Dreams, Algorithms, and the Road
The more Escuela Grind toured, the less often its members could write together in a room. Fuentes found himself composing in vans, during rare breaks, and in whatever small fragments of time the schedule left available. DDEEAATTHHMMEETTAALL, released in January 2024, concentrated one side of the band’ s sound into particularly rich and powerful arrangements. Dreams on Algorithms, released in October 2024, widened the frame again. The band returned to Ballou, this time for a substantially longer studio period.
Conceptually, Algorithms turned towards the digital content and capitalistic governments that they believe have had a negative and all-consuming impact on the world and its people. Economou wanted the themes to be broader than explicitly partisan writing and relatable to anyone moving through modern life. Algorithms offered the structure.“ We wanted to make it more universal,” she says.“ All the songs were going to be a part of this theme of tech and consumption and being manipulated.”
The record’ s dream imagery brought another layer: questions about memory, perception, reality, and whether people can fully trust the mental worlds being constructed around them.
The Architect Behind the Grind After her art history studies at the University of Texas, Economou entered Cornell’ s Master of Architecture program as an unconventional candidate without the undergraduate architectural background many classmates already possessed. She eventually returned to Pittsfield and joined Barry Architects, a small practice where specialization was almost impossible because the work was so varied. Among the projects she remains particularly proud of is the restoration work at Springside House.
Another was the ServiceNet homeless shelter created within the Methodist Church property near Pearl and Fenn streets in downtown Pittsfield. Opposition to the shelter forced Economou to witness how architecture intersects with questions of access, public policy, and who is permitted to occupy a community’ s most visible spaces.
“ I got to really fight for people’ s rights in a very direct way,” she says. For Economou, that social dimension helps explain why architecture and grindcore are not the
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