Fast-rising London post-punk band Dry Cleaning have today announced the release date for their long-awaited debut studio album.
New Long Leg will be released on 4AD on April 2. The 10-track long-player, which includes the seemingly omnipresent single Scratchcard Lanyard, was recorded over two weeks last summer at Rockfield Studios in rural Wales with producer John Parish (PJ Harvey, Aldous Harding).
It follows their thrillingly taut EPs Boundary Road Snacks And Drinks and Sweet Princess, and is more ambitious and complex.
Singer Florence Shaw’s deadpan spoken-word vocals tightly intertwine with the band’s intricate backing tracks, with lyrical themes preoccupied by dissociation, escapism, daydreaming, love, anger, revenge, anxiety, the kitchen, lethargy, forgetfulness, and survival.
Shaw says: “The title is ambiguous – a new long leg could be an expensive present or a growth or a table repair.”
Dry Cleaning were formed by friends Tom Dowse, Nick Buxton and Lewis Maynard after a karaoke party in 2017 inspired them to collaborate.
They wrote instrumentally to begin with until Shaw – a visual artist, university lecturer and picture researcher with no prior musical experience – turned up to a rehearsal six months later armed with reams of her own writing and a copy of Michael Bernard Loggins’ Fears Of Your Life to read out over the music.
Before long she was the group’s frontperson, contributing words of her own, and serving as the perfect foil to the band’s music.
Their debut EP Sweet Princess in 2018 and the following year’s Boundary Road Snacks And Drinks earned them a growing following – and when the two EPs were combined on a vinyl release last year it sold out in a flash and now commands silly money on the resale market.
Songs like New Job, Magic Of Meghan, and latest single Scratchcard Lanyard, which seems to be played every time I listen to BBC Radio 6 Music, have established them as one of the indie scene’s brightest up and coming bands. Let’s hope the album is as good as it promises to be.
