Band: The New Madness
Album: After Hours
VÖ: 27.11.2020
Label/Vertrieb: Crunchy Frog Recordings / Membran
Website: https://www.facebook.com/thenewmadness
”Every song on the album was a melody I couldn’t get out of my head for a period of time. If I finish asong, it’s because I think it’s great; otherwise it falls by the wayside at some point in the creative process,”says frontman Bjarke Sørensen about the process. “And all of the songs on After Hours have passed thistest.”
After Hours has developed organically since the band’s inception; a single became an EP, became an LP.
On album opener Lovesick, you’re met with high-pitched harmonies, solid riffs, and sing-along ooh’s andah’s reel you in hook, line and sinker. Night Watch is impossible to sit still to and has one of the album’smost hypnotising moments in its dual-harmony bridge. On Better Than That, The New Madness sound asif The Black Keys joined forces with Jet – Southern garagerock with a touch of sunny 60’s melodies anda heroic refrain. New Madness, a track conceived of before the band adopted the name for themselves,is a sweat-dripping banger, and Thru Hard Times, which teased the album in the spring, keeps us in highgear. Go My Own Way, which closes Side 1 of the vinyl record, is true to its title; with a fuller arrangementand a slower pace than any other track on the album, it sounds like resting entirely in oneself, and doingso with swagger and pride. It's a sunset of a song - laidback and cool with a hook that sticks firmly in yourmind.
Side 2 openers, title track After Hours and Never Coming Down are full-on, intense and danceablerockers. Recess, Brother feels like road-tripping through America’s southern states in a monstertruck andalbum closer Soon We’ll Be Strangers sees the band take a bare bones approach, with Sørensen’s voiceand a Rhodes organ alone closing the journal with a blues lullaby-ish tune that feels like it wouldn’t beout of place on The White Stripes’ Elephant. It’s a wild ride from start to finish!
The band:Since their inception, The New Madness have been shrouded in mystery. Despite several singles on theirmusical CV, 500.000+ streams on seminal single Lovesick, and several high-profile sync placements, no onehas had a clue as to who (or w h a t) is behind the music. Now, we can finally reveal that The NewMadness is the brainchild of Berlin-based, Danish-born multi-instrumentalist Bjarke Sørensen. With theDane in front, The New Madness has quite an international cast of characters from Germany, Canadaand France - Simeon Loth (guitar), Alex Cummings (drums) and Elie Granger (synth).
With their roots firmly planted in the ground between garage rock and revisionist blues rock in the traditionof Jon Spencer’s Blues Explosion, The New Madness have a minimalist, cut-to-the-bone approach to theircraft. Think Junior Kimbrough and early The Black Keys, coupled with the heroic rock’n’roll of Jet and TheHives, where the raw edges are supported by a centre of solid, absolutely modern low-end with the clearsubs of hip hop. The band now stands ready to conquer the world with their hard-hitting, catchy riffs andrallying melodies: The New Madness is pure freedom rock! A rebel call to sticking it to The Man, freakingout and embracing non-conformity – a new madness!
