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Jun 16, 2020 By Christopher Roberts Photography by Tom Ham IDLES

British political punks IDLES have announced a new album, Ultra Mono, and have shared a new song from it, “Grounds,” via a video for it. Ultra Mono is due out September 25 via Partisan. Watch the “Grounds” video below, followed by the album’s tracklist and cover art.

Ultra Mono includes “Mr. Motivator,” a song the band shared in May via a self-directed video for the track. Rob French directed the “Grounds” video. Nick Launay and Adam Greenspan produced the album, with additional programming from Kenny Beats. The album features Jehnny Beth, Warren Ellis, David Yow, and Jamie Cullum. The band have also announced three ticketed livestream shows, which will be professionally recorded and filmed at an “iconic studio” (the exact one is TBA). Two will happen on August 29 and one on August 30. Buy tickets at the band’s website.

Ultra Mono is the band’s third album. IDLES’ last album, Joy as an Act of Resistance, came out in 2018 via Partisan and was widely acclaimed. In 2019 they released a new 7-inch single, “Mercedes Marxist,” which was recorded at the same time as the last album. The A-side was previously shared in May 2019. Then in August 2019 when the single was out they digitally released the B-side, “I Dream Guillotine,” and also shared a video for “Mercedes Marxist.” Also in August 2019 a remix of Joy as an Act of Resistance track “Colossus” by trip-hop pioneer Tricky was shared. Last December the band also released a live album, A Beautiful Thing: IDLES Live at Le Bataclan.

Frontman Joe Talbot had this to say about “Grounds” in a press release: “We wanted to write a song that embodied self-belief, and gave us self-belief—a counter-punch to all the doubt we build up from all the noise we so easily let in. We wanted to make the sound of our own hearts’ marching band, armed with a jack hammer and a smile. We wanted to make the sound of our engine starting. So we did. Thank you.”

Talbot also had this to say about Ultra Mono in a press release statement: “Ultra Mono is the acceptance of now and I and you. We are not the same but behold something together that is true: the moment. I can not control anything but my ideas, my actions and my emotions, I can not control yours. In allowing our art to be momentary, we give ourselves and you the opportunity to perceive who we all are now as truth. It is an engine of all that we can’t control: our race, our age, our class and our past in the form of what we control absolutely—our music, our now.

“Joy is still an act of resistance. No more apologies. We will work hard and work honestly. Ultra Mono is joy’s engine and it goes.

“We hope that you feel a sense of strength and purpose from listening to Ultra Mono. It is meant to fill you with the violence love and the rhythm of now. You are now. You are all.

“All is love.”

Read our rave review of Joy as an Act of Resistance.

Ultra Mono Tracklist:

01 “War”
02 “Grounds”
03 “Mr. Motivator”
04 “Anxiety”
05 “Kill Them With Kindness”
06 “Model Village”
07 “Ne Touche Pas Moi” (feat. Jehnny Beth)
08 “Carcinogenic”
09 “Reigns”
10 “The Lover”
11 “A Hymn”
12 “Danke”

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