Photo Credit: Machine Operated
Squid have shared new single ‘Broadcaster’ – the AA-side companion to BBC 6 Music favorite ‘Broadcaster’. Now signed to Warp Records, the new song opens with a spaced-out synth sequence that was conceived during a writing session in a woodland cabin by band member Arthur while the rest of the band went for a hike.
Bandmate Ollie says the lyrics were ‘inspired by the visual artist Naim June Paik and his TV Garden installation. I thought it blurred the lines between a dystopian and utopian vision. I imagined what it must be like living synonymously amongst nature and technology in the most literal way I could imagine, with TVs towering over me amongst forests’.
The song opens with Ollie singing the words ‘I’m in the tall grass’ over and over again before changing to the frequently impassioned questioning of ‘Can’t you see me?’ as drum machines and all kinds of proto-prog aesthetics are thrown in. The beats reminded us of ‘XTRMNTR’-era Primal Scream – and the way the sound frazzles your mind before it ends with scuzzy bass and drums will leave you lost for words in the best possible way.