Next month, Squid — the British quintet of Louis Borlase, Ollie Judge, Arthur Leadbetter, Laurie Nankivell, and Anton Pearson — will embark on a North American tour in support of last year’s expansive and evocative O Monolith. In anticipation, the band share a new single, “Fugue (Bin Song).” A fan favorite and fixture in the band’s live performances over the past several years, the song was recorded during the O Monolith sessions with long-time collaborator Dan Carey at Peter Gabriel’s Real World studio in the spring of 2022 and was initially intended to be included on O Monolith, but didn’t make the final tracklisting. The song was re-mixed and edited by John McEntire (of Tortoise) in the later half of 2023.
O Monolith was praised by Consequence as “one of the most impressively creative rock records to grace 2023.” Following the band’s biggest UK and EU shows yet, Squid’s North American tour will see them stopping in Austin, Philadelphia, Brooklyn, Chicago, Los Angeles, and more with Water From Your Eyes supporting all dates. All concerts are listed below and tickets are available here.
This run will feature exclusive tour merch, including a collaborative tour poster from both bands and a homemade, tour exclusive cassette mixtapes from Squid. “It’s an antidote to the immediateness of music consumption nowadays,” Judge says. “It features music by friends and people I admire, probably best to be played at nighttime whilst sat on your favorite chair.” All copies are hand-stamped by Judge and features a Lino print design by Natalie Whiteland.
UK-based quintet Squid present the new single, “Undergrowth,” from their sophomore album, O Monolith, out June 9th on Warp Records, the “Undergrowth”-inspired video game by Frank Force, and announce a North American Tour. Renowned for their unerring experimentation, Squid continue their idiosyncratic sonic journey with “Undergrowth,” where dubbed-out bass grooves under cinematic synth chops explode into bursts of guitar and frenetic brass. Through the radical meld of textures and tones, Squid drummer and vocalist Ollie Judgestill manages to create an earworm chorus, repeating “Ergonomic for the rest of my days, I’d rather melt melt melt melt melt melt away.” Themes of environmental peril, morality, and the natural world are all present on “Undergrowth” and further explored on the rest of O Monolith.
Judge explains, “I really got into animism, the idea that spirits can live in inanimate objects. I was watching Twin Peaks, and there was the episode where Josie Packard’s spirit goes into a chest of drawers. So ‘Undergrowth’ was written from the perspective of me being reincarnated as a bedside table in the afterlife, and how the thought of being reincarnated as an inanimate object would be dreadful. ‘This isn’t what I wanted/ So many options to be disappointed.’ Even though I’m in no way religious I don’t think anyone who isn’t religious is confident enough to not have had the fleeting thought of ‘Fuck, what if there is an afterlife? What if I’m going to Hell?’”
“Undergrowth” is accompanied by a visualizer directed by Squid’s Louis Borlase. In describing the story behind it, he says, “When we were writing O Monolith we rented a little studio in St Pauls and whichever way we’d walk home, the BRI Hospital chimney would always be standing there – jutting out in front of a disc of countryside beyond. Sometimes it feels like most folklore hides in the countryside’s nooks. At other times it comes in closer, lurking in the bins on the walk back from the shops.”
Additionally, today, the band unveil “Undergrowth,” the game! A bit like the bastardized love child of Super Mario and Space Invaders, with an English Folklore twist. Who’s gonna get the high score? Who’s gonna defeat the monolith? Creator Frank Force adds, “Imagine the game itself as an interactive music video where gameplay and animation is synched up to the music and changes as the song progresses, moving into different phases.”
Produced by long-time collaborator, Dan Carey, and mixed by John McEntire (of Tortoise), O Monolith teems with melodic epiphanies and is a musical evocation of environment, domesticity and self-made folklore. Like its predecessor, it is dense and tricksy – but also warmer, with a winding, questioning nature. Squid began work on O Monolith only two weeks after the release of Bright Green Field while the band were on tour in 2021. The songs continued to take shape in rehearsal rooms around Bristol, where the band were based at the time, eventually moving to Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios in Wiltshire. This change in environment further pushed the development of the band’s sound from claustrophobic post-punk to something more free-flowing and spacious. Although originating in Brighton and now largely based in South London, every member of the band has a strong connection with the West Country, which only deepened during the recording process. One interpretation of O Monolith is a condensation of the environment into song. “There’s a running theme of the relation of people to the environment throughout,” says Borlase. “There are allusions to the world we became so immersed in, environmental emergency, the role of domesticity, and the displacement you feel when you’re away for a long time.”
“Undergrowth” follows lead single “Swing (In A Dream)” which was recently added to BBC 6 Music’s A-List. As FADER commented, “[‘Swing (In A Dream)’] suggests their new album O Monolith will retain all of the intensity and sense of adventure that made their 2021 debut Bright Green Field essential listening for post-punk fans.” Indeed, like its namesake, O Monolith is vast and strange; alive with endless possible interpretations of its inner mysteries.
Squid have long been praised for their expansive must-see live show, touring extensively in support of Bright Green Fieldin 2021 and 2022. Following the band’s biggest UK and EU shows yet in support of O Monolith this fall, Squid will return to North America in 2024. This run sees them playing many cities for the first time. Tickets are on sale now.
Roaring in from London, Squid combine post-punk, art-punk, straight-up punk, no wave, jazz, and probably five other genres they enjoy into a cool, quirky record – Bright Green Field.
After a brief instrumental opener (“Resolution Square”), the album bops and funks with “G.S.K.” Saxophone honks, psychedelic bass, bright synths, and processed drums mix as Ollie Judge sings about the travails of staying up all night and getting into a car wreck. “I tried real hard. I think I made it up,” they say at the beginning of “Narrator.” The bass and guitar on it dance all over the place in it as the song explores taking control of one’s life amid external forces trying to control every aspect of what we consume. The song evolves into a wild, Pink Floyd-like psychedelic freak-out complete with Martha Skye Murphy screaming like she’s in a horror film one moment and in orgasmic throes the next.
You’re completely impressed with Laurie Nankivell‘s bass work by the time you get to “Boy Racers.” He has a way of playing that almost sounds like he’s doing whatever the hell he wants but yet fitting in perfectly with what the rest of the band is doing. The song becomes a weird, psychedelic, synth-heavy trip about halfway through its length, and I’m all for it. The build-up at the beginning of “Padding” is outstanding, as the band sings / chants, “Patient and in control…Dig holes like a mole…Patient and oars in stow…Just do what you’re told.” Louis Borlase and Anton Pearson chug out post-punk guitar stabs over Judge’s racing heartbeat drums when the song kicks into high gear.
“Documentary Filmmaker” has strange, warped horns and is pretty much a free-flow jazz tune, which makes sense when you consider that the members of Squid bonded over ambient jazz. “2010” is a crazy, prog-rock-inspired track that bounces back and forth between Arthur Leadbetter‘s spacey jazz keyboards and the rest of his bandmates playing proto-funk to wild cymbal crashes from Judge and crazy guitar swells from Borlase and Pearson.
“Where were you when the ice came to town? Where were you when the ice came around? You don’t remember? You don’t remember!”, Judge sings / yells on “Perry St.” – a song that could be about turning a blind eye to bigotry, but don’t quote me on that. I can tell you for certain that it’s a rocker, however. They don’t hold back much, even when the song hits the brakes and becomes a simmering pot of jazz / prog / post-punk stew. “I’m so sick and tired of dancing,” Judge proclaims on “Global Groove.” It’s interesting that he would write that lyric in the last year or so, when none of us could go out dancing and were doing all our dancing in the kitchen, while doing laundry, or with our pets as somewhat-reluctant partners. The song samples canned laughter and the guitars seem to be crying one moment and yawning the next – summing up the groove the entire globe has been in for a long time. Judge acknowledges this pandemic funk further on the closing track, “Pamphlets.” He growls about not wanting to leave the house, or even needing to thanks to all the pamphlets left on his doorstep claiming everything can be brought to him – food, entertainment, you name it. He’s become a hermit due to forces beyond his control, but he’s not sure if he wants to re-emerge into the world (“Legs still, but the herd is in motion.”). Squid predicted “re-entry anxiety” before it became a buzzword.
Squid predicted, and confronts, a lot of 2021 angst on Bright Green Fields. It’s one of the sharpest albums of the year so far.
Keep your mind open.
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Next Friday, May 7th, Squid will release their debut album, Bright Green Field, via Warp Records. Ahead of its release, they present a new single, “Pamphlets,” and announce their first-ever US tour. Squid have long been praised for their kinetic live shows, recently being named one of the best bands at SXSW 2021 by The New York Times and Paste. New single “Pamphlets” further previews this energy. It “concludes [Bright Green Field] with eight minutes of Can-ish skyward populsion – the delirious release which justifies all the foregoing tension” (MOJO). Squid drummer and lyricist Ollie Judge elaborates: “It’s about all the rubbish right-wing propaganda you get through your front door. It imagines a person with that as their only source of news being taken over by these pamphlets.”
Each single – “Pamphlets,” “Paddling,” and “Narrator” – shows that Bright Green Field is a debut of towering scope and ambition. Produced by Dan Carey, Bright Green Field is deeply considered, paced and intricately constructed. The five band members – Louis Borlase (guitars/vocals), Oliver Judge (drums/vocals), Arthur Leadbetter (keyboards/strings/ percussion), Laurie Nankivell (bass/brass) and Anton Pearson (guitars/vocals) – worked as a unit, playing an equal and vital role in its creation.
Squid’s music has often been a reflection of the tumultuous world we live in. As an album title, Bright Green Field conjures an almost tangible imagery of pastoral England. However, it’s something of a decoy that captures the band’s fondness for paradox and juxtaposition. Although the geography of Bright Green Field is an imaginary cityscape built from monolithic concrete buildings and dystopian visions, it’s also a joyous and emphatic record that marries the uncertainties of the world with a curious sense of exploration.
Earlier this year, Squid announced the release of their much-anticipated debut album, Bright Green Field, out May 7th via Warp Records. Today, they present a new single, “Paddling,” which follows the release of “Narrator” (feat. Martha Skye Murphy), and announce an onlineperformance as part of the official British Music Embassy SXSW showcase, airing Friday, March 19th at 6pm CDT.
“Paddling” has long been a staple of Squid’s incendiary live show. This psych-motorik stomper is a reaction to being thrust into an adult world as friends suddenly turn their focus to careers. Built around a drum machine loop and pulsing synth line, sonic details pepper the track as it lurches between dynamic movements. All the while, the band members share vocal duties with an infectious ease and confidence. Squid elaborates: “Written from two different perspectives, ‘Paddling’ is a song about the dichotomy between simple pleasures and decadent consumerism. Recounting a familiar scene from The Wind in the Willows, the song reminds us that although we are humans, we are ultimately animals that are driven by both modern and primal instincts, leading to vanity and machismo around us in the everyday.”
Bright Green Field is an album of towering scope and ambition that endlessly twists down unpredictable avenues. Each member – Louis Borlase (guitars/vocals), Oliver Judge(drums/vocals), Arthur Leadbetter (keyboards/strings/ percussion), Laurie Nankivell(bass/brass) and Anton Pearson (guitars/vocals) – played an equal, vital role in the album’s creation. Written in Judge’s old local pub and recorded in producer Dan Carey’s London basement studio, it includes field recordings of ringing church bells, tooting bees, microphones swinging from the ceiling orbiting a room of guitar amps, a distorted choir of 30 voices as well as a horn and string ensemble featuring Emma-Jean Thackray and Lewis Evans from Black Country, New Road.
Squid’s music – be it agitated and discordant or groove-locked and flowing – has often been a reflection of the tumultuous world we live in. As an album title, Bright Green Field conjures an almost tangible imagery of pastoral England. However, it’s something of a decoy that captures the band’s fondness for paradox and juxtaposition. Although the geography of Bright Green Fieldis an imaginary cityscape built from monolithic concrete buildings and dystopian visions, it’s also a joyous and emphatic record that marries the uncertainties of the world with a curious sense of exploration.
Over the last eighteen months, Squid has become one of the most exciting bands to emerge from the UK. Today, they announce their eagerly awaited debut album, Bright Green Field, out May 7th on Warp Records, and lead single/video, “Narrator” feat. Martha Skye Murphy. Produced by Dan Carey, Bright Green Field is an album of towering scope and ambition that endlessly twists down unpredictable avenues. Each member – Louis Borlase (guitars/vocals), Oliver Judge (drums/vocals), Arthur Leadbetter (keyboards/strings/ percussion), Laurie Nankivell (bass/brass) and Anton Pearson(guitars/vocals) – played an equal, vital role in the album’s creation.
Leading into their debut full-length, Squid have been A-listed by BBC Radio 6Music, garnered praise fromPitchfork, Stereogum, The Guardian, NME, The Quietus, FADER, Paste and more. Following the release of singles “Houseplants,” “Sludge,” “The Cleaner,”“Broadcaster,” and the Town Centre EP, Bright Green Field is completely new, a nod to the band’s emphasis on perpetual forward motion.
Bright Green Field was initially written in Judge’s old local pub and recorded in Carey’s London basement studio. It features field recordings of ringing church bells, tooting bees, microphones swinging from the ceiling orbiting a room of guitar amps, a distorted choir of 30 voices as well as a horn and string ensemble featuring the likes of Emma-Jean Thackray and Lewis Evans from Black Country, New Road.
Squid’s music – be it agitated and discordant or groove-locked and flowing – has often been a reflection of the tumultuous world we live in. As an album title, Bright Green Field conjures an almost tangible imagery of pastoral England. However, it’s something of a decoy that captures the band’s fondness for paradox and juxtaposition. There’s a push-pull element to this album, present sonically in its tension and release approach, as well as thematically and lyrically. Within the geography of Bright Green Fieldlies monolithic concrete buildings and dystopian visions plucked from imagined cities. “This album has created an imaginary cityscape,” says Judge, who writes the majority of the lyrics. “The tracks illustrate the places, events and architecture that exist within it. Previous releases were playful and concerned with characters, whereas this album is darker and more concerned with place – the emotional depth of the music has deepened.”
Lead single “Narrator” ricochets from funk strut to screeching chaos via the melodic touch of guest vocalist Martha Skye Murphy. As described by the band, “‘Narrator’ was inspired by the 2019 film A Long Day’s Journey Into Night. The song follows a man who is losing the distinction between memory, dream and reality and how you can often mold your memories of people to fit a narrative that benefits your ego. Martha Skye-Murphy made the point that the unreliable narrator is, more often than not, a male who wishes to portray women as submissive characters in their story. After some discussions with Martha she thought it’d be a good idea that she play the part of the woman wanting to break free from the dominating story the male has set.”
Squid’s first ever official video, directed by Felix Green, shows the micro-components of a 3D design. “I had wanted to make a video about the virtual creation process for some time. I often think this ‘behind the digital curtain’ part of 3D design looks more interesting than the final finished product since it conveys a process and an authorship,” says Green. “When I was approached to pitch on ‘Narrator’ I immediately thought it could be the perfect match for this very visual idea.” Watch Squid’s Video for “Narrator” feat. Martha Skye Murphy For all the innovative recording techniques, evolutionary leaps, lyrical themes and ideas underpinning Bright Green Field, the album is also a joyous and emphatic record that marries the uncertainties of the world with a curious sense of exploration. Pre-order Bright Green Field
Bright Green Field Tracklist 1. Resolution Square 2. G.S.K 3. Narrator feat. Martha Skye Murphy 4. Boy Racers 5. Paddling 6. Documentary Filmmaker 7. 2010 8. The Flyover 9. Peel St 10. Global Groove 11. Pamphlets
Brighton-based five-piece Squid – comprised of Louis Borlase (guitars/vocals), Ollie Judge(drums/vocals), Arthur Leadbetter (keyboards/strings/percussion), Laurie Nankivell(bass/brass) and Anton Pearson (guitars/vocals) – release a new single, “Broadcaster,” the AA-side companion to their recent offering “Sludge.” A limited edition vinyl pressing of “Sludge” and an extended version of “Broadcaster” will be released on June 26th via their new label, Warp Records.
“Broadcaster” is built around an arpeggiated synth sequence conceived during a writing session in a woodland cabin by Arthur whilst the rest of the band were out hiking. As the song develops, guitars, drum machines and delays join the fray, pushing the track into its chaotic and visceral crescendo. All this works as the perfect foil to Ollie’s oblique lyrics.
“Lyrically the track was inspired by the visual artist Naim June Paik and his TV Garden installation,” says Ollie. “I thought it blurred the lines between a dystopian and utopian vision. I imagined what it must be like living synonymously amongst nature and technology in the most literal way I could imagine, with TVs towering over me amongst forests.”
Paired with their richly percussive and sonically evolving “Sludge,” “Broadcaster” opens up Squid’s sound without abandoning the experimentation and playfulness that made them such an exciting prospect when they burst on the scene just over a year ago. The band recently released a fan-sourced lyric video for “Sludge” inspired by a followers’ interpretation of the single. Squid fans around the world – and the band themselves – have contributed views from their isolation to create the visual.
The restless creativity of these new singles point the way forward for Squid, a band constantly expanding on their propulsive spectrum of sound.
Warp Records is pleased to announce their new signing, Brighton-based five-piece Squid – comprised of Louis Borlase (guitars/vocals), Ollie Judge (drums/vocals), Arthur Leadbetter (keyboards/strings/percussion), Laurie Nankivell (bass/brass) and Anton Pearson (guitars/vocals). In conjunction with the announcement, Squid present their richly percussive and sonically shifting new single, “Sludge,” which sees the band opening up their sound with the experimentation and playfulness that made them such an exciting prospect when they burst on the scene just over a year ago.
Thematically, Squid’s previous releases — “The Cleaner,” “Houseplants” and “Match Bet” — have been more character driven with Squid looking at the people around them, but on “Sludge” the band is in a more introspective state of mind; simultaneously seeking a wider commentary, but approaching it with an idiosyncratic precision and a lighthearted demeanor.
“Sludge” was initially conceived during a soundcheck while supporting seminal post-punk group Wire, a fitting way to begin this new chapter for a band who have built so much of their reputation on their incendiary live shows. The track sees the band team up again with Dan Carey, who was recently deemed “Producer of the Year” by the Music Producers Guild.
This wild and restless creativity points the way forward for more exciting things to come from Squid. As FADER commented, “Just when you think the British five-piece have settled into a groove and aligned themselves to a sound, they flip the script and hit you with something new.”
Squid Tour Dates: Tue. April 14 – Amsterdam, NL @ Amsterdam Arena with Foals Fri. April 17 – Rotterdam, NL @ Motel Mozaique Sat. May 16 – Leicester, UK @ Wide Eyed Sun. May 17 – Dublin, IE @ Eastbound Sun. May 24 – Paris, FR @ Villette Sonique Sat. May 30 – Neustelitz, DE @ Immergut Festival Wed. June 3 – Barcelona, ES @ Primavera Sound Fri. June 5 – London, UK @ Wide Awake Festival Fri. June 12 – Sun. June 14 – Bergen, NL @ Best Kept Secret Fri. June 12 – Sun. June 14 – Helsinki, FI @ Sideways Festival Wed. July 1 – Roskilde, DE @ Roskilde Festival Sat. July 4 – Belfort, FR @ Eurockeennes Wed. July 22 – London, UK @ Scala (RESCHEDULED) Thu. Aug 6 – Haldern Rees, DE @ Haldern Pop Mon. Aug 10 – Prague, CZ @ Underdogs Wed. Aug 12 – Hamburg, DE @ Molotow Skybar Fri. Aug 14 – Oya, SE @ Oya Festivalen Wed. Aug. 19 – Sun. Aug. 23 – Coura, PT @ Paredes de Coura Mon. Aug. 24 – Brighton, UK @ Chalk (RESCHEDULED) Tue. Sept. 1 – Bedford, UK @ Bedford Esquires (RESCHEDULED) Thu. Sept. 3 – Southampton, UK @ Joiners (RESCHEDULED) Thu. Sept. 3 – Sun. Sept. 6 – Salisbury, UK @ End of the Road Festival Tue. Sept. 8 – Birmingham, UK @ Castle and Falcon (RESCHEDULED) Wed. Sept. 9 – York, UK @ The Crescent (RESCHEDULED) Thu. Sept. 10 – Hebden Bridge, UK @ The Trades Club (RESCHEDULED) Sat. Sept. 12 – Manchester, UK @ The White Hotel (matinee) (RESCHEDULED) Sat. Sept. 12 – Manchester, UK @ The White Hotel (evening) (RESCHEDULED) Sun. Sept. 13 – Edinburgh, UK @ Summerhall (RESCHEDULED) Mon. Sept. 14 – Newcastle, UK @ The Cluny (RESCHEDULED) Wed. Sept. 16 – Norwich, UK @ Norwich Arts Centre (RESCHEDULED) Thu. Nov. 5 – Reykjavík, IS @ Iceland Airwaves
Keep your mind open.
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