Public Circuit
NYC Electronic Post-Punk Trio Offers a Haunting Glimpse Into Their Forthcoming Album ‘Modern Church,’ Out September 12 Via À La Carte Records
If existential dread had a house band, Public Circuit would be leading the midnight mass. The NYC-based electronic post-punk trio returns today with “To The Grave,” the latest single from their upcoming album Modern Church (out September 12 via à La Carte Records). It’s a shadowy yet shimmering dispatch that feels like it’s pulsing directly from the city’s haunted underground—equal parts confession, exorcism, and dance-floor reckoning.
“To The Grave” is a slow-burning, synth-laced lament that marries Yello’s twitchy digital surrealism with Talking Heads’ nervy rhythmic thrust. But rather than retro homage, Public Circuit folds these influences into something more claustrophobic and emotionally volatile. It’s the sound of a haunted hard drive—corrupted memories set to minor-key sequencers and jittery funk guitars, topped with vocals that teeter between incantation and plea.
The song’s concept—life’s unresolved trauma and the personal truths we never manage to surface—becomes literal in its video. Shot like a corrupted VHS fever dream, the visual sees the band members digging their own graves, clad in chainmail and monk-like robes, surrounded by the eerie blend of ancient and digital that has become their visual signature. It’s equal parts performance art and post-punk pageantry, as if Joy Division had joined forces with the Brothers Grimm.
In a statement accompanying the release, the band explains: “Life is frail — many people live without ever fully resolving trauma, hatred, or grief. This song is inspired by those silences. Childhood, gender, romance—anything left unsaid, unhealed. We don’t want to take that with us.”
If “To The Grave” feels like a dirge for the unspoken, “Samson,” the album’s first single, struck at toxic masculinity through the lens of mythology. Named after the biblical figure undone by vulnerability, the track’s thudding electronics and pointed lyrics marked a shift toward more confrontational terrain. That track earned early praise from outlets like Notion and Soundvsystem, confirming the band’s place in the genre’s next wave.
Modern Church, the band’s sophomore full-length, finds Public Circuit building an ever-expanding cathedral of contradictions: austere yet decadent, mechanical yet burning with fever. While their debut (Lamb, released in 2024) introduced the band’s talent for fusing icy synth textures with corporeal rhythms, Modern Church takes a step further. It dismantles post-punk tropes, reassembles them with a monk’s patience and a hacker’s irreverence, and delivers an emotional experience rooted not in nostalgia but in spiritual urgency.
Their aesthetic is rich with metaphor. On Modern Church, religious imagery becomes a framework for identity, longing, and catharsis. The band uses analog synths and MIDI-driven hardware like sacred relics, conjuring sounds that are less about genre than they are about atmosphere—sacred, synthetic, and always on the verge of breaking down.
After a massive breakout year that saw their debut tour touch down in over 30 states—with stops at New Colossus, Hopscotch, and MACROCK festivals—Public Circuit are hitting the road again. Their fall tour kicks off in Cleveland and winds through North America before heading overseas for an extended run in Europe and the UK, including sets at Berlin’s 8mm Festival and Rotterdam’s Left Of The Dial.
Public Circuit is less a band than a belief system. On Modern Church, they’re building a temple out of feedback, synth pulses, and emotional volatility. Whether you kneel, dance, or scream along is up to you—but you’re invited all the same.
Public Circuit’s album Modern Church arrives September 12 via À La Carte Records. “To The Grave” is streaming now. Watch the official video here.
For tickets, full tour itinerary, and album pre-orders, visit publiccircuit.com.
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