Norwich-based post-hardcore trio OTHER HALF are proud to announce news of their debut album Big Twenty, set for release on 21st August 2020 via Venn Records (Gallows, WACO, Marmozets & more).
Alongside the album news, the band are pleased to reveal a video for lead single ‘Trance State’, which is out now following a premiere with Louder Than War and an exclusive first airing at radio from BBC Radio One Rock Show host Daniel P Carter last weekend.
In support of the #BlackLivesMatter movement, the band have turned stills from the original ‘Trance State’ video footage into packs of limited edition art prints. 100% of proceeds will be split between The Black Curriculum and the Black Immigrant Collective.
“We will never fully be able to understand the experiences of black communities,” say the band, “but we do understand our responsibility to use the platform and the resources we have to try and make a difference and better understand issues of racism. Racism and racially motivated police brutality isn’t just an American issue. Social injustice and systematic racism exists everywhere. We stand in solidarity with the black community, open and honest to the discomfort of the truth and our privilege—listening, learning and acting to incite change and fulfil our potential as allies.”
Commenting on the single itself, the band say: “Trance State is made up of fragments from nights spent at our worst, and the real ill nature encountered on the way. It’s probably the only time the characters on the album become the observer—seeing the ugliness in their surroundings for the first time—but, as with anything, that’s quickly put to bed in favour of putting something up their nose. Musically, the track pulls from bands like The Jesus Lizard and Slint. aiming for something that slithers along with the same creepy intensity of the characters in the song.”
“Coming from a DIY background we’re a pretty self-sufficient band and like to have a handle on all of our creative output,” they continue, talking about the video for the track, “so we weren’t too phased with the idea of somehow making a video during lockdown. Sophie made the initial background sequence using a load of footage she’d already captured of urban architecture and landscapes. It seemed like the perfect fit as the insalubrious backdrop for the kind of characters and themes written about in the song.”
Meeting in 2012 through a love of the UK DIY scene and their time split between previous outfits—including Maths, Ducking Punches and Manbearpig—Cal Hudson (guitar, vocals), Alfie Adams (drums) and Sophie Porter (bass, vocals) began writing songs together in Adams’ basement bedroom.
From the indie rock cynicism of Archers of Loaf and Arab Strap, to the dischord and energy of bands like Hot Snakes and Unwound, the band have spent the past few years weaving their individual influences together and now deal in a confident, unique brand of scathing storytelling and abrasive punk.
Forthcoming debut album Big Twenty is 14 songs of caustic post-hardcore exploring the unpleasant places people go to—and the nastiness they are capable of—in search of identity, community and belonging.
The recurring characters that inhabit Big Twenty navigate changing social scenes and trends as they near the end of their twenties, teasing themselves with the past and spiralling in an unhealthy cycle of going out and coming down. The album’s narrative is semi-fictitious, reimagining first-hand experiences watching friends lose themselves to nostalgia, drugs and depression, whilst simultaneously celebrating the warmth of belonging, wherever it is found.
The trio have previously released a four-way split on Venn Records with Yarraman, Grieving and Yr Poetry, and have performed at The Fest, Florida, and Pouzza Fest, Montreal. They have toured mainland Europe and the UK with Dikembe and Ducking Punches and have shared the stage with the likes of Meat Wave, Jamie Lenman, PUP, Pinegrove, Front Bottoms, Part Chimp, The Hotelier, Joe Talbot (IDLES) and Lemuria.
They have had numerous plays on BBC Introducing, and are set to collaborate on a remix of one of their album tracks with Cremation Lily.
Further details and new music will be revealed over the coming months.
Big Twenty is released 21 August 2020 via Venn Records