Black Country, New Road will release their second album, Ants From Up There, on Ninja Tune on February 4, and the London-based collective have shared a new preview of the album in the form of Bread Song.
Speaking about the song, already established as a live favourite, frontman Isaac Wood says: “We wanted to do the first chorus with no time signature. I went to see Steve Reich do Music for 18 Musicians and there's a piece where a bar length is determined by the breadth of the clarinet player, they just play until they run out of breath. I wanted to try that with the whole band, where we don't look at each other, we don't make too many cues, we just try and play without time - but together.”
Recorded at Chale Abbey Studios, Isle Of Wight, across the summer with the band’s long-term live engineer Sergio Maschetzko, Ants From Up There is said to draw inspiration from “classical minimalism, indie-folk, pop and alt. rock.”
“We were just so hyped the whole time,” says Hyde. “It was such a pleasure to make. I've kind of accepted that this might be the best thing that I'm ever part of for the rest of my life. And that's fine.”
The band have also announced a 2022 UK and Ireland tour to accompany the album release. The septet will play:
Feb 08: London Camden Roundhouse, UK
Apr 06: Sheffield The Foundry, UK
Apr 07: Oxford O₂ Academy, Oxford, UK
April 09: Edinburgh Liquid Room, UK
Apr 10: Belfast The Empire UK
Apr 11: Dublin Olympia, IRE
Apr 13: Manchester Albert Hall, UK
Apr 14: Nottingham Rock City, UK
Apr 16: Brighton Concorde 2, UK
Apr 17: Bristol O₂ Academy, UK
The tracklist for Ants From Up There is:
01. Intro
02. Chaos Space Marine
03. Concorde
04. Bread Song
05. Good Will Hunting
06. Haldern
07. Mark’s Theme
08. The Place Where He Inserted the Blade
09. Snow Globes
10. Basketball Shoes
