolonial framework,” tells saxophonist / guitarist Takiaya Reed. “We can want many things, but how will it happen? What is necessary, what systems must be broken in order for people to live?”
It comes alongside a third video from director Sepi Mashiahof who explains, “As ‘Want’ is the song that introduces us to ‘Systemic’, the concept for the video emulates this kind of infant yearning for worlds beyond our current heartbreaking reality. There are so many beautiful textures above our heads that are inaccessible (as there are so many desired modes of existence that are inaccessible), and the rotation emphasises the limbo of what that desire feels like. Trying to reach something, but succumbing to the loop of failure. Still, that infant yearning is persistent, and that compliments the need for hope and cements the importance of idealism as essential tools in our greater struggles for liberation.”
Like its predecessor Gas Lit, Systemic was produced by Ruban Neilson of Unknown Mortal Orchestra. Systemic was recorded as a duo and Takiaya says this new album is a continuation of 2021’s acclaimed Gas Lit. “Because of what was built with ‘Gas Lit’, ‘Systemic’ is able to express itself.”
“The heaviness is really important,” Takiaya says. “It’s congruent with the message of the music, and the heaviness feels emblematic of this world’s situation.”
She continues, “This music is an acknowledgement of the dispossession that occurs due to colonial violence. The goal of the colonial project is to separate Indigenous people from their culture, their life force, their community and their traditions. The album is in direct opposition to this.”
As Takiaya emphasises, it’s crucial for their music to be instrumental. “I believe in the power of non-verbal communication,” she continues, “A huge percent of communication is non-verbal. We learn so much without using words.” The exception to this on the album is one spoken word track, “Kingdom of Fear”, that features writer and artist Minori Sanchiz-Fung who also contributed to previous Divide and Dissolve albums. The band’s choice to include Minori’s words is purposeful and important to their message (excerpt below):
If I am denied
The kindness
Needed to transform sorrow
If I am denied
The simple gentleness
Of existing,
Then I will leave
My gifts
Like lichen over the oak branches,
trusting they’ll be safe
Until you find them
The message of positivity is conveyed in Systemic’s final track “Desire”: a beautiful, multi-layered euphony of sound that feels like a beacon of hope. “There’s a world I want to live in, and I’m going to continue to focus on that world,” Takiaya says. “Indigenous people are here. With our existence it challenges the colonial constructs that call for genocide. We are still alive.”
Systemic arrives on all formats tomorrow, June 30th via Invada. Pre-order / pre-save it here.
Systemic album cover
SYSTEMIC TRACK LISTING:
1 – WANT
2 – BLOOD QUANTUM
3 – DERAIL
4 – SIMULACRA
5 – REPROACH
6 – INDIGNATION
7 – KINGDOM OF FEAR (featuring Minori Sanchiz-Fung)
8 – OMNIPOTENT
9 – DESIRE
DIVIDE AND DISSOLVE LIVE DATES:
Jul 07: AU, Sydney, Crowbar
Jul 08: AU, Brisbane, Brisbane Powerhouse
Jul 14: AU, Melbourne, The Curtin Bandroom
Jul 15: AU, Adelaide, Unsound x Illuminate Festival
Aug 31: UK, Liverpool, District
Sep 01: UK, Leeds, Headrow House
Sep 02: UK, Birmingham, Supersonic festival
Sep 03: UK, Salisbury, End Of The Road festival
Sep 04: SCO, Glasgow, Broadcast
Sep 05: UK, Manchester, White Hotel
Sep 06: UK, Bristol, Strange Brew
Sep 07: UK, London, The Lower Third
Sep 08: BE, Gent, Trefpunt
Sep 09: LUX, Tetange, Human’s World festival
Sep 10: NL, Amsterdam, OCCII
Sep 12: NO, Oslo, Blå
Sep 13: SE, Gothenburg, The Abyss
Sep 14: SE, Stockholm, Slaktkyrkan
Sep 15: DK, Copenhagen, Alice
Sep 16: DK, Aalborg, Lasher fest
Sep 18: DE, Hamburg, MS Stubnitz
Sep 19: DE, Duisburg, Die Saule
Sep 20: FR, Lille, La Malterie
Sep 21: FR, Dijon, Consortium Museum
Sep 24: PT, Porto, Amplifest
Sep 27: DE, Nurnberg, Kantine / Softspot
Sep 28: CZ, Brno, Kabinet Muz
Sep 29: DE, Berlin, Decolonoize Fest
Autumn North American dates to come – stay up to date here to be first to know when tickets go on sale
Divide and Dissolve are focused on Indigenous Sovereignty. Takiaya is Black and Cherokee, and Sylvie is Māori. As a duo they released two full length albums, Basic (2017) and Abomination (2018) through DERO Arcade before signing with Invada to release their widely acclaimed third album Gas Lit in 2021, which was hailed Mary Anne Hobbs’ Album of the Year. A Gas Lit remix EP was released in 2021, including reworkings of Divide and Dissolve’s music by Moor Mother, Chelsea Wolfe and Bearcat. Divide and Dissolve toured throughout North America and Europe in 2022 supporting Low and performing headline dates and festival appearances and have live shows and festival appearances planned in support of Systemic. At this time, due to personal reasons, Sylvie will be stepping back from her duties performing live with the band.
“they achieve further heights of compelling power and serene beauty.”
– BANDCAMP ALBUM OF THE DAY