Dry Cleaning have pushed on from their recent successes with their latest single titled; “Anna Calls From The Arctic”. The latest drop follows their headline show at the Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall which formed part of Meltdown Festival, and gave them a chance to debut the first hints of their upcoming sophomore album Stumpwork. The New LP is set to hit the shelves on the 21st of October 2022 via 4AD, and follows New Long Leg, the band’s debut album that hit the UK charts at number four and catapulted them into the post-punk zeitgeist.
“Anna Calls From The Arctic” is a slow plodding daydream that follows a similar vein to their first album’s track “Leafy”, utilising pensive musings of muted synths and Florence Shaw’s haunting brand of oblique ASMR. Here we see Dry cleaning luring you into hypnotic introspection, and it feels pretty nice.
Check out the “Anna Calls From The Arctic” in the video below:
Discussing the new song, Dry Cleaning said; “The lyrics were partly inspired by phone calls with a friend who was living and working in the Arctic. The song developed from a keyboard, bass and clarinet jam. This then took shape during our pre-recording sessions with John Parish and Joe Jones in Bristol and finalised at Rockfield studios a month later, with some musical inspiration coming from the dramatic scores of John Barry. The song is observational and sensual.”
Recently, Dry Cleaning had a chance to reflect on being hand-picked by Grace Jones herself for her curated edition of Meltdown. Bassist Lewis Maynard stated; “We were at a festival when we got told. Our booking agent was like, ‘Right, you want to sit down for this one’ and told us all together. Some of us felt sick because of it.”
“She’s such a hero,” Nick Buxton (drummer) added. “We love all of those Compass Point records, and especially with Trevor Horn. She’s had such an amazing career.”
Shaw went on to say; “I think the control she has over her own image generally is very inspiring, she’s really the queen of wrestling the narrative about herself, and the choices she makes, back from the press or from other people. She’s amazing at that.
The forthcoming album Stumpwork will see the band team up with producer John Parish, who has worked alongside the likes of Eels and PJ Harvey. Guitarist John Dowse said of Stumpwork; “I think there’s more space in it, When you do the first one, every take you do you’re anxious, like, ‘This has to be the one’. When you do the second [album], you realise it doesn’t have to be the one – you just do your thing and then try something. Sometimes it gets on [the album], sometimes it doesn’t. I guess you just put yourself under a bit less pressure, and that made a big difference.”
