CUP: “Jitter Visions”, the forthcoming album from New York City-based artist – Aagoo Records 27 April 2018

Aagoo Records has announced the forthcoming album ‘Jitter Visions’ from New York City-based artist CUP, to be released on vinyl and digitally. The single ‘Cosmic Brain’ is being previewed ahead of this album.

Cup is Tym Wojcik, a Polish-American drummer living in Queens, NY and originally from Houston, TX. Only five months after the release of ‘Hiccup’, psych-punker Cup is back. With ‘Jitter Visions’, his eighth release, he takes you to a place that’s simultaneously new and familiar — in the way that you might feel you’ve been here before, but can’t be sure. A nagging and uneasy feeling. A record that is at times grinding and brash, at times smooth and melodic, like the ebb and flow of a fever dream.

Distorted, simple guitar riffs reminiscent of 80s punk, ‘Help’-era Oh Sees, Slaughterhouse-era Ty Segall, layered with dark synths, bright delayed vocals, and driving rhythms. Lyrics about menace that comes from without, from within, about looking around the world from your own personal head, about being a person with another person, with people everywhere doing things. About changing into the same person over and over again.

With every passing release, Wojcik’s sound becomes more distinct. Fuzz-soaked punk riffs that feel like they should be played faster, stretching and skewing into off-kilter melodies over driving dual rhythms. Songs about the fact of the body, the fact of existing, the challenge of conveying meaning. A background of anxiety throughout: a reflection of our odd world and oddly, incomprehensibly growing older in it.

“I had been messing around with some new tunes for a while, but this record really began when I got my first analog synthesizer and started making wild and odd noises with it. I sat on the couch with it on my lap and headphones on for two weeks and never found the end to the sounds it could make, and I still haven’t, half a year later. The synth made these songs odder, darker, more menacing in some cases, and in others it made them lighter, more airy, waggish. It made me happy, and it also made me angry. I think it made the songs into something new. I hope so,” says Tym Wojcik.

“Cosmic Brain’ is something a friend of mine named himself in a group chat we have, referencing the “cosmic brain” in that expanding brain meme. He’d say all these ridiculous statements to show his superior braininess, and he claimed to know everything about the universe. I thought the concept was interesting and at least moderately funny, so I wrote a song about a cosmic brain, something that both creates and destroys, that excites and depresses. An omniscient type of thing. But it isn’t God.”

Aagoo Records is home to vinyl releases by Xiu Xiu, Darto, Wand, Lucky Dragons, The Use with Rachel Mason, Philippe Petit and more. ‘Hiccup’ is now available on vinyl through Aagoo Records’ website and digitally via Bandcamp.

Mar. 23 New York – Berlin NYC with ORB (Australia) and Altar Boys

Apr. 30 New York – Record Release show at Baby’s All Right (Brooklyn) with Darkwing, ESSi and Sic Tic