Photo by Nedda Asfari

Ross J. Farrar is one of this generation of hardcore’s most fascinating multi-flexes, not just because he’s spawned intellectual aggression beyond the pits that bare CEREMONY’s marks into other projects like his melodic post-hardcore outlet SPICE or the scathing CRISIS MAN, or through the vivid written works of his own published poetry, but because ever since forming his own creative vessel as R.J.F. in 2023, he’s cultivated something entirely of his own id that pieces together the fracturing points from his entire body of work. Following last year’s much underrated and listmaking sophomore effort, STRANGE GOING, the R.J.F. namesake has now signed with DAIS Records and will return this summer with Cleaning Out the Empty Administration Building.

To date, each release has typically come as a surprise to be experienced in whole, so a build in advance this time around with lead single “Exile” sets a mysterious tone for its surrounding scenery early on. Maintaining his minimalistic, impressionistic sound design using a myriad of borrowed instruments, the listen wanders in to the beat made with a lowly post-punk bassline, vacant piano, and bent-tuned guitar chords. In spite of its transgressive composition, it’s one of Farrar’s most clearest wanderings into his psyche, plotted down to a straight line. Still, his words point to an eventual broken path where connecting points have collapsed. “So much of your heart caught in my exile,” he sings. We’re trapped in this disembodied thought for now, and we’re just going to have to stay inside his head a little while longer to see if he figures a way out…

R.J.F.’s Cleaning Out the Empty Administration Building will be released August 15th on DAIS Records.