Today, Teesside’s Benefits return with the announcement of their highly anticipated second album, “Constant Noise”, alongside a new single titled “Relentless” featuring Peter Doherty of legendary indie band The Libertines.
Due out 21st March via Invada Records (BEAK>, Billy Nomates, and more), “Constant Noise” follows the band’s widely acclaimed 2023 debut album “NAILS”, which landed in April last year as a passionate expression of anger and disillusionment about divisive, xenophobic, and toxic rhetoric, told through the filter of brutal, eviscerating music. Prior to release, the band had generated a word of mouth following most artists can only dream of, and after catching the ear of Invada Records co-founder Geoff Barrow (as well as other high-profile fans such as the late great Steve Albini), the band released an album which delivered on all that early promise and then some. “NAILS” not only earned widespread press support and radio playlist spots, but it also appeared in album of the year lists from the likes of Louder Than War (#1), BBC Radio 6 Music, NME, The Quietus, The Line Of Best Fit, Loud & Quiet, Far Out, God Is In The TV, and more.
After such an incendiary year, which has also seen the band make their Glastonbury Festival debut and tour across the EU and UK, the question facing both Benefits and their fans was “what’s next?”. “Maybe it’s better to just give up” muses frontman Kingsley Hall. “A year of endlessly stopping and starting, building up, getting knocked down, transforming, imploding. I’m sure we split up at one point, but it just slipped our minds, so we carried on. We felt there was no point in just repeating the first album. We’ve never been ones for simply sticking in our lane, plus, it’s been a tough few years – I’ve forgotten how many times we’ve been praised and written off in equal measure. This band is a battle.
Rather than split up, what the band did instead was re-calibrate. After a going through a succession of drummers, Benefits have now settled as a two-piece made up of Hall and electronic virtuoso Robbie Major. “We’re still angry and “Constant Noise” is an angry album,” says Hall, “just angry in a different way to before. There’s plenty of bands around who are more overt and obvious in their rage – just as we were on our debut – and that’s fine, we just wanted to develop something beyond that. We wanted to create something almost joyous in its disgust at the world. If the previous record was black and white, we wanted this to be technicolour.”
The first taste of this new musical direction came in the form of their recent return single “Land Of The Tyrants”, which saw the band delving into bass-heavy, dance inflected rhythms and subtle industrial undercurrents. The track reignited a flame amongst the band’s fervent fanbase and music press alike earning plaudits from NME, The Quietus, DIY, Dork, CLASH, Rolling Stone UK, and many more. Further new material was debuted to fans over the last month with the band having completed a headline UK / EU tour, as well as supporting Arab Strap in Glasgow, and appearing at the likes of Left Of The Dial and Iceland Airwaves.
The new single “Relentless” sees them move further into more ambient electronic atmospherics, combining gentle yet ominous synth lines with reserved yet smouldering vocals that focus on spurious halcyon days. The track also features guest vocals from Peter Doherty, a seemingly perfect fit for a collaboration with the band given the biting commentary on the state of life in the U.K. in his earlier work. The track is accompanied by a new video directed by Teesside filmmaker John Kirkbride. The video expands on the visual themes of the last single, leaning into a gritty 70s/80s uncanny late-night aesthetic.
Speaking on the single and the collaboration, Hall says: “The song is about craving for a past you had that exists perhaps solely in your memory. Yearning your lost youth, when things seemed easier. Getting Peter Doherty involved was important not just because he’s a legendary performer but also because he was a hero to both of us when we were getting into music, linking in with the theme of the song. Peter and the Libertines were integral to our musical education and love of music, like it or not, he’s a hugely important factor as to why we do what we do. He’s part of our past and we’re honoured and humbled that he agreed to participate in our future.”
Doherty is just one of the many collaborators on the new record, the previous single also featured Zera Tønin, the singer of queerpop-electro duo Arch Femmesis, whereas “Lies And Fear” features Neil Cooper of Therapy?, and “Divide” sees the band bring in Middlesborough rapper Shakk for guest vocals. In addition to guest musicians, the album also features production work from acclaimed electronic musician and friend of the band, James Welsh (signed to Erol Alkan’s Phantasy label), and James Adrian Brown (ex-Pulled Apart By Horses, now electronic/tape loops/noise artist) who helped to guide the new direction.
The result is an album that gleans as much from the likes of Underworld and Leftfield as it does the likes of The Streets or Beastie Boys in their pomp, or even the 90s / early 00s so-called Indie Sleaze era, with some ideas mined and reworked from some of Hall’s former musical endeavours. At other times, the subtle intricacies of the more avant-garde moments such as “Missiles” call to mind the cinematic work of Popol Vuh, whilst other tracks lean back towards “NAILS” fierce candour such as “Terror Forever”, which sees breathless vocals delivered over anxious, freely improvised drumming.
Thematically, the album still has an inherent Britishness about it linking back to the themes of “NAILS”, digging into the misinformation touted by political parties, and their attempts to build a sense of nostalgia you’re not even sure was real in order to manipulate your future. Another looming subject is the spectre of war, the helpless fact that it is ever present in the background of our privileged day to day lives, and the realisation that our troubles and concerns are utterly insignificant buy comparison. The album also segues into the band’s most personal material to date, with Hall examining the existential dread that comes with ageing, the fast passage of time, and the journey of parenthood. It also examines mortality, grief, and the passing of his late father.
Speaking further on the record, Hall says, “none of this sounds joyous, but believe me, it is, we strived for a dark euphoria, plus it was a thrill to make. It’s an album we’re all immensely proud of. We knew it was going to be a risk to go against the formula of our debut, especially as it was so well received by critics, but we never wanted this band to become predictable or get stuck in a rut. We prefer being on the edge of not quite knowing what we’re doing, our discomfort driving creativity. Benefits was designed as a collaborative project and whether that means we get our mate onstage to sing a folk song or ask the drummer from Therapy to play for us, that’s how it survives, and that’s how it will remain.”
“Constant Noise” is out 21st March via Invada Records
To mark the announce of “Constant Noise”, Benefits have also today shared a new run of UK tour dates for April 2025. Full dates are as follows:
22/04 HEBDEN BRIGDE Trades Club
23/04 HULL Social
24/04 NOTTINGHAM Bodega
25/04 LONDON Lexington
26/04 BRISTOL Louisiana
27/04 BIRMINGHAM Hare & Hounds
28/04 LEICESTER Firebug
29/04 GLASGOW Rum Shack
30/04 LEEDS Attic
01/05 MANCHESTER The White Hotel
02/05 GATESHEAD Glasshouse
Tickets will go on sale Friday 15th November HERE
