{"product_id":"ekko-astral-the-beltway-is-burning","title":"EKKO ASTRAL - the beltway is burning","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ff0000;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLP - Limited Edition 'Red in Red' Colour Vinyl with Obi and printed sleeve. Includes download card. \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhen \u003cstrong\u003eEkko Astral\u003c\/strong\u003e dropped their searing debut \u003cem\u003epink balloons\u003c\/em\u003e in 2024, it would be another year and change before Trump took office and deployed the National Guard to Washington, D.C. Recorded immediately after the 2024 U.S. General Election, Ekko Astral’s second album the beltway is burning was always intended as a real-time historical document in the form of a dark comedy. Each song plays out like a vignette, with Ekko Astral beckoning listeners into their fictionalised version of The Beltway, in which Adam Sandler is a god-president and the DMV has become a demilitarised zone, a wasteland run by butt rockers and Soundcloud rappers. On the surrealist lead single “\u003cem\u003elil xan goes to washingto\u003c\/em\u003en,” the titular character travels to D.C. to lobby for addiction assistance legislation before succumbing to the cartoonish horror that is K Street, ultimately becoming a sellout himself. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSuch noisy, absurd caricatures abound on \u003cem\u003ebeltway\u003c\/em\u003e, whose anchors are simultaneously heavier, poppier, and more complex than on predecessor \u003cem\u003epink balloons\u003c\/em\u003e. Take the album’s pop diamond “\u003cem\u003elovesick american romance\u003c\/em\u003e”: a 90s rock-indebted anthem that snarls at mainstream culture’s embrace of the manosphere. And then there’s the album’s centerpiece, “this is not a call to action but a lamentation on the situation at hand (or, capital riot),” which sees the band take an entirely new direction in a stretched-out, climactic barn-burner that invites listeners into the band’s funhouse version of D.C. Where \u003cem\u003epink balloons\u003c\/em\u003e was written to uplift, the beltway is burning is meant to remind you of the stakes. On penultimate track “\u003cem\u003eblood mountain\u003c\/em\u003e,” Holzman asks “if I don’t know what’s wrong \/ how can it be righted?” This kind of tension is omnipresent in Ekko Astral’s work, grounding beltway in our present reality, injecting urgency and realism into each song despite their surrealist contours.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Topshelf Records","offers":[{"title":"LP - 'Red in Red' Colour Vinyl","offer_id":57272710070617,"sku":"SDZ-10762","price":33.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0588\/3455\/0945\/files\/Ekko_Astral_-_The_Beltway_Is_Burning_-_LP_Red_In_Red_Colour_Vinyl_-_2026.jpg?v=1770818489","url":"https:\/\/spindizzyrecords.com\/products\/ekko-astral-the-beltway-is-burning","provider":"Spindizzy Dublin","version":"1.0","type":"link"}