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bloody/bath: Idle Hands / Sunder single review / video premiere
Single review bloody/bath: Idle Hands / Sunder (KookyToo) 7″ vinyl / DL Released 23 Sept 2022 (digital) 30 Sept 2022 (vinyl) Initially a Northampton singer-songwriter and bedroom producer, Kailan Price, but now a fully-fledged five-piece band, bloody/bath have made extraordinary progress. Championed by Lauren Laverne, a large following on Spotify with over 1.8 million streams […]
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Single review
bloody/bath: Idle Hands / Sunder (KookyToo)
7″ vinyl / DL
Released 23 Sept 2022 (digital) 30 Sept 2022 (vinyl)
Initially a Northampton singer-songwriter and bedroom producer, Kailan Price, but now a fully-fledged five-piece band, bloody/bath have made extraordinary progress. Championed by Lauren Laverne, a large following on Spotify with over 1.8 million streams and over 36,000 monthly listeners, incendiary live sets and a LTW interview that reduces people to tears… a physical, tactile, vinyl release is exactly what this band need to cement their status.
Lesser publications will soon be trying to convince you that there is some kind of revival of the Gothic genre: what with Autofiction by Suede being full of darkness, romance and fire and a variety of new bands playing a modern take on music exorcising the dark with an exhilaration and verve. bloody/bath are one such band.
I introduced you to them before and am pleased that fifteen months on they are now a full band who have made huge progress, without losing the essence of mainman Kailans vision.
The label describe the single in purple prose: Sonically a bout of sleep paralysis, emotionally a midnight text from your favourite ex, bloody/bath are feverish, and bewitching taking a post-punk passage that sounds distinctly their own. Catchy melodies dance throughout the tracks, disguising a heaviness, a desperation, drowning somewhere beneath the surface.
The video for Idle Hands manages to counterbalance the bleakness with some ‘found’ imagery from B-movies showing that bloody/bath can already laugh at the miserable bunch of fuckers they are being portrayed as.
Killer bass, great guitar-noise, a monastic vibe, tension and a kinetic energy turned into musical release.
The single is released on a very cool new label, with an impressive back catalogue on its parent company.
KookyToo is an offshoot of Kooky Records est. 1996, previous output including the acclaimed Durutti Column album ‘A Paean To Wilson’, Maps, Pram, Seafood, and Misty’s Big Adventure. This is the debut label release.
It’s a peach – a gloomy neu wave banger for our gloomy fin de siècle death-spiralling age. And it’s increasingly relatable
The Sunder video is low-budget but inventive, monochrome psychedelia and a fever dream in black and white. It sets off the music to great effect.
Neu Gothic, Modern Gloom, Dark Energy? Trying to pigeonhole or find a name for a genre is foolish. Take each band as you find them. Enjoy.
Let bloody/bath soundtrack your sadness and frustration but come out stronger on the other side. They are developing into a dark and intense rock band that you-can-dance-to based on these songs. They’re gearing up for the disco at the End of The World perhaps…
In the meantime…
Confirmed gigs:
Black Prince, Northampton 30/9/22
The Sebright Arms, London E2 23/10/22 with Deafdeafdeaf
The Boileroom, Guildford 15/11/22 supporting bdrmm
The Firebug, Leicester 16/11/22 supporting bdrmm
All words ged/babey with pr content in italics
Source: louderthanwar.com
