Peckham, London based band Black Bordello today release new single “Drones” and announce their new EP ‘White Bardo’, out March 2022 via Hideous Mink Records (Opus Kink, Fake Turins, Body Horror).
With inspirations ranging from PJ Harvey and Björk to Aphex Twin and David Bowie, Black Bordello’s carnivalesque blend of art-rock, punk, jazz and Turkish psychedelia is a wholly unique aural experience.
Recently supporting the likes of Goat Girl and L.A. Salami as well as being handpicked by The Libertines to support them on their November UK tour, Black Bordello are a truly captivating live proposition. Regularly appearing on the London underground circuit alongside fellows risers Opus Kink, Blue Bendy, Modern Woman, Malady, Honeyglaze and Robbie & Mona, they have organically garnered a reputation as one of the most exciting live acts in the country.
The band officially announce their first body of work since their debut album, new EP ‘White Bardo’ – out next March via tastemaker indie label Hideous Mink Records. The announcement coincides with the release of new single “Drones” along with an accompanying video directed by Lou Smith.
Written during lockdown 2020, (somewhat illegally) in a basement underneath a closed pub, “Drones” opens with a theatrical descending bass line, before erupting into a roar of magisterial brass, fizzing synth runs, and frenzied percussion.
Discussing the initial inspiration behind the track, vocalist Sienna Bordello said:
The idea for ‘Drones’ came about after I watched a documentary about a Drone pilot. He was a gamer who had been headhunted by the US military and recruited into the military workforce. He was given a gaming station with Xbox-like controllers and vintage screens which showed simplistic colours, much like the platform arcade games of the 80s and 90s. He was given missions like ‘cut the grass’, ‘trim the weeds’, ‘tidy this area’. After his service was done, he suffered PTSD when the realisation that he’d been controlling the distribution and attack of drone missiles on civilians sank in. I thought of this as an interesting subject matter for the song, namely because we were in a global pandemic and all life as we knew it had been halted, yet at the same time the UK and US (amongst others) governments had put more money into military than ever before, and had recruited more troops to attack parts of the middle east throughout our so-called ‘international emergency’. I was gobsmacked that they were passing needless military operations whilst the world was distracted by the pandemic. Every person in this situation is a puppet, but who is pulling the strings?
Influenced by pre-war jazz, Bossa Nova, Tropicália and post-punk, Sienna Bordello is a compelling vocalist and band leader. Alongside Black Bordello–core members Eddie Amos (drums/percussion) and Anthony Boatright (bass) – the band is completed by a rotating cast of additional players which currently includes Jerome Alexandre (guitar), Rachel Asafo-Agyei (backing vocals) and Jasper Sdougos (keys).
Black Bordello’s new EP ‘White Bardo’ will be released March 2022, via Hideous Mink Records. New single “Drones” is out now, released 1st December.