“Old Dead Dogs” by Hemlock Ernst with: Faitboi Sharif and Beans

Studying Absence is a collaboration between Hemlock Ernst – a side project of Future Islands member Samuel T. Herring – and long-time Beans collaborator Icky Reels. It comes via Beans’ Tygr Rawwk Rcrds and was carefully orchestrated by the label’s CEO. Herring initially caught Beans’ attention after his rhymes appeared on RAP Ferreira’s 2022 single “mythsysizer instinct.”

Herring was a long-time fan of Beans and his group Anti-Pop Consortium. After initially making contact, Beans eventually coordinated a vocal appearance from Herring on the Venga track “Anti-Star System.” Beans later encouraged Herring to make a record with Icky Reels to push artistic boundaries. “With Hemlock Ernst I work more on soul and jazz break beats. The production of Icky Reels was a far more industrial and acidic landscape. I knew this would be more of a cerebral process of breaking down the beats, challenging the rhythms and finding the voices. But I decided to take on the challenge,” says Herring. Beans was pleased with the end result and Studying Absence is the most ambitious record in the Hemlock Ernst discography to date.

Following the singles “Raised In the South” and “Remains” featuring Elucid by Armand Hammer, Hemlock Ernst and Icky Reels today release the icy, mechanical new track “Old Dead Dogs”. The track features guests Faitboi Sharif and Beans (Anti-Pop Consortium).

Herring says: “Studying Absence is about my lost stories, my Southern Pacific ancestry, my first relationships, physical abuse, drug addiction and the ghosts of the South – the road deaths on a long winter night. I was all of those things, but not one of them. The stories I don’t know I can only imagine, but the same goes for the stories I know too well. The stories that I lived and that made me who I am are now so far away that remembering them is like a dream. Did it happen? But now I feel the same way I always felt when I looked in a mirror. This is potential and what has been lost. This is technology and how it has failed. This is imperialism and who won it. A religion, an organized crime. All the people scattered.”

Herring claims this is the densest and most complex Hemlock-Ernst outing yet. He pushed the limits of his voice and captured sounds he had never recorded on tape before. His goal was to juxtapose the machine-like production of Icky Reels and balance it with human emotion. From cover to cover, in “Studying Absence,” Herring uncovers stories and memories that have been buried for decades. After two decades of grinding, “Studying Absence” is one of the most honest Hemlock Ernst works ever.

Hemlock Ernst + Icky Reels
Study in absence
Tygr Rawwk Rcrds
Tracklist

1. Grew up in the South
2. Break time in the factory
3. Exhumation of the King
4. Hold the wires on the Ellis
5. Old dead dogs
6. Persimmons
7. Stay
8. Bear your testimony

Hemlock Ernst + Icky Reels 2024 Live Dates

21.10. – Youngstown, OH @ Westside Bowl
(Icky Reels with wave generators and MCACM)

10/23 – Brooklyn, NY on The Lot Radio
(Fatboi Sharif & Icky Reels)

10/24 – Pawtucket, Rhode Island @ News Cafe
(Fatboi Sharif & Icky Reels)

November 21st – Brooklyn, NY @ Baby’s All Right
(Hemlock Ernst & Icky Reels with wave generators & PremRock)

11/22 – Baltimore, MD @ Mercury Theater
(Hemlock Ernst & Icky Reels with wave generators & Eze Jackson)

11/23 – Richmond, VA @ Cobra Cabana
(Hemlock Ernst & Icky Reels with wave generators & lunch special)

November 24th – Raleigh, NC @ King’s
(Hemlock Ernst & Icky Reels with wave generators & Emceein Eye

Order Studying Absence HERE