About "RESISTANCE"
PUREST FORM pulls visceral dance-punk music from modern-day angst and unrest. The newly formed Los Angeles trio — vocalist Story Beeson, guitarist/programmer Madi Woodward, and bassist Riley Oikawa-Dahlson — draws on their respective backgrounds in hardcore bands, and a shared love of industrial and techno, splicing the intensely heavy with the playful and sensual. RESISTANCE, their second extended play and debut with Dais Records, delivers a potent, 6-track anarchist assault on the system, fueled by collective anger amidst late-stage capitalism and a year of nonstop trauma in LA, from the fires to ICE. "Resistance, less of an idea, more of an absolute action that has to be taken," asserts Beeson.
RESISTANCE builds on the promise of their self-titled 2024 EP, a sonic blueprint that Stereogum likened to Nine Inch Nails's Broken ("a reckless, metallic industrial jackhammer sound"). The trio's new material is even more agile and charged-up, a cataclysmic set with structural jumps and hard left turns, confronting sonic and societal constructs. Serrated riffs meet fractured breakbeats, basslines, and body-quaking feedback, with nods to death metal and acid house in equal measure, all punctuated by Beeson's urgent, anthemic narration, often shouted to near-shreds. "We decided to just take it to the next level with this one," says Woodward. "It's like a unification of all the music that we love and feel. And it makes sense to us. If it sounds good, we don’t care where it comes from." If they channeled Reznor's rawest era in their first dispatch, here the group adds a spiritual dash of Voodoo-U, or more directly, The Prodigy, whose iconic "Breathe" has been covered loyally in their live sets and is captured properly in this collection for posterity.
Regarding the mood, Woodward continues, “We set out to do something and say something. It did feel cathartic.” Beeson adds, “The nature and actions of our country are overwhelming, I can't get away from the feeling of ‘what can we do to resist this at all costs?’ We have very radical fantasies across the board, making music that isn't talking about what’s happening right now just feels unimportant to us. We are willing to sacrifice whatever to make music that is honest. It’s both important and fun to have a project where it's just like a complete fuck you. And also a complete desire to unify.”
Recording took place sporadically throughout 2025, beginning while Beeson was still evacuated from her home. Sketches started on the computer before open-ended sessions at the space of their longtime collaborator and producer, Andrew Oswald. “A helpful and needed distraction during a pretty bleak year for the world. It became the one thing that felt good to us,” says Oikawa-Dahlson. “We explore some dark headspaces, but it's also dance music.”
RESISTANCE is filled with moments that embody dissatisfaction with the status quo and a simmering desire to both destroy and connect. Its mission is a scorching, siren call to arms; these are not times to remain silent: “GET LOUD.”
