With Gareth Liddiard (The Drones, Tropical Fuck Storm), Jim White (Xylouris White, Dirty Three, PJ Harvey) and Chris Abrahams (The Necks) as members, the term supergroup is without exaggeration for Springtime who have today announced their debut self-titled album on 26th November via Joyful Noise Recordings and TFS Recordings. The mix of iconic members promises much and delivers in spades as evidenced by the video for the track ‘Will To Power’.
Teetering on the brink of a delightful chaos and malevolence, ‘Will To Power’ is scything in delivery and thundering with a seething, barely constrained power. The guitars are fuzzy, rough-hewn and visceral as they skate across a pounding piano and drums. Liddard’s vocals are gritty barbed wire exhortations as he repeats the title with a sneer and a heady level of dissociative disdain. The tinkling piano exemplify Abrahams’s style – slightly jazzy and discordant, insistent and melodic.
The lyrics recall a swampy southern gothic poetic style of Nick Cave or Rowland S Howard, festering, evocative and dark:
All that crawls or walks tall
Can only be in thrall of it’s own
Will to power
Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord
There ain’t never a dull moment with a
Will to power
The accompanying video is immersive and transfixing – a monochrome performance piece interspersed with gothic horror tales of evil corruption and lust. An absolute visually delicious feast:
Several of Springtime’s songs were made in collaboration between the band and Liddiard’s uncle, Ian Duhig, a world renowned poet who has twice won The National Poetry Competition (in 1987 and 2000), the UK’s most prestigious poetry award.
The album can be pre-ordered here.
