Bible Membership: Umbra
(By way of Velvet Echoes)
DL | Vinyl | Stream
Bristol post-punk outfit launch their second EP, Umbra, into their world of ever-increasing expectation. And while their roots are planted very a lot on the planet of post-punk indie rock, this assortment of songs feels very very similar to a defining assertion for Bible Membership of their journey to seek out their very own model and sound amidst their imaginative and prescient of range and a wealthy vein of the unconventional of their sound.
Fashioned in 2021, Bible Membership burst out of the colourful Bristol music scene simply because the world was stumbling in direction of a brand new type of normality and actuality. Citing influences with a various combine from the likes of CAN, Electrelane via to Spacemen 3, they shortly developed a popularity for chaotic but fascinating and completely compelling reside exhibits. And with an eclectic fusion of musical kinds, there was actually no saying the place this was going to take them.
Because the band continued to develop their very personal mix of post-rock, post-punk and shoegaze, they launched their debut EP, AD, in Might 2024 which characterised their ever-evolving sound. Having launched additional singles since then and declared their want to preserve their music various and unconventional, this mission now continues with their new EP, Umbra.
Umbra was produced by Dom Mitchison, a call for the band which proved to be a really transformative expertise of their artistic evolution. Because the band describe, “We needed to give attention to our songwriting and discover the place we might take our subsequent undertaking, with a developed sound and a core idea” while additionally noting that the recording of those songs with Dom “felt like a studio expertise that we’ve actually grown from.”
The narrative behind the EP serves as a dreary but compelling rumination on late-stage capitalism and post-consumerist decay. The songs confront a world the place materialism has turn out to be non-material, substance is changed by empty filler, and life is callously wasted, exploring what they describe as “the darkest shadow of our instances – the umbra – a shadow forged by a drive that overpowers.”
Introduction opens the EP doing precisely what the title suggests as ethereal vocals wash effortlessly over ambient textured soundscapes with little or no clue of what’s to observe. Because the band put it, a “momentary bliss earlier than the arduous fall of actuality.” Nevertheless, this sense of otherworldly calm is instantly shattered by the colourful outpourings of I Overlook Every thing which is pushed alongside by syncopated drum patterns, fractured guitars and discordant rhythms as “an exploration on the torment of an alienating world.” All of that is overlayed with a spoken phrase narrative that appears to be changing into an ever-increasing function of the current day music scene.
Umbra follows in the same vein with intricate jangling guitars rising above metronomic bass strains and hardened rhythms, a sound the band describe as “interwoven guitars… typically stark and asymmetrical, typically unified and highly effective”. As a tune centered on “a condemnation of societal monotony” which “captures the stark consciousness of a world caught in disarray”, it concludes with a flurry of uplifting and virtually anthemic refrain strains which appear take it to an altogether new degree. Already that is feeling very very similar to a traditional model of post-punk indie rock which traces its roots again to the early 80s.
Unfastened Pavement slows issues proper down with a reflective and soulful vibe which has the power to channel your interior senses into beforehand unchartered areas of your psyche. It’s a tune with the facility to unnerve via its considerably mournful sounding vocal and subdued rhythms because it raises the very actual trendy period problem of “when does the price outweigh lives?” A rousing guitar intro then leads us into the epic finale of Plastic Apples which is riddled with angular rhythms and ragged guitars because the songs ebbs and flows via an actual sense of emotional turmoil and frustration centered very a lot on the far gone world of post-consumerism.”
As a set of songs, Umbra feels each very similar to a defining assertion for Bible Membership of their journey to seek out their very own model and sound and it ought to go a great distance in direction of increasing their very own sonic horizons, to not point out their fanbase. For me, that is one other band now firmly entrenched on my should watch record and I stay up for listening to what follows.
Bible Membership are heading out on a UK tour to advertise this new EP with dates and venues as follows:
April
16 – Edinburgh, The Mash Home
17 – Liverpool, The Jacaranda
18 – London, Sebright Arms
26 – Northampton, The Lamplighter
Might
15 – Winchester, The Railway Inn
16 – Newport, Le Pub.
You should buy tickets for the tour right here.
You’ll be able to stream the EP right here.
You’ll find Bible Membership on Fb, Instagram, Bandcamp and their web site.
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All phrases by Ian Corbridge. You’ll find extra of his writing at his creator profile right here.
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