Black Country, New Road

Black Country, New Road are an English experimental rock band. They formed in 2018 from the meeting of Tyler Hyde (bass), Lewis Evans (saxophone), Georgia Ellery (violin), May Kershaw (keyboards), Charlie Wayne (drums) and Luke Mark (guitar).

They made a name for themselves in 2019 with the singles "Athens, France" and "Sunglasses", later included on their debut album "For The First Time", released in 2021. It's a record driven by the urgency to capture on tape the band's live expressiveness, honed over the many shows they played after forming in 2018, often alongside Black Midi. A seven-piece ensemble born from the ashes of Nervous Conditions (vocals and dual guitar, bass and drums, saxophone, violin and keyboard instruments), Black Country, New Road sit at the crossroads between the guitar-driven intellectualism of post-rock acts like Slint and June of 44, the anxious edge of emo bands like Van Pelt, and the tension of (nu-)jazz, above all in the work of outfits led by Shabaka Hutchings, chiefly The Comet Is Coming, but also the Masada/Electric Masada project by John Zorn.

Their second album arrived in 2022 under the title "Ants From Up There". Though more uneven in its sequencing than the cohesive debut, yet overall more dynamic, "Ants From Up There" contains a handful of songs that are small gems, bringing the band's artistic journey to full maturity. You can hear all the work put in by the collective in rehearsal, who lavished care on every passage and let the lyrics breathe. The album is a snapshot of an ensemble that, in this form, already no longer exists — charismatic singer and guitarist Isaac Wood had left just before this release came out — and one that is already looking in another direction, towards a future that may be instrumental but is undoubtedly worth waiting for.

A year later came "Live At Bush Hall", a live album recorded over three nights in mid-December 2022 — one that can, to all intents and purposes, be considered the third chapter in their compositional saga. Germinated during the months of touring that followed the release of their second album and the departure of then-singer and leader Isaac Wood, "Live At Bush Hall" captures the English indie ensemble — who themselves chose to record live rather than in the studio — at a moment when they had bravely managed to stay on their feet under the weight of audience and press expectations, trying to shake off their fears and express the feelings they'd gone through night after night. Conceived as a "prom night" — a high-school dance like a graduation ball — the concert's visual dimension is captured in the concert film of the same name, directed by Greg Barnes and premiered at the ICA, the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London.

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