Scottish rock band Primal Scream have launched their new single ‘Deep Dark Waters’ ahead of their forthcoming album release in November, a moody track which offers up the band’s ominous take on current affairs and politics.
The band spoke of the foreboding message of the song in a post on Instagram accompanying the song’s release, saying: “Deep Dark Waters is influenced by the writings of Franco ‘Bifo’ Berardi. It contains a warning from history. Those who do not learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.”
The band drums up a sense of foreboding in the tune, channelling elements of classic horror movie soundtracks and joins them together with singer Bobby Gillespie’s eerie, detached vocals. The single begins with a sparse arrangement, with distorted, reverberating pedal notes on the low end while shrill strings tremolos bring tension to the atmosphere. The soundscape slowly fills up with dissonant ornamentation from horn-like backing vocals and fluttering synths. You can hear the full track below.
Ahead of the release of the group’s 12th album Come Ahead on November 8, Primal Scream have already released the album’s lead single ‘Love Insurrection’, which is in many ways the opposite of ‘Deep Dark Waters’, being characterised by Stereogum as a “utopian lead single, a funky, string-laden dance track.” The lead single does, however, allow peaks through to some dark undertones, with Gillespie seemingly exhorting the world for a “new direction”, showing that the lyrical themes and sound of the band’s latest material call back to their 200 album XTRMNTR, a politically charged, industrial rock statement.
Formed in 1982 in Glasgow by Gillespie and Jim Beattie, Primal Scream have grown into veterans of the UK alternative rock scene. Initially part of the mid-1980s indie pop wave, the band soon evolved, embracing psychedelic and garage rock influences. Their breakthrough came with the 1991 album Screamadelica, a genre-defying work that fused rock, dance, and electronic music, earning them the first-ever Mercury Prize. The band’s line-up has seen changes over the years, with Gillespie remaining the constant driving force.
Come Ahead will be the band’s first studio output since 2016’s Chaosmosis, which, in a tone quite unlike the sneak-peaks we’ve got of Come Ahead, was described by Pitchfork as “keeping pace with 21st-century pop” and demonstrating Primal Scream’s “savvy for keeping themselves current.”
Of the band’s current darker, brooding sound and prophetic lyrical sentiments about world affairs on Come Ahead, Gillespie said in a press release: “I’m very excited about this album in a way that you would be making your first record. If there was an overall theme to Come Ahead it might be one of conflict, whether inner or outer. The title is a Glaswegian term. If someone threatens to fight you, you say, “come ahead!” It’s redolent of the indomitable spirit of the Glaswegian, and the album itself shares that aggressive attitude and confidence. They have a word for this up there, gallus. Come Ahead’s quite a cheeky title too.”
