CHAT PILE & HAYDEN PEDIGO Announce Collab Album ‘In The Earth Again’
Check out the full release details & hear the first single from the upcoming LP by OKC noise band & the “American primitive” guitarist/composer
Back in January, we posted that Amarillo, Texas native and 6-string virtuoso, Hayden Pedigo, announced he was working with Oklahoma City noise-rock titans, Chat Pile. The news, which came from Pedigo‘s Instagram account, explained that they were in the final stages of completing a full-length collaboration. As I mentioned in our original post, “We’re not sure exactly how their seemingly disparate musical styles will intersect, but the assumption is that it will be something akin to Hayden’s captivatingly beautiful, pastoral guitar work being engulfed by a caustic cyclone whirling up through a crack to the demonic underworld.” Hayden couldn’t fully describe it himself, stating only that it was unlike anything he’d ever heard before. He suggested the sound may approach “Apocalyptic western picking slammed through heavy riffs and maybe 90s Chicago post-rock even?” Today, we finally get to hear the results in the form of the first single, which brings with it the full details surrounding the release.
Since the announcement, Hayden has been busy. His latest album, I’ll Be Waving As You Drive Away was released in June to critical acclaim, and he’s presently at the very beginning of a UK & EU tour that runs through the end of next month. On October 22nd, he’ll head back out on the road for a series of US dates ending in early December. We’ll be seeing him play an intimate show at the Ballard Homestead in Seattle on Halloween. That happens to be the same day that his new album with Chat Pile will be released.
Titled ‘In The Earth Again,’ the 36-minute / 11-track effort was recorded in Oklahoma City, where Hayden now also resides, and is being released by Computer Students Records on October 31st. Their website is currently offering a selection of physical releases for pre-order, including a pair of limited-edition 180g audiofile deluxe vinyl variants that include a massive double-sided poster and come housed in a gatefold jacket within special packaging comprised of a layer of aluminum coated with a protective matte finish. That unique outer packaging material was engineered and designed by the Computer Students founders before starting the label. Additionally, there is a standard 180g LP in different colors, a sleevepac CD with foldable booklet, a cassette, and a digital option. All vinyl pre-orders include an 8″ x 10″ promotional photo shot by Bayley Haynes.
In an Instagram post about the release, Chat Pile states “We’re absolutely dying for ya’ll to hear this deeply personal record, which came together unexpectedly and in person this past winter in our humble OKC home studio. While a departure from each of our collective traditional sounds, we think these 11 tracks of dust-laden rock will connect with those of you out there feeling a sense of collective real-time loss about the world.“
The product page on the Computer Students site, offers additional background on the project, explaining that it was “first proposed as an idea to do a more traditional split release” but “the conversation eventually came to a head while grabbing drinks at a tiki bar to instead opt for making a full-fledged collaborative album.” It is further describes the album as being “framed through a loose yet ever-present narrative soaked in apocalyptic subtext” adding that “In the Earth Again presents a portrait of societal decay, characterized by the brutality of the active apocalypse and the eerie stillness that follows in its wake.“
Check out the Riley Stearns-directed video for the first single, “Radioactive Dreams,” below.