Black Country, New Road have announced the release of their second album, Ants From Up There, and it will be out on February 4th on Ninja Tune.
Released alongside the announcement the band (Lewis Evans, May Kershaw, Charlie Wayne, Luke Mark, Isaac Wood, Tyler Hyde and Georgia Ellery) have also today shared the first single from the album, “Chaos Space Marine“, a track that has already become a live favourite with fans since its first public airings earlier this year. It’s a track that frontman Isaac Wood calls “the best song we’ve ever written.” It’s a chaotic yet coherent creation that ricochets around unpredictably but also seamlessly. “We threw in every idea anyone had with that song,” says Wood. “So the making of it was a really fast, whimsical approach – like throwing all the shit at the wall and just letting everything stick.”
Listen to “Chaos Space Marine” below:
Recorded at Chale Abbey Studios, Isle Of Wight, across the summer with the band’s long-term live engineer Sergio Maschetzko, Ants From Up There is an album that comes loaded with a deep-rooted conviction in the end result. “We were just so hyped the whole time,” says Tyler Hyde. “It was such a pleasure to make. I’ve kind of accepted that this might be the best thing that I’m ever part of for the rest of my life. And that’s fine.”
Ants From Up There artwork & tracklist:
1. Intro
2. Chaos Space Marine
3. Concorde
4. Bread Song
5. Good Will Hunting
6. Haldern
7. Mark’s Theme
8. The Place Where He Inserted the Blade
9. Snow Globes
10. Basketball Shoes
the London-based seven-piece have also announced further UK & IE dates in support of the album for April 2022, preceded by their biggest London headliner to date at The Roundhouse in February. The full set of dates are as follows:
22/10/2021 – Rotondes, Luxembourg
23/10/2021 – Bumann & Sohn, Cologne – DE (SOLD OUT)
24/10/2021 – Botanique Orangerie, Belgium – BE (SOLD OUT)
25/10/2021 – Le Trabendo, Paris – FR
27/10/2021 – Le Grand Mix, Tourcoing – FR
28/10/2021 – Lieu Unique, Nantes – FR
29/10/2021 – Rockschool Barbey, Bordeaux – FR
1/11/2021 – Teatro Duse, Bologna – IT
2/11/2021 – Auditorium Della Mole, Ancona – IT
05/11/2021 – Circolo della Musica, Turin – IT
06/11/2021 – Bogen F, Zürich – CH (SOLD OUT)
08/11/2021 – Underdogs’, Prague – CZ (SOLD OUT)
09/11/2021 – Lido, Berlin – DE (SOLD OUT)
10/11/2021 – Hydrozagadka, Warsaw – PL (SOLD OUT)
11/11/2021 – Transcentury Update Warm Up @ UT Connewitz Leipzig – DE
12/11/2021 – Bahnhof Pauli, Hamburg – DE
14/11/2021 – Le Guess Who? Festival, Utrecht – NL
16/11/2021 – Paradiso Noord, Amsterdam – NL (SOLD OUT)
20/11/2021 – Super Bock En Stock, Lisbon – PT
21/11/2021 – ZDB, Lisbon – PT (SOLD OUT)
29/11/2021 – Chalk, Brighton – UK (SOLD OUT) *
30/11/2021 – Junction 1, Cambridge – UK (SOLD OUT) *
01/12/2021 – 1865, Southampton – UK *
03/12/2021 – Arts Club, Liverpool – UK (SOLD OUT) *
04/12/2021 – Irish Centre, Leeds – UK (SOLD OUT) *
06/12/2021 – O₂ Ritz Manchester, Manchester – UK (SOLD OUT) *
07/12/2021 – Newcastle University Student Union, Newcastle Upon Tyne – UK *
08/12/2021 – SWG3, Glasgow – UK *
09/12/2021 – The Mill, Birmingham – UK * (SOLD OUT)
10/12/2021 – The Waterfront, Norwich – UK *
12/12/2021 – Marble Factory, Bristol – UK (SOLD OUT) *
13/12/2021 – Y Plas, Cardiff – UK *
15/12/2021 – Whelan’s, Dublin – IE (SOLD OUT) *
08/02/2022 – Roundhouse, London – UK
18/02/2022 – DC9 Nightclub, Washington, DC – US (SOLD OUT)
19/02/2022 – The Sinclair, Cambridge, MA – US (SOLD OUT)
22/02/2022 – Sultan Room, Turk’s Inn, Brooklyn, NY – US (SOLD OUT)
23/02/2022 – Elsewhere, Brooklyn, NY – US
25/02/2022 – Johnny Brenda’s, Philadelphia, PA – US (SOLD OUT)
26/02/2022 – Bar Le Ritz, Montreal, QC – CAN
28/02/2022 – Third Man Records, Detroit, MI – US
01/03/2022 – Lincoln Hall, Chicago, IL – US
03/03/2022 – Barboza, Seattle, WA – US (SOLD OUT)
04/03/2022 – Polaris Hall, Portland, OR – US
05/03/2022 – The Miniplex, Richard’s Goat Tavern, Arcata, CA – US
06/03/2022 – Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA – US
08/03/2022 – Zebulon, Los Angeles, CA – US (SOLD OUT)
09/03/2022 – Regent Theater, Los Angeles, CA – US
06/04/2022 – The Foundry, Sheffield – UK
07/04/2022 – O₂ Academy, Oxford – UK
09/04/2022 – Liquid Room, Edinburgh – UK
10/04/2022 – The Empire, Belfast – UK
11/04/2022 – Olympia, Dublin – IE
13/04/2022 – Albert Hall, Manchester – UK
14/04/2022 – Rock City, Nottingham – UK
16/04/2022 – Concorde 2, Brighton – UK
17/04/2022 – O₂ Academy, Bristol – UK
02/06/2022 – Primavera Sound Festival, Barcelona – ES
08/07/2022 – Pohoda Festival, Trencin – SK
* – with Ethan P. Flynn