Watch/hear it here first…

13 May 2021

Band: THE IRRATIONAL LIBRARY
Who: A Haarlem (The Netherlands) based rock band with its roots firmly planted in both
the regional and international counterculture. The Dutch-American band produces a raw,
dirty groove that is heavily influenced by icons of beat-, Provo- and punk culture.

Their new album We… Are Doomed is one of the best LPs of this (young) year.
Turn Up The Volume wrote: “The rap and roll venom of Rage Against The Machine,
the fuck-you-hypocrites grimness of Black Flag, the punky saxophone of X-Ray-Spex,
the sharp poetic spit and sneer anarchy of Mark. E. Smith.”

Single/clip: THE ALGORITHM – one of the highlights of the album
Who is he/she: “Director Marius Bruijn introduces us to a figure called ‘A.G. Rithm’, the personification of algorithms, digital systems and codes. He’s living as normal a life as possible. He tries to come across as a ‘regular’ person at all times, but despite his efforts, we notice he’s struggling. Especially interacting with truly alive beings turns out to be a problem. It shows how technology, with algorithms and even artificial intelligence, seems to become more and more human, but never really gets there.”

Turn Up The Volume: To be honest A.G. Rithm is a good friend of mine. Thanks to that smart and mysterious person I have 24/7 access to the greatest library in the world… the Internet. Right? On the other hand, I rather hug a real human, like my wife and my kids, instead of a PC, a smartphone, or a widescreen TV. Anyway, I like the substantive idea of this sticky and nasty bass-groove outcry and its spitting-spoken-word waterfall.

Overall (lots of more algorithms on the LP: stream/buy below) this band stands out because they care about the real social issues, the real Big Brother crimes that harm
our vulnerable minds, the real threat of a new, dangerous far-right-is-okay culture and
they embed all their anger in a sonic ass-kicking-doom-and-gloom-party katzenjammer.

Video story: In the clip, A.G. Rithm is performed by drummer Lars van der Weiden,
but with a sharp eye you’ll also spot several political cartoons by TRIK out of the book
We… Are Doomed. This way the video The Algorithm captures the world of The Irrational Library: absurdist, incredibly groovy, and at times… irrational.

Watch and learn…

Buy/stream the album here…

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THE IRRATIONAL LIBRARY: Facebook

The band’s brand new official CITY POET Joshua Baumgarten

(photos/info via Treetop Agency)