Eighties-era 4AD vets The Wolfgang Press have announced a new album, Asylum Variations, which will be out September 25 via Downwards Records. This is their second album since reforming after nearly 30 years away. The band — Michael Allen, Andrew Grey, Stephen Gray — produced it themselves and the artwork is by Chris Bigg who worked for 4AD’s legendary design team V23.
“The title is taken directly from Elgar’s Enigma Variations, where each piece is a portrait of a friend, family member and or acquaintance and supposedly has a hidden melody,” says Allen. “With our album I felt that lyrically there was a thread that ran through the whole piece. The world has become increasingly unstable, both locally and globally, and each track is a visceral response to how I and others have been impacted by this change and how we are navigating through it.”
First single “Speakers Don’t Speak” is more immediate than anything on 2024’s very good A 2nd Shape, and feels somewhere sonically between 1988’s Bird Wood Cage and 1991’s Queer, with groovy electronic production, searing guitar and Michael Allen’s menacing vocals. Listen below.
Asylum Variations:
Speakers Don’t Speak
Blood On The Leaves
Lizard
Sail By
Bind Us
He Who Makes Rivers
The Art Of Writing
Embrace The Light
Man Made Heaven