IDLES release brand new track “Car Crash”
Following the release of their triumphant comeback single The Beachland Ballroom in September, IDLES today release a second song from their highly anticipated fourth album “Crawler” (out on 12th November, Partisan Records). Just like The Beachland Ballroom, Car Crash sees the band breaking free from the pre-conceptions of what an IDLES song should sound like. It chronicles frontman Joe Talbot’s own near-fatal experience behind the wheel, one of many stories of trauma, addiction, survival and recovery the band vividly bring to life on “Crawler”
Speaking about the track Joe Talbot says: “It’s the horrific, comedown hangover -- waking up in the morning and realising the smashes, like, what the fuck am I doing with my life?”
Guitarist and co-producer Mark Bowen adds, “We wanted it to be as violent as possible to reflect that event. I really wanted it to be this sonic touchstone. We recorded the drums beforehand and put them on a vinyl acetate. Whenever you replay an acetate, because it is kind of like a liquid, it degrades every time. It touches on things being transient and momentary — even a single drum hit. It’s like a memory, when the moment has passed and you deal with the repercussions over and over again, and they morph and change into something else. It’s one of the first times on an IDLES song where we used proper effects on the vocals -- it was Joe going through my pedal board, so you get both clarity and degradation”
The video, created by Matthew Cusick and edited by IDLES’ guitarist Lee Kiernan, was a project that began back in 2001. Cusick took a break from painting and began digitally cataloging car chase scenes from 20th century American cinema as an extension of his paintings and map collages. Appropriating footage from as early as the Keystone Cops, Cusick assembled “File on Motor Transgression, 2001-2011” by condensing more than 500 car chases into a navigation of the American landscape throughout cinematic history. On collaborating with IDLES in Cusick’s words: “It is a gut wrenching, symbiotic conclusion to the piece. It has now what it was always missing… a killer soundtrack.”
Car Crash really does set our expectations high for the new album. With a reputation for raw, powerful music, Car Crash shows a depth and variety to their work, and is incredible intense. Arriving on 12th November via Partisan, “Crawler” is IDLES’ fourth album in as many years and the follow-up to their first No. 1, 2020’s “Ultra Mono”. The 14-track project was recorded at the famed Real World Studios in Bath during the COVID-19 pandemic and co-produced by Kenny Beats (Vince Staples, Slowthai, Freddie Gibbs) and IDLES guitarist Mark Bowen.
It features IDLES’ most soul-stirring music to date among numerous moments that will inspire absolute mayhem in a packed concert venue this autumn, like the warped glam rock of The Wheel the 30-second grindcore slap to the head of Wizz and the unhinged, pulverizing bass-and-drum groove of The New Sensation. But there are also fresh textures and experiments that push IDLES into thrilling new territory, like the alternate universe marching band anthem Stockholm Syndrome and Progress, that soothes both body and mind in a way few IDLES songs ever have before.
PRE-ORDER CRAWLER HERE
Last night, IDLES featured on the Jimmy Kimmel show, performing Beachland Ballroom which has received rave reviews. You can watch the performance here:
Meanwhile, IDLES will celebrate the release of “Crawler” with a recently announced, sold out show at London’s EartH venue on Thursday 18th November. The intimate show will offer a chance to see the explosive 5-piece perform up close before they begin 2022 with a huge sold out UK tour that included four nights at London’s legendary O2 Academy Brixton.
IDLES ONLINE: Official / Facebook / Twitter / IG / YouTube
VIDEO ARTIST: Matthew Cusick Bio
Matthew Cusick lets his work be guided by his various materials: maps, atlases, encyclopaedias and school textbooks, and film clips. “I like to catalog, archive, and arrange information and then dismantle, manipulate, and reconfigure it. I use this archive of mostly obsolete materials as a surrogate for paint and as a way to expand the limits of representational painting.”
Though he is originally from New York, Cusick currently lives in Dallas, Texas with his daughter. His work has received numerous awards and can be found in many collections around the world.
Band Photo: Copyright Tom Ham
