DARCY JAMES ARGUE’S SECRET SOCIETY Forges a Steampunk-Jazz “Dark Alliance”

I’ve been schvitzing with excitement for Real Enemies by Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society. It’s a labyrinthine concept album that explores the history of American conspiracy theories, and our obsession with them – from Edward Snowden to the Iran-Contra Affair – through the lens of bigband jazz. And for prog nerds, it’s a technical wet-dream: Darcy drew heavily from 12-tone compositional techniques, updating and driving the theories into the ground with blazing horns, dirty bass, and a piercing guitar attack.

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Secret Society, led by composer Darcy, is an 18-piece jazz bigband, sometimes self-described as a kind of “steampunk” outfit that reimagines what the bigband format would have sounded like had it not disappeared from the pop landscape after the 60’s – what if those composers instead had a chance to play with this sound on a large scale, incorporating influences like 70’s prog, doom metal, electro-funk, and everything else that’s happened in music over the last 40 years?

I’m super excited to premiere “Dark Alliance” off Real Enemies. It’s the heaviest thing I’ve heard in a long time – and one that I can’t wait for you all to hear. Check it out below:

Real Enemies drops September 30th via New Amsterdam Records. Pre-order it here.

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Max is managing editor of Gear Gods.

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