Abronia’s new single explores greed, pollution and war—themes that may seem especially pertinent these days. Really, though, it’s just business as usual.
“Unfortunately, these topics are constants in our lifetimes,” says Eric Crespo, guitarist for the Portland, Ore., experimental psych sextet. “I don’t think one specific moment was the catalyst for the song. I think it’s more of a cumulative thing. The toxins just build up and keep building up, and you’ve got to spew it out somehow. Music is one way.”
“Weapons Against Progress” offers a potent taste of what’s in store for listeners on the group’s fourth LP, Shapes Unravel, due February 20 via Cardinal Fuzz/Feeding Tube. The shortest track on the album at just more than four minutes, “Weapons Against Progress” may also be the most broodingly intense. Band member Rick Pedrosa (pedal steel, percussion) taps into that overall feeling of unease for a haunting visual accompaniment that isn’t easy shake.
“Funny enough, I got curious and went back and found the voice memo where I first started noodling around with the guitar stuff that eventually became ‘Weapons Against Progress,’” says Crespo. “That voice memo was dated September 11, 2022, and its title is the tuning I was playing in, followed by the word ‘unsettling.’ I wouldn’t think that its genesis on September 11 would really have anything to do with anything, but one never truly knows how these things work.”
We’re proud to premiere Abronia’s “Weapons Against Progress.”
—Hobart Rowland
