After 2019’s „Our Complex Pleasures“, an exploration of queerness and polyamory through sound, „Neoliberal Folk Songs #2“ again show Sex Und Violence’s love for conceptual work. Recorded between 2017 and 2020 and based on writings by Mark Fisher, PJ Harvey and James Bridle’s „New Dark Age“, NLF#2 is a dark collection of repetitive drum sequences, anthemic drone pop and bits of trap. Songs from the margins of neoliberalism, songs from the eternal present.

Incidentally, the last finished track of the album, „Koan For A Careless Cosmos“, was also where the whole recording process began in 2017 – for a sound piece in the wake of Fisher’s death – and the last layer of lyrics was spoken on a hissing tapeplayer just right before the first C-19 lockdown. Meandering in the same vein is the slowly creeping, LFO-twiddling „Mass Unsconsciousness“, referencing 80’s acid as well as S.U.V.‘s deep interest in traditional eastern repetitive music. In stark contrast to these quieter pieces stands the onomapoeitic fallout of „NSFW“, which was improvised and recorded on the spot without any additional overdubs. The album is framed by different versions of the „Anthropocentric Blues“, which highlight S.U.V.‘s soft spot for simple pop melodies. But despite these sensibilities, there’s a constant uneasyness spreading throughout the record. Like Mark Fisher’s ghosts, who walk upon earth, sure to never settle anywhere.

From the numbing frequencies of „Engineering Consent“ to the wordless, minimal trap-take „Verbal Austerity“, these songs are a comment on the endless performances of neoliberal strategies, be it in the emptied out mainstream of social media output, or in the administrations of any given institution – a cacophony of signifiers that never goes anywhere, just as the restless beats of the „Cultural Assassination“. The renaissance of radical right-wing thought, the last rearing of patriarchy’s ugly head – „Neoliberal Folk Songs #2“ is the soundtrack to the collapse we are all witnessing.

The whole album was mastered by Marie Rose, a.k.a. Moon RA, at Fix In The Mix LABS and is accompanied by the radical artwork of Dicey Studios. Total Metaphysical Confidence Now! Unnamed Alienation Now!