Blake Fusilier is singer, polyglot, session player, and sommelier, originally from Atlanta and now Brooklyn-based.
At long last, Fusilier (that’s fyoo·suh·leer) announces his debut album, Ambush, coming March 28 via IS NOT MUSIC. (preorder on limited “Tout Est Gore” vinyl on Fusilier’s Bandcamp). Heralding the announcement is a video for “Nightmare Muscle,” a biting auto-biography on the narrowing walls of ambition, delivered through the golden age of 90s alternative and pop-punk in all its rapped verse and screamed chorus glory. The single follows last month’s "Birds," his first solo offering since 2022’s Treason EP. “Nightmare Muscle” features guitar from friend Bartees Strange as well as Chris Connors on the rhythm section.
“Teasing another snippet of its avant-anxious sound, latest cut ‘Nightmare Muscle’ is grist to the mill in proving Fusilier comes alive in the uncanny, and the absurd. He is an artist that operates within the static and crackling electricity of his own buzz, equal parts self-conscious and self-realised, and unafraid to look inwards, uncovering what he finds for art. Tackling his own ambition, bravado, and identity in the context of an increasingly commodifying and competitive world, his music has an urgency running through its production that underscores its cutting, precise lyricism.” —The Line of Best Fit
“Featuring 11 tracks, his mutant sound seems to take cues from Yves Tumor, Juice WRLD, and L’Rain, which you can hear in the new song ‘Nightmare Muscle.’” —Alternative Press
“Featuring 11 tracks, his mutant sound seems to take cues from Yves Tumor, Juice WRLD, and L’Rain, which you can hear in the new song ‘Nightmare Muscle.’” —Alternative Press
“Nightmare Muscle” follows Ambush’s “Birds,” previously released as a standalone single in December. Fusilier produced the single alongside Corey Smith-West (½ of Bathe) and Chris Connors.
“Released via IS NOT MUSIC, ‘Birds’ plays with the relationship between sounds and spaces,
exploring the anxious mind of an artist in the modern day, gradually building in tension and urgency as Fusilier’s falsetto grows to a claustrophobic crescendo as the distant beats and treats he’s so delicately weaved into rhythm begin to eventually close in. The “Birds” at the metaphorical center of Fusilier’s lyrical wordplay often don’t understand the caged surroundings they’ve created until there is no way to fully escape them.” —Vanyaland
“There are so many parts of ‘Birds’ that make the song magical; the mysterious brooding tones in the arrangement and the earnest lyrics among them. But it’s Atlantan singer-songwriter Blake Fusilier’s sharp falsetto in the chorus that makes it a solid 10. Accompanied by striking visuals, ‘Birds’ gives a sonic perspective of feeling cluttered and caged.” —Riff Magazine
“There are so many parts of ‘Birds’ that make the song magical; the mysterious brooding tones in the arrangement and the earnest lyrics among them. But it’s Atlantan singer-songwriter Blake Fusilier’s sharp falsetto in the chorus that makes it a solid 10. Accompanied by striking visuals, ‘Birds’ gives a sonic perspective of feeling cluttered and caged.” —Riff Magazine
“When I started Ambush I thought it was something I was doing—bombarding the world with a bunch of world-changing songs,” Fusilier says with a laugh. “The more I thought about it and fleshed it out, the more I realized that it was something being done to me everyday, from seemingly innocent advertisements to full-on macro aggressions.” It’s this fascination with a sense of safety—both real and imagined—that allows Fusilier to create songs that are fortified like a shield. On the shuffling and harrowing "U N I NO," Fusilier rattles off all the places he is defenseless as a Black person in America (“in the comfort of a home... on the open country road... unless you sound what they wanna see... on our back or on our knees”) before leading us to his most explicitly optimistic and earnest lyric: “The future’s an open road / But don’t go alone.” Ambush’s lone ballad “Satellites” revels in the vulnerability of loving openly, with Fusilier’s silvery falsetto delivering “I lived my life as a code— / never let anyone close / So you can imagine the shame of needing your face everyday” somewhere between a plea and a whisper.
Ambush is Fusilier’s most collaborative project to date, with many folks contributing to production and performance, including Carlos Hernandez (Carlos Truly), Teeny Lieberson (Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory), and Vishal Nayak (Nick Hakim). While the album was created in “so many places by so many people,” Fusilier credits studio time with Bartees Strange in DC as the catalyst for turning this collection of songs into such a cohesive, potent statement.