James Holden and Villagers band member Marcus Hamblett has announced details of his second album ‘Detritus’ (out via Wilkommen Records on 15 November – pre-order here) and shared new single ‘Lost at Sea’. The song features This is the Kit’s Kate Stables on vocal duties.
‘Lost at Sea’ was first written in 2006 and intended to be played on guitar, flute and clarinet but as the years passed, it became something far more expansive and wide-reaching. Marcus describes it as ‘a sort of cornerstone of the record, the idea of ‘Detritus’, all the broken-off crumbs, dust, leftovers that ended up staying in’. Clocking in at well over six minutes, the song opens with a burst of drums before more melodic chamber pop-style instrumentation starts floating over the top. There’s also a deeply satisfying electronica undercurrent running through as Kate delivers lines about having your fingers burned and demands an answer to ‘Now that we are lost at sea, how will you remember me?’
As the electronics come to the fore and brass is thrown into the mix, the song evolves from something that would sit nicely next to Tunng and Mum to a sound that recalls a slightly more restrained Physics House Band – with extra jazz noodling. It’s brilliant.
