Album Review: Supergroup Bleak Squad – Mick Turner (Dirty Three, Mess Esque), Mick Harvey (Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, PJ Harvey, The Birthday Party), Adalita (Magic Dirt) and Marty Brown (Art of Fighting) – gather together to brew the spectacular ‘Strange Love’.

Naarm/Melbourne’s gothic noir Bleak Squad consists of living legends Mick Turner (Dirty Three, Mess Esque), Mick Harvey (Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, PJ Harvey, The Birthday Party), Adalita (Magic Dirt) and Marty Brown (Art of Fighting) today release the fruits of their collaboration with ‘Strange Love’ – a dark brooding collection of visceral and raw vignettes worthy of their genetic make up.

Adalita says of this murder of crows that is Bleak Squad:

I think the name Bleak Squad speaks to both this loose collection of misfits. And the noirish mood of our music.

And how did they gather? Marty Brown put together the brew in the cauldron:

I was sitting around Fitzroy pool one summer bemoaning I wasn’t playing drums enough. So I thought I might start a new project and just called everyone then and there. I can’t remember why I thought it would work. Maybe I recognised we all had a similar way of making music – uncomplicated and instantaneous. I knew everyone had a completely unique musical personality. But I wasn’t expecting how well those personalities would complement each other.

And true to their name, the resultant concoction is deliciously dark and brooding.

The opening track sets their wares on the stall – the stylish noir ‘Lost My Head’ which combines an Antarctic chill with a dark brooding insouciance that prowls like a caged panther and simmers with a slow burning fuse. It is as if P.J. Harvey, Nick Cave and a band of goths wrestled in a dark dank cave and created a beautiful monstrosity.

The night vision spectacle of the accompanying video shot and edited by Adrian Holmes perfectly captures the brooding spectacle of the legendary members at play:

‘World Go To Hell’ is a somber piano driven ballad with brittle crystalline guitars threading over the top. The long instrumental introduction lulls you into a reverie before the dark vocals enter like vampire dramatically sweeping in with his cloak draped over his face. The delicate dual voices are cold and distant, deliciously so, soft and melodic. It’s a haunting and beautiful track, the vocals breaking apart separately creating a fugue of voices. The song slowly builds like an impending storm – theatrical and graceful, an epi widescreen finish.

‘Everything Must Change’ canters along on raw plucking guitars, a stop start jerky movement. Again dual vocal provide layers – different textures and a rousing chorus that evolves into an anthemic dark mass. ‘Let Go Of Love’ picks up the pace with a dark ominous brooding air whereas ‘Blue Signs’ presses gently on the brakes – born on a piano bed and Adalita’s vocals softened and yearning, soulful and reflective in an almost alt county style:

The title track  confirms the sonic delights these legends are concocting together. A slow burning spark features Adalita’s haunting ethereal vocals, filled with a swaggering attitude and a thousand yard stare, boosted by a celestial soaring chorus that raises the hairs on the back of your neck.

A rambling fuzzy guitar interrupts proceedings: raw and urgent that acts as a contrapuntal force to the sweet vocals and the jangling guitars.

This is a majestic track, accompanied by an immersive video directed by Adam Harding featuring the enigmatic presence of the band performing in dark on a stage framed by a red velvet backdrop, with a clear tip of the fedora to David Lynch:

‘Safe As Houses’ continues with a dreamy delivery, Adalita’s vocals to the fore while the guitars pick delicately underneath while ‘Ghost of the Bad Humour Man’ has a dark and foreboding thrum as it draws a picture of gloom and malevolence in a darkened room, the buzz of instruments casting a drone in the ether.

Final track ‘Melanie’ draws the curtains to let a little sunshine into the cave with its melodies and guitar shimmer before a wall of fuzzy guitars and roaming bass launches into the sun-speckled spaces. The result collapses into a miasma of sound, fury and feedback – a fitting conclusion to a great album.

‘Strange Love’ is a deliciously dark collection of black opals that catch the sunlight despite the ominous broodings and thread of gothic noir throughout. It is the product of four accomplished musicians and songwriters of such incredible experience and talent that the result is something natural and inevitable, and already an instantaneous part of the pantheon of classic antipodean indie rock.

Bleak Squad’s album ‘Strange Love’ is available now from: 
Poison City https://poisoncityestore.com/ 
Bandcamp https://bleaksquad.bandcamp.com/ 
and Rough Trade (UK-EU) https://www.roughtrade.com/product/strange-love 

Today’s release accompanies an announcement that Bleak Squad will play an exclusive Tasmanian show on Friday October 17 at The Unconformity, one of Australia’s most distinctive and daring cultural festivals, in Queenstown on the state’s rugged West Coast

The Tasmanian show joins Bleak Squad shows at City Recital Hall in Sydney on Saturday October 11 and the Recital Centre in Melbourne on Thursday October 16. In Sydney, Bleak Squad will be joined by the revered pair of Ed Kuepper & Jim White for what is undoubtedly one of the great double bills of the year. 

Feature Photograph: Felix Oliver