The return of Public Service Broadcasting.

[holyzombiejesus]

Fuck me. Please gas this band of cunts.

An album in three parts (Building A City / Building A Myth / Bright Magic), it is their most ambitious undertaking yet, bringing you to Europe's heart and de facto capital, the cultural and political metropolis that is the 'Haupstadt' of the Federal Republic of Germany – Berlin.

"Doing this felt inevitable, somehow," muses J.Willgoose, Esq. "In my head, it was whirring and pulsing away for a long time, even before Every Valley - this fascinating, contrary, seductive place. I knew the album was going to be about the city, and its history and myths, and I was going to move there. So it's quite a personal story. It's become an album about moving to Berlin to write an album about people who move to Berlin to write an album..."

Though PSB's use of electronics and surging guitar rock remain familiar, Bright Magic uses samples, and the English language, sparingly. It differs from their previous albums in other ways: less linear and narrative, instead it's an impressionistic portrait of a city from the ground up. A Eureka moment of sorts came in November 2018 when Willgoose heard Walter Ruttman's radical Berlin tape-artwork Wochenende (or Weekend), which is sampled on three of Bright Magic's tracks. Created in 1928, the piece collaged speech, field recordings and music into a sonic evocation of the city. Resolving to integrate these long-gone fragments with new manipulated sound sources, he set about making his own Wochenende, a narrative drama for the ears which decodes and realises the dreams of Berlin he'd constructed in his mind.

J.Willgoose, Esq. said "I started to get a feeling for where the title of Bright Magic wanted to take me, towards ideas of illumination and inspiration, electricity and flashes of light and colour and sound (all the tracks would eventually be colour coded). I sent it to the rest of the band, and said, I know it's going to change, but we'll see how the city itself colours that." J.Willgoose, Esq moved to Berlin from April 2019 to January 2020. Combining sound archaeology and the flâneuring of the psychogeographer, one street-level pursuit of the city's energy involved Willgoose walking the Leipzigerstrasse, site of the city's first electric streetlight, using a wide-band electromagnetic receiver from Moscow's Soma Laboratories. "I walked up and down recording electrical currents and interference," he laughs. "You can hear a few of these little frequency buzzes, clicks and impulses in Im Licht (a song inspired in part by pioneering lightbulb manufacturers AEG and Siemens). It's what I was trying to do in the wider sense, I suppose – to capture those tiny little pulses you pick up while walking through a city."

He wrote and recorded in Kreuzberg's famous Hansa Tonstudio recording complex. This brought closer several inescapable musical touchstones: Depeche Mode's classic eighties triumvirate, U2's Achtung Baby and, crucially, Bowie's "Heroes" and Low. "The whole shape and structure of the record is very much in debt to Low," says Willgoose. Indeed, the Warszawa-evoking "The Visitor" – whose designated colour is the particular Orange of that album's sleeve – was initially intended to feature a sample of Bowie reflecting, says Willgoose, on "how he viewed himself as this vessel for synthesizing and refracting other influences, and presenting avant-garde influences to the mainstream. We tried to absorb a bit of that spirit."

As well as EERA, the album's other guest voices include Blixa Bargeld, veteran of The Bad Seeds and Einstürzende Neubauten, who becomes the voice of Berlin's industry on the robo-teknik "Der Rhythmus der Maschinen". Andreya Casablanca of Berlin garageistes Gurr stands in for Marlene Dietrich in "My Blue Heaven", an anthem of proud self-determination.

A very pro-European record, Bright Magic is ultimately not just about one city, but all centres of human interaction and community which allow the free exchange and cross-pollination of ideas.

[Pink Gregory]

is the objection that this could be interesting (if a bit trite, sure) were it not in the hands of a 6music approved dullard band?

[Neville Chamberlain]

Given PSB's form, it'll be more interesting on paper than in sound.

[Excellent_Biscuits]

"so I basically lobbed a load of interesting artwork by other people into pro tools, and then waited for the postman to bring me all my cheques!"

[holyzombiejesus]

is the objection that this could be interesting (if a bit trite, sure) were it not in the hands of a 6music approved dullard band?

the objection is that they are horrible dreadful cunts.

Thought for a while we should have a thread for awful press releases/ shots. Think this could have been the one to start it off but thought it better to have yet another general one where we could slag off one of the few bands I dislike more than Elbow.

[DrGreggles]

I like them, so there.

[The Mollusk]

Has there ever been a more boring phrase used to describe music than "surging guitar rock", fucking hell. Hopefully there's plenty of other rhythmic percussive drumming and audible instrument sounds on this album, can't wait. Sounds really really really interesting. Pricks.

[Neomod]

A bit of Depeche Mode, snifter of Kraftwerk, a Vangelis Yamaha CS80 and a video full of Brigitte Helms.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0MTqhf9xPo

Meh.

[Glyn]

I like them, so there.

Same here, think a lot depends though on your 'smug' tolerance when it comes to PSB.

Sounds like a good topic for them and that teaser track has enough references in to get my interest.

Looking forward to hearing the track with Nina Hoss, her vocals are barnstorming on Europa Geht Durch Mich.

[sevendaughters]

A bit of Depeche Mode, snifter of Kraftwerk, a Vangelis Yamaha CS80 and a video full of Brigitte Helms.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0MTqhf9xPo

Meh.

just sounds like ITV Nightscreen or Division 2 Goal of the Month music. Insipid ear piss.

[mobias]

Well I like them, I like the new single and I like the sound of their new album. So there!

Its interesting that they've moved away from the sampled voices thing, I always thought that shtick would only last them so long and they would become a more conventional sounding act sooner or later.

If they come across as smug they're not in real life, I've met them, they seemed like a perfectly nice bunch of down to earth guys. I guess part of their problem is that they are the darlings of Radio 6 and they have been played to death. Their
signature sound became ubiquitous all to quickly. Its good that they seem to want to move away from it though.

[dissolute ocelot]

I dislike them purely because it seemed that every time a bunch of young male geeks put together a pub quiz, they'd have a PSB song, which I'd never know or remember long enough for the next quiz. But apart from that, while I'm sure they're nice guys, they are the epitome of music you only need to listen to once, nod at the concept, and then delete.

[sevendaughters]

why are all the comments on that video written in jemble speak

[imitationleather]

That video really hits home how many absolutely hideous buildings have gone up in that bit of London over the past decade.

[imitationleather]

Oh yeah. The song. It's fine. It'd come up in a Spotify playlist and I'd think it was decent, but then wouldn't be able to remember anything about it afterwards.

I feel like they always sound nowhere near as interesting or elaborate as the writing about them makes out they should be.

[jobotic]

Sounds like the music in the background of a DFS advert. I don't get it at all.

[wooders1978]

Wasn't bowled over by the Space one they did but thought the welsh minors one was pretty good - approaching this with an open mind

[PaulTMA]

Kind of want to try and get into them now

[Chicory]

Horrible dreadful cunts tho

[PaulTMA]

Lovely stuff

[Famous Mortimer]

welsh minors

Dirty bunch of fuckers

[PaulTMA]

Men Behaving Dadly is a great facebook group