Today New Orthodox announced their signing with Joyful Noise Recordings and unveiled their latest single "Peacemakers Unite." This track marks only the second release from the experimental project helmed by songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Nicholas Merz. Notably, it is also among the final songs engineered and mixed by renowned producer Steve Albini.
New Orthodox is "New american" music, not in sound but in participation. Led by New York state-based multi-instrumentalist Nicholas Merz, he invites collaborators within and beyond state lines such as Freak Heat Waves, Thor Harris, and Spencer Krug, to bring the work to life. Through a patchwork of disparate musical styles that borders on performance art, the project is focused on highlighting the human element of error, and creating as little distraction as possible around it. The band's ethos leans heavily into minimalist repetition, sonic experimentation, and lyrical insights that give way to live performances and recordings that utilize space and silence to imitate the human experience. The music is both intimate and grand, charged and claustrophobic, taking the tools of country and spinning them out of context.
“Peacemakers Unite” is a compelling introduction to Merz's vision, building from a radiant, if uneasy, theme. In the song his voice alternates between melismatic and whispering, trembling with the urgency of each word. Every pedal steel motion, as it oscillates between just a couple of notes, is punctuated by the rhythmic tapping of his feet, an echo that grounds this dreamy music in a sense of harsh reality. It is the red sunrise before a storm, the gentle awakening before delving deep into the wounds and darknesses that make a life in America.
About the song Merz says:
"Please, as the title suggests. This one in particular took a soft bloom in the studio as opposed to the bombastic sound on stage."
Paired with the song is a video directed by Beatrice Scharf-Pierzschala, that depicts friends meeting and gathering through the grainy lens of a camera.