Collapsing Scenery hit the ‘Magic Button’ on new single & video

Brooklyn/LA’s genre-fusing agitators Collapsing Scenery are back with a new single, Magic Button, the first taste of their upcoming album ‘Stand Up Tragedy,’ out September 5 via Metropolitan Indian. The track arrives with a striking video directed by Charlotte Ercoli—part surreal art piece, part political statement—and sets the tone for an LP that’s as urgent as it is inventive.

Reggie Debris (one-half of Collapsing Scenery, alongside Don Devore of Ink & Dagger/Frail) explains that “pressing the magic button” was once CIA slang for assassination—here used as a metaphor for the endless cycle of political blowback. “After decades of engendering insurgencies, rogue states, rebellions and civil wars, we’ve learned no lessons,” Debris says. The song digs into themes of imperial hubris, unintended consequences, and the messy fallout that follows.

Musically, Magic Button sits in Collapsing Scenery’s sweet spot: a collision of punk energy, synthwave sheen, industrial grit, and acid disco swagger. It’s part of what makes Stand Up Tragedy such a compelling listen—a record that moves from jittery punk (Job’s Dungheap) to shimmering dream-synth (The Acceptance World), slacker post-punk (Uncanny Guest), euphoric club pulse (On Your Knees), and haunting balladry (The Ballad of Debbie Campbell).

Written partly during the pandemic, the album carries the emotional weight of isolation and uncertainty. Debris calls it “apocalyptic”—a meditation on whether art still matters when the world feels like it’s falling apart. Some tracks trace back to the sessions for their 2023 album ‘A Desert Called Peace,’ but here, the mood is darker, the emotions sharper, and the political observations wrapped in even more poetic abstraction.

Since forming in 2013, Collapsing Scenery have built a reputation for fearless experimentation—collaborating with everyone from Genesis P-Orridge to Miho Hatori—and creating immersive live shows that feel more like multimedia art installations than traditional gigs. ‘Stand Up Tragedy’ follows in that spirit, built as a start-to-finish experience that refuses to cater to the skip-button culture of 2025.

Stream Magic Button here.

Album ‘Stand Up Tragedy’ lands September 5—mark it on your calendar.