For a conglomerate of art outsiders and aesthetes, Vital Idles are primitive, whimsically brutal. Sculpting a skeleton from a body already lean, there’s a thrilling minimalism that runs through every beat and strum, a sparseness that feeds Jessica Higgins’s surreal, oblique vocal delivery all the nourishment it needs.
Today, they share new song and video for “Solid States“. Vocals veer in, out and around with a deft subtlety: ‘I never knew. I never knew / the hard line / It won’t do’ moves through ‘O stitch me up and cast me away / It won’t do.’ Both doubt and certainty appear, disappear and reappear gathering to an admittance but holding a strong refusal; a shift in mindset. The video holds many of the same principles. Filmed in a faux blue room, slightly hiding what is certainly a Glasgow tenement, the band take their time, stopping, holding and moving on.
Matthew Walkerdine, Nick Lynch and Higgins are responsible for Glasgow DIY publishing institution Good Press – an independent volunteer-staffed zine and art book shop – while guitarist Ruari MacLean’s pedigree stretches back to breakneck-indie-pop group Golden Grrrls and the Rose McDowall band.
Vital Idles debut album, Left Hand, due 1st June on Upset The Rhythm
Left Hand Tracklist:
01. A Premise
02. Solid States
03. Chains
04. Fall Into Shape
05. Waxes Colder
06. Carve A Bat
07. Cave Raised
08. Blue, Black & White
09. Time Free
10. Rising Damp
11. Geraniums
12. Like Life
13. Now & Again
14. The Scenery