Images via Nathan Lewis and Nicholas Grogan //

Boiling Hot Politician has just dropped his album, Factory Farmed Panel Show Disorder…

If you haven’t heard of Boiling Hot Politician, the project of Rhys Grogan, you could be forgiven. Grogan leaves a fairly scarce online trace, and until recently, you wouldn’t have been able to find any music on Spotify, even if you tried.

That all changed last week, when Grogan dropped Factory Farmed Panel Show Disorder, a lurching, industrial/post-punk-inspired album that explores the mind of a person who is “horrified by their own existence and wishes to turn into a responsibility-free bug.” It’s fitting then, that the video for the album’s second track, ‘The Lizards In My Drain’, features Grogan being literally munched on by a colony of termites.

Filmed, directed and edited by Nathan Lewis, the clip was captured at Balls Head Reserve in North Sydney, where large termite nests can be frequently spotted clinging to trees. Grogan smiles as he lies amongst the dirt and dead leaves, thousands of termites crawling inside his nostrils and amongst his eyelashes. A smattering of crude graphics depicting dancing termites provide an unexpected cherry on top to a clip that manages to be fiercely unsettling in the most satisfying way.

Speaking on the video, Grogan described trying not to “laugh/feel pain”, recounting: “Director Nathan Lewis was extremely patient and committed to creating the most disturbing yet comforting atmosphere possible. I think everyone would agree that the arboreal termite nests seem not of this world. It’s wild that these colonies have perpetually existed for thousands of years.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pUXNZgUsU0&ab_channel=BoilingHotPolitician

It’s not Grogan’s first foray into music, with his songs previously being featured in popular skate films such as PASS~PORT’S KITSCH and Nike SB’s Welcome to Melbourne, but Factory Farmed Panel Show Disorder represents his biggest (and, luckily for us, most easily discoverable) work to date.

Previously dubbed “Crispin Glover on meth”, Grogan describes his music as being specifically designed “to make the listener descend into a hysterical catatonic state” (an enjoyable one, of course). Recorded, mixed and mastered by Grogan himself, the album is a frenetic collision of dance beats and abrasive, metallic instrumentation, with Grogan’s heavily-treated vocals echoing out like a souvenir from a DMT trip.

Head here to stream Factory Farmed Panel Show Disorder and keep your eyes peeled for more Boiling Hot Politician.