The War on Drugs' Robbie Bennett Shares Two Tracks From Two Double LPs

By Cole Ashby, November 3, 2026

What's out

Robbie Bennett, whom the Terrorbird release calls "the longtime keyboardist and multi-instrumentalist of Philadelphia indie rock band The War on Drugs," shared two new tracks on Tuesday, November 3, 2026. "Footprints in the Ash" comes from Steloken and "Vermiculite" from Circulation. Both albums are double LPs, and both arrive Friday, December 11, 2026 via American Dreams.

The two tracks came out together as a single on Spotify, and their YouTube uploads carry the line "℗ 2026 American Dreams Records." Apple Music lists Steloken at 17 tracks and Circulation at 12, both for December 11. Bennett's Bandcamp offers each album as a digital download or a 2xLP with a gatefold, on black vinyl or a limited color pressing, plus a bundle of both. The same page names "Sister" and "The Light on Your Face" as the earlier lead singles.

Robbie Bennett: "Footprints in the Ash" (official audio)

The two tracks

Bennett described "Footprints in the Ash" this way: "'Footprints in the Ash' is a walk in the woods. I was thinking about the burned-out areas of the New Jersey Pine Barrens, and the beauty of flowers and their colors against the ashy ground."

Per the release, "Vermiculite" was his first time using a vocoder. "Removing the conventional limits of my voice felt incredibly freeing," he said. "I was suddenly unburdened by all the inhibitions and expectations I'd developed around my own singing voice."

How two albums came out of one

The release says the music "grew out of the keyboard rig Bennett uses with The War on Drugs." At his home studio, he sent MIDI from an acoustic player piano into an Oberheim OB-X8 synthesizer so both played at once. He built the records layer by layer in real time with piano, synthesizers, Fender Rhodes, vocoder and a Soma Terra, which the release describes as "a polyphonic microtonal synthesizer equipped with a gyroscope and pressure-sensitive sensors."

It started as one record. Per the release, Steloken "explores Bennett's warm, fuzzy piano and synthesizer compositions," while Circulation "pushes the same process further into abstraction and real-time improvisation."

The first title has a family source. "Steloken, as a title, came from my daughter's mispronunciation of skeleton," Bennett said. "I want to get back to that innocent place where the language is unwritten, technique is just kinetic energy in your body, and the art is fluid and devoid of self-consciousness."

"It's tempting to mute what's ugly and what makes me feel uncomfortable," he said, "but the full spectrum of the mistakes and the triumphs feels most real and beautiful."

The tracklists

Steloken (17 tracks):

1. Radii
2. Serendipity
3. Air Signals
4. Sea-Level Horizon
5. System of Warmth, Collection of Jackets
6. Snowfell
7. Darkness in Bloom
8. Sister
9. Moonframe
10. Footprints in the Ash
11. Horse to Lead
12. Lattun
13. Dragging out the Cans
14. Ascent
15. Cathedral of Air
16. Purgatory
17. A Love Song / Universal Interface

Circulation (12 tracks):

1. Breathing Glass
2. Panthalassa
3. Norrland Night Train
4. Vermiculite
5. Change the Clocks (DST)
6. Phantom Signal
7. CACC (Hope)
8. ISO Dream
9. MN3009
10. The Light on Your Face
11. Vivere!
12. December

My read

I like that Bennett says he would rather keep the mistakes than mute them. He recorded both albums in his home studio, and Bandcamp credits Nick Krill with the mix and Quentin Stoltzfus at Silent Partner with the master. Party Dozen took the do-it-yourself route further when they recorded, mixed and mastered 21 Bum Salute themselves. Bennett's project is the bigger one, with 29 tracks across two double albums.