Liars

Liars thrive under the philosophy that art is not meant to comfort. Even at their quietest moments, the band vibrates at a foreboding frequency. Rising from NYC’s bubbling indie scene in the early 2000s, the quartet—led by singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Angus Andrew—stood out from the crowd, their shambolic post-punk notably darker and weirder than any of their peers. Over the years, they’ve remained thrillingly unpredictable. Starting with 2001’s visceral dance-punk debut, They Threw Us All in a Trench and Stuck a Monument on Top, Liars would release nine albums over the next 20 years—each wildly different from one another. They found inspiration in witch hunts, self-doubt and dystopian hell, throwing it all into a primal stew of tape loops, tribal-esque rhythms, heavy distortion, ominous drones, haunting moans and groans, and sometimes arresting moments of pure ambient beauty—the latter fully realized on 2012’s minimalist electro detour Wixiw. By 2017’s soul-searching TFCF, Liars became the solo project of Andrew, who continues to find new ways to bend electronics, guitars and beats into menacing, melodic noise that’s always on the precipice of madness.