Mako Sica

Mako Sica, the Lakota Native American term meaning bad land, is as much a statement on the unapologetic colonization of the band’s home country as a description for their desolate expansive sound. The trio comprised of Przemyslaw K Drazek (formerly of the band Rope), Brent Fuscaldo and new member Chaetan Newell (Variety Lights), craft lengthy compositions in the spirit of classical music played by punk rockers. The band was formed and practiced in the basement of Southern Distribution where Crass, Fugazi, Godspeed You Black Emperor! and labels like Kranky were being shipped out to independent record stores throughout the world. Mako Sica recorded its first LP, Dual Horizon, with US Maple guitarist Todd Rittman in the basement where they rehearsed … and soon after appeared on the Chicago NPR-syndicated show Radio M. Since then they’ve toured across the US, put out releases on La Societe Expeditionnaire, Permanent Records, Slow Knife, Plus Tapes, Chaos of the Stars and now BLWBCK ! This tape contains two tracks, for 20 minutes recorded live in their basement by Jon Bowers. The production renders perfectly the sincerity of the Chicago-based trio, with no digital artifices to polish their sound. Lending themselves to the unpredictable but never digressive, Mako Sica adorn their psyche-kraut-progressive rock sound with with trumpets, sparse percussions and wordless vocals to craft a captivating journey spanning their latest two track EP, Renewal.