As the saying goes, you can’t keep a good man down. The same goes for music legends all over the world, who continue to produce new music year in and year out. Sometimes the gap between releases between artists maybe longer or shorter, but there are some things they do have in common – passion, talent, and a steady loyal following waiting for their every release. This also applies to London’s The Wolfhounds, founded decades ago and well known and loved by the likes of BBC, NME, John Peel, and many listeners thanks to the inclusion of their music in the famous C86 tape cassette series.

Now these music legends have announced their new album Electric Music, set for release on July 3 via A Turntable Friend Records. Word has it that Rhodri Marsden of Scritti Politti also features on this album, so that’s something else to look forward to.

Ahead of this, they present lead single ‘Can’t See the Light’, a powerful track that opens fire on side one of the forthcoming record with a captivating video by David Janes.

“Musically, ‘Can’t See The Light’ has a discordant guitar line – perhaps carrying echoes of John Barry’s The Persuaders theme – until it reaches a desperate crescendo; this feeling is captured brilliantly by David Janes’ claustrophobic and darkly psychedelic video,” says The Wolfhounds’ frontman David Callahan.

A spitball of melancholy fury, this is an explosive tune about how anger turns inward after the low expectations of a country’s myriad self-defined gatekeepers have crippled the ambitions of those who want change for the better. With a bass-heavy rush, ‘Can’t See The Light’ builds desperately to a semi-tonal release of noise, sounding simultaneously claustrophobic and liberating.

“All tunnels eventually emerge into the sun (as David Janes’ accompanying paranoid and sick-a-delic video shows) but while you’re underground it can seem like darkness is perpetual and inevitable,” says Callahan.

Always ahead of the times, The Wolfhounds have never nailed the spirit of now more succinctly and devastatingly than on this new single and other songs on the new album.

Originally formed as teenagers in 1984, The Wolfhounds released four critically acclaimed LPs before initially disbanding in 1990. By that time, they released music on the legendary and influential C86 cassette via NME, recorded three John Peel sessions for BBC Radio One, and toured the UK and Europe extensively as headliners and as support for My Bloody Valentine, The House of Love and The Wedding Present. The band’s acknowledged and audible influence stretches from Nirvana to the Manic Street Preachers, and all the way to Fontaines DC – but musically they remain ahead of all.

The band reformed in 2006 at the request of St Etienne’s Bob Stanley to celebrate 20 years since the release of C86, and inflicted a severe guitar noisefest on an unsuspecting indiepop crowd at London’s ICA. Since 2012, they have been recording and releasing new material, including Middle Aged Freaks (2015) and Untied Kingdom or (How to Come to Terms With Your Culture) (2017), repeatedly showing that they can still blow any act half their age offstage. In 2018, The Wolfhounds released Hands in the Till – The complete John Peel sessions, a 12-track album released via A Turntable Friend Records.

‘Can’t See The Light’ is now online everywhere, but can be obtained directly from the band at Bandcamp

CREDITS
Recorded, engineered and mixed at Cosmic Audio, Epping, by Ant Chapman
Additional home and phone recordings by Andy Golding and David Callahan
Mastered by Rory Attwell
Produced by the Meerkats

David Callahan – vocals, guitar, samples
Andy Golding – vocals, guitar, banjolele, bulbul tarang, keyboards
Richard Golding – bass guitar
Pete Wilkins – drums
Rhodri Marsden of Scritti Politti plays the bassoon
Extra vocals from Katherine Mountain Whitaker.
Sleeve by Andy Royston
Sleeve notes by Stewart Lee

Also check out a few of their earlier releases:

The Wolfhounds
Bandcamp
Facebook

Twitter
Spotify
Apple Music