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Aug 07, 2019 Pharmakon By Christopher Roberts

Pharmakon (aka Margaret Chardiet) is releasing a new album, Devour, on August 30 via Sacred Bones. Previously she shared its first single, “Self-Regulating System,” as well as a teaser trailer for the album. Now she has shared another song from it, “Spit It Out,” and announced some new tour dates. Check out the song and dates below.

Devour is the New York City-based artist’s fourth album. Ben Greenberg (Uniform) recorded the album live in the studio, the first time a Pharmakon album was recorded this way. Each side of the album was recorded as a continuous take.

A press release describes the concept of the album as such: “Like her previous albums, Devour comes with a strong concept that is exorcised throughout the five demolishing tracks on the album, using imagery and language of self-cannibalism as allegory for the self-destructive nature of humans. Each of the five songs echoes a stage of grief associated with this cyclical chamber of self-destruction and the chaos surrounding us that leads us to devour ourselves in an attempt to balance the agony.”

Chardiet issued this press release statement about the album: “Devour uses self-cannibalization as allegory for the self-destructive nature of humans; on cellular, individual, societal and species-wide scales. In our cells, our minds, our politics, and our species, humans are self-destructing. But this behavior does not happen in a vacuum. It is an instinctive inward response to a world of increasing outward violence, greed, and oppression. Turning these wounds toward ourselves can be seen as an attempt at ‘balancing feedback,’ within a never-ending positive feedback loop of cause and effect. With this view, the blame is placed not within the individual, but with the world they must contend with, and a society that is designed to fail them - to keep them gnashing and wailing, inflicted with an all-devouring hunger that inevitably turns in on the self. Those that pit them against each other grin from the sidelines, bellies full. Those who see beyond the veil need to obscure the horrid sight by any means necessary, but respite is always brief - nothing can dampen the glare from behind the veil. This album is dedicated to all who were lost to their own demise, all who have been institutionalized; whether in prison, psychiatric facilities, or drug rehabilitation. It is for all those ostracized by and isolated from a totality which chews them up alive in a self-cannibalizing caste system. Here, where martyrs, slaves, and pharmakos are not eradicated, but simply called by another name. ‘ABOUT THE SHALLOWNESS OF SANITY’... To be well adjusted in this system is to be oblivious and unfeeling. This is for the rest of us, who understand that chaos, madness, pain and even self-destruction are natural and inevitable responses to an unjust and disgusting world of our own making.”

Pharmakon Tour Dates:

September 6th - Raleigh, NC @ Hopscotch Music Fest
September 18th - Richmond, VA @ Wonderland
September 19th - Atlanta, GA @ 529
September 20th - New Orleans LA @ Santos
September 22nd - Dallas TX @ The Nines
September 25th - Austin TX @ Hotel Vegas
September 27 - Los Angeles, CA @ Private DTLA Location
September 29 - San Francisco @ Gray Area
October 1st - Portland, OR @ Polaris Hall
October 2nd - Olympia, WA @ Cryptatropa
October 3rd - Seattle, WA @ Kremwerk
October 4th - Victoria, BC
October 5th - Vancouver, BC
October 7th - Edmonton, AB @ 9910
Octover 8th - Calgary, AB @ The Palomino
October 11th - Minneapolis, MN @ Part Wolf MPLS
October 12th - St Louis, MO
October 13th - Chicago, IL
October 16th - Cincinnati, OH
October 17th - Pittsburgh, PA @ Gooski’s
October 18th - Cleveland, OH @ Now That’s Class
October 19th - Toronto, ON @ Longboat Hall
October 20th - Montreal, QC @ PHI Centre
October 25th - Providence, RI @ AS220
October 26th - Philadelphia, PA @ PhilaMOCA
October 27th - Baltimore, MD @ Metro Gallery

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