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Like their name suggests, Model/Actriz seek to channel raw emotions into striking newforms. The bands surface glamor is supported by nerves of steel, leveraging their focusinto moments of wild abandon. Since their songs roar to life off the back of blisteringguitar, relentless drums, and pummeling bass theres an expectation that Model/Actrizaim first and foremost to be shit-starters. But their instrumental muscle couches asearching heart and the Brooklyn quartet have long made a mission to reconcileundefinable feelings by charting a ferocious new path through sound, one that bringsjagged emotions back into full, sweaty alignment with the listeners bodies.Their debut record Dogsbody was sexy, dark, and humid, full of eerie passages andveiled menace. Songs like Amaranth and Mosquito were hot house scenes cast inforeboding half-shadow, with frontman Cole Haden as the hero at the center of itsshifting, sultry gloom. The figure he cut was reassuring and ominous, both anexperienced guide who could light up the musics dim corridors and a hauntingpresence who was inextricably bound to them. The lyrics found him fumbling around inits darkness to become the person he is today scarred, but made stronger in pursuit ofits seduction.Model/Actrizs sophomore album Pirouette, which was co-produced and mixed by SethManchester and mastered by Matt Colton, their collaborators on Dogsbody, swerves outof the maze and directly into the spotlight. It is Dogsbodys equally accomplished, butmuch more self-possessed sister record thumping and immediate rather than darkand obscure. The light it casts off originates from within, and reflects a band thats notonly grown into its strengths but conquered its demons. Haden no longer vamps fromthe shadows but at the very front of the stage and often in the very thick of the crowd commanding the musics chaotic center with a poise that channels Grace Jones andLady Gaga.After much critical acclaim and an exhausting tour to support the record, the bandsought to reinvigorate their visceral live shows that invite that audience into a sharedroom of carnal ritual. Pirouette is both a natural progression and a calculated reset, amove toward reasserting their command as artists by peeling away the smoke andmirrors to become brighter, heavier, and more direct. The pop thread runningthroughout the album allows the crowd to witness thumping club music in the spirit ofcabaret and manifest the catharsis that comes with hitting the dancefloor.
