New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Today, Belgian five-piece Whispering Sons return with their new single "Surface" and its accompanying video. The track is available on all digital platforms and will be released as a limited 7inch (including an exclusive B-side entitled "Blank") available in March 2021 via [PIAS] Recordings.
Combining bleak and jarring imagery, the band comment of the video: "The theme of isolation in a cyclical and circling world was used by combining images of a woman singing in bright white light alongside flashing sceneries of destruction, a lost city, stone formations and rough structured landscapes. It's the result of an instinctive search by photographer Sybren Vanoverberghe and filmmaker Jonas Hollevoet for images in which no humanity can be found."
The new release marks Whispering Sons first new material since their 2018 debut Image,which saw them garner early support at press and radio as well as tallying up millions of streams for their dark and unique blend of experimental and frenetic post-punk. Similarly, prior to lockdown, their infamously ferocious live shows had also seen them begin to firmly cement themselves as a must-see live band playing alongside the likes of The Murder Capital, Patti Smith, The Soft Moon and Croatian Amor as well as touring across the UK and
Europe with the likes of Editors.
Having retreated to the Ardennes last summer to work on new material, the band took the strongest parts of their old work and refined them even further with a strong focus on their greatest strength, sheer, unpretentious intensity. The result of this work can be seen clearly in their latest single. "Surface" refines the ferocious post-punk aesthetics from which their sound first emerged and pushes them to the absolute limit. Combining elements of no wave, industrial and avant-punk, the anxious and propulsive instrumentation is relentless and eerily abstracted, while Fenne Kuppens' words, sung in a dramatic and distinctive low register (inspired in part by the likes Xiu Xiu and Chinawoman), inject that extra, central tension and darkness.
Over the last two years, Whispering Sons have constantly outstripped their own expectations. With every momentous step forward that they take, they redraw the boundaries of what they consider possible then duly go beyond them yet again.
"Surface" marks the first piece of music to come from their much-anticipated second album (further details TBA) and stands proudly as a declaration of what is yet to come.
