Chicago-based trio Pixel Grip released their third album, Percepticide: The Death of Reality on June 12. Three years in the making, Percepticide is also the band’s first fully independent release and the end result is a collection of a dozen songs that are rooted in the clubs, but defy expectations of what one might consider club music. It’s as punk as it is pop, as raw as it is slick and as menacing as it is euphoric.
“Reason to Stay,” which was previously released as a single and has already made it into my DJ sets, embodies the the cross-section of influences that the trio brings together on the album. It initially caught my attention because of a semi-creepy, synth line near the top of the song that reminded me of something very early ‘80s that I couldn’t quite place. Regardless, the song completely vibe shifts into a screaming chorus. In the second verse, there’s a scream in the background that sounds like it came straight out of a horror film. Then there’s the break, which briefly sounds like a warped record, then builds into what you think will be a big rave crescendo, but doesn’t. The song plays with these tropes that we’ve come to expect from both dance and rock music without ever giving into the conventions of genre and I appreciate that.
Hear “Reason to Stay” by Pixel Grip in the May 2025 edition of the Beatique Mix.
Another previously released single, “Stamina,” will probably start appearing in my sets soon. This is the most straightforward song on the album, an EBM banger with lyrics in the vein of the great NSFW bangers of the ‘90s and ‘00s, like Lords of Acid “I Sit on Acid” and everything on The Teaches of Peaches.
Elsewhere on the album, Pixel Grip takes the blender approach that works so well on “Reason to Stay.” On “Moment with God,” a surfy intro gives way to a mosh pit-friendly deathrock and synthpunk hybrid. “Work or Shut Up” is reminiscent of Republica’s mid ‘90s club pop hit “Ready to Go,” but in the song’s final 30 seconds or so, it morphs into an electro jam.
Percepticide’s slow songs offer plenty of surprises too. “Last Laugh” brings in the groovy, trip-hop adjacent rhythm that ruled the latter half of the 1990s, but Rita Lukea takes the song into a heavier direction with her spoken word delivery in the final minute-and-a-half of the song. “Jealousy is Lethal” is one of the album’s more minimal moments and that stripped-down approach makes it a likely concert singalong moment with lines like, “you can burn the witch, but you can’t burn the truth.”
Pixel Grip will be touring Percepticide across North America this fall, with a Halloween show scheduled for Los Angeles’ El Rey Theatre. Head to Pixel Grip’s website for more info.
Get Percepticide: The Death of Reality by Pixel Grip.
Liz O. is an L.A.-based writer and DJ. Read her recently published work and check out her upcoming gigs or listen to the latest Beatique Mix. Follow on Instagram or Bluesky for more updates. Subscribe to the weekly Beatique newsletter.
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