Wl//WH is very pleased to premiere “Sync or Swim”, the new single by Australian mid-90s guitar rockers S:BAHN, a celebration of Melbourne‘s solitary confinement and the future we are all aching for.
It’s the first taste of “Queen of Diamonds”, the upcoming LP, scheduled for Vinyl release in early 2021, on the Parisien label Polaks Records.
The 2020 line-up sees original founder members Kristian Brenchley (guitar), Dik (guitar/vocals) and Denis Leadbeater (drums), joined by new bass player Rene Schaefer, former guitarist of The Bites, and currently part of post-punk dark-wavers Banish.
After still contributing two songs to the “A Wonder From A Quarter Acre” Au Go Go Records‘ compilation in 1998, Kristian was based in NYC up until last year, playing in no-wave rockers WOMAN and, alongside ex-Sea Scout Tim Evans, in Degreaser, Dik has been immersed in his Detonic Recordings label, as well as releasing music as mnttaB and Distant Stars, while Denis runs an uber-cool clothing design store and has been seen drumming with Dacios and Rootbeer, while concentrating on his post-rock duo Under the Sea.
The band reformed late last year with a frenzy of songwriting and a “scorched earth” policy with respect to the back catalogue – there was to be no rehashing of the past. A low-key comeback show of all new songs was booked at the Old Bar on Valentines Day and then S: Bahn were back in business.
Two and half decades since the band’s debut “Stook Footage” EP on Shock in 1995, and the legendary debut album “North Sea Clean“ through Mushroom Distribution Services, released the next year, the ongoing sophomore LP “Queen of Diamonds” has been recorded by ldge at Soundpark. Northcote over 4 days in June-July 2020, throughout intense sessions squeezed into the brief period when Melbourne’s Covid-19 lockdown restrictions were temporarily relaxed.
“Sync or Swim” unleashes harsh, choppy rhythms igniting twangy and abrasive guitar riffs, that scrape and sparkle, amidst steady off-tempo drum beats, low throbbing bass lines and sparse tinkling piano notes, to fuel manically, airy and animated male half-spoken vocals that rise and fall in expressive emotional unrest.
Insightful lyrics explore the Corona Virus Lockdown 2020 in terms of time lost and gained with uncertainty and repetition, causing unsettling mental obsessions.
Sign of the Times bleak, dystopian textures swirl in dizzying hypnotism around partial images of sporting events, a live performance, and video game graphics while upside down overlays of modern landscapes flow with mechanical rhythms in an intricate maze of disconnected connections.
Keep up with S:BAHN:
