But they’re conquering our freedoms with no offer to refuse
Sucked quick through the vacuum
While there’s nothing left to choose
There is a certain kind of dread that does not arrive all at once. It seeps in slowly, through small concessions and quiet losses, until the familiar world begins to feel dreamlike, unstable, and strangely resigned to its own collapse. Vancouver post-punk duo Sektion Tyrants channel that atmosphere with Permanent Existence, the first single from their forthcoming second album.
Rather than stating a manifesto, Permanent Existence captures the strange fatigue of living through one unreal event after another, as fear hardens into numbness and numbness eventually gives way to raw feeling again. The song sits in that suspended state, where ordinary life keeps moving while agency, dignity, and the possibility of justice seem to recede further into the distance.
“The song was written at a time when the world felt suspended between fear and acceptance,” the band says. “The lyric speaks to the sensation of watching freedoms disappear by degrees, while everyday life became increasingly surreal. It wasn’t intended as a political statement as much as an observation of helplessness, uncertainty, and the feeling of being swept into a future nobody had chosen. A lot of those feelings found their way into the song. I was listening to a lot of Tubeway Army, Tones On Tail, and The Cure at the time, and those influences definitely shaped its mood and direction.”
Musically, Permanent Existence opens in a dreamlike glow, with pulsing synths, hollow organic sounds, icy electronic breaths, and a bright, jangling guitar riff allowed to shimmer in the open air. The vocal delivery enters with a distinctly post-punk austerity, slightly reverbed yet otherwise unadorned, recalling the haunted theatricality of Gavin Friday as filtered through Vancouver’s grey coastal gloom. As the song progresses, the voice rises into a sharper punk register, while the guitars sigh and cut with a heavier gothic rock bite.
Those shifts give Permanent Existence the feeling of a lost cult 80s post-punk single pulled from an out-of-print vinyl sleeve, tucked somewhere on a shelf between Flowers for Agatha and Lowlife. But Sektion Tyrants bend all their influences and lineage into something shadowy, urgent, and unmistakably their own.
Listen to Permanent Existence below, and order the single here.
Permanent Existence by Sektion Tyrants
Formed in 2018, Sektion Tyrants emerged from Vancouver as a dynamic duo exploring the electronic edges of post-punk and new wave. Drawing inspiration from revered UK bands of the late 70s and early 80s, their work moves through melancholy, introspection, love, loss, and existential unease. Over the years, Sektion Tyrants have shared stages with The Chameleons, Pink Turns Blue, March Violets, Nuovo Testamento, Xeno & Oaklander, Riki, Nyx Division, Ritual Veil, Spectres, Leathers, and many others, cementing their place within the contemporary alternative underground.
“Permanent Existence” was recorded by Jordan Koop of Twin Crystals at Noise Floor Recording Studio in 2022, and mixed and mastered by Jason Corbett of ACTORS at Jacknife Sound in 2025.
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The post Vancouver Post-Punk Duo Sektion Tyrants Face the Surreal Erosion of Freedom in “Permanent Existence” appeared first on Post-Punk.com.
