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Prove the Mountains Move is the seventh album from local post punk specialists EXEK, released on New York's DFA Records. At the core of the group is vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Albert Wolski, who's released music under the EXEK name since 2014, working with a rotating crew of collaborators across seven albums. The current six-piece includes trumpet, synthesisers, bass, drums, and guitar. It's the same lineup featured on Live at RRR, a vinyl document of the band's April 2024 Live to Air session for Triple R. You're lucky if you have one, they only pressed 200 copies last September. And the cover image is a classic, Joe Brnadic of Astral Glamour in a post-show embrace with Albert, captured by Clara Slewa of Velvet Haze.

The DFA deal came after Wolski sent the label a cold Instagram message. Turns out the label was already listening. The album's eight tracks sit on the dub-inflected drums, motorik rhythms, layered synthesisers, and elastic bass lines that EXEK have worked with since their 2016 debut Biased Advice. But the production here is more open, the vocals are cleaner and more upfront. Wolski's spoken about being drawn to mainstream pop during the recording - Pearl Jam, Sheryl Crow, The Go-Go's - and the choruses reflect that, although the band's signature foundations remain. 'Sidestepping' is built around synths and a locked groove. 'Arrivederci Back Pain' rides ascending guitar riffs to what Wolski describes as a Wagner-influenced middle eight.

Lyrically, the album moves through a series of surrealist vignettes, a food court populated by dust bunnies, an experimental chiropractor at Changi Airport, a meditation on spray bottles and glass-bottom boats. The band will be taking the songs on tour, joining LCD Soundsystem for a Boston residency this April before headlining TV Eye in New York.