Biography
EXEK merges post-punk, dub, Krautrock, and found sounds into unsettling yet frequently gorgeous arrangements that mirror the tangible dystopia of the twenty-first century’s opening years. Although the group’s membership expanded over time, the hallucinatory strata of effects and textures originating from frontman Albert Wolski’s original studio endeavor continued to supply its music with a distinctive strangeness. On the woozy 2016 debut Biased Advice, elastic rhythms, toys and kitchen appliances deployed as instruments, and Wolski’s sardonic spoken-word commentary on contemporary concerns fused in compelling fashion. Subsequent releases such as Advertise Here in 2022 and The Map and the Territory the following year adopted somewhat tighter structures, yet the band stayed unpredictable and instantly recognizable.
Wolski was raised in a musical home in Sydney, Australia, where his father performed as a violist with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. He launched EXEK in 2010 as a solo studio effort, fusing his background in film scoring and sound design—documented in an honors thesis examining Mica Levi’s Under the Skin and Howard Shore’s Videodrome—with an affinity for post-punk, dub, Krautrock, and related styles. After relocating to Melbourne, he refined the project through accumulating layers of effects-laden percussion.
The lineup grew in 2014 to include keyboardist Damien Minards, bassist Henry Wilson, and drummer Sam Dixon; their explorations appeared on the self-titled EP issued that August by Time ^ Space Record Co. Split singles with Spray Paint and Halt Ever followed in 2015, setting the stage for the debut album. Released in September 2016 and featuring Neil Grant on saxophone, Biased Advice contained re-recorded tracks from the EP alongside “Giant Baby Squid,” the sixteen-minute piece first heard on the Halt Ever split. The ensuing tour took the band to Japan, where they recorded the February 2017 EP On a Plane to Japan. Wolski’s second album, Ahead of Two Thoughts, issued in January 2018, was captured and mixed in his living room, mastered by Mikey Young, and explored anxious post-punk territory while drawing favorable parallels to Public Image Ltd., This Heat, and Swell Maps. That October the group returned with the synth-, trumpet-, and bass-centered EP A Casual Assembly, centered on Wolski’s surreal spoken-word narration.
After completing their initial U.S. tour, EXEK delivered the six-piece Some Beautiful Species Left in September 2019, balancing coiled rhythms with atmospheric elements. The tour EP Live in Atlanta appeared a month later, followed by a split single with Novel. In 2020 the band contributed to the Born Bad Record Shop 20 Year Anniversary compilation honoring the Paris store; Castle Face reissued Biased Advice in 2021. That same year EXEK issued Good Thing They Ripped Up the Carpet, whose first half collected 2020 recordings and whose second half gathered tracks contributed to other artists’ releases. Their fifth proper album, Advertise Here, arrived on Castle Face in February 2022 and furthered their expansive, exploratory approach. EXEK followed quickly with October 2023’s The Map and the Territory, introducing tighter songwriting and touches of ’90s R&B and hip-hop within their weightless post-punk framework.
Wolski was raised in a musical home in Sydney, Australia, where his father performed as a violist with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. He launched EXEK in 2010 as a solo studio effort, fusing his background in film scoring and sound design—documented in an honors thesis examining Mica Levi’s Under the Skin and Howard Shore’s Videodrome—with an affinity for post-punk, dub, Krautrock, and related styles. After relocating to Melbourne, he refined the project through accumulating layers of effects-laden percussion.
The lineup grew in 2014 to include keyboardist Damien Minards, bassist Henry Wilson, and drummer Sam Dixon; their explorations appeared on the self-titled EP issued that August by Time ^ Space Record Co. Split singles with Spray Paint and Halt Ever followed in 2015, setting the stage for the debut album. Released in September 2016 and featuring Neil Grant on saxophone, Biased Advice contained re-recorded tracks from the EP alongside “Giant Baby Squid,” the sixteen-minute piece first heard on the Halt Ever split. The ensuing tour took the band to Japan, where they recorded the February 2017 EP On a Plane to Japan. Wolski’s second album, Ahead of Two Thoughts, issued in January 2018, was captured and mixed in his living room, mastered by Mikey Young, and explored anxious post-punk territory while drawing favorable parallels to Public Image Ltd., This Heat, and Swell Maps. That October the group returned with the synth-, trumpet-, and bass-centered EP A Casual Assembly, centered on Wolski’s surreal spoken-word narration.
After completing their initial U.S. tour, EXEK delivered the six-piece Some Beautiful Species Left in September 2019, balancing coiled rhythms with atmospheric elements. The tour EP Live in Atlanta appeared a month later, followed by a split single with Novel. In 2020 the band contributed to the Born Bad Record Shop 20 Year Anniversary compilation honoring the Paris store; Castle Face reissued Biased Advice in 2021. That same year EXEK issued Good Thing They Ripped Up the Carpet, whose first half collected 2020 recordings and whose second half gathered tracks contributed to other artists’ releases. Their fifth proper album, Advertise Here, arrived on Castle Face in February 2022 and furthered their expansive, exploratory approach. EXEK followed quickly with October 2023’s The Map and the Territory, introducing tighter songwriting and touches of ’90s R&B and hip-hop within their weightless post-punk framework.
Albums
Singles
