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Listen to Buildings’ Lean, Focused, and Abrasive New LP, ‘You Are Not One Of Us’

The Minneapolis noise-rock trio’s third LP is a honed-in marvel.

Like a Joyce novel on Adderall, Minneapolis trio Buildings are wide-eyed and focused on a filthy reality. From the terrified howl that opened their self-titled debut Braille Animal in 2008 to the semi-tonal pyrotechnics of 2011's Melt Cry Sleep—"The streets ignite / When I'm on fire," vocalist Brian Lake snarled there—the band has only built on its own glorious debauchery. Lake's guitars, typically pitched up with knife-edge distortion, cut through Mike Baillie and Travis Kuhlman's swung rhythms. The comparisons drawn were inevitable: The Jesus Lizard (appropriately evil), Mclusky (brutally comical), Helmet (terse, lean).

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With their third LP, You Are Not One Of Us, premiering on Noisey today, it's clear that none of these really stick. They're confounding and compelling at once, occasionally veering into Mark E Smith territory if anything, all sneers and bite-backs and no time to turn back and explain themselves. Here is an album with an early one-two hit of "Mouth Gift" and "Smell The Pool," the former a tight two-and-a-half chord romp, the latter a stressed-out stumble through the sludge of Kuhlman's relentless drums. Later, "Pastor Dick" is the a standout, a fed-up descent into near-insanity that Lake has a particular talent for vocalizing. "I took a job in the city / To make minimum wage," he spits. Then, "Acid reflux keeps me at home / I can't go anywhere / I never have any fun." Finally, the dischord of the chorus: "Well you know it hurts sometimes!"

Listen to the album in full below.

You Are Not One Of Us is out now on Gilead Media (U.S.) and Antena Krzyku (Europe). Buildings goes on a European tour in May. Check out the tour dates below:

May 1st- Hamburg, Germany - Molotow
May 2nd- Ghent, Belgium - Afsnis
May 3rd- Liege, Belgium - La Zone
May 4th- Brussels, Belgium - Magasin 4
May 5th- Siegen, Germany- VEB
May 6th- Zurich, Switzerland- Obenuse fest
May 7th- Bologna, IT- Club Freakout
May 8th- Munich, Germany - Sunny Red
May 9th- Wroclaw, Poland - Galeria
May 10th- Krakow, Poland - Warsztat
May 11th- Warsaw, Poland - Poglos
May 12th- Poznan, Poland - Club Alternativa

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