Black ElectricHybrid

Black Electric arrived playing, not posting. Formed in 2018 in the Albany orbit (Voorheesville, NY), the band was on stage at LarkFest — one of the Northeast's biggest free street festivals — by September 2019, at Pauly's Hotel with High Reeper the next night, and had the self-titled debut out on Magnetic Eye Records that fall. The Obelisk heard it right away: 'a stripped-down, hook-centric debut that's as catchy as it is understated.' The early engine was Vitali (vocals, guitar, bass, electric piano), Mike Langone (vocals), and David Tyo (drums, engineering, production at Tyo Mixes), with a live lineup that put five bodies on stage. 'Utopian Hymns' was tracked at Tyo Mixes across the winter of 2019–20 — nine months into the band's life — and released independently on May 22, 2020, straight into a world that had just shut its doors. The band's answer to the shutdown was not silence; it was volume of work. The lockdowns became the woodshed: writing and production started on three full records simultaneously, built with a production network stretching from New Orleans (Andrew K) to Los Angeles (Greg O). This is the label's method in miniature — organic riffs and live drums on one side, modern production tools and cross-country file sessions on the other, and full disclosure on which is which. The patience paid out in public: 'Trewartha' (January 2), 'Clean' (January 16), and 'Apotrepo' (February 13) landed as a six-week, thirty-seven-track salvo to open 2025 on American Record — three albums that had been forged for years and released at network speed. Along the way the band covered 'Iron Gland' for Magnetic Eye's Alice in Chains tribute 'Dirt [Redux].' Black Electric is the dark-heavy proof that the label's future-facing machinery serves songs first.

The history and the records, pressed into one column — read it, hear it, own it, in the order it happened.

2018Formation

New York dark heavy

Black Electric forms in 2018: Michael Vitali (vocals, guitar, bass, electric piano), Mike Langone (vocals), David Tyo (drums, engineering, production at Tyo Mixes). Live lineup adds George Lipscom, Zack Cohen, Stew Overocker.

2019LarkFest

On stage in Albany

September 21, 2019 — LarkFest, Albany NY, one of the Northeast's biggest free street festivals; Pauly's Hotel with High Reeper the following night. Photographed by Kiki Vassilakis — a 62-frame set survives in the estate archive.

2019Magnetic Eye

The self-titled debut

Digital August 18; CD/LP via Magnetic Eye Records November 17, 2019 (vinyl MGEY72.1, 2021).

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Black Electric2019

LP · Magnetic Eye Records · 2019-08-18 · 8 tracks

The self-titled debut — digital August 18, 2019; CD/LP via Magnetic Eye Records November 17, 2019; vinyl MGEY72.1, March 12, 2021. All songs written by Mike Vitali/Black Electric. Produced and engineered by David Tyo at Tyo Mixes. The Obelisk: 'Albany heavy blues rockers Black Electric have emerged with a stripped-down, hook-centric debut that's as catchy as it is understated.' Debut live lineup: Mike Vitali / Mike Langone / George Lipscom / Zack Cohen / Stew Overocker.

First pressed via Magnetic Eye Records, 2019

2020Independent

Utopian Hymns

Tracked at Tyo Mixes Oct 2019–Mar 2020, released independently May 22, 2020 — right as the lockdowns fell.

2020The woodshed

Lockdown writing & production

During the lockdowns, writing and production begin on three full records at once — the material that becomes 'Trewartha', 'Clean', and 'Apotrepo' — with the New Orleans (Andrew K) and Los Angeles (Greg O) network.

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Utopian Hymns2020

LP · Independent (AMRE-0012, American Record catalog) · 2020-05-22 · 10 tracks

Tracked at Tyo Mixes across the winter of 2019–20 — nine months into the band's life — and released independently May 22, 2020 as lockdown fell. Darker hymns, deeper grooves: 'The Sea' swells Crazy Horse-tall, and 'StewBall' sets Lead Belly's public-domain words to new music. 12" LP in Color-in-Color and TriColor variants plus CD, sold via Bandcamp. Timings from the vinyl-preview masters in the estate vault.

First pressed via Independent (AMRE-0012, American Record catalog), 2020

“Albany heavy blues rockers Black Electric have emerged with a stripped-down, hook-centric debut that's as catchy as it is understated.” The Obelisk · 2019 · verified at theobelisk.net

IIron Gland (on 'Dirt [Redux]')

Iron Gland (on 'Dirt [Redux]')2020

single · Magnetic Eye Records · 2020 · 1 tracks

Alice in Chains' 43-second interlude, covered for Magnetic Eye's 'Dirt [Redux]' compilation — The Obelisk: 'here covered by Black Electric, which features Magnetic Eye Records' own Mike Vitali (also ex-Ironweed and Greatdayforup) on guitar.'

First pressed via Magnetic Eye Records, 2020

2025The salvo

Three albums in six weeks

'Trewartha' (Jan 2), 'Clean' (Jan 16), 'Apotrepo' (Feb 13) — 37 tracks, released on American Record, years after the lockdown sessions that forged them.

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Trewartha2025

LP · American Record · 2025-01-02 · 14 tracks

Released January 2, 2025 on American Record (Albany, NY) — the first shot of the six-week salvo, and at fourteen tracks the widest record Black Electric has made. The lockdown writing sessions surface here in full: the 91-second title fragment opens onto 'I Am Chained Alone,' 'Breathing in the Dark,' and the five-minute 'Ghosts' — cabin-fever titles set to grooves built between Albany, New Orleans, and Los Angeles. Vitali, Andrew K, and Greg O are the modern-era engine; the years between writing and release sanded every song to its final shape.

First pressed via American Record, 2025

“Bluesy refrains drenched in fuzz and fronted by clean distinctive semi stoned vocal tones.” Desert Psychlist

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Clean2025

LP · American Record · 2025-01-16 · 11 tracks

Released January 16, 2025 on American Record (Albany, NY), fourteen days after 'Trewartha.' The middle record of the trilogy is the tightest: eleven tracks that scrub and re-scrub the same obsession — 'Clean,' 'Clean Hands, Clean Soul,' and 'Glimmer' reprised as a redux to close. The acronym tracks ('NIBTS,' 'NRNT,' 'M.O.M.S.') read like case files from the lockdown years the record was written in. Same cross-country engine: Vitali with Andrew K in New Orleans and Greg O in Los Angeles. From the founder's 2026 liner notes: this is his favorite Black Electric record. He files it as dark rock, heavy blues, and post-industrial, and reads the whole thirty-five minutes as one argument — purification, moral reckoning, memory, and breaking cycles — opened by the three-and-a-half-minute title track and closed by the same 'Glimmer' coming back changed.

First pressed via American Record, 2025

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Apotrepo2025

LP · American Record · 2025-02-13 · 12 tracks

Released February 13, 2025 on American Record (Albany, NY) — the closer of the trilogy, and its thesis. 'Apotrepo' is Greek for warding off, and the track list is a catalog of modern menaces to be warded: 'Sell the Panic and the Pill,' 'Doomsday Clock,' 'Access Management,' 'Money Love Songs.' Twelve tracks, ending on 'PAM.' Three albums and thirty-seven tracks in six weeks closed out the material the lockdowns started; whatever Black Electric records next begins from a cleared bench.

First pressed via American Record, 2025

• Michael VitaliMember · guitar, vocals, bass, drums
• Andrew KProducer · bass, producer, mix engineer — New Orleans
• Greg OProducer · guitars, vocals, production — Los Angeles

• LarkFest 2019Lark Street · Albany, NY · 2019 — September 21, 2019 — verified via The Obelisk's debut-album feature. Shot by Kiki Vassilakis (62-frame set in the estate archive).
• Pauly’s Hotel with High ReeperAlbany, NY · 2019 — September 22, 2019 — verified via The Obelisk.

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