Desire & Discontent, by Belief Defect

Desire & Discontent

by Belief Defect

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Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Desire & Discontent in a stunning deluxe vinyl edition. Pressed on heavyweight 170g, this double LP features a mesmerizing metallic blue iridescent shimmer with high dispersion intertwined with bone white swirls, every pressing of this record is completely unique with multiple variations.

Housed in an triple gatefold jacket, the package holds a vinyl record in each outer pocket. Included is an 18 page booklet showcasing exclusive artwork by Silent Servant & Simone Ling — a heartfelt tribute to their beautiful creative contributions to our album before their untimely passing.

Limited to 200 colored vinyl copies and 150 black vinyl copies.
Colored vinyl will ship first unless black is requested,

Includes unlimited streaming of Desire & Discontent via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Download available in 16-bit/44.1kHz.

ships out within 10 days

edition of 250

Purchasable with gift card

$45 USD or more
Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Purchasable with gift card

Download available in 16-bit/44.1kHz.

$11 USD or more

1.	The Difference between Objects 07:53	info
2.	Four Questions 07:37	lyrics
How shall integrity face oppression ? What does honestly do in the face of Deception ? What does decency do in the face of insult ? How does Virtue meet brute force ?
3.	Uncanny 06:34	info
4.	How to Kill Symbols 08:03	lyrics
Our failure to defend those who are demonized and persecuted leaves us all demonized and persecuted. Our failure to demand justice for everyone leaves us all without justice. Our failure to halt the crushing of popular movements that stand unequivocally with the oppressed leaves us all oppressed.
5.	Void State 07:42	info
6.	Apprehension Engine 05:10	info
7.	The Witching 06:03	lyrics
There is a familiar checklist for extinction. We are ticking off every item on it. The idiots, see in the decay the chance for personal advancement and profit. The idiots, know only one word—“more.” They are unencumbered by common sense. They no longer need to protect, They steel and lie openly. They wield army’s and fleets against the wretched of the earth. Blithely ignoring the looming catastrophe.
8.	Celebrate Me! 05:53	lyrics
You’re not color You’re not breed You’re not fluid You’re just numbers to be counted Meat to be consumed Husk to be discarded You’re not far You’re not safe You’re not never You’re connection to be severed Life to be depleted Worth to be determined You’re the other You’re the threat You’re the problem You’re the thought to be converted Self to be subverted Faith to be demanded

about

A creator has no choice but to dwell on duality while working on their sophomore effort. Dichotomies between old and new, authentic and contrived, confident and unsure invariably permeate their psyche, bleeding through and coloring their creative process. Belief Defect refused to tune out such uncomfortable thought patterns. The duo faced them head on instead, purposefully fixating on whatever emotions came up during the time they shared in the studio. They distilled the essence of these starkly contrasting themes into the eight pieces of music comprising ‘Desire & Discontent’

The album arrives more than six years after Belief Defect’s debut effort, ‘Decadent Yet Depraved’. As compelling works often do, the 2017 collection of tracks arose organically from the two collaborators’ natural studio chemistry. The same approach — but even more brutally honest — informed the follow-up album. It achieved markedly different results the second time around, however.

The world has changed greatly over the past six years, and so too have Belief Defect’s artistic reflections of it. Hailing from different countries, the two artists were both sitting in one of their studios when the news broke that airports would shut down and all visitors were required to return home. Not long afterward, protests and political turmoil polarized people in both of their local communities. Death and despair ensued. Belief Defect also found themselves without their newly shared emotional outlet. Their attempts to remotely work on ‘Desire & Discontent’ fell short of the cathartic shared experience responsible for their widely acclaimed debut album. They chose to wait instead. To compromise the process that had gotten them to that point was not an option. It needed to be what it was, they decided. For it to become something else would defeat the purpose. Lockdowns eventually lifted. When the two artists could once again collaborate in earnest, mixed emotions that had welled up over the months prior poured out in sometimes 36-hour studio sessions. Bordering on delirium, their raw vulnerability steered the album in new and unexpected directions. It was Belief Defect, to be sure — but from as yet unseen angles.

Whereas the works comprising ‘Decadent Yet Depraved’ captured visceral sensations through a primal patina of gritty textures, those on ‘Desire & Discontent’ bear something akin to story elements. Cinematic low end frequencies add momentous gravity to each arrangement, and restrained chord progressions divide many of the tracks into coherent movements.

Take ‘Uncanny’, for instance. Subhuman chants are overpowered by dissonant string plucks set to a spine-tingling cadence, all of which give way to dense atmospheres and harsh glitch effects halfway through the track’s runtime. On the other end of the spectrum is “Celebrate Me!”, in which Ana Gartner’s heavily distorted spoken-word sample is offset by a suspenseful and slowly unfolding melody. Attentive listeners will also recognize a familiar warmth in the drumline of ‘The Difference Between Objects’. This is no mistake. Belief Defect enlisted Merlin Ettore to lay down an instrumental track for the recording, and the Smoke & Mirrors drummer imbued a human element in the otherwise mechanical work.

The two members of Belief Defect share a love of early industrial music — a less inward era for the genre in which it posed relevant social commentary on the outside world. While ‘Desire & Discontent’ fits into no one stylistic category, this influence is nonetheless evident. Perhaps most notably, ‘Four Questions’ quotes the late scholar and Black protest leader W.E.B. Du Bois. An otherworldly voice rhetorically echoes his timeless words: “How shall integrity face oppression? What does honesty do in the face of deception? What does decency in the face of insult? How does virtue meet brute force?” Other pieces, like ‘Void State’, only wax political in inspiration. The arrangement’s artful use of negative space paints an abstract depiction of vacuous government affairs. Elsewhere, its vaguely militaristic percussion hints at the draconian measures taken by those in power to protect their position.

For all that is new in ‘Desire & Discontent’, key characteristics of the first album remain. Belief Defect honor their commitment to the concept album format, making each new release amount to a whole greater than the sum of its parts. No music industry pressures influenced their process — on the contrary, Raster Media allowed them complete creative freedom. Belief Defect’s second album is raw, unyielding and honest. By now, it’s the only way they know.

credits

released March 17, 2025

Written and produced by Moe Espinosa and Luis Flores.
Live drums by Merlin Ettore. Vocals on ‘Celebrate Me!’ by Ana Gartner, lyrics by Luis Flores.
Additional text and vocals: W. E. B. Du Bois read by Cornel West on ‘Four Questions’; Chris Hedges on ‘How to Kill Symbols’ and ‘The Witching’
Mastered by Bo Kondren at Calyx Mastering, Berlin.
Artwork and photography by Juan Mendez (Silent Servant) and Simone Ling. In memoriam, forever grateful for the endless inspiration, memories will transcend time…
Additional art assistance by Dean Paul and Cesar Acosta.

Dedicado a mi padre, Fernando Flores, quien me enseño el significado de la música…

Cat. No. r-m212 – All rights reserved
℗ & © 2025 raster – artistic platform

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about

Belief Defect

A monothematic delusion is a delusional state that concerns only one particular topic. People who suffer from these delusions often do not suffer from any obvious intellectual deficiency nor do they have any other symptoms.

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