Four Hundred Years were part of that fertile stretch of ’90s hardcore, when bands were finding increasingly strange and compelling ways to push beyond the genre’s established boundaries.
Formed in Tucson, Arizona, in 1996, the quartet of Daron Hollowell, Dave Jackson, Erin Housholder, and Ash Bruce relocated to Richmond, Virginia, and brought together dissonance, melody, aggression, and an explicitly political outlook. By the time they released Transmit Failure through Lovitt Records in 1998, those elements had coalesced into one of the defining records of the band's run.
Nearly three decades later, Four Hundred Years are returning to the album with a newly remixed and remastered version of its title track, which No Echo is premiering below:
J. Robbins remixed the new version at The Magpie Cage Recording Studio, and Dan Coutant remastered it at Sun Room Audio. Robbins' involvement brings things full circle, as he originally recorded Transmit Failure at Inner Ear Studios in 1998.
The new mix doesn't attempt to reinvent the song so much as to bring its tension and urgency into sharper focus. The tangled guitars, taut rhythm section, and raw dual vocals remain at the center, along with the political conviction that ran throughout Four Hundred Years' music.
The standalone single also marks the start of a larger Four Hundred Years project, with the band saying more is on the way and linking their past material to what they're planning next.
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The newly remixed and remastered Transmit Failure will be released October 14 via Thirty Something Records and Lovitt Records.
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