Born of the pandemic shutdown and mobilized by the world’s societal ills, Plutocracy Planet is an experimental sociopolitical super-collective led by former Alarm Magazine editor and musical vagrant Scott Morrow.
Fusing post-hardcore sensibilities with electronics, polyrhythms, atypical time signatures, and a far-reaching instrumental palette—including strings, saxophone, piano, harp, marimba, acoustic guitar, and more—the ambitious collaborative project utilizes the talents of more than two dozen venerable vocalists and instrumentalists across hardcore, hip hop, emo, avant-garde composition, pop, and more.
Greed, inequality, and the endless influence of money in politics serve as the project’s thematic focal points. But between a broad-minded approach and a coalition of lyrical voices, the collective’s forthcoming debut LP also touches on the cult of personality, fear-mongering media, police brutality, toxic masculinity, religious zealotry, factory farming, the billionaire space race, discourse in the internet era, and more.
Now, after four singles that have traversed electronics-infused post-hardcore, Southwestern-esque acoustic rock, and sax- and violin-tinged prog metal, Plutocracy Planet has taken another sonic twist with the release of “Slaughterhouse Soliloquy.” Featuring nimble rap vet Swamburger (Mugs and Pockets, ex-Solillaquists of Sound) and digital-hardcore maven Drumcorps, the moody trip-hop track is a silver-tongued screed against factory farming and humanity’s astronomical abuse of animals.
And though the song is built around boom-bap beats and an infectious, atypical hook—which channels avant-indie/anti-folk songstresses such as Regina Spektor or Amanda Palmer—it’s also imbued with the project’s post-hardcore energy and a lot of sonic detours, including a nimble Japanese koto line, a disturbing digitized sequence from Drumcorps, a dark organ melody, and cavorting, sinister synth sounds. In all, it’s a unique mélange of timbres whose unsettling moments speak to the song’s heavy subject matter.
“What humanity does to animals is indefensible,” Morrow says. “In the name of food, clothing, research, the pet industry—you name it. But factory farming is perhaps the biggest moral perversion of them all. We all know that it’s wrong, and we create ways of quashing that cognitive dissonance within us. We intentionally look away from the horrific scenes of the slaughterhouse and the evils of the egg and dairy industries, grinding up male baby chicks who can’t produce eggs or abusing dairy cows and separating them from their calves.
“We’re sick. We justify this behavior with asinine rationalizations that ‘animals are put here for us’ or ‘we evolved to eat meat and need protein.’ We ignore that it’s destroying the planet; we ignore that it’s terrible for our health; we ignore that it leads to zootropic outbreaks; we ignore that we use a preposterous amount of crops, water, and antibiotics just to raise and slaughter animals that we like the taste of. All because we’re too selfish to eat some fucking legumes.”
Releasing July 12 on vinyl and digital, Plutocracy Planet’s full-length debut (preorder here) is produced by singer-songwriter Mark Rose of Spitalfield and features:
Bob Nanna (Braid, Hey Mercedes, Lifted Bells)
Jonah Matranga (Far, Gratitude, onelinedrawing)
Matt Pryor (The Get-Up Kids, The New Amsterdams, Radar State)
Mike Kinsella (American Football, Owen, Lies, Cap’n Jazz)
Liam Wilson (The Dillinger Escape Plan, Azusa)
Rody Walker (Protest the Hero)
Carson Pace (The Callous Daoboys)
Emily Jane White
Mark Rose (Spitalfield)
Swamburger (Solillaquists of Sound)
Blueprint (Soul Position, Greenhouse)
Jørgen Munkeby (Shining)
Carla Kihlstedt (Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Tin Hat Trio, Rabbit Rabbit Radio)
Nils Frykdahl (Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Faun Fables, Idiot Flesh)
Aaron Spectre (Drumcorps)
Bruce Lamont (Yakuza, Masonic Wave)
Angela Mullenhour (Sybris, Touched by Ghoul, Pink Frost)
Anton Patzner (Emily Jane White, Foxtails Brigade, Judgement Day)
Jonathan Hischke (The Sound of Animals Fighting, Le Butcherettes, Hella, Anywhere)
Jason Schimmel (Secret Chiefs 3, Estradasphere, Red Fiction)
Adam Stacey (Igorrr, Secret Chiefs 3, Estradasphere)
Jason Zdora (HeWhoCorrupts)
Leyla I. Royale (Chicago Street Strings)
Plutocracy Planet Tracklisting:
1. Prologue
2. This Very Severity (f. Bob Nanna)
3. But You Said (f. onelinedrawing)
4. A Simple Refrain (f. Matt Pryor & Swamburger)
5. Commence Mutation (f. Carson Pace)
6. Slaughterhouse Soliloquy (f. Swamburger & Drumcorps)
7. War? (f. Rody Walker)
8. True Crime (f. Angela Mullenhour)
9. Hours and Hours (Work Harder, Not Smarter) (f. Mark Rose)
10. Dance of the Downtrodden (f. Carla Kihlstedt, Nils Frykdahl & Jørgen Munkeby)
11. Remain Silent (f. Emily Jane White, Blueprint & Bruce Lamont)
12. Epilogue
About Plutocracy Planet:
Long an appreciator of stylistic diversity, Scott Morrow spent his years at Alarm Magazine championing fiercely creative and risk-taking independent artists of all stripes. When covid-19 shut down the planet, he found himself, like many others, wondering how to get the most out of “The Big Pause.” Rather than use his free time writing about other musicians, he opted to write music of his own—something he hadn’t done in over a decade. Between having many talented musician friends and connections from years of covering music, Morrow quickly amassed a small army of all-star contributors, patching together a network of like-minded experimentalists who resonated with the project’s theme.
But the shutdown wasn’t all productive for Morrow—far from it. In June of 2021, he was hit in the back by a stray bullet in his hometown of Chicago as he walked to meet a friend. Losing multiple organs during an emergency surgery, Morrow nearly died in the immediate aftermath as well as during the subsequent healing process due to an abscess of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The grueling eight-month recovery was yet another “big pause” in his life, but once he resumed life “as usual,” he was even more resolved to finish his project’s debut full-length album.
“The hell that I went through I wouldn’t wish on anyone,” Morrow says. “But I’m unbelievably lucky and grateful to be here today. I could not have had a better and more wonderful support system, and enduring something like that makes you realize how very loved and fortunate you are. Plus, I couldn’t just go dying after all of these gracious, wonderfully talented folks contributed to this unknown pipe-dream project.”
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