Read our interview with Beak about the new album here.
Beak>, the trio of Geoff Barrow (Portishead), Billy Fuller (Robert Plant’s Sensational Space Shifters) and Will Young (Moon Gangs), have surprise-released their fourth album on an unsuspecting public. It’s their first in over five years and following suit with the title nomenclature they’ve been using, this one is called >>>>. You can preorder the vinyl here, and here’s what the band say:
“At its core we always wanted it to be head music (music for the ‘heads’, not headphone music) – listened to as an album, not as individual songs. This is why we are releasing this album with no singles or promo tracks.
The recording and writing initially began in a house called Pen Y Bryn in Talsarnau, Wales in the fallout from the weirdness of the COVID days. Remote and with only ourselves and the view of Portmeirion in the distance, we got to work.
With the opening track, “Strawberry Line” (our tribute to our dear furry friend Alfie Barrow, who appears on the albums cover) as the metronomic guide for the album, we then resumed recording, as before, at Invada studios in Bristol, whilst still touring around Europe and North/South America.
After playing hundreds of gigs and festivals over the years we felt that touring had started to influence our writing to the point we weren’t sure who we were anymore. So we decided to go back to the origins of where we were at on our first album – with zero expectations and just playing together in a room.”
Listen to the album below and read our interview with Beak> about the album here.
Beak> have also announced a fall UK/EU tour where they will play the album in full along with a few other songs from the rest of their discography. No word on North American dates as of now, but you can check out their full schedule below.
>>>>
1. Strawberry Line
2. The Seal
3. Windmill Hill
4. Denim
5. Hungry Are We
6. Ah Yeh
7. Bloody Miles
8. Secrets*
9. Cellophane
*not on vinyl but included in LP download
BEAK> – 2024 TOUR DATES
Wed 30 October – UK Cardiff, Clwb Ifor Bach
Fri 01 November – UK London, The O2 Forum Kentish Town
Sat 02 November – UK Brighton, Concorde 2
Wed 06 November – UK Manchester, New Century Hall
Thu 07 November – UK Glasgow, Saint Luke’s
Fri 08 November – UK Leeds, Brudenell Social Club
Mon 11 November – FR Lorient, L’Hydrophone
Wed 13 November – FR Paris, Élysée Montmartre
Fri 15 November – FR Lyon, L’Epicerie Moderne
Sat 16 November – FR Nantes, Le Lieu Unique
Sun 17 November – FR Tourcoing, Le Grand Mix
Tue 19 November – BE Brussels, Orangerie, Botanique
Wed 20 November – NL Amsterdam, Melkweg – Oude Zaal
Thu 21 November – NL Nijmegen, Doornroosje
Sat 23 November – CH Winterthur, Salzhaus
Mon 25 November – DE Munich, Hansa 39
Wed 27 November – DE Berlin, Gretchen
Fri 29 November – DK Copenhagen, Pumpehuset
Thu 12 December – IE Dublin, The Button Factory
Sat 14 December – UK Bristol, SWX