Premiere: Melbourne's New War share Bang On, announce new album

If the band New War are unfamiliar to you, you've been sleeping one of Australia's most critically-adored bands in a long while. Over the last decade, they've built themselves a name as champions amongst the country's art-rock scene and the beauty that can come with the contrast of maximalism and minimalism; their last record, for example - last year's Coin - being 40-odd minutes of controlled chaos, layering rhythms and harmonies on top of one another in a way so delicate and intricate that it feels quite the opposite.

In saying that, Coin was last year - and we're all about looking forward into the future. Today, we come to premiere their first song since - a five-minute epic titled Bang On - and bring news of the band's forthcoming new record Trouble In The Air, which will arrive via Heavy Machinery Records on February 28th 2020. Strangely, it's a record built around the largest organ in the Southern Hemisphere - the Melbourne Town Hall Grand Organ - intertwining a seemingly difficult instrument to work alongside with a sense of ease, something that comes strong on Bang On and is sure to be featured across much of the greater record.

"We wrote and premiered Trouble In The Air within a period of about 3 months, which was breakneck compared to our usual, lengthier working method. Our established lyrical and musical themes are present - historical repetition, the performance of ideology and violence but also love, minimalism and equal weight between instruments - but the speed required in writing and the space we were writing for led to some interesting decisions," says the band on the forthcoming album.

"The songs themselves sound black & white, widescreen, developed in bright cold powder rather than a wet darkroom. The songs’ overall effect is more Continental, tonally inspired by Bergman, Messiaen, Nico’s Desertshore, & Richter’s photopaintings. Rather than a fussed over, heavily produced collection, Trouble In The Air is immediate and stark. You’re hearing songs in a brand-new state, freshly written and performed live for the very first time."

It sounds like Trouble In The Air will be quite a record, but for now, dive into Bang On below:

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