Our weekly fix of the best new music as Julia Mason (aka The Decibel Decoder) brings us her reviews of new music with singles from Benefits Land Of The Tyrants and Otis Shanty Outrage
Artist: Benefits
Track: Land Of The Tyrants
Teeside's Benefits released their debut album NAILS (via Invada Records) last year, a collection of tracks which dissipated anger and disillusionment about divisive, xenophobic and toxic rhetoric, told through the filter of brutal, eviscerating music.
What a year that followed including their Glastonbury Festival debut and tour across the EU and UK. However the question was subsequently raised by not only fans but Benefits themselves "what's next?".
Benefits began as the musical project of Kingsley Hall. After going through a succession of drummers, Benefits have now settled as a two-piece made up of Hall and electronic virtuoso Robbie Major. They are set on continuing their abstract process of composing music spontaneously, sending each other lyrics, beats, and notes inspired by whatever feeling or experience they might’ve had in that moment. Hall shares: “Our songs are still angry, WE are still angry but we are approaching it all in a different way. This is a punk move from us, this IS punk, but not as you might know it.”
And so to new single Land Of The Tyrants which marks their first new material since 2023’s debut album NAILS. Built from a short piece Major wrote in his attic, Land Of The Tyrants sees Hall deliver his stream of consciousness style scattering on the frustrations of modern life and the manipulation of identity, over bass-heavy, 90s dance inflected rhythms and subtle industrial undercurrents that nod to the likes of Underworld or Leftfield.
The abrasive delivery has softened but not the sentiment. The track also features production work from electronic musician and friend of the band, James Welsh (signed to Erol Alkan’s Phantasy label). Zera Tønin, the singer of queerpop-electro duo Arch Femmesis, additionally provides guest vocals on the track after they supported Benefits in Nottingham and captivated the band.
Directed by Teesside filmmaker John Kirkbride, the single’s accompanying video takes inspiration from the 1980 film The Long Good Friday. Combining the song's night time drive feel with subtle 70s and 80s imagery, it was filmed from inside the car, replicating the heightened intensity of the films closing scene.
Hall expands: “I’m not very good at being Bob Hoskins but Robbie is surprisingly good at being Pierce Brosnan, that’s my hot take. If the people who make Bond movies want to get in touch our DMs are open. There’s something really gratifying about having a daft idea in the middle of the night - like wanting to recreate the final scene in The Long Good Friday - and then seeing it materialise with a few wonky edges, a few days later on your laptop screen. Our amazing friend Martin Fox came to the rescue with lending us his car, a lovely motor, and because he looks incredible AND hard as nails, he also agreed to play an important role in the video too. Result.”
Benefits head out on an extensive new UK and EU tour this autumn. The dates will follow an Arab Strap support date at Glasgow’s Barrowlands Ballroom and include festival appearances at Left Of The Dial, Iceland Airwaves, and Transmusical. I'll see you down the front.....
Benefits Live Dates
September
21 GLASGOW Barrowland Ballroom (support for Arab Strap)
October
05 HUDDERSFIELD The Parish
06 LANCASTER Kanteena
07 GLASGOW The Hug and Pint
08 EDINBURGH The Wee Red Bar
09 ABERDEEN Tunnels
10 STIRLING Tolbooth
11 MIDDLESBROUGH Play Brew
12 LIVERPOOL Shipping Forecast
13 PRESTON The Ferret
17 ROTTERDAM Left of the Dial
18 UTRECHT acu
19 ROTTERDAM Left of the Dial
20 OSTEND Cafe de Zwerver
22 SOUTHAMPTON Joiners
23 BRIGHTON Hope and Ruin
24 MARGATE Where Else
25 LONDON The George Tavern
26 NEWPORT Le Pub
November
09 ICELAND AIRWAVES
* * *
Artist: Otis Shanty
Track: Outrage
Boston based 4-piece Otis Shanty have released their new single Outrage. Blending the experimental folk tendencies of Yo La Tengo with jangly noise pop textures of contemporaries Real Estate or Courtney Barnett, the new single is an upbeat expression of moving into young adulthood.
Outrage has the most glorious vocals and rather than being perhaps melacholy it has a lightness of touch which exudes positivity for the future. Otis Shanty release their album Up On The Hill on 20 September via Relief Map Records. Now in their mid-twenties, it promises that the slacker rock influences still shine through alongside a level of poignancy in partaking with peers.
Otis Shanty share the following on Outrage: "This song is about feeling topsy turvy in our life pursuits, individually and as a band. When Otis Shanty graduated college, we moved to Somerville and immediately felt a strange sense of slowness in our lives. This city has provided us with so much opportunity to create music, build careers, develop relationships, and become adults, but there’s no one around to tell us whether we’re doing it right. In the past few years, we have all experienced looking for the wrong thing in the wrong place and having to start all over again, often blinded by past experiences that have shaped our desires and defined our notions of success.
"As we wind around the streets of this city, we are constantly reflecting on how these milestones in this place influence our creative practice. We’ve also been assured that this is just “being in your 20s”. I listened recently to an episode of This American Life that talks about whether humans truly have “free will”, or whether every single thing that happens truly can be traced down to a molecular reaction – every subtle movement, breath, and thought being triggered by something else. It gave me some comfort to believe that maybe what we’re doing isn’t exactly up to us at all – not that it’s predetermined, but that it’s so unknown and interdependent that it's not worth fretting over."
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