Preoccupations Announce New LP 'Arrangements', Stream "Ricochet"

Canadian post-punk/new wave band Preoccupations (formerly known as Viet Cong) have announced the release of their fourth studio album 'Arrangements'.

Set to arrive on September 9, the follow-up to their 2018's album New Material, finds the band restoring their roots with the singular, guitar driven, dissonant yet anthemic washes of intricate noise that has brought them international acclaim since their basement beginnings. It will be out , pre-order your copy here.

For lovers of all things Bowie, Branca, Spacemen 3 and MBV, progressive punk, jangle rock and mangled goth.

Arrangements sees Preoccupations finally and confidently inhabiting the dystopia that they have been carefully creating from their musical genesis. They are in a room with taped up windows, except for a tiny pinprick of light beaming from the otherworld onto the far wall, upside down and blurred, it’s recognizable enough to fill you with warm familiarity and nostalgia of unknown origins.

Check out the album's tracklist and listen to new single "Ricochet" below.

Arrangements Tracklist:

1. Fix Bayonets!

2. Ricochet

3. Death of Melody

4. Slowly

5. Advisor

6. Recalibrate

7. Tearing up the Grass

(facebook.com/Preoccupationsband)

Tags: Preoccupations

Dry Cleaning Announce New LP 'Stumpwork', Stream "Don't Press Me"

London post punk four-piece Dry Cleaning have announced the release of their sophomore album 'Stumpwork'.

The follow-up to last year's debut New Long Leg,  will be out on 21st October 2022 through 4AD. Pre-order your copy here.

Nick Buxton (drums), Tom Dowse (guitar), Lewis Maynard (bass) and Florence Shaw (vocals) returned to rural Wales in late 2021, partnering once more with Parish and engineer Joe Jones.  Working from a position of trust in the same studio and with the same team, imposter syndrome and anxiety was replaced by a fresh freedom and openness to explore beyond an already rangy sonic palette, a newfound confidence in their creative vision.  A longer period in the studio afforded the time to experiment, improvise, play, sharpen their table tennis skills. 

Stumpwork was inspired by a plethora of events, concepts, and political debacles, be they represented in the icy mess of ambient elements reflecting a certain existential despair, or the surprising warmth in celebrating the lives of loved ones lost through the previous year.  Surrealist lyrics are as ever at the forefront – but there is a sensitivity now to the themes of family, money, politics, self-deprecation, and sensuality.  Furious alt-rock anthems combine across the record with jangle pop and ambient noise, demonstrating the wealth of influences the band feed off and their deep musicality.  With the pressure of their debut album behind them, Dry Cleaning have crafted an ambitious and deeply rewarding new work that marks them out as one of the most intelligent and exciting acts to come out of the UK.

Check out the album's tracklist and watch the video for their new single "Don't Press Me", below.

Stumpwork Tracklist:

1. Anna Calls From The Arctic

2. Kwenchy Kups

3. Gary Ashby

4. Driver’s Story

5. Hot Penny Day

6. Stumpwork

7. No Decent Shoes For Rain

8. Don’t Press Me

9. Conservative Hell

10. Liberty Log

11. Icebergs

(facebook.com/drycleaningband)

Tags: Dry Cleaning

Watch: Pol Share New Single/Video "Boys Are"

Dutch new wave duo Pol, made up of model/musician siblings Ruben Pol and Matthijs Pol, have shared their new single "Boys Are", alongside an accompanying music video.

The song is out today (June 14) and features layered drum machine samples, syncopated synthesised claps, and shoegaze-y vocals that oscillate around jocular synths for an 80s tinge. Grab it here.

Speaking on the track’s sound, the Pol brothers explain: “It was important to us to not only find the right sounds, but also to give those sounds the right texture and weight. When the pieces came together, immediately everything made sense.”  

The track’s resultant sound provides the basis for its subject matter, that Pol describe as an exploration of male gender roles: "‘Boys Are’ is about toxic masculinity, something that still lingers in current society. With this song we want to celebrate self expression."

Watch/listen below.

Tags: Pol

New Entry: Hallan Return With New Single "Sich Übergeben"

Portsmouth indie rock/alt/post punk band Hallan have returned with their new single "Sich Übergeben".

The song is out today (June 14) through Nice Swan Records. Get it here.

From the band : “A father hiding behind a screen, a family watching the Queen’s jubilee and a wife leaving her unloving husband for a new life in Spain. We’ve seen all of these people and we know them too.” 

"Sich Übergeben (translating to “to vomit”) deals with our British tendencies to spew forth from our gullets, unloading our ill-informed and rather unwanted opinions onto others, the interwebs and beyond. From our living room thrones we strategize and glamourise, acting upon misinformation through hypocritical means. It’s not too long before spewing becomes physical, and suddenly a father figure spews from his plane upon the foreign sunnyland soil, covering the precious ground in British vomit, clutching a pint in one hand and his health-card in the other. His alien son looks on. ‘Who is this man and who is my father?’” 

Stream it below.

(facebook.com/HallanUk)

Tags: Hallan

Klangstof Announce New LP 'Godspeed To The Freaks', Stream "Disguiser"

Dutch indie rock band Klangstof have announced the release of their third studio album ‘Godspeed To The Freaks’. 

The follow-up to the electronic-orientated 2020 record The Noise You Make Is Silent, will be released on September 16th through Velveteen Records, and is focused primarily upon the warmth of its live instrumentation and the intuitive interplay between the band members. Pre-order your copy here.

‘Godspeed To The Freaks’ will see the Edison Award (the Dutch equivalent to the Grammy or BRITs) winning band add to the widespread tastemaker attention that has greeted their previous two albums. It’s an album which focuses on self-reflection; finding the courage to confront your inner self and being at peace with your demons. There’s a power that comes with the acceptance that every good day might have a touch of darkness to it. And in a further contrast to the electronic-orientated 2020 set ‘The Noise You Make Is Silent’, this record is focused primarily upon the warmth of its live instrumentation and the intuitive interplay between the band members.  

It’s an album which focuses on self-reflection; finding the courage to confront your inner self and being at peace with your demons. There’s a power that comes with the acceptance that every good day might have a touch of darkness to it.

New Entry: FOALS Air New Single "Crest Of The Wave"

Oxford UK indie rockers Foals have aired their new single "Crest Of The Wave".

The song is taken from their upcoming new album 'Life Is Yours', out this Friday, June 17 via Warner. Pre-order your copy here.

Talking about the track, Yannis Philippakis explains: "A portion of 'Crest of the Wave' existed in 2011, we had demoed it in Australia and just left it for years. But it was one of those songs which had always been at the back of our minds, like there was some unfinished business there. As we were playing around with it with some of the themes on this record, we cracked it open and really revelled in adding lots of layers to it in the studio. I was looking at the power of the lyrics to transport myself and the listener somewhere else. It's set in St Lucia which is an island that has always visually struck me as being very powerful."

Watch a lyric video below.

(facebook.com/Foals)

Tags: Foals

High Vis Announce New LP 'Blending', Stream "Fever Dream"

London post punk band High Vis have announced the release of their sophomore album 'Blending'.

The follow-up to 2019 debut album No Sense No Feeling, will be out on September 9h via DAIS Records. Pre-order your copy here.

Formed in 2016 from the ashes of some of the UK’s best hardcore bands (Dirty Money, Tremors, DiE, The Smear), High Vis maintain a hardcore energy in their live shows – it’s not uncommon for cheerfully miserable, gold toothed vocalist/front person Graham Sayle to come away from a show with a bleeding forehead – but they’ve taken their aural cues from older UK bands like Gang Of Four, Crisis, Joy Division and Stone Roses. The intensity and passion of hardcore still stokes their fire, but in its post-punk inspired textures and moods lay a sonic adventurousness which suggests the members of High Vis are never going to be confined by any notion of what they should or shouldn’t be playing.

Blending sees them open their viewfinder wider than ever before. Alongside longstanding favourites such as Fugazi and Echo and The Bunnymen; Ride and even Flock Of Seagulls were shared reference points as the band worked on the album together.

Watch: Dendrons Release New Single/Video "Wait In Line"

Chicago-based post punk/alt band Dendrons have released the video for their new single "Wait In Line".

The song is taken from their forthcoming second full-length album '5-3-8', set to be released on August 26 via Innovative Leisure. Pre-order it here. 

"Wait in Line" showcases bubblegum-pop-adjacent guitar lines and Motorik beats – it ebbs and flows throughout, showing dynamic to the band's sound and ability to blend the loud with occasional moments of respite. 

Speaking about the single, singer/guitarist, Dane Jarvie says: "The song is influenced by “The Lottery in Babylon,” a short story by the magical realism author, Jorge Luis Borges. Dealing with the role that chance supposedly plays in life, and a political and socio-economic system that operates and revolves around that variable as dogma, followed by its subsequent corruption of it. In many ways, it is a criticism of the human tendency to claim dominion of nature and capitalize on it anyway."

Watch/listen below.

(facebook)

Tags: Dendrons

Watch: Paradox Obscur Drop Music Video For "Cocoon"

Greek minimal synth/cold wave duo Paradox Obscur (aka Kriistal Ann and Toxic Razor) have dropped the video for their latest single "Cocoon".

The song is part of our current playlist and is taken from their recent album 'Morphogenesis', released in May via Metropolis Records. Grab it here if you haven't already.

Watch the video below.

(facebook.com/paradoxobscur)

Tags: Paradox Obscur

Simple Minds Announce New LP 'Direction of the Heart', Stream "Vision Thing"

Scottish new wave/rock legends Simple Minds have announced the release of their new their eighteenth studio album 'Direction of the Heart'.

The follow-up to 2018's Walk Between Worlds will be released on 21st October.Pre-order the album here.

Most of Direction Of The Heart’s tracks were written, created and demoed in Sicily, where both Jim Kerr and guitarist Charlie Burchill live. Unable to come to the UK because of quarantine rules, the album was recorded at Hamburg’s Chameleon Studios. Here they produced the album, later enlisting Andy Wright (Massive Attack, Echo & The Bunnymen) and Gavin Goldberg (Simply Red, KT Tunstall) for additional production.

Band members, bassist Ged Grimes (who co-wrote two of the new songs, ‘First You Jump’ and ‘Solstice Kiss’), drummer Cherisse Osei and vocalist Sarah Brown joined them on some of the tracks, recording their parts separately in London.

Throughout its nine tracks, Direction of the Heart finds the band at their most confident, anthemic best on an inspired celebration of life, and which manages to perfectly encapsulate the essence of past and present Simple Minds, a band whose reascent over the past 10 years has seen them, once again, capture the magic and critical praise of their early days.

Confident and anthemic, the album is an inspired celebration of life, most evident on lead single ‘Vision Thing’. Guests include Sparks frontman Russel Mael and Ged Grimes collaborator Gary Clark.

Check out the album's tracklist and take a listen to "Vision Thing" below.

Direction of the Heart Tracklist:

1. Vision Thing

2. First You Jump

3. Human Traffic

4. Who Killed Truth?

5. Solstice Kiss

6. Act of Love

7. Natural

8. Planet Zero

9. The Walls Came Down

(facebook.com/simpleminds)

Tags: Simple Minds