The Sick Man of Europe announce album number two, ‘The Intermittent Signal': the sound of resistance - out 25 September via The Leaf Label.
The Sick Man of Europe celebrate the sound of resistance combatting identities that dissolve into the feed; turning erasure into eight tracks of machine-rhythm dread and buried melody with an announcement of album number two ‘The Intermittent Signal’.
One of the most welcome discoveries of the last few years has been the Joy Division/Suicide inspired machine that is The Sick Man of Europe, and following on the back of the self-titled album number one, album number two arrives in a world that has heavily changed since June 2025.
We open with a looming text of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s ‘Notes from Underground’ (1864) - “Man has such a predilection for systems and abstract deductions that he is ready to distort the truth intentionally, he is ready to deny the evidence of his senses only to justify his logic” - which instantly sums up an idea of what to expect from this post-industrial techno-fuelled orgy at the end of the world. It’s an emphasis on repetition, the machine rhythms repurposed, this time with increased intensity and a focus on the slippage of steady hands from power – the retraction of logic, the overwhelming increase in reliance of artificial intelligence and lack of ability to think independently, all of which has seemingly happened as rapidly as possible in about a year, is very much the core prevalent theme of this release.
“Any references you may hear in the static are not the starting point, nor are they there by chance,” TSMOE continues. “The message doesn’t arrive fully formed - without those who came before, it is nothing. Today the human experience is one of fear, anxiety and alienation as our identities and sense of self are erased. Hope, connection and organisation are required to stop the inward implosion and downward spiral. The Intermittent Signal is not our beginning, it is not our end, it is our now.”
Lead single ‘Negative Stimuli’ repeats the message: “If you’re not exploting yourself, you’re exploiting someone else.” The hyperventilation and call-to-arms of resistance lead the new single that backs The Sick Man of Europe’s incredible live shows where the frontman is in the audience as much as the crowd themselves; one need only have caught him at Mutations or Club Cheek in an array of underground, local venues last year – and an appearance at The Old Blue Last earlier in the summer to be a convert. The Intermittent Signal mashes with the old sound to create an articulate vibe that mobilises beyond the abstract feeling of discontent – and is prepared to embrace it in the best way possible.
The Sick Man Of Europe live:
Wed 5 Aug - Haldern Pop Festival, DE
Thu 20 Aug - Extramuralhas Festival, PT
Photo credit Bella Keery