Today, industrial-hardcore duo Street Sects announced Dry Drunk, their first full-length since 2018, and it’s not coming alone. Alongside it arrives Full Color Eclipse, the debut album from the brand-new sister project Street Sex, which leans into Leo Ashline and Shaun Ringsmuth’s shared love of pop, melody and higher production values. Both LPs are due August 15th via COMPULSION RECORDS, the freshly launched label from industrial-rock trailblazers HEALTH.
Produced by Ben Chisholm (Chelsea Wolfe), Dry Drunk finds Street Sects digging deep into personal hell. It’s a record born out of relapse, redemption and the raw nerve of early sobriety. Fittingly, lead single “Spitting Images” is pure teeth-grinding catharsis.
Street Sex flip the switch. Where “Spitting Images” is rust and razorblades, the new band’s “Turn Blue” glows with neon grime, a synth-slicked celebration of pop hooks and a kind of emotional vulnerability that cuts just as deep.
Both tracks landed today with a double-feature video animated by Ben Clarkson — watch and listen above.
Ashline described as “Spitting Images” as being about “a man who is in the absolute depths of Dry Drunk Syndrome. He hates himself, and he projects that hatred onto his family in the worst possible way. One thing I wanted to express on Dry Drunk as a whole was a kind of ugly, belligerent rage, and this character embodies that. He is stupid and hateful. He might have gotten sober, but he hasn’t changed. Not counting the exaggerated violence, I have been this person at times. I think many people in recovery have.”
He added of “Turn Blue”: “It’s about letting go of repression, self consciousness and crippling insecurities. It’s about submitting to your basest urges without shame and feeling a weight lift off of you as a result. It’s a little dark, but it’s also kind of joyful, in a slightly insane, ridiculous way. Lyrically, I’ve never written anything like this before. I had a blast working on this song, and that’s not often the case when I’m writing.”