A Place To Bury Strangers – ‘Playing The Part’ 

Singer and guitarist Oliver Ackermann, from New York City’s A Place To Bury Strangers, always brings surprises, and has continued to both delight and astonish his audience for nearly two decades. A Place To Bury Strangers’ live performance is also nothing but amazing, with an almost shamanistic experience, which sees listeners subsumed in glorious sound.

Ackermann has launched a label of his own: Dedstrange, dedicated to advancing the work of his fellow sonic renegades around the world. He’s also updated the group’s line-up, adding bassist John Fedowitz and drummer Sandra Fedowitz, with the ‘Hologram’ EP their first release as they currently are, as well as the first release on Dedstrange.

APTBS is noisy music, but it’s also truly beautiful, even if it takes a bit to find it – sometimes it has to be dug out of the hypnotic mixes, while other times it’s easily discoverable. Latest drop from the EP, ‘Playing The Part’, is glorious. The guitar tones are sweet, the bass line is active and melodic, and the vocals of Ackermann are graceful and honeyed.

The accompanying music video, directed by Heather Bickford, perfectly underscores the beauty, and strangeness, of the song. Bickford, who also stars in the clip, shoots Ackermann in an historic house in Flagstaff, Arizona: there’s antique wallpaper, stained glass windows, curio cabinets packed to the brim with bone china, landscape paintings in gilded frames, and velvet drapes over the bed. Microphone in hand, thoroughly bewitched, animated by the enchantment of his surroundings, Ackermann slips into a dream.

Watch the video for ‘Playing The Part’ below and find out more about A Place To Bury Strangers from their official website.

A Place To Bury Strangers - Playing The Part (Official Music Video)

About the author

Lisa has been writing for over 20 years, starting as the entertainment editor on her university newspaper. Since then she's written for Popwrapped, Maximum Pop, Celebmix, and ListenOnRepeat.

Lisa loves all good music, with particular fondness for Jedward and David Bowie. She's interviewed Edward Grimes (Jedward), Kevin Godley, Trevor Horn, Paul Young, Peter Cox (Go West), Brendan B Brown (Wheatus), Bruce Foxton (The Jam), among many many more. Lisa is also available for freelance writing - please email lisa@essentiallypop.com