Dead Bandit

Capturing phantom drones behind dusty beats and haunted twangs, Ellis Swan and James Schimpl return for their third album as Dead Bandit. Locked into a musical language unique to their collaboration, the duo once again put us out to pasture across broad sonic plains, drums flapping like loose fence panels in the prairie breeze and bass rumbling like distant thunder. True to their previous two records, Swan and Schimpl keep the strung out guitars at the front of what they do, whether playing a naked, desolate strum or running six strings through disruptive effects processing until they're barely recognisable. But while there are details of disturbance when listening to Dead Bandit's self-titled record up close, the wider impression is a smoother, more direct affair that toys with post-rock complexity and matches it with the emotional weight of melodic simplicity, gentle grooves and conscious arrangements. 'Weeds' offsets its languid fuzz guitar with shimmering sustained notes before settling into a patient, heavy-hearted composition charged with heartbreak leads pealing out in the middle distance. By comparison, 'Glass' has a smoky, half-hidden backroom quality. Its brushed whisper of a beat, lingering guitar drones and subtle sub bass come on like a dub wise flip of a sad-eyed country ballad. The mood maintains on 'Half Smoked Cigarette', which captures the grey sky sullenness of post-punk and reframes it in the seductive isolation of rural America. While there's a thickness

Tracks

1~1~Milk
1~2~Weeds
1~3~Glass
1~4~Half Smoked Cigarette
1~5~Miles
1~6~Sheets
1~7~Buttercup
1~8~Pink
1~9~Amer Picon
1~10~The Bug
1~11~Up To Your Waist
1~12~Spidery Ways
1~13~Koyo
1~14~Let The Dog Decide
1~15~Lucien's Bitters
1~16~One Eyed

Details

Catalogue Number: QUI017
Format: Vinyl LP
Artist: Dead Bandit
Release Date: 14 March 2025
Genre: Ambient / Meditation / Inspirational
Label: Quindi Records
Distributor: Rocket Group