You are just a shadow
A memory
Just a bad dream
Nothing to see
Humanity has made a spectacular mess of its brief tenancy on Earth, and judging by the current crop of billionaires, bureaucrats, and technologically enhanced sociopaths, the eviction notice cannot come soon enough. We’ve got artificial intelligence rummaging through our private lives, politicians treating international diplomacy like a particularly vicious bar fight, and an American government increasingly fascinated by the architectural possibilities of incarceration. Somewhere amid this carnival of greed and institutional insanity, three musicians from Portland have decided that the appropriate response involves synthesizers, a bass guitar, and a healthy appreciation for human stupidity.
Masonique, the Portland post-punk outfit led by Ron Mason Gassaway, have returned with Too Many Villains, a wonderfully poisonous piece of electronic agitation and the first single from their forthcoming album, Otherhood, out October 30, 2026.
According to their gloriously ridiculous mythology, Masonique are time travelers dispatched to rehabilitate a ruined planet who accidentally landed during humanity’s continued existence. Consequently, they’re financing their escape by entertaining the very barbarians responsible for destroying civilization. Given the current state of affairs, their predicament seems increasingly plausible.
Musically, Too Many Villains occupies the wonderfully diseased intersection where Bauhaus meets Devo, with Gary Numan supplying the electrical paranoia and Mark E. Smith heckling everybody from a nearby pub. Keith Martinez’s monstrous bass line rolls through the arrangement with the determination of a bulldozer flattening government property, while Daniel Morris maintains a hypnotic, mechanically precise beat. Gassaway’s synthesizers introduce an atmosphere of technological derangement, alternating between abrasive electronic squalls and queasy melodic figures. His vocals carry the exasperation of a man watching civilization commit suicide through sheer administrative incompetence.
The accompanying video pushes the madness into outright hallucination. Bizarre, glitch-ridden animation carries us through distorted landscapes, brutalist prison architecture, flock cameras galore, and eventually the White House, where institutional authority acquires the visual characteristics of a particularly unpleasant fever dream. Faces and structures buckle beneath digital interference as the villains proliferate, poisoning every available corner of contemporary existence. There’s genuine anger beneath the absurdity, particularly when the song addresses algorithmic manipulation, arbitrary detention, manufactured wars, and the profitable destruction of the planet. Masonique turns that disgust into a relentlessly physical performance, allowing the music’s grotesque humor to sharpen its political accusations.
Watch the video for Too Many Villains below:
Too Many Villains preserves the recorded bass performance of Martinez, who died in December 2025. Desmond Cruz, now handling bass duties for the group, contributes backing vocals, connecting the present lineup with its predecessor.
Following 2024’s As The World Burns, Masonique sound thoroughly fed up with the species they’ve been condemned to entertain. Frankly, who could blame them? If the spaceship ever gets repaired, somebody should ask whether they’ve got room for a few passengers.
Listen to Too Many Villains below and order the single here
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The post “Just a Bad Dream” — Portland’s Masonique Confront a World of Surveillance and Political Absurdity in Video for “Too Many Villains” appeared first on Post-Punk.com.
