Pygmy Lush- Totem

Label: Persistent Vision

Released 8/29/2025

TOTEM is the first new album from Virginia's Pygmy Lush in 14 years. Like their previous output, it was recorded and mixed by longtime friend and collaborator of the band, Kurt Ballou, at GodCity Studio in Massachusetts in April 2016. And as with their other three full lengths, Pygmy Lush — the band sworn to never break up, only take breaks — is readily recognizable here: a bit different, and a bit the same. Unlike their earlier work though, TOTEM sat (or stood, fully formed and erect) complete, yet unheard — unreleased, “shelved” or “lost” — until now. As sure as you can’t unring a bell, the album’s 11 songs are no less than eight years old, but couldn’t be unmade short of direct and total cataclysm. If you already know Pygmy Lush and their modus operandi over these last two decades, you already know to check your baggage and leave all expectations behind. When others zig, Pygmy Lush zag. When the show is loud, Pygmy Lush are quiet. And so it goes. TOTEM is no exception, but also stands alone within the band's body of work, a monolithic sum of its Pygmy Lush parts.

Track listing:

1. House of Blood (Butch’s Monster)
2. It Wasn’t a Compliment (Martial Law Blues)
3. A Little Boy and His Bulldozer
4. Algorithmic Mercy (Prayers Printed Directly into a Shredder)
5. A Famous Jock (The Rest of Us)
6. February Song
7. Band-Aid on a Bullet Wound
8. The Puppeteer
9. Post-Punk in the Wrong Hands
10. Artistic Blood / Blanket Out the Sun (in a world of better things)
11. Nonsensical Whimper