It feels slightly superfluous to talk about this sort of thing right now, but Squid signing to Warp Records feels pertinent.
The group have consistently bucked the general idea that people have about them – nearly veering off a constant cliff-edge with each release, their enigmatic experimentalism has only grown more insular and idiosyncratic the larger their status has grown. Warp Records have always been purveyors of vibrant and distinctive projects, so this combination feels like a suitable place for the group to pretty much do whatever they please – first single ‘Sludge’ is conclusive evidence of this.
A weighty, thick slab that cracks and tears at your equilibrium with each listen, it’s an intense and totally uncompromising piece – unconsciously embodying the remote and intense mood that we currently find ourselves in today. With the ragged, foaming rhythm section on near constant overdrive yet always in control – like an F1 driver heading head first into a chicane and pulling away at the last millisecond – it allows everything else to just gnaw and perforate the taut space, building into their most primal and momentous of phrases yet.
Ollie Judge is at his unrelenting and caustic best here – barking with a sense of disquiet conclusiveness, as if diving so far down into the solitary silence of the abyss you find comfort in its darkness. He’s still unyielding, the blue light of artificial restlessness that pervades him is disfigured, at once the underlying root of anxiety and yet a comfort blanket that’s wrapped around your entire body, a place you just don’t feel the need to leave.
Hand fitting glove may certainly be the case, but you can be damn sure neither will let you sit comfortably.
Header photo by Machine Operated
