The dystopian Italo-disco duo will release Information_Age on July 23. Watch the fever-dream-like video for ‘We Were Alive’ now.

Synth-alchemists Joseph D. Rowland (Pallbearer, Hosianna Mantra) and Daron Beck (Pinkish Black) have announced their debut album as Information_Age: a nocturnal and dreamy self-titled EP destined for the dance floor. Rowland (music/production) and Beck (vocals and lyrics) merge the cosmic kitsch of vintage cult acts like Savage, Doctor’s Cat and Big Ben Tribe with the darkness and isolation of gothic progenitors such as Suicide, Depeche Mode and The Chameleons, along with cues from greats such as Patrick Cowley and Giorgio Morder. The end result is the ‘Information_Age’ E.P.; 5 shimmery yet clinical-sounding new tracks that introduce the mystique and power that is Information_Age.

In 2018, during a moment of reprieve from Pallbearer’s touring cycle, Rowland began concocting songs informed by one of his long-term musical obsessions, Italo Disco. As the project took on more momentum, he began to collaborate with vocalist Daron Beck, whose band Pinkish Black had joined Pallbearer on several tours, and together they continued with Rowland composing and producing and Beck providing lyrics via his recognizable baritone. Rowland comments, “I’ve been an Italo disco enthusiast for many years, and had always wanted to take my own stab at creating some with a dark and gritty psychedelic edge, and having Daron along with me in this project totally completed the vision.”

Daron Beck continues, “When Joe approached me to sing for some new music he was writing, I was very excited and totally surprised by what he had in mind. Both being fans of electronic music and the two of us coming from much “heavier” music backgrounds, this has given us a vehicle to do some things that we’ve both wanted to do for some time. For me personally, what we’re doing invokes a lot of music that made me want to be a musician in the first place and lyrically, these songs meanings have changed and evolved over the last year. We weren’t planning on writing anthems for a worldwide catastrophe, but over time that is what they have become.”

Rowland adds, “So much of the lyrical content contained in this album deals in societal collapse from greed and lack of empathy, feelings of loss of sanity due to isolation, and an onslaught of disinformation corrupting our very being. All of it was written between late 2018 thru early 2019. It was completely surreal watching so much of what Daron and I had been ruminating on unfold in real time, well after the recordings had been committed to tape, so to speak.”

Produced by Joseph D. Rowland and mastered by James Plotkin, Information_Age arrives at just the right time with poppy, danceable apocalyptic nostalgia. This is the soundtrack for the middle of the night on a black-lit dance floor; a transient spiral of sounds that breach the limits of time and space.

‘Information_Age’, tracklisting:

1. Innerspace

2. Searching Now

3. Borrowed Time

4. We Were Alive

5. Information_Age

Artist photos by: John Durbin / Elizabeth L. Cline

‘We Were Alive’ was filmed by John Durbin. Concept/editing by Joseph D. Rowland.