Zürich-based art-rock outfit District Five have announced their forthcoming album GLUT, due May 29 via Stone Pixel Records, alongside a new single, “Push,” featuring poet, actor, and activist Saul Williams.
A blunt, unambiguous piece of political music, “Push” carries no interest in subtlety or euphemism. Its lyrical content is stated plainly. With Williams — Grammy-nominated and recently prominent as a star of Sinners — bringing his characteristically precise political voice to the track, the collaboration sharpens District Five’s already outspoken stance on structural injustice into something bracingly direct. The accompanying animated video, made by artist j4y, maps the dissonance of a New York City day — fractured, kinetic, somehow both chaotic and coherent.
“Push” follows “Place Your Bet,” a more interior piece built around Juno-106 synths, where a space-rock unease drifts beneath a vocal melody that recalls, of all things, Nick Drake — grasping at something like redemption through the language of vice. The contrast between the two singles already signals GLUT as a record unwilling to settle into a single register.
That restlessness is, of course, District Five’s defining quality. The four-piece — Paul Amereller (drums, percussion), Tapiwa Svosve (vocals, synth, sax), Vojko Huter (vocals, guitar, synth), and Xaver Rüegg (bass) — have spent a decade building a sound that defies easy summary. KEXP described it as “adventurous art-rock with psych and jazz undercurrents,” which is accurate as far as it goes, though the full picture is wider still: there are moments that sit alongside the knotted contemporary jazz of Maruja or SML, others that press into space-rock territory somewhere between The Verve and Clinic, and still others that recall the abrasive math-noise of black midi or Lightning Bolt. Through all of it run melodic passages of genuine, unadorned beauty — the kind that tend to arrive when you least expect them.
Recorded with minimal cuts and overdubs, GLUT is built to reflect the immediacy of their live sound — the same quality that made their 2024 album Come Closer such a compelling document of a band thinking in real time. GLUT promises more of the same urgency, only more so.
GLUT is out May 29 via Stone Pixel Records.
Pre-save here: https://orcd.co/glutpresave