We’re just under two months away from Squid’s highly-anticipated sophomore album, O Monolith. Back in February, we posted the excellent slow-burn lead single and album opener, “Swing (In a Dream).” Now they’re back with the alternately stomping and slinky “Undergrowth,” which to my ears sounds like if Bright Green Field‘s “G.S.K.” were retrofitted to soundtrack a kitchen sink drama. Like the best Squid songs, this one very quickly locks into a tantalising groove, courtesy of bassist Laurie Nankivell, then stretches out over the next six minutes with choppy screeching guitars, cacophonous horns, and a haunting coda as vocalist Ollie Judge intones “you’ll never know I’m even there.” It’s exactly what I expected a Squid comeback to resemble whilst still retaining the capacity to surprise, as with the bells which appear in the finale.
Judge explains the thought process behind the track:
“I really got into animism, the idea that spirits can live in inanimate objects. I was watching Twin Peaks, and there was an episode where Josie Packard’s spirit goes into a chest of drawers. So ‘Undergrowth’ was written from the perspective of me being reincarnated as a bedside table in the afterlife, and how the thought of being reincarnated as an inanimate object would be dreadful. ‘This isn’t what I wanted / So many options to be disappointed’. Even though I’m in no way religious, I don’t think anyone who isn’t religious is confident enough to have never had the fleeting thought of, ‘What if there is an afterlife? What if I’m going to Hell?’”
In addition to a visualiser, the track also comes with a playable web browser game by designer Frank Force. It’s an auto-scroller with progress and speed partly tied to the track. Fun little novelty! You can play it and share your score at this link (I didn’t do so hot), and stream “Undergrowth” below.
O Monolith releases on 9th June via Warp Records.
Words: Callie Petch
