Listen To \”So This Is Permanent\” via The Quietus / New Album Croce Available March 17th

One of the most mysterious and enigmatic musical entities to come out of Italy in recent years, Father Murphy, has premiered a new track over at TheQuietus.com – listen to \”So This Is Permanent\” here. The band\’s new album will be available March 17th from The Flenser. Titled Croce, this new collection of dark psychedelic/industrial cabaret is a concept record about the cross (yes, it’s THAT cross – ‘croce’ in Italian), with one side of the record sonically representing the suffering and sacrifice and the flip side reflecting what comes after; the end of said suffering, resurrection, or perhaps oblivion. This album marks the band’s fifth full-length release of their extensive catalogue (discography can be found below) and was recorded by John Dieterich in Albuquerque, NM and mixed by Greg Saunier earlier this year.

The sounds Father Murphy creates on Croce are shadowy, the atmospheres muddy and murky, from which spring unexpected blurts of impossibly catchy noise pop, approaching at times something almost operatic, like some twisted musical detailing the trials and tribulation of the crucifixion. Male and female vocals by Freddie Murphy and Chiara Lee intertwine over distorted blasts of guitar crunch, anchored by stuttering homebuilt percussion. This sound is both textural and nuanced but also noisy and chaotic, and that chaos is carefully sculpted into jagged shards of fragmented pop, and that pop oven into a dramatic, almost theatrical song suite.

The first side of the 8 song, 36-minute album finishes up with the song “In Solitude”, an appropriately dour slab of murky miserablism that sounds like a slow sonic death, a haunting dirge that dissolves into that ineffable space that exists between the record’s second side; the netherworld, the afterlife, Purgatory even. But Father Murphy erupt from this stygian blackness with the second half of Croce (meant to be the light to the A side’s dark) and yet the opener is still somehow strangely doomy; a field of metallic shimmer and more junkyard percussion, strung together into a spare framework, over which dramatic male vocals soar, the female vocals responding like some demonic Greek chorus, but true to the theme, the vibe grows strangely warm. Croce\’s finale, “They Won\’t Hurt You”, is all majestic pipe organ, a stirring and stately court music, lush and lovely and epic, the sound of rebirth, redemptive and ultimately restorative, a return from the beyond, arisen from the grave, ascended into the heavens, the sounds drifting upwards, beyond the galaxy, the universe, into the unknowable infinity. Croce is yet another masterpiece in Father Murphy’s pervasive and provocative story.

2015 will see Father Murphy touring once again – they recently closed out US and Canadian dates with Iceage and upon their return to Europe, played a set at Michael Gira’s Mouth to Mouth Festival in The Netherlands – this time in support of Croce. Check out the full list of tour dates below.

FATHER MURPHY – ON TOUR
February 2 – Gromka, Lubljana, SLO w/Ronin
February 12 – Dal Verme, Roma, IT
February 13 – Controsenso, Prato, IT
February 14 – Cellar Theory, Napoli, IT
February 15 – Godot Art Bistrot, Avellino, IT
February 17 – Btomic, La Spezia, IT
February 18 – Magazzino sul Po, Torino, IT w/Futeisha
February 19 – Cave 12 Geneve, CH w/David Maranha & Helena Espvall
February 20 – Realive #5 at Le Ciel, Grenoble, FR
February 20 – Le 102, Grenoble, FR
February 21 – Bon Sauvages, Lyon, FR w/Mutterlein, Amor Fou
February 24 – Macao, Milano, IT
February 25 – Loco\’s, Rovereto, IT
February 27 – Bronson, Ravenna, IT w/Melampus
February 28 – Chiesa S. Maria in Chiavica, Verona, IT*
March 12 – Secret Project Robots, Brooklyn, NY USA w/Kathleen Baird
March 13 – Venue TBA, Providence, RI, USA
March 14 – Sonorium, Salem, MA, USA
March 15 – John Doe Jr Recs and Books, Greenfield, MA, USA w/Bill Nace & J. Meginsky, Brett Renaud
March 16 – Deep Thoughts Record Store, Boston, MA, USA w/KTB, Humanbeast
March 17 – Space Gallery, Portland, ME, USA w/Afraid,
March 18 – Casa del Popolo, Montreal, CDN w/Perverted Justice, Flesh Entry
March 19 – Mugshots, Ottawa, CDN
March 20 – The Cave, Toronto, CDN
March 21 – UFO Factory, Detroit, MI, USA
March 22 The Burlington, Chicago, IL, USA
March 23 The Pentagon, Ames, IA, USA
March 25 Bar Bar, Denver, CO, USA w/Of Earth And Sun, Echo Beds, and Shroud
March 26 Diabolical Records, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
March 25-27 Treefort Music Fest, Boise, ID, USA
March 28 – Beacon Sound, Portland, OR, USA
March 29 – The Black Lodge, Seattle, WA, USA w/Fever Witch, A story of rats, Mood Organ
April 1 – Hollywood Theater, Portland, OR, USA, Paper Circus
April 3 – LCM Oakland, CA, USA w/Chasms, All Your Sisters
April 4 – The Hemlock Tavern, San Francisco, CA, USA
April 5 – Human Resources, Los Angeles, CA, USA w/Xiu Xiu noise set
April 6 – Venue TBA, Tucson, AZ, USA
April 7 – Spirit Abuse, Albuquerque, NM, USA
April 8 – Grynde, El Paso, TX, USA
April 9 – North Door, Austin, TX, USA
April 10 – Korova Basement, San Antonio, TX
April 11 – Rubber Gloves, Denton, TX
April 12 – Spottswood, Memphis, TN
April 13 – Mono, Birmingham, AL
April 14 – Static Age, Asheville, NC, USA
April 15 – Pilot Light, Knoxville, TN, USA
April 16 – Venue TBA, Richmond, VA, USA
April 17 – The Holy Underground w/Theologian, Baltimore, MD, USA
April 18 – Azbetzos Shows, Philadelphia, PA, USA
May 2 – Klubovna Povalec, Prague, CZ
May 3 – Hemdendienst, Nurnmberg, DE
May 5 – West Germany, Berlin, DE
May 7 – Venue TBA, Stormstad, SWE
May 8 – Koloni Gbg, Göteborg, SWE, w/Diane Cluck, Sheik Anorak
May 9 – Mother, Stockholm, SWE, w/Modern Feelings
May 10 – Venue TBA, Copenaghen, DK
May 12 – Venue TBA, Hamburg, DE
May 13 – Hetbos, Antwerp, BE, w/BulBul
May 15 – Le Sud, Rotterdam, NL
May 16 – Cafe de Ruimte, Amsterdam, NL, w/Zea
May 19 – Stramonium Club, Brighton, UK TBA
May 20 – Venue TBA Bristol, UK w/MX LX
May 21 – Chameleon, Nottingham, UK
May 22 – Leamington SPA, UK
May 23 – The Black Heart, London, UK
May 24 – Bradford Threadfest, Bradford, UK w/Howie Reeve and more
May 25 – The Audacious Art Experiment, Sheffield, UK w/Howie Reeve
May 26 – Nice\’n Sleazy, Glasgow, UK, w/Howie Reeve
May 27 – Tunnel 1, Aberdeen UK w/Howie Reeve
May 28 – Fat out \’till you pass out Event, Manchester, UK w/Howie Reeve
May 29 – The Kazimier Garden, Liverpool, UK w/Howie Reeve, a.P.A.t.T
May 30 – Venue TBA, Ipswich, UK w/Howie Reeve
June 2 – Venue TBA, Lille, FR
June 4 – Arrache toi un oeil event, Paris, FR
June 5 – Relax, Clermont Ferrand, FR
June 6 – Les Pavillions Sauvages, Toulouse, FR

Father Murphy Croce Track Listing (available 3/17/15):
1. Blood Is Thicker Than Water
2. A Purpose
3. So This Is Permanent
4. In Solitude
5. Long May We Continue
6. All The People Yelling Fire
7. We Walk By Faith
8. They Won’t Hurt You

Watch the teaser video for Croce here.