Synthpop band Information Society announced that they will release their eighth studio album, ODDfellows, on August 6 through Negative City Records. It will include three songs they previously released in 2018-2019, including “World Enough,” which mxdwn premiered when it first came out, as well as “Nothing Prevails” and “Bennington.”
Information Society claims that ODDfellows will be the first album to be released with a headphone rendering of THX Spatial Audio, which is a technology that intends to make sounds feel like they’re coming from ‘outside your head.’ For those curious about what that means for headphone listening, THX’s website explains that there’s an app for Windows 10 that allows anyone with USB or Bluetooth headphones to configure the THX 5.1 audio environment spatially and save custom EQ settings. Those who don’t have Windows or qualified headphones will also be able to listen to the album in standard stereo.
“We’ve always been a technically adventurous band, and I think this is just another example of that,” Founding synthesizer player/programmer and producer Paul Robb states. “We like to play around the edges of what’s possible in recorded music, and so we are excited to provide our music to our fans with deeper immersion and a 360° soundscape experience provided by THX Spatial Audio!”
On the style of the new album, Robb adds, “In the band’s original incarnation, we were, as all young artists are, heavily influenced by what was going on around us. This meant that we were participating in musical (and visual) trends, almost without knowing it. Styles like new wave, electro-pop, freestyle, Miami bass and electro-industrial were the waters we swam in. Nowadays, we aren’t part of any new trends, or even aware of them honestly, so we find ourselves exploring and revisiting what has become our own distinctive style, and there’s plenty of room to play around there!”
Elements from most of those genres are audible on the songs that they’ve released from the album so far, but they lean a bit more on the electro-industrial side of that. They still sound generally like plenty of Information Society’s old material, although inevitably not as memorable as the songs they’re best known for, such as their standout hit “What’s On Your Mind (Pure Energy).”
ODDfellows tracklist:
1. Extraordinary Popular Delusions And The Madness Of Crowds
2. Would You Like Me If I Played A Guitar
3. World Enough
4. Room 1904
5. Nothing Prevails
6. Being Me
7. Bennington
8. Down in Flames
9. Grups
10. The Mymble’s Daughter
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