Sacred Bones Records share unreleased Alan Vega track "Fist"

Mutator was first announced last month with "Nike Soldier", and today (23 March) Sacred Bones have unveiled "Fist", the second track to be lifted from Vega's lost album Mutator.

Vega's llongtime collaborator Liz Lamere says, ""Fist"'s relentless forward movement of the music coupled with Vega's battle cry lyrics makes it a powerful call for action to the people to muster their power, come together and Make One Nation. The message is timely, the impact timeless."

The Vacant Lots' Jared Artaud, who helped produce and mix Mutator with Lamere adds, "Alan Vega was an architect of sound. "Fist" reveals the album's archetypal sonic framework of balancing intensity with calm. Music you can meditate to or blast during a protest march. Vega was a champion of the underdog. His lyrics inspire strength for the individual to rise up and destroy those destroying us. "Fist" sets Mutator into motion with Vega's ‘no notes’ mantra and blistering poetic truths that balance a dark vision with hope."

The lost album will mark Sacred Bones' first archival release from Vega's vault.

Vega's Mutator album was recorded with Lamere between 1995-1996, and the original tapes were discovered by Lamere and Artaud in 2019, leading them to mix and produce the songs for the archival release.

Lamere says of Vega, "Alan was driven to create, his focus always on looking ahead to discover new terrain by experimenting with sound and visuals. He rarely looked back at what he had done before, and as soon as he was moving in a new direction it became a relentless pursuit of the unknown. Our primary purpose for going into the studio was to experiment with sound, not to ‘make records.' I was playing the machines with Alan manipulating sounds. I played riffs while Alan morphed the sounds being channeled through the machines."

Artaud adds, "The moment Liz and I discovered the original ADAT tapes of Mutator, we knew we had found something special and felt strongly that it needed to be shared out in the world. Mutator bridges the gap between the past and present. It’s something we feel he would have been really proud of, seeing this lost album released today. In so many ways, his music is needed now more than ever."