Blood Red Shoes have returned with a fiery new single titled ‘I Am Not You’, landing this week as the latest cut from their forthcoming sixth album, ‘Ghosts On Tape’.
The new track opens with a deceptive calmness, drummer Steven Ansell singing gloomily over a minimalistic bed of glassy keys, scratchy bass and the occasional thwomp of a kick-drum. A little over 30 seconds in, however, the songs erupts with a tearing lead guitar riff, gnashing drums and raw, virulent screams.
As Ansell explained in a press release, “the song takes industrial synths and guitars distorted through the cheapest digital interfaces we could find, and smashes them together into one harsh metallic slab of pure rage”.
Take a listen to ‘I Am Not You’ below:
‘I Am Not You’ is the second track shared from ‘Ghosts On Tape’ thus far, following last month’s single ‘Morbid Fascination’. The album is due out on January 14, 2022 via Jazz Life, marking the follow-up to the duo’s June EP ‘Ø’ (which featured the single ‘A Little Love’).
According to Ansell, ‘Ghosts On Tape’ was minted last year, shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic erupted (and preceding the ‘Ø’ EP). “It’s been a loooong time since we both lived in the same city,” he explained. “I mean we actually wrote this album in LA at Laura’s place, then came to the UK to record it… and then everything went nuts.”
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On the wild new direction that ‘Ghosts On Tape’ sees Blood Red Shoes head in, Ansell continued: “We’ve always been outsiders right from the very beginning. This album is really about us asserting ourselves as our own little island.
“We have made an entire career out of being told what we are ‘not’, of being rejected, of not fitting in, and this album is us deliberately pushing into all of our strangeness, emphasising all of the things that make us different. Ultimately this album is an invitation. It’s us saying, this is our world, these are our darkest thoughts and feelings – our ghosts – caught on tape. You are welcome to join us. Come and embrace the strange.”
Just days after they release ‘Ghosts On Tape’, Blood Red Shoes will embark on a nine-date tour of the UK, kicking off in Bristol on Tuesday, January 18. From there, they’ll hit stages in Nottingham, Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester, duck through Scotland for a one-off gig in Glasgow, then roll on through Newcastle, Brighton and London.
Tickets for all dates of the run can be found on the duo’s website.