Displace Thrilled to Celebrate New Album ‘Accidental’ at Crowbar Saturday
Architech Chris Sgammato has been carefully building a four-album concept discography for Displace that began in 2015 with the release of Eureka! and then the following year with Undertow. He had been hinting for several years with about an accidental necessity. Now we get the third album in the construction, Accidental, which he notes will ultimately conclude with Necessity.
We are delighted to share information about Accidental, which he points out that, “When it appears on CD/vinyl/Spotify and whatnot, it’ll play instantly, but I wanted to make sure you could hear it correctly since we worked so hard on transitioning every single song. It should be considered one 45-minute piece.”
The album release party for Accidental will be Saturday, December 10, at Crowbar in Ybor City (Tampa). Check the links below for ticket information! Bad Cameo opens the show.
At this juncture, it makes sense to let Sgammato take the reins:
Sgammato Speaks
I’m also going to try and get a very brief / incomplete summary of each song in the story, although I cannot stress enough that it doesn’t make as much sense out of context from the original stories of Eureka and Undertow that we never really publicly disclosed, perhaps because it was too awkward from all the “Friction” in the band at the time. But I also can’t expect everyone to spend two damn hours listening to me rant about it.
Discography Concept
This third album Necessity is part of a continuous thru-line spanning four albums. We expanded upon the idea of a concept album and made a concept discography.
First album Eureka! is about that lightbulb moment of euphoric discovery: landing a dream job, finding the love of your life, or anything that finally gives your life the purpose you’ve been looking for. There are multiple allusions to the “Needles” theme before this lightbulb moment is musically personified in the final songs. Think Archimedes in the bathtub discovering the concept of displace-ment. (ayyyyyy)
Second album Undertow is about riding the tides of overflowing excitement to places you never dreamed you’d go but finding that there are subtle cracks in the facade of this dream. Turns out the gig has its flaws; the relationship is mostly chill but certainly not all roses; the honeymoon phase is fading, and reality is starting to set in. As the album progresses, you’re torn between being grateful for what you have and wondering whether you’re not being treated as well as you’d previously thought.
Third album Accidental finds us at the precipice of a grave, life-changing decision. Like a fucking abortion. Crazy shit. Something that will (1) “Redefine” your very existence. Can’t stay, can’t go. Fuck. So you wander the (2) “Caverns” of your subconscious searching for answers, fighting (3) “Crippling Self Doubt” and ultimately making the decision to rip off the band-aid. You quit the job. You break up with the person. Whatever. And in the aftermath you don’t think anything can ever be the same – thoughts of healing are the (4) “Last of Their Kind.” You feel alone and confused, like a (5) “Scarecrow” in love with a crow, designed to repel the very thing you’re hopelessly in love with. You are like a retired racing greyhound that spent its entire life chasing a piece of felt made up to look like a (6) “Rabbit” and finally caught a real one and now don’t know what to do with yourself. The chase became your identity, and now you can’t run. But there is something faintly resembling the beginnings of peace in that stillness – you begin to finally start (7) “Saving Myself.”
Accidental TRACK SUMMARY
ONE “Redefine”
The sound of being faced with an abortion-like decision, hopelessly torn between two impossibly undesirable outcomes. Carrying on in the current state doesn’t seem feasible, but neither does living with the alternative. There’s a band-aid that needs to be ripped off, but it seems to be the only thing holding you together.
// A dark indie anthem penned at gaslit crossroads.
TWO “Caverns”
Initially paralyzed by the gravity of the difficult decisions that must be made, you begin to traverse the labyrinthian catacombs of your subconscious. Drifting aimlessly, searching for something resembling anything in a sea of everything in your mind, you wander and wonder, hoping to somehow make sense of yourself.
// Breakbeat Radiohead meets Irish Umphrey’s in a Zelda dungeon.
THREE “Crippling Self Doubt”
Awakening from the cacophony contained in the dark recesses of your psyche, you immediately notice an unsettling sensation. The feeling is subtle at first, but grows the more you dwell on it. Escalating speculations induce a panicked state, and the violent realization of what you must do is eclipsed by total mental paralysis.
// This song sounds like the gradual onset of a panic attack.
FOUR Last Of Their Kind
For better or worse, an irreversible decision was made, and right now everything feels worse. There’s a perpetual internal scream that is especially noticeable in the stillness of the spaces you used to be able to enjoy silence. It’s almost recognizable as some sort of former self, if you were in a place to understand who or what that was. Nothing seems right, or like it ever will again. It feels like you tried cauterizing a wound with a zippo and a head full of acid – and this bad trip has only just begun.
// Sounds like Tool meets Phish – and the rendezvous was most unpleasant.
FIVE “Scarecrow”
Freshly broken flesh has attracted the vultures of memory, and they are brutal. They say time heals all wounds, but you are inextricably addicted to a memory that only gets more distant each day. Like a lonesome scarecrow hopelessly looking to the sky longing for the very thing your nature seems designed to repel, you reflect on a past that you will never again be present for, with a bleak outlook on the prospects of a future you’d do anything to escape.
// Introspectively aggressive alt-rock desperately pleading at a fading memory.
SIX “Rabbit”
Like a racing greyhound bred and conditioned to crave a relentlessly endless loop, you have been running in tired circles your entire life chasing an idea. You ran for so long the chase became your whole identity – until one day you finally caught it, and realized it was never what you believed it to be. Your purpose has evaporated; now you don’t know what to do, or who to be. There is initially a desperate confusion in this realization, gradually followed by a calm acceptance knowing that at least you aren’t running anymore.
// The frantic sound of an irrational pursuit in the key of Prog Pop.
SEVEN “Saving Myself”
It took way more than it probably should have, and you’re still not exactly giving five-star reviews of recent experiences. But in destruction, there is creation; you are a perfect exhibit of this. There’s a lot of work to be done, and you’ve yet to figure out exactly what that even means – but at least when you tore off the only bandage holding you together, you found that you didn’t fall apart. That’s everything. Or at least it’s enough right now. Although initially this all seemed accidental, you begin to suspect it may have actually been a necessity.
// The only piano-pop song we can think of that non-ironically features an epic kazoo solo.
“Caverns” – Full Concept
After being confronted with the sobering dilemma of reconciling two fundamentally irreconcilable decisions, you begin to search the deepest recesses of your subconscious for some semblance of a solution.
Caverns should conjure up images of underwater cave diving: a dangerously awe-inspiring exercise which requires participants to navigate endless miles of labyrinthic passages, inches from death the whole time.
Imagine diving into the piercing cold abyss, peacefully drifting through these underwater caverns. Externally, you must remain calm and move slowly, as excess motion could consume finite oxygen too quickly or stir up sediment and blind you completely. Physically you are required to constantly be quite still, calm, collected, and composed; but mentally you are a million things screaming simultaneously – like someone sitting still in a chair with a frantically racing mind.
Unlike open water scuba diving, there is no easy escape upward in an emergency; you must calmly and collectively retrace your path to make it back out alive. Panic and disorientation mean certain death, so even if you wanted to you must overcome your own mind to conquer it.
In spite of metaphorically living in this near-death state, you are exploring awe-inspiring passages that you’ve never seen before. You are discovering rarely visited components of your consciousness, repressed memories, secret mentalities; gaining a deeper understanding of your overall self through this delicate quest. When – or if – you emerge from this odyssey intact, it will be with a renewed sense of self, perhaps enabling you to grow into something more complete, or dragging you further into the depths of despair.
The outcome is uncertain, but the journey is a necessity and you’ve already begun to wander.
OK, readers, catch your breath. That is a LOT to absorb. List to the Spotify link below, and enjoy this project from Displace, with album art by Carlos Pons. Displace are: Chris Sgammato, lead vocals, alto saxophone, guitar, keytar; Chris Barbosa, electric violin, keyboards; D Truth The Professional, bass guitar, synth; and Evan Thibeault, acoustic & electronic drums.
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