Public Circuit ask what you bend a knee to on new album 'Modern Church'

For Immediate Release

September 12, 2025

PUBLIC CIRCUIT ASK WHAT YOU BEND A KNEE TO ON

NEW ALBUM MODERN CHURCH — OUT TODAY

LIKE BOTH A FLICKER OF CANDLELIGHT AND A FLUORESCENT GLARE, THE NYC SYNTH BAND

RELEASES THEIR SECOND ALBUM

VIA À LA CARTE RECORDS

HEADLINE NORTH AMERICAN TOUR UNDERWAY

NOW & EUROPEAN TOUR TO FOLLOW WITH PERFORMANCES AT 8MM FESTIVAL

AND LEFT OF THE DIAL — SEE ALL DATES HERE

Modern Church album artwork [Download]

Today, New York City synth-punk band, Public Circuit, have released their second album Modern Church via à La Carte Records. If electronic music is sacred theology, then they are the pagan heretics driving the genre forward with an indomitable will to live. On the new record, Public Circuit dismantle and reassemble post-punk with surgical precision. Gone is any pretense of retro revivalism—what remains is something sharper, darker and entirely their own — Listen to the new album.

With a newfound sense of collaboration amongst all three members (Ethan Biamont, Sean Holloway and Nelson Fisher), this is a record that dances in the flicker of candlelight and fluorescent glare alike, channeling an austere pulse of angular electronic instrumentation, and raw percussive rhythms all bathed with the high-gloss ache of sophisti-pop into a sound that’s equal parts ritual and revolution.

The album is overtly religious in theme; an analogical tool to explore gender identity, the fleeting faith of society, and the illicit repercussions of unresolved trauma. Public Circuit is deeply influenced by NYC’s constant feed of noise and bustle the city delivers. Channeling these pensive emotions into explosive energy, the band commits to live up to the historical behemoth of NYC music as their sphere of influence continues to expand.

"’Modern Church’ represents the collapse of connection—the album's chants are hollow, stripped back, and full of seething energy,” shares singer Biamont. “As we departed from the sound of our last album, we don’t see change as an enemy, but as a tool — a structure that can be repurposed, re-tuned into a tightly wound and potent new form.”

Press photo by Nicole Miller [Download]

Beginning with the album opener and title track, the sparse, rhythmic offering lays out what a modern church is. A critique on false idols, Biamont sees this as anything from, “the gym and one's physique, a substance to abuse, or one's own vain obsession of their online image; everyone has something that they bend a knee to.”

Next comes the danceable “Samson,” a poke at the hubris that courses through the veins of masculine society. The more straightforwardly post-punk “Take The Blame” covers an almost masochistic tendency of society to be driven by guilt. The album’s final single ahead of release, “No Faith,” is both animalistic and accusatory as the band attempts to untangle the knotted web of faith and gender identity.

At the album’s halfway point, “Hymn 01” is a break in the album’s driving force, a slow-burning prayer of a song. Following the brief interlude, “To The Grave” intensely twinkles and crashes as the band reels against the parts of themselves they refuse to push back down. The blisteringly explosive “Damager” started off as a jam the band would play between songs during their live show. Biamont describes it, “like running through a supermarket with no remorse for what you are rummaging in your path. It's like all the pain and feeling inside has welled up into an explosive expressionistic splatter painting. Like a broken machine: everything damaged continues to damage.”

Intentionally ending the album with searing intensity, “Cost Of My Life” questions that if life is about always reaching for something more, at what point did you sacrifice too much and miss it all?

MODERN CHURCH TRACK LIST

"Modern Church"

"Samson" — watch

"Take The Blame"

"No Faith" — watch

"Hymn 01"

"To The Grave" — watch

"Damager"

"Cost Of My Life"

Now underway, Public Circuit is out on their tour of the US and Europe. While in Berlin, they will join the lineup of 8mm Festival, and in the Netherlands, they will play Left Of The Dial festival. Once they make it back to their home of NYC, Public Circuit will play an album release show at TV Eye on November 5. See all dates here and below.

Download tour poster here

UPCOMING TOUR DATES

NORTH AMERICA

September 12 - Birmingham, AL - Firehouse

September 13 - Greer, SC - Melon Barn

September 16 - Atlanta, GA - The Earl

September 17 - Nashville, TN - The Cobra

September 18 - Asheville, NC - Static Age Records

September 19 - Harrisonburg, VA - The Mansion

September 20 - Philadelphia, PA - Nikki Lopez

September 26 - Providence, RI - Alchemy

EU AND UK

October 2 - Valence, FR - Mistral Palace

October 3 - Milan, IT - TBA

October 4 - Bologna, IT - Covo Club

October 5 - Rimini, IT - Esperanto Bistrò

October 7 - Zagreb, HR - Mochvara

October 8 - Salzburg, AU - Rock House

October 9 - Wien, AU - Das Lot

October 10 - Berlin, DE - 8mm Festival

October 11 - Berlin, DE - Loge

October 12 - Copenhagen, DK - Råhuset

October 15 - Trier, DE - Mergener Hof

October 16 - Amsterdam, NL - Oedipus

October 17 - London, UK - The Shacklewell Arms

October 18 - Liverpool, UK - Kazimier Stockroom

October 19 - Reading, UK - Purple Turtle

October 20 - Brighton, UK - Hope & Ruin

October 21 - Rouen, FR - Le 3 Pièces Muzik' Club

October 22 - Paris, FR - Supersonic

October 23 - Rotterdam, NL - Left Of The Dial

October 24 - Rotterdam, NL - Left Of The Dial

October 25 - Laval, FR - La Fosse

October 26 - Angers, FR - Joker Pub

October 27 - Lausanne, CH - La Brèche

NORTH AMERICA

November 5 - Queens, NY - TV EYE (album release show)

All tour info here

PRAISE FOR MODERN CHURCH

LIMINUL “The larger questions humming under ‘Modern Church’ are ones many of us are already living with: what happens when old institutions collapse, but the need for belief doesn’t? Where do we place our faith? Is it in phones and algorithms or desire and each other? Public Circuit don’t offer answers, but they hold up a mirror to the chaos, turning it into something you can sweat through on the dance floor.”

FORBES "’To The Grave’ is '80s as heck and a certifiable bop.”

NOTION “...an 80s-inspired cut laced with funky guitars and their signature post-punk bite.”

NINA PROTOCOL “In a world with no shortage of somewhat formulaic industrial bands, the Brooklyn band Public Circuit offers a more eclectic, ecstatic take on the stylistic hallmarks of the genre.”

GOD IS IN THE TV ZINE “Public Circuit may be influenced by New York City’s constant feed of noise and bustle but they have translated that into the no fat and all electronic synth muscle of Modern Church. It is an utter joy which whizzes by in a flash.”

IMPOSE “With a Frankenstein-attention to detail, they have brought life into their own and use it well to harness sounds as organic as they can.”

HARD OF HEARING “...a sort of new wave conflation of Yello’s ‘Oh Yeah’ and Talking Heads’ ‘Burning Down The House’, marrying the former’s scattered, hardware midi propulsions with the latter’s jutting polyrhythms and booming vocal chants.”

YOUNGSTER YEAR “Centuries ago, men pummeled one another off the backs of horses, weighed themselves down with suits of armor for protection and died of obscene illnesses whose origins they were unable to trace. Mere decades ago, we took to unseeable forces of energy to create noises the merry bands of the dark ages couldn’t have dreamt of. Today, the two seemingly unrelated phenomena become one. Public Circuit, whether they know it or not, are actively preserving this improbable pairing — one you probably could live without, but didn’t know you needed until now.”

Press photo by Nicole Miller [Download]

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For all Public Circuit press materials and inquiries, please contact:

Madi Florence | madi@bighassle.com