Black Country, New Road at Gorilla
Johnny James, Managing Editor
Traversing pop, free jazz and post-rock, Black Country, New Road are one of the most exciting young bands out there right now.
With only a handful of tunes to their name, the seven-strong band shot to the top of ones-to-watch lists everywhere in 2019, filed alongside the likes of fellow sonic explorers Black Midi.
Sprawling, cerebral tracks like ‘Sunglasses’ and the more recent ‘Science Fair’ are studies in both tension and musical collage, knitting together any number of genres and filtering them through an anguished haze of unreality. This is all mirrored in the lyrics, whose elliptical narratives continually change perspective as they paint pictures of life in all its intimidating mundanity.
With their debut album, For The First Time (Ninja Tune), set for release in February, it’s likely that 2021 is going to be an explosive year for the band. ‘Black Country, New Road’, says vocalist Isaac Wood, is meant to suggest a “good way out of a bad place”, and don’t we need that right now.
